Painting, painting and more painting................

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my summerhouse and garden it has just reminded me of what a lucky lucky girl I am to have a space of my own and has really motivated me to crack on with the painting. We have a fab garden but to honest it really has to look after itself this year and it really is looking a bit dull and unkept. We were very lucky to inherit lot's of mature plants and trees when we moved here I do have high hopes for my garden when the children are a bit older I hope to devote more time to it.

This week I've started the painting and what a mammoth job it is! I've been painting every evening after I've put the little one's to bed and have painted until dark in all weathers sheltering under the veranda in the rain! I do enjoy painting and find it quite relaxing I love to see the end transformation but this is going on and on and some nights I've had to force myself to do it. Anyway enough of the waffle here's some pics what do you think?

Less posh shed more nice summerhouse me thinks!
I love the little veranda I'm looking forward to taking a break on here with a cuppa and a magazine!

this shows the side of the summerhouse where there is another window.There's still I reckon another weeks work of painting to get the outside completely finished. Then we can crack on with the inside. My minds been buzzing with what we are going to do with the inside. Here's what the inside looks like at the moment. It's really hard to photograph as it's quite small! Oh dear not very inviting is it there's a huge amount of work to do in here were going to insulate everywhere to make it warm and line the walls in tongue and grove. It's all going to be done on a shoestring budget so I will be searching ebay and freecycle for furniture. I've managed to pick up a heater on freecycle so far. I'd like an old comfy chair to reupholster and I'm after an old table to use as my desk, there is a handy shelf in the roof space where a plan to stack my material out of reach of little hands!

As for the decor I've decided to go out of my safe zone of pastel colours and go for bright bold colours . I've been really inspired by colour since starting blogging especially by two of my favourite blogs http://attic24.typepad.com/ and http://lavenderhouse.typepad.com/ who both use colour so beautifully in there homes. I'm hoping to inject some real fun colours into my summerhouse the tongue and groove will be white but all my accessories bright colours. Here's some pages from magazines that have inspired me.I love the chair in the above pic and have searched everywhere for something similar but nothings turned up. I've also picked up these folders I love them they were great value to from Asda. I have heaps of paperwork to sort out so these will be ideal.Hope you all had a good week the weather has been miserable hasn't it but I hear that it's going to clear up and we will see some sunshine this weekend I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Hope whatever your up to this bank holiday weekend it's a good one!
Sarahx

Weve just bought a ...................

Yeah I'm so excited about it I've been wanting one for ages I don't know what it is but there's something so appealing to me about a tiny house a little hideaway to escape to. It's going to be my sewing room/office a place for all my paraphernalia all my piles of material, craft stuff, paper work that I have stuffed away in drawers and cupboards. The computer will be going in there too. I'd like to call it my studio but at what point do you call it a studio? Probably when you earn money from it that's something I would love to do in the future when I have more time on my hands. Hopefully it will be a little retreat somewhere to be quiet and be creative away from the chaos of the house and a place to blog till my hearts content!

We bought it off Ebay we were looking for a used one then stumbled across this one never been erected they were selling it as they were moving house. My poor husband begrudgingly drove all the way to Manchester a 4hr drive there and back as we got lost twice! When we got there we had to prize the top off it as it would not fit in the van don't ask!

This is what some of it looked like when we got it home-

So here's what we have done so far our old shed was on the slabs in this picture below

We have laid another base in the other corner of our garden and moved our old shed to here I did want to get rid of this shed all together as I thought it would look a eye sore but I'm really pleased it's quite hidden here and you can't see it at all, from the top of the garden. We desperately need it for all our tools and garden stuff anyway.

On Sunday Steven and my dad spent the whole day putting it up mum came to help with the kids and I made cups of tea, fed everyone and did bits to help. At the end of the day it looked like this:-

What do you think? In this picture it looks very shed like I need to transform it now into pretty summerhouse. It's quite small there's enough room for a desk, plenty of shelves and a comfy chair I really like the little veranda I'm thinking of putting a bench on there the view from the veranda looks back on our cottage:-

And from the top of our garden looking back at the summerhouse :-My job is the painting which I have started on an evening it's going to be Farrow and Ball Pigeon Green which is the same colour as our front door and gates. The paint in the picture is just an undercoat.

I'm going to bore you with a list of what's left to do! It's got to be cosy in the winter so there's lot's to do:

• Get electricity down there,
• insulate it,
• line it with tongue and grove ooh I love tongue and groove!
• put some flooring down.

I'll be back soon with an update and my ideas for the inside that's the bit I'm looking forward too.Here's what it should look like when it's finished!

Gosh I've a lot of painting to do!

Have a good week all!

Sarahx

Kitchen dreams and holiday fun

Here are my new kitchen shelves which I painted a few weeks back. Although I love my house I really dislike my kitchen it's tiny two people in there and it feels overcrowded! We plan to have an extension at some point with a large kitchen and an extra bedroom. I was desperate for a clear out so that's where the shelves idea came in on a unused wall. My food cupboard was unbearable to the point of a was scared to open the doors as often a tin of beans would come crashing down on my head! So urgent action was needed and I bought some cheap shelves from B&Q and set to work on painting them and in listed the help of my dad who is a retired joiner (very handy!) to put them up on the wall.I was surprised at how many storage jars I had being unused so now they are all filled up with various food and ingredients and have freed up an enormous amount of space on my cupboards. So I am now really enjoying this little area of my kitchen believe me it is a lot prettier then the orange pine cupboards behind it! My ideal kitchen would have an aga enough room for my pine farmhouse table and chairs and my old pine dresser (which are in my dining room) lots of shelves to display collected kitchenalia a pantry style tall store cupboard and would be part conservatory overlooking the garden I don't want for much do I! Oh maybe one day but until then I will have to dream!

Well it's been a while since I last posted and I have been enjoying having my Emily around in the house more. (she normally has 2hrs nursery in the afternoons). We have seen various friends and their children more often than we usually would and it's lovely to see little friendships forming. We have been to the swimming baths regularly and Emily's confidence has grown enormously and she no longer wants us to hold her and is happy to go by herself and Elliott has gone from being very scared and crying a lot to giggling and splashing around and really enjoying himself too!

This is when we had a really hot day a few weeks back and we had homemade lollies which made a right mess dribbling down their chins and clothes but the enjoyment on their faces made it all worthwhile and they both managed to finish them so more are in the freezer waiting for another hot day!

This is another day when we made Angel delight much enjoyment came from licking the spoons and I let Elliott feed himself his face was a picture so the camera came out again! More mess but it was fun.
I will leave you with a few purchases I've be meaning to put on here for a while


A posy of china flowers a pound from a charity shop.

My new umbrella it's cream with black spots

A garden lantern from the Laura Ashley sale.

Back in a few days with something special to show you that I'm soooo excited about!!

Have a good weekend!

Sarahx