The final result (or the 99.9% result)

Well I promised you the finished product and here you go. Or at least as finished as we have it at the moment. The eagle eyes amongst you will notice that the bath panel is still missing. That is currently up with the lovely F-I-L being lovingly painted so we can install them hopefully in about a week...well before everyone descends for Christmas at any rate. You'll also notice that we have left the walls white.  After much debating and colour swatching (I think I own the entire sample pot range in creams and pale yellows from Farrow & Ball now) we still haven't come up with a decision. Although the most tempting is just to go with the leave it white suggestion from a friend. Too clinical? Let me know what you think!!

 Oh the choices....still haven't decied.

We still need to put some storage in as well for all our shampoos and assorted lotions and potions, but have found it so just need to make the purchase!

Ps. Having awoken to a scratching/rattling noise the other night I am now complete supporter of keeping the toilet lid down. Apparently some animal (exact type) unknown somehow got up the soil pipe into our toilet and was stuck. This has been attested to by my dear husband who went to investigate and saw the lid bouncing up and down. His gallant response....hit the flush which seemed to send the little critter whoever he may be back down the way he came. Don't know what it was, but making darn sure that lid is down from now on. Word to the wise.

So What Else Have We Been Doing

So if you have figured us out by now you will know that re-doing your bathroom doesn't really get in the way of trying to sort our a million and one other things. One of those things was our bedroom. Now that we have painted almost all of the other rooms in the house with lovely Farrow & Ball colours our pale blue in the bedroom just didn't feel quite right. Plus we've had the bare prison bulb dangling from our ceiling for quite some time. What does all that add up to??? Paint brushes at the ready!

Our bedroom over time:

The horror show when we moved in (how can anyone forget this award winning combination)

The first colour we painted it

The new light fixture and a shot of the new wall colour

 Another view of the new colour. It's lovely.

I'm so happy with this, especially when you look back to how it looked when we moved in.

Catching up on the progress part 1

I have now been reunited with my camera which means that I can FINALLY update everyone on the fabulous progress on our bathroom. We are so pleased with it. Here are the latest pics:

The tiling starts (the builders don't hate us yet)

 Getting there (builders definitely starting to hate us for choosing the pattern)

 And the bath as well aren't you lucky builders!

The tiling is complete!!!!! 

We are so amazed at the different between the first photo and the last in terms of light and space. I know that a lot of this will be down to us reinstating the sash window (big thanks to Keith for making this for us), but it just shows you the difference the right kind of tiles in a space can make. Some final results pictures in a following post with all the rest of the lovely bits and pieces in.

Thanksgiving Cheer

It's not everyday that you look at something in a magazine and think "You know what. I bet I could do that". Well in this case that is exactly what my mother did and then promptly lost the page from Southern Living with the idea and instructions on it.  A short trip with Google sorted this problem out, but it still left the need for the actual decorations to be created. That's where I came in.

Here is the task I was given. To create two lovely floral centerpieces for the Thanksgiving table using nothing, but a pumpkin and an awl to get the job done. Here's Southern Livings' Version:

Now let me say this. Firstly, unlike their recipes it's a good thing that this didn't say how long it would take because let me say it takes AGES. Secondly, an awl (aka ice pick)?! You've got to be kidding me. You can't fit anything in the hole left behind. Out came a big screw and the rubber mallet (it still took a long time). Oh and if you get really fussy like me you're going to need a lot of flowers. All that aside it was really fun and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Here's my attempt.

I'd highly suggest giving this a go and definitely go with the instruction to put them in the fridge to keep the flowers fresh. Here are the steps in case you want to do it yourself. The nice thing as well is you can do any colors or color combination you want so it's really flexible.

Steps:
1. Buy small/medium soft skin pumpkin(s)
2. Use a screw (medium sized) and rubber mallet to create holes. Holding pumpkin tap screw gently into pumpkin to make the hole. Make sure not to miss and crunch the pumpkin.
3. Fill pumpking with holes. These will need to be fairly close together unless you use large headed flowers if you don't want much pumpkin show through. You won't need to do the bottom as it needs something firm to sit on.
4. Cut blossoms off flowers with a short length of stem. It's best to cut it a little longer than you think and then trim as needed.
5. Cover pumpkin with flowers and then put on suitable stand or even directly on the table to display.

Enjoy!

A beautiful Indian Summer

Right now the UK is in the grips of a beautiful Indian Summer. At least that is what the news is calling it. I prefer to think of it as our summer weather just being REALLY late. Aside from having a few last BBQs and spending time outside we spent this weekend getting the garden sorted out for when the weather does decide to take a turn for the worse. We've harvested the carrots, made some new flower beds, planted the blackberry vine we've been training and lots of other little odd jobs.

The best part of this sunny lovely warm weather is that our tomato plants are still really going for it. Just holding out that we have a few more weeks before the first frost! Here are some pictures of how the garden is not that it's settled in.

The carrot harvest (1.799kgs!!) 

The new flower bed

Two new fall bushes and the blackberry vine

Two big fall roses!

Looking back up towards the house!

The end of week two

Just following on from the previous post here is how the bathroom is looking at the end of the builder's Saturday shift. It does feel a bit mean to have them here on Saturday when we're having a glorious Indian Summer, but at least we can finally start to see things take shape.

The shower has its special blue waterproof sealant painted and the first of the mosaic tiles for the tray are going in!

And over the bath the wall tiles are going in. We can't wait to see the finished product, but we think it looks great.

 Last and not least here is our new traditional style towel radiator. The last one we had was very modern and it was impossible to get towels on. So all around pretty much twelve shades of useless. Can't wait to see the progress we make next week and if the shower gets delivered!

The first signs of progress

Well we're two weeks down in the great bathroom re-do part two. Since it's been hard to get the time to put up these posts here are some pictures of where we were half way through the first week. The walls have been patched and plastered and the insulations is about to go in under the floor.

 Re-doing your bathroom always makes you happy for the small things. We may not have a shower, tub or sink, but at least we have a toilet! It doesn't quite have a working flush,but this hook up is not too bad.

Here's next big step (sorry that it's blurry)  with the floor tiles going in!! So excited to see it start to take shape.