A Sew Day

Today I have had something of a sewing frenzy, a friend of mine dropped off a bag of alterations she needed sorting yesterday and I thought I would get them all done in one swoop.  Sometimes I think it is better that way as if these things  hang around in the background they are sort of there on your mind niggling at you.  There were hems, sleeves, turn-ups, buttons to be changed and curtains to be shortened with tie backs made.   To be honest there was only a thin strip left for the tie backs from the bit I chopped off the bottom but she had brought pom pom trim, can't everything be improved with pom pom trim?  Well here they are and I suddenly have an urge for tie backs decorated in this fashion.

So now that is off my mind I can move onto my next upcycle job and that is to restore some life to  a set of dining chairs that have been given to us by my mum.  She has been saying for quite a while that wanted a new set and I have to say that we have had four sets of chairs yet she has had her set nearly all my life. My current set have two splits underneath, we are not a clumsy family they just don't seem to last, my mothers set on the other hand are very 70's well worn but solid.  I think with some attention they could be great and maybe be a set that will last us too. Here they are at the moment and they are not pretty right now...

They are scuffed and some of the seats have small areas of wear but that is ok as the frames are solid, I need to rub them down to prime and then change the colour.  We have also removed the seat so I can add extra padding and new fabric to the tops.  I will take more pics once this is all complete, my dining table is still in its rubbed down state too so I will be painting the legs on that to match the chairs.

I don't know how I will be able to go back to school in September there is just too much to do ;)  well best not think about that just yet and enjoy the remaining time left.  My oldest son and my mum both have holidays to Spain booked as we all go back in September, the nice bargain kind of holiday that School staff can never have.  I know it is the same for families with School age children but that said there are a lot of people that choose to take them in term time and I can see it may be the only way to afford a family holiday.

This week I need to get back into doing my pilates, I did months where I never missed a day and marked it off my checklist each time then we went away and I just stopped.  I think I have done two half hour sessions since we got back.  It is very strange do I need a list that badly? Maybe, so I will start a new one immediately I don't want it to turn into months of not doing it.

Right I am off to start the dinner as that is one thing I can't forget to do as there are people asking what we are having.

This and That

Argh! I am a day late with this post after promising myself I would stick to Tuesday and Friday posts oh well it is done now.  Last night we went out for tea with family to a place we haven't tried before and it was fabulous.  They offer small servings as well as full meals so you can have tapas style dishes instead of choosing one big meal. We don't go out often but try to meet up with my mother in law and her partner every few months and go out. We will definitely be going there again as they had a choice for vegetarians and vegans which is rare.  If you are from the Sheffield area it is called The Pheasant and well worth a visit the website is here if you want a peak.

I got this image from the website as it was pouring with rain when we went out, I am sure it is good to sit out front in finer weather. There was also live music on and they were good, acoustic guitar and singing a variety of music.

Today was supposed to be when my tiles went down on the hall floor, unfortunately after another layer of old tiles were pulled up an large crack has been found underneath.  So not wanting to lay expensive tiles on this even if it was filled we made the decision to take them back and choose a floor that would withstand possible future movement.  We chose a grey herringbone effect vinyl and a grey stair carpet, I am a bit sad  about returning the tiles but it would have been worse if they were down and then later cracked.  It is a bit worrying about how much movement is going on with the house but I suppose any house of a certain age will have some of these problems.. My husband has put down insulating material and now says he will board it over before they come to lay the vinyl, I have to wait until the 27th for that.  I think one of the reasons I like painting and wallpapering is that I can do that myself,  so if it needs doing I can just think right I will do it on these days and then it will be done.  Waiting for people to come out and sort things I am not great at!

I have just finished reading Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid, I really enjoyed it but I must say this was in the general category of new books but I would class it as YA due to the central characters and the teen speak used throughout.  Set around the Edinburgh fringe festival rather than Bath I thought it was cleverly done and also quite amusing that Cat the main character keeps mentioning the Twilight series throughout.    It is part of the Austin project and this has made me want to try some of the other adaptations, I had a look around and a few people are being quite negative about some of these works including the one I have just read.  It is full of the language of young adults (I don't mean bad language) and if this bothers you I can see how that would put you off.  However it is also witty, engaging and mostly good fun, so if people are horrified by the differences they need to consider how much times have moved on.  If you have read any of the other works in the Austin project let me know what you thought, they are Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope, Emma by Alexander McCall Smith, Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld ( Pride and Prejudice  updated) and the one above I have just mentioned. There is to be a Mansfield Park but that has not come about yet and possibly one other I think.  I think it is an interesting idea to do this but I am sure there will be purist fans who are just appalled.

What are you all reading this week?

Practical Stuff

I have had a busy few days decorating so no new makes to show at the moment. The hall, stairs and landing have been painted and today I did the ceilings. It all needed a good few coats as I changed the colour. The next job is doing all the doors cupboards and frames tomorrow, then I will need to choose a new stair carpet.  We have pulled up the laminate in the hall downstairs and bought tiles, my husband is going to lay those.  I am glad I got this started as I have always kept on top of the decorating of all the other rooms but the hallway has been left because I always feel we just pass through it. That said is also the first thing you see as you enter the house so a makeover was well over due.  This is a peak of the floor tiles...

I like the busyness of them as the rest of the décor is  plain, I will post some update photographs when it is all finished.  When I was working on the stairs my husband made me a platform that stretched between the ladder and the decorating bench at the top, it even had notches so that it fit into the rungs on the ladder and wouldn't move.  He was not thrilled about me working on it while he was at work but I really didn't want to get anyone in to do painting that I an do myself.  I also feel that it is a good use of my time when I have the summer off school so I always fit decorating jobs into school holidays.

Our water pump to the shower has decided to pack up, we have only had that one three years and now we are having to put up with slow trickle showers until a new one is sourced and fitted.  It turns out it may have been the wrong sort originally so that is why it didn't last, we replaced like for like with the original from when we moved in.  So who ever did the job in the first place must have installed the wrong pump.   There is always something around the house that needs replacing and that makes me think what hard work it must be for the people who own the holiday rentals like the one we just stayed in.  To keep things looking good with a constant stream of families passing through surely must mean a never ending list of repairs  and replacement items.

To keep me entertained while I have been busy I have been listening to more podcasts, the time just passes so easily. Maybe that makes decorating a flow activity though I am not sure I would want to do it five days a week,  just a thought.

My latest book is Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin, it was on the new books shelf at the library.  It is a YA book but I'll give it a go, I was drawn in by the bright cover.

Bye for now.