Busy, ruining my kitchen...

Firstly I must apologise for the photo quality of this post - still no camera...

Chris went to the States recently and he'd been gone less than 24 hours when I got itchy fingers and wanted to do something 'big' something that would make a difference and have him in awe at what a fabulous wife and homemaker I am...

Even though we've now been in Pear Tree Cottage for a year and a half, we haven't even got upstairs to work on the bedrooms, but the downstairs is getting there - gradually. Our house was built in 1840, but I feel that the previous owners stripped it of it's history and I'm trying to get that 'cottagey' feel back. The one thing that has been bugging me since we moved in is the flooring in the kitchen. Although perfectly laid and probably brand new, the orange laminate drove me NUTS!

Although looking at it now in this picture it doesn't look too bad! I was convinced I could make a difference and decided to rip it up. I actually started at the opposite  end of the room from this picture as I wasn't sure if it was an extension and so had a peek under the and was very happy to find gorgeous floorboards! So, before you know it I'm up to my neck in dust and pieces of wood...

Ruining my new slippers in the process! And cutting my leg...So, all was going swimmingly until I got 2 thirds of the way through and found a piece of hardboard where they had previously joined two rooms to make the kitchen bigger. Hmmm, I looked behind me and realised it was too late to go back. I kept pulling up the flooring only to realise these boards were running horizontal to the the rest of the room. I am now left with a room like this...

See the lovely floorboards at the bottom of the picture? And the patchy floorboards at the top?

Not a good look.

I don't want perfect floorboards, I'm happy for the kitchen to be 'rustic' but this is a bit too rustic, even for me! So, now I am aching all over and trying to come up with a way to fix this mess before my darling husband sees it.

Wish me luck!

B x

Kitchen changes

Hello All,

It's been a busy week. Mum came to visit. Max had his birthday; my little boy is now 9 years old.

I've been busy with 'housey stuff'. The kitchen has had a bit of a switch up. I decided to take the colour out of my kitchen and go for a cleaner palette. This is the old look...







And here it is post shuffle...





I think this looks more cohesive and it makes me happier :O)

I *LOVE* my new veggie prints. If you'd like some of your own, hop on over and visit Cathe at Just Something I Made she is fab and has lots of gorgeous stuff for you to print for FREE!

This weekend is a Bank Holiday in England and then the kids are at home for a week. We hope to visit Butterfly World while they're at home, I'll be sure to take my camera - should be fun!

Have a great weekend, where ever you are and whatever you're doing.

B x

Desk before and after

I love a 'before and after' don't you? However, usually I am so disorganised (and eager to get started) that I don't stop to take the before shot! But not this time...

This is our ugly old desk...



It has been in our family for about 10 years (but it looks a LOT older than that!) It was Jessica's for a long time and during that time she spilled hair serum on it. Then the 2 younger kids had it, (when I clearly wasn't paying too much attention to what was going on in my house!) and they wrecked it with pens and anything else they could get their hands on! It lost a few knobs too...









So finally I decided, it needed to be shaped up or shipped out; I went for the former....








I absolutely love it! I distressed it; I figured it'll stop me getting stressy when it gets chipped up by the kids! We still have 2 knobs missing and if I can't find similar I may go for changing them all for something else, porcelain maybe? It brightens up my hallway/nook at the bottom of the stairs and gives the kids somewhere to do their homework. Oh, and you may recognise the chair from here don't they look cute together!?

Hope you're all having a great week,

B x