Tempus fugit...

And it's another whole month since I've blogged again! You would've thought that with having the girlies away at their dad's it would give me more time.  It appears that the opposite is true though.

I have however been a very busy bee, tackling jobs that I wouldn't usually have the time for whilst they are here.  All the hunreds of books I removed my book case - they were double and triple stacked have been sorted and I have kept those that I would definitely read again.  The excess are all going to be car booted when we've finishd clearing out the toy room.  So, not only did I get rid of the detritus, I also arranged the keepers into rainbow order!  Look how pretty.

I also made myself a headboard, from some old picket fence posts and painted it.

And a close up, really pleased with how it turned out, and I'll be able to change the colour as I please.

I just need to get some paint now for the bedroom walls, I'm thinking of a nice light bluey grey, something along these lines

Going for a bit of a beachy theme I think.  Shame the wardrobe and chests of drawers are all to new and nice to paint up.  What do you think?

Next up was this old chest of drawers, that has lived many years in the shed, mostly use for keeping tools and crap junk in

 

 
 They don't look too bad from this pic, but up close they are quite scratched and a bit ropey
 

So far these have been rubbed down and undercoated and are awaiting their top coat, of which I am in two minds - eek.  My first thought was white surround and rainbow drawers, but the girlies aren't too impressed with this idea - they think it's babyish :(  And I will probably go with a dark (Grecian) blue instead.

On top of all this, I started my spring cleaning and going aginst the norm I started in my bedroom.  Well, the sitting room has just been repainted so it's really only washing the sofa covers there, and I decided to put myself first for once.  The kitchen has been done too - just the infernal windows to clean and next up are the girls bedrooms - once I pluck up the courage to get in there!!!

So, I have beeen very busy, just not blogging. 

The €5 Shelf

You may or may not have seen my recent tweets about some drilling that was going on in my sitting room.  Following the recent decorating, the wall above the television was looking rather bare.

You can just about see it here

A piece of an old wooden gazebo, was chopped to length in the garden.

The original plank is pretty ropey as you can see

Sanded down with child labour :)

Another piece was cut into fancy bracket shapes

It was all varnished

 

The following day, once the varnish had dried, these insubstantial looking brackets were attached, along with some plates on the wall

And ta-da a new shelf for the sitting room for the grand total of €5 the cost of the hanging hooks and plates.  I'm so very pleased with how it's turned out.

 

Just need to sort out some suitable decorations for it now.  I'm starting to get there now, some new cushions are probably next up, just need to dust off the sewing machine.

The new coat

of paint was finished last weekend - hooray.  Just look at the difference.  Must admit that the new paint has got a shine, so the old ceiling looks a lot worse in the photo than it was in real life.

 Here are some pictures of the nearly completed room.  Painted and with most of the furniture put back in place.  It still needs ornamenting or dressing though, which bit by bit we are getting done.

You'd have thought I'd manage to close the loo door now wouldn't you.  Doh!!!

 You can see what awful light I have in my sitting room, so the photos are not what I'd like them to be!!!  Did you notice, I don't have any windows.  Only doors.


And now some before and afters, so that you can see the difference.

 I'm really please with how it's turned out.  It's brightened it right up, but doesn't feel cold.  I've gotten rid of the old kitchen light that was hanging in one end of the lounge, just need to find something to hang at the other end now.  

I'm liking it all a bit emptier and won't be returning all the books to the book case, nor all the pictures and vases etc we had dotted about.  I don't have a mantelpiece, which I quite miss for decorating at Christmas time, so am thinking of putting a big chunky shelf above the TV.  The world's biggest and ugliest desk is still in situ, but I also have a cunning plan for that too.  Would make life easier if I had a fat wallet, and could just go rushing off to buy these things at once, but as they are fond of saying around here poco a poco

Linking up to 

His and Hers Painting Guide

Well, in my 20+ years of home ownership, I have learnt something NEW.  Apparently there are two ways to go about painting or redecorating - who knew?!

I have always been of the camp - buy paint, move crap from room to be painted, and cover any big heavy crap furniture.

 
Apply paint and with a damp rag wipe away any bits of paint that that mistakenly attach themselves to plug outlets door frames etc.  This I am now informed is the wrong way.

The right way involves P.R.E.P.A.R.A.T.I.O.N.  It would appear, that to paint properly one has to prepare.  Hence I spent many hours of my life (that I will never get back) yesterday wrapping said outlets, door frames etc in masking tape.

I did try to explain that due to previous paint applications, this might not be the most time effective way of painting - but hey - you've got to pick your battles.

Previous Painting Effort - That escaped the Rag!!!

 Watch this space for the new colour reveal.

Out With The Old

I've been a very busy girl today, this morning my sitting room looked like this 

 

 

And this afternoon it looks like this...

All ready to go out buy paint, painters tape, drop cloths and it's In With The New.

Just looking at these photos, has reminded me, that I need to remove the standard lamp, the lampshades and the clock.  The boy needs to help me with the big unit down the bottom, as it weighs a ton.  I am going to go for a lighter shade of wall this time, as this room is quite dark during the winter months.  A warm creamy colour, not too yellowy is what I'm after.  Well I think so anyway.  The ceiling will be white again and the floor will stay how it is too.

I'd quite like to have a re-arrange of the furniture, but not sure how else I can do it.  

Obviously, nothing has to stay, and I'd like to get rid of the biggest, ugliest desk in the world.  The old kitchen spotlights at the currently TV end of the sitting room are on the bin list too.

Any ideas anyone?

The Old Barbecue - Re-Made

Lurking in the garden was this old barbecue, the grill part still works and will be used in another project later.  But the "trolley" had definitely seen better days.  I should've taken a picture of it in it's entirety, with it's naff plastic wheels and all.  Too good to chop up for firewood, I decided to give it a make over.

As you can see, it was well sunburned and also with the removal of the griddle, very unstable.

 

We leveled the legs off after the removal of the wheels and created a new mid level shelf with some equally old and weathered timber I had lying about.

 

A light sanding and a coat of varnish and I now have a pretty shelf to put my plants on.

I originally had the Bizzie Lizzies on the top, only to discover, that they don't actually do too well in the full sun.  Hoping they will recuperate here down below.  If not, they'll go to the front terrace to recuperate and I'll have to find some sun hardy plants to put in their place.