A Little Bit Of Everything

Now I'm NOT going to be talking about decorating.

Well ...

At least I'm not going to be talking about decorating my BATHROOM!

I'm not even going to mention that room again until it's finished (which is SO nearly is but these things take time and when I do eventually reveal all you will see why ...).

But other stuff has been happening around here.

last Saturday SD and I got dressed up, took ourselves off to the O2 at Bristol and watched these legends:

AMAZING night!  They played the whole of the black and white album back to back and I've got to say that since seeing them a couple of years ago they have really upped their game.

JJ has lost weight and they were all on top form.

The support band was The Alarm.  Bit of an odd choice I'd thought but hey, who doesn't like to sing along to 68 Guns?

Mike Peters, The Alarms front man - WHAT a nice guy ...  Seriously, seriously nice!

Mike has been fighting cancer for the last 20 years and does a huge amount of work for charities related to cancer.  He chatted a little about his battle and his charity work and urged people to join the bone marrow register.  He thanked The Stranglers for allowing them to tour with them in such a humble and genuine way that he melted everyone's heart and I don't think anyone got a bigger cheer that evening.

So, great night all round.

What else have I been up to?

Well, spending my Birthday money, a little bit of chazzing, some prep work for decorating the dining room (working on the finishing touches for the room I'm not going to mention) and making plans for the Summer which today, as it's cold and raining seems much too far away!

Want to see what I've been spending my money on?

I bought these spoons in my favourite antiques shop in Budleigh Salterton for just £1 - bargain!

I know they aren't anything special but they caught my eye and they are so sweet.

At the same time I also got this:

To add to my jelly mould collection for £4 so I was really happy.

I got this Sam Toft canvas at The Range.  I can't tell you how pleased I was when I saw it there.

I first fell in love with Sam Tofts paintings when SD took me to Cornwall for the first time and we discovered an art gallery that sold his paintings and prints.

I will have a Sam Toft original at some point (or maybe just a print) but although they aren't horrendously expensive they are a little out of my price range right now so this canvas was a real find and will fit in perfectly with the colour scheme I've decided on for my dining room.

If you were wondering, these are the colours I'm planning on using:

bit blurry, sorry ..

I decided my house was far too beige which really doesn't reflect my personality so I'm painting it mostly grey ...

Seriously, grey is the best colour (just wait until you see that room that shall not be mentioned!) and the great thing is that you can introduce other colours with it that really make it zing!

When I was looking at colours I fell in love with a Farrow and Ball paint called Arsnic - what a great name for a paint!  But there is no way I can afford to paint my wall with one of their paints so I looked around for an alternative and this paint, Cool Water by Wilko is a pretty good match for the colour.

I'm also thinking a few splashes of bright yellow might look nice with it ...

But, because this is MY house and nothing is ever easy let me show you what we are up against ...

I'd been aware for a while that there was a problem with the plaster on the window wall of the dining room.  The paper had started to bulge and the wall had a spongy feel to it.

While I was (literally) waiting for paint to dry I thought I might as well bite the bullet and strip the paper off to see what we were dealing with.

It was even worse than I'd thought ...

This is NOT good!

SD is off for Easter so we will be spending our time knocking off the loose plaster and preparing it to be re-plastered.  I was going to give it a go myself but fortunately SD has a friend who can plaster and has offered to come round and give us a hand.

Oh, and I bought this for the kitchen:

I haven't even started on the kitchen yet which will be a huge job as all the cabinates need painting but I got this in Home Sense which is one of those places that if you don't grab it when you see it then it's gone forever.  I missed out on a great camper van snow globe at Christmas by dithering ...

What else ...

Oh yes, SD found this fantastic silver anniversary Pirelli album when we were looking for a Pirelli calendar for the bathroom (which are evidently as rare as hens teeth by the way).

Isn't it great?

Well, that's about it I think.  This is really a 'filler' post while I get 'that room' finished which I'm saying will be by the beginning of next week but don't hold your breath ...