Found a new place to blog...with pictures :))

Hi Everyone,

For those of you who don't know, I have made a Facebook page to continue our house blog so that I can share pictures again.... whoopee!  :))

You can find the page here: Special with Scraps

If you don't have Facebook or can't get on to it, please let me know and I will see if I can publish it somewhere like Pinterest.

Hope you continue to enjoy my ramblings!

xxx

Dear Mr Blog.....please forgive my extended absence.....the Mitchell/Cannar household has been a very busy one!

November brought a brand new arrival....Madison Emilia-Rose, another gorgeous grandchild. She is a contented little cherub, but the calm was shattered for a week or so when she developed Bronchiolitis and had to spend some time in hospital with mummy :( All is well now, mummy and baby are fine......and we can breath a sigh of relief :)

Another wee worrying episode....we lost the dogs for an entire, frantically searching day.....they had managed to get themselves stuck in the garden of an empty house and it wasn't until neighbours went to investigate their barking (7 hours and a zilion missing posters, later!) that we finally received a phone call and were reunited :) Thank goodness they were wearing name and phone number tags! Phew!

Hannah is absolutely loving Uni life, her halls and her flat mates but has spent the last month or so in a constant state of indecision and poor health as she's come to realise the course she has chosen is so very wrong for her :( She is now at the stage of planning her withdrawal to minimise the financial impact and maximise her future career prospects. 

On top of all that, my work has been challenging but enjoyable, taking a fair amount of time and energy and, of course, that wonderful time of the year is just around the corner with all the extra hours of planning and preparation it takes......just love it, though, and I do believe I now have Christmas all wrapped up :)) 

All the above have taken their toll on my time (and emotions) and my ability to focus on the house but the work has gone on, thanks to my lovely, hard working Michael, but I'm still not able to post pictures on here, sorry..... 

Mike has almost finished our back room/kitchen; it is now wallpapered and painted with coving, ceiling rose and skirting. The fridge is now in a handmade unit with storage cupboard behind and Mike's final project before the big Christmas tidy up, is a tall plate cupboard that will turn our ornate sideboard into our version of a French dresser, once I have chalk painted the entire thing. This will give us a wonderful amount of storage so I should be able to unpack the last kitchen boxes in the New Year! I'm wondering what we have gone without for the last sixteen months and whether we really need the stuff, now! It will be exciting finding out :))

We have had a change of plan over the conservatory and have reverted back to our original idea as the quote was a silly amount and we really couldn't justify it. Our original plan will work better for us, anyway, as it will give us three separate spaces: a smaller conservatory on the back of the dining room, a utility/shower/dog room on the side of the kitchen which will still connect the sheds (my craft room) to the house and a patio area between the two without the need to dig out the garden ......t'will be just as fab-u-lous, darling!
This is all still dependent on the sale of Mike's flat which is under offer as I type but we are not holding our breath.....the sale fell through about this time last year and the chain has already broken on this sale; 10 days before exchange of contract!! Ggrrrrr!! Patience is a virtue, as me dear old Da always told me.......

I have filled my thinking times (early hours and late nights seem the best time to put the world to rights and hand it all to God) with knitting and revamping car boot finds for Christmas....I would love to show you! My latest pondering involves starting a Facebook page so that I can continue this blog with photos......your opinions would be valued (Suse, I know what yours is and I know you'd love to see some pics!)

So, that's all for now, folks.....I'll get back to adding the final touches to the advent candle box we've made as we need to light the first candle of Hope, today..........
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Happy advent to you all! xxxxxxxxx

Hi blog :)

We had our builder round over the weekend to talk about conservatories and workshops....whoopity whoop whoop! 

He's talking about Jan for work, if price is right :)

Mike has decided on a log cabin for his workshop, so will do that himself and hopefully soon, as his old shed is leaking quite badly and winter is coming!

We are waiting for a quote then plans back from Dean the builder. We will need planning permission as the conservatory will be wider than the house and join onto our sheds, so the outside party loo will become an inside party loo :))

We've also asked Dean to dig the garden out in front of the conservatory and build a retaining wall. This will become an eating/patio area.........fab-u-lous, darling! (def watching roo much Strictly!)

And all this could be done before next Easter....Yay! Egg hunt at ours, then :D

We also have a beautifully smooth white painted lounge ceiling with a pretty ceiling rose in the middle :)

Back soon, with pics, when I can xxx

Today's News.....

First News Item: I came in from work this lunch time to find the dining room coved! There is no stopping Michael! :)

Second News Item: Mike has received the contract for the sale of his flat and is completing it as I type :)

Third News Item: This silly blog is telling me I have no more space for pictures....AGAIN! *sigh*   It'll be a typed blog until it lets me post again.......

TTFN XXX

Plastered again!

Hi Blog

Not a lot to report.....after a lovely weekend with Mike's sister Liz and her partner Chris (spent pottering around antique shops, car booting and dog walking), we have had the plasterer back today and so we now have smooth kitchen walls ready for paper and a de-artexed lounge ceiling! Woooo! Looking good :)

Once the plaster is dry, we will be papering, painting and tiling along the back of the work surface.....then it will be time to look at fitting a log burner :))) It may even be in in time for Christmas! :D

Bye for now xxx

Patchwork trellis! :)

Gosh....Ali Pali will be shocked.....posting again already! :)) But it is only a quicky.....

In between rain showers, today, Mike has put some trellis up in the garden....

It will mean we can sit at the end of the garden and watch the sunsets without being overlooked by the neighbours :)

And it divides the garden up a little, helping to make different areas or 'rooms' as they like to call them on all the gardening programs! T'will be bloomin' loverly covered in some sort of flowering something...not sure what yet :)

While Mike has been working his little socks off, I have been resting my silly back. When Sal and Caroline came to visit, I found a load of knitted patchwork squares in a charity shop and thought they would make a lovely blanket so I bought them and they have sat in their bag ever since! Today was the day I got them out and sorted them.....this is the pattern half of them made, there are more to go around the edge once these are sewn together. Then I will crochet a border and 'hey presto' a blankie for the winter :))

Back to my sewing now!

See you soon xxx

The Story of our Kitchen so far.....in Pictures :)

I think I have them in the correct order!

worktops in mid oil!

Loverly Larder!

Start of the tiling

Scardy dogs! Not sure if they can walk on the new tiles!

This little light fitting will go in the dining room, once it has had a wee tart up!

Mike's sister, Liz and her partner, Chris are parking their Motorhome on our drive next Wednesday for a few days catch up......really looking forward to it but won't be getting much decorating done!

A week Tuesday, the plasterer is back to finish the kitchen walls and smooth the lounge ceiling. No doubt there will be a heap of mess again! Shocking! ;) But once he's done and the plaster is dry then we will have edgings, coving, lining paper, paint, wallpaper and wall tiles to fit, hang and spread. Unsure what to do for window dressings......

Mike's flat is under offer and the sale appears to be going smoothly.....completion could be within 6 weeks! We will have work to do over there; furniture/sheds/garage to clear....hopefully the kitchen will be finished before then......bar the fireplace and solid fuel burner!

We have had a fab weekend! We have celebrated 4 birthdays and driven down to see Hannah.....Mike has done most of the driving and hard work as I have had a stupidly painful back :(

Now I am able to post pictures on here again, I will try to keep up with what's going on :) 

It must be bed time....very tired..should sleep well after such a busy weekend!