Busy, Busy, Busy

On returning from our holidays, (now nearly three weeks ago - how time flies!) it seemed to begin with, that we were still in the holiday swing, We had a couple of evening picnics on the beach and a lovely trip to Peasholm Park in Scarborough when we had one particularly mild evening. Peasholm Park opened in 1912 and was designed by Harry Smith. The design and layout of the park was created to echo the famous 'willow pattern' china.



There is a lovely lake where you can go on the dragon shaped pedalos or rowing boats and in the centre is Peasholm island with its lovely waterfall and pagoda at the top. the first picture is looking across to the island, and the second picture is taken from the top of the waterfall looking back across.



Real life soon kicked in though, and we decided it was high time we decorated our hall, stairs, landing, stairs, landing (its 3 storey!) - Somehow we have managed to live with this disgusting colour scheme since we moved in 18 months ago - I suggest if you are easily offended that you avert your eyes from the next photo!



It may not be obvious, but all the walls are artexed and painted in two different shades of gold/tangerine, and who in their right mind paints spindles mustard? - Don't even get me started on the carpet.
Decorating has proved to be like painting the forth bridge - unfortunately funds don't allow for us to remove the artex at the moment, but we thought a new colour scheme and a new stair carpet would freshen things up - We have been decorating every night for the past 10 days from arriving home from work until at least midnight - and we are knackered! - We have got through over 4 litres of white satinwood and about 20 litres of pale duck egg blue emulsion. I can't believe the difference it has made - Just having fresh white woodwork makes everything look so much brighter and cleaner and the pale matt emulsion seems to distract from the artex so you don't notice it so much. As I write this, the carpet is being fitted, so more 'After' pictures to follow.

We have also been busy with the business, we are going to start selling our curtains etc on the internet and so last Thursday saw our dining room being turned into a photo shoot for the sites homepage. Hubby wanted the hompage to show a woman (me) looking lovely and relaxed (don't know how I managed that) browsing for curtains on the internet. The pictures came out really well, but I will let you be the judge of that when the site goes live!

Finally, after subjecting you to my hideous hallway, I thought I would show you a prettier shot - here is the shelf in my kitchen - except it now has the addition of two lovely little wooden birds, sent to me by Zia Koko - I'll tell you more about that in my next post.


Bye for now - Natalie x

Happy Holidays!

Well we are back from our week in the Algarve relaxed, rested and raring to go! - The weather was a little cloudy on some mornings, but it soon cleared, although there was a cool breeze blowing in off the Atlantic quite a lot of the time. It was our first trip to Portugal and we really liked it, our Apartment was fantastic with really modern furnishings and 2 gorgeous bathrooms, although it was about a 15 minute walk to the Restaurants etc. The children all had a great time and were sorry to be coming home. Still - that's why its called a holiday, so today it was back to work with 6 loads of washing and ironing to look forward to!


Before our holiday, I was tagged by about 6 different people, so sorry if this turns into a long post but here goes:-

What was I doing 10 years ago?
Callum was just 8 weeks old, so I guess I was pretty busy! and I was living in a small cottage with my first husband where we kept chickens, I was 24 years old.

What are 5 things on my to do list tomorrow?
1. Ironing (As much as I hate it, it needs to be done)
2. Order some prints of our holiday photos
3. Get the knitting out again (for anyone who is interested, I never got that jacket finished in time, but thats a whole different story)
4. Try and list some things on Ebay - I have a corner in my home I nickname 'Ebay corner' and anything that I put there, gets listed - I am going to try and save all the money in my paypal account for something special
5. Take ten minutes out to relax with a cup of tea and a magazine

Snacks I enjoy
yoghurt coated raisins, dry roasted peanuts, chocolate, strawberry yoghurt

Things I would do if I were a millionaire/billionaire
Give to friends/family, support my favourite charities, buy a house with a garden and then get a hot tub/gazebo with outside bar, by loads of books on amazon, buy lots of handmade things from all my clever online friends, shop till I dropped!

Places I've lived
1. Chesterfield (until the age of 10)
2. Sheffield (from 10 until 30)
3. Doncaster (only for 3 years, but going back there feels like going 'home')
4. Filey (since Dec 2006)

Hope you are still all awake after that lot! - I hope no one minds, but I'm not going to pass it on to anyone as I think most of the blogs I read have already done this one! - I was also tagged by Josie a couple of weeks ago, but I'll save that for my next post.

Finally, just a book recommendation - I read the 'Friday Night Knitting Club' while I was away which can be found here Whether you like knitting or whether you don't, its a great read, with an ending I really wasn't expecting - without giving the game away, all I can say is I am glad I had my sunglasses on when I was reading it by the pool, or else people would have wondered who the crazy lady sobbing on the sunbed was!

Hope you are all well, and thank you for all the comments on my last post, its going to take me some time to catch up with everyone, but I am looking forward to it - Natalie x