Bits and Bobs

Its been a while since my last blog post.  I have a few bits and bobs to share with you.  Firstly, on my latest trip to Glasgow I ordered the curtain fabric for the dining room.  I needed 17.5 metres in total which should be enough for the curtains, pelmet and a couple of cushions.  I am still to buy the lining, curtain rail, thread etc...

Tartan - Skye Heather from Remnant Kings

I also went back to House of Sher and bought a couple more light fittings for the house.  These are for the hall and are a smaller version of the large statement light in the entrance of the hall as shown in an earlier blog post.  I also got 20% off....boost!

Light for top and middle landing of hall

My next project was a slight set away from interiors and towards baking - a 30th birthday cake for my sister!! I haven't baked in years, despite my childhood ambition to have my own bakery - how I went from baker to engineer I don't quite know!!

Baked two chocolate cakes to make a sandwich

Bought ready to roll icing in a variety of colours my sister likes - plum and grey

I bought capital and small letter cutters online plus number cutters

Took a while to get the hang of this - my tips would be roll icing very thin
and use plenty icing sugar to stop it sticking

The final product.  I bought a bow cutter but couldn't get it to work
so improvised with some heart cutters I already had...

Really pleased with how the cake turned out and happy to report it also tasted really nice :-)

Here's me and big sis on her night out.  We went for dinner to Jamie's Italian in Glasgow (which I would definitely recommend) and then for drinks at Corinthian.

Me (R) and my big sis (L)

2012...

Over the festive period I got some shocking news which has made me stop and review what is important to me - my friends and family.  I have decided that I should be doing things which make me (and them) happy and that is my resolution for 2012.

I have been toying with the idea of giving up photography for a while and basically since I moved in my new house I think I have done only one or two shoots.  Its still a passion of mine and is always something I will do for me but I no longer feel the drive to pursue it so aggressively and let it dominate all my time.  There was a period when every weekend would be filled with photoshoots and as a result each evening I would be editing images until 11pm having worked all day as an engineer.  Those days are gone and I am learning to relax and loving doing up my house.

I spent this weekend down in Glasgow helping my amazing sister decorate her bedroom.  We painted it grey...pleased she is also loving grey!!

We were having a bit of a clear out and a trip to the recycling centre proved fruitful for me!!  I spied a traditional style wing back chair in amongst the unloved furniture and decided it would be perfect for my house!  I have been trying to find a chair to re-upholster but Ebay and its Pick Up Only pieces located in England is frustrating!!  So we piled this chair into the back of the car and off we went...

Love the studs on the back

I am yet to decide exactly where the chair will go (bay window in lounge or dining room), and therefore what colour it will be.  I wondered about doing it myself, I know somewhere which does upholstery classes.  But think this might be a difficult item to attempt as a beginner!!  So I am going to get some quotes from the professionals first.  Will keep you updated on the chair :-)

Next interior project will be stripping the wall paper in the hall (this could take weeks) and also making curtains for the dining room.  I have found another tartan fabric which I like so hopefully will be making a final decision soon.

getting tweedy

I have just joined Twitter and am really enjoying it so far.  I am of course following LivingEtc and slowly building up my profile with celebs I like!!  You can find me there @the_grey_house

Now that the dining room is almost finished I am trying to find a suitable fabric for making curtains.  I have decided we definitely want a tartan of some description.  I want it to be wooly/tweed type fabric rather than cotton.  While browsing in John Lewis I came across the Moon range of fabrics.  I have since looked online and we have selected a few which I have ordered some samples of.  I want something quite quirky so are leaning towards the final fabric.  Of course remembering that the room is a dark olive green.

Beningborough - Graphite (Moon)

Sandringham - Mandarin

Longleat - Indigo (Moon)

I will reserve judgement until the samples arrive but fingers crossed one of these might be nice.

progress at last...

I am finally able to post some before and after photos!  The sofa for the kitchen finally arrived at the start of December but I was due to go offshore the next day for a week so didn't have a chance to take shots for a post.  I have then been in London for a week and spent Christmas in Glasgow with my sister.  So have just taken these today.  Let me know what you think...

Kitchen Before and After

What I did - Kitchen
Painted the kitchen cabinets and replaced the handles (Paint - Night Jewels 3 from Dulux and handles from Ikea)
Painted the tiles white (Ronseal tile paint in white gloss)
Made dark grey spotty curtains to hide the recycling and bins
Purchased white gloss table and four chairs (Vertigo Interiors)
Purchase yellow fabric corner sofa (Instyle Furniture)
Installed 42" LED TV on far wall
Painted walls white (were magnolia)
Removed curtain rail

New Yellow Sofa

New Dining Table

So that's the kitchen finished until I have enough money to replace it completely.

I have also painted the dining room.  It's not quite finished yet, still another coat of eggshell to go on the woodwork but I can share a photo so you can see...

Dining Room Before and After

What I did - Dining Room
Sanded down woodwork
Removed plug socket from middle of wall and patched over (visible in before photo above sideboard)
Painted walls (Fired Earth - Wild Olive)

I absolutely love the colour of the walls, I am so pleased with it.  It's exactly what I wanted.  The shelves have a slight afternoon tea theme with my cake stand and tea trios and teapot.  I have also displayed quirky images from a photography project I did on the 7 deadly sins.  The cow skull as featured in a previous post looks brilliant up on the wall.

Finally just wanted to share a photo of my cat Pickle who is adorable - such a little cutie.

Pickle

Hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and all the best for 2012. XXX

Call of The Stag

I really wanted some artwork for in my dining room which wasn't my own photos as I already have too many of them up in the house.  I was browsing on Pinterest and stumbled upon the following image while searching for resin deer heads!!  I absolutely loved it and followed the link to a Flickr page.  The page belonged to Rob Cox who has some amazing wildlife shots.  I got in touch with him and enquired how much it would be to purchase a copy of his image, I also alerted him to the fact that his images were available to be downloaded by anyone on Flickr and suggested he should change his settings.  As a thank you he gave me a copy of the image for nothing.  I have since had it put on a 20" by 40" wide canvas and its waiting to go up in the dining room.

Copyright Rob Cox Photography

I love it and it tones in really well with the olive green paint I have chosen for the dining room.  Can't wait to get it up on the wall.  Big thank you to Rob!!

Amoooosing Birthday Present :-)

Again so sorry its been so long between blogs.  November has been so busy for me and I have been all over the place for work and play so haven't had much time to do anything in the house.  However, this weekend I am home and have got cracking again...

Unfortunately, I heard that my yellow sofa for the kitchen has been delayed due to a problem at the mill with the fabric.  It should have been here a couple of weeks ago but it won't be arriving now until December :-( which is rubbish!! It better be worth the wait. I want to get ONE room finished so I can do an actual before and after photo.

I ordered my paint for the dining room from Fired Earth online as my local B&Q didn't stock the colour.  Its Wild Olive which is part of the Kevin McCloud range which I love.  It's the first time I have ever used what I would class as "designer paint" so will be interesting to see if I think it's any better!!  I've done one coat so far and I am loving it.  Can't wait to get it finished and get the room accessorised.

It was my birthday at the start of November and I got an amazing present.  It's from a shop in Milton of Crathes called Rustiques (a nice interiors shop with loads of gorgeous bits and bobs).  I have been searching for the perfect animal head for in the house but hadn't found anything yet.  In Rustiques I saw a nickel cast cow skull.  I loved it but its was quite expensive so I didn't buy it there and then.  Anyway, I got it for my birthday :-)  It will be taking pride of place on the dining room wall and I can't wait to get it up there!  Just so you know it's a cast of an ethically sourced cow skull.

Nickel Cow Skull

FYI - off out for dinner tonight hence the outfit!  It's my new top and skirt from a recent person shopping experience at Frasers in Glasgow - both Mint Velvet.  Gorgeous brand I had not heard of until last week.

it's a stitch up

Sorry its been a while since my last blog.  I have been pretty busy and haven't had all that much to share in terms of progress with the house.  I am finding the slow progress frustrating!!! Just want everything perfect NOW!

Anyway, so I have been down in Glasgow visiting my sister and I went to a couple of fabric shops.

As soon as I walked in I saw a muted tartan fabric which was just gorgeous.  I loved it.  I ended up buying 1/2 a metre of it with a plan to make a couple of cushions for the chairs at either end of my dining room table.  I've just finished one cushion and am delighted with it.  Such a sense of achievement!!  I'm not an amazing seamstress but am really pleased with how its turned out.

Home made cushion (chair from Annie Mo's)

Here are some photos of the process.  I bought 1/2 metre of fabric, two cushions, some olive green thread and two 12" green zips.

Cushion making...

I also bought a wax covered GREY and white spotty fabric for my kitchen table and also some charcoal GREY spotty fabric for making little curtain for hiding my recycling.

Not the best photos but you get the idea...

I want to make a box pelmet (or get a joiner to) for the kitchen window and cover it in the charcoal GREY fabric.  My yellow sofa should be arriving in a matter of days so will be posting complete before and after photos of the kitchen very soon.