Wednesday 31 July 2013

June/July Flowers

I didn't do a June flowers post as I only had a few flowers recently, and the one bunch I had in June lasted weeks, literally the best flowers I've ever bought!

They were dyed chrysanthemums from Asda, even on offer for £1.88

Then I got these lovely peonies from my work friends as an engagement gift

Beautiful!

At the moment I've got these dyed chrysanthemums as I loved the vibrant colours, I think dyed flowers might be my new favourite, you can have any colour in any season!

These are cut down into the small white pot rather than the tall glass vase because it's better to have a lower one on the coffee table...actually it's because I broke the glass vase and this is the excuse I'm using for its disappearance. Anyone who knows me knows this is a regular occurrence, so it was only a cheap vase and I'll replace it sometime with another cheap vase which will eventually be broken. This is also why we have mismatched crockery, glasses and cups as I break on average 2-3 things a month, clumsy!

Monday 29 July 2013

Picture Positioning

I had a massive sort out of the bedroom and my clothes over the weekend, if you're interested in buying anything see my ebay page http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/willow5001. Loads of bargains most stuff starts at 99p! Anything that doesn't sell will go off to swapping websites or the charity shop as I love all the space in the bedroom now, post to come on that!

After hanging some pictures on the wall in the living room and playing with some table settings, I've moved some pictures and canvasses around in the flat, so just a quick update on the bookshelves and turtle tank.

The tank did look like this
A little cluttered and some of the photos were getting damp due to being near to the seam in the lid, now it looks like this
A bit less, the photos are all here now 
In the bookshelves in the hallway, I moved the pinboard in here as well and a few other pictures as the candles and canvases have moved off (one canvas on the table, the other 2 currently homeless). Also the china doll sherlock holmes lives here in the corner, no comment on that one it's not mine.
So that's the little change around a few weeks ago, there have been a few more switches recently, updates soon!

Friday 26 July 2013

Friday Inspiration

We reserved a date for our wedding this week :) not confirmed yet as our first choice and the date we actually asked for is already reserved so we reserved another later date in case but are waiting to see if the other couple actually books or not (They haven't paid the deposit yet just reserved it for 2 weeks so we might still get it)...but exciting still! I tell you I never realised getting the venue was so competitive!

I love the detail on the wall panels in this room, and I think even a tenant could pull it off with some plywood, paint and studs. You could put the pattern onto the plywood then mount it like a picture onto the wall

I included this because of the yellow chairs and the large framed picture. I really like the trend for leaning large pictures or mirrors against a wall on the floor, perfect for tenants!

This tile is so jazzy and bright, probably not something I'd be brave enough to pick myself but if it was already in a place I moved into I'd be happy!

Have a lovely weekend xx

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Storage Upgrades

In this post where I rearranged the office into a dining room I mentioned I wanted to get some better looking storage boxes for the shelves under the turtle tank as these ones weren't looking so good
I've been keeping an eye out for some new matching ones and spotted these in the pound shop
The bottom 2 have the turtle food and stuff in one and the leftover office stuff that I thought we might still want easy access to like batteries, envelopes etc in the other. The other 2 are actually still empty but I got 4 because it looked more balanced and it's always good to have spare storage space!

This room's getting there now and looking a bit more finished, they also had a few different table runners in the pound shop so I might change the red out for a white or blue to match the rest of the room a bit better.

Monday 22 July 2013

Some more obsessive cleaning

In this post I said I'd spent the weekend cleaning our skirting boards and door, and I also spent last weekend cleaning the carpets and the rug.

As a tenant you should want to keep the carpets in good condition so not to lose money from your deposit, but I've found that our carpets aren't really that hard wearing, they seem to mark and snag really easily. I'm pretty resigned to the fact that we will lose some of our deposit on the living room carpet as it's got some pulls in it already. You can see one of the worst areas below, the mark is from where we have cleaned up something with spot cleaner but not quite gotten all of it, and you can see all the little pulls and snags in the carpet.
I used Vanish carpet shampoo and it came up pretty well.
The rug was pretty gross, I made it to protect the carpet here as it's such a high traffic area so it's the idea that the rug gets dirty, but it's only been down a few months and was looking like this
I went over it with the shampoo and a sponge scrubbing out the marks and generally soaking it in the foam. Then I repeated this on the carpet in the living room, some patches in the bedroom (it was mostly fine in there) and the doormat by the front door (It's not removable so it gets pretty gross as we wipe our feet on it every day). Then after a few hours it had dried and I just hoovered it all thoroughly and it looks much better.
I think it's one of those every 6 months or once a year tasks to just keep the carpets looking fresh. You can also hire carpet cleaning machines from DIY stores which are pretty good, we used one moving out of a house once and although the carpet looked pretty clean the water that came out of it was so gross it really impressed me how much dirt it got out!

Jazzie approves and immediately felt the need to start sleeping on the mat and getting her fluffy fur all over it.

Friday 19 July 2013

Friday Inspiration

A lovely week off, looking at wedding venues at the start of the week (post on my wedding blog here) then a little mini break to the coast camping. We haven't been on a British holiday in years, and when the weather is nice nothing beats the good old British seaside...if only the weather was always nice! We were lucky with the weather though and it was nice to get a bit of time away, now we're home and planning a barbecue tomorrow and a nice chilled weekend before back to work on Monday.

So onto the Friday inspiration, I usually don't write these too far in advance just on the Friday or at the earliest the Thursday as I like it to be up to date, but I actually wrote this on Sunday before we went away so it's kind of last weeks inspiration!

I pinned this because of the light fixture, the square glass and stainless steel is just so different to a lot I've seen around and it's perfect for a kitchen
This home is so unusual, the exposed brick really adds something and the full height windows out onto the garden are gorgeous
I love the colour here and the rustic style, also the small cupboards at the top of the cabinets are such a good idea!
I don't do well with house plants (I forget to water them) but this room looks so lush, I can imagine it smells lovely and fresh too
I've improvised a way to lie out in our garden with a picnic rug and pillows but I would love to have something like this
Have a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Not the look I was going for...

I posted my first post on my wedding blog today on how we chose what venues to go and look around, you can click here to get to it or there's a link to the blog at the top of the toolbar on the right...

When I changed the office into a 'dining room' a while back in this post I had hoped we would use the table to eat at, which we did for a few weeks but then it started to accumulate stuff on it.
Oh dear. I think because it's near the front door we started putting stuff down on it as we came in, and as it was always covered with stuff we stopped eating at it.

I find the best way to stop a space accumulating stuff is to make it into a space with a purpose, if it's just a blank space that you don't regularly use or isn't attractive it will get used as a dumping ground.

I still had my table runner from our old dining table at our last house and wanted to add some nice table decorations and a centrepiece to make it into more of a 'proper' dining space.

I started by clearing everything off, then just played around with a few different configurations.


 I thought the 3 canvasses were a bit much, so landed on this set up as the one for now
 The candles are from all around the house, mainly the living room, bathroom and hallway
This hurricane lamp was just on the floor in the bathroom as it didn't have a home but it looks much better on the table
 The star votives and canvas were on the bookshelves in the hallway


Much better! Hopefully it'll discourage us from dumping stuff here and keep it clear to eat at.

Monday 15 July 2013

We're going to stay in an IKEA catalogue!

We're going on holiday later this year to a self catering apartment, as usual we cannot wait for a few weeks of relaxing in the sun but we found out something pretty cool about the place we're staying...

It's in the 2013 IKEA business catalogue! You can see it here

We'll let you know how it was after we're back (not going for ages yet) but it was also pretty reasonable, only around 300 Euros per week! It's in Albania where neither of us have been before but the area looks nice and to be honest I'd be happy just to stock up on food and wine and sit on the terrace for 2 weeks straight...

We're both off work this week and looking around wedding venues and having a little 'staycation' just to have a break, hopefully we'll get a week of weather like last week...

Friday 12 July 2013

Friday Inspiration

Wooohooo, finish work for a week today! Looking at wedding venues next week! Going to the beach! It's sunny!

I'm pretty excited for a chill out week, spending some quality time with Tom and hopefully finding our wedding venue.

So here's the Friday inspiration post for this week...

I want to have a kitchen island one day and will totally have some funky stools lined up along it, these pops of orange look great

This layered look is so hard to get just right, I always seem to end up with it just looking cluttered! This room is such a prefect example

I'd love to host dinner parties here, floor to ceiling bookshelves and windows, and a white dining table.

These great pop of colour coffee tables would really brighten up a living room, I love the lighter blue one with the blue sofa
Bring on the weekend!

Wednesday 10 July 2013

A bit of obsessive cleaning...

The post on Monday is what I did Saturday afternoon in the sunshine, however I spent the morning doing something a lot less pleasant. I was cleaning all our door frames and skirting boards.

It sounds a little OCD, but I noticed this last week on the bedroom door

The only thing I can think it's from is where the cats go in and out and rub against the frame and the door. Gross. So I got out the vinegar spray (from the pound shop a while back and it luckily came off pretty easily.
It drew my attention to the rest of the skirting boards and doors. Most of them were OK as I hoover over them when I do the floors but some were a bit dusty and dirty, especially in high traffic areas.
I went over them all with a squirt of vinegar spray and a cloth. Soon the place was back to looking bright white and clean again and after a thorough hoover on Monday it's looking even better.
I also did all the light switches, and walls around the switches as they can get grubby, like the pull light in the bathroom
I even did around the door frames and the actual doors, we often prop the back door open to let fresh air into the kitchen and living room so it gets pretty dusty and dirty.  
 And the front door is pretty cobwebbed!
 Now so shiny you can almost see my reflection in it!
I also found a few areas of mould which are something to look out for in a basement flat, in the bedroom behind the washing basket and wardrobe
I've moved the basket away from the wall a bit to try and avoid that coming back, we're hoping to replace the basket anyway as it's a bit knackered.
This guitar case was down the side of the wardrobe so I've moved it out (and given it a good clean) and will try and find somewhere else to keep it
 Much better!
Also in this corner of the bathroom behind the toilet where the bin was, I've moved it to the other side now and will leave this corner empty to stop it building back up again

It's one of those every 6 months jobs that's hard work but really quite satisfying as the place actually looks a lot better for it!