One thing leads to another...

A lot has been happening in our house which has kept me away from my blog for a while.

We have decided to go ahead with turning our spare bedroom into a craft room.  I did have reservations as I like the bedroom and I feel a bit weird about 'gutting' the room - almost as though I am devaluing our house.  But as my husband said - it's still a spare room, just without a bed!

Deciding to go ahead with this left us with the problem of where to put the bed from that room.  It's only a couple of years old and has literally only had guests in it a handful of times so I didn't want to sell it.  Our garage was converted into a kids lounge a few years ago so we had no big space to store it.

My husband came up with the solution.  He worked out that although technically the beds are the same size the frame on the spare bed is slightly bigger than the one on our bed so dismantled ours and put it, and mattress, underneath the spare bed which he moved to our room. 

I had already made a bed skirt for the bed so everything is completely hidden underneath and when we want to turn it back into a guest room there'll no need to shop for furniture.

 

It looks quite orangey in the photos but it's not that bad in 'real life' - just a nice warm wood.

I am loving it as we are sleeping on a new mattress and the base board is much lower than the one on our other bed so it doesn't feel so closed in. 

Happy Days!!

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My craft room is now a work in progress.  I have a sewing table and a storage unit but have quite a bit to do in there to get it functional.  I can't wait to have a space just dedicated to my crafts and also to have a nice tidy dining room which has been my sewing room for the last few months.  The ironing board has been set up there permanently.  Shocking!

At last I will be able to let people in through the door again.

I'll be doing a lot of work on it this weekend so hopefully will have some photos to share soon.

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Thanks for all your lovely comments and e-mails - sorry I haven't replied to them all. as (as usual). I have a million things on my 'to do' list which leave me with not much spare time.

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On another note I'm worn out and am sick of working full-time.  I have so little spare time that my hair is begging for a cut and my eyebrows are so overgrown my husband is going to have to start them off with a hedge trimmer soon.  This week I formally requested to reduce my hours in work from 5 days to 4 so if that's allowed I'll have more time to blog and drool over all your beautiful homes and crafts - fingers crossed!

xoxox

And the winner is...

Emily from The Wicker House

Emily's favourite pillow from my Etsy shop is this whale pillow.

Congratulations Emily xx

Thank you all for entering.

I'm sorry you couldn't all win but as a thank you I'm offering 20% off any purchase from my Etsy shop until next weekend.  Just enter the code january at the checkout and the discount will be applied prior to payment.

xoxox

Desk envy

I just came across this lovely desk area at Holly Mathis Interiors and am in love.

It looks like I will be turning the guest bedroom into a workroom after all and I have a cubby hole unit earmarked for that space.  I couldn't decide whether or not to make a burlap curtain across the front of the unit - until now!  I love this look and am pretty sure I'm going to do something similar.

The whole space is just gorgeous - working at a desk like this would be such a pleasure!

xoxox

Dreaming of a low maintenance garden

Over the winter months I hardly step foot into my back garden so every Spring after we've tidied up the balls my dog has chewed and cut back the overgrown bushes I dream of having a low maintenance garden.

I cut this picture out of Homes and Gardens (British Magazine) a few years ago and keep going back to it.

My garden is a similar shape and size (really small!!) and while I do love the look of a nice, well groomed lawn, when you have a golden retriever who can only 'perform' at home (seriously - he can go for a two hour walk in the forest but wait til he gets home to go to the toilet) I do worry about how hygienic a lawn is.

We actually already have a large patio area with slabs like these with a wall separating the patio and the lawn and then three steps in the middle going up to the lawn.  When my kids were too young to play in the street or the forest the back garden was ideal.  We have a large jungle gym which has been a magnet for all the kids in the street over the years.  Now Seth and Lily are older they prefer to play in the street with the other kids or in a den they have all built just inside the forest gate.

I think it's time to move with the times.  I love the fact that even though this garden doesn't have a lawn it's still very green.  I also love that ther are various seating areas which would make it a good garden for entertaining and barbecues.

It's a big step digging out the whole lawn and it wouldn't be cheap either.  I've a feeling my dog toilet may stay for a few more years and this picture will just get a bit more 'dog eared' with all my longing gazes!

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There's still time to enter my GIVEAWAY  - just click here 

xoxox

Time for a giveaway...

...as a little thank you from me to you

The truth of the matter is I am so worn out after doing very little over Christmas ... and having a yucky sinus infection ... and going back to work which is exhausting after all my lolling about ... that I am ashamed to say I have nothing to post about.

Now that all my decorations are down (and are on Lily's bedroom floor waiting for me to wrap them in tissue before they go back up the attic until next year) my house seems bare and in dire need of decorating and re-organising.

This time every year I feel like I need more time and money as this is the time of year when I  want to make changes to my house.

We are thinking of turning our guest bedroom into a workspace for me as my craft stuff creeps all over the house.  I've often got wooden signs drying on the lounge floor and pillow covers I've printed hanging from string across my lounge/dining room doors drying and my sewing machine now lives on our dining table.  I think my husband has finally had enough of my crap all over the place and is hoping that if we give up the spare room for a while (the only people who ever really stay there are my brother and his lot when they visit and they've just gone back so that bed won't be slept in again until next Christmas) the rest of the house will be 'craft clutter' free.

So, to thank you all for following me, leaving lovely comments which I don't always get the chance to respond to (partly due to lack of spare time and partly due to the fact that when I do respond and check out someones blog I then so wrapped up in theirs and others on their side bars that I just get lost in blogland...) and of course, for inspiring me so much every day I'm going to have a giveaway.

The Giveaway

First up is a pair of these lovely heart shaped slate coasters which I have a wonderful man cut for me by hand in West Wales.  I used to sell these in my old shop and since my shop closed these are one of the few things I continue to sell.

and you get to choose any pillow cover from my Etsy store

and lastly I'll throw something else in as a surprise.

For your chance to win just:

visit my etsy store and tell me which pillow cover you would choose (one comment)

be an existing or become a new follower (one comment)

blog about the giveaway (another comment)

Winner will be chosen at random at midnight GMT a week from today - Friday 14th Jan.

Good luck

xoxox