On the move

After 18 years in this house we have finally decided it is time to move on.  This house needs a full time family, not just us two 60+ rattling around in it.

It has been a lovely place to live, the garden and garden room (barn) will be hard to leave. Both have given us so much joy over the years, and the garden room has lent itself to a wedding, parties, christmases, and a perfect playroom for the grandchildren, we will miss your space.  But time doesn't stand still and we have our future to look to, lots we want to do and places we want to go before we are too old to do them.  So 2017 will be a year of changes.

If you are in the market for an old house (1910) with lots of further potential, like gardening, then this is the place for you - our house  - the outdoor space is perfect for young kids to let off steam.  We do have 2 families interested, but they still need to sell so it remains on the market until one of them firms up their bid.

We currently haven't decided what we will buy, we have our eye on a property but feel that until we have a firm offer we won't view, its a scary place to be and maybe the reason I am writing this post at 4:30 in the morning!! I am also finding keeping tidy a frustration and it eats into my knitting time.  I actually realise how little housework I do seem to do when knitting!!!  Is that a cobweb oh well it will still be there tomorrow........

I'll keep you posted on developments

Looking back over 2011 - a productive year

Its that time of year again - as we fast approach 2012, I have been looking back at what we have achieved, and its been lots.

Our biggest project was turning our old barn into a garden room.  This room has really come into its own.  I never thought that it would be used as much as it is.  The best money we have ever spent.  Lots of hard work to achieve the end result but well worth the time.  A big thanks again to all involved.

Next has been the garden, again a fairly productive year, though some of the vegetables could have been better.  I few changes were made due the the bad weather in the early months of the year but all in all just trying to keep it generally tidy.  Saying that I need to get out and do some of that tidying....... a job for another day me thinks.

We also revamped the kitchen and front sitting room - still awaiting the shelving in there!

And then of course when I wasn't painting or gardening I was knitting.  I just checked out my projects on Ravelry and see that I have knitted/completed 47 items and have 2 WIP's on the needles along with a sock which I am trying out.  My completed projects were:

2 x cowl
6 x scarves
10 x hats
2 x baby shoes
2 x baby dresses
7 x baby cardigans
assortment of decorations
2 x headbands
2 x toddler jumpers
1 x ladies cardigan which I frogged
2 x tea cosy
1 x door stop
4 x Ten stitch blankets
1 pair slippers
2 x egg cosy
2 x Bunny blanket buddies

my WIP's area Ten Stitch blanket and a baby cardigan.  So as you see a productive year.  For pictures of my knitted items go to my knitwear page.

We have enjoyed 2 celebrations this year.  Firstly, Rufus's 1st birthday and naming party, a first outing for the garden room - you may remember it rained.  Secondly, my father's 80th birthday party.  I am pleased to say both went well.  I hope we have many more things to celebrate in the coming year, along with my father's continuing good health.

We plan a quiet new years eve - a dinner in the garden room,  just the two of us, some sushi, seafood and champagne, bit of soft music and reflective conversation, I promise no knitting.

I hope whatever you are doing you have a great new years and see you all in 2012

WIP Wednesday #17

Happy Wednesday to you all - its a cold one, well I have been cold all day.  With the temperatures dipping my thoughts turn to accessories, hats, scarves etc.  Last week's hats and scarves for my grandson are completed, so I have started a Short Row Scarf for myself. Its a Lion Brand pattern which I have changed slightly - added 10 rows in stocking stitch to break up the garter stitch, it looks ok, hangs ok, so I'm happy. 

The yarn I'm using came from the local charity shop it looks like James Brett Marble so the variation in colour helps add interest to the scarf as well. 

The ten stitch blanket has been neglected this week, just managed a couple of sides

I thought you might like to see my garden room all lovely and cosy with the log burner alight, a perfect place to sit and knit.  We are still trying to decide whether we need curtains, I say no as its supposed to be a garden room, with views of the garden, but with the dark evenings now upon us it does feel a bit 'open'

For more WIP's head to Tami's

If you're happy and you know it..........

that has been the theme for the weekend.  Rufus has been staying with us this weekend while his parents had a well earned rest; actually they went to a wedding in Cumbria and we had the pleasure of our young man. We had forgotten just how exhausting a 13 month old child can be, but so much fun too. 

The weekend started on Friday when it was my usual week for looking after him.  I picked him up and dropped his mum off at work.  We drove home, a new experience for me, as first time alone in the car, luckily he dropped off to sleep, so you tend to forget they are there.  First stop before home was to do the weekly shop in Tesco where he charmed all the assistants, he was very good, no fuss just sat happily in the shopping cart. We did the usual things when we got in, unpacked, went to the park, made lunch, sat and looked at some books, the day passed.  Aunty Rachel came for dinner and Pops was very pleased to be clapped in by Rufus - its his new trick, he claps at everything.

Bath time and bed went well and he slept until 6:15am on Saturday - we had been awake since 4:30!!

Watching Cbeebies on the laptop with Pops

The boys were reduced to my magazines - well you have to get them interested in crafts at an early age

It rained for most of Saturday. Aunty Rachel came to stay over so there was plenty of help amusing the small boy. The garden room came into its own, it makes being indoors so much more fun and not like being in the house. We did manage to get to the park for a while - the child is fearless, Pops is not used to this!!

Another bath and bedtime went fine, can you believe that 3 adults could feel so shattered! Nothing a large drink didn't put right.

And so to Sunday. An earlier start 5:20am - how tired do we look?  We took him home at lunchtime. I admit to feeling very sad as I packed his little bag.  We were pleased that we handed him back in one piece, the responsibility of someone elses child is immense and I don't think we would ever take that for granted. We enjoyed our time with Rufus, I think he enjoyed it too. 

We've had lots of cuddles and that little face just breaks your heart no matter how tired you are 

Medway Ladies do tea

This afternoon our garden room was the venue for tea with some of the Medway ladies, they had been shopping for quilting fabric at a local craft shop, so I invited them to call in on their way home.  They arrived in torrential rain, I was trying to sweep water from the carport due to the water barrels overflowing, it was raining so hard the ground just couldn't absorb it quick enough. 

We had tea and homemade cookies, discussed local news and debated whether the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway would ever make any money when it finally gets underway - 7 August is D Day, or will it be a huge white elephant?

Chocolate Chip and Cranberry - here's the recipe incase you'd like to make some

110g butter
110g caster sugar
110g light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
170g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
150g chocolate chips - which ever sort you fancy
85g cranberries


Preheat oven to 190c
Beat butter and sugar together, add egg, vanilla, then mix in flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in chocolate and fruit.
Line 4 baking sheets with baking paper, using a teaspoon put walnut size balls onto sheet leaving plenty of room to spread. Makes about 24
Bake for 10 mins, allow to cool for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

Enjoy with a cup of tea or with a dish of ice cream - yum

Tomorrow is WIP Wednesday so check in and see what I've been knitting.

Who knew I was such a magpie!

With the garden room complete my thoughts turn to the house.  The kitchen to be precise, having had it retiled I can no longer put up with the yellow walls. 

I have spent all day sorting - firstly I sorted cupboards in the utility room to try and make more space, rearranged shelves and tidied.  I then found a new home for the hundreds of photographs that we possess.  I did manage not to look at them otherwise I would have got nothing done; that will be a job for the winter months, go through, chuck out and finally get whats left put into albums.  Boxed up all the old video tapes that we've not watched for years, these will be going off to the charity shop. Sorted drawers under the bed.  Sorted yarn for two more Ten Stitch Blankets. Cleaned brass.

Next job was my sitting room, now its furniture has been moved out into the garden room, I have space to decant the contents of the scullery shelves, I am ashamed to say they aren't very clean.  Why do we collect so much stuff, everything needed washing then packing into boxes so that I could stack them in some kind of order.  Tomorrow I will be washing down the walls and woodwork, filling cracks and trying to get the room painted.

Following the kitchen will be the sitting room, then the lounge, then carpets to be cleaned its a never ending job.  I shouldn't complain as the decorating is long over due, we have turned a blind eye to it for too long! So you all know what we are up to this weekend. 

We are managing to spend our evenings in the Garden Room though, its lovely and peaceful, a TV free zone, just music, books and knitting .....bliss

Enjoy your weekend, hopefully it won't rain, though we are offically in a drought area so need more.  Now off for a bath then put my feet up, yes you guessed in our new room

Garden Room - adding the details

So comfy for knitting in

10 Stitch in pride of place

Teddy Corner

Bottle collection

Enjoying the first cup of tea

Yesterday evening we spent time sitting watching the rain in the garden.  The first time in 12 years that we have been able to sit indoors and actually see our garden - heaven.  I can see us spending lots of time in here.  Today I've been shopping for more soft furnishings. I still need to buy some side tables. My house is starting to look de-nuded, but that means I get to buy new for the house, but not until I have decorated each room )-:

At last........

our Garden Room is finished.  The flooring was laid today and thus completed 4 months work, in fact its 4 months to the day.  Here are some photos to remind you what it looked like.  If you want to see the others just click on the Garden Room tag in the Labels & Tags section on the right hand side of the page and all the posts will come up

The Befores .....

The Durings .......

  

And finally

The Afters

Thank you goes to:-

Neil - NDF Carpentry for the repair work.

Tim & Rebecca  for the Celotex work

Steve & Aaron Jolley for the plastering

Stuart for building the steps

Dave Tucker for installing the wood burner

Alan - Alan's Carpets for the flooring

A big thank you goes to Rachel for all her hard work and given up weekends helping with the clearing, celotex, painting and the many other jobs she did.

But the biggest thank you goes to Peter, for helping me make our Garden Room become a reality, and for painting the ceiling which I know you really hated.

Now comes the fun bit making the room look homely.  Of course I will post some pictures once I have everything in place.  I am looking forward to sitting quietly on a sofa knitting and enjoying the views of our garden

Weekend News

So what have I been up to this past 4 days?

Thursday afternoon I went along with the Medway Craft Group ladies to Lucy Boston’s house and gardens in Hemingford Grey, what a pleasant way to spend a sunny afternoon. The gardens were really lovely with a beautiful display of iris and roses; the scent was heavenly. The tour of the house was very informative and the quilts beautiful. I was very surprised that this treasure was on my door step, just shows you don’t always know what’s round the corner. Just a shame they don’t do teas.

Friday, I spent the day with my youngest. We went shopping for an outfit for a wedding that she will be attending soon. We were successful, which was a relief, nothing worse than going shopping and coming back empty handed. Friday evening we were down in London for an Eric Clapton concert at the Royal Albert Hall. He was his usual brilliant self and the evening would have been perfect had it not been for a raging sore throat, which left me feeling rubbish.

Saturday and Sunday I spent the day painting inside the garden room, nearly done, just need to finish staining the skirting. Not much fun with a cold I can tell you.

Did you get the strong winds? Our garden is full of bits from the willow tree, what a lovely mess for me to clear up later. Still nothing much in the way of rain, just the odd bit but with these strong winds it dries off really quickly. Our shrubs are beginning to look like its August rather than May! Never satisfied are we, but then us Brits love to moan about the weather. You watch we have the week off next week and I bet it rains all week!!

Wednesday's Factoid

1980 - Mount St Helens erupted in Washington, USA, killing 57 people

Experience is a comb which nature gives us when we are bald - not actually sure what that means

Also in the news today -
Rufus is 11 months old
Painting continues in the Garden Room. Completion date now expected to be around 6th June................

Garden Room - steps

Another productive weekend and one where we managed to tick a few things off the list.

Peter and Stuart built the steps leading out of the garden room.  Well Peter says Stuart built them he just assisted.  So thank you Stuart, your help is very much appreciated and we are very pleased with them.  We need to decide whether to fill the fronts of the steps in or whether to leave them open.  If open then we need to fill the underneath with pea gravel to prevent weeds etc; though I have been thinking that if left open then there is the potential for lost toys and lots of tears!  We also need to decide whether to stain them or not. Peter is of the leave them to 'weather' opinion but I think they look too 'in your face' at the moment. What do you think?

I spent the day gardening yesterday, I had help from Rachel and Reece - Rachel is currently house and teenager x 2 sitting, bit of an eye opener for her!!  They repainted a couple of decked seating areas whilst I put in my vegetable plants and carried on top dressing the borders.

Today I have continued with painting the walls in the garden room.  I have now been all the way round, cutting in the beams takes such a long time, in total its taken me 20 hours for just the first coat, the second coat will be quicker. Peter is continuing with the ceiling, the beams mean that both jobs can be done at the same time with no fear of either paint overlapping.

The wood burner will go in sometime in the next couple of weeks and we are nearly there.  I need to sort out the garden around the new steps and then we would like to sit back and relax!!

I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.  Off for a soak in the bath now.

On my needles.....

Knitting - I am managing to get a bit of knitting done in between the painting and the gardening.  I have completed the Cute Cardigan from recent Simply Knitting supplement.  I knitted it up in King Cole Splash, its an acrylic yarn, very soft.  Not too happy with the button holes, the one on the neck band is slightly out of line.  This will be going to the Baby Pack Project.  I plan to make up another package but it will be a while before it gets sent off.

I have embarked on another Ten Stitch Blanket, this is number three, and will be a blue/grey combo. I managed to find plenty of yarn in my stash.  At this rate I will be able to go shopping again as my stash is coming down nicely.

I picked up a good assortment of buttons in the charity shop yesterday, around 30 buttons of £2.25, can't remember the last time I paid full price for buttons.  I love a button box. I inherited a button tin from my grandmother in law, and this was a source of amusement for the girls for years.  They would tip it out and sort through just to see what there was.  I am now a bit more organised and actually have my buttons colour coordinated in boxes, sad I know but quicker to find what I'm looking for.  Still have the old tin though

The painting of the garden room is coming along slowly, its takes such along time to cut in around the beams, still its keeping me out of mischief and Peter has cooked dinner every evening this week!!  Bless him, well its that or starve

Nothing off the list but lots done!

My tools for a trip to the recycling centre

 28 bags of soil improver - it stinks!!



the garden likes it though

third coat on the ceiling, looks happy doesn't he!!

Some pretties from the garden

We borrowed a truck from Peter's work and went and got all the wood we need to build the steps next weekend.  3 coats of paint on a third of the ceiling, its been too nice to stay indoors so I have been top dressing the borders with the soil improver.  I plan to tackle the walls in the barn this week when I get home from work. I must stop procrastinating and just get on with it. 

We've had a bit of rain, though you would never know it, the wind has dried it off very quickly; though at least the barrels are topped up.  We are reluctant to put out the tender plants still, as last weeks frosts have really knocked some of the new growth on the plants growing outside and the forecast is saying the possiblity of more to come.  The greenhouse is fit to bursting so something will have to give soon.

Hope you have had a productive weekend, I'm going back to work for a rest!!