Bits and Bobs

 Hello there. Not much to report from this past week or so I'm afraid. Half term was mainly spent doing this:

The time had come to decorate our dining room - actually, the time came and went a long time ago; it was long overdue! Various leaks whilst R was draining the radiator in L's room and doing the bathroom meant that the ceiling was covered in water marks that needed to be sealed before the painting could begin. That, as it turned out, was the easy part. The trickiest bit was deciding on a colour. It used to be 'pointing' by our good friends Farrow and Ball - a sort of creamy white. R was apparently 'fed up' of neutral and wanted something a little more colourful. Tester pots were bought (many of them!) and the walls took on a patchwork type appearance. The girls and I liked 'Ballet' by Homebase; a definite pink. R liked F&B's 'setting plaster', which looked pinkish in the pot but dried to quite a dark brown. He vetoed our pink and we returned the compliment with his brown. In the end, our compromise was F&B's 'pink ground' and none of us is entirely sure about it but at least it's fair! I quite like it in bright light where it is a definite pink with the lovely chalky tones for which F&B are famous. In some lights, however, it can be a pale terracotta (not bad) or occasionally quite peachy (not so good!). Here it is against a painting we bought in Cornwall some time ago - what do you think? Pink, peach, terracotta or just plain yuk?!

I try to cheer myself up with the thought that at least it's freshly painted yuk, with no water marks and it is a definite colour. I'm not sure it entirely goes with the curtains either but Hey Ho!
The next problem was the paint for the woodwork. R likes gloss - which I do too but (and it's a big but) it does tend to yellow, which I hate. I wanted a 'no yellowing, brilliant white' paint, which just happened to be acrylic - R hates acrylic. You see, nothing is ever easy. In the end, we went with a satin wood paint, slightly shinier than egg shell, and I'll let you know if it yellows or not. That is, if it lasts that long - R doesn't like the texture. It feels rather rough, compared to gloss and he claims that it shows every brush mark. I'm prepared to live with the brushmarks as long as they're white brushmarks and argue that no one sane actually goes round fondling the skirting boards.  He would rather have it smooth and yellow! Does anyone else have similar decorating problems or is it just us? If anyone can recommend a brand of white, gloss paint that doesn't turn jaundiced as soon as you turn your back, we'd be very grateful! Anyway, at least it's finished. Now we just need to do the living bit of the room, the kitchen, downstairs loo, hall, stairs and landing and then the bathroom - don't get me started on the bathroom!

There have been a few happies this week -
Another trip to Oxford:

The main purpose of the visit (apart from the fact that I just like going) was a trip here:

I was hoping to get a nice tablecloth for the dining table - something to draw the eye away from the wall colour and the clashing curtains! No luck though, I'm afraid. I did, however, find a nice little bag to keep my sock yarn in. I had tried just popping it in my bag for pulling out at opportune moments but the stitches had a nasty tendency to fall off the needles, so my new little bag is perfect. I think it was actually intended as a little lunch bag, but I won't tell it if you don't :)  Anyway, here it is:

Which meant that I could have a bit of sock action in the school car park waiting for E: 

 Another highlight of my trip was a jasmine bubble tea from the best tea shop in Oxford - Yum!

Gloucester Green open air market yielded some glass dangly (spelling?) things. I bought them because I thought that if I strung them up in the window, they might throw rainbows round the room. Well, either they don't work, or it just hasn't been sunny enough round these parts. So, for the time being, I've attached them to the light fitting and it's pretending that it's a chandelier!

My other recent purchase is a pair of new boots; my old winter ones are worn out and no longer any good at keeping my feet dry. These are Doc Martin Triumph 1914 boots, complete with ribbons and floral lining. I love them and they're well worth the blisters until I wear them in and the extra 10 minutes required to lace them up in the morning! Please excuse the pilling much in evidence on my woolly tights:

Finally, I thought I'd leave you with a note found in the kitchen this week. We have a house rule that the first person up feeds the rabbit. Unfortunately (or fortunately in Hamish's case), there is sometimes a little confusion and Hamish can end up having 2 breakfasts. To prevent this, L had left this propped by his food bowl:

..... and indeed he was!

Toodle Pip for now. x