Just another quick update on our recent activities. We've made a lot of progress this week, all the unpacking is done and it really feels like a home. Still waiting on some of the bigger bits of furniture to be delivered (you know how it is, next-day delivery my butt!), like our
new sofas from Ikea,
new TV and a lovely
new bed from Argos which was a snip at £99 - I thought we'd just stick a single bed in my sewing room so that I have lots of room to move around. I love it round here, all you can hear are the birds singing and it really is very pretty.
On another note, I think I am in heaven...I found the most beautiful shop, it's in the village of Nutley (about 2 miles away) and they sell lovely bits of brica brac, antique fabrics, french antique furniture and painted furniture. The prices are really good too, I bought my sewing table (used to be a small french kitchen table) for £130 and the tv stand (really some sort of dresser bottom) for £170, a plate rack for £32 and a painted towel rail £25. I think I could buy the whole shop...if you're ever in the area pop into Nutley Antiques!
I don't know how everyone else feels, but I've gone off painted furniture! I think it will always have a place in a French Chateau or an opulent Georgian house, but I think in our little cottage it just looks awful. I'm sticking with antique pine I think. Even my Ikea wooden chest of drawers look better than my painted chest of drawers!
Last but not least I need to tell you about my bargain Cath Kidston purchases! Last weekend Tim went to the football and we were going to his Gran's for dinner that evening so I thought I'd go shopping in Wimbledon. I popped into the Cath Kidston shop and noticed they had an off cuts tray and I spotted that they had a substantial piece of the
paisley rose fabric (one of my favourites!) so I thought I'd have a go at making the curtains. On the way to the train station I thought I'd have a look in Elys, one of those old fashioned independent department stores, and they had loads of half price Cath Kidston bits n bobs so I bought the blue spot bedding and some towels. I looked in the curtain section and they had stacks of curtains for £10 so I bought some plain beige ones. Anyway, to avoid boring you with the details, I'm very lazy and if there's a short cut I will take it so I thought I'd just sew the Cath Kidston fabric over the top of the £10 curtains that way they would be double lined....anyway, here's a terrible picture of the result! I'll try and take a better one in the daylight today. I'm just pleased that I got some designer curtains for the bargain price of £60 and an evening's work! I dread to think how much they would have cost to be made in the shop, surely hundreds of pounds!?
Almost forgot to note down all my real bargain basement items! So far I've managed to scrounge the following things for free - a lovely double wraught iron bed stead (used to be my sister's), a mantle clock, some lovely vintage plates, 2 huge over mantel mirrors (my mum gave them to me, she has moved into a modern property) some hand made curtains, 2 chest of drawers, a sewing box, a singer sewing machine which belonged to my great grandmother and a loft ladder! I also got a lovely real leather chesterfield sofa for Tim's office-come 'snug' (god I hate that word, sounds very noveau riche!) for the bargain price of £50.
I bought myself this Cath Kidston dressing gown too and the pink strawberry fabric ironing board cover. I know, I know...
....but on a less extravagant note, I have discovered freecycle and it's fantastic! I posted that I wanted some old pallets to make a log store and that I'd need them delivered and I got a phone call from a nice lady who works a the local dairy farm. We always eat their cheese because it's local and delicious, and it was so kind of them to offer to deliver them free of charge! Anyway, this is the place and they sell the most delicious sheep milk cheese:
