Floor

Three coats of Mega Bona later. Light it is. Thanks Nick!

Two Days to Decide....

My friend Nick offered to sand our floor!
It was very dark and dusty.

 
Off I went to the paint shop and bought deep mahogany stain
Very not nice dark red brown.
Hopped on bike, went back to paint shop and bought dark oak.
That's more like it.
Went off to studio.
Came back to a very light floor.

Nick has gone off for a few days so I can make my mind up.
Anyone else have an opinion?
Deep dark oak - bit like before but all nice and smooth and a little bit shiny......
or just slap on the varnish (matt) after a bit more sanding to get rid of the blotches.

I think I've decided.

What to do with 3 tins of wood stain?.....and what about the stairs!

Mini Office

Mini office, originally uploaded by Helen Rawlinson.

I got sick of our my laptop cluttering up the kitchen table so I tried to ban it from the kitchen altogether but it just kept creeping back in. So now it has an official spot and the ercol extension table is on hand for those extra guests without having to drag it out of the cellar each time we need it (OK so lazy me didn't put it back one day and the Mini Office was born!)

Calming the Chaos

It's my birthday today....and I'm at the studio working, but I'm really happy about that as I've had so much else going on around here I haven't had time to get stuck in for a while.
So this kitchen drawer is a good example of the way things are heading (I hope!)
There are countless examples on the web for making chalkboard / blackboard stickers, so no claims for originality here!
Our kitchen is now complete and I've got birthday tulips to celebrate...

We've  still got to sort out the floor and clean the windows! Here's the before.  The biggest difference is that we moved the door frame to centre it with the stairway, only by about 40cm but it was the best thing we did.  The 30 spot lights (yes 30!) have gone down to 10 and we've said bye bye to all those overhead cupboards.

Thanks to my builder, Tony who put up with all my last minute changes and did a fine job.
I attempted to go for an eco route on the worktops and even the kitchen itself but we just couldn't keep it in budget I'm afraid.  We used Howden's in the end and thankfully they were able to supply it at the last hour after all my chopping and changing! 
We did manage to give the old kitchen away on freecycle and Rob who came to collect it, ended up as Tony's 'chippy' for the duration of our new kitchen build (and beyond!) So hopefully I've scored just a few Brownie points there.

We escaped to my brother's for a week during kitchen madness (note the same kitchen!)

The worktop is engineered quartz stone fitted by someone my brother recommended (I copied the kitchen units off my darling interior designer bro' Matt Rawlinson - who saved me at the last hour and made me see straight!) Paul came down from Cheshire with his two sons and did a very professional job and I'm soooooo pleased with it.
I also must mention Marion, better known online as Majjie, the lady behind Advanced Kitchen Design. I came across her sight a bit too late in the project but I would highly recommend it if for fantastic advice on everything you need to know about kitchens. She also offers a great design service. We had a few email exchanges and she was incredibly helpful.  Thanks to Majjie, I was less afraid to move the sink off centre from the window and the extra workspace to the hob has made all the difference. I was also worried about moving the cooker as I thought we were messing up the 'work triangle' but I was reassured this was OK and with the two worktop areas it's now much better.
Finally, from all the great kitchens and ideas I found on the web, Pinterest became my style notebook throughout and gave me a fun visual storyboard to work from.
The most important thing is that Nigel is happy.  It's passed on all counts for a good working kitchen - he's the main cook so I had to make sure of that! Stanley didn't really care but enjoyed having builders in the house and his first tea party to celebrate last Friday which turned into a booze up with the parents....just how it should be!

Have a lovely day everyone! x

One more day.....

I want our kitchen out of our living room NOW!
Getting sick of washing up in the bath and eating takeaways.
The taps go in tomorrow - Yippeeeee!

Stanley has coped amazingly.  It makes you realise that kids don't really mind how big or small a space they have as long as it's home.

Clutter and Keys

 

We have a problem in our house with bikes and where they go.  Our hallway is quite narrow, so the bikes have to be squashed in the hallway leading to the kitchen and halfway down the cellar stairs.  However, on leaving the house, I often park my bike in the main hallway, ready to leave and to get Stanley ready for school.  It's not ideal as the white walls end up with dirty handle marks wherever I park it up.
So to tackle this problem, I made this blackboard arrow, with the added bonus of key hooks (as I'm always losing my keys!) It was a bit of MDF we had left over from a big blackboard I painted years ago.  Good old General Woodwork Supplies, cut it to the shape I wanted, then I glued it to the wall.
No more dirty marks, a little messenger board and keys ready to go!

 

The other spot for the rest of our keys and clutter is just here.....

 

 Plus another bit of the blackboard in the kitchen!

New pics!

our house, originally uploaded by Helen Rawlinson.

A little peek into my living room to show the new pictures I've acquired recently (actually quite a while ago, only just got round to framing and hanging) . The 'I Iike it what is it' was bought from Nelly Duff  during a morning jaunt along Colombia Road and was originally in the centre of the old chimney wall.  But along came 'Wall P'animals Zoo' by Guusje's at Appeltaart. I am a major fan of this lady's wonderful screenprints, first spotted over at Kickcan & Conkers.

Guusje's blog is a dream, (it currently has tiny white spots glancing down the pages) and so is her happy home. I'm not sure if I've done it justice in my rather clutterfilled home, but I made sure it was professionally framed by a friend of mine. He introduced me to non reflective glass and I'm very pleased with it in the oak frame.  I've perhaps mounted them a bit high on the wall, but once they were up, that's where they were staying.  The small etching is from a long ago trip to Trevisso in Italy and the other screenprint, which is a perfect match with Zoo is by AP (will have to get back to you on that as I can't read the signature...any ideas?)
This whole room is desperate for a makeover and I'd love to get rid of the carpet and replace it with bamboo. The wall behind my beloved little sofa (an ex army piece, from Pictures and Light in Stoke Newington) is one day going to be blue, I'm collating shades and dreamiing via Pinterest!
The green seventies (draylon?) chair is part of a 3 piece set I inherited from my mum. It was always in the posh room and we weren't allowed to play in there as kids. She'd be aghast (hopefully delighted really!) if she could only see Stanley jumping up and down on it on a regular basis. (sorry mum! if you're up there somewhere x)

Spring is coming!

Picked these from our garden the other day....we keep getting little shots of warmth then a blast of cold.  But that winter stuff is definately on the way out!

Now shyly sitting in our kitchen shelf next to a lovely blue fern and clover plate I picked up from Etsy seller jinxxy Made by Mikasa, designed by Vera Neumann. The last photo is taken from her lovely shots that just made me WANT IT!
I would have panned out a bit on my picture, but our kitchen is a mess!

Stanley's Room

Being the clutter monster that I am, Stanley's room has turned into the most colourful stash of clutter in our house.

Whilst he was off sick we did a bit of rearranging and I finally sorted out this slide light that I bought years ago from the talented duo Suck UK Now a mega set up with some fantastic products!

For a while I tried my best with taking slide pictures on holiday and when we were out and about, but I always found the fluorescent light way too bright to actually see the images.  Plus Stanley kept sliding them out and they'd all end up in a heap behind the bed.  Hence sitting empty and unplugged for quite some time.

So I decided to bring home a few of my off cuts. We snipped them into squares and slotted them in.  We had fun arranging them around and the result was qutie alright if I say so myself.  The main thing is that Stanley likes them and they have so far stayed put!

This is a slightly cheated photo where I've added the strip in lit, via a bit of editing, otherwise the rest of the image would be black.  I know there must be a way to do this on the camera settings, just need to sort it out!

The little foxy cushion is a new purchase from my friend Becky Baur (Link coming soon hopefully!).  Other cushions from Thirty Five Flowers (Flowers! Louise wrote a very lovely bit about my screenprinting class recently on her blog here) and Jane Foster (Vintage Magic Roundabout.  I've got quite a collection scattered around the house) The paisely quilt is from when I was a child and the mad orange, knitted bear was a gift from a neighbour.

The next thing I want to tackle is a rug.....a big black bear.

Wakey Wakey!

I love the idea of Pip from Meet me at Mike's My place and yours idea, so I've decided to join in.
This weeks theme is Bedside by Pottymouthmama . I'm not sure what a meme is, so if anyone can enlighten me, I'd be grateful!
Reluctant to show you exactly how it normally is, I did do a bit of tidying up. Well we had friends coming over, so it had to be done anyway. Not that I was intending to wheel them into my bedroom, but it was a good excuse to tidy up. It's not a great photo, but I did like the light coming in from the window.
The pictures are meant to be on walls, I just haven't got round to putting them back up yet after we did some painting.
I did leave my cup from my morning tea there as it's one of my favourites. I got a set of 4 from After Noah a few years back.
An Ella Doran coaster, again from way back and a newish cute quilty one from Lucie Summers.
My trusty ripple lampshade is hiding the wireless, stuck to the wall with cellotape, from our tinpot clock radio. Sat on a lovely wooden box of my mum's.
The tins and old cigar box underneath are full of bits and bots which I haven't opened in ages and ages.
The Welsh blanket I bought off Ebay and is so warm, now it's starting to get a bit chilly.
Oh and the little woodcut on the wall I think I got from Shelf, either that or it was a present.
We adopted the wall colour from previous owners and it's all a bit of a jumble of hues in this space, but I guess that's quite normal in our house!

Catch Up Time, Spring Fair

Well it's been a bit of a busy month of May! I've not really had time to keep up with blog world as I've been all over the place....the next few postings are kind of upside down while I do the catch up!
First off was lots of making for the Spring Fair in Stoke Newington, organised by Of Cabbages and Kings and We Make London. Purses, bags, patches, Tees and more. It was a great opportunity to try a few new things and get my stock sorted out.
The Fair was good fun and I met some really nice people and fellow stall holders. I had a good chat with Tanya from Strikk handknits. She's got some lovely pics and colour palettes on her blog and I love the new clothes hanger covers. It was also nice to get some advice about Etsy as it's all still very new to me.

I did a bit of shopping of course...
I bought this gorgeous little bear from Namolio and added to my Moozle collection with one for my brother's new baby to be and a matching cushion for my own Moozle at home. The weekend also led to a little collaboration with Kate and I'm really chuffed with the new Shapes and Things Moozle she did for her shop.

Lady Luck Rules Ok had some great brooches and I now have a little Love Bird in my collection.

All in all, a great show!