I got a Drill and I'm not afraid to use it!

 

I have been keeping myself busy at work long arming and doing some tuition, as well as making teas and coffees for people on courses. In the evenings I put on my DIY dungarees and have been continuing to tart up the cottage. I am slightly dreading moving my belongings in because they will just clutter the place up.

I was meant to meet Mel from Looe and visit a Christmas Fair in Fowey but the weather was stormy so I had a 3-day DIY weekend instead. I painted just about everything I could see. The back bedroom is finished and totally empty at present. The kitchen was far easier as it has flat walls. It was not bad to begin with but as soon as I started slapping on white paint over cream it looked so much fresher. I put up a lobster poster, simply because the colours were right. I am considering Delft style tile stickers to make it more cottagey. 

I got myself a very basic drill and added knobs to the old dresser. Maybe I will attempt shelves, after checking for cables and pipes;) 

White paint is all very well but I am craving some colour so I got a tin of Arsenic green and want to do one wall in the sitting room. I can always paint over it when I move out. Obviously, I don’t have to paint the whole house before Christmas but it is so much easier when it is half empty! 

Have I mentioned that I HATE painting?

Get a scruffy cottage and give it a lick of paint… I can confirm that after 3 days of painting using a huge free tub of white paint, I am over that notion. I ran out of paint and energy before I got to the bedroom ceiling. I have just had a quick look and it looks like it needs yet another coat, groan. The problem was that the room seemed to have wooden walls, covered with a textured wallpaper and some damp spots. It does look better but I obviously have more to do. 

I had better success with the shed. I pulled off the ivy from the front and slapped black Cuprinol onto it which has smartened it up no end.

I looked for a second hand electric lawnmower but it was cheaper to get a new one. I have cut the grass which now looks like it has been liquidised but I guess it will grow back in the Spring;) 

My three day weekend has been non-stop DIY apart from a trip to the supermarket. I must try to get out more!

I was thrilled to receive a parcel from the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles containing “merch” that it is selling online inspired by my quilt, “Help ma Boab”. I will be taking my mug and coaster to work and filling up my tin with useful quilting goodies:)

Cottagification

I am gradually “cottagifying” my new place. It really needs a lick of paint but even just moving things around makes all the difference and I have not even got much of my own stuff here yet. My chum, Mel (who moved from Banchory to Looe) came for a visit and we mooched around the Pannier Market, posh shops and charity shops. I found some useful curtains in the Sue Ryder shop.

I had help to strim my overgrown grass and had fun getting a bit carried away with a pressure washer. I ran up some basic gingham curtains for the old dresser and strung them onto curtain wires because I hate glass cupboards. 

I seem to have a bit of an RNLI (lifeboats) theme going on in my kitchen. I ordered 4 folding chairs in blue and orange and wondered if the orange ones looked a bit like cement mixers. Now that I have stuck blue and orange flowers onto the fridge, I think it looks OK. 

 

I did actually go to work as well this week and completed 3 customer quilts, including a fab string quilt in African fabrics. I hope to have more quilts coming in this week.

If the dry weather continues next weekend I want to buy some plants for pots, attempt to cut the grass if I get a cheap mower and maybe even get my poor wee car cleaned up. 

A Room of One's Own

It has been long time since I had a room all to myself that was just for sleeping in. I had a room in Scotland but it was also an office, sometimes a music room complete with piano and drum-kit plus a sewing machine.  

I got the keys to my Tavistock cottage on Monday then had a dreadful, dark drive back to the caravan in the rain so I decided to throw some things in the car the next morning and just move straight in. It is fantastic just to have a 10-15 minute commute to work. There is a park just across my road full of squirrels that Nessie loves. 

Moving in immediately was not without some drama. The gas meter was full of water, I ran out of metered electricity and there was quite a lot of an ex tenant’s stuff under the stairs and in the shed. I love the cottage, even though it needs some titivating. I collected a few boxes of things from the storage barn but cannot work out where to put anything in my doll’s-house sized kitchen cupboards. I need to move everything that could might get nibbled as there were definite signs of mouse activity.

It is a good job I am getting busy with pre-Christmas customer quilts at work, otherwise I would be yearning to be “at home” decorating, weeding and taking a shed full of junk to the dump.