time flies

well i cant believe its been so long since i last posted... April..was months ago and that was the last time i thought to leave a little blog post..
i think i just get  caught  on the wheel of life and i find myself going round and round without particularly anytihng interesting or extraordinary to say or write about but i am also rather busy at the same time so i hsould technically have tons to talk about!!

anyways tomorrow is a big day for the pretty vintage household.. the baby of the family is donning his Clarks sensible school shoes and his owl emblem school jumper and crisp white polo shirt ( along with horrendous black tracksuit bottoms which have been introduced for the reception class..but lets not go there!!) and will be making his gorgeous cute little footsteps into the infant playground that hes been going to for the past two school years but this time will actually be going in through the classroom door

oh my days...i cant believe that my baby is going to school...it seems such a short time that i was writing this post about returning to work after my maternity leave

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i actually cant believe Ive been blogging for so long you know it doesn't feel anytime at all but the move-arounds that this house has seen ...theres been tons!!
i cant believe how that time has flown...and I'm filled with all sorts of misgivings.. "have i wasted the time we had just me and my little man??" "have i done all i can to prepare him for school life?!" "if he stays hot school dinners for a change will he know how to carry his tray of food!?"....
am i normal in thinking this ?? when my oldest boy started school 2 years ago i didn't feel any of this..he was so confident ..in fact i think he'd been waiting to go to school since he was 18 months!!.. now i just feel that my little boyo is going into the big wide world of education and i have to watch from the sidelines when all i want to do is carry him through it and speak for him at every stage...( this is possibly coming across as control freak mummy and I'm sure i am so no excuses really!!)

so anyways i cant say much more than this as its all a little bit emotional and you know i hate this salt water coming from the edges of my eye!!.. so all i shall say is at least i shall have abit more time to take lots of lovely pictures of makeovers and room changes and even possibly a Friday frock or two!! ( ahh remember them days..oh well maybe i'll come back with a bang (....or a sparkler ... we dont want to get too excited!!)

mini makeover part 2- the hallway

just thought id share another mini makeover this time it comes from the hallway

In our hallway we had a cupboard that id got off my mum.. it was a gorgeous pine cupboard that i painted grey but to be honest it didn't do much ..it kind of hung up on the wall in the air without any purpose, with just a fear that you might bang your head on it when walking past!

recently though i changed the hallway slightly by taking the cupboard down and putting up a mirror that originally came from my sisters attic which then found its way to my mums back garden and then was under my bed for about a year waiting for me to find a place to put it!..
the mirror was battered as it is very old and had also been outside so it had a few dead spiders to clear out (urgh!) and the wood was cracked in parts..
but i soon did my usual professional job of buying a tester pot from homebase of black paint.. slapping it on in about 5 minutes and waiting  for it to dry!!..

i had a table that id bought from a car boot sale about 5 years ago hanging around in my bedroom, i had used it as a bedside table but then once we had a little move around in our room i didn't have the space for it so it was just looking a bit redundant so i did think about sticking it on eBay but then i tried it in the hallway and liked it there ( which is probably not surprising as i think it actually is a hallway table!!!)

underneath the table Ive place a basket that i bought from the charity shop a couple of years ago and has always sort of got in the way, as its quite big i did have fond imaginings of stashing balls of wool in it as i knitted by the fire, alas i cant knit and I'm a few years away from getting an open fire !( 2 wild little boys not a good combo with a roaring fire i should imagine!!) but its found a little home underneath the table and its great for housing any rogue pieces of Lego or toy cars that are hanging around downstairs, i shove them all in here when I'm on a tidy up and then just carry it upstairs later on and deposit into the toy boxes upstairs!

all that as left was to paint up a peg rail that id bought from the chazza shop for 60p which again had been lying around for about a year ( this had actually been on top of the hallway wall cupboard since id bought it!)

get that up on the wall and then accessorise!!!

i also added this lovely heart garland that my mum bought me from BHS, I'm not sure if it was meant to hang down like this but i liked the effect of it hanging down and when you walk past and catch it the pretty bells on it give a lovely chime!

again most of the things in the hallway come from charity shops, carboots or are gifts.. love that i have a
 re-loved, re-used  non redundant home!!

Mellow Yellow

There is a room in our house that has been moved around so many times that it must suffer a bit of an identity complex!
next door to our kitchen is what i imagine is were the original kitchen was but somewhere along the way a little extension was built onto the back of the house and the kitchen was put in there..
leaving us with what i grandly call "the morning room!"
what i would really like to do is know down the dividing wall and make a nice spacious kitchen but apparently the way it was built it would need pillars and stuff to strengthen it.basically i cant knock the wall down myself!!..
so since we moved in Ive faffed around with this room ..changing it and adding things to it constantly!
at the start of the year we again changed it and i went for a whole different colour on the walls...a colour that Ive not used for the main colour scheme before..Yellow !!
and its thanks to my mummy who gave me the idea and even bought me the paint "thanks mum!"..

this room is now the tv room, or the snug as i affectionately like to call it !!

here's a few shots of what it has been used as in the past few years

i don't have any pictures of what it first used to look like when we first moved in.. it was cream and green..
a dark brown wooden desk and a green cupboard.. and beige carpet.. it was very "home office at Argos!"

the top picture was its most recent identity that of the dining room but once the hubby got it into his head that he wanted to make a big ol dining table then we realised that the dining room would have be moved !.

so we moved the big ikea flowery sofa into this room and i really didn't think it was going to fit or that if it did fit we would be squeezing our way past it and it would look monstrous.. but you know i actually think it looks better in this room than it did in the larger room .. i think its because it fits into the corner so looks more compact than sitting in the middle of the room..

so here goes a little tour around the Mellow Yellow snug!! (am i pretentious or what!!?)

i finally got some of my thrifted plates up on the wall.. i have a cupboard full of plates waiting to be hung up but its a job that i never get round to doing .. think its the whole buying plate holders and never knowing what size i need to get that usually gets in the way of this job!
so i have tried to stick to a mainly pink and yellow scheme with the plates, we moved the little corner cabinet from the other side of the room and i bought some cute little hanging candle holders off eBay.. i bought floral to keep in with the floral theme of the plates ..these give off such a lovely pattern on the wall when they are lit so pretty

these two shelves were already up so i just swapped the bits and bobs that were on them and hung a little lantern and some bunting...

the sofa fits!!..I'm much more happier with the sofa in here now ..  i never sat on it when it was in the other room.. a real waste as its sooo comfy!!

this little sofa was one of the first things i had from Freecycle..and it used to be in this room when we first moved in, i put it away after a while as it didn't fit in with my colour schemes but i got it back out of storage and made it fit in this scheme.. my youngest boy loves this little sofa.. he would lie on it all day if he could .. its like a little day bed to him!!

there had been a skip at the top of my road for weeks , one morning i was walking past, the skip was gone but this had been left behind on the grass.. it had no sides and broken glass doors and shelves..i brought it home and the hubby used the left over wood from our table to make the sides and fit the shelves and sanded it all back..its perfect for all our dvds!!

a sweet little picture from B&M's

this rug came from the charity shop the other week it was only £4

more candle holders off ebay and dangling hearts also off ebay.. its like i cant have anything simple..i have to hang things off everything!!!

i loved this sweet hanging house and bird mobile..i should imagine its for a little girls room but i thought it tied all the colours in the room together ..again another hanging thing.. to go with the two hanging lanterns already in the window.. do you think im obsessed!!

another view of my little sofa, the actual upholstery is pretty tired so i have just put some throws and cushions over it until i can get it reupholstered..
next to it is a plant stand i bought from ikea as there just didnt seem to be enough furniture in here for my liking .. i like having surfaces at every turn to put down cups, candles and whatever little pretties i might find along the way..
oh do you like the pretty doily on the stand my mum bought me that the other week pretty isnt it !..
the hubs cant believe we have doilies in our home.. he doesn't get it at all really does he!!


hope you enjoyed having a look around ..have you done any decorating lately that we could have a nose i mean a look at !!..

bathroom window mini makeover

on my bathroom window i have the same lace drops that i have on virtually every window in my home the ikea lace drops.. .these are around the £9 mark and are so amazingly good for the price as they look really expensive and you get tons of material for your money...

now as i say i had these drops on my window and i had the two that you get in the set..this is only a little window and the height from the curtain rail to the floor wasn't that long so there was always lots of material wafting around...when i originally put them up on the rail it was in typical pretty vintage slapdash style so there was no tie backs for them it was simply me tying a big knot in them ..terrible really!!

after about a year this had started to get on my nerves  as there was far to much material and they just lay on the floor getting dusty and i felt looking a bit scruffy until the other Saturday when i was in the middle of cleaning the bathroom and moved the curtains to mop the floor .. suddenly the creative urge came over me and i decided to take both drops down and just put the one half back up.
i thought i would drape it from one side and tie it at the side using some ribbon i found in my messy drawer!

.. do you do mini makeovers that make you feel like that!!! but the window looked unfinished so i had a root round my linen cupboard and came across a white cotton runner that i had bought from a pound land shop no less which had never been used  and decided to use as a pelmet ..
very simply i pinned it around the curtain pole to give it the shape but it has remained in tact and i feel looks very effective
this took me about five minutes but its one of those mini makeovers that has really made my day as now when i walk into the bathroom i see a tidy pretty window instead of a messy one and its a little bit new so I'm still loving the novelty factor!!

i also bought a new candle holder from the chazza shop the other day as well so this has found a new home on the bathroom window sill along side one of my vintage looking ikea candle holders which has a gorgeous smelling candle in and my mini pewter petal looking candle holder that I've had for a while now it gives me something new to look at now when I'm brushing my teeth!!

Fire Fire!

the other week me and the hubs actually got the chance to spend the day together on our own without the boys..its a rare thing and even more so mid week when he is usually in work..it did involve a hospital appointment so it wasn't a total dreamy day to ourselves but pretty much!!..

so we popped along to the flea market that is on once a week in the next town to us,

and we found something that we both liked.. wasn't a least bit floral covered or pink and was only a fiver, so we bought it

we think it must have been in a school or something ..its very loud when you ring it..perfect if the children are being really loud and you need to get their attention!!

( our neighbours must hate us!!)

so we put it up on the stairwell as i thought it would go with what is already up there..and its actually turned into the hubby's little patch on the house.. the picture is of Amsterdam were he went a few times pre children and pre responsibility days, the small pic is the song lyrics "all you need is love,love is all you need" by the Beatles who he loves...

the nautical bunting could be from when he was in the sea cadets and now the latest addition of the fire bell which is a bit retro,a bit like him!!..see how good i am to him.. he gets a patch on the stairs what more would he want or even need hey!!

All quiet on the sunny front !!

right so i was just getting use to baring my legs ( sunburn in march..crazy times!!)) and no sooner had i unpacked my summer things from the loft then it was back on with the polo necks and the thick tights.. which if I'm being honest is fine with me.. i absolutely love the sunshine and hot weather but its so much easier covering up there is zero preparation involved isn't there.. its to time consuming when the sun is out from thinking of what to put on, to painting the toe nails that haven't been spotted since last year!!..

anyway before i gross you out with tales of toe nails and hairy legs .. to late i said it !! i thought as the sun definitely has gone in behind those clouds and doesn't show signs of coming out id post a few bright and cheery pictures of some of the things I've bought over the past few weeks!!

i got this set of cocktail forks off ebay for 99p.i think they are so cute and i love all the different colours that they came in ..they need to be used at a small soiree i think with pickled onion and cheese canapes!!



i keep them in a tiny jug on the dresser in the kitchen and they do make me smile seeing the pretty colours

i got these lovely glass bowls from IKEA they were really quite cheap, i use them as tea light holders but i may go back and get some more, as they are really pretty

heres a close up of one of the tulips that the hubby bought me this week...ive never seen this

type before..its got a real raggedy edge..very pretty though, i had just bought this little jug from the charity shop and i was wondering were to put it when the hubby came in with all these tulips and i think the jug was just the right size for them..they have been cheering me up no end when walk past them..i do think tulips are in my top three of flowers!

i had to run into Aldi to buy some chicken as ASDA didnt have any ( very boring story i know but keep with me!)..now i don't really shop in Aldi and i do ask myself why not as its full of interesting and lovely things so i must start having a look....anyways while i was there i had a look round and found these fairy lights..i just had to have them!!..I'm always on the lookout for battery operated fairy lights as i don't have enough plug sockets for fairy lights and plugs so something has to give!!

anyways i don't particularly like the light that these give off..they are a bit bluey white for my liking so i don't have them on but they are nice to look at just draped along the dresser and what I'm going to do is get some warm white fairy lights and wrap these around to get the nice twinkly effect!!

oh here's a close up of my IKEA bowls!!

a soap despenser from the charity shop for my bathroom

i love this large chopping board that came from the charity shop but from their "new range"

its got all recipes on it for fairy cakes, victoria sponge, jam and scones it was only £4.99 bargain!

also from the same new range i picked up these lovely trays again these were really cheap yet i think look very much like Cath Kidstons...i do feel sorry for the hubs somtimes living in such a floral filled home..but it really makes me happy seeing all the lovely prints all over the house!!








and last of all..cakes in the bathroom!!

i picked up these bath bombs from B&M's and thought they would look perfect on my cakestand that i had in the bathroom anyways..just have to make sure that the boys dont think they are real and take a bite out of them!!!..

tinkling the ivories

well you know how muchly i love freecycle.. considering Ive furnished most of my house with its help!!

the other week an offer post popped up in my inbox i looked at it but thought there was no way the hubby would go with the flow on this one.. what with the transporting of it and the actual finding a place for it ..anyways the hubby noticed this email a few days later and first words out of his mouth was "ask if we can have it!!"

so after making sure we found a space for it and organised a van and two helpers we got this little beauty !!

a piano !!

i was a little worried as i hadn't seen a picture of it so was a bit concerned that it might look like the pianos that you get in primary schools all boxy and light pine..but i was pleasantly surprised it is rather a lovely piece.. a few scratches here and there and it needs a slight tune but nothing to serious!!

the hubby has already found his niche as a piano player!!..hes learnt Adele's "someone like you" and coldplays "trouble" and a couple of Beatles numbers!..its lovely to hear the sound of it being played on a sunny morning the sound floating around the house as the sun is shining through the windows...very nice!!