Sunday, 2 August 2015

SUNDAY CATCH UP

Well another busy week's passed and a few things have happened in the Studio but still plenty to do. After our discussion last week I looked on ebay and found some Laura Ashley fabric that I thought would go well in the studio.
It arrived quite quickly, so I set about making a couple of curtains for the cupboards, I made the double cupboard one out of the full width but the single cupboard I cut to size without any gather in order to save some fabric to go towards making a curtain to cover the window between Paul's part of the workshop and my Studio.I could have bought another mitre of fabric but it would have made the cost too high.


So here it is a duck egg blue background with a red/pink rose and white spots.


It's quite a good match to the sea grass floor, I did not take the curtain to the floor but finished it just below the bottom of the cupboard.I may put storage boxes under the unit.



I think it works in pulling it all together. I have moved the kitchen/ breakfast room furniture about.


I used a couple of scraps of the fabric to edge a table cloth and make a cushion.


I used the only plain blue fabric that I had.


A little cushion for the kitchen/breakfast room chair!


All ready for breakfast!


Vivienne sent Edward a packet of Yorkshire tea! He was worried that it might be too strong a brew for his tastes!
But he was delighted to find not tea inside the box but.......


A comfortable Sindy armchair That's just Panda sized! " Many many thanks Mrs Vivienne " says Edward settling down for a Sunday afternoon snooze!


On Tuesday I had the day off and an early morning appointment at the Hygienist, so after my appointment I had a look around the shops in Hitchin, I decided to check out a couple of the charity shops just in case an NP girl was lying forlorn in the bottom of a box of toys!! Alas not this week but I did pick up a couple of bargain item perfect for the Sasha's and Gregor's .


For the grand total of £3.50 I bought these three items. The trophy was only 50p!! The little blue vase £1 and the Blue and white lidded pot £2, I was very pleased with my purchases.


Here is my 50p metal trophy against a plastic one that I think I paid about £1 or £2 for.


for now I have just put the other two items on the dresser.


Also moved when the doll house was taken from the outdoor shed was my old school case! My mum bought this case for me when I went away for a week with the Junior school and I have had it ever since.


Inside is looks of memories.


my swimming certificates from way back in 1967 ! If I have one fear it's the fear for being out of my depth in water, so It was a big feat for me to get these certificates! I can still remember all my class mates standing on the side of the pool calling out my name out to encourage me to keep going as I swam to try and make the distance!
There was also my ice skating certificate from secondary school and one for perfect punctual attendance.


Some of our engagement cards.


and our wedding cards including three wooden spoons and a rolling pin !


You can see that they are from the seventies!


more including those wooden spoons and all the lucky horse shoes.


It's funny that we should get this case down now and look inside as on the 9th of this month it will be our 40th Wedding Anniversary, so it was lovely seeing all these items again now.


Also inside was a box full of letters from pen friend's and school friends and Paul from all those years ago.I was going to put this case down in the studio but it's cargo is too precious so It will go up into the loft for safe keeping.

Now I would have got more moving into the studio done but for the fact that we had to go to Courtney's on Saturday afternoon to collect our small sofa and a coffee table that we had loaned her and Mike when they first moved in together. They have finally bought themselves some new sofa's so we when to collect it.
This of course meant that once we had it home we needed to find some space for it since it's been gone about five years!
We left it in the car over night and then after we'd done some other things this morning and had some lunch it was musical furniture time!!

A small shelving unit's now found it's way into my studio, so a much taller but slimmer shelving unit could take it's place , which meant a large picture had to be moved into the hall and the watercolour picture from there bought in to go where the large picture had been as the tall shelving unit had taken some of the wall space.
Then the fold down table had to go out onto the gazebo until we can get it into the big shed at the very end of the garden! Then after the floor had been hoovered finally my precious small sofa could get into the house!
Why so precious? Because It's been with us in every house we have owned and was bought 38 years ago from Habitat in the Kings Road Chelsea, which was next to the bank I worked in at that time. We bought two sofa's in rust caviar and I went in and phoned them every week for six weeks when they were late in being delivered! They knew my name by the time they finally arrived!

I gave the large one to my youngest sister many years ago but kept the small one which eventually landed up in our bedroom in our last house which was a big Edwardian semi with a large oblong bay window and I made a set of loose covers for it to fit in the room.

So I am happy that it's arrived back home even if we have had to move half the house about to get it in!.


No sooner had we carried in the back door and put the cushions on it than Milo settled himself on the back !


Making himself comfortable! maybe he's missed it?


It's perfectly placed to get the late afternoon sun ! I'm very proud of making the covers for this sofa, they are the only ones I have ever made and I did piped edging on the cushions. I used to take the fabric and cord to work with me  and hand stitch it ready to for sewing by machine once I got back home, I was working in a little sub branch in the county council offices where all you could do was wait for people to come along and do their banking so it was quite slow and quiet and I remember a lady asking me what i was doing and explaining to her. The a good few years later when I was in the main branch at the till a lady came up to be served and asked me how my sofa cushions had turned out!! It tool me a minute to realise what she was talking about!
These covers must now be at least 15 years old and still looking good, so I will wait a few more years before I have a go at recovering it again.


This is the shelving unit and watercolour that have now been moved to this new place! It all looks so lovely and tidy now... now long can it last !

So that's what happened here this week, still more things to do this week re studio and Sasha and a busy weekend ahead.


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12 comments:

  1. Busy, Busy, busy! What a good week's achievements!
    The new Laura Ashley curtaining is the perfect colourway.

    Loving the kitchen/diner layout which works a treat although I still might be tempted to raise the kitchen units up a little on a plinth.....but plenty of time for that later. Far more important jobs to be done first!

    Edward's new chair looks so cosy and just the right size for him. Bet that Mr Mossy is jealous! No doubt that we shall be hearing from him about 'favouritism etc' very shortly!

    How lovely to discover this case full of memories....especially as the 40th wedding anniversary is soon to be coming up. One of my ex two is on the day before ...but didn't manage to make it anywhere near half as long as you and Paul have! Congratulations and many more years of happiness and health together.

    Great to see that the famous family settee has returned home again. Trust Milo to get his comfortable spot sorted and claimed straight away

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    1. Yes a busy time :) I do intend to raise the Kitchen units up, it's one of the things on the list to do!

      Mr Mossy will no doubt have a lot to say about Edwards new chair !

      It was lovely looking through my old case and all the memories it evoked. Thank you for the anniversary wishes :)

      I am gald to have that old sofa home again and it's a purr fect foil for Milo's black fur!! :)

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  2. Eeek - router won't stay open for me to read this as it's long (post, not router!). New one coming by Wednesday, so will post comment as soon as I can read all Looks great. Missing you all. J xxxx

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  3. You've worked really hard and the Laura Ashley fabric you've chosen looks great. Your suitcase full of memories and cards are lovely and so fashionably vintage now! Edward looks so cute on the Sindy chair. He looks far more comfortable in it than my Sindy ever did! Viv

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    1. Thank you Viv, I am pleased with how the fabric's fitted in.
      Edwards loves his chair that you kindly sent him, he's been settling down each evening to read the paper and drink his tea with a contented sigh :)

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  4. Hi Dee! The Laura Ashley print is so nice and looks perfect in your studio. I like the way you made the table cloth and cushion to match. Very warm and inviting! The white chair is perfect bear size and the trophies are nice size too. A nice find! Congrats on yours and Paul's soon to be 40th anniversary! What a wonderful milestone for you two!!

    I really enjoyed "peeking" into your school case and seeing your sofa and shelves placed in your lovely home. A very busy time but a lot of very nice Village events are happening! :) xxx

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    1. Hi Ginger, Thank you I am pleased with how it's blended in with the colour palette that seems to have appeared :) Edward is in love with that chair!
      Thank you for the good wishes for our 40th :)
      Yes lots seem to be happening over each week as the studio slowly comes into being! :)xxx

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  5. Sunday catch up, brilliant, love me a Sunday catch up :) thanks Dee x

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    1. Thanks Louise, I quite enjoy them myself :)xx

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  6. What a lovely post Dee, looks like you were very busy but I'm glad you still had time to go through your little case of memories, how lovely! I have kept all my things like that but they are not so nicely stored, mine are in brown envelopes! LOL....I need a case like yours! Actually I did used to have a similar case when I was at school but think it is in my mums loft in England, and I know that things like my school reports and certificates are in bags in her under stairs cupboard! LOL
    Love the fabric you got for the cupboards, very pretty and work very well with the rest of the room.
    Thanks for a great post!
    big hugs xxx

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    1. Thank you Sharon :) It's nice sorting out things and slowly turning the Studio into 'my' space and at the same time working out where things need to be stored or given away or used.
      I used to have all my old primary school books until we moved when I was seventeen and my mum threw them out!! I was heartbroken mind you she also threw out a pile of us comics of superman, superwoman, the fantastic four and other marvel comics that stood at least two foot high and were in mint condition! but who was to know how much they'd now be worth!!
      I'm loving that fabric too! It's nice to be able to indulge :)xxx

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