Chalkboard......following the crowd

We jumped on the chalkboard bandwagon this weekend, I'd seen this lovely image on Soulemama's blog and it set me off.  And as the Queen of Clean will tell you, when I have an idea in my head that we could do a quick fix like this...........well it usually has to happen.

So we painted an entire wall in littlest one's room (shown above), and the chimmney breast on Yoyo's room with blackboard paint.  Eldest one is undecided if he wants to follow suit........he's never been one to follow the crowd.  

Littlest one does have his trousers on back to front in the picture above....I did try to convince him throughout the day that he may be more comfortable if he put them on again right way round, but he was having none of it.  He is obviously not as susceptible to my influencing skills as my poor husband.

 

Top tips if you are thinking of painting a chalkboard wall:-

• You do only need one coat of this stuff, it is like thick treacle.  So time wise it is fairly quick to do.
• Use an old brush.  I didn't and the brushes were a pain to clean.  Even now all of our white skirting board is coming out with flecks of grey.  
• Cover your carpets/floors.  Sounds obvious, but usually a speck of paint isn't too much of an issue....in this case it is a nightmare, and 100 x worse if you try to rub in the splodge.
• I can't find the brand we used online, I picked it up from our local hardware shop.  A quick online search shows most brands are around £7-8 per pot which is really reasonable.

From Yoyo to her Daddy

It has been a long week.  The Queen of Clean has been away with work since Monday, and we have all been feeling his absence (not only in the housework department).

Yoyo made and decorated this cake for him and we are all waiting impatiently for his return.  A mixture of excitement and frustration that he is not home yet.

I feel it too Yoyo, I feel it too.

Red & Blue

I realised where my colour inspiration for these shelves came from.  It was under my nose along.  Gently making its way into my subconscious since it's arrival a year or so ago.

This mug.

(Which incidentally my plumber has used all week and left tea stains in - I'll let him off due to his most excellent delivery of hot water).

Varde love

I'm impatient - I couldn't wait to take this picture even though there wasn't quite enough light.  So here it is, my Ikea Varde shelf.

And hand on heart I didn't buy one new thing to put on it.  I am lusting after a vintage red enamel coffee pot on ebay though.

Needs a bit of a rejig......put the old 'less is more' mantra into practice.

But for the moment, it's good enough.

Do you like?  More pics of kitchen will follow once finished.

Those pesky crab apples

Oh my.  It is all very stressful inside at the moment, what with the lack of heating and all.  So I've decided to turn my attention outside to autumn lawn care, and continue fighting what I consider an annual battle with my crab apples.  Whilst anything to do with grass The Queen of Clean usually takes care of, the crab apple sweeping seems to have become my job.

They always seem to defeat me.  The carnage starts late August/beginning of September and becomes a slight obsession of mine.  The aim is to keep the lawn clear.  I have two trees in the front garden that have grown from manageable ornamental trees to crab apple breeding monsters. I can be found at all hours, and in all weathers out there with my pink bucket and plastic rake.  In fact I think the neighbours think I have lost the plot (although a particularly house proud one is quite relieved that I bother and sometimes comes out to help me).  The irony is that I'm usually quite laid back about these things but those crab apples awaken some 'Hyacinth Bucket' tendencies in me.

Aside from everyone treading in the mush (I don't have a clear path to the front door so it is inevitable they get trodden on) they can't be good for the grass can they? 

One positive is that this time has come to mark a change in season, a time that I anticipate at the height of summer I will feel sad about, but when it actually happens, and it's time to feel cosy and snug inside....I always enjoy more than I think I will.

And the trees...the trees will stay.  Despite the abuse I've given them above they are actually quite pretty at every other time of year.

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