My New House - the downstairs

So this is my new house....

The Living Room

Look at that lovely fire :-)

Do you like my new curtains and throw (the brown one)? It felt a bit bland in there. Sarah mentioned she was putting coloured curtains up to 'add some colour' in her house, then I realised that was what was making the room feel bland - the cream curtains. It's nice having colour in there.

This is the kitchen which is at the back of the house. I know some people don't like having things stuck up all over the kitchen cupboards but I like it! Reminds me of people and fun times...


You walk though the dining room to get to the kitchen.


I had people coming for tea that night, the table is not always set and in the middle of the room. It usually lives against the wall. Although if we are to 'practise hospitality' then maybe it should be...

Notice my nice Christmas table cloth - I love it!

The junk space under the stairs - every house needs one!

The Latest Blonde Moment

Last week I had a 'blonde moment', although I suppose technically it was more of a 'blonde 7 weeks' rather than just a moment. I feel that in order to explain myself I needed to take pictures. (Would also like to say 'thank you' to all who have reminded me of my many other blonde moments...a lot of which I had forgotten about) In hindsight maybe this wasn't my stupidest after all...

Okay, the background...when I was looking around the house that I am now living in I was very excited to see a fire in the living room.

"How cosy," I thought, "That will be really nice on a cold winter's night to go into the living room, shut the door, and be all snug". The fire was actually one of the things that sold the house to me (my flat where I was previously didn't have one)

On moving day I noticed the fire was electric so I plugged it in and tried to turn it on. Nothing. I moved the grate thing and as you too will see there are no buttons / switches to turn it on. Sarah was around so she came to have a look as well.

So we took the fake log off and the fake coals and had a look around, all we found was a light, but even that wasn't working - need to change the bulb, I thought.

I was a little disappointed that I only had a fake fire in the living room. I kept thinking as I was sitting in the living room - if this was my house I'd get a proper fire put in, not just one that was a light! I mentioned this to several people as they came round. All over Christmas, especially when it was like below freezing and it was really cold, I had to sit with a blanket over me as even with the central heating on it was still really cold.

Then on Thursday Vicky and Catherine, girls who I was a uni with, came for tea. It was a bit chilly and even with the heating on I was concerned that they were cold. Off I went explaining about my fake fire.

Now Vicky wasn't having none of it. She was convinced that people just don't put in fake light fires. They do! I knew that, I had one!!! On her knees, off came the grate, then the log, still couldn't find anything to turn it on, but then she noticed the grill with a 'do not cover' sign on. Look that's where the heat comes out of, she said. I'm still 100% convinced that it was not a proper fire, and a little bit indiginant that she thought I was that stupid that I couldn't find the buttons to turn it on.

Then she tried to lift the hood and look what she found - buttons to turn the light and the fire on! Hmmmm!!!!!!!

So for 7 weeks I have been convinced fake fires exist and have been cold! Oh well - at least now I can enjoy my beautiful, warm fire :-) How cosy it that!!!

What makes a home?

I've been living in my new house now for just over a month. And it's fine. It's in a great location for work and it's bigger than my flat so I can have a separate office space and a dining room. But although I like it and it was starting to feel like home it just didn't have the same 'feel' as my flat...there was something about it, and I couldn't work out what...but now I have. It wasn't really feeling like home because I've not had many people round here. I moved in a fortnight before Christmas which is always a busy time, then it was New Year and then I was sick for a week. But yesterday was a great day...a couple from church popped in for a coffee in the morning, then my mum came round in the afternoon - she pottered whilst I worked, then Jen and Erin came for tea. And just having lots of people round made the house feel more like home :-) So do pop in if you're ever in the area...Erin seemed to like the chocolate brownies and ice cream.

It's been a while!

Am I too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year?!

Hope you've all had a good Christmas and New Year. I did. But then just when I was about to get into the swing of 2009 I went down with something, not sure what but bad cough, no energy, felt sick, I was even off my food!!! As a result I lost 5lbs, hardly did any work last week - my desk is full of post it notes and didn't get round to sharing my deep thoughts on here, well, not really deep thoughts, more musings if you will :-)

Hopefully will get round to updating soon. But I will leave you with just one thought...50 days today I'll be on my way to America. 50 days!!! Got a lot to do before then though!

:-)