Magnetic Attraction!

Take one fading picture, plus the glass out of its frame...

Separate the back from the front and prepare to change the  frame colour.

Find some matt black paint from the garage (hiding behind some paint pots). Cover the back of the frame with two coats of the paint.

Put to use the REALLY dark purple paint from the "bedroom  wall disaster colour" episode a few years back....

Get the husband to cut the magnetic grid sheet (from B&Q, we took a fridge magnet to test it!) with jewellery pliers to exact size of back of board.

Assemble all pieces and mount on the wall, with assorted magnets!

Pink magnet is a felt, flattened chocolate button shaped  item left over from another craft. I glued a spare magnet on the back.   The black flattened plastic magnet was a pack of 6 from Smiths, but as I had some tiny pink stickers left over from scrapbooking I used these to pretty them up a bit!  The peg I took off the fridge and gave it a new home!

A few more girly touches at each corner!

I know I could have bought a cheaper magnetic board from somewhere else, but this was much more fun and expressed a process of planning and pondering resulting in a pinboard uniquely designed by me learning to play and not stress over perfection!

Practising with Live Writer!

So, the idea with this is that if I can get used to adding to my blog next week whilst I am offline, it will enable me to  write up the day's events at my leisure and then simply upload it to my blog when I can get online.  Sounds like a plan!  I have always felt under pressure due to internet time constraints especially when it comes to uploading photos, so let's see  what happens when I do this:




and just in case that was a fluke:







Yes, I'm getting it, I think! Perhaps a link to the India blog?
http://asha2013.blogspot.co.uk/

Well a bit of tweaking was necessary, but  it's worth persevering, I reckon.

"Any place I hang my hat (or coat) is home!"

 

Had a bit of a change around since the New Year!

It is interesting how you continue to do things the same old way without questioning why you did it in a certain way originally and whether it still works as well. This was well illustrated recently when I noticed how our coats always hung over the shoe rack so that when you looked for your shoes you had to go rummaging through the jackets that draped all over them…

 So why was that? Then I remembered three small boys with school coats and hats who couldn't reach. So where were those small boys now?!

Time to change!

Coat hooks were removed, two were broken anyway.....we were going to get around to it...eventually! New hooks bought, Coat rack moved to a more suitable higher area, shoe rack at the base, free of  trailing coat hems....

Sideboard bought (been saving!) Drawers filled with hats, scarves and gloves (in that order)  Large cupboards: toys and games for visiting children, Small cupboard: umbrellas, kagoules etc

I keep stroking the woodgrain as I walk by....

The chair can be grabbed and used if we need it for extra people dropping in for coffee. At Christmas. it can still be our  Chrsitmas tree space! (Yeah, thought it through...so that's what wakeful nights are all about then!



This is the wallhanging given to us by a special lady this Christmas! It goes perfectly with our theme and replaces a smaller,rather sad, faded and old one which I needed a reason to remove.  It will be repurposed into something else when I get inspired!

It is twinkly with small mirrrors and works well with the mirror style curtains I made for the front door.


 

So times have moved on and now so is the decor, little by little!

 

Deep Purple.....dreams?

The trip to Homebase was straightforward and there was nothing to suggest what lay ahead except the plan to paint Andy's old room in a deeper mauve colour with two contrasting walls.

We found a deep plum colour which was decided would be the contrast colour behind the bed,fairly easy decision especially as they were promoting a buy one get one half price. Next the contrast colour...we wanted something that would blend, perhaps a lighter shade..again, a fairly easy decision, so far so good!  The final colour was the gloss shade, I wanted a fairly neutral colour, slightly cream maybe. We opted for pecan as it had a warmer hue. Home we went, my afternoon and evening mapped out!

Every project has to have its before and after photos....

My Craft corner, not looking forward to moving all that stuff...

And so to paint! D went to clean the chickens out and I started on the contrast wall.....very purple...very contrast....totally a feature all of its own.  Having sugar soaped the blue tack marks and still failed to get them covered over with paint on the first coat, I reassured myself the next (very purple) coat should do it. The phone rings D is needed up the road to help some friends out, I am under the impression it is for  5 minutes or so...he disappears, only to reappear a minute later, a spade is needed, he leaves again... I decide to paint the skirtings whilst waiting for the purple to dry. Now this time I have done everything the wrong way round, playing by my "I just want to get this done as quickly as I can in no particular order", before anyone criticises!

The gloss paint is French mustard colour, I stare at it,  nothing neutral about this shade....breast fed baby poo colour....I paint, unconvinced....The mustard against the purple is not pleasant...I paint two skirting boards, then having talked myself into the "you haven't wasted this, it can be used in Nick's room, I reseal the lid and wonder how I am going to inform the man that more paint needs to be purchased.....of the neutral shade variety...

So by now I am in for a penny in for a pound, I look at the remaining paint pot. It has to be done, I open it  and slop the paint on liberally, beginning to be past caring.  The colour is dark...a very pretty mauve, a beautiful mauve.....a competing for contrast with the purple wall mauve.  Suddening I am overwhelmed by the oppressive walls closing in on me.  I practice walking into the room, as if I have never seen it....

Oh my....I am in a purple box...a deep purple box and I can't pretend this is us being "adventurous with colour" Even with our  radical orange landing, this really is too much, nothing I try to tell myself convinces me I have made the right choice.

I rest my case....

So what's a girl to do? D has still not returned, hours have passed, why does he need a spade, what is he digging? What do I tell him now?  Not only do I hate the mustard , but now I have two walls which look as if I have had an unfortunate accident with a winepress.....The front door opens, the man appears, he has been shovelling cement...... He starts to come upstairs....I feel the need to warn him before he enters the room...I call out phrases in the hope that it will prepare him for the sight: "It's too dark" "The colours are battling for supremacy", "I don't like it"

He stands and surveys the scene. "I agree" says he, "What about if we paint over the deep purple with the lighter colour and buy a more subtle  shade for the other three walls?"  He quite liked the pecan (me....mustard) but seemed okay with my suggestion of a more ivory shade....He was hungry...I suggested we get our own meals tonight...I couldn't just stop, things needed to be rectified! He disappears to prepare his meal... (dreadful wife....leaving the husband to fend for himself and after all that shovelling)

So lighter shade is applied over deep purple shade and then the song started in my head....a tinny sort of tune from my teenage and it wouldn't go away....

Now I have two wall painted the same colour but feel I am heading in the right direction.  Another coat on the deep purple should do it, just need to pop out to Homebase tomorrow...and still the song plays in my head....

On my word, look at the teeth!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-w1bztcm70

 I am officially the messiest painter!  Should have taken a picture of my hands and arms (oh yes!)

So here endeth Part 1. I have no intention of having any "Deep purple dreams" tonight, but now I'm on a mission!

Does anyone want any deep purple satin emulsion?!!!!

A full on day!

Seed trays appearing on the windowsill is a strong indication that Spring has begun in earnest in the Hogben household! The hyacinths are perfuming the entire house alongside Andy's lilies which are still going strong almost two weeks after they were delivered. I ventured outside to check on the spinach which I had sprinklied liberally with slug pellets a fortnight ago and then promptly forgot about them.....yep still surviving...Rhubarb is doing its stuff and the cherry plum is unfurling it's leaves. The chickens, spotting my approach, start hopping up and down hopeful for corn to be thrown with gay abandon in their general direction...I oblige, Hattie makes her thank you noises, the others simple dive in....I collect 3 eggs, seems like a fair exchange.

Earlier today, having taken Dick to the bus station for 8am, I drove home, went into manic ironing mode until 9am when two of my work colleagues called for the weekly stride around the block. I always return red and puffing, but I need their committment to keep this up. Part of the problem is that I talk and walk which is tricky striding up Marsh Lane. I am always thankful for those moments when we have to stop and let a van go by so that I don't embarrass myself too much catching my breath....pathetic.. I stop briefly at S's house and she shows me her knitting, Yay, someone who doesn't smirk at the word. I haven't got a project at the moment and I realise I need one...

Then it was hey ho, hey off, it's off to the tip I go...up to my ears in cardboard and plastic, looking forward to the approaching kerbside collections....

Had a delicious lunch out in Mudford, with a friend. Our third attempt to make this happen! She has a story to tell, a story of hope and restoration, freedom and life, I wanted to hear it.

I came home to see the Yeovil Express had printed the Press release, the Western Gazette did it justice last week (page 8) Stuart and Harry the Monkey feature in the Express, glad The Entertainer got another mention!



The wine appeared with Alex who came to collect her excess baggage which we had divided amongst the team on our return from India. Seemed strange seeing her in the UK after three years with Asha in Delhi.




and finally the piles....which are still there...in some semblance of order. Appalled to discover there were still Christmas cards amidst the chaotic dumping ground that is my Out Tray....find myself slightly twitchy by all this lack of order. How did I let it get like this?! Team India took over once the New Year kicked in and the daily list making was kicked out...





Sat down with a big mug of Assam, realised the girls A and K were coming in shortly and I hadn't made them dinner, so got up, opened the kitchen cupboard for inspiration and a bottle of black bean sauce falls out, smashes over the worktop, spills everywhere, down the doors on the carpet, glass and black bean mixture...lovely... Mop up with kitchen towel, cut finger...not impressed..need bigger cupboards...need kitchen make over....need to get things into perspective...
Sounds of girlie chatter, front door opens, in they come. Thankfully, both are keen to help with dinner. I show then the pork stir fry strips and between us we concoct something, which includes the other unsmashed black bean sauce. I gradually retreat and they take over, I'm relieved, had no inspiration tonight!

Dick texts to say he is on the bus home. I'm still full of venison cassorole from earlier, so I sit here and type....read the Chancellor's budget highlights online and am still bemused...can't get the TV to work....and we are digital before anyone says...perhaps we still have to tweak something.....leave it for the man to do.

Finally, today I heard that Mike Pike, the guy who really encouraged my sons with their acting fifteen years ago, has died. A lovely gentle man to whom we already owe so much, thank you for recognising what you saw and having a quiet word with me...

"A HANDBAG?!!!!" "Yes, Lady Bracknell...."

I have gone from one extreme to the other! The new purple bag was purchased at Innsbruck airport (not handed over in the cloakroom at Victoria station!). Having gone from no handbag as a student (pockets will do!) to small handbag with various compartments, I now find myself with a fashion item (shock horror!) into which I have emptied the contents of my previous one. This has filled about 12% of the space....The 4 pockets within the bag are each almost the size of the previous bag alone! So within these generous openings I have placed...Pocket 1 house keys, Pocket 2 (placed behind) car keys, Pocket 3, phone and Pocket 4 purse. Smaller zipped up section contains "pharmacy" loosely termed! The main section of the bag...EMPTY apart from the notebook and pen (nib retracted..of course!)! So I am walking around with a stylish making a statement in purple, bag which will no doubt become filled with "useful" things like empty egg boxes and double up as a shopping basket. My shoulder will begin to ache under the pressure and I shall never find anything in it unless I allow myself a "rummage window" in my day. My dear friend, Stuart has already placed a number of small rocks in it....and I was still finding them days later....But, I love my new bag...and maybe one day I shall have a netbook inside it and then there will be no stopping me blogging! I forgot to mention that this is the whole point of the need for an increase in size!




Typhoid alert! Pre India preparation! Dick's practice nurse jabbed the needle in and presented me with this! Thanks Vicky, the aching arm is beginning.....!
You will need to click on the photo to see it properly!

LISTS "To do or not to do!"

That really is the question....

I am almost cringeing as I write this as it's going to sound SAD to most of you, but I am on a campaign which involves a "Cleaning Experiment" for a few months, by then I hope it will either have developed into a habit or I will have thrown the idea out as ridiculous!

The aim is to have the housework and home responsibilities under control so that I have more time to enjoy and explore new things without there being an imbalance....have my cake and eat it? Perhaps...enjoy life to the full, embracing new challenges...definitely.

So here's the thing (where have you all gone?!!)

5 Areas in the house

Bathrooms B1
Bedrooms x2 B2
Kitchen K3
Living Room and Study L4
Middle Area,Hall, Stairs and Landing M5

So there is a 5 week rolling programme which runs from Mon-Fri. I have tried to keep it as flexible as I can so that I don't get all legalistic about it.

The idea is this:

The house itself has to be fairly together ie carpets hoovered, sinks wiped, sort of acceptable.The idea is NOT that everything else gets ignored until you get to the allocated week for that Area!

Week 1 is the Bathroom which means that for 5 days I concentrate on that area particularly. Some days I may spend 15 minutes tidying a shelf or folding the towels in the airing cupboard. On another day I may spend an hour on something. Last week I touched up the ceiling paint in the shower and cleaned between the grouting. They were the long jobs, but I know that in 5 weeks I won't need to revisit that area for long at all so I can concentrate on something else in that room which had to wait until I came full circle again! It has been a good feeling to look at a room, that you have "attacked in stages", without it being too onorous at all.

This week it is the Bedrooms and I was appalled to discover 5 hankies under the bed, covered with thick dust! This led to me going to extremes and moving the bed across the room so that I could wash the carpet. So there's a job I shall not be repeating next month! I even cleaned on top of my wardrobes and I found a box of scapels up there...hmmm. The furniture polish I made was a bit overpowering on the Lavender essential oil front so next time I will take the advice that 2-3 drops really IS enough! The olive oil and vinegar combination worked well though. Little by little the cleaning chemicals are disappearing from my cupboard and are being replaced by simpler recipes.




So that's it really. Of course decluttering, simplifying and organising happens along the way, which tick my boxes, so I'm happy!

At the weekend you have 3 choices:

Have a rest!

Continue working in that Area...

Start the next weeks Area...


The main thing is not to become a slave to it and enjoy yourself as you potter around.

In the meantime I will keep trying to get some photos and images on here!