Owl Be Seeing You

It's not even Christmas day yet and I've already been spoilt with some effing AMAZING gifts. There is a bit of a theme going on and I'm clearly very predictable in my tastes, but that is why I love my friends in a very gay way.

Sorry if I'm a bit gushy, I'm watching A Muppet's Christmas Carol and it always gets to me.

So presents.

I was given this gift from my lovely friend Laura:

A little white porcelain owl from Marks and Sparks. 

Before I say any more the next present is from my wonderful friend Nat:

White owl book ends from Laura Ashley.

I think you get the theme. Things that are white and things that are owls. 

I love anything white and anything that's an owl! It's so simple! I'm so simple! Ben has a tattoo of an owl on the inside of him arm. That's why I like him. 

I actually bought Ben this blackboard for his Christmas present...he loves owls too, obviously. 

I've had some other wonderful presents including this gorgeous (white) fruit bowl, some seriously cool original pen and ink art work and a gorgeous scarf and tomorrow is still Big Present Day, otherwise known as Christmas Day. I am very excited. 

Proper Crimbo!

A Lot On My Plate

I was looking at the walls in the living room the other day, trying to figure out where to hang our framed prints once the walls are finally painted, and I realised that a) we don't have enough stuff framed yet...frames cost a lotta monies (even from Ikea) when the print is the size of a house (and many of our are) and b) surely we could put something other than prints on our walls now that we OWN the walls and don't have to get a deposit back based on how few holes there are left in them.

So now I'm on a mission to get together a wall of plates.

So I pitched the idea to Ben (god it's really annoying having to have the ok from the other person who...ya know... owns half the house) and he liked it. So we had a look around on the internet to see what we liked. Bare in mind Ben was involved in the choice of these, there are brains and skulls a plenty, just to 100% confirm that he is 'such a boy'.

Here they are:

Skull Plate $25 from Etsy

'I love you more than zombies love brains' plate $16 from Etsy

Bee plate $30 from Etsy  (The Bee is a symbol of Manchester so this would be pretty cool)

Fox plate $18 from Etsy and also seen in the home of Kerry over at The Seventy Tree

Camera plate $30 from Etsy

So yep, they are all from Etsy, but it's got a good search tool so it's pretty easy to find some really nice plates that aren't too pricey. Am going to have a look around some charity shops and what not too, but I'm pretty in to graphic-y things and that genre hasn't quite hit the charity shop circuit yet. 

They might look nice together though, could be a fun little home improvement project...

Smug

I'm feeling a bit pleased with myself today.

This is because I managed to get my hands on an A2 framed poster for under £10. UNDER A TENNER. A2.

It was £9.94 to be exact. 

I'll pause from being smug to explain. It's basically a sheet of wrapping paper I found at Magma for £2.75 with a print of the New York Subway system on it. (I can't find it on Magma's site but they have similar wrapping paper on there)

Do many people think it's reasonable to spend £2.75 to wrap a present? I resent paying that much for a whole roll of wrapping paper! They have loads of different rolls of wrap in store at the moment with really cool framable prints on them though and for that I am thankful. 

I planned to put this up in our bathroom as we've not wanted to hang any of our other decent prints for fear of them being ruined by steamy showers, so this is kind of perfect and very replaceable. Read c-h-e-a-p.

I went to Ikea and bought a £7.19 Nyttja frame which fits it perfectly and BOOM, it's up and looking slick. FYI those Nyttja frames are cheap for a reason, they aren't amazing, they only have perspex instead of glass and the back is made of what looks like a bit of old box, but again, for something that might get ruined in a year, the extremely exact price of £7.19 was not to be sniffed at. 

These pictures are telling me we need a better camera. 

Table Talk

We are slowing down on the DIY/home purchases on the lead up to Christmas so we can afford to do things like eat and put the heating on, alongside buying presents for people.

But obviously I still can't stop searching for stuff and adding things to my Pinterest boards.

One of the next big things we are going to have to buy will be a dining table. We have one at the moment but as you can see from this picture (please ignore curtains) it's a bit of a joke:

Aside from the fact that it's teeny tiny it's also exactly the same colour as the floor now we've had it sanded. 

It's basically camouflaged. We keep bumping into it. 

I've got this idea that I'm going to find a beautiful vintage table that I will lovingly restore with paint and varnish. Will that happen? I've no idea. I mean that's the kind of thing that happens in blogs right? But firstly I have no idea where this loving restoration of a massive table will take place. It can't happen in our outhouse like smaller projects can, it can't happen outside because we live in Manchester...so logistically I'm not sure. But you never know. 

There are plenty of second hand furniture places in Manchester. I think it's something to do with the huge student population. There are millions of landlords looking for a cheap deal to kit out their student rental properties so that poor students can sit on 8th hand broken sofas that somebody probably passed away on in the 70's. Either way, there is a chance that I will find my ideal table in there and the loving and restoring may commence. 

Talking of this ideal table, it's going to be round. Ben agrees round too so that's good. I've got another little day dream of sitting around the lovely round table, drinking coffee and playing around on my computer. I know that's not quite the dream of having a happy young family around the table eating breakfast together or something, but I'm just not there yet.

So anyway I've found a few alternatives to my vintage fixer upper on the interwebs. One is rather more than I would like to pay, but it gives me an idea of what I am looking for. 

First up there is a trust Ikea number, the Liatorp coming in at £179:

This is exactly the style I'm thinking of the only thing that puts me off is that it is totally white, and I was thinking a little more along the lines of white legs, wooden top. Talking of legs, I'm really liking the pedestal style legs. Aside from that, in the words of Sir Partridge 'It's an extender'. 

Next up, another great bit of furniture from made.com, it's the Bergman which is selling for £199:

I do love this table. I love that it's round and that it has nice rounded feet. What I don't like is the fact that the wood is way too light. It will look like a floating table and I'm done with camouflage. If it had a darker stain on the legs this one would be a winner. That's something that could be overcome. 

Lastly there is this table from John Lewis. It has no name. No Name costs £299:

No Name is also an extender. I like the colour of his top, it's exactly what I am after. 

So there you have it. If those tables had a threesome and made an illegitimate table-baby I would want to adopt it. 

Chevron Love

Like everyone else at the moment, I'm a bit in love with anything that has a chevron pattern on it.

I tried to convince Ben for ages that we should get some chevron patterned curtains, but he just wasn't buying it. So I moved on to rugs and it appeared that he was much more comfortable with that. I have no idea why.

We found this bargain of a massive chevroned rug on the Urban Outfitters site and managed to coincide buying it with a one day '20% off everything' sale they had going on a few weeks ago. So we managed to get three and half square metres of rug for just £52...which I think is really cheap for so much rug.

We were finally able to put in down on the floor last night,  now that it has fully cured after the sanding and waxing. I think it looks sick.

It will look a lot sicker when the new corner sofa is in place and a whole host of other stars have aligned to make our perfect living room, but until then it will do nicely. 

The Secret Life of Paint

This weekend, aside from a confusing 'part Christmas shopping part house shopping' trip, was mainly about paint.

Lovely, lovely, expensive, mine fieldy paint.

It's really hard to figure out where to start when painting a wall. That sounds ridiculous, but the options are endless and the painting also feels endless. Seriously, painting a wall white makes you want to kill yourself part way into the second coat...I learnt that with the bathroom.

Anyway, we need to paint the whole downstairs of our house. It is ALL white at the moment, but it's also scuffed and grubby and depressing. We wanted to add a bit of colour but not go too bonkers as we have a lot of art work, curtain ideas, cushions and what not that are all pretty colourful.

The downstairs of our house is all one room pretty much, as you can see from the floor plan:

...everything is pretty open plan. So we needed to make a paint choice that would basically work for the whole thing...the whole massive room. And it couldn't be white, mainly because that's what we have already and it's pretty cold, but mostly because we would end up dead after the first coat. 

After mooching around on the internet and mooching around B&Q we had narrowed it down to the fact that a) we wanted to use Matt Vinyl paint as it's pretty much standard for walls and also shows up less flaws and b) we needed to use a high quality paint so as to reduce the amount of work we would have to put in. As tempting as own brand cheapo paints are, you'll end up having to paint 4 coats and that's a false economy if I ever did see one. 

Ben's dad used to be a painter decorator and now works for a company who decorates on a huge level. He knows his shit when it comes to what paint to use. He strongly recommend us using Dulux trade paint. It's thicker and stronger and you can get away with one coat pretty much every time. 

So on Saturday we headed off to the Dulux Decorating Centre in Salford. I felt like a bit of a plumb when we first walked in, the same way I feel when I go to a garage to get my car fixed...like I have to be a bit hard core and pretend I know what I am talking about. But Ben jumped in and was all "yeah mate, can we have some tester pots mixed up, yeah cheers"...he puts on a cockney accent when trying to be uber manly.

 

Anyway long story short, they mixed us up 4 testers, which came to £15 which I believe is a bit more pricey than your average B&Q tester, but we thought it was worth it. 

And this is how our wall now looks - we decided on 'Dove' for the wall with the fireplace and 'Swansdown' for the rest of the living room and dining room. Just so you know we picked colours that were on their basic 'Naturals' colour chart and didn't bother getting anything mixed for us specifically. Not this time anyway, the simpler the better for the moment. 

I learnt a while back that you should always paint the tester paint on the exact wall you will be using the colour on. It's crazy how different colours can look on different surfaces. We were after a warm grey colour for the fireplace wall, so we painted the tester paint straight on there and then the lighter colour for the rest of the room went on the adjacent wall so we could get a good idea of exactly how it would look. 

And THAT is how it's going to look until after Christmas when the painting will begin and we will finally be able to have a cosy living area that doesn't feel like a shed. 

As a side note I also painted the kitchen this weekend (while Ben cleaned the house and hoovered - that's how it rolls in our house) but I didn't take any pictures and to be honest it was reasonably uneventful. It was white on white paint (kill me) and it looks pretty much the same, just a little less grubby. I also cut loads of corners and didnt paint on top of the units or behind the fridge...I figured we could get away with it as the kitchen is actually pretty new and the walls were only really marked from when the previous owners moved all their stuff out, so it was more of a touch up job. 

BIG

This isn't strictly home-owning/DIY news, but it will be IN my house so it's going on here.

Last week I was at my office Christmas party, on the beers and on the internet. We probably all know that's a bad combo, but in this instance it landed me with this amazing original cinema advertisement poster from one of my all time favourite films BIG.

Ebay + Peroni = Risky Little Game (that paid off this time)

It's MASSIVE. It's going to cost a fortune to frame (it was only £20 btw) but I don't care. I bloody love BIG. It has exactly the right amount of magic without being too cheesy. Of course I wanted (want) the penthouse apartment with trampoline and pinball machine and spent days of my life trying to work out and remember the words to this:

The space goes down, down baby, down, down the roller coaster. Sweet, sweet baby, sweet, sweet, don't let me go. Shimmy, shimmy, cocoa pop. Shimmy, shimmy, rock. Shimmy, shimmy, cocoa pop. Shimmy, shimmy, rock. I met a girlfriend - a triscuit. She said, a triscuit - a biscuit. Ice cream, soda pop, vanilla on the top. Ooh, Shelly's out, walking down the street, ten times a week. I read it. I said it. I stole my momma's credit. I'm cool. I'm hot. Sock me in the stomach three more times.

Getting Rid of a Sticky Mess...mehehehe

Getting rid of a sticky glue residue mess. 

I'm talking about the glue left over from the 90's decal of doom that's been sat on the glass door waiting for some attention since last weekend when I gave up, after inhaling too many nail polish fumes and giving myself a disfigured hand from all of the scrubbing.

Anyway I googled what the best thing to remove such glue from a glass surface was and DW40 came up. 

We had some in the house after using it to remove the manky sealant from around the shower. That stuff is just incredible. I am in love with it. It sorts out EVERYTHING. 

I just sprayed some on to the glue, left it for five minutes and then wiped it off with a cloth. Simple as that. No need for claw hand. No need for narcotics based highs. 

Apparently it's also good for people who have arthritis.

Massive Bargain

We snagged these two wicked little vintage bedside units today for £3 each! £3!!! That's less than a bloody Subway!

Can not wait to sand, prime and paint these bastards. They are going to be a SAWEET DIY project. 

FYI they are from the Hope Direct charity shop in Moss Side. It's amazing in there. A bit scary, but amazing.

More 90's Decor

We are rocking a bit of a 'Changing Rooms' rag rolled look over the fire place at the moment.

It's just a base coat of rubbishy cheap B&Q White Emulsion, to cover up the darker browny/grey colour discovered under the wallpaper, but it it's amusing letting people think that that's the look we are going for, especially as it will be staying this way until after Christmas when the real painting will commence! 

Christmas Is Coming

The Christmas Tree is up. It looks both lovely and ridiculous in our predominantly empty living room. All good in da hood though.

In the background you can just about see my amazing Dr Yes chair, it's an original Philippe Starck design. My sibs and their partners got it for me for my 30th and I bloody love it. It's surprisingly comfortable too. 

Big List Update

Just as a little pick-me up, I've crossed off a few bits that we have done from our initial list. A new list of the next bajilion things must be written, but I'm content to check things off of here before I start that. 


Living Room:

- Wallpaper needs to come off from around the fireplace
- Damp proofing and re-plastering around the fireplace
- Floor needs sanding and re-finising to a lighter wood. At the moment it's a reddy brown and NOT GOOD.
- Walls and ceiling need to be repainted a non "We've been smoking in here" colour
- Ceiling coving needs re-glossing
- Curtain poles need to go up
- Blind and curtains need to go up at the window
- Holes left from previous owners need to be filled and sanded
- Hardware on cupboards needs replacing

Dining Room:

- Walls and ceiling need to be repainted
- Holes left from previous owners need to be filled and sanded
- Curtain poles need to go up
- Curtains need to go up
- Floor needs sanding and re-finishing
- Hardware on cupboards needs replacing

Kitchen:

- Cooker and Fridge need to be installed
- Vent needs to be sorted out as it's all wonky and strange
- Holes left from previous owners need to be filled and sanded
- Solid wood work surface need to be oiled and massive strange stain needs to be dealt with.
- Tiling behind work surface
- Walls need fresh coat of paint.

Bathroom:

- MASSIVE CLEAN
- Shower needs to be re-sealed and de-limescaled
- Tap on bath needs fixing
- Holes in the walls need filling and sanding
- Walls and ceiling need painting
- Need to find new toilet lid and currently there isn't one!

Bedroom 1:

- Holes in walls need filling and sanding
- Strange shelf on the chimney breast needs to come down
- Curtain poles and curtains need to go up
- Wallpaper needs to come down
- Walls and ceiling need to be repainted as does all the trim
- Hideous light fitting needs to be burnt

Bedroom 2:

- Blind needs to come down and replace by a non broken non blue one.
- Carpet either needs to be properly cleaned or replaced
- Holes in walls need filling and sanding
- Walls, ceiling and trim need to be painted
- Cupboards need to be repainted and hardware replaced

Hallway:

- Damproof course and replastering needed
- Walls, ceiling and trim need repainting
- Floor needs to be sanded and refinished
- Light fitting needs to be replaced

Stairs and Landing:

- Holes in walls need filling and sanding
- Walls, ceiling and trim need to be repainted
- Carpet needs to be replaced so that it is not RED

Outhouse:

- Needs cleaning
- Shelving needs to be installed
- Padlock needs to be replaced

In Your Face 90's Door Decal

We inherited this patterned glass door when we moved in to the house:

It reminded me of a boho bottle I got from Camden market in the late 90's. Not good. 

It's taken me the 7 weeks we have lived here to realise that I could actually peel off the mock stained-glass design. That's a bit annoying really as every day it's made me want to cry a little bit and all of that heart ache could have been saved had I just looked at it a little closer. 

Anyway this evening I peeled that mo fo off literally just using my fingernails. It went a litte something like this:

I was left with a lot of sticky residue from the self adhesive lead and sticky backed coloured plastic. So far I've used about a quarter of a bottle of nail polish remover, ruined our scourer from the kitchen and have only managed to remove the central flourish stickiness from both sides of the glass. I've yet to tackle the four corners, but I've developed a bit of a claw hand so it's going to have to wait for another time. 

Not looking too bad though. I feel disproportionately happy about it.