I've Been Tagged

..by Sian (the monkey lol) at Lavender Hearts.

The rules: I have to answer 6 questions about myself. At the end of the post, I then tags 6 people and posts their names, then go to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read my blog for the rules. Then, I must let the person who tagged me know when I've posted my answers.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was then starting out at high school i think. I would have been around 11. I don't remember much else to be honest lol.

2. 5 things on my to do list today?

- Put the washing away
- Wash up after lunch still
- Have a purely relaxing hot bubble bath listenning to Mariah whilst imaginning all the new things i'm going to do to the house.
- Start working on the plans for Madisyn's 3rd birthday next month.
- Pace the house depressively wishing for Sky Digital back. Because by that point i'll have nothing left to do other than watch tv. And we are now without Sky.

3. Snacks I enjoy?

Absolutely love buttered crackers. I'm addicted to them! And packets of frazzles. Yum!

4. Things I would do if I were a millionaire?

- Hire an assistant or two to help me around the carboot sales to carry all my bargains. (Yes i would still carboot shop because i LOVE it.)
- Re-subscribe to Sky.
- Donate a large amount of money to Addenbrokes' children's intensive care unit and the air ambulance (because they saved my Daughter's life.
- Donate to maternity units and fund more midwives to train.
- Spend lot's of money on living life like a posh, spoilt cow in a new house on the beach drinking champers for breakfast and eating horrible rich food for my many lunch dates with important people.

5. Places I lived?

I spent my whole life living in my Mum's childhood home, in King's Lynn, Norfolk. We both lived with my Nan ever since i was born, moving out occasionally to rent only to come home again to my Nan. Sadly she passed away and Mum bought the house. We carried on living there until i moved out with my husband, but we came back again because we couldn't afford it then. Now we have bought a house and i've been here for almost a week lol. I have lived in the same part of town all of those times though.

Right, now I have to tag 6 other people but i can only find 3 that don't seem to have been tagged recently lol.

Allsorts
Creating Something out of Chaos
Dancing on a Blade of Grass

2 makeover pictures!!

I feel quite impressed with myself. I haven't even been moved into my house and i've had time to do a makeover lol. This Bureau was £20 from the Ad Trader newpaper. I thought i saw potential and was really excited about it. Then sadly, i started painting it white and decided to sand down the drawers for a different effect and it went terribly wrong.

But my Mum came to the rescue with the suggestion of doing it the same as my coffee table and chest of drawers (which can be seen in the next set of photos) in the wood glade green paint and the laura ashley wallpaper. I like it much better now, thankfully because it nearly went in the skip.

I loved this chest of drawers. I got it from a second hand shop for just £15.

I really don't understand why whenever i upload photos to blogger, the size is always so small even though i have selected the large image box. If anybody has any idea how to stop it from being resized so small, please let me know.

Anyway, here i am *WAVES!!* I'm back online with my shiny new mobile broadband. And it's great not having to pay out for a phone line just so i can browse the web. It's cheaper and wireless too!!
We finally moved in 3 days ago, but still had no carpets until late the day after. But after a long and stressful week, we are all settled into our new home. And i've even found time to take photos and upload tem here too heh!!

Please click the photos to see bigger photos :-)

This is the living room slash dinning room. I've used Erin and Kimino wallpaper from Laura Ashley on opposite sides. My bargain rolls of £1.50 each out of the last stock bin in store. I'll be eventually getting a new table and chairs for the dinning end.

These are the bedrooms. I haven't uploaded a great photo of ours, but you can see the Oriental wallpaper which was another Laura Ashley bargain.

And finally just 3 photos of the toilet (because i used Laura Ashley wallpaper again lol), the kitchen (which is going to stay modern) and the hallway, which again has Laura Ashley wallpaper.

A quick hello!

This is just a short update inbetween moving. I'm so tired lol.

I'm sorry i have no exciting pictures to update with, but i want to wait until everything in the house is in place before i do hehe. I have load's of new furniture to show you too.

Today the kid's carpets were put in, and the living room and downstairs toilet are both wallpapered beautifully. Curtains are all up, kicthen is ready to be used and so is the bathroom. It's just the rest of the carpets and furniture left to do now.

I'm so excited that everything is coming together so amazingly. I really hope you like what i have done with the decorating.

Will update again soon.

Thank you for all your good lucks and best wishes.

*Hugs*

Lea x

So Excited!!!!

Tomorrow we pick up our keys for the house!! I can't believe after almost 4 months we are finally completing. I thought it would be nice to post some pictures of the house up because i've done nothing but go on about it, and also, you can see it as a blank canvas before i shabby-chic it all up. The house is one of the first Millenium Villages that are being made all over the country. It's an all eco-friendly community. The patio leads out onto a huge community garden, which will be fab for the children because there's a park, and only residents and their guests have access to it. I haven't put up pictures of the kid's bedrooms because they are pretty much the same as our without the balcony. We also have a downstairs toilet, which i'm actually really excited about lol.

I'm so excited today though and don't know what to do with myself. I've brought down most of our packed things, and now it's just waiting for tomorrow to come. I'm going to the carpet shops tonight to actually decide for definate what carpets we want. We are on such a tight budget though, so it won't be anything wonderful unfortunately lol.

Anyway, here are the pictures. I hope you like it.

I am really sorry about the awful quality of this image. For some reason Blogger would upload it far to tiny, and using Photobucket, it enlarged it slightly and made the pixels all fuzzy. Nevermind, you get the idea of how it looks lol.

Inspiration

I found these pictures on my favourite magazine, Ideal Home's website. They are so beautiful and the exact look i'm hoping for with the new house. Of course, mine won't be no where near as beautiful, especially my dining area lol, but it's great inspiration. The colours are so light and beautiful.

One make-over...

Here's a new makeover... And a boring one too. I also put less effort into this than i usually would into a makeover. But i'm glad because it's left it with a shabby look. The wood is still showing through in the ridges and on the corners, but only very slightly, giving it an instantly worn look.

This was £3 at the carboot sale... It's going to look lovely as a plant holder in my hallway... when i move in hehe..

Here's just a few pictures from Sebastian's party. Unfortunately, Ash was rubbish at getting pictures of all the children playing... But the one's we got of Seb and Madisyn are so cute, i don't even care lol.

A quick update...

I have so many photos to update with, but i'm so exhausted. It's been one of those crazy weekends, where you feel you haven't really done anything more than usual, but you're absolutely zonked.

It was my son's birthday party on Sunday. My Mum's small terrace house was packed with at least 30 people, and hyper-'ate-far-too-many-cakes'-children. Of course there was a giant mess afterwards and obviously some bug floating in the air; because now my children are sick as dogs and covered in snot.

It's now Tuesday, and i think it's safe to say both myself and my husband are recovered from the event. Better news is, we got our completion statement yesterday.

We officially move in to our new home this FRIDAY! Isn't that terrific... Though we are not organised at all. Our current bedroom is completely full, from floor to ceiling in second hand furniture i've painted up and boxed of new house things. Our original things are not packed yet.

I got some awesome things from the boot sale Sunday morning by the way. I will update with photos, in time, but for now, here's a list.

- A very tall stand up mirror (£2)

- A table with built in magazine rack underneath (£2)

- An occasion table, that's straight at the back, and curves in a semi circle around the front (£4)

- One of those small, but tall tables that holds a plant or something (£3)

- An already painted blue small table (£2)

- A huge pretty canvas picture (£1)

- A very pretty antique looking lamp (£1)

- A shabby chic rug (£3)

- A rug, vanity table toy and fleece blanket for Madi (Total, £7)

And a couple of small things like picture frames, picture, book etc. But they arn't as exciting.

It was a very good car boot sale :-)

I will more than likely update with photos this evening when my poorly babies are asleep.

Take care,

Lea xx

Happy Birthday Sebastian Lee

It was my son, Sebastian's 1st birthday today and what a wonderful day we all had too. Sebastian was born at half past 8 in the evening, at home on the couch *gasp* lol. And since day one has filled us all with so much love and joy. It's his party on Sunday hehe...

More Made Over Bargains

Some new makeovers for you... Remember my bedside cabinets i got from the car boot sale? £1.50 for the pair. So far, i have only made one over.

And my dear coffee table for £12 from the charity shop. It was reduced from £16. Sadly, as posted before, the glass smashed. But i'm going to get some more, so not 100% finished yet.

Wallpaper used was in the bargain box in Laura Ashley for £1.50 a roll.

I'm sorry the picture quality isn't great...

Smash!

I have a headache! And so does the glass top of my new coffee table i was half way through painting...

And it's really peeved me off because i was so excited about putting some gorgeous Laura Ashley wallpaper underneath it. That's not going to happen now. Though the paper is wipable, it may still be possible, but it won't look as nice.

I am not looking forward to clearing this mess up...

Better news, it's my son's birthday tomorrow. His first one in fact. So tomorrow will be a better day, i hope lol.

Three new Makeovers!

I've had a busy day and a half painting these 3 pieces of furniture. Hope you enjoy my small transformations. I used a creamy satinwood paint of all 3. The fabric used for the stool believe it or not was just a simple yellow pillowcase i no longer use. I will more than likely change that as soon as i find something i like better. Not sure if you remember how much i paid for each bit of furniture but all 3 them together cost me £9. How amazing is that lol!

Fantastic Carboot Sale Finds...

I had a fantastic day today. My mum took me and the kids to a giant carboot sale out in the countryside early afternoon, and i got some real bargains, of course lol. It was absolutely packed and took what's usual a 20 minutes drive, 1 hour because of all the traffic. The weather was perfect as well.
We ended the trip with ice cream and chocolate cake and a beautiful little winebar and then came home for dinner. Whilst Mum cooked, and Ash got the children ready for bed, i started painting one of my new finds and gave my new table another coat with some new satinwood creamy paint.
Also, the yellow gingham fabric in the background of the images is a tablecloth i got today for £3 hehe.

Here are the pictures of my new buys.

The jug was £1.50 and the gravy bowl was £1 for two. I gave the other one to Mum.

This was £1

Again, £1, though i'm not sure i like it lol.

£2, and i've started painting the base this evening.

Can you believe, £1.50 for both! The edge is a very pretty groove and i'm going to paint them duck egg and replace the knobs with crystal styled ones

£2 for the entire set. They are for my cabinet.

Altogether these three items came to about £2

And finally, £2.50 for the set. Though one of them doesn't match, but i love it.

Picture Frame Makeover

I had fun painting this photo frame from QD, for £5. I also added some left over Valentine's Day wrapping paper behind the photos to mount them. It's for my Daughter's bedroom and she thinks it's beautiful lol.

Before

During

After

Shabby Chic Forum

I recently came across a wonderful forum dedicated to shabby chic. It's got tons of inspiration, ideas, fun and even a monthly swap challenge.
The members are a great bunch and incredibly talented/creative. I recommend if you haven't already joined, that you do so soon.

Also, for all of Shabby Chic's current members, i made a link button for the forum. Just copy the code at the bottom and add it into your layout in the HTML page element.



<a href="http://www.rotoview.net/forum"><img src="i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/leamadzt/scbutton.jpg"/></a>

New Fan Banner Update

For all 'Ideal Home Magazine' fans, i have made a new fan banner. It's just there on the right and free to use anyway you like.

Enjoy.

My First Makeover!

I am so excited to post about this because this was my first ever make over. I'm really proud of myself to be honest, because i saw how many wonderful makeovers other ladies have done and thought it would be truely impossible to come up with something decent. But i think it worked brilliantly. This bookcase cost me £7 from a charity shop, and the paint was left over paint in the cupboard. I'm so pleased.

Before

During

After

New Finds!

I am so happy with these finds. The total for all of this, plus another gold framed mirror was £40 from a second hand store. My husband absolutely loves the arm chair because he's been harping on about having a 'throne' chair for so long. I'm thinking of getting it re-covered, but Ashley likes it as it is.

The chest of drawers and small table will be painted white with an antique finish. I'm so excited about them.

I will upload after pictures when i finally get around to painting things. I can't wait to move this all into our new home!