Dolly's Dreamings

Fireplace renovation complete

I can finally say our fireplace renovation is complete.

 

We have agonised for a long time about what to do with our fireplace. We had the fireplace installed 30 years ago when we had been in the house for just a year. There was massive purbeck stone fireplace there which we had taken out an a new gas fire (real fire effect) and surround fitted. It looked lovely  though they made a mess fitting it and it has slopes at the side of the hearth where they hadn't removed all of the old stone. We couldn't get rid of the slope for fear of damaging the marble hearth. We'd only had it for a couple of months when we had to have the chimnet mesh covered as once the chimney was opened the May Bugs (goodness I hate those things) were attracted to the light and so came down the chimney and into the lounge. The man who fitted the mesh told me I didnt need anything that fine as birds wouldn't get through. I told him I wasn't concerned about the birds!

Then we bought Bengal and from then on we had to have a fire guard for fear the cats would attempt to go up the chimney. I hated the fire guard and we almost never used the fire because it was inefficient and expensive.

So last year we decided we wanted to change the fire. We wanted the chimney blocked to keep the warmth in (blocked so that new people could unblock it easily), the gas taken out and a new electric pretend flame fire. Who would have thought it was so difficult? There are very few shops where you can see these fires in reality and we didn't want to buy it online not having seen it. We went to several specialist stores who were not terribly helpful and who didn't have what we wanted. We didn't know what we wanted really but knew we would know when we found it. Then we found Fire and Flame in Charminster and it was perfect. Ben, the owner and installer, was brilliant, offering lots of advice and we found the exact thing we wanted. We were thrilled.  I cannot recommend him highly enough. We have never had such a clean worker in our home or such a perfectionist. He did an amazing job and we are thrilled.

 

These are the before and during

 

 

 

 

 

The new fire surround is a lot lower and so we knew we had to repaper and paint the chimney breast which we finished yesterday

 

 

 

 

We are thrilled - it has made such a difference.

 

In other news we have some scrapping

 

 

This was from a trip in 2004 on our Wild West tour to Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood to see the graves of Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane

 

 

 

and some recent quick paintings

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful that

• renovations are done - it was stressful for Koda - he really doesn't cope with any form of noise or change (he's his Mommy's boy!)
• a job we are happy with

and finally some more amazing tattoo art. I'm not really into tattoos but I admire the skill of these

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new floor and a new album

For once an installation by workmen in our home went well. The new floor was laid successfully and we are really pleased with it. It took us 18 months of indecision but I think we picked the right flooring in the end - This is the before and after

 

 

I also want to share Nigel's pumpking carving - Koda and Indy featured this year and this is now 3 days ago and they have pretty much broken it. It is fascinating that we come down every morning and the night light inside is out of the pumpkin and in the middle of the lounge floor.

 

 

He's very clever.

 

I also have a couple of photos from the other day

 

 

 

Yesterday I finally made my album for my jubilee and funeral pages which I have been wanting to get on with.

 

I used an A4 binder and covered it with purple crushed velvet (which is lovely in real life) and added a photo in an MDF frame I painted gold and a crown. It looks really very nice

 

 

 

 

And this is one of the opening pages I made too

 

Today I am thankful for

• a job well done
• a clever husband
• a mini project started

 

The end of a project

Yesterday was the culmination in what has been a very frustrating spring and a dozen years of procrastination.

We had a set of outside steps which were horrible. They came from the dining room down onto the patio but in such a way as to take up half of the patio. We have a big garden and could have extended the patio but we really didn't want to. The steps were made of cast iron and every two years Nigel had to rub them down and then either I or we painted them. It was never-ending and they were still ugly, industrial and in the wrong format.

The trouble was we couldn't decide what to do and we had so many different ideas which were tricky as the house is split level - hard to explain.

In the end we contacted a friend of Nigel's who runs a fabrication company and he came to look and advise and came up with the perfect solution. He said why not have a spiral staircase which would look fab, save space and be made of something needing NO MAINTAINTENCE

He drew up plans and we expected to wait until the end of June. However, they were ready really quickly and yesterday they were installed. And oh my

 

The old steps in all their horrible glory taking up too much patio and rusting away

 

 

The full horror from the dining room

 

Cutting them apart - too heavy to move in one heap

 

 

No steps at all - notice the awful patio slabs ... it's why we cover them

 

 

 

 

dead steps on the lawn

 

four strong men bringing in the new steps

 

 

much better view from inside - nice new composite decking

 

Our new outdoor space - compact but we love it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this afternoon we finally got to enjoy it

 

 

Now onto scrapping - lots of that too

 

I think Simple Stories Vintage weathered garden is one of my all time favourite collections

 

 

 

 

 

 

I broke into my new 49 nd Market for this one

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a completed patio
• space to enjoy
• an awesomely tidy garden front and back
• no work now until we start the hall stairs and landing and we don't have the stomach for that yet!

 

 

Very very busy few days and Cornwall day 3

It has NOT been a quiet week here in Lake Wobegone ... very busy indeed.

 

We had some substantial holes where the trees were removed so we went to Nigel's least favourite place in the world, any garden centre. But he knew it had to be done.

Now bear in mind we have absolutely no clue at all what we are doing in the garden, our soil is utter rubbish - just sand really, and nothing we plant does well.

We bought several decent-sized bushes. some are private to form a hedge type things and there was a pieris and another gorgeous purple leaved bush I can't recall. I thought poor Nigel was going to pass out because the digging was so hard. The ground we were working on was full of roots but we got there.

 

The trouble was, at the garden centre we saw a bronze stag - about 5 feet tall - and we were smitten. We came home to think about it but we decided that it was a worthwhile investment as it would be a real focal point of the garden and would be one thing we wouldn't be able to kill.

So today we went back to fetch Buckley - yes of course he is named - and bought more plants for his area. He looks a bit 'naked' at the moment as the plants will take time to establish but we can see him from the kitchen, the dining room and my studio and we love him.

 

 

We are both shattered but happy with what we have achieved.

 

I have also done loads of work in my scrap room. I bought another 44 Weston Boxes and have been thinning papers and resorting so it will look so much neater. I will show you a  photo once it is finished.

So - on to Cornwall day 3

This was the day that we had most been looking forward to and it lived up to our expectations.  After a good breakfast again we headed off to The Lizard. This is the most southerly part of the UK and a place we had been to once before but had never seen. On our last visit it was so foggy we could see nothing. Not this trip. The sun was bright and the view was stunning.

 

We parked at the top carpark and admired the view and then walked down to the lower level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and from the bottom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was wild and beautiful and we quite literally had to tear ourselves away.

 

Our next stop was Kynance Cove and we were very lucky to get one of the last spaces at the bottom car park, otherwise it was a heck of a walk. They were very bust as a huge area was cordoned off with marquees and lights and security and cameras. We asked one the NT guys what it was and he told us they were not allowed to tell but we should google it. It turns out it was filming for the prequel for Game of Thrones. Boy was I thrilled.

 

Anyway, Kynance cove was stunning though we did not walk down to the cove itself. So much to see, so little time to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we headed to Marazion so we could see St Michael's Mount - something else we had visited before and not seen. Years and years ago, before we were married, we went to Cornwall for a weekend break and Nigel had chosen for us to stay at Penzance and made sure we had a sea view room. When we woke up he told me to open the curtains and enjoy St Michale's mount. It was just too funny. You couldn't see two foot in front of your face let alone the mount which, in fairness, would have been small from Penzance even on a clear day.

 

Marazion didn't disappoint and we found a brilliant place on the street right by the ferry dock to park. We knew we wouldn't be able to go across to the mount itself and felt, anyway, it was nicer to see it than be on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we also knew the tide times were not going to enable us to see or walk the causeway but to be honest I prefered seeing it at high tide when it looked completely like an island.

 

Our next port of call, pardon the pun, was Mousehole. Once again we were very very lucky to find a parking space in the town itself - I did have to work hard for this one - and we had a lovely time wandering the narrow streets with the quaint houses and great views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed off for our next adventure - we had tickets booked to take a tour around the Minack Theatre - somewhere else we have always wanted to see and it was stunning. The engineering to carve out that theatre on the cliff is phenomenal and it also gives great views over Porthcurno bay and beach. Whilst we were there the Cambridge University Gilbert and Sullivan society were there rehearsing the Pirates of Penzance and it was fun to watch them rehearse. The planting there, largely beautiful succulents, was also stunning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next two visits were not so successful. We were going to go to Land's End but when we got there it was £7 to park, there were hundreds and hundreds of cars which would translate to thousands of people. After the unspoilt beauty of the Lizard and Kynance Cove and when we saw the massive commercialised building at the entrance we decided we did not want to go and visit it.

 

We headed for our last destination which was St Ives. We had planned to eat there. We drove in - and out again very quickly. It was quite frankly the busiest most touristy tackiest place I have seen in mnay many years. It was literally heaving. No wonder Cornwall's COVID rates are high. It was quite simply NOT for us so we hightailed out of there.

 

We had seen so much and enjoyed it all we felt we were ready for a quiet dinner and an early night. Day 3 had been the one we were most looking forwards to - and it was the one we most enjoyed.

 

Today I am thankful for

• a wonderful holiday
• good honest hard work
• Buckley
• Nigel liking the same things I do

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A whole new kitchen

Well it's been quite a year here at Koda and Indy's house and they have NOT liked it. Lots of shut doors, strange men, strange smells and banging nd drilling and sawing and just general stress stuff for them. Plus a Mummy who was very stressed over the whole things.

BUT

 

The new kitchen is finished - well apart from a few bits we have to paint like the strut of the breakfast bar and the new flooring which we cannot pick until the stores re-open in April. But we are pleased with it. MK Interiors did a great job.

 

This was how it was Monday - old kitchen with the worktops I hated from the day it was fitted in 2008

 

 

 

 

and utility room

 

 

 

New kitchen as of this afternoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are all glad it is over and love the new bright light kitchen

 

I have been scrapping for A Trip Down Memory Lane as part of my DT work. I was sent some gorgeous papers from the PinkFresh Studios Some Days collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a completed kitchen
• no workmen other than Nigel
• scrapping time
• our home - more than just the bricks and walls - it is we 4!

 

 

Brrrrr

The weather is really quite cold at the moment, but it is much colder when you are in a house where the heating is turned off.

Whilst we have no cats we are gloss pointing any doors and radiators that need doing so it is chilly. But it is nice and white. 

I have a couple of pages to share today

This is the Stuff Your Stocking page using the two mini kits that you can get today free with a $10 purchase. The kits are from Lorie M and Lara's Digi World and so you can also get 30% off their store for today only.

 

 

And these are the next batch for my Christmas/December journal

 

 

 

 

 

and finally a page made for the FTLOPP green challenge

 

 

 

Today I am thankful that most of the painting is done - the smell is quite strong.

 

 

 

Berry Big Deal Day again

Today sees new releases at Pickleberrypop with the Berry Big Deals - great bargains all colour coordinated - you can find them all HERE

I am excited to share the pages I made this month with the new collections

 

This one was made with Smile More by Tiramisu Designs

 

 

This one was made with Meet me at the shore by Palvinka Designs and features my painting of Pigeon Point Lighthouse

 

 

This one was made with Ocean Vibes by et Designs

 

This one was Happy Feeling by Lorie M

 

 

This one was using Damsel in Denim by Jen Yurko

 

 

 

And finally, this one uses caught on Camera templates and  also Undreamed Shores both by Heartstrings Scrap Art

 

 

They are gorgeous collections so do check them out.

 

In other news my new window on the world is awesome.

This is before

Old window - was brown hard wood. You can see how the small frame was totally blown - it was like looking through fog.

 

 

room wrapped and ready

 

 

 

My gorgeous new wood blinds

 

 

My new clear windows - he even mowed the lawn!

 

 

Happy lady

 

Today I am thankful for

• a wage rise at work - totally unexpected - yey
• my new windows
• great designers to work with

 

 

Busy-ness but so happy

So the last few days have been busy busy busy.

We did a craft fair at our local community 'village fete' type event and it was fun but oh my did we luck out with the gazebo. They have now gone up to more than £90 for the one I bought for £30! And we needed it. It was a glorious day until 2.30 when the heavens opened and I mean quite literally. It was some of the most torrential rain I have ever seen in the UK. It lasted a good 30 minutes and the gazebo held up!

I have been at work the last couple of days but Nigel has been manning the fort and we now have brand new windows in the library and the scrap studio and it looks fab. I have smart new blinds that look lovely, windows I can see out of and I am really happy and happy it is all over. No more new windows now - they are all done!

Will take pictures when the light is right!

I have new scrapping to share too.

These are from the daily prompts. This was Friday - Multi font title - another f the Hamlet at Versailles for the Paris album. 

 

This was Saturday I think - add sparkle. Well the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles was certainly gold and sparkly and so is the page. It doesn't show well in the photo but the background paper is very old K and Co and is gold foiled, the photos are on gold sparkle paper and I used gilding paste on the flowers

 

 

 

Sunday's prompt was clouds. And I was really quick and scrapped a page of my stall in its little gazebo house - before the rain and the mud!

 

Monday was sewing so I sewed all round the border and the large circle. There is a LOT of journalling as it tells the story of how we were victims  - though our honesty saved us - of the famous gold ring scam in Paris. We hadn't heard of this scam but apparently, it is quite famous.

 

 

and today's - oh how I hate these - was messy. I don't DO messy. I don't LIKE messy. It is not me.

 

But I pulled out diamond dust black cardstock and gelatos and had a go 

 

Not sure I like it but I did try.

 

You can't really see the sparkle

 

 

Today I am thankful

• that I am keeping up with the daily prompts - I have done every prompt on the day set - 21 and only 10 more to go.
that we have new windows and the men have gone gone gone and my room is back to normal and looks lovely hat
• that I had the chance to see the last episode of Game of Thrones. I am sad it ended and am not sure I buy into the ending and what happened to characters I have loved for years, but heck - I know I will watch it over and over.

 

 

For such a good cause

I love being a part of Pickleberrypop.

Not only do we have awesome designers but it is a great community too (and every day I am proud)

A member of or community - Jill - who does the amazing designs Created by Jill - is battling panceatic cancer which is just awful and our hearts go out to her.

The designers have got together and created the most amazing collaboration collection to help support her

 

 

Find it HERE

 

 

This is what I made with it

 

 

Please do go over and have a look - it's for such a good reason.

 

In other news the windowsill has been glossed, the net curtains are back up and for now - we are done.  ... the eaves you can see in the left of the window are the eaves of the lounge roof

 

 

Today I have labelled my little rub boxes too

 

 

and finally my babies were in a national newspaper today - I am so proud

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• an ordered home
• being part of so many great scrapping communities

 

 

 

 

Window day

You just knew it was going to rain today - we'd got replacement windows being fitted. 

Perfect

 The bedroom and bathroom are done but they smashed the tiles on the windowsill so now have to make a UPVC windowsill and come back and fit that.

They got silicone on the cream carpet despite it all being dust sheeted but they did manage to get that off.

One of the frames needs looking at as the mitres are not good.

I honestly despair of people these days.  The majority of workmen seem to have no pride in a job well done anymore. We were brought up in the belief that you kept at it until it was perfect.

 

However, the windows look much better, they are secure and they are no longer wooden frames that are rotting.

 

My nerves are so bad that I had to get out of the house for some of the time and ended up at the Range. The rest, they say, is history!

I now need to sort things out int he scrap room for the new storage I bought. Ooops.

 

New scrapping to share today are the other two pages from the scrap whispers game that I never shared.

This first one was in Natchez on the Mississippi and the cypress knees were so unusual and very photogenic

 

 

 

and this was sharing my special Christmas Tree frappuccino with Mr and Mrs Gingerbread in Celebration

 

 

Dawn Inskip has a sale on at the moment which is too good to miss At checkout, USE COUPON CODE: dawnsdoodles ... click the image below to take you there

 

and there is a mega bloghop to play along with HERE 

 

 

have fun with those

 Today I am thankful for

• the house being cleaned
• the workmen gone for the time being
• new windows ... I think

 

 

 

 

 

 

just ordinary days

Some days are just ordinary and that is absolutely fine with me. I don't need to do stuff special every day.

The last couple of days have been ordinary with a couple of more unusual bits thrown in.

Yesterday we had to spend money on something we didn't necessarily WANT to spend money on. We had to accept the washer is on its last legs. For the third time, the dryer didn't work. It pretended to work, it thought it was working, but we think the heating element has completely gone. It wasn't even vaguely warm. The programmer has been living its own little life for a while now. Yous et it for drying for 90 minutes and it decides nope, I am going to do 180 minutes. You set it for the wash at 30 degrees and it says nope I am doing 50 degrees. You see the time remaining says 37 minutes, then it says 55 minutes then 27 minutes then 36 minutes. You get the picture. It is 12 years old which is pretty good longevity for a washer dryer I guess. So we looked for a new one. They ranged - for washer dryers - from about £300 to over £1000!!! No - we went lower end. The trouble is there is not a huge choice for washer dryers (and yes I would have liked a separate washer and a separate dryer but space doesn't allow) and then when you want a silver or graphite machine there are even fewer machines. So we had a limited range to select from. However, the new machine is ordered and will be great when it arrives. 

The good news is that in looking to see how long we had had the machine I trawled the picture files and it turns out our utility room was beautiful back in 2006 when we re-did it. We changed the whole room round, having new boiler all so we could fit in a huge American Fridge freezer. And it was empty of junk. So yesterday, having seen that, we de-junked again so it looks like it did. Funny how you let things go and 'stuff' gets dumped on worktops where they are 'out of sight'. No more junk now.  I look like this again now ... but with a new floor  and no cat bed (That was Boo's bed and when we lost her we removed the bed as the others have never gotten used to sleeping in there)

 

 

 

And that meant a trip to the tip today too!

We also saw a film yesterday - Game Night - which was not what we expected. It did make me laugh out loud a few times, but I had misunderstood and thought we were off to see a thriller.

Today we both had work for a couple of hours but also found time to just relax. I like days like that.

 

I have new scrapping to share today.

We have always been used to going to Florida when it was hot. Well for our 2017 trip it was hot for quite a long time but we had three very cold days. OK, they were not VERY cold, they were 11 and 12 degrees, but 11 and 12 degrees in Florida feels very cold. It was a different experience for us and we loved it. I liked not being hot in the parks.

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a good tidy up
• jobs well done
• taking the plunge on a new washer dryer

and some lovely cats