Well it has been another very very busy week it has to be said, last Thursday hubby had a day off from work and spent the day (over 12 hours) at my Mum's house creating a 'catio' - cat patio. We both returned when I was off on Friday to complete the task. We opened the catio officially on Friday afternoon and Murphy (my Mum's cat) obliged by having a wander around it. He has subsequently enjoyed wandering in and out since it was opened. It now provides my Mum with more fresh air in the kitchen (because she can have the window wide open). Murphy still goes out on reins (my Mum lives on a stupidly busy main road) to enjoy the garden but is thoroughly thriving going in and out of the house and having his own outdoor space, so the time and effort were definitely worth it.
Here he is at the bottom
and here he is wandering down the ramps.
On Saturday we headed over to said 23 year old and d-i-law to continue stripping the staircase and start the repapering.
As you can see it is a particularly high staircase space but hubby and said 23 year old managed to get some paper on the walls whilst me and d-i-law managed to complete the stripping of the wallpaper at the top of the stairs. We didn't get it completed (unsurprisingly) but we definitely made some good headway.
Sunday and we had a day to stop, utterly shattered from the previous two days, well stop - erm I did catch up on washing and clean through the house and hubby put away lots of the tools he had had out.
Monday was another 'rest' day, we went food shopping and I treated myself to some flowers I love the colourway
then I spent a couple of hours putting some new bedding plants in the back garden in readiness for autumn.
We enjoyed watching a few programmes in the evening and then we were suddenly back at work as tuesday had arrived.
The rest of the work was very very busy (as usual), but I made headway on some long term things that needed sorting so that is always a positive.
Can you believe we are already on the 30th post of the year, my news feed this week has been full of all things autumn, but surely summer isn't done with yet?
Needless to say after the excitement of a couple of weeks run up and post wedding, this week has been decidedly work orientated.
Last weekend we set about completing the stairs, they have been something of an epic task because we've made some seriously big changes, but the task has taken much longer than we expected if I'm honest. So last weekend was the big push to get it finished (nearly almost).
We installed the bannister, filled holes and repainted it, touched up paintwork, decided where the pictures were going, reassembled my heart wall.
We worked tirelessly on Friday and again on Saturday, leaving only one job to do on Sunday - fit the stairs carpet. Something we have never done and to be honest something I never thought we'd do, but we've done everything else on the stairs ourselves so we thought we would finish it off in style.
To say I'm pleased is an understatement. I've ordered stair rods to finish it off which arrived yesterday (so another job to do). I've also got a quote to put on the wall and a little bit of quadrant needed and then we will be at the 100% mark.
I've already had the "and how are you going to hang your stair garland" question but to be honest, the original bannister was not a favourite of mine and I'm sure we will find a work round nearer Christmas.
As for the rest of the week it has been very much focused on work, with lazy evenings at the end of mentally busy days.
I had a catch up with my Mum at the weekend and the honeymooners returned late on Sunday and we had a good catch up on Tuesday.
We were in Morrisons last night and I spied some bargain flowers which had to come home with me, the sunflowers a definite throwback to the wedding a few weeks ago.
Well I think this is week 5 of lock down and ours is due to be reviewed next Thursday, the weeks are still tripping along at a merry old pace irrelevant of the lock down if I'm honest and routine gains ground.
I took a day's TOIL last Thursday as our boss is insisting that we make sure we run our TOIL down so there is much less at the end of lock down (the last thing she needs is for us to have lots to use after this).
So I decided to paint out bedroom (on my own as hubby was working), I know crazy right, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I moved furniture (I didn't I slid furniture but hey it worked), all day back and forth, covering, uncovering and recovering bits of furniture as I made my way around, the biggest issue I had was the gothic handpainted border near the top of the room which was an absolute pain to obliterate, hubby popped in mid morning and said I was doing an awesome job, until I pointed out the gothic arches had had 5 coats of paint and were still as plain to see on the walls.
Thankfully he finished at 3.30pm, got changed and gave me a hand as I hadn't managed to do the centre of the ceiling and he helped me put another coat on those arches.
We then sensibly made tea and when we came back the paint had dried considerably and the arches were almost gone, there were just a few areas where it needed repainting.
Friday was spent doing the minimum glossing and repenning the quote above our bed and we received the new duvet set that I'd ordered, so I swapped the bedding over, it is such a happy cover, I've also ordered it in a different colour way but that hasn't arrived yet, I'm hoping it doesn't fade too much in the wash.
It definitely has a Morroccan influence, it makes a lovely change from our usual dark covers.
I'm really pleased now the room is done, the only issue now, is I'm looking around the rest of the house thinking - that needs painting - you can imagine the rolling of eyes that are occurring with hubby at the moment can't you.
Anyway I've got my sights set on said 19 year old's art room next as I've paint left and he isn't at home currently, but hubby is insisting I have fun on Thursday (when I'm typing this) and set to on the room on Friday as he can finish early and give me a hand and for once I've agreed.
We've been enjoying some fabulous theatre recently, Saturday we watched the Handebards Macbeth which was great although the noise from the traffic in the background when it was filmed a few years ago was a little frustrating at times
And Sunday night we treated ourselves again with some Shakespeare when we watched NT Lives Twelfth Night, which was brilliant, we are looking forward to Frankenstein this week with Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller, apparently they both played the key roles and NT Live are going to swap the recording over mid-week so you can enjoy both, my sister has seen it twice but both times was the same, so is looking forward to seeing the one she never managed.
Evenings are still being spent being creative, at this rate I'm going to have to open an Etsy shop as I've had to stack them up now as they keep sliding around on my desk.
First up is a Minnie Mouse book, I was struggling for something for the front page and then realised I could cut down the giant Minnie on the 12 x 12 paper as an image for the front, I added glossy accents to the black pupils and nose and some red glitter stickles glue to the centre of the bow
The book was created with the same principles as the ones I've been done recently, so they fold out from their concertina
You can see from the top that each page is actually a pocket with a pull out tag.
I had three sets of these square covers to use, so I did another one using an 8 x 8 pack I have
and another that I've added beads to the front, I ended up handpainting the main rose on the front in situ, as it originally had a cream tone which clashed with the papers.
I am really pleased with all three. This week I've been working on a frame book and generating the inside myself, the downside being that it has taken a huge amount of paper to actually cover it, far more than these other books, but it is coming together now so hopefully I will get it finished today.
As those who read this will know my sister who is a nurse is currently working on a Covid positive ward, she came home on Monday morning with a cold, which then turned into a fever and aches and pains, so she went for a test, which came back negative, however, she has had a few colleagues with negative tests who then two days later tested positive. If she is no better Thursday she may well go for a second test, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
Apart from that there have been other positives
11am coffee time with hubby has been lovely
I've been a twit with food at night this week, I think others bad habits are rubbing off on me, so I need to sort that out but I have enjoyed having a bit (a lot) of chocolate.
Me and hubby re-establishing our daily walk - it wobbled when we changed family face time but it is now back where it belongs.
Good weather at the weekend, meaning we could kick back and enjoy and create.
Getting house jobs done.
And that my lovely people is it for this week, I hope you've had a grand week and have managed to stay safe. If you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up and we can come and visit.
