After... and before

Oooh, how exciting; blogger have updated the options for designing blogs so I've given myself a little makeover. I adore the leafy background, and the font I've chosen for the blog title... mmmmm :) So I'm planning on a major increase in my blog usage. Actually, my new design has inspired me to do something I meant to do ages ago. When we moved into this house I documented a reasonable amount of the work we did, but I never got round to showing all the rooms in their before and after states. The reason the design inspired me is because it reminds me of our bedroom - gorgeous, soothing green walls with a few dashes of pink and some lovely charcoal grey. A delicious selection of colours!

So, to restart, and also continue, as I wrote about this a couple of posts ago (which have been few and far between of late), we've finally finished our kitchen! I can't believe its actually taken six months, from first stripping off the delightful beige tiles interspersed with mini cottages, with a truely sensational (!) scene of a whole village above the hob - delightful! to putting my lovely new compost caddies in place, which were just delivered this evening. There are still a few things to finish off - please ignore the hideous electrical paraphernalia above the far left window! It will be boxed in eventually. I need to put more stuff on the larger shelves and hang some things from the hooks, put a clock up and other things on the walls, but thats the kind of stuff that comes with time.

 

 

The kitchen is long and narrow, so I've started with the far end and I'm kind of going round in a circle clockwise (apart from the next photo which is a little detail). One of my favourite details is the tiling between the hob and extractor fan.

Mmmm lovely bread bin by Falcon from Amazon and Compost caddies by Typhoon, also from Amazon. We chose to grout the tiles in grey because the kitchen joins onto the dining room, which is painted in Silt by Little Greene, which is a grey-brown colour, and the writing on the bread bin and colour of the caddies ties in perfectly.

 

You can see the electrics peeping out of the top of this photo.

 

View over the breakfast bar to the far end.

From far end down to sink end. As you can see, there ae plenty of hooks crying out for exciting things to hang from them...

 

And the breakfast bar end.

Our kitchen is really difficult to photograph due to its narrowness, so I hope you get the picture (no pun intended, chuckle). 

Here are a couple more close ups of little bits I love...

 Little bird cup size measures.

 I love this photo of Marno and me; feels like a long time ago now. This was taken at Grantchester, one of my favourite places in England, even though I've only been there once, but it was in an April and the blossoms were all out, and we had the most delicious cheese scones you can imagine.

I love having a utensil pot!

My spice shelves. Marno thought I should buy identical pots to decant all the spices into (yawn, I certainly don't have time for that!), but prefer them to look used - I'm keepin' it real! Hahaha!

A delightful little brown owl, keeping guard over them. 

In the process of writing this, I remembered I did have some things I was waiting for somewhere to hang, so I rushed upstairs and got them, but photos will have to wait for another time.

I have two more photos, but they're both "befores". I didn't want to spoil the beginning of the post with them ;) but here they are just so you can get the general idea. They were actually taken on our second viewing of the house, so please excuse me and the vendor lady.

Delightful, orange pine units. You can even see a couple of the cottages to the right, though unfortunately we are obscuring the whole village scene with our heads!

Horrible glass cabinet with tinted orangey glass and fake lead. Its incredible how many people thought it was nice, including my mum!!! It looks like something is growing out of the top!

Well, there you have it. A ridiculously long account of our kitchen. Oh no, there was something I wanted to add. It was actually in defence of Ikea, where we got the kitchen from. I read the other day on a blog someone disparaging Ikea and calling it generic (ok, I can't exactly argue with that), but not everyone can afford bespoke furniture, and not everybody has the patience, or indeed time, to scour antiques or flea markets to find the right furniture that way. Yes, Ikea is mass produced, but you can still make it your own by using other things, such as paint and accessories, or whatever you like (incidentally, the paint in the kitchen is Rhubarb by Paint Library). Having said that, we have far less Ikea in our house than we had when we were younger and in our flat. You just have to be selective. We have our own original artworks, and collect things when we go away, so it all adds together to make a lovely portrait of the owners of a home.

Thank you and goodnight!

xxx Sam

A few exciting little things

Oh Wow! Its so long since I've sat down at my dining table to write a blog post that it feels rather unusual and exciting. I even have something to blog about, which is a bit of a rarity at the moment, but I finally feel like I want to be making stuff again. I've been having so many ideas lately, which I've been quickly sketching so I don't forget them. I've even been doing some actual sketching, though its not very easy to sketch a nine month old who is wobbling about all over the place (only on his bottom sitting down though, Noah seems to want to miss out crawling and go straight to walking, or, more correctly, running!) though its great for practising speed. I was always better at taking my time with sketching, so its nice to try a different approach.

I'm so pleased with myself as I've finally finished my sample baby changing bag.

 

 

 

I still have about 600 photos to scour through and the pattern to write, but at least the bag is done and I can move on to realising some of my new ideas. Here are just a few of shots I took quickly earlier today. I have to say I just love the main fabric. I had so nearly finished it before Noah came along, so it only took a couple of hours over two evenuings to finish. I wish I'd done it ages ago now.

I've been knitting the Apres Surf Hoodie by Connie Chang Chinchio, which is so enjoyable; its a really nice, fun to knit, pattern and I've learnt how to do a provisional cast on, or rather, tried a couple of the many methods and chose the long-tail provisional cast-on. Here's the back and a close up of the pattern...

Can't wait to block this when its done. I've used Fyberspates Scrumptious and its absolutely perfect for the lace pattern; loads of stitch definition.

I bought this fabric yesterday, in Ikea of all places.

I just think its really fun and fresh, so I'll be using it for my next design - a summer dress.

I was looking through my blog photos folder and realised I hadn't written about wonderwool, so here are a couple of belated photos, firstly of the Scrumptious with one skein of Tall Yarns I forget what and second of some cream merino I've been spinning on the spindle.

 

 

Well its certainly nice to have something to write about. I hope it continues.

xxx

A new kitchen

Considering interior design is pretty much my absolute favourite thing, I'm surprised at myself at how little I write about it. We've pretty much finished redecorating our "new" house (ok, we moved in a year and a half ago so not entirely new) and although I wrote a fair bit about it to begin with, eg here and here, we'd hardly done anything at that point and I have so much to write about now. We're now on our final project which is the redecorating of the kitchen and fitting of a new one; something I thought we'd not be able to do for about ten years if we were lucky.

Ever since I saw the Lidingo kitchen in Ikea, probably a couple of years ago now, I've planned how I'd design it into our own kitchen, and amazingly we've been able to buy it. I'm not really a fan of gadgety kitchens, so apart from one cupboard which actually has three pull out drawers when you open it, though it looks like a normal single cupboard, we haven't gone for any fancy pull out shelves or anything like that, so it came in ridiculously cheap.

Unfortunately, I can't find a "before" photo, but here are some progress shots.

In the process of taking out the old kitchen, You can see the delightful old pine drawers, which was what the whol kitchen was made from.

 

Making dinner on the camping gas hob. This has been my hob for some weeks now!

 

View from the other end (the end I'm in in the previous photo)

 

Everything ripped out...

...and from the other end.

Bonding on walls before plastering.

Coat of white before painting...

 

 ...this amazing pink colour! It looks absolutely lush!!! Its Rhubarb by Paint Library.

Marno has set up an amazing makeshift kitchen in the dining room, so I actually still have a working oven, the camping hob, and he's attached a metal hose to the tap so I even stil have running water. He's a practical genius! And I'm sitting here writing about it while he's next door screwing cabinets together. Hmmm...

More photos to come as we make progress.

I am always astonished at how paint, or wallpaper for that matter, can cover the worst walls. I don't mean bad in condition, as we are meticulous with our walls in terms of getting them smooth, but I mean if you have patches of all different colours or finishes, filled in bits and blablabla, a couple of coats of (good) paint just hides all the patchiness underneath. Its very pleasing, and a real reward for all the hard preparatory work.

Ok, I'm off to check on the husband's progress. Bye for now xxx

Continuing the green cardigan theme...

... here is Noah's gorgeous little cardigan which I finished the other week. Its Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down, which is a free pattern on Ravelry.

I used Debbie Bliss EcoCotton Aran, which had a slightly smaller gauge than the recommended yarn, so I just added extra stitches when I cast on to make a total of 40 stitches, which added one stitch to both fronts and sleeves, and two stitches to the back section. I had the buttos in my small stash, which I definitely want to build up. Its great not having to go shopping for buttons once you've finished a project.

Here are some photos of Noah wearing the cardi. I think he looks delicious!

Above; with my sister

Noah and me.

Cardigan I finished ages ago

I planned to blog this ages ago but having little boy means I have to find a little spare moment to do it. The evening is best, but by that time I don't feel like thinking up what to write as my brain is a little turned to mush! But I've just been totally inspired by some Christadelphian friends on facebook who have started a craft collective and I realixed I shouldn't give up on my blog, even if I don't get to post all that often at the moment. I've been surprisingly productive lately, as it happens. I've been knitting Noah a cardigan, although I've nearly run out of yarn and I just have to collar left to do. Its actually the Baby Sophisticate Jacket, super easy to knit and very, well, sophisticated. I knitted a lovely lavender stuffed heart for a friend who had just moved into her new home, but our camera broke on holiday - it got sand in the lens - so we just upgraded it, but I wasn't able to photograph it. I'll have to sneak to her house and photograph it in situ. I'm knitting another heart at the moment and also thinking about what to do with these little fabric squares. Oh, and don't reming me about the pattern I'm writing. I will finish it, I just need daylight, and we've also ripped out our kitchen as we're getting a new one (good old Ikea) so our dining table/craft table (!) is cuurrently covered with pots and pans and foodstuffs. We are very blessed in that our oven was just plug in so we can keep it until the new one goes in, and we have a great camping hob with two gas rings. Marno has set up a makeshift kitchen in the dining room and we have a ittle breakfast bar to eat at. Perfect!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, knitting. Here is the cardigan I finished. Kim Hargreaves "Thea". 

Sorry there aren't any good front pics - I was (and still am) breastfeeding, and in these photos it could, shall I say, fit a little better round the bust! haha! Its a lovely cardigan, knitted in gorgeous Rowan Kid Classic, but hence so warm that I can only really wear it when its really cold. Also it is a little shorter than I would have liked, which seems to be the general consensus on Rav, in the KH group. But overall, very nice, but pretty dull to knit.

Here is a picture I drew of Noah in a quick half hour when he was asleep in his bouncy chair. This is a couple of months old now, but a I said, I haven't posted in an age.

His lip looks a itte odd, but it is quite accurate. It tends to droop a little when he's asleep in his chair. Utterly gorgeous :)

Hopefully I'll have a finished cardigan to report on soon xxx

Not all my own work

I said I'd write about the lovely handmade gifts we received for Noah in my last post, so here we are. We were given three lovely cardigans, specifically handmade for Noah, and one handmade but purchased, by my sister along with some little booties. The three cardigans are what may be referred to as typical baby knits, but knowing what has gone into them just makes me love them. The stitch patterns are so pretty and I just really appreciate them.

I just love this blue cardigan. It looks so cosy and the stitch pattern is so pretty.

Close up of stitch pattern.

 Yellow cardigan with triangle edging (a similar edging as the mohair lace cardigan)

Close up of edging

White cardigan

We were also given three crochet blankets, two crocheted by one lady, Nancy, a dear friend of Ma's, who also knitted the yellow cardi, and the other by the same friend who knitted the white cardigan, Gill...

  
Nancy's blanket 1

Nancy's blanket 2 - what gorgeous edging!

Gill's blanket.

I have to say I haven't a clue about crochet though people keep telling me how easy it is... hmmm I have yet to be convinced!

And finally, this absolutely stunning quilt, made by Pam, another dear friend of Ma's, and the mum of one of Marno's friends from school.

She started making it when she found out I was pregnant, and its perfect for either a boy or a girl. I think it is so beautiful and it will certainly be adorning Noah's cot when he is older.

Oops, I almost forgot the cardigan my sister gave and the booties.

The kindness and generosity we have received from people has been utterly overwhelming. We have received such a massive amount of gifts (not handmade) and are so grateful to so many people. A baby seems to bring happiness to so many, and they are so ready to show it. Its a real lesson and I hope I don't forget it.

My beautiful little boy

I wasn't sure I wanted to put any photos of our little one on here as anyone can see him, but I decided to go with just one because this blog is to document important things and I can't not talk about this wonderful event! Having a baby is the most incredible thing I've ever experienced, and being a mummy is the most important job in the world. You're the centre of a child's life and they look to you for everything, therefore you want to be the best example you possibly can to them.

This is my ideal for my family:

Psalm 128

A song of ascents.

 ¹ Blessed are all who fear the LORD,
       who walk in his ways.  ² You will eat the fruit of your labour;
       blessings and prosperity will be yours.
 ³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
       within your house;
       your sons will be like olive shoots
       around your table.
 ⁴ Thus is the man blessed
       who fears the LORD.
 ⁵ May the LORD bless you from Zion
       all the days of your life;
       may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
 ⁶ and may you live to see your children's children.
       Peace be upon Israel.

 I don't have any of my own work to write about at the moment, although the bag is nearly finished, but we've received some beautiful knitted and crocheted gifts and a beautiful quilt, so I'll post about those next time. I'm also really glad I left a message on Melynda's blog, French Press Knits, which I've been reading for a while, as I received a lovely reply from her - I love it when people are as nice as they come across in their writing, and I really admire how far she's come in the year since she started her blog. Thanks for being so inspiring Melynda :)