Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

phoebe1989seb

Yes, it's very quiet! My excuse is the usual kind - just busy, busy working on the cottage 🙄

Nonetheless, we've found time for some champagne moments - mainly of the country walks, home-cooked food and slobbing in front of the TV variety (watching a few dramas including local-ish 'The Pembrokeshire Murders' and I'm loving 'The Serpent'!) plus I've been trying to find time to read the Grayson Perry books I had for Christmas 😊

Although there's some bathroom jobs outstanding (I'd love to say the jib door is done, but it's not!), DH has decided that 2021 should be the year our washing machine finally comes in from the cold, lol! To that end, he has set a date of 16th Feb (three years since we completed on the purchase of the cottage) for having the new laundry cupboard complete. 

Back in 2018 we purchased everything required to convert the understairs area into a cloakroom, but now we've
decided to put the *facilities* in the new extension it made sense to use the space for laundry. Along the way I admit we had a wobble, as historically this housed the internal entrance to the ancient undercroft (the stone stairs are still in situ beneath the floor) and we wondered whether to reinstate this, but we concluded it would disrupt the kitchen layout too much.

Anyway, a laundry cupboard it shall be ❤️ So, I've been busy sourcing the perfect slender (Italian) Belfast style sink, copper tap and light fitting. I've managed to secure all at heavily discounted prices without sacrificing on quality or my original choices of brands. We already bought the floor tiles in 2018 and have some lovely Fired Earth wall tiles left over from our kitchen at the last-but-one house.

I just ordered some (free) fabric samples as I plan on making a *skirt* for the washing machine, lol, (shame the fabric itself isn't free, although I'm hoping to find a remnant on eBay!) and I'm really excited about making this tiny space as beautiful as such a functional area can be!

In the garden, although the frosts have damaged my cyclamen, and today it's too damp to venture far, there are definite signs of spring - the snowdrops and bluebells are pushing up through the soil and the primroses have been flowering for weeks! Our bird feeders are alive with tiny birds which is a joy to see 😍

I'm also desperately trying to bring a feeling of Spring indoors, with lots of fresh cut flowers dotted about including my favourite Lisianthus and I also have tulips (half price in Tesco) - excuse the patchwork of paint samples on the wall!

Before Christmas I was hoping to order some Paperwhite narcissus, but with everything else, I managed to forget. I thought I'd left it too late as everywhere obvious online had sold out - and of course here in Wales nurseries and garden centres are closed - but I found a place in Powys with a few left for mail order. My twenty-four healthy plants arrived today and hopefully once flowering will boost the amaryllis that are still hanging in there 

The rather half-hearted decluttering continues here - but I found somewhere that will take my vintage clothes/fabrics! Ian Snow - a company I've previously bought ethically sourced/manufactured home decor items from - buy such stuff....paying in vouchers towards their products. They upcycle the fabrics etc in their UK factory......

Right, back to the bomb site that is the guest room walk-in wardrobe!

Keep safe, healthy and upbeat everyone......

balabooberlies

Gosh, thank you both.  Those flowers are beautiful.

love to all

bala  x

needmoney

Those two flower pictures look like paintings - lovely

helensbiggestfan

Good Morning my lovely friends.  

Champagne moments.....coming out of my self imposed strict 2 week isolation and seeing family members in my support bubble yesterday.  Ordering some naughty treats of ebay,  a couple of sweaters, not needs but definite wants.  

Non champagne moment - putting myself on 😂🤣 the scales.   Oh well. Back to WW. 😉

Wednesday2000

It's such a lovely day. It feels like Spring after all the horrible cold and rainy weather.

I tried on a pencil skirt that was too tight last year (or the year before!) and it fits me now.

helensbiggestfan

Hello my lovely friends.  

Great news about the skirt Wednesday....nice when that happens.  I wish I could say the same. I tried on some of my jeans and trousers, ca t get I them, 😟. I'm not buying larger sizes.

day 5 of WW. So far the blasted scales are stubbornly refusing to budge.  Disappointing but trying to stay focused. I know I have to persevere, Rome wasn't built in a day.  

Nothing much happening here.  Just jogging along......giving myself regular pep talks to keep motivated.  😂

stay safe, well and warm everyone. 

phoebe1989seb

Major champagne moment here.....two of our three accoya windows for which we paid a £3500 deposit on 21st September 2019 were finally fitted yesterday 😀😀😀

The third isn't made yet, but hopefully will follow soon!

They look fab (flush casements in Little Greene 'Silt'), although there's lots of making good to do around the openings - the joys of living in a 400 year old building, lol - including tidying up some wonderful original beams discovered beneath layers of plasterboard 🙄 These ancient timbers are full of character and will make a great addition to the kitchen once fully exposed!

Last night we planned to celebrate with a bottle of bubbly, but were too exhausted after a busy week prepping for the arrival of said windows and many a sleepless night during which we pondered being let down yet again, as these were originally due to be ready/fitted ahead of Christmas 2019!!!!!!!

Instead we'll have the celebratory drink tonight alongside a well earned Thai curry 😉

Not much else to report, other than purchasing a few bits for the laundry cupboard, but working on this was put on the back burner in order to have everywhere cleared ready for the window fitting......

Back to normal next week, lol!

helensbiggestfan

hello my lovely friends......

still living quietly, sticking to my support bubble and enjoying champagne moments of the domesticated at home variety.  

Best one of all though was receiving my vaccination invite this Morning.  Get my 1St jab tomorrow.  1st step back to normality. 🥂

Ps almost forgot......received a nice cheque last week. Refund of deposit for my cancelled cruise.  Nice surprise.  

balabooberlies

Hello LL

so pleased for you on both counts.  Missing you.....

bala

x

phoebe1989seb

Waves to Bala and LL!

Great news about the jab (and the cheque!) LL 😊 A few people we know have had theirs - DH's aunt and uncle (both mid eighties) have had first and second doses, DS's partner's grandfather (early eighties) has had his first and the young wife of a friend (she's a social worker dealing with the vulnerable on a daily basis) has had hers.

It's a beautiful, spring-like, sunny day here after all the rain, wind, sleet etc and the bird feeders are smothered in tiny birds!

Otherwise, champagne moments have been mostly house/decorating based 🙄

Progress is being made in the laundry cupboard, with walls plastered/painted, floor tiles laid, first fix plumbing done (including macerator) and wall light fitted. Everything needed to complete the space is either here or on order....oh, except the fabric as I keep holding out for a remnant of my chosen design but nothing doing so will probably have to bite the bullet and pay full price. As I only require one metre, paying £59 isn't so bad, lol!

We've allowed ourselves an extra week (so target is now my birthday 😉) to make allowances for the disruption of the window fitting last month and I think we should easily meet this.

Shopping my home I realised that the lampshades needed for the kitchen were here all along (some Pooky shades I purchased for elsewhere but decided they were the wrong size) and they're a perfect fit with my two, mismatched lamp bases - one of which was a bargain basement find in B&Q of all places!

The garden is awash with snowdrops, primroses and some irises in pots I'd forgotten I'd planted. Lots of allium bulbs are pushing up through the soil too 

Inside I'm pleased to report that the Narcissus paper whites are in bud, so they'll soon be keeping the cut flowers company...yay!