Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget - 2021

helensbiggestfan

Mrs P.  Wonderful news - you must be so relieved and happy.  

phoebe1989seb

You have been very productive, Helen - you've earned a break 👏

Today's champagne moment - so far (🤞) we seem to have got off lightly with regards to storm Eunice, no trees down or anything blown about/damaged. It rained solidly throughout the night, became extremely windy in the early hours (DH said he heard crashing metal coming from a neighbouring farm when he took the dogs out first thing before heading to work), but - despite still being terribly gusty - it's been sunny on and off for the past few hours 😃

I've been ploughing on with the guest room, sorting bedding etc. Tonight the rad is being plumbed in, the ugly louvre doors are gone - replaced with flat panels that (almost) seamlessly disappear into the wall - and pretty knobs attached.

I now regret offloading so many of our art nouveau pieces at antique fairs/fleamarkets when we were selling our last house - hindsight is a wonderful thing, lol! 

Fortunately we kept a few treasured (smaller) items and I'm going to use a couple in the guest room - an early 1900s amphora trough with sinuous maiden handles ❤️ plus I've a lovely solid silver, art nouveau, five piece dressing table brush set that I plan to display in a box frame. Iirc this was £85 (eBay, of course 😉) about fifteen years ago. I recently saw someone selling just two of the same brushes for £245. I'm so pleased we never parted with that 😄

The bedding is all sorted - because some stuff is still in boxes after four years, I momentarily mislaid a wool duvet, but have located it now - including way too many cushions....think I might have to sell a few 😉

phoebe1989seb

Yesterday's champagne moment - finding a gorgeous lamp for the guest room on eBay and taking a sunny afternoon roadtrip to collect it 😀

It came without a shade, but I've been eyeing up a marbled paper one for ages, wondering where it would work in the old mill. They are made by the same company as the lamp, so a match made in heaven 😍

Because the lamp was across the border in England, we were also able to go mask-free shopping for the first time in ages....it felt really weird!

DH is working on the window area in the guest room today and I've been sorting through more boxes. Annoyingly, the vintage olive Bretby pottery trays I bought for peanuts in an auction job lot a couple of years ago are a tad large for the bedside tables where I hoped to use them.

However, today's champagne moments - I found another small piece of amphora art nouveau (a vase) that I'd completely forgotten about....because it's cracked it was a bargain purchase from a fleamarket when we lived in the Midlands 😉

And... I ordered the marbled paper shade, getting £5 off the purchase price!

I confess I'm getting excited about the room coming together now 😄

Getting stormy again here 🙁

phoebe1989seb

Today's champagne moments -

Breakfast of my favourite crumpets (sourdough, Aldi) in the reading nook whilst catching up on yesterday's home section of the newspaper 😃

Prepping a homemade luscious lamb curry with loads of chillies for tonight's dinner 😋😰

And taking a sunny walk around the garden with the pooches - checking for storm damage, but all thankfully ok - and spotting more green shoots appearing 😀

phoebe1989seb

Hope everyone is ok and that you (and your homes) managed to stay safe and secure during the most recent storm?

Franklyn wasn't too bad here - nowhere near as windy as Eunice - although during the afternoon/early evening it was pretty blustery. In our lane a tree came down temporarily blocking the traffic (not that we get much of that, lol 😉), but fortunately it was on a farmer's land, not ours and they soon had it cleared.

Just hoping there's some respite before any more named storms hit the UK 🙄

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moment today was going to my local Odeon's silver screen showing of the film Stillwater. The My Odeon ticket only cost me £3.50 and I also got a free cup of tea. I loved the film, for me it was a 9/10   

phoebe1989seb

After yesterday's blue skies and sunshine, it's back to blustery drizzle here 🙁

But... today's champagne moments - did a spot more painting of the window in the guest room and reckon that another week should see us finished! Considering the amount of work that was required, three months isn't bad going, imho 😎

Once we're done, it'll be time to crack on with lifting the old quarry tiles and digging out the snug floor, ahead of replacement 🙄
Not remotely looking forward to that!!!

After I'd got as far as I could with the painting, I made my first ever black forest gateau! I won't say it saved me any pennies as the cherries (in Kirsch) weren't cheap, but I've just tried a little and it's delish 😋

Finally, my new marbled paper lampshade arrived...and it looks fantastic with the lamp base! Well worth the £££, especially as I saved money on the base 😍😍😍

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moments today were being a participant in Blackfriars Settlement Mental Health & Wellbeing discussion group from 11am to 12.30pm. One of the facilitators gave me some written notes about the Neighbourhood Voices workshops with The Young Vic, which sounded really interesting to an amateur writer like me. At the end of the workshops the participants should have written a play with lots of guidance and support from industry professionals. So I bit the bullet and signed up. I just have to wait and find out if I am one of the successful applicants. I am terrified but excited at the though of writing my 1st play! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Even if I fail, I will have developed and honed my skills as a writer. 

I had a quick lunch of a piece of southern fried chicken, chips and bottled water in a takeaway that also has a few tables and chairs if like me you need to dine in. I simply did not have time to go home, as I was also going to The Old Vic later in the afternoon. 

I watched the play A Number at The Old Vic. I had an email inviting me to book any ticket in any price range for the special price of £15, so I rushed at the opportunity. I chose a seat in row F that would otherwise have cost me £65 without the code provided in the email. I really enjoyed the play and for me it was a 9/10. I am only deducting a point, because I felt that it could have been even longer and explored some of the themes in even greater depth. 

phoebe1989seb

Wow, writing a play would be so exciting, Sugarbaby... I do hope you are one of the successful applicants 😄

My own attempts at writing have been put on hold since my iPad seized up, losing many of my notes and right now I'm too busy to start again 🙁

Today's champagne moment - another (mostly) sunny, spring-like day, although we did have a sleet flurry earlier and more is expected ☃️

I've been measuring up for the new doors we need - our joiner still owes us around £1000 worth of work from the deposit we paid him back in September 2019 🙄 

Last year he eventually made us two of the three windows we'd ordered, but our plans have changed for the third (we'll be constructing the new solution ourselves!), and we therefore need him to make us something else for the cash we gave him!

We're hoping to finally get this resolved during 2022!!!

Wednesday2000

I thought my Chromebook had died on me but my husband googled and managed to get it working again. Phew.

It made me realise that I don't know any of my online passwords, though!