Frump to Fab 2022 - The Big One

liberty_lily

Thanks Chanie 😊
Very sorry to hear about your OH...hope he's feeling okay and is able to relieve you of the physical stuff around your home again soon!

I need to dye my roots in the next few days - I've been so busy on house and garden fabbing, I have forgotten about myself....I think it was all that talk of dyeing sofa covers that reminded me, lol 😆 

I bought some new faux Uggs (Lamo) the other day as my ancient ones are only fit for gardening. Apart from possibly a jumper or two and some plain black leggings/tights, I've all the clothing I need for the winter and same goes for DH, other than new stretch skinny jeans which don't seem to last him long 🙄

After a few days of somewhat mixed weather here, I'm hoping the promised weekend dry days materialise so we can get the main timber framing for the glazing in as it's unlikely DH will have time to take any additional days off between now and when he's due to go to Brighton (in two weeks). We're so behind because of being unable to do so much as look at the building work whilst we had covid, but as long as the whole lot is watertight by then it'll be okay 🤞

Meanwhile, I've been doing nasty bits like defrosting the freezer and clearing out the fridge plus on a couple of wet evenings we've made good progress with papering the kitchen chimney breast with the lovely Liberty wallpaper we bought earlier in the year! Just the awkward bits left to do....

Wednesday2000

I am feeling wiped out after my Covid jab. I didn't even get to the play last night and had 9 hours sleep instead. We did go and join a GP (finally) and then went for tea and cake at a cafe and then to a bar for lunch so at least we did something with the day beforehand.

I went to the two local furniture stores yesterday too. We saw one sofa that was black and modern and I really liked it, but it was £900 which I thought was quite steep for an outlet store. We then went to look for the Chesterfield sofa but it was too high backed to fit through our door. It was a red two seater Queen Anne style. There was another sofa there that was beige/ brown and in a Chesterfield style and the man said he could partially dismantle it in the van so it should fit through the door. I saw a couple of butterfly print cushions which they threw in for free. It is all being delivered tomorrow afternoon.:)

I was just saying on here that I have ordered two more LED torches and another solar storm with all this talk about potential power cuts!

I think I am just going to relax at home tomorrow and then Sunday we might go down to the beach with our dog. I said to my husband that this nice weather probably won't last for much longer so we may as well take advantage of it while we can.

sugarbaby125

Hello Ladies,

Thanks Liberty Lily and Chanie.  

Chanie, I really hope that your husband is fully recovered in a month and can return to work. 

Wednesday I hope you get over your Covid jab soon. 

I performed my poems I'm Not Just Black and Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner at Minet Library last night. There was a lovely audience who made all of the poets that were performing feel supported. My son and my daughter came with me to support me. One woman came up to me in the interval to tell me exactly why she really liked my poem I'm Not Just Black which was really gratifying. One of the other female poets was someone I knew; we both did a creative writing course together last year. We caught up with each other and had a right laugh together. It was only a 10 minute walk away for me and my children.  

I have bitten the bullet, finally finished proofreading my play and having made the necessary corrections, I have submitted it for the playwrighting competition.

 

Floss

Fingers crossed  Sugarbaby

sugarbaby125

Thanks Floss 

sugarbaby125

Hello Ladies, I forgot to say in my earlier post:

I saw the actress Lorraine Chase again in Camberwell Green. This time she was right next to me, so I said, 'hello Lorraine' as casual as you like, and Lorraine said to me 'Hello gorgeous, how you doing?' and I just replied 'fine'. As I walked away, I was thinking 'Lorraine Chase called me gorgeous', it felt a bit surreal, but she is a typical cockney and it is just the way she speaks. She was dressed really well in classic, well cut clothing. I presume that she now lives in the Camberwell area, as I have seen her before in Camberwell.

maman

Congratulations on getting your play finished and sent off @sugarbaby. That's an achievement in itself. 😊 And well done on your poetry reading. Did you say your poem was going to be put on the Blackfriars website? 🤔

We went to see Mrs Harris goes to Paris last night and enjoyed t very much. We rarely go to the cinema so it made a nice change and the story was light and heart warming so good escapism. 

Sorry to hear that you've been feeling rough after your vaccines @Wednesday2000, hope you've recovered now. I got off lightly with just a headache for part of the next day. I put my feet up and finished my latest book. It was called 'A Spoonful of Murder' and was in the vein of the Richard Osman bestseller The Thursday Murder Club but not anything like as good. I'd heard some plays written by the same author on the radio but the characters in the book were very disappointing. 

Although we dodged the rain that was around last night, the air was damp and my hair looked a wreck when I got home from the cinema with frizzy ends. I need to have it cut but I'm hoping to hang on for a couple of weeks as it will fit in better with things I'm doing. If I'm paying for a blow dry I want to make the most of it. 

It's been an absolutely glorious day here today, warm and sunny. I hope it was for you @liberty_lily so that you can get your outside work progressed. 

sugarbaby125

Thanks Maman

No, it was my 2 oral monologues that Will recorded that were supposed to be put on the Blackfriars website, but to my knowledge, that never happened in the end. Not sure why. I forgot to ask. 

My 2 poetry performances were filmed along with all of the other poets. I had not noticed last night, but then they came up on my Facebook timeline. 

Wednesday2000

I remember you said you bumped into Lorraine Chase before Sugarbaby.

I have quite a few things to do next week. I have the door being fitted and we are having some electrical work done. I was thinking I should have put my dog in the kennel as I was thinking that the power needs to be off for a few hours and it is quite hard to sit there reading peacefully with my dog barking! I might try and book her in. My husband has his Covid jab tomorrow afternoon.

I need to book a GP appointment too. The receptionist said a lot of it is e-consults now and that it is a new thing they have been doing. I don't know if she meant only in this area or all GP surgeries are doing this now.

I got a letter about the cremations we were going to pay for in advance. Apparently the prices are going up by £200 on the 1st of November, but they said they could give it to us at the original lower price if we pay for it before then. That is another big chunk of money to go out, but it would be better to pay for it now as I assume prices are just going to go up more and more.

I also want to go back to having some NSD's (non-spend days) to try and cut back on spending. I have all those books to read on my kindle and lots of TV shows to watch so I have to do that instead of buying stuff online and in charity shops. We have got the quiz with our friends this Saturday and we are going to see a film and probably for a meal at the O2 first but then no other outings planned until November. 

I am going to go back to the advice about fibromyalgia that I did before, slepping in as late as possible was one of the pieces of advice and so was getting daylight in the morning. Walking outside for at least one hour was another. I will have to refresh my memory as I don't want to keep feeling unwell again.

I need to do a major declutter too as I have been buying non-stop since I moved house. I have 2 donation bags waiting by the door at the moment. My new sofa arrived yesterday and the workmen assembled it in the house. I moved some of the furniture around but we need to wait until the Sky workman comes here to move the box and cables and then we will move the living rooms around properly.

We are taking my dog to the beach today, but I am not spending any money. Well, actually we need to buy one cleaning product and some margarine but apart from that no spending!:)

liberty_lily

Thanks, Maman 😊 Yes, it was a perfect sunny day for the building work yesterday! Today is cloudier with a bit of a breeze, but still dry fortunately so we're making progress 🙂

We even managed to squeeze in a walk with our dogs at a nearby country park which we'd not visited for some time. Since our last walk there they've laid out additional paths through the woodland making it more user friendly for those like me who are prone to slipping and falling 😉 It was a perfect autumnal late afternoon and by going at 5ish we had the place pretty much to ourselves apart from the ladies working in the cafe! On our return we made a very hot lamb curry with extra chillies 😃

I'd like to see Mrs Harris goes to Paris too - especially after all the good reviews here - but will most likely wait for the dvd as it's been 10+ years since we went to the cinema...

Hope you're pleased with the new sofa, Wednesday? I'm with you on the no spend days (and the two donation bags by the front door, lol - DH has promised to drop them off at the local Cat's Protection charity shop when he passes there this week), as we've also been splashing the cash too much lately.....

Firstly a vase I'd admired in Liberty was reduced so I purchased that - it was supposed to be for the guest room but when it arrived I decided it would better suit the living room (although that's academic at the moment so for now it's in our room 🙄). Secondly, I picked up an inexpensive (£12 in the clearance section) cushion at Homesense which will go nicely with the others I have planned for the same space. Thirdly, I'd forgotten the half price jumper I got in TK for £14.99 last week.

Then, on Friday, we were discussing Christmas gifts and agreed we'd buy ourselves an unusual mirror we've been coveting. I decided to check if was still available and noticed it had a £60 reduction which felt like too good an opportunity to pass by, so that fell into my basket and is due to be delivered tomorrow (although will be hidden away till Christmas!). What with all the building materials too - we thought we'd got everything but there's always something extra that gets overlooked - we realised we need more timber which will add about £800 (!!!) to the cost...although I found somewhere local-ish that hopefully might have what we need for a little less 😉 

I'm going to restrain myself from browsing online shopping destinations for a bit - at least till the current phase of work is complete!

Enjoy what's left of the weekend, ladies 🙂