Find the SecondStar and soar, and then straight on till the morning…

KajiKita

I TOTALLY relate to the not being able to celebrate a new home immediately after moving in. It took us six weeks as there was soooo much to do. Mr KK was nearly in tears as he just couldn’t see how he would ever get the container he’d rented empty - so we spent a whole weekend on it ….

Loving all your plans for the birthday celebration. Your joy in him and what you have together is radiant ❤️

KK

SecondStar

Happy belated houseday to me!

I’ve spent the past 3 days painting (partner helped over the weekend), and now my living room is wholly, blissfully, all-encompassingly green. From the ceiling to the skirts, and all the woodwork and doors. I feel like the owl and the pussycat in their beautiful pea-green boat, and I’m very content that it was the right choice.

Of course, now what I *really* want to do is to put the pedal to the floor, and go down the list of things I want for the room, and buy them ALL, NOW. It’s difficult to remember that if I have to go into my savings, then I can’t actually afford it. It’s difficult to remember that I am being deliberate and intentional with my spending now, and that I have to wait till my next paycheque before I can buy anything else - I’ve spent my decorating money for this month.

I’m trying to remind myself that this isn’t a sprint. I’m not against a clock, there is no deadline; no need to rush, no pressure other than the ‘but I want to’s - and the ‘but I want to’s belong to my inner child, not my adult self. I’m indulging that inner child by eating my celebratory, homemade, chocolate cheesecake as part of every meal today. 

I’ve accidentally bought my partner 3 Barbour coats for his birthday…

I nipped onto Vinted, found a nice coat for a great price, and bought it. Then saw that it had been listed for over a year, and that the seller hadn’t been online in weeks, and as the days ticked by I assumed it would never actually ship to me.

After that, I stopped to do a bit more research on the different styles of Barbour coat (of which there are MANY, apparently!), picked a style he’d like, and then went looking for that specific style. Again, found a coat in great condition, for a good price, and it shipped super fast! It turned up on Saturday, and looked worryingly small…

I had to wait until my partner was outside with the dog, and then really sneakily measure it against his current coat and yep - too small. Back onto Vinted to find the same style in the next size up, again got a pretty good price, but the cost is definitely adding up now! The larger coat is now on its way…and then the first seller of the original purchase messaged me, and apologised for the delay in postage, but it’s on the way now!

So I have 2 coats in the post to me, and 1 in my cupboard hahah. I’ll compare the 2 when they arrive and either gift him the most suitable one, or give him the choice, and then list the extras for sale. I should recoup my cash easily enough, as they were bargains, but this has been far more work than anticipated - and all because I really wanted to be able to give him his presents *on* his birthday! It’ll make a good story though, I know he’ll find it funny when I trail out all these coats!

SecondStar

The budget has rather gone out of the window for May, but I have zero regrets about any of it.

This week off has been absolutely wonderful. So chilled out and relaxed, and my partner and I spent almost every day together. It’s been lovely.

My living room cupboard got doors on, and my partner forged me this really cute set of latches with spirals, from a photo I saw on Pinterest. He’s so talented, it makes me melt!

I spent 4 long, sweaty hours cutting the decorative moulding into panels for the door fronts, and adding pretty brass hinges. This week I’ll glue the panelling on, caulk the gaps, and prime the outside ready for painting. I was tempted to colour drench it in the same green as the rest of the room, but I might do a contrast colour and then hand paint some florals instead. Not sure yet! It looks fantastic already, the panelling already adds so much warmth and character to the room, it’s really coming together.

Today I also hung my gallery wall in the living room! It was both sad and lovely to go through the boxes of my mum’s things. They’d been stacked precariously in the shed since I moved in a year ago, and it was nice to pull out the pictures, photos, and other pieces that I’d half forgotten I’d kept.

Where there was once a (very pretty) expanse of green wall, there is now a meandering mix of items - a matched pair gold frames containing cross stitches of starlings and barn owls done by my granny about 20 years ago; little paintings and sketches found in charity shops; a startlingly gaudy still life of a flower arrangement; an ordinance survey map of my home town; a photograph of me outside the house I grew up in, 16 years after I left; a posed photo of me, my mum, and my cousins, dressed up like Victorians; a cross stitch that says ‘feminist’ which was done and gifted by my best friend; a painting which reminded me of my old cat.

It is not perfect - the spacing is a little off, the composition is a little sloppy, and don’t lift any items off or else you’ll see the failed holes and flaking plaster - but it is an exceedingly happy disarray, which makes the house feel like my home; and that makes my heart sing.

The space has filled up pretty fast, but I’ll forcibly make room for a few more bits - recent photos I’ll print from my phone; older photos of misspent youth dug out of SD cards and USB sticks; oldest photos carefully removed from precious albums.

I’m no longer afraid of making my walls my own, and the one thing that kept crossing my mind was - ‘what took me so long??’.

The living room still needs the bookshelves building in a small alcove by my bedroom door; 2/3 shelves put up above my desk on the other side of the chimney breast; a long shelf above the archway to the kitchen; cafe curtains at the window; and a curtain to separate the living room and kitchen. Phew! Nearly there!



Next month’s project, if I’ve money left from finishing the living room, may either be the bathroom, or the porch.

The bathroom will have tongue and groove panelling on the lower walls, painted walls, ceiling, tiles, and door, and new Lino down on the floor. It’ll have shelves hung, and possibly moulding around the ceiling too.

The porch will have another custom-built cupboard - hopefully by me this time! After watching my partner build the big living room one, I’m confident that I can have a crack at a smaller version. I want to box in the radiator (engineered so that the heat isn’t restricted), and create an enclosed space for coat hooks, bags, and shoe storage. Again, possibly panelled lower walls, and with a hand painted pattern on the upper walls. Possibly with high level shelves too, for extra storage.



It is very exciting and fulfilling to finally make the space my own.

SecondStar

My partner was thrilled with his Barbour coat - the 3rd one to arrive! It fit him like a glove, I was so relieved, and he laughed when I told him the strife and showed him the other coats.

The chocolate cake came out beautifully, even though I had Problems with the ganache, and ended up making enough ganache for several chocolate cakes. It was delicious, and he was so surprised - he’d never had anyone bake him a birthday cake before. He loved his other presents too, and I’d packed us a massive picnic and brought a basket, cooler, and a blanket. We spent the day lying in the park under a tree, reading books and watching ducks, it was bliss.

The rest of the week was spent browsing around charity shops and markets, stopping for coffee, and spending lazy afternoons out in the sunshine. We had our first beach day, and the first dip in the sea of the summer!

It really has felt like a proper little summer holiday, I feel so relaxed and refreshed.

KajiKita

Awww, that all sounds amazing 😊
So pleased that at least one of the coats fitted OH! 😉😂

My aunt and uncle have a huge, wood panelled wall like that in their living room with everything from photographs, fabrics, miniatures, paintings etc etc It evolved over time and totally reflects their life together ❤️ Your description of your wall reminds me of their wall 🤩

KK

SecondStar

Morning friends!

Getting back to work after a week off was HARD. It looks like we’re doing 5 days of full telephony for the foreseeable, which is difficult to stomach after having at least 2 days on admin tasks for the last few months. It’s a busy period, which is understandable but frustrating. I don’t want to wish the summer away, but we all change departments in November, and I honestly can’t wait.



I’ve been having some serious FOMO this weekend. It’s one of the biggest reenactment events of the year, about a 3 hour drive from me, and most of my group are there, plus my partner and all his friends.

I wasn’t able to go last year as I was in the middle of moving house, and this year I didn’t want (and couldn’t afford to) put my senior dog into kennels. I don’t resent the choice, it was 100% the right decision to make, but I’m still sad that I wasn’t able to go and experience it.

It’s a massive grading event for the public and other reenactors, so it’s a highlight date for my partner and his business. He offered to take my handmade items down to sell for me, my total yesterday was over £200! That’s more than I’ve ever made collectively, selling things which I’ve made!

I’m glad of the money - it’ll probably need to go towards saving for a new boiler, but I’ll keep a bit to treat myself. I’m thrilled that there are people in the world willing to part with their cold hard clash, in exchange for things I create. But most of all, I’m happy to have such an enthusiastic, supportive, involved partner, who celebrates my successes even more than his own.



In an effort to keep myself occupied this weekend, I’ve got the panelling on the cupboard stuck down and caulked, and I’ll at least prime it today. Yesterday I did washing and mowed the lawn, and then went to the library and pulled a few books on gardening for beginners, and then spent the afternoon on a blanket outside, reading. That then descended into measuring up my back and side gardens, drawing up a scale plan, and then fiddling around with different garden ideas and designs all evening.

I know, I know - summer gardens are made in the winter. I don’t expect to magic up a fully-blooming garden within the next few months - can’t afford it, for a start! - but I can dream and plan! With the indoor spaces coming together, and with having spent more time outside than I did last summer, this year I’m noticing what I might like my garden to look like.

I don’t have the money to throw at it to do it quickly, so some of these plans may be several years down the line, but for now I’m amusing myself with my little paper cut-outs. Do we have a gardening section on here? I might poddle off to see if anyone else wants to play with my garden plan!

KajiKita

Awww … hugs for the FOMO but 👏🎉🥳🤩 for the £200 sales! That’s Awesome! 😊 Maybe some of the £200 should be reinvested in more materials? 

There is a gardening board but tbh, following people like Foxgloves and Redofromstart I find more helpful 😊 Also, start watching Gardeners World on a Friday evening 😊
It would be worth thinking about what biennials you might want to grow next spring as you can start those off from seed soon. If you grow too many, you will be able to swop or sell the too 😊

How’s your living room looking now? Still giving you The Joy? 😊

KK

Aimingforthegoodlife

Things are going so well! Great work on the house, paint sounds great. Fab selling too, lovely to know things are being appreciated by others, especially with a monetary value. Love that you are claiming your home as your own, happy anniversary!

SecondStar

Good morning all!

My total sales last weekend ended at €300, which converted to £223 - exchange rate is so rubbish atm! I was very grown up, and decided to save half and then use the other half for Nice Things. You’ll know by now that Nice Things usually translates into decorating of some kind!

My best friend lives in Glasgow, and we’ve not seen each other since last August because we’re both broke. She had been super sad, and then her partner told her that he’d been putting money aside so that either I could go to them, or she could come to me! So she’ll be visiting over the summer, and I can’t wait. She’s not seen my home yet, and I can’t wait to introduce her to my partner.

I don’t have visitors as a rule - I like my own space, and dislike intrusion - but knowing that my friend will be coming has spurred me on to those projects which I’ve wanted to do, but haven’t done yet.



So yesterday after work, I started on the bathroom - with the budget being half of my sale money, so about £110!

I quickly realised that my plan of half panelling the wall was going to be out of budget right now, so instead I’ve fitted the extra moulding on top of the skinny, plain 80’s skirting board, added moulding around the window, and installed a dado rail. It’s going to be colour drenched in Old Cotswold Blue from Homebase - this beautiful, soft, powdery blue, which looks straight out of Beatrix Potter. The tiles, windowsill & frame will go a pretty country cream.

I’m taking out the free standing shelving I brought from the last house, and will be putting up shelves to maximise the floor space; and I’ve got some pretty brass and ceramic hooks I’ve been collecting from charity shops and car boots.

That’s about the extent of my plans within budget, and not sure I’ll get it all done this weekend.

Over time I’ll be replacing the shower door with a brass rail and a pretty shower curtain, adding a brass cafe curtain rail with gauzy curtains, and adding beadboard wallpaper to the lower wall in place of panelling. Very long term plans may include replacing the chrome shower and taps, but that will need some googling done first!

I’m proud of myself. When I got the measuring tape out and realised that the panelling was £20 per panel, and I needed about 8 panels and I couldn’t afford it, it would’ve been so easy to slip into a Doom Spiral. The sort of thing in which you ask yourself, ‘Why am I bothering?’, ‘it’ll look !!!!!!’, ‘what’s the point if you can’t do it ‘properly’?’. I almost threw my hands up and resigned myself to a weekend of scrolling Instagram, and looking at everyone else’s beautiful homes and gardens.

But I know now that that isn’t my voice - it’s my ex’s. It can be hard to recognise in the moment, but I recognise it now. The voice which says I’m rubbish, and why am I even bothering?

Well, I am bothering because I want a change and improvement on my current bathroom! I am bothering because even a project done halfway is a project which has been started, and which has a vision. I’m not going to deny myself a pretty room, just because I don’t have the money to do every single thing I want to it, all at once. I deserve nice things dammit, even if it takes a while to finish!

And what is ‘finished’, anyway? When you only have 4 rooms, I can’t imagine I’ll just have a ‘once and done’ with my home!



Oh, and I also got a set of 8 coat hooks from the local free page, and hung them in my porch to replace the single hook which had been holding all of my coats! Again, that voice of ‘why bother, if you’re not going to redecorate the whole space?’, popped up. And I realised again that I don’t need to spend £££ building cupboards, installing moulding, buying wallpaper, hand painting designs (all of which I want to, and will do in the porch!) - for now, it’s enough to have more hooks for better storage, so I can make the space look a little neater.

The rest will come with time!



I think all these thoughts and realisations are just strands of learning to become patient. Learning to be content with what one has; learning to be grateful and to recognise one’s blessings. Learning to be slow and intentional. And most importantly, learning that these things can be very uncomfortable when you’re not used to them, but that the most important thing is to be mindful of this discomfort, and to give yourself grace as you practice sitting in it.

SecondStar

Rome wasn’t built in a day, Rome wasn’t built in a day, Rome wasn’t built in a day…

Remind me not to buy the Homebase own brand paint again. The colour is beautiful, but it’s difficult to appreciate that because the paint is so difficult to work with. It’s both too liquid, but also too tacky? It sticks to itself, which means when you’re rolling over where you’ve cut in with a brush, all the wet paint comes off your cut in lines! It’s also not adhering well to the primer on the moulding, skirting, and door.

It’s also taking forever to dry!!

I’m sure it’ll be better once I’ve got a 2nd coat on, but I was spoilt with the living room only taking 1 coat! In the future, I think I may colour match everything to B&Qs Valspar range, it’s easily the best paint I’ve worked with so far. I think I might leave it with 1 coat for now, and come back for the 2nd when I’m feeling more gracious about the whole thing.

Of course now I’m sweaty, smelly, covered in cobwebs, dust and paint spatters, and all I want is a shower…except I can’t until the bathroom is dry.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, Rome wasn’t built in a day, Rome wasn’t built in a day…