La Dolce Vita 2026

helensbiggestfan

Me too, lovely room. Love the armchair and the tiles in the fireplace are so pretty.

I really want to finish my lounge but ideally I need to tackle some outside jobs before the weather breaks. So today it's back to sorting the garage. The garden needs some TLC. The perennials I planted seem to be taking ok. Family gathering tomorrow so I won't get anything done so I had better crack on……..

TheGrubbyGardener

Thank you @annieb64 and @helensbiggestfan 😁 The tiles were another eBay find - we had to drive a long way to pick them up, but the price (£38) more than made up for it!

Glad your perennials are taking ok now that the weather has cooled a little, Helen. There will be plenty of cold/wet days to finish your living room, so it's best to crack on outside while the weather allows. Have a lovely day with your family!

TheGrubbyGardener

We're due a day of rain here tomorrow, so I've been trying to get ahead of the curve by starting to plant the spring bulbs (alliums today).

Between that and awaiting some tile samples for the next fireplace we're reinstating, I managed to squeeze in a nice long walk along the seafront with the granddog 🐕🐾 Life is so much better when you can walk the dog without needing to jump in the car!

helensbiggestfan

the great purge begins. #Swedish Death Cleaning. Lol

PollyWollyDoodle

Oh well done! I keep saying that this is what I’m doing but it seems as if whatever I do, there’s still too much stuff. Having work done on the house is a huge incentive to get rid of things, I find.

Wednesday2000

I read that Swedish death cleaning book too! I was just going through my bags looking to cull a few. I have three I’m going to take to a chazzer tomorrow.

TheGrubbyGardener

Well done @helensbiggestfan! We like our stuff too much to have a proper purge, but did reduce the memento boxes by more than half before we sold the mill. It's so satisfying and cathartic when you are able to get shot of things you no longer need or want (and we do have less space here)!

Plans are afoot to do a(nother) car boot sale before the bad weather sets in, so fingers crossed that will be a success.

We had a little road trip over the weekend, hunting for a new sofa for the TV room, but only came away with more fabric 🙄 I've started making a throw for the snug sofa with one piece, but our gorgeous granddog is getting in the way again lol 😆 On our way home we stopped briefly to look in a couple of antique shops, but whilst there were some great things to buy and we got a few ideas for Christmas, we weren't tempted to part with any £££.

TheGrubbyGardener

Hi Ladies!

Hope everyone has had a good week and that you've all got lovely things planned for the weekend? We were supposed to be hosting an overnight guest tomorrow but their plans changed so it will probably be next weekend now.

Means we can crack on with the fireplace we're adding to the dining room. It won't be a working one since the previous owner messed about with the chimney breast, so no wood burner in this one.

Instead I'd like a bioethanol stove, but OH - understandably - doesn't want to commit to the expense of the one I like in case we sell the cottage in the next couple of years.

I found a cheap, temporary alternative on marketplace…a nearly new Dimplex electric 'wood burner' for £30 😁

I'm also gathering (books mainly) for donating and have two bags almost full.

Wednesday2000

I have had a couple of nice days out. Yesterday we went to an Italian restaurant for my friend's birthday, he and his wife came over to us from where we lived in east London and we ate at a lovely local place. Today we went out for a meal and to the cinema to Chelmsford. Chelmsford is a nice place and I have only been there twice in the last month after going there for V festival back in 1997! I bought myself a few home bits from Flying Tiger to make the house look more Autumnal.🤩

I'm going out to look at an antiques shop near me tomorrow and to drop off the two donation bags I made to a charity shop. I added quite a lot to the three handbags I had decided to donate.

TheGrubbyGardener

Sounds like you had a really lovely time with your friends @Wednesday2000 😁 It's so nice to catch up with people you've not seen for a while - when we first moved back to England we began meeting up with old friends again that we hadn't properly seen for ten years. They're our 'eighties friends' as we all share a love of early-mid eighties music and as we lived very close by, we used to regularly host dinner parties for each other where we'd eat great food, listen to brilliant music and drink too much good wine lol 😆

We did some fireplace prep yesterday and on Saturday we bought a cute lamp for our new kitchen (£85 reduced to £28!)

Horrible wet weather today so I'm cooking my first casserole of the season/first in a proper oven since 2024.