At the weekend......

I was doing a bit of this

managed to squeeze in using this

and today I'm using these!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Hugs, Sarah x

Cupboard Renovation Photos!

These photos relate to my previous post! I decided not to upload them until my sister had seen our new cloakroom over the weekend. Just in case she popped by my blog!

All done. The bedroom is next. A little breather first and a chance to get back to working on my website re-do! No rest for the wicked..........

Hugs, Sarah x

Still here.......

I am, honestly!

Have at long last finished decorating our cloakroom. It wasn't just a quick lick of paint either. My other half created a false wall to hide pipes and installed tongue and groove and installed coving and finished the woodwork around the window to match our other original windows in our 1928 house. I lined the walls and painted them and gave the tongue and groove three coats of paint and the door two and repainted the ceiling. Oh and I re-tiled the floor. We had hoped to keep the original tiles but they were so badly stained and pitted we sadly couldn't, so we went with something similar to the originals. Oh and of course we installed the toilet and hand basin. It had just been a cupboard with the previous owners.

It's been one of those decorating projects where you really can't seem to see the end of the tunnel, how ever hard you squint into the distance.

Will be back with 'Before' and 'After' pics soon.

Hearty hooray hugs, Sarah x

A Sugar Dusted Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! May you be healthy and happy hearted.

Well we certainly had a white Christmas! Robert took this photo almost at the end of our garden while I was still slumbering in bed. Robert is the one who lets the chickens out in the morning! To the right of the fence is the chickens area of our garden. They are NOT impressed with the snow! No grass to peck at :(

My decorations will come down maybe tomorrow. I feel heavy hearted about it, as I so miss the twinkly cosiness of it all at Christmas. Rooms always look so bare.

I buy new decorations each year to add our tree, it's a slight addiction I think! I left the red off this year as we finished decorating the room Christmas Eve (!) and I felt just the gold would suit the room better.

These were my new additions to our tree. They are meant for light fittings and are made of cut glass.

They create rainbows on the walls when the sun catches them. Truly beautiful. I shall have to wait a whole year to see then again. Sigh.

On the bear front I'm planning to make some minis! Something I can sit and do in the evenings. I've a couple of ideas bouncing around in my head at the moment. For a while now I've been wanting to re-do my website. I shall have to put my thinking cap on for that one.

Anyway, once again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Still here............

Where oh where does the time go?

My big Sis slapped me on the hand for not having updated my blog for over a month. Not literally, she's nice like that.

My head has been filled lately with fireplaces, sofas, the chickens, the architrave.......the list goes on. I still don't have space in my head for bearmaking. I'm sure there will be a little nook or cranny in there at some point in the future. Where that point is in the future is debateable.

I have on offer with FREE delivery four copies of The UK Teddy Bear Guide 2010 priced at £5.95 each. A great resource for all those with a love of teddy bears, whether it be artist bears, antique bears, restoring etc. Photos, contact details and info of bear artists, dates and info for bear fairs etc. It includes inside, two FREE tickets to two teddy bear events, The Winter Bearfest - February 2010 and Teddies 2010 - September 2010. Both events are held in London, UK.

For more information, or to buy a copy, just drop me an email!

I'll be back soon with photos from our day out at Sacrewell Farm Park.

Darling Ducks and Absence

Feels like I've been 'gone' forever!

Well.................what with work on the house and looking after the animals and working, I've become very neglectant with my blog and also bearmaking. The bearmaking has ceased due to the fact that the room for my bearmaking isn't finished yet. By the time I've got home from my other job in the afternoon and got all the house chores done, seen to the animals, put on the washing machine etc, etc, there doesn't seem to be time for much else! Hopefully that will change.

We had a lovely weekend a couple of weeks ago at my sisters. I haven't visited for about a year and it was my other halfs first long journey driving (2 hours 15 mins). I thought the journey would seem to last forever, but the time soon went. I was really chuffed we managed to make it there and back without getting lost! It was lovely to see my elderly Mum who now lives with my sister. There were lots of tears when we left, mostly from me! It was so nice to be in my sisters lovely home, all beautifully decorated and tidy. Unlike ours, which still has boxes here and there and the mess left from rewiring the house!

While there my other half Robert took some snaps of my nieces call ducks. So cute! The second two photos are the 'babies' just a few months old! I was expecting them to be fluffy ducklings. Boy, do poultry grow quick! Their names are Parsley and Pepsi the babies, and left to right at the top, Phoebe, Philly and Puddles (Mallard drake!). Puddles was found wandering alone down the road as a duckling and my niece brought him home and of course he had to have some 'friends' didn't he!

Chicken news! We are getting three more hens Sunday! So we will then have eight! Will post pictures when they are settled in their new home!

Anyway, I sit here waiting for the electricians to arrive to correct a mistake they made. Grrr. Twice they have meant to arrive and didn't, hopefully its third time lucky. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Hugs, Sarah x

Rewired

Well, I came through the house rewiring just about sane. There's that much dust about, I'm expecting to find some in my navel some time soon.

When every room needs a good clean top to bottom, it's hard to make a start. Pass the jump leads over here please.

The silver linning to the rewiring means we can at least make a start at decorating. Though my mind is on the garden, mostly due to the glorious weather we are having. Did someone press a button to start summer? Though knowing the British weather we could have a hard frost next week and be told to protect our tender perenials. Anyhoo must stay positive. Summer is here (in Spring).

For a far more prettier photo that a room in chaos, here is our Monty.

Right, I'm off for a bite to eat, then some housework. Hmph.

Hugs, Sarah x

William

Update: William has now been adopted. Thank you Lori!

Here is William, my latest bear! He is made from a powder soft faux fur in a kind of mink colour. I'm really pleased with how he's turned out. He will be my last bear for a little while as I shall be working on a re-design of my website. Plus, it's hard bear making with things in boxes and my workroom to be totally re-decorated soon! Floorboards to strip, artex skimmed over on the ceiling, etc, etc!

William will be available soon. I may be placing him on ebay.com. If I do, I will post the link to his auction. If you want any details, feel free to email me at sarahsbruins@aol.com.

Bye for now. Hope you are having sunshine where you are too!

Hugs, Sarah x

Scrub, scrub

Yesterday I spent most of the day scrubbing away at the original quarry tiles in our 1920's house. This room is going to be our downstairs toilet, but in the house's youth was the larder, where food was kept cool. You can see in the photo where the little hatch was to open a vent and where the two big concrete brackets where that would be holding up a thick marble slab. On the floor there were two dark, practically black marks on it, which have driven me to distraction. Having spent £50 on 'specialist' floor cleaner products, it turns out that bleach, fine sandpaper and Cif do a better job!

Feeling absolutely shattered, I then realised that in days gone by, there would have been maids doing this probably on a weekly basis. I think I had it easy. It wasn't until 3 o'clock that I remembered that the television had been on and considering I couldn't see it from where I was and could only just make out what was going on, I decided I'd better turn it off. Well the walk into the living room would have had people questioning my sobriety. Seems scrubbing away at floors affects your ability to walk in a straight line.

Suffice to say, the stains are now gone. Robert came home and said I had a strong aroma of bleach about me. I suppose there could have been worse things to be smelling of.

Hugs, Sarah x

Sunshine and Sore Throats

We've had a lovely few days of sunshine here. Really uplifting for the soul.

I'm full of a head cold as I type. Icky. My head feels like it's in a vice, feels hot and my eyes feel like marbles. You get the idea. It took me a while to text my sister the other day, I think my brain has turned into candyfloss.

Although feeling out of sorts Saturday, I dragged on my coat and popped outside to take a photo of our snowdrops and crocus basking in the sunshine. The snowdrops are at the bottom of our silver birch tree and the crocus are at the bottom of our ornamental cherry tree. They have evaded the chickens scratting around in the earth. That's the downside to chicken keeping. They devoured the primroses, so much so that you can't even see they were there. We are planning to buy a greenhouse to bring on seedlings. I did enjoy sprinkling poppy seeds around I must admit. They would never see the light of day though with the chickens raking through the soil!

Well I'm now off to see what my befuddled brain can handle............

Hugs, Sarah x

Hoppity Hop

I am making another rabbit! Over at Teddy Talk Bubba a previous rabbit has proved popular and I've been itching to make another bunny for a while. I'm terribly distracted though and rather tired. Must stop watching the chickens busying themselves around the garden and get out the sewing machine.

I am sooooooo looking forward to when my workroom/study etc is all done. I'm tired (again!) of looking at boxes and everything in disarray. I need to be able to pack things away and get organized. I like to be organized and tidy. It's hard to be tidy when there's no way of being able to put things away. Well the heating will be done on the 2nd Feb, then there's the ceiling to redo and paint, the floor to strip, the wallpaper to come off and new put on and walls painted, the new boiler to be boxed in........Why did I decide to list it? Sigh. It will be done Sarah, it will be done.....

Uncovering the Past

Look what I found yesterday. We are getting close to making a start on our house soon. This was described as a 'cloakroom' in the house details, but when we had a viewing, it was much as we guessed it would be, toiletless! Our house was built in 1928 and has some wonderful windows remaining and an oak handrail up the stairs, plus some lovely skirting and all the original doors and doorknobs. Anyway, the 'cloakroom' would have been used for keeping things cool and would have had a big thick marble slab sat in there. I thought I would do some investigating as we are going to have a toilet put in there at the beginning of February. After some heaving up of the carpet AND vinyl, I found the original quarry tiles. I'm going to order something called Pro Clean to give them a lovely deep clean. I was planning on having a nice grey slate floor in there and follow it through to the kitchen and conservatory, but Robert thinks we'd be mad to cover it up. I agree, but it looks like I'll be deciding decor around the floor! Never mind!

Hugs, Sarah x

This and That

Christmas day will soon be upon us! Wheeeeee! Now I just have a few more presents to wrap I'm looking forward to it. Christmas always gives me a feeling of hope and new beginnings. Plus everything is twinkly and pretty!

We had a bit of stress with the chicknes the last few days. I was watching them tuck into their afternoon treats when I noticed a fairly big bloody patch on Sybil (our white hen). I actually took a sharp audible intake of breath when I saw it. I thought people only did that in films! To cut a long story short, Lettuce had plucked out several of Sybils feathers. Ouchie. I just wanted to scoop her up and bring her into the house. Obviously that wasn't practical, so I set her up her own space inside the shed right next to their coop, to let her heal (chickens can get to like the taste of blood!). The next day I checked on her to find a scene that looked like a massacre. It looked like her area had been burgled and there were spots of blood here and there! She had gone crazy in the night not being able to be with the other girls, trashed the place and injured her comb, which was bleeding. So I cleaned her up and put her back in with the others. I'd hung a cabbage in the run to distract Lettuce and they all loved it! What was the first thing Sybil did, when her legs hit the run floor? She shot off into the nest box and laid an egg. She'd hated her 'sick room' so much she'd refused to lay her egg there.

Beary news! I have actually finished a bear! Just have some beading to add to his collar and he's all done. Will post pictures when I get time and the right lighting.

Festive hugs, Sarah x

A Tiring House Move

Sooooooo tired

Weeeeeell I'm back! Miss me? ; )

We moved to our new home on the 23rd May and I'm still rather shattered from it. Plus I started a little part time job in the morning which gets me out of the house and brings a few more pennies in. It's a 20 minute walk there and then 20 back and probably a few miles walking in my job, so eveything aches and my feet are stiff in the morning. My feet actually make snapping and cracking noises first thing in the morning. Did I mention I'm still 'only' 37? I think I shall be like the Bionic Woman when I am a little old lady. New hips, kneecaps etc.

This house caught us by surprise. We were adamant we were going to live in a village and we've ended up on the edge of the town we originally lived in. BUT, if we walk 100 yards up the road we are in a village. The clincher for us was the tree lined avenue and the 203 feet by 35 feet garden we have! Plus all the houses original 1928 features. We have a lime tree outside our house at the front and if I opened our bedroom window I could hold it's leaves! We have two mountain ash trees in the garden, a silver birch, a cherry and a laburnum. The silver birch is taller than the house and the others aren't far off. I adore them all, despite the leaves we will have in the autumn!

We have squirrels too, that visit regularly. Sometimes three at a time, in a group, foraging for the peanuts they're hidden in our lawn!

The cats settled in pretty quickly. Hopefully when we have the rest of Mum's cats (3) they will too. Although there will be the introductions to ours to deal with too! We will certainly have to re-do the conservatory in the future, with 7 cats there'd be no room for 'people' furniture!

I'm itching to get bearmaking again on full throttle. It's a case of finding everything first!

Toodle pip for now! It's nice to be back.