Thank You

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

There Were Good Times and There Were Bad Times

Well .... let's start with the good times.

The summerhouse is coming together nicely. I've started painting the accent colour and it is looking less like a scout hut now. I found a beautiful rug in Lara Ashley and I love it. Such pretty colours and it was 20% off in the sale - hurrah. I also bought a yucca as well which had been reduced by £5.00. Whoops talking of which, I will be right back, as I've just remembered I put the yucca outside in the sunshine earlier on and I need to bring it in ... won't be a moment.

... Okay where was I? Oh yes, the summerhouse.

Now the bad times.

When the summerhouse was built, my DH and DS put down a concrete slab measuring 12ft by 10ft. Unfortunately it should have been laid 10ft x 12ft, so I had two huge slabs of concrete sticking out either side of my lovely summerhouse. Over the past 10 years I have done everything, and I mean everything, to conceal these horrible protrusions. I’ve even coated the flipping thing with yoghurt to make it go green to blend in. Well, we decided to relocate the summerhouse on the foundation slab and to cut off the offending concrete, this turned out to be easier said than done.

After an hour of pushing and shoving we managed to get it into its new position. We were now left with a piece of horrible grey concrete about 3ft by 12ft sticking out the left side. DH started attacking it with a sledgehammer, but it turned out to be really good strong concrete and DH got very tired very quickly. Anyway, I'm sure you must be bored of this story by now, 'cus I sure am! So long story short, we hired a heavy duty breaker, the concrete is now at the local tip and the summerhouse is back on schedule, oh happy days.

Bye for now peeps, be good
Susie
-x-

Summer House Makeover September Update

Well the children are back at school so therefore the sun is shining, typical. I've been working on the summerhouse over the weekend and it's coming along. Although at the moment, it does look like a scout hut!!! I've finished the cream painting and will start on the pale green accents as soon as I can get out into the garden. Unfortunately real life problems such as having nothing for tonight's meal stops me from starting as soon as I've posted this blog entry. So it will have to wait until I've been to the supermarket .... (nothing super at all, I hate the flippin' things), but anyhow I digress.

Here are the photo's of the make over so far.

Steve painted some of the ceiling but had to dash off to collect the two kids from the Reading Festival. They were too exhausted to get the train so we, as the kind parents that we are, rescued them. Steve is 6ft (180cm) tall and doesn't need to stand on a ladder to reach the apex of the roof, so he was a real help, to say the least.

Here is proof that I am actually painting the thing myself. I did the two windows and the double doors. I did 3 coats of paint all in all because the windows and doors seem to take a lot of the elements.

I really love painting, I find it very therapeutic. I can only use a small brush as I have very painful hands at the moment, and please don't get me started on my knees and back!!! As I paint I drift off in thought and I seem to be able to just relax.

So this is as far as I've got. I will post a few more photo's when I've done a little bit more painting. As for the accessories, I'm not sure. I would really appreciate some input on the subject. I've found a very small pot stove that I'm putting in it to keep me warm in the winter. I just hope it doesn't smoke me out thought.

Must got it gone 2pm and I'm going to get into trouble if I don't get on.

Hugs
Susie
-x-

JALBUM is so cool, I love it

Hi dear 'Blog Reader'

I just wanted to let you know about this fantastic piece of free software. I use it all the time to publish my photo's on my website. It's got so many bells and whistles I don't know where to start, and you know, I think it would be best if you went and had a look yourself. The best part is that it is absolutely FREE, has no rubbishy adverts plastered over it, they actually encourage you to create your own stuff and the brilliant people over at JALBUM don't keep pestering you via email every five minutes trying to persuade you to buy it!! I Love it.

So go and have a look by clicking on the image below.

Digital Scrapbooking

I have really become hooked on Digital Scrapbooking or Digi-scrapping. I wanted to make a scrapbook for my daughter's 21st birthday in April 2008. I didn't just want to stick some photo's in an album as I usually do. I wanted to make the pages funky and unique so I Googled ‘Scrapbooks’ and a whole new hobby landed on my laptop and hard drive!

I found pointers to Nanna’s-attic blogspot all over the scrapping sites, and once I visited Anita's blog I understood why. Anita is an extremely talented artist and gives her beautiful work to others freely. I have spent countless sums of money on other digi-scrapping sites only to be disappointed after I'd paid and downloaded the graphics.

Another site I've found is Graphic Garden Helena Normark’s graphics are so cute, I love them. She has another site over at Art4Crafts for all types of crafting projects. Honestly, Helena’s artwork is very good indeed and well worth a look. Plus she also has fabulous freebies over there.

Susie's Summerhouse Makeover

I went to the store today to check out the paints for my chalet, which is really a summerhouse I'm reliably informed. I just can’t decide what colour, I quite like soft green and cream, but I’m not sure. I quite the look of this summerhouse I found on readersheds.co.uk it’s a little bit tame though I think.

Shed Credits: The Office, at the bottom of my garden Owned by: Beverley

I shall make a start on the summerhouse next week ...... how many times have I said that I wonder!

Susie
-x-

I'm No Artist

Just because you can get your hands on paint, canvas and some brushes, it doesn't mean you can produce a reasonable piece of artwork. I am rubbish no matter how hard I try. My family tell me that it's because I have not had any lessons in art. I disagree, I think art comes from the heart, and I think my heart isn't in it. I shall go back to painting sheds I think, I have no trouble doing that.

Talking about sheds, I've decided to 'makeover' my chalet. I want to make it look like a beach hut or something similar. I'll post a few photo's as I go along, here's what it looks like now.


Susie's Chalet

It's a bit tidier since this photo was taken. Steve my DH is going to move the freezer out and put it in the garage the next time we have some good weather! This weekend's weather forecast is looking good so hopefully I can start painting it soon. I can't decide to paint it cream and green or cream and blue. I think I'll go with the green and see how it goes.

I want to be able to do my arts and crafts in it as the little bedroom I have is way to small. It is also lovely and warm as it catches the late afternoon sun and it's a lovely place to sit to watch the sun go down over the church spire.

I'm going to catch up with my emails while I have a few moments before I go to see my doctor this afternoon. I've wrecked my body trying out HRT, something I think you shouldn't take if you have Lupus. (I found that out too late I'm afraid)!

Hugs
Susie
-x-

Is Anybody Out There

Hello from me

I'm not sure what I should write here or whether anyone will read it, and if they do why would they want to?

Here's Steve & little old me. I bet you can't guess what we're saying!!!