painting Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

How to Get the Latest Design Trends on the Cheap

August 18, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Guest Post – By Tom Brialey, owner of Action Storage.

You’ve got Pinterest boards filled with décor dreams but a bank balance that brings you back to reality. Almost everyone wants a stylish home, but unfortunately a stylish home comes with a hefty price tag meaning that most settle for magnolia walls and generic flat-packed furniture. This doesn’t have to be the case. Getting the home you dream of can be achieved with a little bit of budgeting and minor DIY skills.

This article will show you how to get four of 2016’s hottest interior design trends without breaking the bank:

Industrial

Source/s: littlehouseoffour.com & madaboutthehouse.com

The industrial look has gained in popularity over the last few years. A mixture of raw wood and brass metallics have been brought together to create the ultimate ‘hipster’ industrial feel, which resonates with cool bars and independent coffee shops, giving a relaxed vibe.

As soon as you type ‘industrial furniture’ into any search engine or shop you will be faced with a price tag of £150+ and after two pieces you are priced out. Don’t let this shatter your industrial hipster dreams. The look (above left) can be achieved by buying modern school lockers, and a metal paint to give it a gunmetal grey look, this will cost approximately half the price of a vintage locker. If you are not the painting type, a mesh locker (above, right) may be a better option. Use the mesh locker to display cool trinkets, maybe your record collection, or just use as general storage.

Team your new locker with an inspirational quote hand painted on a canvas and the Pinterest board ‘hipster/industrial’ becomes a reality right in your own living room. Continue with additional reading here

City Skyline

Source/s: instagram.com/alexkatehare/ & nicestthings.com

If you are someone with itchy feet but life and various responsibilities, such as your job and bills, are stopping you from travelling, you can wake up to a view of the city (almost) in your own bedroom.

City skylines are becoming prevalent due to the minimalist trend which is popular in 2016. Simple black outlines on blank walls have hit it big and it is really easy to achieve the look for just a couple of pounds at home.

All you will need is:

Pencil
Spirit level
Washi Tape
Picture of your chosen skyline
Ruler
Eraser

Start by carefully drawing the outline of the skyline you have chosen in pencil, use the ruler and avoid skylines with too many curves, the tape will only be able to make straight lines.

When, using your spirit level, you think you have all your lines straight, and are happy with your pencil drawing, start covering the pencil with the tape. Remember to stand back and look from a distance as you go along. Hey presto! A chic city skyline for less than £10.

Upcycling

Source: diy-enthusiasts.com

A few years ago the idea of upcycling popped into a few peoples heads. Instead of buying something new, why not repurpose or refurbish something old and unloved, and so the trend was born. Often referred to as a waste product, pallets became the star of the show when a few clever busy bodies decided to create all kinds of furniture out of them.

Those without the imagination, or necessary DIY skills, lusted after these items and suddenly there was a demand, and with demand comes the supply, at a hefty price. A pallet coffee table can go for as much as £200 online. This price for something that, once upon a time, was essentially rubbish.

Luckily, if you would like to add a piece of pallet furniture to your décor there are hundreds of FREE online DIY tutorials, either found through Pinterest or on YouTube. Ask local businesses like Spartanburg pallet suppliers if they have any pallets that they can spare or you can pay a small price for. Failing that you can spend time scouring eBay, Gumtree or Freecycle to see if people want to get rid of them but don’t fancy a trip to the tip.

Your only issue will be not having enough space in your house for all the amazing pallet furniture you will end up making.

Geometric

Source: susanyeleyinteriors.com/blog/ & entermyattic.com/

The geometric trend allows those who like minimalism to enjoy bursts of colour in their home. Although geometric décor is big for 2016 it is in no way a new trend, bold geometric patterns could be seen on walls, art and clothing in the 1960s.

Luckily you don’t have to be Piet Mondrian, or pay those kinds of prices, to achieve the look. All you will need is:

Thin masking tape or Washi tape
A Canvas
Acrylic paints
A paint brush
Pencil
Ruler

Section the canvas into a geometric pattern, it is best to have an image in mind to ensure you know what the finished piece will look like. You can lightly use a pencil and a ruler if you are not confident putting tape on freehand.

Paint the different parts of the canvas in different but complementing colours, if you don’t want to have white lines between the shapes you will have to wait for sections to dry before moving the tape.

When it has all dried, carefully peel the tape off and you should have a beautiful geometric work of art, perfect for the minimalist and those who rent will be pleased to know that canvases are generally quite light, this means no nasty holes in the walls as well as ensuring you get your deposit back.

There you have it, four ideas to help you make sure your house stays on trend without costing you a lot of money.

Look at my house – Ground Floor

July 29, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

The other day I posted about my Little DIY helpers and about this series, “Look at my House“. However what I forgot at the time was that I hadn’t actually finished the series, having still to do the bottom floor. The truth is, I was most excited about the ground floor and I think that’s why I saved it till the end. However as the floor that also has the most rooms, I’ve been putting it off as it might take too long. However I’m diving in now, here’s my ground floor!

The Lounge

When we first moved in, the lounge was red. The TV was on the wall (right where the sun shone in on it), there were black shelves up (already taken down by this picture), black fireplace and black curtains. It was a proper man den. This needed to be changed before we even moved in as I didn’t like it at all and it didn’t feel homely, so with the help of experts from My House Painter we decorated it with a beige colour and tried to lighten the feel of the room.

Though this picture was taken on the night we moved in, you can see already the big difference and in all honestly we didn’t touch this room much at all over the years. By hiring a house removals company you can also get a level of service that ensures a happy and successful transfer.However in the big redecorate we did touch up some of the areas, like the floor with the help of the tiler and of course over the years we have added pictures to the walls and nic naks around the room.

I personally think it looks a whole lot better than it used to and on a clean and tidy day, I’m actually pretty proud to call it the heart of my home!

Dining Room

The truth is, when we first moved in, the dining room was our junk room. I didn’t really like it as a room anyway and Chris had used it as a gaming room, with his big white board on the wall and everything seemed a bit tatty and dirty. Since it wasn’t essential to our home life, we didn’t really touch it at all, except for tidying it bit by bit as we found room for the items. However over time, the dining room also became my work room – especially on the launch of Closet Geek. Even then, everything felt very junky and unorganised. On the day we decided to decorated, I actually had to close my store. I had so much stuff everywhere that it wouldn’t have been possible to work around it and packing it all up and moving it away to a different room was the only option.

This was exactly what my dining room/office looked like before packing it all away!

Obviously the main outstanding point is that it’s tidy, but believe me when I say we did a lot of work in the room! All the walls were painted, the ceiling was striped and painted, the coving was plastered and painted, plus all the skirting boards and glossing was done. Another suggestion if you want a wall to stand out is to place murals on one wall as an accent. Check out Murale Design for great quality murals. Though sadly it didn’t stay that tidy for long, its now one of my favourite rooms in the house – especially as all my Disney love splurges out there!

The Kitchen

When I moved in with Chris, the kitchen left a lot to be desired. There was one side of the room which has a tiny sink, one cupboard and a set of drawers. On the other side of the room were 4 wall cupboards and 4 ground cupboards.

As such, the first thing we did was add more cupboard space and more work top space. We left the wall cupboards and added extra underneath, including a corner cupboard.

On the other side of the room, we added a double cupboard and a larger sink. There was also a free-standing set of drawers, which we put at the side of the cooker, along with a small worktop piece to cover it.

Other than that, we didn’t do a lot. We had plans to add a new floor (since it was only half floored), another wall cupboard, paint the walls, install Epoxy Flooring and re-plaster etc etc.

Over the years we added a new light fitting and even bought a new cooker, but the rest just got pushed to one side, until the big DIY we did earlier this year.

When we overhauled the house, the kitchen had one of the major upgrades; we even used ICFs for the new wall additions. We plastered the walls and painted, we put up a wall cupboard. Of course there was a whole new flooring put down and the top cupboards from before got a new door coating, to pull the white altogether. Believe it or not we didn’t have door cupboard handles or drawer handles for about two years, so we finally got them too!

The Bathroom

When I first moved in, the bathroom was my least favourite room in the house which was so sad as I love a nice bath to relax and instead I didn’t even want to be in there. The first thing we did was change the toilet seat, add a toilet roll holder, a new lampshade, a place to hang towels and a bathroom cabinet (read this to know more about the cabinet).

This definitely helped a little but it wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t keen on any of the wood parts, the radiator was rusty and the wall plaster was peeling. Over the years, we didn’t do much except replace the shower when it broke. However in our DIY overhaul we pretty much sorted it all out.

Other bits and pieces

Obviously this is the last of the rooms and the last floor but there was other work done too – both inside and outside. Here are my last few pictures.

1453331_10153376522103384_6196250249307991310_n

1797584_10152484207213384_6103708776281293028_n

11209752_10153308836813384_6732086533050103657_n

Save

Little DIY Helpers

July 23, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

As you know, we’ve recently re-decorated our house from top to bottom. In fact, I wrote about it in my “Look at my House” series. However it honestly wouldn’t have been possible without a whole load of help! When we first moved in, my brother offered a lot of help (as did my mum, though mostly financially – bless her). Over the years we lived here, my best friend Nat also helped out on the odd days here and there. However, while the bulk of the work has always fallen on Chris and I, the girls have always been keen to help too.

In collaboration with Dyno, I was asked to share my trials, tribulations and even triumphs when it came to kids helping out with DIY. I have to be honest and say that sometimes having their help is more hassle than it’s worth, but that’s not to say they don’t both try! For the most part, we decorated while they were at school, but they would often come back after school and want to help then. Here is some tips I would like to offer:

An old set of clothes for them is absolutely essential. Its completely unrealistic to expect that they will manage to paint without getting paint all over them – both skin and clothes. Usually I picked something they didn’t particularly like anyway, or something they were pretty much outgrowing. Tying hair out of the way is also a good idea.
Make sure you cover the floor, skirting boards etc. even more than you would normally. I always throw covers over furniture when we’re painting the ceiling, but sometimes I’m less concerned when I know its in a place I can just be careful. However with the kids helping out, there are bound to be drips, spillages and goodness knows what, so cover up those floors even more, put masking tape on the skirting boards and keep a close eye on them!
I have to admit that my girls are fairly well behaved anyway but I would recommend not leaving them alone for too long. When you have to nip off and get that extra brush or a new tin of paint, the chances are it won’t be long before they find it funny to start painting each other!
Small brushes. I’m sure this one goes without saying really but the smaller the brush, the smaller the possible accident, mess, mistake etc. Sure you might have to go over the parts they’ve done but you stop the risk of having a big paintbrush mark when it gets dropped or swiped over a part of wall you didn’t want painting.
Expect that they will get bored. Kids have a fairly short attention span to most things and if they’re not especially enjoying themselves, they will get bored and ditch you. Maybe adding some music to the equation or making it fun, will make them stick around but be prepared to finish off by yourself!

The kids helped us out in pretty much every room of the house, in some way or another. They can be a great asset but also a huge hassle. The nice thing is, they’re nearly always willing and love the thought of helping out. In reality, the job probably isn’t as fun as they expected or they’d rather be sat playing on an iPad or something. However every now and again they might surprise you and you’ll really appreciate their help – or maybe just their company. Not to mention, the other they get, the more likely they are to be of use to you!

How to Create Your Own Shabby Chic Furniture

May 25, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

The shabby chic look is incredibly popular right now. People everywhere are ditching their IKEA furniture and snapping up old bits of antique furniture, purely so they embark on a furniture restoration project. There is no doubt that distressed furniture is a really cool look, but if you don’t know the difference between milk paint vs chalk paint, or you are not sure which paint to buy from www.realmilkpaint.com, where do you begin?

Choose a Piece of Furniture

The shabby chic look is ideal for any piece of furniture, with the exception of modern veneer items. Basically, as long as the piece is solid wood, you are ready to go. So take a look up in your attic and see what you can find, or start hunting through garage sales or junk shops. One man’s unwanted furniture is another man’s shabby chic masterpiece!

Prepare the Surface

Once you have found your perfect piece of furniture from the Dumonds Custom Furniture catalog, you need to prepare the surface. The item needs to be clean, so wash it thoroughly with some soapy water and leave it to dry naturally. If there are any holes or cracks, fill them, and if the item has metal hinges or handles, remove them for now.

Pre-painted or varnished pieces of furniture need to be sanded down. You don’t have to go too far overboard, as a bit of paint or varnish will give you a nice distressed look with zero effort on your part, but it is a good idea to apply sandpaper to the surface so the paint has something to adhere to you can even add resin to your furniture to make it look better and last longer since you can get it easily from USA Epoxy Resin online.

What Paint is Best?

There are lots of boutique paints in the stores. Chalk paint comes ready mixed in a can. It doesn’t need a primer as it grips well to non-porous surfaces. Milk paint comes in powder form, so you mix only what you need. Milk paint doesn’t grip well to non-porous surfaces, so you may need to add a bonding agent to the mix. Both paint finishes will benefit from a final topcoat of wax or oil. Both paints produce lovely finishes and both are easy to work with. Ultimately, you should try both and see which one you prefer, as it is a personal choice.

Add Resistance

To create the shabby chic look, you need to add some resistance to the surface of the item, as this prevents the paint adhering. You can do this with oil or wax. Use a wax candle to rub over any areas where you want the base color to show through.

Apply the Paint

Apply a base coat of paint and follow this up with a second coat. If you want a two-tone look, use a darker color as your base coat.

Distress the Surface

To distress the surface, use some fine sandpaper to rub away the top coat of paint. You can also mark the surface using sharp tools and fill in the cracks and holes with tinted wax.

Once your restoration project is complete, invite family and friends over to admire your handiwork!

Look at my house – First Floor

May 17, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

It occurred to me yesterday that I never finished posting about the updates to our house! My last post, about the attic, was several weeks ago and I still have the first floor and ground floor to recap on! So let’s start with the girls room.

When we first moved in, the girls room was the spare room where all Chris’ friends crashed when they stayed. However for a few months it had also been my brother’s bedroom. On us moving in and completing the attic, my brother moved to the attic and the girls took the spare room. Of course we needed to make it feel homely for them and before we even moved them in, Chris and I decorated their room pink!

This was almost 3 years ago and obviously in our house make-over, we were trying to make the house more sellable. Because of this we painted the girls room, cream, though honestly with how much pink accessories there are in there, you probably can’t tell much difference!

To be honest, if we were planning to stay here longer, the girls could do with getting some different furniture and Megan could do with an office work desk as she will be getting a lot of homework from September. I was tempted to buy one of those bunk beds that has a double on the bottom and a single on the top too, but since the girls would like separate rooms when we move, I don’t want to make any big purchases yet.

Next up is our room. This has been a really gradual process…

1459350_10152872063893384_9152832555594882397_n

10502143_10153422286248384_1911264715211494358_n

When I first moved in with Chris, he had a futon bed and his large wardrobe on one side of the room. We ditched the bed and swapped the wardrobe to the opposite wall, but otherwise didn’t do much. I’ve tried to improve the room in little ways, with nice bedding and even a superhero wall mural at one point. However the biggest and best improvement was when we decided to redecorate and paint the walls magnolia.

I realised that I don’t have a great picture of the room now, only one that was taken at night. Instead of dreadful pink curtains, we now have nice black ones. We bought a headboard and of course some nice new bedding too. We even moved the room around a little, but up some shelves and now my cuddlies have room!

Look at my house – The Attic

April 21, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

As promised, I wanted to share with you the changes in my house since moving in a few years ago, right up till today, Majority of the work took place either immediately when we moved in, or last month when we had a major DIY project.

The attic room was the first we tackled and I just realised that I don’t really have any picture of it finished. However tackling that room was a nightmare – from stripping the walls, to learning how to wallpaper and of course the slanted ceiling making everything that bit more fun!

I actually don’t remember what the room looked like when we first started. I do remember it was wallpapered but a lot of the paper was ripped and messy. We decided to remove the paper and paint the walls. However the paper was an absolute brute to get off and underneath were black walls. Sadly, the condition of the wall underneath was no longer good due to cracks, so we decided to have drywall repair done first and use wallpaper again rather than paint. Neither of us had wallpapered before and I think if we have the choice, neither of us will choose to do so again. Once the wall was papered, we decided it was just TOO white, so we painted it sky blue.

Painting the room sky blue was a game-changer. The color instantly brought a sense of calm and openness to the space, making it feel larger and more inviting. However, our adventure with house painting didn’t stop there. We soon realized that painting, although labor-intensive, allowed for a level of customization and creativity that wallpaper just couldn’t match.

Inspired by the transformation in the living room, we decided to tackle the rest of the house. Each room had its own unique challenges and required careful consideration of color and technique. For the bedroom, we chose a soft lavender to create a tranquil retreat. The kitchen received a cheerful, sunny yellow, which made it feel warm and welcoming. The hallway was painted a neutral beige to tie all the rooms together seamlessly.

This picture is the only one I can really find that shows the decorated room and it’s actually from when Chris and I decorated our own room and had to sleep upstairs! Of course as well as sorting out the walls, placing decorations like Scotland flags, we also glossed, bought new curtains and a matching duvet colour and Chris also moved his computer up there (it was originally in the dining room).

Recently, during our big DIY spree, we sorted out the stairs from the attic room. Instead of changing the carpeting we decided to hire experts like carpet cleaning chattanooga to leave it as new, and we also painted the stair walls on the way down, the same blue as the room.

1930173_10154046547828384_3366955612291055831_n

This was our attic done! See the next post, for the next floor down!

Save

Look at my house!

April 18, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

This week I finally want to get around to sharing my house improvements with you all. On Wednesday it will be exactly two weeks since our house officially went on the market and the process of selling began! This post is just a summary of it all, leading to more posts later in the week that will outline specific rooms.

When I first moved into this house, almost 3 years ago, it needed a lot of work. My partner had bought the house 9 years ago as a sort of fixer-upper, but hadn’t really done an awful lot to it. The things he had done, were just sort of slapped together and the colours used in some of the rooms were fairly horrific.

We have a lovely big house and I actually love it in lots of ways. However because it’s always entailed a lot of work, I sort of hate it too. When we (my girls and I) first moved in, Chris and I had already started decorating the attic room, we painted the lounge and we made quite a few alterations to the kitchen too – all to make it a better family home. The plan was always to do up the house and sell it, but sadly time and money were always a big factor and almost 3 years on we hadn’t really got much further. Last year I made the New Year’s Resolution to get the house on the market but didn’t really manage to get that much closer – except to have decorated another room. However this year I was determined, especially with Megan moving to secondary school later in the year.

At the beginning of March, Chris and I made a list. It covered everything we still wanted to do towards the house. He had 10 days booked off at the end of March and so together we agreed we would work hard and get everything done. I closed my Closet Geek Etsy store and for 10 days (pretty much solidly) we worked on the house. In fact, we worked so hard that I actually spent almost a week afterwards ill!

Anyway the house is now done (well almost at least). The estate agents have been to take their pictures and we are officially listed for sale and have a sign and everything. Over this week I want to share our changes with you, from the bright red lounge we started with (it’s now beige), to the navy blue bedroom (it’s now magnolia), from drastic differences in the kitchen (we had a utility sink and no flooring when I moved in), to the dinning room which is now my beautiful workspace. All this and more, every day this week – so stay tuned!!

Save

DIY Disasters

April 1, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

To be perfectly honest, until this last week, our house has pretty much been one big DIY DISASTER! I met my current partner about three and a half years ago and since me and the girls lived in a rented house and he owned his own, we all decided to move into his house. To say it was a wreck, is really an understatement. He’d bought it as a project house but sadly hadn’t really gotten very far. He was also a guy, living alone – so without being too sexist, it didn’t have much interior design!

Before moving in, we tackled the loft, the spare bedroom and the lounge. The loft was really just an easy place to start and we took it from the horrible black you can see in the picture, to wallpapered white, to pale blue. This was the first time Chris or I had wallpapered and it was definitely an experience!

Next was the green room – which we turned pink. It was the first time ever that we’d lived in a house that was owned, so giving the girls a pink room was really their dream. I wanted them to feel at home in this house which definitely wasn’t homely and I wanted them to feel comfortable with my new partner. When we finished it was pretty good, though I did make a bit of a disaster by slitting the carpet in a fairly obvious spot! To clean it, I used any all these 15 different chemicals to treat a large variety of stains.

In association with HMC Furniture UK I was asked to share my biggest DIY Disaster and in the spirit of April Fool’s Day, this seemed like a great idea! Until this house, my biggest faux pas when it came to DIY, was probably some shelves that I once put up (they were in a cellar and were meant to house alcohol). Sadly they came down within a few weeks and when they did there was a lot of broken glass and wasted liquid! However since living here, I can honestly say its been disaster after disaster!

If I had to sum it up to just one though, it would definitely be decorating the lounge. As you probably saw above, our lounge used to be red. Chris had his TV on the wall, dark black curtains and it just wasn’t my style at all. Instead we painted the walls a sort of stone colour, took down the tv, lessened the black and brought splashes of the red in with curtains and cushions. I was pretty pleased with the finished room. However the process of getting there was definitely interesting.

This was pretty much before we started…

There were some areas with loose plaster – in one corner and just behind the sofa. No biggie right?

Until the plaster started falling off everywhere!

Luckily, Chris was pretty handy with the plaster, but what a disaster!

And don’t even get me started on the kitchen… or our bedroom ceiling. I can’t even tell you how many issues we’ve had! However as you know, this last two weeks we’ve been working on getting all our DIY up to scratch! I can’t wait to share it with you next week!

DIY Update

March 23, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

It’s now been a week since we started our DIY and I figured I would check in and let you know how it’s going!

We started off a week ago with a huge list of jobs we wanted to complete. There was at least three jobs remaining in every room, with as many as ten in other rooms. Right now our list is less than half this and I’m so pleased!

The attic room isn’t any different, but the stairs leading up to them are now painted, as is the walls to the side of the stairs. The girls room hasn’t changed at all either, but our room is finished, all bar the glossing of the door. The landing and stairs down are completed. The dining room has had it’s ceiling stripped and it’s walls painted, though I still need to gloss. The kitchen floor was done before we started this week, but the walls are now painted, as is the ceiling, a kitchen cupboard had been hung and fitted, while another around the free boiler is being built. There are new homes St Louis which are built with incredible interior design which would have you mind-blown since they are not only amazing but also they are for sale at affordable prices.

The boiler was a little rickety but did have Boiler Cover to it. The backdoor area is almost done, painted twice but needs another coat and the glossing needs doing too. This Bathroom Remodel started with us having the walls plastered, painted and glossed, with just a little bit left to complete. The lounge is untouched as yet (except the plastering that’s been mended) but there isn’t too much to do there. We have two more days of work left until we hope to be pretty much done so I will let you know next week how we’ve done! Those who need to demolish a small part of their home for a renovation should consider working with a soft strip contractor.

1517707_10154073083533384_4937399702925974189_n

10153873_10154065562463384_4849068437847872274_n

Week 25 – Monday Round-up

June 22, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Last week I was late with this particular post and this week is no different either! Where Monday and Tuesday of last week were spent catching up on the decorating from over the weekend, this week has been spent catching up on catching up!

Monday I spent pretty much the whole day with Nat, after dropping the kids off at school. It was her youngest son Harry’s 2nd birthday and my gift to him was a mattress (a bed, a stairgate and a bedside…). Strange gift I know but basically Nat was wanting to move him into a big bed so I headed over there with a divan bed for Josh (her oldest son), which after we took the cot apart and put in the loft (oh I took a ladder too but that wasn’t for them to keep!) we moved Josh’s bed to Harry’s room, put the new mattress on it and then put the divan in Josh’s room. We put new bedding on Harry’s bed, added the bedside and also put up a stairgate. Afterwards Nat and I went to the tip and then Asda Living for a fitted sheet, all before I headed back to get the kids from school. The evening was spent trying to relax, even though there was still decorating to do. We did watch the Game of Thrones finale however *sob sob*.

On Tuesday Chris was off work so we made an effort to get our bedroom a bit straighter. We hoovered and tidied, moved furniture and most importantly put up a curtain rail so we could hang curtains and sleep back in there that night. We also wandered into town for a few hours to buy shelves and new curtains. We spent the afternoon finishing everything off and finally moving back into our room. It isn’t finished sadly (even now as I write this a week on) but it’s getting there slowly. I have had a lot to do since last Tuesday though so I haven’t done anything further on it.

In the evening we moved the wardrobe forward (which is so heavy we had to empty it all out first) so I could paint the last wall. Since it was so heavy and all the stuff out of it made such a mess (and I didn’t want to put it back in, only to take it out again), I spent the whole evening giving the wall five coats of paint, one every half an hour. Chris and I then moved the wardrobe back, had a sort through our clothes and then crawled into bed!

On Wednesday I had a catch up blog day. I was so behind on posts I was supposed to write that it took me all day to catch up and I still wasn’t done. However I did manage to write about five for my own blog and two for TTM. Thursday started off with a breakfast from Morrisons as I offered to give Chris a lift to work and he treated me. When I got back home though I properly cracked on with a murder mystery I’ve been writing – a sort of gift for my friend’s birthday at the end of this current week. I made some progress but it all seemed very slow. I also accidentally loaded $100 into my Fiverr account which was a slap on the forehead moment. I worked all day and into the evening on the Murder Mystery but didn’t get all that far.

Friday was another day working on the Murder Mystery but it ended up more of a blog/internet day. I still felt so behind on everything I needed to do so I spent most of my time getting organised, but the evening spent on the murder mystery again. After that, my whole weekend was swallowed by the murder mystery and I’m not even kidding. I spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday, breaking only briefly to make tea, feed the kids, put some washing on etc. It genuinely felt like I was getting somewhere the whole time but in the same token it seemed like I had loads left to do.

In the end I could feel myself getting annoyed and snappy so I took Sunday evening off. I watched some TV and then decided to turn that off even and read a book. I read two short stories and then started on the second book in a series I’ve been reading and enjoying. I will write a review shortly of the first book – Sanctum (Guards of the Shadowlands, #1).

Other than that, I won’t get into my Monday and Tuesday so far but needless to say they’ve been busy again. Right now I have emails to go through and some housey bits to get done, but I’m hoping to actually see my sewing machine this evening – fingers crossed!