Well, sad to report my health has taken a downturn - that's the trouble when you can't rest completely and having spent all day yesterday at an auction, even though I was sitting down, I am not feeling too chipper today and hardly slept a wink last night. The Pleurisy pain returned on Thursday evening and is worse now than when it first hit me over a week ago. Not good when you have a dear friend coming for a few days. I think we will be sitting looking at a seaside view with a good book apiece whilst she is here!
I was talking about synchronicity and things suddenly coming together and blimey, they certainly did yesterday. The plans I had for revamping the kitchen took a whole new turn when this lovely little dresser (which I had fallen in love with last week) was unexpectedly back on the market after the folk who had measured up for it found it didn't fit. We grabbed the opportunity and have bought this one as well as the pine one. At the auction, I also got two more pine pieces and that is the revamp of the kitchen all sorted - just need to get it all home and start rearranging things. Our original "dresser" is going - it is a lovely old honey oak Arts and Crafts sideboard, which Keith made a dresser top for when we first arrived here. The pine dresser will go in its place and have the blue and white china on display. This white (French?) dresser is going in what was the dark corner with the dark cupboard and I am full of plans for having pretty things displayed on it. It needs repainting and I want to paint the top frieze with Cow Parsley. I have just bought some Cow Parsley curtains in duck egg blue - clearance (!) from Argos and have sourced a similar roller blind from Homebase, which I hope to go and pick up on Monday as I am planning a trip to Swansea.
At the auction I bought a shabby old pine base cupboard which someone had seen fit to fix three massive "planks" of pine on top of in lieu of a missing top - it is quirky and whilst it needs some work, offers good storage space. It is going to go where we have an old luggage rack at present, and the luggage rack will be passed on. I also bought a modern pine double cupboard to make a "return" storage unit between the sink and the inglenook, and we're going to put a worktop on it. So . . . much to be sorted, when I am better.
Meanwhile I am going to go and find some mindless sewing to do (brain just not in residence to cope with x-stitch) - I managed to rip my decent trousers wide open on a metal upright on a table yesterday so have to fix those - talk about a wardrobe malfunction! Several inches of middle-aged untanned thigh is not a good look to sport in public!!
UPDATE: The a/b's have stopped working (as of Thursday evening I think, looking back) and I am now developing a chest infection (which is why I felt so rough and drowsy all day yesterday - I had put it down to overdoing things, and spending all day at the auction after an early start). Just waiting for the OOH Doc to phone back and then when Keith returns from foreign parts, he can take me down to get checked out. I felt better for just Thursday morning and then it has been downhill ever since. Never mind. Hopefully it will be sorted soon, and I will be able to enjoy having my friend Gay here for the next few days without collapsing in a heap in a corner.
UPDATE: The a/b's have stopped working (as of Thursday evening I think, looking back) and I am now developing a chest infection (which is why I felt so rough and drowsy all day yesterday - I had put it down to overdoing things, and spending all day at the auction after an early start). Just waiting for the OOH Doc to phone back and then when Keith returns from foreign parts, he can take me down to get checked out. I felt better for just Thursday morning and then it has been downhill ever since. Never mind. Hopefully it will be sorted soon, and I will be able to enjoy having my friend Gay here for the next few days without collapsing in a heap in a corner.
Hope you feel better soon to get all those new-to-you things sorted - you will be busy for a day or two I think!
ReplyDeleteI think Keith will have to do all the work for a while yet. I have a to do list a mile and a half long, but the cheesewire is back around my ribs and after about an hour and a half's fitful sleep last night I am just waiting for the electric blanket to warm the bed up a bit and then I'm going back to bed. Nice to have some plans to look forward to though.
ReplyDeleteDo hope you can rest a bit and feel a lot better soon.
ReplyDeleteI really love the dresser you have bought - it is one thing I would love to have in my kitchen. Perhaps one day if we move and I can get a house with a much larger kitchen area :)
As per the update, I am off to see the OOH Doc in the next hour. Achange of a/b's will probably be on the cards. We have a roomy kitchen, and this white dresser is going in a gloomy corner to brighten it up. I hope you get a bigger kitchen in time.
DeleteI like your white 'dresser'--was wanting to 'move' the chairs so the drawer and door hardware would be visible. Here in the states, a 'dresser' is usually a chest of drawers which one would locate in a bedroom. The kitchen storage and display pieces are termed 'hutch.'
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the Amish outfit their kitchens with a variety of such pieces rather than anything built in. When they up sticks and move, their kitchen goes with them.
I have become the default owner of a small vintage maple hutch and matching drop leaf table--bought by Howard years ago and not needed at present as Dawn has larger more traditional/formal pieces from her family.
Hoping for photos of the kitchen revamp--and hoping that you can rest and recover properly. It is hard to be patient and take time to recouperate when the 'to do' list leads us on.
Ah, English as she is used over the Pond! I should have taken a photo of my "hutch" before Ian set his chairs and other bits of furniture out. I absolutely love it, because it is quirky and non-standard. I am with the Amish on not having fitted units in a way, as you can take your favourite furniture with you. Our kitchen is just NOT set out to have a fitted kitchen as it has 3 doors, a bay window, a kitchen window, and an inglebook . . . .
DeletePhotos to follow. Are you using your inherited maple hutch to display china? I am about to liberate some of my long-hidden china for the white hutch.
My inherited china is safely behind glass doors! [Cats who don't respect shelves] This is a petite hutch--36 inches wide and just above 5 feet high. I've moved it around the kitchen/dining area--don't think I've found the right spot for it yet.
DeleteHi sweetheart sorry you are in the wars again and I love your dressers. I have had a medium sized fitted pine kitchen when I was married which suited the house we have but the older I have got the more I am attracted to individual freestyle pieces that can move with you. Eclectic and practical but also beautiful to show off lovely bits and bobs, I must say I do love your dresser and serendipity has intervened as it wanted to come home with you which means its right place right time. I must say I like the idea of the cow parsley in a frieze across the dresser. Are you going to paint this? I look forward to seeing this once of course you are up to things again. What are we going to do with you. Hugs Pattypanxx
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was serendipity stepping in over that dresser! I bought three different jadey greens for the cow parsley frieze in The Range today. It's a long time since I've painted anything, but hopefully I haven't lost the knack completely.
DeleteTake care and don't over do. I know it's frustrating when there is so much to be done....I have the same asthma related problems.....
ReplyDeleteLove the furniture...can't wait to see it all in place!
It's a balancing act - I had several days in a row completely resting, but then there were two days when I had no option but to work. Asthma is not the best illness to have but I have lived with it for about 50 years now, and it ain't going away!
DeleteInteresting and amusing to read the comments, especially as rabbits are generally kept in hutches over here in and definitely not china or delph !
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I cannot understand why when you have a debilitating illness that you inflict yourself further by dashing around with unnecessary activity, instead of resting up and returning to full health and strength.
Heron's View - I have a business, that's why I have to work. I just have no option on certain days - when you have an auction AND a selling space at a Fair, someone has to be at either one or the other. I took the "easy" job which was driving 15 miles and sitting around for several hours. Yes, it was tiring, but it had to be done. So from my point of view, it was very necessary activity as it is what earns us money for the upkeep of this huge house. Until it is sold and we have downsized, we carry on. That said, we love what we are doing and are both very active people still - not couch potatoes. Needs must.
DeleteI might add, August is ALWAYS our busiest month, and we have several big Fairs in the offing, and just have to get out and buy to facilitate sellingwhilst we can. It gets quieter in the Autumn and tails right off in the winter. Summer car boot sales and auctions are always something we take in, and because this is Wales, they are NEVER local!!
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