Some Kitchen pics

I am duplicating this post from my All About The Boys Blog  as it shows how my kitchen looks now.  A detailed post on the before and after will come soon. 

I still think they sent me the email by mistake and will at any minute realise and withdraw the invitation.  Those who know me will know that cooking is not my *cough* strong point or rather something  I can, but prefer not to do.  I blame years of being waited on in the Army Mess.

Anyway until I'm thrown out of this exclusive and rather imposing club I will continue to masquarade as someone who cooks and reveal my kitchen as requested.

Can you spot whats missing ?

There it is !  The essential cooker and hob.  Apologies for the microwave, we really don't use it that often .  If you look closely you might spot the Marie Claire cookery books ontop of it, never use them, just bought them because they have pretty cover pictures that match the colour of my kitchen.   The sign on the wall ?  Says it all really : Coffee, Tea or ME !

I love vintage and thrifted household items.  Here are a selection I have out on display.   You can follow the progress of the renovation of our home on this blog with a post on before and after transformation coming soon.


So there you go.  My kitchen. Take a minute to pop over and like the WORLDFOODS fusion of flavours facebook page and you will also be able to follow us as we cook (or attempt to) our way to Asian cooking heaven !

Romantic Picnic time - Magpie Monday

The twins and I have been away for the week in Cheshire staying with Grandma but this didn't stop me having a little browse around an amazing Antiques Emporium up there.  Most of the items although fab, were priced out of my comfort zone so I only picked up a cup and saucer for £2 and a set of 3 plates for £2 (will post them at a later date) .  Back home and up early on Saturday as I had a mountain of customer orders to post and no food in the house.  (well can't expect hubby and No1 son to shop, clean etc for themselves when I am away)  !  I had the perfect excuse to "have a little look" in my favourite shop after the post office.

I must say I am finding less and less these days on my trips but I did find these pieces which follow a bit of a blue theme and make a lovely selection to include on romantic picnic for two. Hubby and I  don't get much "us" time these days and we both miss and need it.  So I dream if ever there was a chance for us to get away from it all,  I imagine us sat under a weeping willow tree, by a river, sipping wine and eating strawberries.......

Blue Celeste Meakin plates set of four  for £1

Blue pressed glass Cake stand ( used as a plate for the strawberries) £1.50

Two pretty pale blue candle votives for £1

Pretty Bluebells picked from the garden and popped in an old bottle. Simple, stunning and free.

and the song we would play .......

linking up to Magpie Monday  pop over and take a look at all the other great finds.

The Twins room

It's taken a while, but the twins finally have a room to be proud of.  It combines my love of light and bright but is also still boyish enough to please them.  As this house only had three bedroom, we decided to give the twins the biggest room.  We knew as they grew they would inevitably need the extra room to have a sense of their own space.

These pictures show their room the day we moved in.

When I look at the above photo's I wonder how on earth we coped.  Every room was full to bursting with our stuff, we had six month old twins and a 10 yr old who sulked and hated the house not understanding why we had left our previous large, beautiful home for this filthy house ! 

This is how their room looks now :

The view through through the twins bedroom door into their room.  The blue cupboard is the white one you see in the first photograph.  

On the wall where the fireplace was my husband built floor to ceiling storage shelves

My husband also made the wooden letters spelling out the twins names

The twins "reading Corner"  bookcase made by daddy and cushions an absolute steal from Primark. Blinds and chairs from IKEA

New white bunk beds from Ebay, wonderful luxury childrens red and white gingham bedding generously given to me by my sponsor Mel who owns babou and a makeover for an old chest of drawers, along with a fantastic vinyl sticker clock from the wonderful Etsy seller chocovenyl complete the look.

Magpie Monday - Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

We are "oop north" staying with Grandma this week but I made sure I got myself organised before leaving home so that I wouldn't miss this weeks MagpieMonday post again.  I might even have a little wander around the charity shops up here to see if I can find any treasure for next week !

I am not known for my culinary skills but my finds this week seem to be conspiring to push me in the direction of learning how to make yummy food as Grandma did (well how she would have, if I had know either of my grandmothers) .  My finds also happen to also be all glass too.  I have lusted over some of the other Magpie Monday finds of beautiful glass pieces, so was thrilled to bits to find these items this week.

First up, a pair of beautiful French glass chicken egg cups found for 50p each.  The photo really does not do them justice.  They are beautiful quality glass and when sat on the window sill the light through them is truly stunning.

One of the things I really adore about collecting Vintage China is drinking my tea from a "proper" cup and saucer.  I was lucky enough to find the complete set of these French cups and saucers in the most beautiful, soft pastel colours.  I will feature them at a later date.  The family think I have lost the plot but it really does make the tea taste better.  When I saw this glass Lemon Squeezer I snatched it up off the shelf again only 50p and again French glass, I doubt its very old but its lovely quality.  Lemon tea either hot or cold is so refreshing to drink in the summer.

The pretty silver tea leaf infuser was one of two that I found for 20p each.  They look like they again have never been used and are perfect for a single cup of freshly brewed leaf tea.

Lastly, How wonderful is this glass jelly mould !  One thing I CAN make is Jelly ! Ha!  I have even found this receipe for proper homemade Jelly and shock! horror! I might even attempt to make it .  If anyone has more ideas for how I can use the Jelly mould I would love to know, salmon terrine perhaps ?  now I really am getting outside my comfort zone ! 

Pop over and take a look at all the other great vintage and thrifted finds in this weeks MagpieMonday Post.

Look what I found!

A few weeks ago I posted HERE about a beautiful cup and saucer from the Althrope Estate I found.  Look what I found in the same shop yesterday :

Now either the staff have got the measure of me on my daily visits to their Charity shop and pop gorgeous bits of loveliness around the place just ahead of me turning a corner, or there is a once Althrop loving (now hating) bod about, who donates.

Its a gorgeous glass Votive Candle holder in immaculate condition which I purchased for the princely sum of 10p !

New York ! New York !

I found this lovely wooden set of the New York Skyline yesterday in my favourite Charity Shop for £1 complete with pretty drawstring bag.  Too sweet to let the twins get hold of (they will just disappear amongst all the lego )  I thought they look nice popped on the shelf that runs around the top of the panelling in the dining room. 

New York is a place I have always wanted to visit (along with Paris) hopefully they might act as a daily reminder to work harder to achieve my dream.