Versatile Blogger Award

I'm very excited to announce the fabulous Anna from The Dusty Attic has nominated me for a Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you, Anna!!

The rules of the VBA are:

Nominate 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award, and tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

My nominations are:

1. Sophie at Cider with Sophie

2. Rhia at Virtual Rhiality
3. Bex at Musings from the Pigeon's Nest
4. Sam at Polkadot Dreams
5. Emma Kate at Painted Style
6. Kezzie at KezzieAG
7. Jen at Sparklegirl
8. Katy at Sparkle and Shine
9. Emma at Emsipop
10. Tea, Cake and Make
11. Victoria at Lily loves Lola
12. CathGrace at CathGrace
13. Laura at Wrapped Up In Rainbows
14. Anna at Miss Beatrix
15. Blue Eyed Night Owl


My seven mildly interesting factoids about me, are:

1. The "1" button on our microwave stopped working about three months ago. Everything else still works fine, so we've kept it (as we're all eco and schizz), but it means I now have to enter "90" instead of "1.30". I'm anticipating that if I continue with such taxing mathematical challenges I'll be able to win on Countdown.

2. I brush my hair before I go to bed, not when I wake up. I like how big it gets when it's knotty, but if I didn't brush it daily I'd end up with one huge dreadlock.

3. I'm a total hypochondriac and should be banned from Googling any kind of medical problem. It takes two sneezes and a stray eyebrow hair for me to become convinced that I've got some kind of tropical disease that is actually only carried by llamas.

4. There are several words I always struggle with spelling, including Mediterranean and disappointment. Thankfully, I don't have to write about rubbish holidays to Italy very often, so no-one else has noticed this.

Damn you, tricksy sea!

5. I picked up my (some would say annoying) habit of using excessive numbers of emoticons from my Aunt, who's written them in her letters for as long as I can remember. Well before texting and The Internet became popular, anyway.

6. There are some things I've resigned myself to never understanding. Mainly physics, chemistry, and The Matrix. I'm OK at maths though, and I understood both Bill and Ted movies. Win some, lose some. 

7. The most scared I've ever been in my life was when I flew to Los Angeles with my nan (Pam, maker of excellent jam), on our way to Australia. Pam was really dehydrated from the flight, but I didn't notice. We decided to have a nap when we got to our hotel, jetlag be damned, but I was woken up shortly afterwards by an almighty crash. Pam had fallen over in the bathroom, smashed her face on the marble counter top and knocked herself out. It was terrifying. Even more so than when I was accidentally involved in a drag race through Delhi, and the time that a burglar managed to open my bedroom window at 3am. There are no words to say how thankful I am that Pam is still alive and well today (and still making incredible jam). 

The brilliant Pam, fully recovered, later on our Aussie adventure. 

Thanks again for the award, Anna :) 

Katie xxx

Table Talk

Hello lovelies!

Can you believe it that my cold is STILL going on?! Me neither. I've spent the last three days Googling "countries where snot is a currency" so we can move house and become millionaires. So far, no dice.

I decided to make the most of the sunshine on Sunday and have a (medicinal) half pint of perry before our Sunday lunch. Have I mentioned Tom's awesome Sunday roast dinners on here before? I'm not saying he's the love of my life solely because of his roast dinners; but they do cancel out an awful lot of smelly Man Socks being left on the floor... Anyway, because I have a lower alcohol tolerance than your average newborn baby, half a pint of perry = me being totally sloshed.

Which is how I came to be sitting in my brand new chair at 3pm, under my gorgeous new blanket, cackling drunkenly and staring intently at the legs of our dining room table. "You know, what our table needs?!" I thought to myself yelled to Tom in the kitchen, "YELLOW LEGS!"

Table legs before. YAWN.

I didn't get painting there and then, because there was a roast dinner to be consumed and napping on the sofa to be undertaken like the trooper I am. I planned to go to Homebase and buy a tester pot of yellow emulsion to turn into some more homemade chalk paint, but instead I decided to try using some paint that I already had. 

Ok, so it was acrylic paint, which probably isn't recommended for painting on wooden furniture. But it was right there, and Homebase wasn't. In fact, Homebase is a good seven minute walk for my house- a distance that practically qualifies me to set up a Justgiving page for charity sponsorship should I try to walk it! There are few things I am if not chronically lazy about my crafting. The same reason why I used sellotape for taping the edges for this project instead of masking tape; the sellotape was in the dining room, and the masking tape was all the way up in the loft- up a whole flight of stairs and a ladder.

So the next day I pulled out my stash of acrylic paint and my bag of plaster of Paris, and stirred up the perfect consistency of homemade chalk paint- which I have decided is the viscosity of hummus. I was going to go for just yellow, but then this gorgeous bright blue tube just wouldn't stop staring at me. 

So, two coats later, I ended up with this:

The blue and yellow legs are on alternate corners, and as you can see the blue leg "socks" are also higher than the yellow ones.

I love it. What do you think? 

Katie xxx

Photo an Hour 2

Hello lovelies

Have you had a nice day?

I'm glad to report I'm finally on the mend (hurrah!), and decided to take a photo (or seven) an hour today to celebrate the fact my day didn't solely consist of "blow nose", "blow nose", "complain about blowing nose" etc. 

7.30: Getting dressed. 
I decided to break out my new Paperchase Badges and my Easter Cardigan, despite the fact it definitely wasn't warm enough today for a thin cardigan today. Should've worn my cable knit! 

Admittedly, the badges sort of gave the impression that my right boob was really angry, but I'm OK with that.

8.30: Breakfast. 
It's not very often I have toast for breakfast (in my topsy-turvy life bread is a treat but cheesecake is a necessity), but this morning I had two slices of awesome oaty wholegrainy toast- one with lemon curd and one with an awesome peach & raspberry jam courtesy of Tom's Mum. And some orange juice, because Vitamin C is currently my bff. 

9.30: Vintage/Craft Fair.
My Mum and I walked along to the Town Hall for a good nose around the vintage/craft fair thingy going on there today. There were so many hilarious magazines and advertisements going back as far as the 1940s and still in mint condition; I couldn't resist capturing a few with my blurry phone camera.  

Because the men of 1956 loved nothing more than a woman doing magic tricks

You hear that other books about cats? You should be written like this. 

I have officially fallen in love with this font. 

I snapped up this gorgeous vintage stationery box (without the stationery in it) for 1 English Pound; it's the perfect place to keep my extensive collection of chalkboard pens. 

I might have also bought a few bits and pieces for my 30,000 views giveaway; but y'all will have to wait and see about those. 

10.30: Second hand shopping
We spotted a gorgeous pop-up shop directly opposite the Town Hall, mostly selling second hand children's clothes, and went inside for a good rummage. Every time my Mum and I go charity shopping she's able to spot anything from Monsoon a mile off. I, on the other hand, am always magnetically drawn to last season's H&M. I picked up a really sweet t-shirt dress I have yet to try on; but it looks big enough to fit a roast dinner belly, which is my main consideration when purchasing new clothes. 

11.30: Being Supportive
I introduced my Mum to Anchor & Apron, a relatively new shop in the Needlemakers in Lewes, owned by my crafty friend Jayne. Being the caring and supportive person that I am, I selflessly purchased a gorgeous pink and blue herringbone-patterned blanket by Tweedmill to assist Jayne in her business venture. It's also got tassles on it, and was marked down in their sale- triple win. 

Image from Anchor & Apron's Facebook page

Look how inviting it is! (Image from Anchor & Apron's Facebook page)

12.30: Coffee Break
And the perfect opportunity to break out my cow milk jug.

1.30: Lunch
Not too shabby for a bunch of leftovers, even if I do say so myself. 

Baked sweet potatoes with fried onion, peppers and mushrooms, feta cheese, rocket, and balsamic vinegar.

2.30: Crafty time
I got stuck into some cross-stitch, whilst my Mum covered shoe boxes in wrapping paper and ribbons (no prizes for guessing where my love of cutting and sticking comes from!)

3.30: Pottering
Drooling over the gorgeous bits and pieces Mum's handed over to me from her own craft stash. My parents are in the process of "downsizing"; which essentially means every visit is accompanied by several carrier bags full of stuff for me. Yippee!

Stunning wooden cotton reels and a beautiful button tin

And covering my new chair with my even newer blanket. I might actually hold off on the upholstery for a while after all. 

4.30: More cross-stitch
Whilst watching my first ever episode of The Voice on iplayer. Will.I.Am really is one special little guy isn't he? I certainly won't be watching another one. 

5.30: Rain
The weather took a sudden turn for the worse which resulted in Tom and I legging it to the washing line to try and rescue our newly-dried washing before it got hit by the grapefruit sized dollops of rain. There are few things that make me giggle more than frantically gathering the washing in when it's raining- I feel like I'm on a (really rubbish) game show. 

6.30: Cake Break
A cup of hot elderflower cordial in my excellent anchor mug from Alice, and a hefty wedge of lemon drizzle and blueberry cake to keep me going until dinner time. 

I plan to spend my evening making a medley of leftover chinese food resemble some sort of stirfry, and watching Shameless. How about you? 

Katie xxx

P.S. My first Photo an Hour post from November 2012.