Me and Mum cooking mince pies in my lovely clean and sparkly kitchen!!! Slight issue though when we realised we had no weighing scales, no rolling pin and no mince pie cutters..! so we improvised!!



Mum and Tim relaxing with a glass of wine after a hard days work cleaning, we ended up going to a new pub in Belper. We thought it would be yummy pub food but was a gorgeous Italian restaurant with a huge log fire and delicious food, we were very impressed!
Mum and I cleaning!
Our finished room, we now have shelves and I brought up lots of books and DVD's so looks like a proper room now.



Hello,

so I have had another madly busy week at school starting up the christmas play - not sure how we will ever get it all ready for the performances at the end of term... but sure we will get there!!!

This weekend has been lovely as my mum has come to visit and we have spent the whole time scrubbing the kitchen. It was good to have another pair of hands, mum did very well and our kitchen is so clean and sparkly now that I feel like we don't have to rush to get a new kitchen straight away.

better scoot now, chat again soon if I have time, our weekends are now getting madly busy with christmas parties, Tim's parents visiting and packing up our flat!! I must say I cannot WAIT till it is christmas and tim and I can relax down at his parents house with a bottle or two if wine and their lovely log fire!!!

BYE, Gemma xxx

Tim has snow in Belper!! Not settling yet but I found this snowy picture from leamington last year, hoping for a white Christmas!!

Hello,

so we have had them ost relaxing weekend down in Leamington. Tim came down here this time to give me a break from driving up and down the country at weekends. It was lovely to go Christmas shopping with him and we went out for dinner for the first time in ages (just for a main course as we can't afford starters anymore!!! he he) Seriously though, it was SO lovely to relax and just spend time with my gorgeous husband to be!

We also had a very exciting Saturday afternoon printing all our wedding invites!! EEEEESHHHHKKK! very excited about that!! They look fab! Can't wait to send them out in the new year. Flights are all available now for next summer so we really have to get our guests moving in booking the cheapest flights and get good package deals.

So Tim went back this afternoon, I had a little cry but have now pulled myself together. I know it has worked out really well and having to spend 5 more weeks apart is nothing next to spending the rest of my life with Tim. I can get through it, plus we have Christmas to look forward to!!!

Better go do my planning now, just wanted to say hi, big hugs, gemma x

Above is a view of our garden from the bedroom we are in at the moment.

Below is our view from our master bedroom, we still need to do up this room, can you see the hills in the background??! Can't wait till we have time to explore a bit more. We are going to get some bikes and in the spring time/summer time we can ride out of Belper and within 5mins we will be in the countryside, how cool is that?
Here is our upstairs loo, we have a problem with the floor boards stinking, we have scrubbed them with bleach but still no luck. So this weekend I primed the floor and glossed it, we are hoping to seal in the smell....!! wish us luck!!! if it doesn't work we may need some more ideas?? We will eventually get rid of the purple but for now it will do! The thing on the loo is one of those gorgeous oil sticks air fresheners, we are hoping that may help too!
BYE XXXX

Hello, so tim spent a lot of time last week in the evenings getting our 4th bedroom/lounge ready for me to paint this weekend, when I got there he did the last bit of sanding and ended up with hair like this!! old man!!!
Me doing first coat of paint and below 2nd coat in barley white!
Last night we finished it all off by glossing everything!!! Doesn't it look fab? Now we are planning to get some laminate floor for this room and a cosy rug from ikea then we can move in our futon to use as our sofa until our big furniture is moved at Christmas. It is going to be such a mad few months!!!


It does look great now!! So proud of ourselves, we are powering with our decorating!!

Well I am back home now and need to go to tescos to get some food for the rest of this week then I am going to bed early!

Will put more photos on soon as I took lots again this weekend, BYE XXXX

Ok so this is our downstairs 4th bedroom/study. It is a small one but will be really cosy as our lounge this winter. I have put photos on to show you the progress we have made so far and hopefully next week I will have more of the finished painted room! We are hoping to piant this weekend then move in sofa bed and TV!
Tim taking down the black lamp, I think it was green but the built up dust made it look black! GROSS!
Tim has been busy removing shelves and murky grey units... made the room look ten times bigger once they were out.
The ceiling units were taken down and we found hundreds of spiders webs behind them and idrt/mould...
Tim filled any holes, then I finished filling holes and started the sanding.

We then had to steam and scrape the ceiling, I did a small section then Tim did the rest!

Well like I said, I will add more photos next week once it is (hopefully) painted and ready to move furniture into! I am travelling up tomorrow evening and staying till Tuesday next week!! The reason is I am visiting my new school then going on a course for Year 4 teachers. I am really excited about finding out more about my class and the school and meeting the staff properly.

It was Tim's birthday this week too so we will be busy celebrating this weekend in between painting and decorating. I think a BIG CHOCOLATE cake is definitely called for!!

chat soon, Gemma xxx

More of our house!

Our pipe work starting from the cylinder in the bathroom... our plumber is doing all sorts to fix it up. May take a few days to finish it all off but will be worth it to get warmth over the next few cold months.




Our bedroom! Do you like our new bed, it is a kingsize!!! we got it in the sale and it has the comfiest matress ever. We also have rugs on the floor, bedside table and drawers. It is a proper room now!!



Above is tim is scraping ceiling of the 4th bedroom/study downstairs that we are going to be using as a lounge this winter.



Above is the cupboard in our nursary bedroom, the children scribbled all over it and stuck a million and one stickers on it. I had to steam them off and scrape them all down! But if you look at the picture below it was all worth it!!!

we have had another busy week, at school then at the house! Tim started his job today, he says it went well. However, his work christms party is on the same day as mine so we can't go to each others. Such a shame as we both would have liked to but never mind, will have to have our own party together the next night!!

He is also off to USA for work in January, I will miss him lots but I guess after the next few months of living apart I will be a little used to it.

So house is madly busy, lots of cleaning, decorating and fixing! It is going to take lots of time but we are getting there slowly. I am hating driving back and spending week alone but it makes weekends even more special. Roll on christmas!!


Our cupboard in our nursary, all ready to be painted nice and white gloss colour!

better scoot now, chat soon, gemma xxxxx