Our kittens and their first unsupervised outing!

I was ver brave and let our kittens go outside today - all on their own!!! Well Tim and I watched them for a bit then I kept the door open and went inside, I couldn't resist checking up on them every so often, and taking lots of photos! I have tons more but didn't want to bore you with hundreds of kitten photos...




We went to the union last night for a big warwick uni reunion, it was good fun although I drank too much purple! Tim's housemates were there which was good to catch up with them, none of mine made it. I saw quite a few people from my year, like the upstairs boys in halls, a few teachers, tim's hockey friends and a few of the welsh boys we used to hang out with in the first year. Was also good fun to dance in the market place again, I miss it lots!
Our lounge now has net curtains and a big painting to match our coloured wall, from ikea.
Our end wall, I glossed the floor skirting board but still need to do the doorway hence the rather attractive masking tape. We also bought a fire place and surround which will look fab when it is put together.
Well I am off to bed now. I am tired, slightly hungover and have done NO planning for this week. I have PPA time in the morning so am planning to get up VERY early and start planning for the week... half term is soooooo close - bring it on!!!!

BYE xx

Our lounge!!!!

Okay, so the people before us had such horrendous taste and painted (badly) in such garish colours and we have spent months sorting it all out, not that we have made it to the pink dining room which is the worst one of all... and now Tim and I decided we wanted a feature wall in our lounge and choose 'African Mosaic 4'. I think it looks fab and once we have some fab big paintings/wall hangings it will look even better! Do you think it is ok or too loud? We figured if we hate it after a while we can always paint over it (seeing we actually own this house!!!)

We have also started putting our lights up and finally can see in the evenings in the lounge, they are really pretty don't you think? we have another pair to go on the orange wall! I can't wait now to do all the finishing touches like glossing, skirting boards and curtains, then dress the room with mirrors and art work. It will be such a fab room, it really will!



So after my exciting weekend of DIY, sorting men's wedding outfits and visiting Laura's beautiful baby boy, we had more exciting news yesterday! My friend Kathryn has got engaged to her lovely boyfriend Jason. They are such a perfect couple! They are planning a winter wedding this year!!!! So so so so so exciting!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for them both.

Well best scoot, we are dropping a house key round at Tim's grandparents because Jean has said she will feed Oscar and Einstien on Sunday as Tim and I are in warwick. We are going for a last boogie ever in the union as they are pulling it down, all tim's house mates are going to be there and Little Anna and Craig can now come too so YEY!!!! Top banana songs here we come!!!!!

bye xxxx

our lounge so far!

Our lounge! Half way to being finished!!! This is just a white base coat will be ivory lace when it's finished, neutral but warm.
Below, half way through!

Introducing baby William!

Isn't he gorgeous!!??!!
Below is a photo just before his first push in his pram outside, we took him on a little walk up Laura and David's road. He loved it and fell asleep straight away!
Mummy Laura and her baby boy, soooooooo cute....
Me and one of my many cuddles I had today. I did really well picking him up and moving him about in my arms and putting him in his pram, I think I am a natural....!!! (timmmmmmmmmmm where are you!!!!!!!!)

Fi and her cuddle with William
Well there you go, I have had a day of cuddling a tiny baby and painting our lounge, will put photos of that later!

hugs, gemma x

DIY weekend!

Above is landing before...
Below is landing after...

Above is top of stairs before...
Below is top of stairs after...

Above is Tim filling yet another hole in the wall then he had to sand after, the people who lived in this house must have loved hanging things on the walls, and I mean loved it a lot... there were hundreds of tiny hooks everywhere... weird! and annoying cause we have had to fill them all in then smooth the walls... ragh! I have done the first coat of white paint on the ceiling. It already looks ten times lighter, as before the ceiling was the same colour as the walls. Is going to make such a difference having white ceiling, white woodwork and gorgeous colours on the walls. We have decided to do three walls ivory lace and one wall a bright terracotta colour, may look awful but we will never know until we try! Then all we need is a new gas fireplace. We have found one we like but will have to save up the pennies as usual!
Below Tim roped Dave into helping put up the new coving where the bar was. They did a fab job of it and is now ready for me to paint.

So as you can see Tim and I are powering away on our gorgeous house. We are loving it but is taking up a lot of time and energy. I keep thinking as soon as our house is all done and perfect then we can start filling it with babies... lots of!!!! he he he...

We now have a to do list to work through in finishing off jobs then we will only have three big projects left:
1. the kitchen-dining room
2. the bathroom
3. carpet and flooring throughout

So exciting! Oh and wedding to look forward to of course!

I am off to meet baby William tomorrow, I will be sure to take lots of photos to show you!! I am also hoping to do second coat on ceiling in lounge and first coat on at least one of the walls in the lounge. wish me luck!

Hugs, gemma x

Mum as promised... photos of cats!

This is as much snow as we had, the photo was taken at 7am and had all melted by the time we got up properly at 10am (I had to get up really early to feed the cats as they were miawing SO loudly at our bedroom door!)

Below is proof of how gorgeously sweet tim is, he let the cats sleep on the sofa and had to sit on the floor!
The cats have been nothing but gorgeous today, they have been quite sleepy and really lovey dovey to one another. Einstein still washes Oscare all the time and they just want cuddle after cuddle... very cute!
They love their cubby hole but will soon be too big to both fit in. May need to invest in another or there'll be fighting over who gets it!

They love each other SO much, adorable or what?

Congratulations Laura and David!!!!

My friends Laura and David had their baby last night!! Baby William Michael O'Brien was born weighing 7 lbs and 13oz at 7.54pm last night. I am so happy for them and so excited to meet him and have a cuddle! It may get me even more broody than I already am, if that's possible!!!! I will post some photos as soon as they are all up for visitors.
Above is a photo of one of our five new windows!!!

Below is our lounge all plastered and now ready to paint!!
Tim with Oscar in his arms and Einstein in cat heaven besides him, what lives they have - sometimes I wish I could be a cat with no pressures, just cuddles all the time and naps!
So what a week! School was fine, went slowly even though it was a four day week - I think because everyone wanted it to be Friday already... Then my friend Wendy got a job she had a applied for which is so exciting for her, she starts after Easter, I will be sad as I have made friends with her and enjoy our morning gossips!

Thursday we had our windows done, so now we have windows that actually open and close! They are also all new and white, with no paint sploshed along the edges (the people who owned the house before us hadn't heard of masking tape!). Also we got a plasterer to come and do our lounge wall, we had a go ourselves but we got a quote and worked out far cheaper than we imagined and much less time consuming to have it done, and done properly. It looks fab and only needs a few more days before we can paint it.

Dave, Tim's best man, is visiting this weekend. Is so good to see him, it has been ages, and for him to see our house. We went to Moss Bros today to do the men's outfits for the wedding, they tried on the different shapes and colours. Tim looked sooooooooo handsome, as did Dave, and they decided on a suit to hire and mum is going to make the cravats in the colour of the bridesmaid dresses. The more things we get sorted and booked the more real and exciting it becomes.

I forgot to say, I went down to Oxford yesterday for my final dress fitting before taking the dress to Guernsey (I made need another fitting in May but hopefully not, need to try and stay the same size now... no more easter eggs for Gemma!). It is still as gorgeous as ever and now just need my mum to help me sort out the finer details in Guernsey in May so I am truely content with it! I also got to meet Katie for lunch in Oxford and catch up on her news and gossip. I love doing lunch, just wish it didn't mean driving 3 hours there and back to do it!

So now after a jam packed weekend, I still have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off before going back to work! YEY!!!!
I am planning on DIY-ing tomorrow, painting hallway as Tim has now got it totally prepared for me and maybe starting on the lounge ceiling. I will have to do some planning at some point but I am not worrying or thinking about that yet!

well I had better scoot now, chat soon, Gemma xxx

my weekend with my uni girls!

Here I am having my first attempt at plastering... I was shockingly awful!!! Tim may now need to scrape it all off and start again, I tried really hard but it is so tricky to get smooth, bits kept coming off and leaving holes... ragh!!! never again... well maybe not for a few hours anyway...
So this weekend I had anna, kate and helen come and visit me. I miss them all so much, it was so wonderful to catch up and talk houses, weddings, babies, jobs, kittens, uni and much more! We went shopping on satruday, out to lunch, more shopping, home for cocktails then we went out for dinner!! Ladies of luxury! I spent my birthday money on some lovely new boots that were in the sale and a new cardigan for school or to wear with jeans/skirts at weekends. was fun, fun, fun!!
Me and helen
Anna and kate
helen getting ready
kate ready
anna getting ready
kate loving einstein and cocktails
my kittens adored kate, I think they sensed she was a cat person
kate bought the kittens some presents which they loved, here is oscar having fun on his own, very cute...
anna, helen and kate in the snug
me and anna slightly clashing with our tops!!!
I miss them soooo much! I wish we lived nearer, brighton, london, derbyshire and york are not easy to get to for afternoon tea, maybe one day we will end up nearer but for now a jam packed full weekend of fun will do, it's just a shame it goes so quickly.

better scoot now, my gorgeous fiance is busy plastering - sorting out my mess... so I should go look after him and make him a cup of tea! chat soon, big hugs, gemma xxxx