Above is a view from top of stairs looking towards porchway... and below is the view at the bottom of the stairs looking towards the porchway...
Below is our 'nursery', okay so I must stop saying that!!! It is going to be a spare bedroom/study. Currently it is this stunning pink/purple stipey room with crayons all over walls and stickers everywhere... fetching huh? I can't wait to paint it a lovely lemon white warm colour...
Here is our AMAZING oven, the people before us left it, it was sticky with grease but since taking this photo Tim has scrubbed it with special professional cleaning stuff and it has come up mostly shiney new!! We will clean it a few times over with this professional stuff and it will be good as new. At least it is useable now, and means we didn't have to buy a new oven of our own, fab! The people also left a dishwasher... how cool is that!!
Our kitchen looking towards the back door that leads to our garden, can you see our shiney dishwasher in the corner!?
View from kitchen window, as with the rest of the house the garden also needs a lot of work!
Well planning is done and I am now going to go to bed extra early to try and be awake enough to cope at school tomorrow... I SO don't want to go to work...

BYE xxx

More photos!!

Above is our amazing fridge freezer! Our very own!! It is really sad the things I find exciting now...

Below is our dining room looking towards the lounge.
Here is the dining room looking towards the kitchen.
I did have loads more photos but my blogger is being silly and won't download them, I will try again tomorrow. I suppose I should try and do my planning for next week. I keep putting it off... BYE xx

Morning,
I had such a good nights sleep in my flat, I can't wait till our new bed arrives and we can sleep on that in our new house rather than the hard, uncomfy sofa bed! Here is our new lounge... do you like the deckchairs? Nothing beats pizza and wine in beakers!
Our lounge looking towards dining room and kitchen. There is a rather tasteful 'bar area' on left hand side...
Me cleaning!!
Our make shift bed in the 2nd bedroom, we will be moving to the finished room as soon as our bed arrives and we put it together next weekend.
Our bath, it was leaking so Tim had to peel off the old sealant stuff from around the edge, then put new stuff on and sorted the under side of sink and bath pipework! He is a clever boy!!
My dirty cupboards in the kitchen... GROSSSS!!!!!
And the sparkling cupboards now!! I cleaned a lot this week...
Well better go, have to go to tescos and stock up this week ready for going back to work... boo hoo! Then doing planning all afternoon. I hate going back to work after such an exciting week off. I just want to be back in our house with Tim. Chat soon, Gemma xxx

So we have now officially bought a house. We completed on Wednesday and started straight away with decorating our first bedroom. Tim has been sooo busy fixing things, we keep finding new problems to fix... it is definitely a project and a half! What have we let ourselves in for...

Seriously though, we are really enjoying it but is HARD work. It will be amazing when it is all done but that is a year or so away yet. We are just doing a room at a time decorating wise. We have cleaned the whole house, although it is so dirty we will need to clean over and over again to get it really spotless. Tim has cleaned our amazingly huge oven, dinner parties here we come when our dining room is no longer flurescent pink and blue!!

So here is the sequence of photos showing the one room we have finally finished decorating!

1st coat of paint
2nd coat of paint, you could still see blue through it, we have learnt for next time to put a thick base coat on first!
Final coat, it was starting to look good now!
Me glossing radiator, I had already finished window sill then I did the skirting boards.
Finished glossing doorway, was soooo gross before!
Tim changed all the power sockets, TV ariel plug and put a new light socket on ceiling then new cable and lamp... Here is our new bedroom ready for bed to be delivered on Monday!!
So Tim is currently there starting on 2nd room, the study downstairs, we will be using it as a lounge this winter whilst we sort out the big lounge which needs a lot of work. He will stay till Monday to put together our new bed and then come back here for the week. We will go back next weekend, then Tim starts work a week on monday so after next weekend we will be living apart.... boo hoo...

Better scoot to bed now, I am shattered. I also pulled my back putting on my jeans on Friday so am now in agony. Oops!

Night night xxx

My jigsaw that I finished yesterday. I am such a geek but this wintery weather really brings out the Christmassy excitement in my blood and I just couldn't resist this puzzle.


Poppy, she is SO cute! Tim wouldn't let her sleep on our bed but I let her jump on for a quick cuddle, don't tell Tim!!



Hello,

So lots has happened since I last wrote. I got myself a job!! Starting in January I will now be a Year 4 teacher in a lovely school near my new house. I am very excited about relieved it is all sorted. Now I can enjoy my last 8 weeks at Milverton and look forward to all these lovely new things happening in my life!

We had Tim's sister Annabel and her husband Peter come and stay with us last weekend. They bought their gorgeous dog Poppy, who was very well behaved! We took them out for dinner and had a really lovely time.

House stuff is going very well indeed! We complete in 2 days time, yey!!!!! Tim and I spent this morning walking up and down the isles of B&Q buying all sorts of handy things to clean and deocrate our new home. I can even start seriously looking for my kittens too, I guess they will currently be inside their mummy's tummy so will keep an eye out for adverts and RSPCA website!

I had a great Saturday with Laura and Fiona, we went shopping and had lunch in town. I think I will really miss the location of our current flat, being so close to restaurants and shops but am looking forward to being in the countryside too!

Better scoot now, big excited hugs from me, Gemma xxx

Me, anna, kate and helen


Archie, Kate's lovely cat (made me want mine even more!!)



Me and anna (above) and Helen and Kate (below) on bus into York.
Hello there everyone,

how are you all? I had a fab weekend with my uni friends, Anna, kate and Helen. We had so much fun shoping, eating, drinking and chatting! Kate has just moved into her new house so was great to see where she is now living and it gave me lots of ideas for how we may decorate our house!

house stuff wise it is all ok, waiting for a completion date now, it is very nerve wracking hoping it is all going to go through ok, fingers crossed it will be soon!!!!!

Well I have now desperately got to get my planning done ready for this week. I have a really madly busy one ahead with parents evening!! argh!!

Chat soon, ant if you are reading this please update your blog or call me!!! Hope the hangover and injections are feeling better??

Gemma xxxx

Hi,

I have been poorly all weekend and today. I hate feeling ill, just gets me down. I am starting to feel a bit better but not much, hopefully after a good nights sleep.

House stuff all going ok as far as we know. It's this whole waiting thing that is tricky, we don't want to get our hopes up but at the same time it all seems to be going okay. Just want to complete so we can start buying paint and do it up!!! so exciting!!

Just thought I would add a few cute kitten photos as Tim has told me as soon as our house is all sorted I am allowed to get my kittens!!! YEY! I think if we can find some to pick up just after Christmas, on our way back from Tim's parents then that would be fab! I want two really cute ones!!! (I don't think it is possible to get an ugly kitten, they are all soooooo adorable!)

well no gossip as you may have realised! chat soon, gemma x

Hi, so here's my big news... most of you prob know but if not, Tim was offered a job in July and accepted it so we are moving to Derbyshire!! We spent the summer looking at houses and have put an offer in for this property below. We are soooo excited. I have had to keep it quiet as I didn't want it to get out to parents at my school before my hea dteacher announced it. I handed in my notice at beginning of term to leave at Christmas. They are now appointing a new teacher next week. Parents got told tonight!

I am gutted to be leaving Milverton as I love it there SO much but at the same time I am so excited about moving into a new home with Tim and starting our 'grown up life' together, seeing he has been a student for 7 years it is about time!!!

Our house is in Belper. It is a four bedrooomed property with a dining room, ounge, kitchen, 2 bathrooms and a garden! We can't wait to complete and move in. It needs quite a lot of work doing to it but we are looking froward to the challenge and a project!

So right now I am aplpying for jobs and we are just waiting for house stuff to go through, all looking good so far!

No other news, although i feel that this news is exciting enough to last ages!!! Will keep you posted on how it all goes.

Tim officially finishes his PHD today so his supervisor has taken him out for drinks. I am enjoying eating garlic bread an dpizza and watching girly TV, love it!!

Chat again, soon, Gemma xxxx

Hello,

still no gossip this end. School going really well, am on top of it all at the moment and enjoying working with my new class, they are lovely, a bit noisy but hey they are children, it's their right! Anyway, so Tim and I had some engagement photos done with our photographer this summer and they have been put on his website... it is really cringy looking at so many photos of ourselves but he did actually take some really good ones, as well as some horrendous jumping in the air ones... was definitely a bonding experience between Tim and I!! Very funny! The things we do in the name of love...! It has made me even more excited (if that is possible) about getting married, I know it is still ages away but we do need to start sorting things out now which is SO MUCH FUN!

Anyway, back to the here and now, Tim has been growing some sunflowers since spring time in a competition against his mum or who can grow the tallest and biggest sunflower. Well Judith (Tim's mum) grew really tall ones with tiny little sunflower heads at the top which flowered in July, and Tim's took AGES to even get taller than a metre which is ridiculous for sunflowers, but since September has FINALLY started to get sunny his have started to get taller and this week a flower grew!!! So above are a few photos of it, isn't it beautiful?!

We are off to Stratford tomorrow for a walk along the river and maybe have a bit of a shop, I love Stratford so much!

Chat soon, Gemma xxxx

Hi,

I know I promised photos next time I posted but I really haven't ben near my camera or done anything exciting to justify taking photos!!! I am back at school and feeling tired and coming down with a cold/sore throat already!! Can you believe it! Those germy little children just saved up all their germs over the summer hols to pass on to me...

Work wise I am in control but already counting down the days to half term, only 6 weeks to go!!

Tim is busy busy busy writing up his phd and so now doesn't have to get up early. So now I have to get up on my own in the mornings, it's so not fair, I just want to stay curled up snuggling in bed with him (sorry mum!)

So I have no news at all. Chat really soon when more exciting things have happened my end!
hugs, Gemma x

Hello,
So I have been awful at taking photos these past 2 weeks. I am usually good at that but have been enjoying myself too much to even think about getting my camera out!
SO... I went to oxford last week to try on my ACTUAL wedding dress, so exciting. I have set up my first fitting in October (needs to be done early so myum can do her thing!! Just means I can't loose too much weight after the fitting... what a hardship...!)
Then I went to Atherstone to see my friend Sarah after about 2 years of not seeing her. Was good to catch up and hear all her gossip!
Then Tim and I went to Belper for the day followed by driving back down to Oxford for our fridns birthday BBQ! Was great to see my guernsey friends again. Tim quite enjoyed it too as he and Jason are now planning a climbing trip to Austria in the next month! They are mad!!!
Then I got back from Oxford had a day to rest then drove down to Brighton to see my uni friend Anna! So much fun to catch up, plus she lives in a great little flat by the sea so we got to have a BBQ on the beach, heavenly! Followed by a day of shopping on Tuesday. Anna is amazing - I had budgeted £100 for shoes and £100 for a nice underwear set for my wedding and ended up finding gorgeous shoes for £22 from BHS and a lovely underwear set from debenhams for £38!! So technically I have saved £140 to spend elsewhere!!! GREAT! Thanks Anna for helping me find some amazing bargains!
So after Brighton I came back up to Leam and have spent this week meeting up with school friends, sorting MOT and car tax and starting to think about school... argh!!!! Can't believe how quickly six weeks has gone.
Well next time I blog I promise to have some photos to share, even if they are of just tim and me!
Chat soon, Gemma xx

Hello, so we are back from our hols. We had a great time but it went far too quickly. It is so not fair when you look forward to something for so long and it all just comes and goes so fast, how on earth am I going to be after my wedding! I will have planned it and got excited for almost 2 years... I think Tim and I will have to pick somewhere really great for our honeymoon to make the brilliant ness of being married last for ages!! Here is a photo of us at our wedding venue, most big wedding stuff is all sorted now just the finer details to now do, fun fun fun!!!! Tim skimming at Bordeaux...

For those of you coming to our wedding here is the front of St Pierre Park (just so on the day you know you have come to the right place!). Tim has been busy this holiday starting setting up our wedding website. It looks great, so we will let you know the web address as soon as we have finished it. The website will give you loads of info on Guernsey and how to get here and where to stay (Thanks Sam and Nick for the idea!).

Tim collecting beautiful little shells from Oyster Point for wedding stuff, won't tell you what for yet as it will be a surprise!!

Tim at L'Ancresse. We were so lucky with weather the first week but since last Sunday it has been rain rain rainy... Not fair, we still had a great week but really is such a shame. This summer weather wise has officially sucked! Let's hope next summer will be better, I missed out on swimming daily so will have to make up for it next year by having extra swims!!!

I had to add this to my blog even though we take the exact same picture every year. Even in this last week of horrible weather we were still able to enjoy this gorgeous jacuzzi with glasses of champagne (well we were on holiday!!!)

Tim and I on L'Ancresse, was a windy day so no swims that day...

This photo is for those of you who knew marmalade my cat. He died a month or so ago. The weirdest thing however has happened. One morning (I think Mum said it was a day or so after marmalade died) this tiny ginger cat turned up in our garden!! I had such a bl***y shock when he appeared one morning when we were there, had to take a double take to make sure it wasn't Marmalade... very bizarre. The funniest thing is he seems to like our house and also appeared one evening on the top of our fridge!!! We don't know how long he had been up there but seemed to like it. He wanders off at the end of us cuddling him to a house at the back of us so I guess he already has a home. It is nice to have a cat about to cuddle though...

We are calling him Charlie as he seems to respond to this. Look how much like Marmalade he looks... weird!!!

Well no more news from me, back in Leamington now. We have unpacked but seeing we got up to get the red eye at 5am we are pretty tired. Having dinner then getting an early night. We have a busy week ahead so will update you later on. Huge hugs xxxxxx

Hello, we are still having a great holiday in guernsey, the weather has been amazing! Making the most of it today as the forecast is not good for next week, oh well, I am still swimming no matter what the weather!!!
We have been very busy doing wedding stuff and have also fitted in a day trip to herm, lots of swims, lots of jacuzzis and lots of wine! We had fish and chips on the beach yesterday before meeting a whole load of my school friends for drinks in town. Was great to catch up and hear how all our lives are changing! Very exciting things happening this year for all of us!

Here is a picture taken a year exactly to the day of our wedding at our wedding venue. Can't you just imagine me in my lovely white dress????!!! Tim and I on our way to Herm to collect shells, lie on beach, swim lots and drink cider!!! Was a fun day out and scorching hot weather! Will miss the sea so much when we have to come home.

Just wanted to share the amazing ness that is Herm. This was taken at 11am looking across shell beach. All those crazy people who headed to spain for sardine packed beaches are missing out on 25 degrees sunshine on empty sandy white beaches....!!! It doesn't get better than this!

From left to right - Claire (very pregnant!!!), Pippa, Verienne, Me, Katie, Greta and Holly, in the Albion wine bar, used to be one of our favourites when we were sixth formers!!

Well would put on more photos but we are off out in a bit for dinner in town! Hope you are all having fun wherever you are. We have a big day planned tomorrow with all our family coming round for dinner YEY! and Tim wants to do some fishing!!! Chat again soon xxxx

Hello, so annie and pete's wedding was lovely. Very busy with sorting things day before and on the day but we really enjoyed ourselves, tim and annabel's mum and dad were stars and did so much before and on the day. All in all a great wedding, very romantic and dancing barn dance stylee was fun! I also got to finally meet all of tim's family - no-one left to meet now.

We are now in guernsey and loving it, only been here for a day but already feeling relaxed and chilling out with a glass of wine. Mum and I have had a swim at bordeaux, tim chickened out and pretended to do work instead (ok so actually he is working hard on his phd writing up but still... I want him to swim with me!!)

Tomorrow we are relaxing round here and at the beach then wednesday we are heading to herm! YEY! collecting shells and swimming, I am sure I can get tim in the sea at Belvoir bay! I will keep you posted.

HUgs, hope you are all enjoying the summer sunshine,
gemma x