Old fashioned cleaning.

Our new (but old and limescaled) mixer tap for the bath arrived today. It is very heavy and in need of a good clean. I've Googled limescale removal methods a million times but never actually done it.

Yet, here i find myself sitting in our sunny and breezy garden dabbing vinegar onto cotton wool balls, willing them to clean up my taps. Articles available online give differing times for how long i should leave them. I think I'll give it a good few hours.

And then, after the 3rd and 4th attempt I'll be out with the brass.cleaner!!

Blackberries

I just had to share this fab list of things to do with blackberries (including recipes)

YUM!

1. Bake a blackberry and apple pie
2. Make blackberry and apple jam
3. Try blackberry cranachan (had to add this Scottish recipe)
4. Bake a blackberry and apple crumble
5. Put in a summer Pavlova
6. Create a blackberry fool
7. Make a blackberry smoothie
8. Put a few blackberries in lemonade
9. Freeze a few for later. Do not wash. Lay evenly on a baking tray and put in the freezer. Put them in a zip lock bag the next day and then use as needed.
10. Eat them plain or sprinkled with a little icing sugar. They're yummy!

Image taken from Gormet.com





Compendium

Wow, I keep meaning to update on the various bits and pices that have been going on but I scarcely know where to start!

I think it's fair to say that things are moving along with the bathroom.  We now actually have the bath (even if it is presently located in Neils study.) I had the delivery all organised through Shiply however things as usual were not quite as easy as expected.  The driver had a nightmare journey and arrived around 9pm.  Allowing me and him to grapple with it, slowly squeezing it through the door and sitting neatly behind the sofa.

I was having second thoughts about the bath after I won it.  It will be one of the most expensive purchases that we get for the bathroom. (It was just under £150 for bath and delivery) I realise in terms of normal people this is a snip for any kind of bath and this bath is soooo gorgous, I can't wait to get in it. (Even if my belly doesnt fully fit under the water by then.)

In other Ebay related news - In a fit of madness I also decided to bid on 3 boxes of tiles.  Through some slightly mad calculations I guestimated that just 3 boxes would be enough for the entire room.  Having picked these up last weekend I think I was a little more than optomisitc! They're still sitting in the car so I hope they are heat resistant... We shall see what comes of them.  But they did only cost a couple of pounds and the petrol getting there wasnt any where near as expensive as I expected.

The garden although still full of weeds has been 'bearing fruit' or rather veg. (i keep meaning to ask Neil to help me with it but always come up with better uses of time.) Perhaps this weekend will be a go'er.

I used the carrots for the meal I cooked on Sunday and they were really yummy.  I'm so pleased we managed to thin them out as it allowed them to grow much bigger.

We also went blackberry picking in the morning on Sunday whilst we were walking the dog.  I had started eyeing them up when I went out with a friend the week before so there we headed with our two little pots.  I was amazed to hear Neil had never been blackberry picking before but he seemed to really enjoy it.  Even if he did get into a bit of an argument with a few thorns.

One of my other favourite things from the weekend was when Neil and I sat in our front garden in the beaming sunshine going through an old suitcase of science textbooks I picked up from Freeycle as a surprise for Neil on Friday.  It was really fun looking through them and Neil seemed to really love them.  So there we were, me dusting off the books, Neil flicking through them as we polished off the rest of the home made lemonade.

So now it's time to decide what to do with ourselves this weekend.  Ideas muted so far have been -

• Southbank Vintage Fayre
• Cycling in Hyde Park
• Lunch at Franco Manca's

New towel delivery

I am loving them!

12 week scan excitement

So here we have our 12 week scans, it did take quite a while but I was so glad I decided to go to Kings.  I've never been there before and found it to be a really nice environment, it seemed to smell of lavender rather than hospital. Lovely!

It was a really wonderful feeling, seeing the baby there, knowing it was safe.  It was like nothing I have ever felt before, a huge amount of importance weighed down on me, like this was one of the most important things in the world to be carrying such a tiny little thing. And it really is tiny, we found out afterwards its just 5.6cm in length.  We also had it confirmed that our risk of the baby having any abnormalities is 1 in thousands and thousands.

As soon as I saw the baby on the screen I got the feeling it was a boy.  I don't really have any tangible reason why other than 'he' was very lazy and wouldn't move for the doctors.  Before I was pregnant I always imagined having a girl but the more I think about it I will be pleased and so excited either way.

We love you baby and we can't wait to meet you!

Bathroom Fast Forward

So, I am pleased and elated to announce that we are really moving forward with our bathroom.

A few weeks ago I ordered some floor samples from Harvey Maria, which I am slightly in love with.  We cannot afford to pay £24 a SqM and even in the sale its still a good £20 and when you have a floor measuring approximately 9 SqM  there aren't many flooring options that are going to come in under £100.  But seriously, I can't even begin to explain the quality of the Harvey Maria stuff, it feels like it would last a life time.  Did I mention they have Cath Kidston designs *drool*

When I ordered the samples I didn't expect to really like them very much, and ordered quite a few of the sale ones just to get an idea of what they were like.  I ordered a few samples in a style I didn't think I would really like, but now I'm totally sold on the look of whitewashed wood and I can't believe how realistic it looks even in a tiny sample.  The pictures just don't do it justice.

I like the fact that the wood style of it would go with pretty much any colour we choose and as I still can't pin myself down to anything it would be great for us.  It had a really realistic texture and a solidness with the durability of being 100% waterproof.

The other fantastic news is that we finally have our long awaited bath! After what feels like hundreds of bids on ebay for roll top baths we are finally there.  It's quite funny actually, I like it when ebay tries to recommend similar items when you don't win the auction, we're trying to buy a roll top bath with taps for no more than £150 and it starts recommending ones that are thousands.  Nice try ebay but I don't think you have the right idea quite yet!

So drum roll please here is our new bath! 

I did make the slight error of choosing one without the shower head attachment but I have been assured it has no scratches or chips so its nice and sturdy.  I estimated that hiring a van to collect it from Lydhurst would cost us £40 to hire a van and with petrol (what planet was I on?!)  Just with a quick browse it looked more like £100+ so I did a google of shipping companies and came across Shiply.  As I was getting a bit desparate in terms of my lack of collection options I thought I would list it on there and get some bids for how much someone could deliver it to me for.  I was absolutely astounded, within 20min I already had 2 bids and by the next morning there was a bidding war.  I don't want to jinx it as it's currently set to be delivered on Monday evening, but do far its's been amazing.  It's actually cheaper to get someone else spending the time doing all the hard work. So the delivery is now costing just shy of £40 with the Shiply admin fee included. How exciting!

We've also gone full steam ahead and bought a set of towels off Ebay as well, don't worry they're not second hand.  I was looking forward to rolling around in then and choosing some from my favourite stores (TXMaxx, or John Lewis, both have a sale on at the moment.)  However, Ebay came up trumps again. 2 hand towels 2 bath sheets and 2 bath towels with delivery for £31!  They look gorgeous as well, really plump and cosy.  They were originally from Next which I wouldn't have thought of for towels but I'm not complaining!

Oh and we are pretty blissed out from our 12 week scan today, but I'll tell you about that some other time :)

A Long Weekend

It has been a long weekend but I'm already not looking forward to work tomorrow.  I do like the prospect of the money it brings but not so keen on the actual work itself.  However at least as of yesterday I can seek solace in the fact that I have got through the first two stages of the John Lewis application proceedure for a Buying Assistant Role.  Now I have to wait up to 4 months for them to call me for interview, but an actual human will review my application now, not just a computer!  Just thinking about working there gets me excited so excuse me while I have some water to calm my nerves!

Anyway, back to the story of this weekend! For a while I've been dreaming of tackling my somewhat unruly study which has been filled with lots and lots of bags of baby things through the kindness of friends and freecycle.  We actually already have most of the things we will need for the baby believe it or not! Did I mention we even have a pram! It's actually pretty cute.  Here's a very quick picture straight from my mobile. Apologies for the terible pictures at the moment I'm feeling monumentally lazy.

Yes, amazingly enough Neil and I picked this up off a freecycle in Brixton about a month ago now. Her mum had bought her a new bugaboo for her second child so she was passing this one on.  I have to admit the steering is slightly unruly (when pushed on carpet...)

So today has basically been part of my mission to clear out the poor unborn babies room and re-locate my mountains of books, pulications, essays, notes and even crafty bits and pieces.  I thought I wouldnt get round to it but I am pleased to announce that I have completley cleared one small bookcase (which is being collected by a freecycler tonight) and re-located a large bookcase to it's previous location.

Here's the bookcase that has been relocated from my study to our bedroom and is now fit for purpose as Neil's bedside table!

The next task after I had cleared the bookcase out of the way, please admire the space to breath as documented here - (please ignore dodgy house pipework we do are best to do the same!!)

I then moved the other bookshelf from beside my desk to the space created. Please see offending bookshelf here on the right.

Here we are mid book re-location

It then took me a lot of heaving to slowly drag even the empty bookshelf from one wall to another, but I got there and it felt good, then all I had to do was rearrange all the books back on the shelves (taking note that there are still lots I need to get rid of.)

And here we have it,bookshelf bliss -

And what is this I spy!? A half an empty wall you say? Crazy times!

The other good news from this weekend has been the fact that Neil didnt have to leave Teach First this afternoon.  As he has to go into his school tomorrow they agreed he could stay at home tonight. And he'll be back on Wednesday for our scan on Thursday. (Although away all next weekend in Warwick...  boooo)

We had a lovely Saturday yesterday as well, I got quite into the spirit of the Tombolla as I flogged 4 tickets for £1 on the Lib Dem stall at Lewisham Peoples Day whilst Neil scouted out chips and churros for me! It's amazing how crazy people go for it, in the end we raised quite a bit which is great news.

And if people's day wasnt enough excitement for me for the one day we then headed in to Lewisham to check in ona light fitting we both liked in BHS which was in the sale but still a bit much for stingy me to fork out.  Naturally it was gone  by the time we went in to check on it this week, doh!  But instead we did find this Steiff bear for the baby in TK Maxx! He's a soft workman bear if you couldn't tell.