23 July 2007

The painting is progressing slowly

As some of you know, H and I are painting the inside of our house. We're going from a cool and pale mint green to a creamy yellow called Milk Maiden. We've, or more accurately, H, has finished the ceilings and yesterday started on the yellow walls. I can't tell you what a difference it makes to the look and feel of our home. The kitchen is finished and H hopes to finish off the remaining yellow walls today, while I'm at work. Then he'll start on the trims and doors, which will be a greyish blue called Smoke Ring. If you're wondering what my part in all this is, I've been cleaning down walls, picking up paint cloths, covering furniture, checking the coverage of the paint ; ) and making cups of tea.




Once the first yellow wall was finished - the one opposite the kitchen and behind our small round dining table - I realise we'd have to paint some furniture too, as what we have now - a greyish green - doesn't look so good with yellow. So I'll be painting a couple of pieces on Wednesday if H hasn't had time to do them beforehand. Along with my mostly Irish heritage, I have one Swedish grandmother, so the idea of painting furniture fits in well with my Swedish sensibilities and I'm looking forward to it. We're not buying anymore paint, having reached the limits of our dedcorating budget, so the furniture will have to be white, as that's the only paint we have available. Hopefully I'll be able to find a tint of black or blue in the shed to soften the stark whiteness, as I could quite happily live with a very light grey or blue. I'll be posting some photos when we're finished so you can all let me know what you think of our efforts.

As we've been cl
eaning, moving things around and painting the last few days, I haven't had a chance to make my soap, and take photos for a tutorial on it. I have not forgotten and will certainly get to it next week. I think that soap making is a valuable skill to have when living a simple life. A rich moisturising soap does wonders for the skin, as well as keep us clean, and it's nice to have a soap you know you can trust to nourish your skin without relying on overpriced skin creams. If I need extra moisturing during Winter, I just use a little olive oil. It's a wonder to me why anyone would need to buy anything more.

I'm really pleased we have our dishcloth swap underway. It will be a lovely way to connect with each other and get to know our online neighbours. I think I might get some time to come online when I'm at work later today so I'll start sending email addresses or postal addresses to swappers. If you haven't sent your postal or email address for me to pass on to your swap buddy, can you please do it soon. Thank you. Remember, the swap deadline is August 17, so if you all start your knitting soon, we'll have enough time to finish our projects without the need to hurry. And we do have a place for one more swapper, as I ended up with two swap partners, so if you'd like to join this swap, let me know today.

I want to also mention how much I enjoy getting your emails. I've received quite a few from readers who have never commented so it was delightful to get to know them in an email. I also enjoy contact from those lovely people who do comment. There is a greater opportunity to connect via email and to talk openly about what we're doing. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to reply, I forget to check my email sometimes and at other times I'm busy, but I will get back to all of you, I promise. It's been a blessing to receive emails from all over the world, as well as those from the many Australians who read my blog. So to all of your who have taken the time to write, I thank you most sincerely.

This is Alice, in her curly Airedale winter coat, sitting with her good friend Hettie, our old white cat, in the warmth of yesterday's afternoon sun. They make sure they sit close to the back door every afternoon so they are ready when their dinner comes out.

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13 comments

  1. What a great pic of Alice and Hettie Rhonda. I wish my 2 dogs had manners like that they have already broken the new flyscreens tryng to get in. Good luck with the painting its a FUN job, in the end it will look wonderful and well worth all the hard work. Neisha. PS post a pic of the finished project.

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  2. I love yellow, it is such a happy colour. My kitchen, dining room and laundry are all painted a nice sunny yellow. I'm sure you already love it!

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  3. there's nothing more rewarding than doing the decorating yourselves. The end result will definately be worth the hard work preparing and painting :)

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  4. Your new colour scheme looks very pretty Rhonda. Yellow is such a cheery, positive colour.

    Almost all the walls in our house are what I call butter yellow. I love it.

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  5. My house needs painting too, but I just can't seem to find the motivation. Maybe your after shots will be the kick I need to get to it.
    Lenny

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  6. Will be good to see the finished room and the effect on your being!! Colours have such amazing effects on your psyche. Bella

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  7. Hello Neisha, yes, Alice and Hettie look so well behaved there but they do have their moments too, they haven't broken any flyscreens though. I'll make sure I take some pictures.

    Lisa, I do love it already. I keep staring at the walls and H thinks Ive gone a bit potty. LOL

    Ali, yes, it's very rewarding. I'm REALLY impatient though so I want it finished NOW. : )

    Thank you Polly. I've never been a yellow lover before now. I think I'm maturing into it. I can hardy wait to add the bits of red.

    Lenny, hopefully our colours will make you run out to your paint store for colour charts and sample pots. I love change so it doens't take much to get me moving.

    Bella, they say also that yellow stimulates thinking. I'm really looking forward to seeing if the colour change will bring other changes too.

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  8. What a beautifl dog, I love her caramel coloured coat. What breed is she?

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  9. I'd love to complete the dishcloth swap Rhonda. I'll e-mail you now :-) Deborah xxx

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  10. Darn...I missed the swap by i=one commenter...maybe next time!

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  11. jenjen, alice is an Airedale Terrier. They're the largest of the terrier and truly lovely dogs.

    No problems, Deborah, you're in. Start clicking. ; )

    Definately next time, Morgan. And welcome. Thanks for stopping by. : )

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  12. Alice is darling!! Abner would LOVE to get to meet her. I'm not too sure how Hettie would survive... I've never seen an Airedale lay down next to a cat. Ours tried to tree a neighbor's cat in their dining room once, but that is as close as he's gotten. Sigh. That was traumatic!

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  13. Good heavens, shouldn't H have some cloths covering the floor and that chair while he paints the ceiling? If I tried that, there would be paint spatters everywhere!

    (And not only on my shirt and pants ;-)

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