Good morning!
Welcome to our Sunday Meeting - I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.
We have had a really busy week here in Cornwall. The weather has been awful (the wind ohhhh the wind just please STAPPPPPP). There is always a silver lining though right? It meant that we got LOADS done in the spare room and it is almost ready for a grand reveal. I did share a peep of it on a note the other day, but it’s not all signed off yet so we wait. Which is driving me mad because I literally cannot wait to show you!
If you missed it, part of the room is a collaboration with Laura Ashley - I will never take for granted that I get to work with brands like this and that they entrust me to produce what I promise. This particular job was first discussed back in September so it has been a lonnnngggg time coming! We have wallpaper! After years of wallpaper being out of favour, I am delighted it is back - along with unpainted furniture, dark wood and pretty stuff. AT LAST!
Gav has made a bank of fitted wardrobes in the awkward gap under the stairs and they look so gorgeous - handles have been ordered - I am checking the delivery daily because…who knew… cupboard doors are really hard to open without them haha
As usual ‘we’ had a quick panic about the paint colour… ‘Sal. Is this the colour??’
Yes Gav. Yes it is. Keep the faith.
At the moment there are no curtains, but I popped to the little local interior place and fell hook line and sinker for some really gorgeous fabric. Susie - the owner is popping round tomorrow to measure up and I am over here bracing myself for the quote. Will update! I am delving in to the world of upholstered head boards and curtains with pelmets too. Who even am I. My Grandma will be looking down smiling, saying ‘told you so’
Anyway, all this got me thinking about how excited I am to style it all up and how simple changes can bring about a big Cheshire Cat smile - which can only be a good thing, right?
No need to decorate an entire room. Bit extreme that. (And it makes you really tired) Just small changes to bring about joy.
Bring in some fresh flowers - garden or supermarket - for a little pop of colour
A minute spent styling a small area- small areas can bring joy - a quick dopamine hit
Change your bedding - nothing like that fresh sheet feeling. If you strip your bed today - this is your reminder to put the sheets back on before bedtime. Is there anything more depressing than forgetting until it’s actually bed time?
Buy and use a nice soap - I became a bit obsessed by ‘proper soap’ when I was in France last year and brought enough back to sink a battleship. Feels like a real treat compared with what I call a ‘normal’ bar of soap - like Imperial Leather (that blummin label on it. When you think about it, whyyyyyyy)
Open your windows and let the air change - 20 minutes minimum - apparently this is called ‘burping your house’ Go forth and burp!
Declutter the kitchen table (or wherever the clutter lands) Enjoy feeling smug for the 5 minutes until it creeps back.
7. Put away all unnecessary coats now it is (apparently) Summer. We live in eternal hope! We do not need the deep Winter outer wear hanging in the hall cluttering it all up. Clear the space and it feels so much better. If you have shopping bags to take with you, put them all in a basket. For absolutely no reason apart from it feels 100000 times more joyful than a plastic bag full of bags hung there.
Dig your electric diffuser out and use it again. I love mine - my favourite fragrance of all time is Myrrh from The White Company. All year round. I’m dreading it being discontinued so stocked up in the sale. We are good until about 2050. Neom would probably have something to say about that. But here we are. We live life on the edge.
10. Water your plants. It’s amazing because if you water them they don’t die. I KNOW.
11. Beg borrow or steal some old books. Cheap as chips in charity shops. Or free if you nick them from your mum or nan. They make gorgeous styling props. There are loads on Ebay and Vinted too.
THINGS THAT ANNOY ME (AND THAT I FEEL THE NEED TO SHARE)
Clinging on to the very end *disclaimer not my soap or photograph. Photo credit unknown. I was just glad there wasn’t a hair on it Now, that damn sticker on the bar of Imperial Leather got me thinking about other things that annoy me and I have a list. I am old and easily annoyed. There are many annoying things, but here is my list of things that annoy me most. (This is an article of two halves, ‘joy and annoy’ and both coexist HA)
In no particular order …
(although I am starting with my top two pet peeves)
Bad replacement windows. This could be a post all on it’s own as I have a lot to say about windows. Walking around Newquay past gorgeous Victorian semi detached houses which back in the day would have been so pretty, until the modern day came along and people thought it was ok to replace the old sash windows with one massive pane of glass and … wait for it… one single diamond leaded fanlight. Look. The Victorians knew what they were doing with 1. aesthetics and 2. actual air flow. DO NOT MESS WITH THAT.
Also, on a health and safety note, how do you even get out if the house is burning down? I have plenty more to say on this but I bore Gav all the time so I won’t bore you with my many window annoyances.
I’d love to show you some examples but imagine if I shared your house?! I’d be utterly mortified to offend you. So I’ll just walk by, grumbling instead. The real life equivalent of ‘scrolling past’. I’ll say nothing but I am still cross. Ha
People who have bonfires on a nice sunny day when everyone has their washing out and are busy burping their houses with the windows open. Please wait for a mizzly day and do it when it’s starting to get dark.
I never thought I’d say this (although we all saw it coming) Chalk painted anything. Yes I KNOW. But times move on, and just because I once loved it, it is ok to admit to being human and … changing my mind. Brown furniture is back baby! OMG I just had a thought… do you think that one day we will all be going crazy for orange varnished pine C 1980/90s We cannot rule it out at this point.
Anywhere that’s loud, cold or requires queuing
Anything that is advertised as ‘booze cruise’ or ‘bottomless brunch’. No further notes necessary.
Afternoon tea. It’s not lunch or dinner. Give me a proper sandwich at the appropriate time of day. Keep the crusts on and leave the cucumber out of it. Please and thank you.
Restaurants with bad lighting including those with candles on the table that no one lights.
Shoes that hurt. Life is far too short for breaking shoes in.
People that don’t say thank you when you let them drive through.
Mean people. Zero interest or tolerance for mean people.
AND that is it. (I am lying, there are loads more haha) |Enough complaining for now. If you have nodded along to any of these, (phew) welcome to the club. Membership is free. I’d wager there will be some strong opinions about windows. I’d love to hear them. I reckon I could write a book about bad replacement windows - and terrible loft conversions while I’m at it.
My best friend’s husband and I have a group chat (yes it’s a group chat even though it consist of only us 2) where we regularly send each other examples of terrible windows and ugly loft conversions. This morning I was sent an excellent (AWFUL) example that literally looked like someone had parked a static caravan on the roof of what would have been an otherwise beautiful Victorian semi.
It’s basically a support group - we were both equally irritated about it and agreed heartily with each other that ‘permitted development’ can go horribly wrong and ‘imagine being next door’ and then we went about our respective days. Our partners not in the group chat, they are delighted to not have to listen to either of us harping on - thus escaping the moaning and everyone is happy.
Tell me what irks you - please make me feel normal! Gaahhhh
I’ll be back next week with whatever I happen across that I feel the need to discuss.
As ever, thanks for being here - I do massively appreciate it. Every comment, like, share - means loads and makes it worth writing. Thank you
Feel free to add any daily irritation in the comments, I await with popcorn.
Lots of love
Sally xx
No affiliate links or links of any kind today, just a light hearted look at the world.
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