Happy Christmas part Three.
I would like to wish all of my Friends, Family and Followers a Very Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year…I am a bit late with this…but I had no time to spare these last few days…I will let you know all about that in my next post…but until I can write that, I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Holidays!!
I have added the rest of my Happy House Christmas pictures…I hope you like them!
Speak to you all soon my lovelies…
Happy House Christmas Part 2…Well it’s getting a bit close to Christmas now and I am far from being ready! Ok so the Christmas Decorations are up, but I haven’t wrapped a single pressie!…and to think I started buying presents in September…you can imagine how many there are now! I started buying them then, because I wanted to be prepared!…I keep joking that I will probably be wrapping them all up on Christmas Eve…but I actually now think, I might be, EeK!
I used to love wrapping presents as a girl, but now as an adult and with so many other things to do…I can’t think of anything more boring!…and where did all the time go! One minute it was September! and now suddenly it is 17th December!!!!
I have taken a few more pictures from my Living room, to show you all my bits and bobs and Chrimbo decs..I hope you like them….
The picture above shows different items we have collected over the years…The red teddy we bought at a Bootsale about 20 years ago…Freddy gave £18 for it and he was followed across the field by a dealer who wanted to buy it there and then off of him for £50!…we had him valued a few years afterwards and they said he was worth £300…I am not sure what he is worth now, but he is one of the things, I feel, I just couldn’t part with.
The GENTS sign Fred also bought at a bootsale…we have the LADIES as well, but that is in the kitchen stuck to the top of an old crate where Bella has her food!…because she is ‘A Lady don’t you know!’
That’s the thing about Bootsales, Flea Markets and Vintage Fairs…you just never know what you will find…and adding them together with all your other belongings sure does make for an interesting display!
We have got right into candles this year and have collected quite a lot of them over the last few months…one of my favourites is Yankie Candle Almond Cookie…OMG when we have it lit…it is just the bestest sweet smell ever…you kind of want to eat the air! Lol! either that or raid the fridge!
These bits and pieces have been placed on our large dresser in the Living room…when we first acquired it (the dresser!)…it was painted a dark grey almost black colour…and we lived with it for a few months…but I kept looking at it!, and looking at it! and decided it just wasn’t the colour for me! Fred said he liked it! but I just couldn’t get used to it! until one day we both decided that the dark colour had to go and we painted it white!…I know dark grey and blues are very vogue at the moment…but I like white and I will always like white…I have always said that for me! it’s like a canvas and as I have so many ornaments; I like the way they shine, when placed against a white background!
We decided to buy ‘warm white’ lights this year, as in previous years, we bought ‘blue white’ lights and they just made my eyes sore…not sure why? perhaps its just me, as I am a little sensitive to light…but the different colours can sure make a difference to the room…and I love the warm light look…it reminds me of being young!
Another thing that we are really ‘in to’ at the moment is…Artificial plants…Now you all know how I have always loved artificial flowers…well this is a leap forwards…I am now loving the more leafy varieties! and we are calling them ‘Faux Botanicals’ it just sounds so much better…don’t you think? so remember whe you are out! No more ‘Artificial Plants’…but ‘Faux Botanicals’!
I hope that you have enjoyed my second instalment of ‘The Happy House Christmas’ Pictures and my ramblings…Gosh I do go on sometimes don’t I!…Sorry but I always feel responsible for silences and I am always nattering even when everyone else has fallen asleep in boredom!
Do please let me know how your week is going?
Are you prepared for the big Day?
Or do you like to do everything last minute?
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I don’t know whether I have been watching too much Grand Designs lately but I am loving the Modern Victorian look…You know what I mean don’t you? This kinda thing…
I just so love the way the old style is mixed with ultra modern design…we have all done it for years, mixing up our interiors, but now mixing up our exteriors ROCKS! in my book! Sash Windows (which are the best in my opinion!), mixed with full glass panels is the best of both worlds…letting lots of light into your home like this is sure to make you happier and more creative!
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What I like about these homes is the traditional look of the front with the completely ultra modern extension on the back..I don’t like the idea of renovating the front, as I love the Victorian era! it is so part of our heritage, especially living here in Dickens Country…but changing the back of the house with a state of the art extension is just so cool in my mind!
…And as for the interiors…well what fun you can have mixing old with new…renovating and sanding down old pieces of furniture to mix with up to date modern accessories…anything goes in a property like this…You can chuck a modern piece of art on the wall! An Eames Era chair in the sitting room and a country cottage dresser in the kitchen…it all kinda goes together! especially if you add a bit of colour here and there!
Here at the Happy House we have always mixed our styles up…just really buying what we like when we see it, never really following one certain look…Your home should be all about you! the things that you love looking at…the things that make you smile…memories and hand me downs…everything in your home should make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
We are trying to do that here at the moment, but now hubby can get about, he has also been having an opinion (darn!) about our decor and both our styles seem to be changing (in a different direction!)…I still like a bit of colour and he doesn’t want any! Eek! So needless to say we have been bickering a bit! 😉 That’s why I have so many boards on pinterest lol! I keep adding new boards called ‘my style’ and ‘my happy home’ etc etc!Anyways I just love this Modern Victorian style and if I ever move again…I hope it will be to a property very similar to the ones above!
What is your favourite style of property at the moment?
Are you living in it?
A Garden Room Please Santa!
Santa…I have been a really good girl this year! So please may I have a garden room so that I can use it as my Happy Hideaway all through the Summer months and beyond! Oh yes and please could it be ready built and can you plonk it at the back of my garden all painted and fixed together for me, as there is just no way I will be able to do it myself! Thank you…Love Happy
Hahaha! If only that were to become true! But it is a garden house/office call it what you like, that I would totally love for my garden next year, especially like the one above!
The Grey of the Garden room is the colour of my exterior windows and doors and is completely ‘On Trend’! It is hard wearing and hardly shows any dirt…it’s the perfect colour choice if you want a modern look…You have probably seen it about…grey is the new brown/white/black in exteriors and is the perfect choice if you are looking for something which is a little different from the crowd
Whilst I do love the pretty traditional garden room look, I seem to be more in Love with modern design. I suppose its because I am now living in a modern house, so I want something to match and this style would be perfect…
Do you remember when we lived at our old house…we had two caravans in the garden…one of them we made into a craft room for Freddy (my hubby) and it was perfect, probably because the vintage look lent itself to the cottage style of the house…but now he is in a wheelchair, something like that is out of the question…so now that we live in a modern disabled friendly house! this is more what I have been thinking of.
I will definitely be saving my pennies after Christmas and well into the Spring and heading down to B & Q or somewhere online to find the right garden house for us!
You see I so need a space where I can move all of our Arty stash too! This house is getting fuller by the minute…although I am trying to be a good minimalist person…I don’t think I will ever be able to pull it off completely and I feel that a garden house/office will be the solution!
It would also be ideal for just sitting in, overlooking the garden, because by next year hopefully all my hard work would of paid off…as I have been planting perennials, shrubs and bulbs galore around the place and what better way to watch it all ‘coming up roses’ than to be sitting in a new open plan garden house…oh what bliss!
I dare say that my budget will probably never stretch to these lil beauties, but a gal can dream can’t she?
Happy Birthday Surprise at the Shard.
Freddy decided to surprise me for my Birthday last week and after days of teasing me about going up in a wind tunnel (my worst fear!) he announced (on my actual Birthday December 2nd) that he was taking me to The Shard for Afternoon Tea! As you can imagine I was so excited and went off shopping with Rosie to get me an outfit to wear!…and I bagged this lil dress from New Look UK in the Sale for half price! but as I am an old gal now!…I teamed it with some black leggings and black suede boots…and boy did I feel good! Rosie took a picture of us both before we left! Don’t we scrub up well!
Have you noticed that I have changed my hair colour to blonde! well that’s what everyone is calling it, but actually it is Grey…its the colour of my roots…ok so I touch it up a little here and there with toner to cut the brassiness out, but it is no way near as damaging as the red…I loved the red hair but I had that for about 7 years and I was getting fed up with it! So I thought it was a good idea to have a change!
So we arrived at Borough Market after about an hours drive…Fred had pre-booked the car park and with the help of my iphone for directions (blooming sat nav was downloading the maps forever! so I switched it off!) we arrived there without any hitches! we had a short walk down the road before we found the entrance to the Shard…it was quite easy really…you just had to look up and you could see the building glistening in the sky!
Our Afternoon Tea was booked for 3.30pm in the Oblix Restaurant, but we wanted to go up to the 69th and 72nd floor first as they are the viewing platforms and we couldn’t miss out on that!
We had booked a time, but the guy on the door let us in an hour earlier and we were fast tracked to the lifts…It was a horrible rainy day and we thought that it might be too foggy to see anything…As soon as we arrived we had our photo taken under the mistletoe..ahhh bless! and then we went around taking pictures. One side of the Shard had rain on the windows so the pictures didn’t turn out to great…but you can get the drift from these…
The lift sped up the building so fast, you really couldn’t tell that you were so high up in the sky! Ok so our ears kept popping, but the whole experience was very enjoyable and smooth! …and when we got to the top ,the views were amazing! we spent about an hour up there switching between the different viewing levels and the gift shop…Oh dear! I can’t ever resist a gift shop! lol!
This is the view from Level 72, which is the open deck level…it was breathtaking!
Freddy in the Gift Shop…getting in the Christmas mood!
More Gift shop goodies…There were lots of lovely things in there to buy including all of Cath Kidston London Range…It was all very tempting indeedy!
We then made our way out of the Shard and around the corner to the Restaurant Entrance, it is still a part of the Shard, it’s just that the restaurants and Hotel have different entrances…It was just the right time to have our afternoon tea as it was still light, but was soon to get dark…so we had the best of both viewing experiences!
The Serving Staff were lovely and we enjoyed the sandwiches, scones and cakes whilst taking in the view on the 32nd floor…we had a lovely time and laughed and joked and talked and talked. It was such a special day and so lovely being out with my Hubby…we held hands and ate our cakes the same time as each other and before long it was time to go home…I felt a little lightheaded as Freddy had bought me a glass of wine and I am not that good drinking in the day, as I always want to fall asleep straight after! lol!
I stood by the windows and we took a few pictures and then took the long descent down to te ground floor and left for home…needless to say I slept most of the way! hahaha!
PS…If you decide to visit The Shard…you must visit the toilets on the 69th floor…there is a total surprise waiting for you once you enter the cubicle…needless to say! I didn’t realise there was a blind switch on the wall until I had already started to pee! EeK!…OooOoh I am so common lol!
PPS…Sorry that the seat is up in this piccy I couldn’t find one that didn’t have the seat down lol! probably due to the surprise factor! Hence my face above!
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So it’s Freddies Birthday next September…any ideas on how I can top this, for him?
Love to you all,
