Decorating and DIY

It doesn't take long for me to call a place 'home'. One week into a holiday and I'm already calling the hotel room 'home' instead of just 'the hotel room'. However, I think this is out of pure laziness than any real sense of affinity with the place I'm staying in. I called the box room with three tatami mats and nothing else in it 'home' for two weeks in Tokyo, so you can see how freely I dish out that label!

It takes a special mix of things to make a place really feel like home though. Even though I've lived in Manchester for four years, when I go back to my parents' house that I grew up in - that really feels like home and it always will. I think it's got something to do with the fact that the places I've lived in during my student years (and first year as a grad) have all been very temporary or not very 'homey' - by which I mean they either contain fire doors for safety or are a bit bodged together by dodgy landlords.

Thankfully, me and my boyfriend will soon be moving in together in the centre of Manchester, which means lots of homeware shopping and busy weekends at B&Q! I can't wait to make a place in Manchester feel like a proper home and add personal touches to the place - which means paint! The only mishap so far is in finally deciding on a blue for the living room, but then it only coming in gloss not matt. Which meant that we had to go back to B&Q and get some especially mixed up instead.

We finally managed to decide on colours for most of the rooms and set about painting the bedroom and en-suite last weekend. I barely got a spot of paint on me, but Courtney got it everywhere - on his face, hands, on the carpets (old ones), all over his clothes. I think he secretly rolled in it too.

I got a bit sentimental and wrote our names on the wall before painting over it. It's definitely my favourite corner of our soon-to-be home. And it makes me feel like a real proper grown up adult. Until we have to find a carpet fitter or a plumber. How do you find these people?! Is it just a case of pointing your finger into the Yellow Pages and hoping for the best? I've clearly watched far too many Homes from Hell episodes. We'll probably end up with a cowboy builder that will wee in our sink - that's what builders do isn't it?

Anway... we were pretty pleased with the final product, although it needs another coat and the edges need tidying up. It's nice to see some actual progress, so it's almost on its way to the final product! Can't wait until we get onto the soft furnishings side of things. And I secretly LOVE putting together flat pack furniture. Yipee!




"Wait, stop. Pretend like you're painting, but you're not actually moving."

Time to Play Catch-up

Once again weeks go by between blog posts. Oh well, I think I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll always be an 'intermittent blogger'. My Twitter bio has never been so apt.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a little catch-up post as those are always nice to read and provide a bit of light relief from the usual heavy stuff I write about, like shoes. Ha.

A couple of weeks ago I went back home for the Easter break to see my family and a friend who had just got back from doing a ski season in Italy (not even jealous...). It was really nice catching up and visiting the usual haunts from my late teenage years. Although it sometimes feels as if nothing has changed in my tiny town which is both comforting and a bit odd. I'm sure lots of students/grads feel this way too? Anyhow, lots of fun and merriment was had by all. Unfortunately I had already eaten all of the Easter chocolate my boyfriend's mum had kindly given to me, as I thought it was better to ration it out before Easter than to eat it all on one day. Backwards logic. Not to worry though, my dad plied me with chocolate desserts all weekend instead. Win, win.

Roller derby is going well, although I'm still waiting for that day where everything 'clicks' and I become super amazing. It can be a bit disheartening when you see people who started at the same time as you, progress so much quicker than you are. Prepared for a lot of hard work in the coming months! My amazing leggings collection is quickly expanding. I wore some leopard print ones to BLM's (Bet Lynch Mob - note the Manchester/Coronation Street pun) first scrimmage against Furness Firecrackers yesterday. Big up to the Firecrackers who beat us by 14 points - it was such a close match and I can't wait for the next game when BLM come together stronger than ever.

I find that once you start playing team sports, you tend to slip into cheesy pep talk speak and motivational mottos, so apologies for that.

I also went to see The Lion King for the second time, but this time I wasn't on my own as it was a birthday present for my boyfriend. It was just as good as the second time around, although Zahzu had a very strange Scottish accent. The opening scene is my favourite part in the entire show, it's just so awesome in the truest sense of the word. There's so much to take in (just realised that that's a line in the song), but it is truly amazing. I can understand how it's been running for so long.

In other news, me and Courtney have finally started painting the flat! I've got another post coming up that goes into more detail, but boy am I glad we've just got some basic DIY to do and it's not a massive 'do-er up-er'!

Until next time.