Sanity almost restored

Well its been quite a week really but things are much calmer now. I spent an hour every evening last week, varnishing the attic floor. Obviously this then meant that I has less time to keep up with the house work. On top of this the washing machine blew up on Tuesday morning so I did begin to feel a little defeated by Friday morning. I looked at the house and wondered how I was going to sort it all out by next week. Anyway, that's it for the self pity for now!

Friday evening was busy to say the least. The new washing machine was due to arrive on Saturday so I decided that whilst I had one less item in the 'Sun Room' I may as well take the opportunity to lay down some cheap flooring in there to clean it up a little. (I have ambitious long term plans for this area so there is little point doing anything too expensive or permanent.) I called in to my second home aka B&Q on the way home from work and picked up some pre-cut Lino for £48 that was almost the perfect size. A few hours and bruises later and this is now my 'Sun Room' (named, as only estate agents can, when I bought the house) looked...

So as you can see, the new washing machine has now arrived too so at least we all have clean clothes. I don't tend to get that excited about laundry appliances however, when it reached the end of it's first wash and played me about 30 seconds worth of Schubert's 'The Trout' I was quite amused by it. I'm not sure next door's dogs were so pleased and I also think the novelty may wear thin over the coming months but it made me laugh at the time. You have to love the Korean's for their sense of humour!

Back to Friday evening then. With the attic floor varnished I was finally able to move out of the front room and restore that back to a living area again (I couldn't even get the hoover in there properly to clean it while it was a bedroom so you can imagine the mess!). I was so so so pleased to be able to sleep in the attic again with all its light, white walls and open window, it was bliss! 

So today, I was contemplating a trip to the Blakemere Craft Centre mostly because they have a lovely little wool shop there but I was very sensible and reminded myself about the bags and bags of wool I already had. I raided the cupboard and found one of many stashes that I had forgotten I owned and set about searching Ravelry for a suitable pattern.  I came up with a cowl ( a bit wintery but if I don't make them in the summer than it doesn't seem to happen until it's too late)...

It's a cheap 'Wool MIx' batch of wool from Aberkahn, its really soft and chunky but I just hope it remains so after washing it. It won't take long to finish though as I'm using big 10mm needles. 

I got a bit homely and baked a batch of cheese scones that I had been thinking about making all week.

Finally I have to show you 2 more pictures. The first is something I noticed about 15 minutes ago when I went to put some rubbish out...

Roses!!! I grew those! In a pot! The plant even had greenfly at one point too. Look...2 of them! It made me smile lots.

And this one, of 2 of the nest after a summer fayre at the school...

My eldest clearly proving that you are never 'too cool' to have a dalmatian painted on your face. 

Let's hope next week is a bit less busy! Enjoy your week.