Painted kitchen table Annie Sloan Chalk Paint of course

I wanted to use a stencil from the new stencil book by Helen Morris "Stencil It" but needed something to do it on! The obvious thing was a rather worn orange pine kitchen table. So, out comes the Cream, two coats. I was then going to make a green from Aubusson Blue and Cream but it came out like duck egg blue and it looked lovely and did match another colour I had in the kitchen. So on with the stencil and a couple of coats of clear wax and there you have it.

Now will have to do something with the chairs and the seat cushions! Does it never end?
Oh, yes there is another big cupboard in there as well which is still orange pine so that will have to be done too. Just as well I'm retired.

It has brought a much needed lightness into the kitchen on these grey winter days.

No particular panic to do the other pieces yet as I quite like to paint outside but the temperature needs to be a little warmer for that. Roll on Spring.

Speculoos Ice Cream Recipe - Delicious and Simple

Having been given this brilliant ice cream machine for Christmas from my lovely daughters I thought that it would be only fair to share this recipe!

This is the machine, simple and attractive. Just keep the bowl in the freezer and you are ready to go.

 What you need:-

3/4 of a jar of speculoos spread
250 cl of evaporated milk
300 ml of double cream
100 gr of icing sugar

Whisk the cream until floppy
mix the spread, icing sugar and evaporated milk until smooth
stir in the cream
chill
churn
eat!
Will try to get a picture before it all gets eaten next time.

Annie Sloan French Linen and Scandinavian Pink

Painted not waxed



Clear waxed




this has had to be taken with flash and looks darker here than in reality



Close up

A couple more projects finished with Annie Sloan paint

A slight improvement in the weather - we seem to have had constant rain for a couple of weeks now - so feel more inclined to get on with some stuff. Even Monsieur Minnou was wondering when the rain would stop and kept looking at me as if I might be able to do something about it!

So the first thing I did was a camel stool that we were given by Mum in law some years ago. It comes in handy for extra seating and fits nicely under a table. It was rather tatty so as I wanted to try out the Graphite colour and only had a sample pot I thought this would be the ideal thing.

Before painting







After Graphite and dark wax.



Next French Linen and Scandinavian Pink.

At last finished the furniture in the bedroom with Annie Sloan paint.

It has taken longer than anticipated but nearly there. Still have to decide what to do with the bed and then the curtains!

No before picture (as usual I forgot). Painted in Paris Grey with stencil in Old White and some light distressing. I think it looks much better. I now need to find some lovely paper to line the inside bottom.

I also received some Transfer Artist Paper from one of my lovely daughters for my birthday and have been experimenting with it although I'm not sure what it will end up being just yet. This is the picture I wanted to transfer to some calico cotton. It is a double page spread from a book. The instructions were easy to follow and after a few minutes printing out the pages on my printer and lining up the 2 pages I ironed it on and it came out like.......................

this. It looks excellent and the colours are vibrant. A little on the stiff side but that will apparently get better with washing. We will see and I will do another post if I eventually use this.

Christmas Eve dinner French style

A lovely evening spent with friends and their family on Christmas Eve. There were 11 of us and in addition 4 dogs, 5 cats and an assortment of various other animals all behaving very well and entertaining. The food just kept coming and it was difficult to do all of it justice having started with "Amuse Bouche" then a starter of Oysters, Foie Gras and Smoked Salmon followed by Escargot and for the main course Goose and all the trimmings. Plus, ofcourse cheese and dessert.

The Christmas presents were opened at midnight! We arrived home at 3.30 am, can't remember the last time that we were out so late.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that you have a Happy New Year.

I cannot believe that it is nearly 3 months since I last did my blog, what have I been doing? I have to say that I'm not sure that I have been doing anything of interest. Well, actually I did get a bit carried away by selling some things on eBay - that can get a bit obsessive as well as lucrative (sometimes).

We have been doing some restoration and decorating so I suppose I can use that as an excuse. Did do a little ASP'ing I have to admit.

But the main reason for the break in blogging was because we went to visit family in the UK, however only for 2 weeks but it somehow unsettled me and got me out of a routine. It was very enjoyable and just wonderful to see all our girls, their husbands and the grandchildren as well as in-laws and my mother. The weather was kind as was the traffic, travelling quite a few miles visiting in England and Wales.

As the shortest daylight hours have passed we can look forward to slowly lengthening days and opportunities to be more active. Anyway, just a few photos to bring the last three months into focus.

Christmas decorations to bring a warm glow to these dreary winter days. Sometimes I wish we could keep them up all the time but then it would make them seem ordinary.