The "Befores" & the "not quite afters..." !!!

Hello dear friends & readers,

This past fortnight has seen me somewhat disappear into the land of winter ills & chills..

I have managed to fulfill my plan to paint my cottage walls,  but not without plenty of sweat & a few tears too

Last week the Mr very generously shared his nasty flu virus with me :-(

By the weekend I was feeling ever so slightly improved

so I ... very stupidly ... painted the Cottage walls - twice!!

The pics I am showing you above are the colour it was before.

The colour is Marzipan & was a warm yellowy toning which would take on different shades in different lights & at differing times of the day.

I did love it once . . .  but I wanted a fresh lighter look as it had been this colour for just over 7 years now

So I chose Clotted Cream - a rich vintagey deep cream colour

Just prior to painting - holes filled - all ready to go

Plus I wanted to remove the gollies I had stencilled all around the walls - you can just see some above the bear shelf 

You can see from the above 2 pics the very narrow channel I had to move around in

My photos do not really show up its true deep richness unfortunately.

And that dear readers .... is how it remains, as this week has seen me feeling so dreadful that I have had to take myself off to bed  & just rest & recuperate - which is exactly what I should've done in the 1st place!!

An indication of how I have felt this past week !!!

Painting the Cottage walls while running a temp & feeling unwell was kind of like . . .  well as I explained it to my friend Leeanne

"like trying to stuff an elephant into a walnut shell!!!"

Now for those of you that have done this before (stuffed an elephant into a walnut shell that is) then you will know exactly what I mean...

but for those of you that havent ...

well you can only imagine!!!!!

Above are pictured some of my lovely new displays in the revamped Cottage!!!!!!!!!

I am pleased to say I am now feeling on the mend :-)

I did learn two very important things throughout this past week ...

the 1st important thing I learnt was ...

(1) when you feel unwell you need to listen to your body & rest & go to bed (like your Mum used to make you do when you were little & then you got better real quick) & all the other stuff whirring around in your head "to do" will still be there waiting for you when you are well again!!!

the 2nd very  important thing I learnt was ...

(2) Our bedroom ceiling could really do with a nice fresh coat of paint :-)  !!!!!!!!!!

So as I sit & type this I must confess to fretting somewhat over all my poor ol' stock sitting stacked up in my sleepout ...

but I figure that can be next weeks job ...

Although I have done very little sewing while feeling like this (for some reason even the fabric felt heavy to hold on to) ... I did manage one completion before I caught the virus - when I made this lovely pink angel back in January I made two bodies ...

 So the 2nd little lady got dressed in blues - she is Charlotte Angel, a Rosalie Quinlan design - I love them both equally...

Her lace collar is a vintage treasure from my friend Elaine + her button is also from my vintage stash - a gorgeous deep blue glass button

Her basket was brown but I waved my paint brush over it + added a doiley

I have found (from experience) that it pays to paint the fabric wings with Stiffy to prevent them from curling forward when she is hanging up

(or even P.V.A. mixed with water would do the trick)

And lastly, this precious little treasure arrived in todays post - I had actually purchased her sometime ago from my friend Donnas shop after I did this post 
I had planned another visit to bring her home but life kinda got in the way of things ... so Donna kindly posted her down to me

I adore her :-)

She is the work of Juliet Novena Sorrel whom (I think) is a Dunedin artist
Her delicate face (& torso) are hand sculptured

She is fragile, exquisite & delicate - I thought I would name her "Petal" or "Rose Petal"   ... what do you think ????
I have to find just the perfect spot to hang her as yet.

Well folks I am off to make a hot lemon, honey & ginger-root drink & read the latest Good Magazine (a Mothers Day subscription from my son)

I hope you are warm or cool, wherever in the world you might be
thanks so much for stopping by my "pity party"
I look forward to showing you more Cottage pics next post.
Much love/hugs/friendship,
Julie x0x0x