Boxing Clever and Playing Hooky

Last Saturday hubby whisked me away to glamorous Reading for a child-free day of shopping followed by an early birthday meal with friends. We even got to stay over in a hotel for the night, just across the road from where we used to live - weird.

Hubby doesn't love shopping like I do (I wonder if there are many people who love shopping as much as I do?) but he still managed a good few hours Saturday afternoon because we were looking for furniture, which is more interesting than clothes/shoes/handbag shopping when there's a new house to furnish. We spent a lot of time in Laura Ashley and John Lewis sitting in armchairs - testing the seats for comfort, the height of the back for head rest-ability, the arms for arm rest-ability and checking the price tags for (un)affordability. And after about 30 chairs we found THE ONE. Hubby found it first and then set me the task of identifying it, to see if our tastes/requirements in chair-age are the same. And yes, they are. Only one small problem - the price tag:

Ouch. In fact, double ouch since we'd need two of the chairs to save fighting over who gets to sit down, or to save broken legs when one of us has to sit on the other's lap.

On the Sunday, after a fabulous fried breakfast at The Gorge, we called in at the Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair on our way back home.
We wanted the sledge, but weren't too keen on the £65 price tag.There are quite a few things on our 'want' list that we are hoping to pick up sometime soon from an antiques/junk shop, fair or auction, for example a farmhouse-style kitchen table, some wall shelves for the kitchen, a small chest or cabinet to put a tv on in the snug, bedside cabinets, storage for the main bathroom, the list goes on. Luckily we were able to strike one thing from the list at Shepton Mallet on Sunday when we spied a wooden box which we thought would work well for storing our first aid stuff/medicines in the space above the loo in main bathroom. Obviously the ceramic white and yellow check handle is hugely out of place, but that's easily replaced, but the size of the box and the lovely wood were just what we were looking for do we snapped it up for £15.

Once back home it was time for hubby and his little helper to set to work with their trusty drills. First two holes were drilled in the back of the box and then two more when hubby realised he'd drilled the first two on the bottom rather than the top - oops! Then the box was held against the wall to decide where exactly we wanted it, and hubby used a pencil to mark through the holes in the box onto the wall so he knew where to drill the corresponding holes. Once the holes were drilled and rawl plugs fitted it was simply a job of using two screws to fix the box to the wall. Et voilà, storage in the bathroom. Now I just need to find a new knob to blend in with the decor rather than stick out like a sore thumb. I have something in mind and I'm sure eBay will come up trumps.

While the DIY boys were in the mood, hubby also put two hooks up - one in the ensuite and one in the bathroom to hold towels whilst in the shower or bath. Until now when having a shower in the ensuite we've had to leave our towels on the floor outside the cubicle and when using the main bathroom it's a case of draping a towel over the edge of the bath. But not anymore. Now we have towels to hand at the perfect height thanks to these pretty 'crystal' hooks snaffled during a 25% off promotion at Laura Ashley. So now it's just a case of tracking down a little 'crystal' knob for the bathroom cabinet to tie in with the hook right next to it and all will be well.