The flat is finished, and now we're moving out. Actually, the flat is finished because we're moving out.
Here is a slideshow showing the progression of half of the kitchen. This is the sink wall before, during and after the DIY.
More to come! Including snazzy photos using a wide angle lens...
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A Lovely Song
To get me back into the habit of posting, here is a lovely song for you to enjoy. I loved it the second I watched it and had to share it with you.
If you are my grandma, you don't need to watch the stuff after the song. That stuff is a bit silly.
The girl in the video is an incredible musician and you can find more of her music here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jaaaaaaa.
More posts soon!
Love you ALL.
If you are my grandma, you don't need to watch the stuff after the song. That stuff is a bit silly.
The girl in the video is an incredible musician and you can find more of her music here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jaaaaaaa.
More posts soon!
Love you ALL.
Friday, March 28, 2008
I'm a winner!
At first, I thought it was another spam email. But it wasn't. I have actually won a competition. About four months ago, I filled in a survey about my trip to the Forest of Dean. I lvoe taking surveys and this one was really interesting. It asked me to click on photos that I thought represented my experience in the Forest of Dean, as well as lots of questions about what I did and what I wanted to do. The survey was run by the official tourism website for the Forest of Dean and they were clearly doing some thinking about how best to get people to come and visit. I was happy to offer my opinion, and never really thought about winning the prize.
But I did.
The prize is... a trip to the Forest of Dean!
We get to stay in this gorgeous-looking B&B for two nights, free.
I can't wait to go back.
But I did.
The prize is... a trip to the Forest of Dean!
We get to stay in this gorgeous-looking B&B for two nights, free.
I can't wait to go back.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
We're moving!
My lovely hubby has just got a new job (yay, Husband!) and it's not in London (collective gasp). While he'll avoid being packed into a commuter train, he will have to battle with traffic instead. I will still be commuting into London, and the places we are looking at buying a house all have good transport links into various London stations.
We have to wait a little while for all the official paper pushing to happen before we can go on full on exploratory missions and actually loook inside houses but, while this was brewing, we've done a bit of driving around in the area.
If you work with me, please forgive me for being scattered (for the past few weeks and) for the next few weeks. If you are related to me, I may be a little ball of crazy when you try to talk to me. It's all going to happen pretty quickly as hubby will likely start his new job in four weeks. But we're both really excited to be moving away from London to the green, green hills of England.
For an example of some of the green, green places we like so far:
Wingrave
View Larger Map
Cheddington
View Larger Map
Cublington
View Larger Map
I'll keep you posted!
We have to wait a little while for all the official paper pushing to happen before we can go on full on exploratory missions and actually loook inside houses but, while this was brewing, we've done a bit of driving around in the area.
If you work with me, please forgive me for being scattered (for the past few weeks and) for the next few weeks. If you are related to me, I may be a little ball of crazy when you try to talk to me. It's all going to happen pretty quickly as hubby will likely start his new job in four weeks. But we're both really excited to be moving away from London to the green, green hills of England.
For an example of some of the green, green places we like so far:
View Larger Map
Cheddington
View Larger Map
Cublington
View Larger Map
I'll keep you posted!
Monday, March 03, 2008
I'm back!
I'm back from New York and from my long absence from blogging. There has been so much going on, but I'm back now. I'll use this post to tell you about my New York trip and will wait to catch you up on other things later. I don't have much on my schedule at the moment, so I can blog about all the interesting things that I've been doing, rather than the vegging out that I plan to be doing for the next few weeks.
For the past week, I've been on my first real business trip. I was sent to New York to represent my company to people who we haven't worked with before. I felt like a travelling saleswoman even though I wasn't really selling anything besides the good reputation of my company. I have decided that in every meeting I was successful in getting across that we are a great business to work with -- because we are! Hooray!
It was a real thrill to be back in New York on my own and working, but all the adrenaline and scheduling and bouncing around the city, I did get worn out. I'm not as young as I used to be. Luckily, I got to go to several interesting restaurants and cafes with my business meetings like CraftBar, a casual place with brown paper tablecoths and gorgeous healthy food, and Alice's Tea Cup a place for proper English tea with an Alice in Wonderland motif.
I also want to make a special mention of the hotel I stayed in: the Hotel Mela. It's a boutique hotel in an awesome location and is more reasonably priced that is neighbor competitors. Great rooms, great service (everyone is so happy!) and free streaming wifi. If you're ever going to New York and need a place to stay, try this hotel.
I also happened to be in New York on my birthday and my wonderful parents came up to hang out with me for the weekend. On my actual birthday, they took me to a great Mexican restaurant recommended by one of the agents that I met with called La Palapa. They had some really interesting dishes like cooked cactus and a rice dumpling smothered in a tomato salsa. Yum.
We also went to see Spamalot (which I have seen before and have a bit of fun history with) and I loved it all over again. Clay Aiken was in it (yes, I'm fan -- don't mock) and he was great. He was just as funny as the professional actors, with his fantastic voice to top it off. Interstingly, the Lady of Lake was the same Lady of the Lake that I saw in London, because the US and UK Ladies switched places for a time. She was just as awesome the second time around.
Lastly, my trip was awesome because I got to see so many friends: singing karaoke and trying to get free drinks (and embarassing myself a couple of times with my song choice), spending an evening with an old friend and it only felt like a couple of weeks since we'd seen each other, and hanging out with my family, shopping and walking around New York despite the freezing cold wind.
For the past week, I've been on my first real business trip. I was sent to New York to represent my company to people who we haven't worked with before. I felt like a travelling saleswoman even though I wasn't really selling anything besides the good reputation of my company. I have decided that in every meeting I was successful in getting across that we are a great business to work with -- because we are! Hooray!
It was a real thrill to be back in New York on my own and working, but all the adrenaline and scheduling and bouncing around the city, I did get worn out. I'm not as young as I used to be. Luckily, I got to go to several interesting restaurants and cafes with my business meetings like CraftBar, a casual place with brown paper tablecoths and gorgeous healthy food, and Alice's Tea Cup a place for proper English tea with an Alice in Wonderland motif.
I also want to make a special mention of the hotel I stayed in: the Hotel Mela. It's a boutique hotel in an awesome location and is more reasonably priced that is neighbor competitors. Great rooms, great service (everyone is so happy!) and free streaming wifi. If you're ever going to New York and need a place to stay, try this hotel.
I also happened to be in New York on my birthday and my wonderful parents came up to hang out with me for the weekend. On my actual birthday, they took me to a great Mexican restaurant recommended by one of the agents that I met with called La Palapa. They had some really interesting dishes like cooked cactus and a rice dumpling smothered in a tomato salsa. Yum.
We also went to see Spamalot (which I have seen before and have a bit of fun history with) and I loved it all over again. Clay Aiken was in it (yes, I'm fan -- don't mock) and he was great. He was just as funny as the professional actors, with his fantastic voice to top it off. Interstingly, the Lady of Lake was the same Lady of the Lake that I saw in London, because the US and UK Ladies switched places for a time. She was just as awesome the second time around.
Lastly, my trip was awesome because I got to see so many friends: singing karaoke and trying to get free drinks (and embarassing myself a couple of times with my song choice), spending an evening with an old friend and it only felt like a couple of weeks since we'd seen each other, and hanging out with my family, shopping and walking around New York despite the freezing cold wind.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Off by a measly 10,000
November is... thank goodness... over. In case you were wondering how I did on my word count: I wrote 40,000 words. In one month. I was 10,000 words short of the 50,000 word goal, but I did beat my 35,000 word secret goal.
And that Word War I was having with my friend? On the last day, I was 1500 words behind her and my day from about 2pm until midnight was typing as much as my brain would let me. I almost caught up, but ended up losing by 50 words. Sniffle.
However, adding my 40,000 words to the 12,000 words I had before November, I have now completed the very first, first draft of a novel. It's very exciting.
I haven't even opened the file since Friday (the 30th) but I will crack it open soon and see how much of a disaster it is. But for now, I am glowing a little with pride.
And here's a pic of my final minutes...
And that Word War I was having with my friend? On the last day, I was 1500 words behind her and my day from about 2pm until midnight was typing as much as my brain would let me. I almost caught up, but ended up losing by 50 words. Sniffle.
However, adding my 40,000 words to the 12,000 words I had before November, I have now completed the very first, first draft of a novel. It's very exciting.
I haven't even opened the file since Friday (the 30th) but I will crack it open soon and see how much of a disaster it is. But for now, I am glowing a little with pride.
And here's a pic of my final minutes...
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Apologies and excuses
I know; I know!
It’s been ages since I’ve posted a blog, and I’m terribly sorry. Here are some of the things I’ve been doing instead:
Co-coordinating an anthology of unpublished children’s fiction writers, judged by six industry professionals, from over 250 submissions. See www.britishscbwi.org. The book and its cover are in the middle column and will be printed and shipped out at no charge to every agent and editor in the UK in the hopes of getting these fabulous writers published. I do intend to blog about the experience once it’s all done and dusted.
Attempting to write 50,000 words in the month of November. See www.nanowrimo.org. I’m over 18,000 words, but that’s not a good enough pace to make the 50,000 word target. Still, I’m happy with my 18,000 words and will keep going in an effort to beat a friend at a “word war”. Between the two of us, the person with more words in the month of November gets to enjoy a yummy dim sum meal paid for by the person with the fewer words. So far, I'm winning!
Working like a dog. November is our busiest month creatively, as out managing director takes a trip to New York to pitch our new ideas. I’ve been working on a doggie proposal and a quirky witch proposal while attempting to edit a 50,000 word samurai book, manage a tidal wave of consecutive 4,000 word dinosaur books and a 12,000 word genie book. AAAHHH!
Visiting my lovely grandparents, one of whom was not doing so well, I’m sad to say. But my grandpa is back at home now, and I hope that things start to improve for him and my grandma soon.
Exercising twice a week. Aren’t I a good girl?
And, for pre-emptive excuses, here are some things I will be doing in the coming weeks:
Still attempting to write 50,000 words. So forgive me if my blogging takes another hiatus.
Still working like a dog. That samurai novel will come around one more time, I've got to finish that quirky witchy proposal plus another proposal that's very hush hush. And yet more dinosaurs.
Celebrating Thanksgiving with my parents in England. The celebrations will be loosely themed and perhaps not actually on the day of Thanksgiving.
Bidding on a snowflake. See Robert's Snow. I was lucky to win one of the snowflakes the first year, but I couldn’t get one last year. This year, I’m determined to get one in particular. Go and check out the story behind these snowflakes and the amazing art and bid on one that takes your fancy. Unless it’s the one that I want. Then forget you ever saw this link.
Reading the first draft of a novel by a friend of mine. I’m SO excited because I’ve been watching it evolve from a short story into a fully formed novel. And it’s going to be so good!
Being evaluated at my performance review at work. Dum dadum dum… DUM!
It’s been ages since I’ve posted a blog, and I’m terribly sorry. Here are some of the things I’ve been doing instead:
Co-coordinating an anthology of unpublished children’s fiction writers, judged by six industry professionals, from over 250 submissions. See www.britishscbwi.org. The book and its cover are in the middle column and will be printed and shipped out at no charge to every agent and editor in the UK in the hopes of getting these fabulous writers published. I do intend to blog about the experience once it’s all done and dusted.
Attempting to write 50,000 words in the month of November. See www.nanowrimo.org. I’m over 18,000 words, but that’s not a good enough pace to make the 50,000 word target. Still, I’m happy with my 18,000 words and will keep going in an effort to beat a friend at a “word war”. Between the two of us, the person with more words in the month of November gets to enjoy a yummy dim sum meal paid for by the person with the fewer words. So far, I'm winning!
Working like a dog. November is our busiest month creatively, as out managing director takes a trip to New York to pitch our new ideas. I’ve been working on a doggie proposal and a quirky witch proposal while attempting to edit a 50,000 word samurai book, manage a tidal wave of consecutive 4,000 word dinosaur books and a 12,000 word genie book. AAAHHH!
Visiting my lovely grandparents, one of whom was not doing so well, I’m sad to say. But my grandpa is back at home now, and I hope that things start to improve for him and my grandma soon.
Exercising twice a week. Aren’t I a good girl?
And, for pre-emptive excuses, here are some things I will be doing in the coming weeks:
Still attempting to write 50,000 words. So forgive me if my blogging takes another hiatus.
Still working like a dog. That samurai novel will come around one more time, I've got to finish that quirky witchy proposal plus another proposal that's very hush hush. And yet more dinosaurs.
Celebrating Thanksgiving with my parents in England. The celebrations will be loosely themed and perhaps not actually on the day of Thanksgiving.
Bidding on a snowflake. See Robert's Snow. I was lucky to win one of the snowflakes the first year, but I couldn’t get one last year. This year, I’m determined to get one in particular. Go and check out the story behind these snowflakes and the amazing art and bid on one that takes your fancy. Unless it’s the one that I want. Then forget you ever saw this link.
Reading the first draft of a novel by a friend of mine. I’m SO excited because I’ve been watching it evolve from a short story into a fully formed novel. And it’s going to be so good!
Being evaluated at my performance review at work. Dum dadum dum… DUM!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)