I have been dying to crack open some of the packs of tiles we brought over a month ago but as with all DIY there always seems to be a hell of a lot of prep before you get to the good bits.

Anyhow we finally got cracking this week...I say we, as usually I mean Rich, I have been told that no one is to do ANY tiling around the bath but Rich as he has worked out the lines meticulously ( I think he is also slight paranoid about another bath getting damaged by accident and quite rightly doesn't trust a renowned dropper around the new tub!!)

We' decided to go for the white subway tiles that we used in the last house as I still love the way they look, I think the cheapest place to buy them is Wickes. We are planning to tile floor to ceiling so tiles are all we seem to be spending our money on lately!

We had treated the walls with watered-down PV as usual, this helps seal the wall or the plaster will suck the moisture out of your grout meaning your tiles could drop off. Older plaster is a bugger for doing this, to also help elevate this issue Rich discover that another tip is to soak the tiles in water before putting them on the wall...

This seemed to work brilliantly and the tiles have all stuck fine.

Its so nice to seem some difference straight away!

We are planning to put a row of little square ochre yellow tiles in that will run around the room, you wouldn't believe what a lot of trouble I had finding a tile this colour (as usual I had already decided what I wanted before I had bother to find out if we could source it anywhere). In the end I found them  in B&Q for a really reasonable price which was a surprise.

Ok, the colours not great in this photo, also it will look a million time better when it has white tiles top and bottom.

 We needed to go an get more tiles as originally we where only going to do two walls but then changed our minds (although when I look at my credit card bill I often wonder why!) and also buy the skirting boards and architrave, we had to wait until we had another car to get these bits as the skirting would have fit in my old car.

As you can see Rich is thrilled to have a practical car once again!

Must go, he needs a extra pair of hands to help with cutting the skirting. What a fun Easter weekend we have ahead of us! More progress reports soon...

Since we sold the Land Rover we've been looking around for something as practical but not quite as expensive to run (and not so huge to manoeuvre and park around Bath!). So last Saturday we went to take a look at a new car!

My little KA was taken in part-ex and we are now the owners of a Rav-4! I cant wait to take it out for a drive.
In theory this should mean we can get some more work done on the house, we seriously need to take all the old bathroom stuff to the recycling centre and need to get some skirting board and architrave to finish it off.
For the last 2 weeks we've both been pretty poorly with colds and coughs so it will be nice to get going with some more house jobs now we're feeling better.

I totally forgot to blog about these, a few weeks ago my Mum came across some really small kitchen curtains in a charity shop. Thinking of me and Rich she brought them for us for the unbelievable price of £3 for all 6!

These are long but really narrow curtains. obviously for decoration rather than to be actually drawn at night (as you can see below, modelled by my lovely assistant).

I love the design, its so kitsch and will go great with our red and white 50's kitchen units.

As we have six of these skinny curtains and we only have one big window and one little window I'm thinking I will stitch two of them together to use on the big window. If I have any left over I might be able to make one for in front of the washing machine.

I'm not sure if these are actually 50's originals or just very good modern reprints, I don't really care as they will look great and only cost £3 (which I still cant get over!)

Excellent charity shop foraging Mum! Thank you!

Yet again the weeks have slipped by and we seem to have found many many excused for not starting the bathroom tiling! From Richards bad back (recovering after laying the bathroom floor and lifting very heavy loos, sinks & various bath tubs around) to art work to produce, cars to fix and in my case a new online shop to set up and another craft show to prep for! 
We have managed to get some of the patching up done, so fingers crossed we might be able to make a start tiling next week at some point, I really hope so as it will really start to make a difference to how the bathroom looks...heres  last Saturday acomplishments

Of course we had to wait to make sure its totally dry before sticking anything else over the top, god DIY is so bloody long winded!

Rich has spent a lot of time this last week trying to sort his car out after if failed its MOT nearly 3 weeks ago, after paying out to have some rather large holes in the floor welded up he sent it in for another MOT only to have it fail again on a totally different problem that the first garage hadn't pick up on! Grrr, so frustrating!

At least he's still smiling...just.

I've also been busy building a new on line shop selling my little creations, I've joined notonthehighstreet.com which I'm really excited about....

I also have a craft show up in Shropshire this weekend so I've pretty much been chained to my desk cutting and sewing like crazy.

As we've been so busy I haven't had time for much junk shop hunting, I have been trying not to spend to much either (I always forget how bloody expensive tiles work out at!) but I did pick up a few bits that I just couldn't resist...

Three little ramekins for 50p each.

Two dinner plates at 25p each.

And lastly a really cool 50s stool I found on eBay for £12, I love the pattern on the seat.

It has also been kitten approved...

Hopefully we'll make so more progress on the house front soon!