#BEDM Day 14 - Home Sweet Home

Day 14 of Rosalilium’s 'Blog Every Day in May' Challenge

Back in Blog Every Day in November, one of the prompts was all about your home and even though we'd been renovating and redecoating one of our four bedrooms, it still wasn't really in a fit state to be photographed.

Suprise, suprise, six months on and although you could now actually stay in it overnight, it's still not really finished. There's empty photo frames waiting for pictures, a chair and chest waiting to be recovered and trinkets that need to be added.

So instead, I thought I'd give you a tour of the place where I probably spend most of my time outside work - the kitchen!

(be kind to me please, I've never done a room tour before and it's all pictues, no videos sorry - I'd love to give vlogging a go but I'm still working out how to do it!)

Our house was built in 1938 and originally the kitchen was only about a third of the size it is now; the previous owners extended it so it's a long rectangular shape which stretches across the back of the garage.

 

This little fella sits on top of my microwave - he was a gift from my parents (I think he was an Easter present) last year. The colander I picked up from a stall at Great Dorset Steam Fair for a few pounds.

 

 On top of the fridge is where we store 'tuck boxes' - a couple of Wallace and Gromit themed biscuit tins (the blue one has sweets, lollipops and little packets of stuff we can throw into our lunchboxes).
The basket was from a charity shop several years ago and although I'd love to use it to go shopping down the local high street, it's just not really practical for that so instead it does a fine job as a place to store spare kitchen rolls. The chicken was a present from my parents and is supposed to be a doorstop but I think he looks pretty good sat guarding the kitchen!

On the side of the fridge we have a collection of magnets with vintage pictures - all of the holiday destinations are places we like or went to as kids.

 

I've recently whittled down my collection of recipe books - I had far too many and the truth is, I tended to use all my recipe clippings rather than the books. The metal magazine holders were a bargainacious £3 for all four at a local car boot sale and the breadmaker was second hand from a student at work.

 

One of my favourite things in the whole kitchen - my CD player. I often listen to 6 Music or Radio 2 or play some random musical soundtracks. The expanding box file is where I keep all my recipe clippings and the pile of household books next to it are soon to be housed in some metal magazine holders!

 

When Andrew first put this shelf up it was supposed to be for all my cookery books but most of them didn't fit and by the time I'd added all the ones that did fit, I was constantly worried the shelf was going to fall off the wall! So instead it's been turned into a display area for trinkets and well, 'stuff'.

The egg timer was Andrew's nan's and the silver teapot was my grandmother's. The teacups, plates, dish, flask and boxes all came from charity shops and car boot sales and the Butlins tin came from Minehead and is used to store biscuit cutters.

The tall cup has images of New York; Andrew found it in a charity shop and bought it to remind me of my trip there in 2002. In front of that there's a little shot glass from our honeymoon in Iceland and the glass bottle on the right is from one of the first times I took Andrew to see Kneehigh Theatre performing outside.

 

These came from the top of our wedding cake - if you look closely the groom has actually lost an ear!

The cups came from a charity shop in Weston Super Mare.

 

The teapot was Andrew's nan's; she used it for many years and it still does the job well now for us. The Kellogg's cups were a Christmas present from my parents last year - we've never actually used them as cups but I think they look quite nice in the windowsill!

 

I love this bird sign - it was from Asda a couple of years ago and it's already terribly faded on one side but that doesn't matter - it's not the side on display!

The plate came from a car boot sale and the silver tray came from Andrew's parents - it needs a jolly good clean to get it sparkling again but I think that's gonna be a job for the winter.

 

This is my windowsill above the kitchen sink. The ducks, coffee pot and glass jug all came from charity shops (there seems to a be a recurring theme here...), the cutlery I actually won at a charity bingo night about 10 years ago and the egg basket came from RE-found Objects a few years ago - they still have them for sale if you're interested!

 

 Hah, now the story here is that even though we have a fully stocked wine rack (from Ikea), I don't actually drink the stuff and Andrew only touches it on special occassions - consequently our rack has been full since we moved in back in 2009.
My collection of trays is a mix of Ikea ones and things from Andrew's nan. The cake stand and Arcopal jug all came from charity shops along with the purple Chales Rennie Mackintosh-style tealight holder in the window.

 The kettle and toaster I treated myself to back in the January sales (they were on offer from Dunelm Mill) and my noticeboard came from Ebay. It was a Christmas present from Andrew's parents a couple of years ago and houses my shopping list (which we add to during the week) and my weekly what's on/to-do list along with some business cards.

 This little flippered friend sits on the corner of my shelves asking 'what's up duck?' - he came from a place called TJ's Discount Warehouse in Holyhead, Angelsey and makes me smile every day. The lovely home heart was from a online shop called 'Home Home Home' which I don't think exists any more but I expect DotComGiftShop probably sell something similar.

And yep, this fella is often to be found standing at the cooker end of the kitchen!