Saturday 31 December 2011

Bathroom no sew curtains

Ever since we moved in I've hated the horrid blinds in the bathroom. They're dirty and clattery and I just don't like them. I've been meaning to make some muslin curtains for them but I used the fabric I bought to wrap Christmas presents in a lack-of-wrapping-paper emergency. Quite frankly, the sewing room has turned into a box room and I wasn't in the right frame of mind to make more curtains yet anyway. I much prefer making clothes out of curtains rather than actually making curtains. 


I thought about taking them down completely. We'd get lots of lovely light into the bathroom that way. But, you see, we do need something there. Otherwise any Tom, Dick or Harry could look in while I'm having a wee.

But then I had an idea - actually I must have stolen this idea from one of the many house decorating blogs I got a bit obsessed with while we were waiting to move in, many moons ago. Off we went to IKEA (so many more posts to follow with reference to this one trip) and bought some tea towels. I already had some small brass rings, dowel and some clippy hooks so it was super easy to make my no sew, tea towel, cafe curtains.

Friday 30 December 2011

Steps.

Look at that carpet! It looks like it smells of cat wee and has fleas.
Do you know what? You're probably right! It's got to go.

I think this photo shows up cat wee patches.

 So I ripped up the carpet, yeah.

 And used pliers, a hammer and a letter opener to pull up all the nails and staples and that. But what the flip is that? (I didn't hear you ask.)

 Tragedy! A piece of plywood over a step is not a good sign. What lies beneath?

 As it turns out, nothing. The edge of the stair was a little more worn than the others and I think the plywood was added so that the carpet didn't rub so much and wear through. Or at least that's what my archaeological instincts tell me. The keen-eyed amongst you will notice I've taken my jumper off here, because it's Hannah's and it was getting fluffy from underlay handling.

What the heck is going on at the back of my head? I'm not going back to that barber, even if he does do Colin Farrell and Prince William's hair.

These are the stairs (half complete). I flipping love the original paint and we might keep it cos it's heritage, like.

Thursday 29 December 2011

Landing.

A previous entry showed the landing a little bit tidier than it had been. Well check this out!

I've totally been getting my carpet-lifting thing on and exposed some more shabby-chic floorboards! 

 From this angle you can see that there are still boxes in the "studio"/spare room. You can also see the emergency light that was hidden under the carpet I removed, obviously put there in anticipation of the apocalypse c.2000AD.

 Well, hello! Now check out our landing! It's got books on it! And the super print from the festival of extreme ukulele I *headlined*.

Angles!

Sunday 25 December 2011

Christmas in the House of Love

Happy Christmas from Jon and Hannah in the House of Love xxxx



p.s. for those of you who remember East17 (the 90s boy band who inspired the name of this blog) here is a special Christmas treat Stay Another Day




Sunday 18 December 2011

Tidy.

There are still corners of our house that look much as they did the day we moved in. After putting up Hannah's Mucha at the top of the stairs we realised that we'd left a lot of crap on the "landing". This is also an area we have yet to paint, or remove the filthy blue carpet.

 This is the before!

This is the after! 
We have left the underlay for the moment because we can't be bothered to pull up the gripper strips yet. We also put a print my mum made up on a hook what was already there. It looks a bit small there, and will probably be moved. Now get back to your Christmas shopping.

Further hangings

Following on from our previous mirror hanging binge, we've added some more bits and pieces to our bare walls.
A lovely print from Ellen and Robin in the kitchen.

My lovely Mucha at the top of the stairs, just where it used to be in my family home. In case you don't know me and are in any doubt the Mucha is not original, it's not even a print. It's on paper stuck to some wood, and it's got paint on it. But I love it because it reminds me of the house I grew up in.

The posters from two of Jon's gigs above the Hammond.

I decided the mirror wall was all a bit contrived looking for me, so we added some other stuff. Including my Dali (another piece of paper stuck to some wood but it reminds me of my Grandma).

Following the paper-stuck-on-wood theme, we hung Jon's spider man, which used to hang above his childhood bed, above the kitchen sink.

We got all Kettle's Yard and hung this mirror at an unexpected height. Partly so we can keep the wall opposite the window clear for super 8 screenings.

I requested Jon look normal for this photo, oh well.

The observant among you will see a pictorial clue to an upcoming post xxx

Monday 5 December 2011

Hannah gets asked to get off the ladder by an armed police man

Before we went on holiday to Sevilla (which is what we call it: It was great, thanks for asking!) we had a family oriented weekend, and not even just with our own! Along with John and Jude Pass-Guthrie-Broadhurst, the Francis-Hubbard-Mileses popped round with Mr and Judy Francis before their walk on Hampstead Heath! Full house!

As we finished our tea (courtesy of Brown Betty), we began to be surrounded by the fuzz, with guns. So, suspecting they had been grassed up, the Francis-Hubbard-Miles gang beat a hasty retreat.

We hid out in the garden, where Hannah and I cracked the whip and got J&J PGB back to the hard graft, in preparation for cracking rocks in Sing Sing.

With his super strength John Pass breaks 2 prongs off our fork!

Then clears all the ivy and stuff off our neighbours shed/garage: It was growing through from ours and ripping it to shreds - we don't want no legal action! When Hannah was up there, a policeman in the side-road waved her down because of the impending shoot-out!

After a stand off with the police down our road, Rob and Laura Guthrie-Durrant arrived and we set Rob to work too. Laura is absolved from work duties because she's in the club (like 50Cent).



Bend at the knees Jude!



Oh, they're clearing our garden of weeds and overgrown-ness, by-the-way.

The view from space.

"More tea?"

"Yes and make it snappy!"


Our second fork gets broken!

As night falls, we pack up for the evening and, under cover of dark, avoiding police helicopters and searchlights, we sneak off down Ye Olde Rose & Crown for beer and that.

Sunday 20 November 2011

Teapot.

Hi! We went to Spitalfields Market today and met up with Nell and Patrick for a cup of tea and neb.
On our way back we went into Labour and Wait where Hannah saw the model of teapot used in the tearoom she used to work in


A classic design, the Brown Betty 8-cup makes a good couple of mugs of tea: We opted for redbush for its first outing, but will try "proper" tea - and other varieties - soon. Check back anon for details of our continued tea investigations...

Sofa...no puns



Hannah found a cheap sofa on Gumtree. We bought it with housewarming monies kindly donated by Helen and Clive Black. All we had to do was hire a Zipvan (Thanks Auntie Beeb!) and recruit a burly man to help with the lifting (Patrick), and it was ours! We went to fashionable Columbia Road and picked up our battered yellow Laura Ashley drop-arm chaise longue/sofa. But here's how the day began...


I was out helping @SCREEN17cinema while Hannah moved stuff around the sitting room to make space.


This is the space she made!


This is the Zipvan. It lives round the corner from us and will come in handy again in future, I'm sure.



Patrick and I had to move the sofa through our narrow front door sideways! 


It was tricky, but with the help of Patrick's guns and expert wiggling we got it in.


Then we sat down for a bit and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.


So we went out to Ye Olde Rose & Crown for a pint and some crisps and nuts.


Hannah was allowed to come too. Then we went home and Hannah made the men Thomasina Miers's  Black Bean Sopa Azteca and corn tortillas, and we all drank lager beer, like men (except Hannah, who had hers in a glass!).


The next morning (this morning, in fact), Hannah drank tea on her new sofa and saw that it was good.