Mmmmm. List.

With the May Bank Holiday Weekend just around the corner, I'm in total list-making mode. Lately, because Himself slags my lists unmercifully (in an attempt to get out of doing a tap of decorating, methinks), I've not been writing them down. He reckons that a list committed to paper is ultimately going to result in a flump when Monday rocks around and I realise we - oh who am I kidding, I - haven't done half the stuff I'd planned.

Well, flumps or no, I have so many jobs on the agenda this long weekend, I'm making a list dammit!

→ Sort out clothes mountain piling up in the corner of the room (turns out we're really not chair-in-a-bedroom people. Who knew?)
Clothes mountain relocated to bed in spare room. Also floor in spare room. But we are still calling it a success, ok?
→ Disassemble disgusting IKEA Pax sliding door wardrobe.
Disgusting IKEA Pax sliding door wardrobe taken apart and relocated to corner of spare room. Er, result.
→ Move ginormous IKEA Hemnes chest of drawers to where disgusting IKEA Pax sliding door wardrobe used to be.
Done!
→ Assemble pretty IKEA Hemnes non-sliding door wardrobe.
Done!
→ Assemble IKEA Engan bed frame (yes! We I finally found a simple headboardless bed, woooo!)
Done, but the stupid thing is inexplicably about two inches bigger than the mattress all around which is driving me nuts. I feel an IKEA hack coming on...
→ Put more tester paint squares on the bedroom wall.
→ Feel frustrated about not really knowing what colour to paint the bedroom, let alone what shade to use.
→ Abandon all decorating to flick through back issues of Living Etc and inspiration files for, well, inspiration.
→ Abandon flicking through back issues of Living Etc and inspiration files in favour of arsing about the Internet for a bit, desperately looking for inspiration.
→ Have tea and join Himself on the couch for an episode of Charmed.
→ Cajole Himself to hoover everywhere and maybe do some mopping.
→ Sort out junk corner wall room of spare bedroom.
→ Finish painting kitchen cabinets and affix new hardware purchased from Chloe Alberry on a trip to London with Deni-o in April 2007 (!)
→ Get second coat of paint up on the walls of the kitchen/dining room.
→ Recruit Dad to hang my lovely Cole & Son "Woods" wallpaper in the dining room.
→ Get Himself to get rid of the now redundant middle curtain pole bracket in the sitting room by talking about how it's "a man's job" and will require the use of Power Tools.
→ Finish making a Roman blind for the kitchen window.
→ Hit the carpet shops to find a runner for the stairs, or maybe a runner plus new carpet for upstairs.

No bother!

Nooo hair, blub!

I got my hair cut on Friday, from just-above-bra-strap length to just above shoulder length. I brought a picture of Ms. Heidi Klum sporting the above super cool long choppy bob with me to the hairdressers, and was very clear that the one thing I did NOT want was hair that just sits on the nape of the neck and flicks out of its own accord.

Well, it's not quite what I asked for - in that it's exactly what I wanted to avoid. Yup, it kicks out at the back of my neck. And, while I didn't expect to emerge from the salon in the image of the blonde goddess, I equally didn't expect to to be channelling my inner Claire Danes circa My So Called Life.
Exhausted and frustrated and feeling like a nerdy Samson, I actually broke down crying on Friday night.

I'm still not used to the cut, but I'm going to go product hunting tomorrow to find something to funk it up.

Le sigh.

Me wanty: Jamie Oliver doormat

One of my favourite things about our house is the yellow front door. Even on the dullest of days, it looks cheerful and chirpy (and would go really well with any of the clothes from my last post!!!) The doormat, however, is starting to show its age: a coir number with Paul Smith-esque multi-coloured swirly stripes, it was a bargain from Heatons of all places but is decidedly tatty now after three outdoor years.

So I'm scouting around for a suitably funky replacement, and at the moment the Jme "Clipper" doormat from Jamie Oliver's home collection is waaaay ahead of the pack. Graphic and modern, I think it would be great with our bright yellow door, but the feckers want a whopping £20 for delivery to Ireland of this £28 item!

Think I'll keep looking...

A li'l pick-me-up

Now that the weather's gamely gone all pathetic fallacy on me, and since today's payday so I got to wave at my money as it whizzed through my account en route to savings and my Visa, I thought I'd do a spot of Internet window shopping to cheer myself up.

Exhibit A above: some of the new summer clobber from River Island. *LOVE* yellow for summer, in every shade from lemon to... er, whatever's at the other end of the yellow spectrum before mustard. These are all clothes that I would very happily wear to work (seriously don't understand the mentality of people who don't like to wear their "good" threads in work. Wierdos) or on a night out. Oooh and actually I have a RI credit note for about 30 quid burning a hole in my pocket at the minute so sure it would be rude not to get something, support the economy and all that! The leopard print detail on the yellow dress is fun without being OTT, I think, while the slightly sober grey dress is lifted by the stud detail around the waist which is bang on trend. The wedges are seriously great: walkable innable, chunky but not clumpy with crossover straps adding interest. (Because of course that's what you need to do with a yellow shoe, add more interest.) And the lickle broderie lantern skirt is just too cute.

Hmm. Maybe I could get in on this price negotiating thing that Dad is adamant is going on everywhere (listens to a lot of Joe Duffy, does my dad) and see if I can get the lot for €30!

(I'm too glum to even try to come up with a snappy title. Sorry.)

Haven't the heart to do much posting to le blog at the moment. As you may have gathered by the non-title of this entry, I am seriously mired in the dumps. Not just the usual "wish I'd a job I loved with all my heart" dumps, either; nope, they're being kept company by the "oh, my dream house just came on the market and I'm not minted enough to buy it" dumps.

Rubbish.

It's this period semi-detached gaff in my hometown that I've been in love with since I was about 5 years old. It's just fabulous. Loads of character, oodles of period features, bursting with potential (hmm - maybe I could be an estate agent when things pick up again? Let's see... "deceptively spacious"... "bijou"... well, I can talk the talk anyway. Must put it on The List.) As I've mentioned a time or three, we're doing a spot of house-hunting at the moment, and this gaff to me is a real "forever" home. It's pretty big, has a decent back garden (which gets sun early morning AND in the evenings, swoon), proper side entrance, and a bit of ground out the front, and is probably the only house we've looked at that I can really see myself in for the long-term.

So it's an absolute crying shame that it's about €170,000 over budget. Personally, I think the vendors are being unspeakably greedy buggers with the asking price they've stuck on it, given that they bought it about two decades ago and probably paid a bag of apple drops and a copy of the 1985 Golden Pages for it.

Blub.