Hayles Bank Holiday Camp

After starting a new job at the end of April I was looking forward to the first May Bank Holiday off work - wahhhhoooooooo!!

On Friday evening I headed up to Hayles Fruit farm in the Cotswolds for my first solo camp (well mumsy, Gulliver and Gumball were there so not truly solo).

All pitched, and on my own too (funny how it took less time without the OH).

The first night was spent around the fire pit playing the usual games of seeing whose stick man could survive the longest in the fire, and playing around with flashing head torches.

Barley decided it was all too much for her so she buggered off to bed....

In the morning it was time to test out my bargain eBay camping cooker and gas.

Yay - for £20 I finally have a cooker that doesn't take hours to heat food up and you dont have to mess around changing stupid gas canisters - bye bye suitcase stove!!

With breakfast inside us before it was time for lunch we headed off to Winchcombe - a lovely little town that seemed to love bizarre knitting.....

After strolling around the very colourful place we headed to Broadway to have a nosey around the pretty shops....

....and I found the perfect present for the OH.

After tiring ourselves out shopping it was time for a rest and a mini ice cream for Homer....

Then back to the campiste where the sun was setting on the Mr Men Tent and Tillie :-)

The following day was boiling hot so we went for a walk around the site.

 

 ...no high tech apple picking machinery here, just a ladder precariously balanced on a tree.

 Then we headed off to see the stream train and station. 

 

Back at the campsite we sat down for a macrame lesson from Gumball and another evening chatting rubbish while the sun went down.

On Sunday morning we took Tilly and headed off to visit the National Trust property, Snowshill Manor.

Another very quirky place - must be something about the Cotswolds.

My first baking hot weekend camping came to an end - but a weeks camp in North Wales was getting closer!!

Last Minute Camping

Last week I was getting a bit stir crazy in the house, so on Friday evening at 5pm I managed to convince the O/H to get all the stuff out of the attic and take the Mr Men tent out for the first time this year :-)

As we were only planning on going for the evening we picked a local and cheap campsite called Runnage Farm. Located in the middle of Dartmoor without phone signal - bliss!!

We arrived about 6pm and discovered that cars aren't allowed to drive on the field - eek!!! Well if the DofE lot could carry their tents all day and still pitch up, so could we. Of course, me being me, I wanted the nice secluded spot furthest away from the car park, past all the other campers and across the little stepping stoned stream - not sure the O/H was impressed with my choice.....

The distance from the car (tent in the distance)

After an hour or so we were pitched up - with only a few hiccups of forgetting how the carpet went in, how the a-frame went together and how we were going to get everything past the DofE's without looking like complete over the top campers. All pitched.....

....and the O/H was happy the hard work was done and he could sit down with a coffee.

After a couple of hours we were joined by Lisa and Helen (who had got VERY lost trying to find us) so we sat down for another evening of dinner cooked on the fire, drinks and random camp fire conversations - my favourite!!!!!

Busy Bee in the New Year

Well what a start to the new year, I've been very productive so far...long may it continue.

With the OH out of the house on a course it was time to tackle the uninspiring brown spare bedroom. This is what it looked like before...

 The first coat going on...eeek heck good job he wasn't around to see the state of it at first...

But after two coats and three evenings of hard work it was finished!

Well almost, just had to hide the ugly printer...

and embroider some birdies...

...to make a garland!

And then make a random postcard...not quite sure why - but it looks good on the bookshelf.

On a roll I moved on to the dining room to take the curtains up (they had only been waiting for two months). Turned out it was an easy job after all, I didn't even have to take them down..

Not bad for a first attempt - plus I had some matching fabric left over. 

I'm eventually going to make a table runner with the rest of it, but I have used a tiny bit for some flowers on a storage hanging thingy to hide the boiler cupboard and store all the post in...

So that was January, very busy. And February seems to be following the same pattern.

For Christmas the OH bought me a voucher for a furniture painting workshop that we heard about when buying the numbered chest of drawers at the local antique shop. So off I went to play with all the Annie Sloan colours and armed with a very orange pine chair to be transformed.

After learning different techniques in the morning and having a play with all the colours it was time to tackle the pinetastic chair...

Although you dont have to prepare the surface before you apply the paint I did sand it down a bit so when I began the distressing part the orange varnish didn't come through.

After two coats of French Linen paint, a coat of wax, some distressing, another coat of wax and a new seat pad it was ready to go back in the spare room.

Amazing, and all in one afternoon! Which is why I attacked another chair this morning with a different colour, Old White - well the chairs and paint were free......

..and this time I could use the electric sander I got for Christmas too...

...and the spare curtain that was in the attic, which I used to re-cover the manky seat...

Ta Da!!!!

Now where can I put the other two chairs?????