diy

Weekly Roundup Monday 12TH Jan – Sunday 18th JAN

| Suzi Stamp

MONDAY 12TH JAN

I’ve got a few days off from work, so I decided to start painting the skirting boards in the dining area. Whilst the paint was drying, the wallpaper hanging kit I’d ordered from B&Q arrived! Once the skirting was fully dry (and with the proper tools!) I decided to hang the accent wallpaper strips and finished wallpapering the back wall in the dining area. When Shane came home from work, we decided to have fish and chips from the local chippy for tea!

TUESDAY 13TH JAN

Another day off and another decorating day! I’ve already painted the inside of the corridor/living area door (I’ll add a pic below so you can see it!), and I have decided to paint the other side of it today. I spent some time base coating it with white paint, and when that was dry, I masking taped it up before getting stuck in with the accent colours. I chose Valspar Found Treasure (a bright yellow) that I’d had mixed as a tester, and Dulux Rich Black for the details on the door and am painting the rest of the door in B&Q Tough and Durable paint in Shizouka using a tester pot. The door needed more than one coat of Shizouka, so after Shane returned from work, we headed to B&Q to pick up some more. While we were there, we also had a look at some new kitchen door handles and kitchen taps. When we came home, we made tuna pasta that we had for tea.

WEDNESDAY 14TH JAN

I had a quiet morning and began exploring decorating ideas for the upstairs area, now that the downstairs is nearing completion. I worked from 12:00pm to 4:00pm. Shane is away for a few days and will be coming home on Friday, so I had left over tuna pasta for dinner and caught up on some TV. I also booked some leave from work as we are planning some time away in February and March. Once Shane had arrived at his hotel, we had a cute evening playing Animal Crossing online and visited each other’s islands, which was fun.

THURSDAY 15TH JAN

I had the day off today and had no real plans aside from painting another coat on the door. My best friend had borrowed my car over Christmas and dropped it back to me. We had a coffee before popping up to his for another coffee and to see my baby boy, Zeus. I went to B&Q to look at paint samples for an idea I have got for the stairs in the house, before deciding that opting for wood stain would be the better option, so I picked up a sample sheet of different stains available. I also popped into TkMaxx to pick up some shower gel, new graphic liner pens and some coffee beans. I also got a new perfume as my favourite Lush one was running out. I stopped off on my way home at Aldi, where I got some groceries for tea. When I got home, I put another coat of paint on the door as the purple was still looking a bit patchy and started to add the wallpaper to the panels, then I did my nails. After that, I had a bath and read my book before making my tea of cauliflower and cheese bakes in buns with salad.

FRIDAY 16TH JAN

I had a massive lie-in and got up at 10:45am! Shane was travelling home today, and we decided to play Animal Crossing online while he was on the train back. I picked him up from the station at 1:30pm. I had work from 5:00pm to 10:00pm, so I started getting ready for my shift after we had coffee. We had spinach and ricotta stuffed pasta with tomato and marscapone cheese sauce topped with fresh parmesan shavings (yum!) for tea after I’d finished work, as it was quick and easy to prepare, and both of us were pretty tired after our day.

SATURDAY 17TH JAN

I had a shift at work between 6:00pm and 10:00pm, but before that, Shane and I decided to go to B&Q to get some plumbing items so we could connect the dishwasher to the drainage and water supply. While we were there, we picked up some wood that I want to use as a frame for the wallpaper that we have up in the living area on our chimney breast. We also picked up some white spirit and some cloths, as we are planning on removing the vinyl flooring in the kitchen and will need to remove the glue from the tiles under it afterwards. While I was in work Shane plumbed in the dishwasher!

SUNDAY 18TH JAN

I kept getting hot and cold in the night, resulting in a disrupted night’s sleep. I woke with a sick feeling that wouldn’t go away. We had a fairly lazy day because of this, although we did place a grocery order through Ocado. I worked from 6pm to 10pm, and when I got home, we had an early night as I was so tired.

Weekly Roundup Monday 5TH Jan – Sunday 11th Jan

| Suzi Stamp

MONDAY 5TH JAN

I worked from 8:00am – 12:00pm. I’ve been feeling really tired since Christmas and have had niggling cold symptoms that have not amounted to much but have been quite annoying (runny/blocked nose, sore throat, aches), and I think that is what has been making me feel tired. Once I got in from work, I headed to bed and slept from 1:30pm to 3:00pm. I still wasn’t feeling great, so I had a bath once I’d woken up, which helped a little bit. Once Shane came home from work, we made a roast dinner with a Quorn Roast, roast potatoes, roast parsnips and carrots, broccoli and gravy.

TUESDAY 6TH JAN

I had the day off from work and planned to do some blog work. Shane left for work around 8:30am, and I played Animal Crossing for a bit while watching Below Deck. I then started working on some blog ideas and set up a blog calendar for 2026. I’m still feeling a bit tired, so I had a nap from 1:45pm – 4:25pm. We had decided earlier in the week, as part of our meal plan, to have shepherd’s pie for tea, so I started to make that once I was awake. We had that for tea with peas and an espresso martini afterwards.

WEDNESDAY 7TH JAN

We woke up at 7:45am and had coffee before Shane headed off to work for the day. I played Animal Crossing before getting ready for work. Snow has been forecast between 12:00pm today and 12:00pm tomorrow, so work was manic with people panic-buying everything both in the shop and through our online services. I was shattered when I got home from work, so Shane and I had fish and chips for tea from the local takeaway.

THURSDAY 8TH JAN

We woke up around 7:10 am and had coffee and cigarettes. There hadn’t been any snow, but it had been really cold in the night, and everything was frosty when we woke up, so Shane scraped the ice off his car and headed off for the day around 8:00am. We needed some things for decorating the dining area, so I placed an order with B&Q, including wallpaper, paint, brackets and a wallpaper hanging kit. I spent some more time on my blog calendar and did some laundry and other housework before heading to work for a 5:00pm to 10:00pm shift. Because snow was still forecast, people were still panic-buying, and the shop had been stripped bare of essentials by 7:00pm!

FRIDAY 9TH JAN

We got up at 6:40am and got ready for our work days. I worked an 8:00am – 2:00pm shift. I am still feeling ill and tired, so we had a nap when I got in from work for a couple of hours. The brackets that I had ordered from B&Q arrived, and I had a notification that the paint I had ordered for the kitchen was ready for collection, so we headed to B&Q to collect that. When we got home, Shane filled some holes, and we prepped the kitchen by washing the walls down with sugar soap, ready for tomorrow. We then sat and did some bullet journaling before heading to bed.

SATURDAY 10TH JAN

We were both off from work today, so we had a lie-in and didn’t get up until 11:20am! After a lazy morning, I booked myself in for a dreadlock maintenance and detox session with Threadloxx. The wallpaper I’d ordered was delivered from I Love Wallpaper, so I can start that tomorrow. We painted the kitchen, and Shane put up the brackets that had come yesterday. We did some more bullet journaling and watched Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in the evening.

SUNDAY 11TH JAN

We got up at a more respectable time of 9:45am today, though I still feel a bit tired and ill. Some more of my B&Q order was due to arrive between 10am and 12pm, so we didn’t want to miss that by lazing around in bed! The items got delivered at 11:00am, so Shane did another coat of paint on the kitchen walls while I painted the skirting boards and trunking in the dining area. Once the paint was dry, Shane helped me to hang the wallpaper on the back wall in the dining area. We had salmon fillets, new potatoes, mixed veg and parsley sauce for tea and watched some Taskmaster before heading to bed.

Weekly Roundup Monday 29TH Dec – Sunday 4TH Jan

| Suzi Stamp

MONDAY 29TH DECEMBER

We made a start on decorating the dining area after we had prepped the day before. Shane patched some holes in the wall that I want to hang wallpaper on and finished the repair to the wall by the window. The kitchen door is stepped back from the wall in the dining area, and there is a recessed area above the kitchen door that I decided I’d like wallpapered and a shelf put there. I hung the wallpaper after Shane had done the cutting in with matte white paint. Once that was done, we made a start on painting the walls with matt white paint.

TUESDAY 30TH DECEMBER

After we got up we measured and cut a piece of wood to create a shelf. Shane then put the shelf up in an alcove by the chimney breast in the living area, which we are turning into a mini bar area! We then headed to the spare room and spent some time sorting out things in there. We tidied up and put some stuff into the attic. We then removed all the staples in the laminate that had been securing the carpet that I had removed in December. In the afternoon, we popped around to see my neighbour Heather to exchange Christmas gifts, have a coffee and catch up.

WEDNESDAY 31ST DECEMBER

I worked 4:00pm – 8:00pm. Before I went to work, we did some decorating in the dining area while listening to My Dad Wrote a Porno. Shane filled in some more holes in the wall and painted the rest of the walls with matt white paint. I painted the arched alcove backs in green (Wickes Walls and Ceiling No 835 Optimism) and the sides in a matt black (Dulux Walls and Ceilings Rich Black), and painted the rest of the area with the first coat of Brilliant White.
After work I came home and had a quick outfit change before we headed out to a local pub for New Year’s Eve Celebrations! We watched a band play and welcomed in the New Year with a couple of friends before heading home at 12:15am!

THURSDAY 1ST JANUARY 2026!!!!!

Work 4:00pm – 8:00pm. We had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast. I then did a second coat of green on the back wall of the arches in the dining area before I went to work for a 4:00pm – 8:00pm shift. When I came home, we vinyl wrapped the back window sill in a black granite effect vinyl. We had veg stew that I had made with our leftover Christmas Veg for tea after we had finished wrapping the window sill.

FRIDAY 2ND JANUARY

I had an 8:00am – 12:00pm shift at work, and Shane was back at work after the Christmas break, so we got up together and did our usual morning routine of coffee and a cigarette before we started our work days. There was a yellow warning for snow, and we had all of 10 mins of snow, nothing stuck! When I got home, I felt really tired, so once Shane had finished work, we had a nap from 1:00pm to 4:20pm. I made us a salad with tuna mayo for tea. After food, we did some bullet journaling in the evening before heading to bed.

SATURDAY 3RD JANUARY

Shane was in Bristol for a gaming tournament today and left pretty early in the morning. I caught up on Below Deck and played Animal Crossing. I had work between 6:00pm and 10:00pm. I was still pretty tired, so Roxy and I headed to bed for a nap between 11:15am and 1:40pm. After my nap, I made myself sardines and cheese on toast before getting myself ready for my shift. Shane came home while I was at work and prepared us a curry for tea, which we had after I got back in from work.

SUNDAY 4TH JANUARY

I had a day off from work and once we had woken up we had smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for breakfast. We spent some time cleaning and tidying up our decorating stuff before we made a start on more decorating! Shane measured, cut and fitted the shelf that I wanted to go above the kitchen door and once we knew it fitted I then painted it Seaside Nautilus. In the evening we did some more bullet journalling before having cheese, crackers and wine for tea.

Upcycle Project – Dining Chairs (Part 1)

| Suzi Stamp

A little while ago I sort of, nearly finished a upcycle project I have been working on.  And when I say “sort of nearly” I just mean that the majority of the hard work has been done and to any other person the project would look to be complete, but, I have more teeny things I would like to do in order for me to feel that the project has come to a close.  The project I am referring to is my dining chairs.

When I moved in to my home I had a dining table but no chairs, which in turn meant nowhere for guests to sit should I decide to invite anyone over for food unless sitting on the sofa and balancing a plate on your knees is acceptable in any circumstances other than when you are alone.  I started searching on Facebook, (who happen to have introduced a nifty little feature called “Marketplace” which seems to round-up any selling adverts from groups and put them all in one place which you can search on by either selecting certain categories or adding your own search terms), for dining chairs or chairs of any kind that I could use as substitutes.  I found some pretty decent looking plastic school chairs that I thought would be ok, they were orange which I loved and free too!  I messaged the seller but he didn’t want to let me have 4 of them, he had 36 to get rid of and wanted them gone en-mass.  I contacted a few other people who had chairs up for free but either they had already been collected by someone else or else I had no reply.  I sort of gave up looking and had decided that eventually I would probably have to buy some which is when I found “the ones”….

I can’t remember what I was looking for on Marketplace, all I know is that I wasn’t looking for chairs, but an ad caught my eye purely because the chairs in question reminded me of the ones my Mum and Dad had when I was growing up…they had the same shape to them, the same fabric, the same colour varnish, the only thing that was different was the back rest of the chairs, the ones in the ad had low backs where the ones Mum and Dad owned had high backs.  Out of interest I clicked on the ad and found that the owner was giving them away for free!  I sent a message and collected them later that day.  1582

I’ve got a white table and the rest of the furniture in my dining area is white so having brown and orange chairs wasn’t really going to match very well.  I decided that I would re-paint the chairs.  My initial idea was to paint the chairs white with a possibility of renewing the fabric on the seats, I was going to pick out similar colours to boxes I have in my storage unit that are pink, blue, yellow and white.  I changed my mind about having white chairs with coloured seats as I found it hard to find fabric in colours I was happy with or that weren’t mega bucks and out of my price range.  After a bit of extra thought and research into costs I decided that I would paint the chairs different colours and chose a white vinyl fabric to do all the seats with.

Next week I will be sharing the first part of the project with you!