We've had rather a blissful weekend here. Yesterday was a busy day of productivity - shopping shopped for, wardrobe in Little R's soon-to-be-big-boy-bedroom filled with shelves and all my sewing stuff moved in (there's a LITTLE space for his clothes to move in later), garden hoed and tidied, rabbit hutch cleaned, DVD's parcelled up to be sold and various other jobs ticked off very satisfyingly. I LOVE days like that. It was also a momentous day, as Little R had NO NAP. This was a conscience effort on our part, because for the last week he's been falling asleep too late on in the afternoon and then being impossible to rouse, so bedtime has ended up getting far too late. He coped admirably yesterday, and was ready for bed by 6:30, which left us with the whole evening to relax... and get a few more jobs done. He's coped today without one also!
After the business of Saturday, Sunday was a day of leisure. We went to Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm, which Little R simply ADORED. He's been going on about cuddling a lamb for two weeks and today he FINALLY got to fulfill his wish - he was delighted. And he fed goats, pigs, cows and sheep. He was in his element, splashing in muddy puddles, chasing chickens and leading us hither and thither to see all the things that interested him.
Among all this fun, I still found time to tick another job off my list that I've been longing to do for months. In August, we replaced the tatty wicker chest of drawers in the downstairs facilities with this simple but tidy wooden one. I had plans to decorate it, but what with morning sickness and work I hadn't managed to get round to it. Until today!
I tipped everything out of the top and bottom drawers, ready to add a splash of colour.
Did you spot these, perched on top of the chest? We picked them up on Saturday during a particularly productive trip to Homebase.
Little R was my little helper. It was his first experience of furniture painting, and he did an excellent job. He understood that he needed to fill all the spaces with paint and I left him to fill the middle while I did the tricky edges. I do so love it when there's a job he can help with.
Soon we had one "ight bue" and one "gark bue" drawer drying up on the table. Next to my beautiful amaryllis, which is now flowering. Rather irritatingly, it's grown so tall that I have to stand on a chair to really enjoy the full effect!
Admittedly, Little R's efforts did lead to this being a slightly sloppier job than I'd usually manage, but it was worth it to see the pride on his face.
Rachel, meanwhile, had become inspired, and painted these two knobs. She had a plan. Oh yes, just wait and see. (You've guessed already, haven't you? It's not the most mysterious DIY project in the world, I must admit!)
Ready for the ta-da?
Here it is:
Ooooh, it is cute. Rach pointed out it'd be perhaps more suitable in Little R's bedroom than the downstairs toilet, but I LIKE cute things, so there!
The blues were chosen to tone in with our duck pictures, which decorate the intense yellow walls of our smallest room.
It's certainly cheered that dull pine up and makes the chest match the rest of the room. Now, my original plan was to décopatch the middle drawer with patterened paper of yellow and blue (I do have rather a habit of décopatching random items of furniture - see here, here and here). But I'm wondering now if that'd be a step too far.
What do you think? Yay or nay?
Edit: I DID eventually décopatch the middle drawer - see here.