Before and After - Kitchen!

When we first bought The Ugly House the room I was most excited about was the kitchen - basically because there really wasn't one! Just a sink, four cupboards, one drawer and a bit of singed '60's formica worktop... Oooh, the potential!

As a cheap fix I painted the cupboard doors white and changed the door handles ...

Now it's a pretty nice room - still need to sort out the strip lighting and the scruffy blinds, but with the aid of a cheap Bunnings worktop and a wallmounted shelf unit Mark's mum picked up for me at a swap meet it looks pretty good!

It was my birthday last week so I treated myself to these gorgeous postcards from Lisa Stubbs - I love her illustrations, and especially like the fact that there are two each of three designs in the pack so you can send one and keep one for yourself :) These two make me smile every time I put the kettle on!

Also making me smile - my present from Mark and the boys - they have amazingly good taste, it's almost as if I told them exactly what I wanted and where the cheapest place to buy it was...

And from my lovely friend Karen, an Emma Bridgewater teapot! Which travelled safely in the post all the way from the UK!

And from my equally lovely sister, who always buys the best presents - a DIY Trophy Deer Head