Polly Dolly Gets out and about.

Polly Dolly has just done her first show. We took her along to a local carnival and used her as a back drop to sell some of my vintage shabby chic furniture. It was a perfect, gorgeous, sunny day and she looked great.

She looked so pretty, she had so many lovely comments. 

We have taken her out this summer as the weather has been so gorgeous.  We turned up at a campsite on a rural farm that was hosting a vintage wedding. Most of the guests thought we were there for the wedding.

So hopefully we will be out and about a lot more over the next few months.

Bye for now

Clare xx

Polly Dolly gets a mini makeover.

It has been a long year since moving house. We have really loved it, but it has taken this long to actually get sorted. We have finally sorted out all the boxes and items in the garage and lock up that just get dumped after a move. The annoying thing is we did not really need any of the stored things anyway and they went to recycling or the tip. So I can finally say we are sorted, everything is in its place and I feel so much better.

One of the jobs I have wanted to do for a long time was spend some time on Polly Dolly. She has been sat in the lock up desperate for some TLC which she finally got. She was stripped, cleaned, paint work touched up, new floor and the I finally had the confidence to paint the kitchen. It was a tricky job as nothing could be removed but I did it and it looks gorgeous.

 Before

After

This was taken in the lock up but will get some cute shots this weekend as we are going Glamping.

One of the things I have been doing for many years is collecting the smallest bits of scraps of material from all my projects, including the 4  caravans. I knew that one day I would think of an idea what to do with them. Well I decided to make a rag rug. 

I spent a whole evening cutting the fabric into strips, then spent a week hooking all the fabric in the hessian. Its very addictive but very messy. There was cotton everywhere.

Luigi loved it too as its so soft. It now sits in Polly Dolly on her new floor. Its so addictive that my daughter who is leaving for Uni very soon, started making her own rug to take with her.

We were asked to host some guests for a weekend who were staring in a local charity event. The event was based around singers and dancers from the West End. I have to say we had a brilliant weekend and made some lovely new friends. 

This is my daughter with Zoe Curlett the amazing singer from musicals like "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Mis" and the handsome you chap you may recognise from the BBC show "The Voice" Jordan lee Davies. What voices!! They were rehearsing while my hubby and I were out working. The neighbours loved it and actually at one point wondered if it was me and Darren singing, ha ha I wish.

"Lola" found a new happy home with a lovely young family. I know their first camping trip was a success so here's to many more for them.

My latest article is now ready to view also, just click on the link below.

http://advice.caravansforsale.co.uk/caravan-tips-and-advice/the-polly-dolly-caravan-restoration-project-part-two.aspx

"Lola" the latest vintage caravan is finished x

It has been a while but I now have something to blog about. We have finished "Lola" the vintage Cheltenham caravan. She has been sat in the lock up for far too long waiting for us too make her pretty and at last she's ready. As she is a very desirable collectors caravan we decided to keep the inside as original as possible. I have to say though she is very cute inside and the cooker is so retro I do keep asking myself why I am selling her. 

Yes I went with a pink and white tiled floor. I did get a few concerned comments from people when I mentioned my plans but not surprisingly they actually now say it does work. I have yet again used the lovely Clarke and Clarke fabrics. Firstly because I love their designs and colours and secondly a lovely lady named Jane sells the fabric in her shop in our small town. I am a great believer in supporting the local economy first. l just hope Lola makes someone very happy when she goes to her new home.

I have also been very busy with a good friend of mine Lynn, we have started a small business doing shabby chic furniture. Guess what we called it?

https://www.facebook.com/PollyDollyInteriors

It seemed the perfect name. It has really taken off in the short time we have been doing it. We are very lucky as we are able to sell our products in several local shops. We are just coming to the end of a really large local commission for a new business. Cannot put any photo's up yet but will as soon as possible. Here are a few photos of some of our sold or completed pieces.

Finally I been asked to write a regular article for an online caravan magazine. Today it was actually published. I did explain to the lovely editor that my written english is not great but she still seemed interested. Here is the link anyway if you would like to see it.

http://advice.caravansforsale.co.uk/caravan-tips-and-advice/thinking-vintage-polly-dolly-shows-you-how-to-revamp-a-caravan.aspx

I have just had a biggish Birthday and I did get spoilt rotten by everyone. One thing I did receive from a lovely friend was this charm.

How perfect is that, my own little vintage caravan.

I am back xx

Hi everyone,

 I must firstly apologise for the long gap since posting last. I have no excuses really, I think life just caught up with me and I needed a break. After moving house in the summer and getting through a summer season at work I felt exhausted.  I have felt so annoyed with myself at times, unable to do all the the things that make me happy. I have not been the domestic goddess I can be! The last four months have been a bit tough too as I had to have my ovaries removed for several reasons, one being the cancer. With the surgery, the new medication and getting bugs and virus's its been a tiring time. The good news is I feel like I am starting to see the back of all that. Although the crappy cancer drugs are always going to have side effects.

There has been some nice things happening here though, I have a new baby boy called "Luigi" who is my gorgeous French bulldog puppy.

He is a marmite dog in my opinion. Some people think they are gorgeous some think them ugly. I think he is so lush with a character I have never seen in other dogs. They are hilarious but incredibly stubborn. Some say they are of low intelligence some say its high. I still cannot decide! All i know is that I am hooked on "Frenchies" now!

The other really brilliant thing we have done is had a log burner fitted in the house. This is huge to us after living in military houses for most of our married life. We have had some horrid fake gas/electric fireplaces and surrounds. So one morning I woke up and decided to smash the fireplace up in our newly decorated living room. Behind a plastic fire suite that was in the property when we bought it we found the bricked up the original fireplace. Within 2 weeks we had our new log burner, it is amazing and it heats the whole house. 

I think it is gorgeous, the room looks finished now. Luigi loves it too.

Something else recently happened which is I am really finding hard to cope with, my daughter has been sent to Afghanistan. Its breaking my heart, she seems too young to be dealing with this crap. I feel totally useless as a parent, our role is to protect our children but I cannot do anything from here. She has been living overseas with the Army for a year now and I have dealt with that fine, yet this is making me an emotional wreck. Miss her so much.

Stay safe xx

Now my va va voom is starting to return, work will begin again with the caravan's and hopefully other pretty things. We just have a few more things to focus on but I feel ready now. Looking forward to taking "Polly Dolly" out on a few trips also. 

Glad to back in blog land.

Time for some fun!!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I blogged, I have been so busy with the move and work. The Olympics did not help either, I was drawn in to watching sports I know nothing about but found compulsive viewing. I have decided to keep my bunting on the blog till after the paraolympics. It really has been a summer to make you feel proud to be British.

Work is really horrible too, I know for many of you the 6 weeks holidays mean fun and lots of it but for me its hell. I feel like or should I say I know I am working on adrenalin at the moment. Its not just the work load that increases at this time of year but the work that goes into turning over a cottage seems to double. I really do not wish to offend any families or stereotype anyone but most (not all) leave the cottages in a filthy mess. It's as if they lose the ability to tidy up after themselves if the children are with them. Do not get me wrong I know my job and what my clients expect from me, but as guests are you also not supposed to show some respect to another persons property. That's my rant over, only 3 weeks to go till some form of normality returns. 

For many years me and hubby had discussed moving to a pretty rural village which we did recently. The one thing the village had to have was a local pub we could walk to. It has, the only problem was when we put the offer in for the house the pub shut its doors and went on the market. Unbelievable, but all is well again the pub was bought and finally re-opened yesterday. Yes we popped in last night as did most of the village it seems too. Great atmosphere hope it remains.

My family and friends and myself included are in training due to me getting us involved in   a race with a difference. Its a assault course race designed by the special forces in Derby. It looks brilliant and dirty, very different from the normal 5k and 10k races I have done. I think the photos say it all really.

I have to say I am training but it is not going great. I am running, cycling and swimming but making slow progress. I think it is due to my physical workload at the moment and the heat, which is 10 times worse when you are suffering with Menopausal flushes!!!!

Next week though is going to be different, I have taken 5 days off work and that also means taking all the holiday homes bedding and towels to the laundrette for them to clean. We are entertaining family and friends for the week. I am so excited, I just want to have some fun, eat and drink plenty and switch off for a few days.

PARTY!!!

My New Home

I am finally back in Blog land. It has been a long month moving house but I think we are finally over the worst. A week after moving in my Hubby was made redundant. He was hoping for this, which is one of the reasons we rushed the house sale through. We knew it would be a lot harder to get a mortgage once he had been made redundant. The timing for everything over the last few months has been perfect really. Tomorrow we hand back the other property and so everything is complete. We are now moving on to the next chapter of our lives.


 I have had a lot of people asking me to put some photos  of the house on the blog as we have redecorated everywhere since moving in. There was no way I could live in a magnolia house, I need colour! So here are a few rooms for now.

This is our Living room which is huge compared to our last one. You can actually walk in a straight line without dodging furniture.

My Kitchen and utility which I love. I kept the same colour theme as the last house as Baby Blue is my favourite colour. We did replace the worktops to wooden ones as we really disliked the original ones. Plus I have a dishwasher for the first time in my life and I love it!!

My Hallway which I think is my favourite.

My Bedroom and my baby dog "Cupcake". She moved in on her own as our other dog passed away suddenly just before we were due to move.

This is my sewing room in the attic. Its huge so we split it. This is my side which is pretty and girly, the photo below is hubby's part of the loft. This is his XBox room hence the military theme. Through the passage is his office. It is an amazing space.

There are other rooms to show you, such as the conservatory which is full of laundry drying at the moment as it doesn't seem to want to stop raining!! That is a really lush room so I will sort them out next time. I shall be back very soon.