Conservatory: Before and After

We had our conservatory rebuilt sometime around September,  however, as things of such a nature go, we only recently got around to painting it.  I meant to post pictures as soon as it was painted, but it seemed to be filled with tools and other junk as soon as I put my paint brush down.  But since Nick's mum is selling the house now, someone came to view it and we put it all in order.  It looked good.  I wish it could always look like this.

Here are the before pics....

This is a bathroom.  No one used it because it's gross. Agreed?

And now it looks like this....

So new and shiny!  Notice the appliances!  We used to have the washing machine in the kitchen.  Now we have a dishwasher (SCORE!) in the kitchen, and we have both the washing machine and the dryer in the conservatory.  This makes me extremely happy.  Hanging laundry outside to dry is a royal pain, especially when it rains nearly every day here.  The dryer on the left doesn't actually go there, well it's supposed to, except the builders forgot to put a hole in the wall for the exhaust.  So we have to move it to the front of the picture and stick the hose out the window.

Oh, and the toilet has also been redone, except you see, the light of my life, my dear husband, decided that he was a plumber (he's not a plumber) and he was going to fit the sink and toilet himself to save money.  That was in September.  It's now the end of February and we're no closer to having a working toilet in, and as a bonus, we have the lingering smell of sewage since the pipe for the toilet is exposed.  We try to cover it, but it doesn't really work.

You win some, you lose some.

Artichoke Burger Withdrawals

I find one of the most difficult things about living in a foreign country is adjusting to the new foods.  (maybe thats because I'm just naturally a fatass?)  Not that English food is particularly crazy, but I'm not familiar with their brand names.  I've been on a hunt for a good replacement for my favorite veggie burger, Five Star Foodies' Artichoke Burger, but alas, nothing even comes close.  If you don't know this brand, check it out!  Their stuff is seriously the best!  We even served their artichoke burgers at our wedding - they really are that good.

Well I had a massive hankering for one of these delightful little patties the other day.  So I had to attempt to make one myself.  I did an OK job, but if you can get your grubby hands on their version you should just do that.  If not, well here goes nothing...

Ingredients

• 1 can black beans
• 2 cans artichokes
• 1 cup unsalted cashews
• 1/2 tbs dried rosemary
• 3/4 cup flour
• breadcrumbs (from about 2 slices)

Preheat the oven to 180 C.  In a food processor, add black beans, artichokes, and cashews.  Blend it until it all comes together, but a little chunkiness is OK.  Mix in flour and rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper.  

Place breadcrumbs on a plate and scoop heaping spoonfuls of the mixture on the breadcrumbs, covering the top and forming a burger shape.  This should make about 8 burgers.

Place burgers on a pan and put in the over for 20 minutes or so, turning halfway.  

Pretty easy, huh?  I spiced ours up for dinner with some olive and sundried tomato tapenade we had in the fridge, and fresh mozzerella.  

Then I put the whole thing onto a panini press, because I'm pretty sure panini presses make any sandwich taste about 1,000 times better.

I know this isn't that attractive looking, but I'm not taking these pictures for Bon Appetit!  Jeez gimme a break you food judgers.

Oh, do I sound a little hyper sensitive about my pictures?  That is because I can't stop getting rejected by tastespotting and foodgawker!  Look them up if you haven't heard of them.  They hate my pictures.  All of them.  I'm not even going to submit this one.  I'm just going to hang my head in failure and eat my mediocre looking artichoke burgers and maybe a pint of Ben and Jerry's.  Leave me alone.

The Chalk-O-Matic!

Ladies and Gentlemen, today I would like to introduce you to the niftiest gadget I have yet to come across in my DIY experiences.  I bring you.....

THE CHALK-O-MATIC!!

Nick called it a "chalk line" but I think chalk-o-matic sounds much cooler.  If you're a DIY newbie like me and have never come across said gadget before, you must be wondering what it does, eh?  Well basically it makes a line of chalk on your wall.  So if you need to hang something straight, you can use a spirit level to draw a straight line, but maybe it needs to be longer than your spirit level allows for.  This is when you whip out your chalk-o-matic.  You pull the end of it, and a string appears which you can then match up with the line you've drawn on the wall with your spirit level.  Pull the string taut against the wall, and BOING it.  TaDa!

Now you have a straight line which you can use to hang things up neatly.  Like cabinets....

I even used a power drill (under husband supervision) to put that cabinet together.  Now there is a lovely little spot to put all our laundry products.

I feel so organized!  This is in our conservatory, which should be finished in the next couple of days if Heidi can ever learn to entertain herself.  Will be sure to post before and after pics of the finished room! 

Dining Room Archeology

I kinda lied to you yesterday.  I haven't actually been snuggling my puppy all week.  I mean I have done a lot of that, but I've actually been doing tons of work on our dining room.  Since we decided to move I've really kicked it into gear. (And by "it" I mean my a**)

At the begining of the week I took the wallpaper down using this handy dandy wallpaper steamer.  Oh what a joy of a DIY task this was!  All I had to do was press it against the wall and the wall paper would just peel off ever so nicely.  The steam created a nice little sauna effect so it was almost like getting a facial AND getting work done at the same time!  But it did create little pools of tobacco colored water because until recently this room has endured about 50 years of chain smoking - kinda nasty.  But I loved stripping back the wallpaper and discovering what laid underneath, I thought to myself, "This must be what an archeologist feels like!"  If I would have known how simple it was I would have taken off the tar stained paper ages ago and maybe the house would've stopped smelling like old people and cigarettes!

Next I had to take the Styrofoam off the ceiling, but luckily there were no hidden chimneys like last time.  This DIY task sucks big time.  It made my shoulders sore and my knuckles raw.  Thank God there is no more Styrofoam left in the house now.

After playing room archeologist all week I unveiled a hideous pea-green ceiling, with yellow trimmed walls.  Nick's mum has been staying with us this week and she said the white painted bits used to be filled with wall paper.

Dear God,

Thank you for not making me live through this era of completely vile design.  

These color choices make me want to vomit a little.

That doesn't seem good for a dining room.

Cheers!

Kelly