Transformations!

Helllooooo! I seem to have palmed you lovely readers off with my manky dead flower photos and wotnot and not actually written anything for aaaaaages...... life's been full-on lately...

I've just read Patti Smith's Just Kids - as it came out last year it'll have been blogged to death elsewhere, but it was Totally Fantastic And Absorbing. I spent a happy week staying up til the small hours reading huge chunks, playing her tunes, and looking up dead French poets, and so forth, and wishing I could have at least two lives: one now, and one in late 60s and early 70s New York. Oddly enough, Patti discovered Rimbaud by reading about Modigliani. The week before reading Patti's book, guess which artist I'd been researching... To "come down" from the book, I played PJ Harvey and The Doors. Am now reading Kristin Hersh's Rat Girl.... loving that too.

And then The Brits happened. Luckily it was on pancake day, so I was able to spend much of the show in the kitchen, far, far from the likes of weedy li'l Ed Sheeran and Brit-pap. BUT BLUR WERE ON, so the 12 year old was giving me shouts when it was safe to be in the same room as the tv. And they were FABULOUS (albeit the timing meant the Adele-cut-short-and-middle-finger-episode, but she was FABULOUS TOO).... so most of their back catalogue was on the cd player for the next day or so.... Phwoar - Damon is looking Quite Fit these days. And afterwards I watched No Distance Left To Run, which is brilliant. Graham is extremely chameleon-like, isn't he...

I have also had the bathroom redone..... my version being upgrading the shower from a one-minute-freezing-next-minute-lobsterising dribble to va va voom that could easily jetwash a large horse, should I care to try to wedge one into the bath... plus new washbasin (aka potential horse trough) and new loo. And posh taps! The original woebegone shebang was inherited with the house 11 years ago - wish I had "before" photos from that long ago, but if I describe it as being decorated by Jayne Mansfield on acid you'll get the picture. Apricot decor and frills - those went Very Quickly Indeed, but the chipped and eventually-no-longer-working fittings lingered on...

teeny preview of the new non-Jayne taps

The only hitch is that the plasterboard lining the exterior wall* came away bigtime with the old washbasin -  obviously Sensible People would have known that could happen and would have stripped out the room, had the walls redone and then put the basin in. Oh no, not me. I'm looking at a lot of filler, and possibly a crazy mosaic affair to disguise it... There's also a Worrying Hole through to the outside, where the plumber ripped out a pipe - am going to rummage through what he chucked in the bin bag to find it and wedge it back in, otherwise I think there'll be wasps wanting to get themselves between the outside wall and the plasterboard. *Boring construction details now over with;)

Transformation part two is that I am machine-dying a naff pale mint green dress and a bright pink shirt this morning. Am using a Dylon Wash And Dye sachet in Denim Blue - sooooo easy and clean to use; a far cry from the last time I machine-dyed when it was shake the packet, which went everywhere, and add salt. This sachet is all ready-to-go - perfect for a lazybones like me. The colour looked ok when the dye cycle had been done; just waiting now for the wash-and-rinse stage to be done. Then it'll be off to the flea market in search of some more cracker rings. I need a purple one I think...

Trashsparkle's Perfume Reviewette

Yep, that's right. Reviewette. I may very well have just made that word up. For the purpose of not making this post look like I got any further with the Fragrance Forays. No Viv W - the Boots in this town is not grand enough, so I tried Jimmy Choo instead. Light, giddy and not unlike the swanky, pungent talc that was in abundance in the 70s. I have not yet found the One. Idly wondering what a perfume by Spend Spend Spend Viv Nicholson would have been like; stale babycham, players no.6, crimpelene, with a heady note of peroxide and a dash of disappointment?

The bouncy sunny afternoon is very apt for playing the new Adele album. Full-bodied production qualities.

Tomorrow is an Official Day Off. And what a stupid day to arrange to have the boiler mot'd. It means I'll have to clean the bathroom and hoik all the stuff out of the airing cupboard at some point tonight. I don't mind doing that kind of thing, but only when I feel like it, not because a man who will try to flog me a carbon monoxide detector is coming round.

And the kitchen will be happening soon - the man who is doing the plumbing did not suck air thru his teeth, and is sending a chap round later this week to look at my not-to-scale scribblings; the only proof  that everything will fit is the big pencilled arrows I have drawn on the walls. There will be room to swing large feline creatures, and more vitally, room to get to the sink without long-jumping over the open dishwasher door or risking a hot pan attaching itself to your sleeve.