A Great Idea for Conservatory or Sunroom Shading!

We've been sizzling here at between 28C & 30C for well over a week now, and although it's been lovely to get a Summer at all, and I don't suppose it can last for more than another week (not at these temperatures anyway)I can't say I'll be sorry to get somewhat cooler temperatures! Now I know that a lot of people around the world on reading this will laugh their socks off, but trust me when I say these temperatures are remarkable for the U.K., and we're just not used to them at all.

We recently moved house (one reason I haven't been blogging recently) and gained a lovely conservatory to sit in and enjoy the garden.

The thermometer has been showing 45C until I open the doors when we get home about 5pm. We are having to run two fans to keep cool, one is a large pedestal fan and the other is a smaller floor fan.

We have rigged up a couple of colourful sarees that I found on eBay to give us some shade. They shimmer with gold decoration and beadwork and are lovely either in the sunshine or by candlelight in the evening. We've just draped them from an expanding net rod at either end and over the center stantion. They are long enough that they fall almost to the floor at the back and I have made tiebacks from the sleeves of the matching blouses that sarees traditionally come with, and which were trimmed with the fancy ribbon fabric on the edge of the sarees. A great idea if you have a conservatory and need shading.

Wallpaper paste creates havoc!

Well if it's not one thing, it's another! Having cancelled the holiday in Devon due to the weather being so pants, and having been at home for over a week with only his PC and Flight Simulator to keep him amused, Hubby decided that this would be a good time to finish decorating the kitchen!

This is a project he started about 6 months ago. Every time he painted the walls he decided after a couple of weeks that he wasn't happy with the colour, so he would go out and buy some more paint! The last layer was a lemony yellow which we both agree is too bright as the tiles and cupboards are a sort of oatmeal colour. So yesterday he went and bought some ivory cream paint and a roll of lining paper to improve the finish of the old walls. He had just climbed up the stepladder to place his first piece with a big bucket of freshly mixed wallpaper paste.

I suddenly heard this huge crash followed by an ominous silence, and then the air turned blue! I rushed out to find that he had knocked the bucket off a shelf and it had cascaded on to the floor, covering the electric meter and mains switches in wallpaper paste on the way down!

45 minutes later we had managed to clear it all up, using a dustpan to scoop up the layer on the floor, which is fortunately vinyl sheet. We went through about 2 rolls of kitchen paper and several of the dogs towels came in handy as well! Finally we were able to clean up the last vestiges of paste with a big dampened decorating sponge. God, that stuff is sticky!!

We had turned off the electric as soon as we saw the danger and had to take out all the fuses and clean them off before switching it back on again. Fortunately the viscose nature of the paste meant it had not penetrated into the innards of the elctrics so we were able to clean it up without too much trouble and switched everything back on OK - but it was a scary 10 minutes I can tell you!

Anyway we could well have done without that as it put Hubby's schedule back quite a bit, but trouper that he is, he got right back on it and has now finished the wallpapering, which has improved the overall look a lot, and has started painting the walls. He is perched on the worktop trying to paint round the top of the walls without getting it on the ceiling as well. I may go and give him a hand presently - or there again I may not (I've always found it best to just let him get on with it!).