The Interior DIYer

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Lately + a bit of a rant

It’s been so long [for me] since I last blogged. It’s been 6 weeks since I last published something here and considering I’ve been blogging at least twice a week for the past 5 years, going 6 weeks without doing anything has been weird and a little scary. Work has been really busy as well as most of our spare time in general these days, so by the time I get home I usually have zero cares left to work on anything. 

Actually, truth be told, the reason I haven’t done much blogging is because anything I want to do around our apartment I can no longer do by myself. Which is a world of frustrating levels of bullshit. Yes, I realise I’m pregnant and I have to be careful, but I’m not someone who has ever had to wait for someone else to help me before jumping into a project [bar electrical stuff]. I’m not dainty and I don’t value my looks very much so in the past if something needed to be done, I’d get stuck in regardless of the physical harm that may come my way. I mean, when I swapped the two beds in our apartment, one of the beds [now in our bedroom] weighed, I shit you not, about 300lbs. Maybe even 400lbs. It’s solid wood and it needed to be turned on its side to be able to move it down the hallway. I did all of that solo. But now. Now that I’m with child. Oh sweet baby deity … Never have I been treated so much like a tiny injured bird and it makes me feel a spectrum of useless. I do realise I have to take it easy for the next few months, and I’m trying, but I really cannot wait until I am allowed to move something really heavy or do something by myself. It’s tough as when I get an idea I have to stop myself and say, “No, hold on. I have to wait for Robert to come home to move that for me.” So that’s partly why I haven’t been able to do much around our apartment, and subsequently, not been able to blog much. 
It’s a big learning curve for me so I’m trying to get used to asking for help. As of this week I’ve had a burst of wanting to get things done so the mahogany mirror that’s been sitting in the corner of our bedroom for more than a year [as seen here] is finally up and hanging in our hallway! Special thanks to Dad DIYer and Robert who hung it up earlier this week [I wasn’t allowed to help as it’s very heavy]. I’ve also been taking some pictures for a very exciting feature coming up so I’ve bought a few new things I’ve been eyeing for a while. One of them being this brass candle holder from Article, a few peonies from Appassionata and some new bedding … 

ME –          “I want to look at new sheets for our room today.”
ROBERT –  “We need new sheets? But we already have sheets and a duvet on the bed.“
ME –          “We need new sheets. Sheet-sheets.”
ROBERT –  *Total confusion*

We got new sheets in the end.  

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When in Rome

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of our first date, last week Robert and I ran away to Rome for some sun, warmth, food, lazy aimless wandering and to take in some sights. Did I mention food? So much food. 

There was fantastic weather for the four days we were there [two full days and two half days traveling on either side], the hottest being on our third day where it reached between 25 and 30 degrees. During our first full day we managed to lazily hit all the sites. We walked from our hotel to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum, all while stopping for copious amounts of pasta, pizza, gelato, beer and wine in between [ahem, iced tea for me] … 

The following day we went to the Vatican as I’ve always wanted to see the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The chapel itself is not very big at all, but has a towering ceiling that is ridiculously gorgeous. It’s hard to know where to look; other than up. There’s a strict no photos and even no talking rule in the Sistine Chapel. There’s a security guard whose sole job is to enforce both rules by pressing a microphone to his mouth and loudly mumbling both repetitively and breathing heavy at the same time. The no talking rule we especially sniggered at like idiots because he was clearly the loudest person there. 

Oh, for the record, if you tell me to not take a photo of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, I’ma take a photo of it … 

While Rome wasn’t exactly what we expected [we had a lot of interesting encounters], we still had a lovely time in the sun wandering aimlessly. I also managed to sit a funny way on a bus on our first day and my back is still yelling at me for it. I’ve never had problems with my back! KNOCK ON WOOD. I blame all these damn pregnancy hormones. I think the only remedy would be for me to find some gelato in Dublin today … 
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Thrifty things – copper jelly moulds

Over the weekend I had some time to walk one of my favourite Dublin charity shop routes. I was on the lookout for nothing in particular, but kind of also had my radar possible nursery furniture. I didn’t find any furniture, however I did find these absolutely adorable copper jelly moulds. I’m super sappy these days so the heart-shaped piece jumped out at me immediately as well as the smaller mould. They were both marked as €1 each [!!!] in Age Action so I couldn’t not get them. 

I’m fairly certain they’re not vintage as they’re quite light and are actually more of a rose-gold colour than copper in real life [they look very much copper in these pictures]. I think the heart shaped mould would look really lovely hanging up in the baby’s room and the smaller one for holding all kinds of tiny baby related nonsense on a shelf. 

We’ll have to buy some brand new pieces for the nursery [cot, bedclothes etc], but for the most part I’m really hoping to find as many second hand pieces as possible. I have a vague idea of furniture, layout and colours at the moment, but I have yet to sit down and see if it will all work together. I’m feeling really good these days so I want to get stuck in painting and assembling and fussing over baby stuff! I figure I should start sooner rather than later before my energy levels drop back to non-existent.