Winner { blogiversary giveaway }

I'm working hard to get the house back in to some kind of order. In the battle between woodchip wallpaper and myself I'm pleased to say I'm winning, but it's been a long and exhausting fight, compounded by the incompetence of previous owners. I discovered a leaking chimney and evidence of previous leaks that had been painted over with oil based gloss to hide the evidence, making the paper a nightmare to remove. I found two ceilings upstairs had been replaced, apparently because of the damage. The ceiling of the room affected the worst had then been glossed, woodchipped and then glossed again. Who does that?! I'm still struggling to get the other half of that ceiling cleared, I had to walk away before I put a rather large hole through the plaster.

I have books stacked on every surface downstairs and I'm out of crockery (not helped by my Mum accidentally breaking one of my cups last weekend). I've got the plasterboard remains of a landing cupboard and around six black bin bags of removed wallpaper to take to the dump. I have no idea where my hairbrush or make up is located (probably in the bathtub under my shoes and handbags), I think I've been wearing the same clothes for around two weeks now. And I. Am. Done. So I'm taking next week to chill out, putter around. Sew my damn Clover's (because Mum's too busy to let me go raid her fabric stash, which means the Violet is still on hold). Maybe even read March's edition of Mollie Makes that's somewhere in this godforsaken house, I know I bought it last week, but can I find it?!

What I also have is some amazing original plasterwork that I'm going to be a little sad to paint over, I'll try to get some photographs this week, should the weather return to something a littler brighter, the colours are amazing. I've also got ceiling lights above my dining room table that don't flicker or hum any more, making it easier to work at night or, y'know, during the day on an overcast Welsh afternoon. I've got workmen booked to come back and fix my leaky chimney completely, which will hopefully take care of all the incoming water issues I've been experiencing once and for all. And I also have a winner!

Clare, drop me an email at girlmeetswolf (at) sky (dot) com, or use the contact page linked from the top of the blog and send me your address. I'll get your book in the post to you as soon as I figure out which safe place I put it in!

Thanks for stopping by,