Slowly, slowly we are settling in here. With the last month being so insanely busy, everything had stayed exactly where we put them when we moved in.  It was only yesterday, with a forced day off to take care of chicken poxed children, did I have an opportunity to get things in place.

Like most homes, the kitchen here is absolutely the centre of activity.  Its a narrow galley-style kitchen, so unlike our eat-in space of the previous house.  However, a smarter layout and nearly double the counter space makes it a place for us all to hang out.

Mac and Theo in particular have their places in the kitchen. Mac is usually found sleeping on one of the rugs. And Theo can be found perched on a stool in front of the Aga. 

Oh the Aga. How I hate it. It not actually an Aga, but a Stanley range that provides both the sole cooking facilities for the house, as well as the heating and hot water. Jack of all trades, master of none comes to mind here. Burning through oil as fast as it burns pizza, I feel like I go to battle every day just to cook. Tonight is pizza night and I already have mixed spare dough, knowing half of the pizza will be charred.

All in though, I have to say that I am enjoying the settling in. Decorating and planning what we will do with the house, inside and out. Rugs are top of the list and possibly a set of curtains for the Living Room. I had resisted buying anything before we moved in, but I did spend some time thinking about what I wanted to do.  Of course, there was the obligatory Pinterest board, but at the time we started planning, I was asked to be one of the bloggers to pull together collections for eBay's launch of its collections.

I am a huge fan of the site - buying and selling both, and the temptation to pull together Pinterest-style boards of things I could actually buy was just too tempting. The feature allows you to pull together wishlists of the things you find on ebay for easy reference and inspiration for later. And as much fun as it has been to pull the boards together, I have to say that I have loved looking at other people's more. Some of my favourites include, Arianna Interiors, Capture by Lucy and Patchwork Harmony. I did my first round of boards *just* before we moved in and you can totally see where my head was at - chickens, gardens, yarn, agas and chainsaws. Hmmm....I think this month's update will be a bit different (I can see a board on my pink and green livingroom and summer dreaming in my future!!).