making a house a home

Like most places here, the apartment, decor wise is quite bland. I brought my sofa's over, but they too were cream and it was all a bit..........boring. For quite some time I have been looking for carpets to put down. I have even bought a few carpets, but I like the kilim style, and they weren't really practical for a heavy traffic area and once again, they were beige. I needed new curtains so I got in touch with a lovely young woman, Grace. She came and measured and brought HUNDREDS of samples and as I wanted to inject some colour and as Ozlem had made me some rather nice cushions, I went for red!! This in turn gave me an idea of the colour carpet I wanted to tie it all in. Kilims tend to have traditional patterns, they usually have vibrant colour, but sometimes the pattern just doesn't appeal to me. For a number of weeks now, I have been passing a shop called Villa Home and had noticed some very nice carpets outside. They are all different pieces of Kilims made into patchwork carpet, which means every one is unique. Finally on Wednesday, I bit the bullet and went into the shop. What a treat and what lovely shop owners. He was very knowledgeable about his products and there were piles of different sized carpets. They gave me tea and patiently he unfolded them so I could have a look. I loved them, and although they were a bit more expensive than the average carpet, they were worth paying for as I liked them, the patchwork design gave them a modern twist, and as I mentioned before, each one is unique. I ended up buying 3!

Add the curtains

And it's now looking a lot more homely. The original carpets I bought, have been cleaned (for the princely sum of 30 lire, or £6) and will get re-used in the large bedroom upstairs.

I've been a busy little bee today, I cleaned the grout on the floor tiles in the bathroom with something called Poxy. I had to laugh, but believe me, the results were amazing and with very little elbow grease. I splashed it on, left it for a minute, got a green scourer and basically wiped it off then mopped it. The floor now looks so clean

Anyway, for a treat we went out to dinner tonight, there is a lovely Lokanta that stays open 24 hours in Fethiye near the bus station. The food is amazing and very reasonably priced, there is always a big selection AND they do the biggest chocolate puddings I have ever seen. Thankfully MHTTB doesn't really go for sweet things, so I only had to give him a spoonful. Sadly it was gone before I had a chance to take a photo but I did manage to snap our mains

There is Iskender kebab, Mousakka, rice, mixed salad and yogurt potato, add the chocolate pudding and some tea and 2 bottles of water and it all came to 58 lire or £12ish  if you are English. It's a shame the tourists don't venture in more often, they are missing a treat.