CHERYL GIBBS: Decorating (badly) and Christmas do not mix

I remember a couple of years ago my sister Michelle got herself into a state because she was undergoing work in the house which involved knocking walls down and redecorating pretty much her whole home.
If you're going to do a job, do it properly... and not just before ChristmasIf you're going to do a job, do it properly... and not just before Christmas
If you're going to do a job, do it properly... and not just before Christmas

When did she decide to do this? About this time two years ago, so just before Christmas and I remember thinking – no, saying to her – how mad she was to consider doing any work in the house just before Christmas.

But nonetheless she pressed on and her place at Stamshaw now looks beautiful.

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Fast forward two years and I’ve put Matt and me in much the same position. Admittedly, no walls have come down, but last Saturday, completely on a whim, I decided to start painting our kitchen.

Instead of going Christmas shopping like the rest of the south, or doing something festive, I grabbed a pot of paint and some brushes and just started work redecorating our kitchen.

I don’t really know what gave me the motivation, but I started looking around at the tired magnolia walls and felt that just before Christmas it could do with some sprucing up.

The slight snag with this plan was that I’m not very good at the prep side of decorating. I am one of those people who just like to, you know, do something.

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I’m not great with the small details, however I did put some newspaper down, masked the sides and things I didn’t want to paint and I thought that was good enough.

Not according to my husband who returned home and walked into the kitchen with such a look of horror on his face I wondered what had happened.

The horror – according to him – was my lack of prep and planning.

I didn’t think about the fact that using a roller to apply the paint would cause a back spray of white paint to cover everything including our rather nice wooden floors.

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I try very hard to manage Matt’s OCD by being over-cautious and what I thought was helpful – hence the newspaper and masking tape efforts.

But you’ve never seen anyone move so fast in your life. Within minutes he had sponges and cloths out plus various disinfectants and was on all fours scrubbing off the paint. He took it pretty well.

Lesson learnt here guys. Do not attempt DIY two weeks before Christmas.

ARE THEY PREGNANT? KHLOE AND KYLIE KEEP MUM

Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are both apparently pregnant. The two famous sisters from US reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians have been keeping a very low profile of late and despite their constant social media presence have been very careful not to post many photos that might reveal their swelling stomachs.

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I for one am very pleased for Khloe especially as she’s wanted children for quite a while and has gone through a very public separation from her husband, basketball player Lemar Odom. So the fact she has moved on and is starting a family with someone else is great news.

There’s a teaser trailer for the latest episode of KUWTK which appears to show Khloe revealing the news!

I DOFF MY HAT TO TOFF – A DESERVED WINNER

Were you one of the nine million people who voted for Toff to win this year’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here? No? Me neither, but I did tune in to watch her victory.

I knew she’d win – damn it I should have put a bet on!

Good for her. When she first entered the show I was one of many who probably put her down as a wannabe looking to raise her profile from reality show star to something more, and to be fair that’s probably exactly why she went for it.

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But we forget sometimes when we cast judgment that she’s just a human being like the rest of us.

She was a deserved winner and I was thrilled when she was crowned Queen of the Jungle.

No doubt we’ll see her next year presenting the spin-off show which seems to happen to almost all contestants who go on the programme!

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