London fun for Half Term

Thanks for taking the time to check in on my blog, in what is another incredibly heavy time. It’s hard to know what to say when the world, yet again, feels out of control. I simply hope you are all well and taking care of yourselves and those of you who have family in the Ukraine, you have all of my support and love.

Half term

I have been pleased to be at home for most of this week, as it was half term for us, so I have been able to spend lots of quality time with the girls, and Fred of course! We decided to head to London for the day as Tilda has been begging to go to the Lego store for weeks. So, we planned a day to include that but to also be tourists for the day and head to The Tower of London.

I haven’t been here since I was a kid! It was the most beautiful day in London, the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was buzzing. Really buzzing. I know not everyone is ready for busy cities yet, but I have to admit it made my heart sing. We got to the Tower at 11am and walked straight in without any queues as we had already pre bought our tickets. We wondered around the incredible grounds and investigated tower after tower and read stories of Kings, Queens and prisoners. We saw armour belonging to all the Kings and their horses. Henry VIII is quite a spectacle!

My favourite bit by far was The Crown Jewels, this was the only time that we queued but it was only for about 15 minutes. The gold is the first thing that you see and it’s fairly mind-blowing. Huge cabinet displays of chalices, dishes, jugs. There is a solid gold punch bowl that you could bath a child in! It’s enormous, the ladle that goes with it would need two hands to lift and scoop.

One of my favourite items was ‘The Jewelled Sword of Offering’ which had a handle encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. You weren’t allowed to take pictures in here, but you can look it up. The Crown Jewels themselves really are breath-taking. They have cleverly added moving walkways to this part so that people are always moving along so everyone gets a clear view and doesn’t hog the windows.

There are 7 sovereign crowns to see and 6 consort plus sceptres and orbs. I’ve obviously seen pictures and saw them as a child but I had forgotten the size of the jewels on the crowns. Some of the diamonds where the size of satsumas!!! Bigger than I ever really realised. When we came out of here the queue had grown massively so it’s worth heading straight to here as soon as possible when you arrive before they get too long.

After the Tower we headed to the Lego shop so Tilda wouldn’t self-combust by waiting any longer, more queues here by the way just to get in the shop! Once in, we let them both get custom-designed Lego characters with their names on, which as you can imagine is a major treat for a Lego fan.

Thankfully it’s not expensive! After that, we went for lunch at Bubba Gump, which is themed around the movie Forest Gump. Big baskets of fried shrimp and movie paraphernalia all around. As busy and buzzy as you would expect but we had booked which is definitely a must in London. Don’t ever leave it to chance to get a table as you will waste lots of time waiting or traipsing from one place to another.

On our way home some friends had recommended we make a pit-stop en route back to Waterloo to go and see the Leake street arches which is a really cool cut through under the station. It’s where graffiti artists can legally create their art and it’s incredible. Back in 2008 Banksy held an event here and it became an approved place for street artists to come and work.

It’s always changing because once someone has ‘tagged’ over a design, the next artist is free to start again and paint over it. The girls thought it was super cool and Ivy even said ‘wow you could dance down here’!!! She was perhaps just a little bit too at home here. I had flash forward visions of her partying the night away down here at club events. I have created a video over on my Instagram if you want to see more by clicking here.

By the way, that’s my Helene Berman coat that I am wearing in the pictures. It’s by far one of the best things I have ever ordered from QVC. I wear it most days.

What’s coming to QVC – Today’s Special Value – Wagner Paint Sprayer with extender and masking kit

I am feeling incredibly cross with myself after having been asked to try out the Wagner Paint Sprayer. As many of you know I have been doing a lot of painting and decorating since we moved into our new house. Why am I cross?! Because I spent hours, HOURS hand painting nearly every room in our house. HOURS!!!!!! I could have done it in less than half the time if I had had the sprayer. Probably a quarter of the time, and I would have used less paint and had a better finish.

Well, you live and learn and from now on, this is the only way I will re-decorate in future. I did however, get to use it for my garage door make-over. I did our front door recently and I have been desperate to get the garage done to match. Obviously I had to wait for the crazy weather to move on. I got my opportunity this week though.

I had a chat with Thomas from Wagner who gave me some good tips on how to use it. Tips included putting the tins of paint into a bowl of warm water so that the paint would spray even more smoothly. Also, practise spraying onto a cardboard box to make sure I was happy with the flow and direction of the spray.

First step was to wash down the garage door and let it dry. I then used the masking kit to tape up around the door and the ground so not to spray anything else. I warmed the metal primer paint first and practised on a box as Thomas suggested and got to it. I was done in about 10 minutes!!!! I honestly thought I would have to do two coats of primer, as I did on my front door, but this sprayed so well and evenly, I didn’t need to.

I left that for an hour or so as it was a quick-dry primer and then I went to do my final colour. It went on like a dream! Again, it was so quick to do and so satisfying. I did make one mistake though. I should have removed the masking sheets and replaced them in between colours because the primer had got onto the sheets and dried and then flakes of that came off and stuck to my top colour!! I had to do a second coat anyway though so I re-masked and took off any flakes that I could and then when I did the top coat the next day it covered any left-over flakes. So that’s my top tip as a result of a rookie mistake.

In between colours, or as soon as you are done, you simply pour out any left-over paint from the reservoir back into the tin and wash it out. You then fill it with clean water and spray it through the sprayer to clean it through so you can use it again and not gunge up the sprayer. Spray into a drain or onto a cardboard box.

If you are considering doing any decorating at all then I can’t recommend this enough. I just wish I had had it sooner. What do you think of my end result?

This Today’s Special Value launches on Friday 4th March at 9pm and all-day Saturday while stocks last.

Some sad news

As I was writing this blog the news came in that one of our most glamorous and sparkling members of our QVC family has passed away. Tova Borgnine has sadly passed away. She was an incredible woman who lived an exciting and interesting life. I loved doing shows with her as you never knew where one of her stories might lead. She left me wide-eyed and speechless a few times, that’s for sure! She was much loved by us all and will be missed. If you get the chance, do listen to her Inside QVC podcast interview with Will Gowing and hear all her colourful stories. May she rest in peace.

I do hope you are doing ok, and I will be back soon with another blog.

Lots of love

Katy