Tales From Pixie Wood

Madonna Or A Bubble Bath Bubble

I'm sitting here cutting out teeny weeny felt tree trunks for a project and thinking about Madonna, as she's just been inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I like Madonna. Not because she burns crosses in her videos or has a penchant for simulating masturbation on stage, or even because she has a much better body than me at nearly fifty years old when I'm only thirty two. I like her because she is still here.

Lets be honest, we all have days when we feel like Madonna - or a Madonna type figure - powerful, brave, ballsy, carefree and then we have others when we feel like a bubble made by the bubble bath we use. Fragile, ready to be popped and never seen again with the most fragile of touches.

We can look around us and it can appear as if everything is perfect - so why do we want to cry?

The room shown in this post is our guest room.

This room has the advantage of almost never being untidy, simply because its used less than the other rooms. I come in to this room and lay on the bed when I'm feeling small. I stare up at the ceiling or look out on to the garden that LBH and I are finally making sense of. I ask myself whether I have too much and perhaps that is why I am feeling like this?   I ask myself if its me, what have I done wrong to have these invasive feelings? Perhaps I get up too early and work until too late and get so tired I sleep standing up? If thats the case then why do I feel as if I am never getting enough done? Perhaps I'm not cut out for this? Blogging, exposing, teaching, publicly crafting, publicising, dreaming, creating, hoping, wanting, writing, searching. Perhaps things need to be quieter, gentler, simpler, less 'big'? There is no time to fit it all in. I can't drink any more coffee and I can't set my alarm any earlier. I just feel small and my bottom lip keeps trembling.

I saw my doctor the other day with regards to my pesky hip, it keeps having spasms, spasms of pain. I like my doctor, she's......hmmmmm, what is she?......level, my doctor is level. I was feeling very discouraged that day because I knew that she was going to suggest physio and my first thought was "I don't have time!!!" We chatted and got on to a conversation about somebody in the press recently. I commented on how if we all were to realise that in fact each one of us were the same we'd be ever such a lot happier. She looked at me and said that she thought that was a truism if ever there was one.

So in effect if I believe what I said then I would be able to take great comfort in knowing that we all have bubble bath bubble days. You may lie on the couch or stare out of the car window. You may lay in the bath or sit at your sewing machine. I lay in our guest room, not for very long mind you, just long enough to .....well, to think.

And then I get up and get on, sometimes feeling a little better and sometimes not at all. I guess that's what I like about Madonna, she gets up and gets on, not always partaking in something I would do personally (although I do love her in a pink leotard) but she gets up and she gets on. Whereas the bubble bath bubble, well thats gone and its not coming back.

Cx

A Draw And A Thought

Ahhhh, that's better! I was getting into a muddle a few days ago and needed to step back, work out what needed to be done first and simply begin. As soon as January arrived I think LBH and I both realised that our wedding was to take place in exactly seven months and we still had heaps to do before then. We counteracted feelings of stress by popping out yesterday and coming home having bought my wedding ring. I wasn't sure whether I'd ever actually find myself skipping down a crowded street again but I did yesterday. LBH made me laugh by saying that he liked that kind of shopping as he got to sit in a chair and have things presented to him. I'll have to take him shopping for diamonds more often!

And of course the babies are now here, oh the babies, my goodness we had no idea that our hearts were capable of such outpouring. My entire family has become a cliche in the truest sense of the word with statements like "are they not THE most perfect children you've ever seen?!?! I'm serious, I have never seen SUCH beautiful babies" falling from our mouths whenever we so much as wipe a bit of vomit from their mouths or smell something 'nutty' coming from their nappy area! I'm saying it loud and I'm saying it proud, I'M AN ADORING AUNTIE AND PROUD.

Anyway, on with the magazine draw. Thank you so very much for entering your names into this draw. I believe that we now have four copies to give away and I'd like to thank Ms. Maxwell, Barbara, Diane (could you email me your email address Diane so that I can send you the address of the person to send the mag to? Thank you sweetie!) and WritersHand.

So I will pick two people from the USA, one Canadian person and one person from Australia using the random number generator.

Cheryl is our Canadian winner.

Poppy is our Australian winner

Jan Fraser from California is an American winner.....

as is Zee from the fabulous Pixie Blossoms, Arizona.

Congratulations ladies and thank you so much to everybody who took the time to enter. I need the four winners to send me their postal addresses and I shall then pass them on to the folks who offered to post out an issue to a winner. All of this will be done in the strictest confidence you understand.

After blogging a little hint of the projects I have been working on in my last post I had some really lovely emails asking me when I would be opening up my shop again. Well, having scrapped a previous collection that I started before Christmas I am only ready to go with these hand embroidered lavender and rose hearts right now as the rest of the collection is still a few weeks away. Although as soon as my shop opens up again, proper, I'll be telling the members of my forum a few days before I post it on the blog as I promised them I would. We now have over three hundred members over there, all chatting away about their adventures, swapping tips, stories and homemaking tales. Hello, ladies!

However, on Tuesday I will be selling these ubiquitous items through this blog so do feel free to pop back and make a purchase if the mood takes you. I have made a finite amount of them so they won't go on forever but I have enjoyed taking my stitching with me on my travels, it lulls me into a sense of wellbeing and for that they hold a rosy place in my heart. Besides which they are entirely seasonal and feature blossom aplenty, so it would be rather unfortunate to still be selling them in August!

See you on Tuesday.

Cherry xoxox

UPDATE
This product has now gone on sale to members of my forum!

An Act That Is Almost But Not Quite Together

I'm not quite sure how I got into this much disarray so early into the year! The two words that run through my mind the most right now are 'oh' & 'crap' as I remember something else that has to be done. So this post is super short. I know we have business to take care of and a magazine draw to do but I also know that if anybody understands a juggling act, you do. We are also smart enough to know that it's not the act of juggling but the attitude towards it. Mine's a bit stinky right now!

Here's a metaphor for ya - instead of freshly laundered bed linen it's all becoming a bit 'slept in'

I KNOW YOU GET THIS! PLEASE TELL ME YOU GET THIS!

Therefore I shall take myself away, FOCUS, sort my bits and bobbles out and arrive back fresh and ready to go again.

Cherry xoxox

*exhale*

The picture in this post is part of my new collection of embroidered pieces. Coming soon.....

If It's There, I'll Decorate It - AKA 'Getting Up To Mischief'

Getting up to mischief is what LBH calls it when I have done something in the house while he is at work. This also translates to mean that he's doesn't necessarily like what I've done but he won't make a fuss about it. If he hates something he simply looks at the 'thing', looks at me and then looks back at the 'thing' - with absolutely no expression. It's amazing how so little expression can convey so much, eh?!?!

This exchange in glances usually makes me burst out laughing, thats if I don't mind un-installing the 'thing' I have done/put up/created/fashioned. If I do like the 'thing' and have no intention of removing the installation I stare back, just as expressionless and then declare that I like it and it's going nowhere.

I then leave the room.

This act is not an act of compromise, as it should be, but merely one of cowardice on my part. I'm not proud of it but the house looks pretty good.

I jest.

Since LBH and I have been living together we have undoubtedly begun to appreciate each others tastes. I would find living with somebody who presented no challenge at all and always agreed with me very frustrating and as attractive as living with a permanent cold sore  or a very hairy plughole. All three are unwelcome in equal measure. So I wonder what he'll think about the salt and pepper receptacles? Ordinarily I would only use scallop shells in this way for use on a summertime table. I simply wouldn't think about revealing them during the Christmas period. But I have these pretty, shiny, red, double berry things that I twisted on to the shells and I think they look pretty in their Scarlett-ness.

It's the hip that's done it - which is well on it's way to being much better and thank you so very much for all of your get well soon messages. Since I have been forced to take the pace down by about one hundred notches over the past six days I been getting creative in teeny weeny ways.

I have made all of my own gift tags, wired up another dozen glass jar lanterns, almost completed two projects for the grand re-opening of my shop early next year and wrapped most of the gifts. All from the comfort of the sofa.

I did have a moment of panic earlier today and it came in the form of my advent calender. I opened the door marked 18.

EIGHTEEN!!!!!!!

IT'S NEARLY ALL OVER!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Did I ever tell you that apparently dislocated hips makes one SUPER DOOPER dramatic?
I didn't?
Well, I didn't believe it myself when they told me either!!!

;-)

   

The Morning Cuppa & The Magazine

I'm not going to come over all bashful about this and pretend that it isn't one heck of a way to spend the first few moments of the day. A complimentary issue of 25 Beautiful Homes landed on my mat and I'm in it!!!

That's me!

We have been given a six page spread which is an enormous amount of coverage in one magazine. This project was tremendous fun and working with both Annabelle (the writer of the piece) and Colin (the photographer) was a delight. LBH and I worked like mad people to get the house in some sort of order and it seemed that we must have done an OK job as our little Victorian cottage made the final cut.

Of course the odd thing is that the house has had two Christmases this year. The one you see in the magazine and the one it's having right now.

Are they different?

YES!!!!

And therein lies the beauty of it. As someone who lives and breathes homemaking and all things of that ilk it's a tremendous privilege to have been able to experiment with different colour schemes, accessories and decorations. People ask me all the time if I'd like to have been a stylist, working for a magazine. My reply is always "Oh I'd love to work as a stylist for a magazine, as long as the magazine is mine"!!

;-)

Have a wonderful weekend and much love from myself and Boo, who at this moment is flat on her back and pretending to be asleep!

Cx

Finally, It Arrives

It's funny how things come to you. I have had little/no inspiration to 'make stuff'  to sell in my shop for months. I didn't know whether I should concentrate on one medium / design or make lots of different things to fill my on-line shop up once again.

I think it had a lot to do with the house and getting it ready for all sorts of things but now that the seas are calmer over at Casa de Menlove I began thinking about what it was I wanted to do with my shop. I thought and I thought and I thought.

Nothing, nada, zilch!

Then I stuck my ipod on. It was a line from a Kate Bush song that clicked the light on over my head and got the juices flowing once more. This one line summed up what it was that I wanted to convey/portray with some of the items I make. I am paying homage to Kate over at L'Influence at the moment.

She's somebody I would be terrified of meeting. I'd much prefer to meet Madonna or Mrs Thatcher than Kate Bush and I certainly wouldn't be as nervous meeting them. It's not because I think that Kate is anything but perfect but I just know that I'd be a wreck and say something ridiculous like "Can I just tell you that I love you and your hair and your songs and your eyes and your voice and your dancing and your videos and and and..........

You get the picture!

I worked in a restaurant once and this particular restaurant had the privilege of playing host to film stars after they had been to the premier of their latest movie. We had Tom Hanks in one night and it was my job to serve him. I took a dish over and as I placed it down he said "now what might this be?"

"er this"....I replied "is our crunchy coconut shrimp"

Now, you have to bear in mind that this was just after the film Forrest Gump had come out and he, as Forrest, had a friend, Bubba, who did nothing but talk about shrimp. To say that Mr Hanks gave me a 'funny' look is an understatement. I made a hasty retreat and spent the rest of the evening trying to resist the urge to throw myself on to the grill.

Anyway, I'm spending the rest of this year and the start of next getting my new collections of odds and ends together. I know that they will most probably be one off, bespoke pieces that take some time to make and I also know that the price of the items will reflect this. I'm looking forward to a fresh start for my shop and have some designs for the website floating around my head.

For now it's off to bed. It's a rainy, cold November night, LBH is yet to arrive home and it's pushing nine pm. There's a big bed that needs warming and it's only Boo and I that can do it.

"Boo, there's some warming that needs doing!!"

Cx

I Am Soooo Blooming Excited By This!

I am flabbergasted, overwhelmed, agog, soooo happy & have the warm fuzzies which are gigantic in their size!

I am talking about the little darling that is becoming my forum. I really had NO idea that folk would be this prepared to sign up and start chatting with each other. I thought that perhaps one or even two folk may dribble through now and again but people are already starting threads of their own and chatting back and forth. I am so, so happy about this. It warms my heart because it is about community and nothing else.

We all know how we can be fooled by folk that we meet online but we are also in possession of the knowledge that WONDERFUL friends can be made online and you may never even meet them. Although I have met some wonderful bloggers and each time my expectations have been exceeded, it still takes a certain amount of courage (or narcissism, take your pick) to put your thoughts and feelings out there and onto a blog. But seeing as there are so  many of us blogging away now I hardly think we are anything other than normal!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the people who have already signed up. Right now we are discussing Christmas and decorating for the season as well as the businesses we may run or hope to run and there are already some wonderful craft ideas coming through.

So, if you feel like joining in, having a browse or asking a question then please feel free to pop on over. You're all more than welcome!

http://cherrymenloveforum.forumotion.com/

Try clicking on the picture at the top of the post or the link just above and it will take you through to the right place.

For those of you that missed it, I am updating my website www.cherrymenlove.com every time I post something on one of the blogs or a lively new topic has begun in the forum or if I have some news about me personally. So, from now on the best place to look for any news or postings will be www.cherrymenlove.com

I'm keeping this blog, Pixie Wood, what it always has been, a personal note from me. I very much enjoy coming here and pouring out my thoughts or rants onto the keyboard and I never really want to lose that. But I did need somewhere clean and fresh to post all things business, fun and newsy, hence the new website. So if you pop back here from time to time and there has been no update you can bet that there has been more than enough going on elsewhere & www.cherrymenlove.com will be able to give you all the news!!

All my projects will be over there , as well as my new shop (soon), and if you are at all familiar with Facebook (join me on there too if you'd like to) then you'll understand the sense in having one place which broadcasts exactly whats going on and how to read more about it.

Big hugs, sloppy kisses and heartfelt thanks!

Cherry xx

Open for Business

After sitting at this computer for more hours that I would care to remember I have finally finished my new website. Pop on over and have a little look......... www.cherrymenlove.com

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

I told you it was dark! Look out there, you can't see a thing and it was approaching 7am when I took this picture. After taking these few photos I started to make the coffee, then saw LBH off at the front door and then I went back upstairs to my desk. It is now 15.44, as I type this, and apart from a five minute dash to buy a paper, I have been at this desk since the photo above was taken. I am terrifically bored by all the uploading, downloading, arranging, re-arranging and general administration that a website overhaul entails but it is also a good days work. I'm taking a sneaky break to write this post, but keep that under your hat.

The lampshade shown is one that I re-covered myself in a matter of moments one evening and I'm going to add that to the 'Projects' part of my new site. But right now I'm working on the FAQ's part and to tell the truth it's actually proving to be rather troublesome. I have lots of emails saved that have questions for me within them but they all seem to be specific to a certain time or subject. If you feel like helping me out with a few more general questions that you'd like an answer to then you absolutely must feel free to leave them as a comment on this post or send them to me in an email to cherry (at) cherrymenlove.com

I'd like to feel bad about asking for your help in this way but my boredom is such that I am significantly beyond remorse. GET ME AWAY FROM THIS MACHINE!!!!!

I'd like to do the round up of Mrs Dalloway THIS FRIDAY - 12th October. I'll then keep the post up all over the weekend for people to join in whenever they can. I am really looking forward to all the thoughts you have. If you have sent some through to me already via email, and there have been a few, please do remember to post them on the blog when the post goes up on Friday or nobody will get to see what you thought of Ms. Woolf's classic.

I'd also like to take this opp to tell you that I have decided to make some Christmas decorations this year that will need jam jars, the inside of toilet rolls, washing machine liquid balls, fabric & buttons to be collected in order to complete. The weekends in November & December are already booked up for LBH and I so I am only going to focus on three projects. If you'd like to join me then start collecting them now and we'll be good to get going in late November/ early December. I promise not to get all Blue Peter on you but these items do come in handy.

Mmmmmmm....well I seem to have finished my cup of tea, perhaps my break is over. Blast.

*sigh*

OK, OK, I'm going back to it.

I'll leave you with one last thing....
You'll recall how, in the last post, I spoke of my distaste when it came to slippers and the wearing of them? How I said as recently as 2003 that I should never been seen wearing them. You'd think, by the sound of my protestation, that I had never in fact worn a pair of slippers in my entire life. You'd be wrong. This is the message that popped up in my in-box yesterday afternoon......

"Cherry, what about the sandy coloured  M & S slippers with the bear on the front circa 1998? Mine only got chucked out in the past few years, I had them in the back of the wardrobe for old times sake. Whenever I get a new pair I think of the winter nights watching telly with your family, you, Jodie and me in the same slippers."

Moral of the story?

True friends will never let you get away with much. Especially the ones from Buxton, Derbyshire!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cx

   

Well........

....there's just time to stop by and tell you that right now I'm at this sort of stage in the 'getting the house ready for the magazine shoot' proceedings........

I look at this pile and think " but you haven't even cleaned the bathroom yet...PRIORITISE MENLOVE!!!!!"

So that's where the butter dish got to!

Okay, who put the wreath in the fridge?!?!?!?!?!?!

Anyway, that's what it's like around here right now. Organised chaos. Moments of tension occur but only when I run up the stairs, trip on the top step and land ribcage first into the walnut set of draws at the top. I lost an entire day doing that! I haven't run that fast up the steps since, let me tell you. Or when my alarm went off one morning and it was SO early and I was SO not allowed to wake LBH up that I hit my head SO hard on the corner of my nightstand that the blood made my hand wet in the dark. LBH got up after that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a short post as we are now entering the evening and there is still a lot to do. I should tell you that it was a conscious decision of mine to turn the comments off. For no particular reason at first except for an inkling that it may provide me with a wondrous sense of freedom. I was right. I have also been lucky enough to receive some wonderful, heartfelt emails from some of you this week and I have even managed to respond to several of them and that fills me with peace. I'm a doer, I like to get things done.

I will of course open them back up when we do the round up on Mrs Dalloway but I need the freedom to potter about the house and then tell you all about it. If you feel like getting in touch after that I would love to hear from you.

I had a meeting this week with the team of people that I work with on all things great and good. I love and adore meetings, this may change down the years, but right now I love them. Many things were discussed and plans were talked about. It's an exciting time with hard work down the road and changes too. There was a time I didn't like change, I liked to keep everything just the way it was. But if remember my own personal mantra, to not be afraid of anything and to always be kind, then change can only ever be positive.

A 'Good Thing' you might say!

;-)

KIDDING!!!!
I'm kidding I promise!!

Lots of love
Cx

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or thoughts at cherry (at) cherrymenlove dot com
I love to hear from you.