Tales From Pixie Wood

Two Tiny Babies , Two Fat Ladies ......Oh, and One Magazine Article

It always feels a little odd after having posted a personal blog. You never quite know if you've done the right thing, but the emails that have popped into my inbox over the last few days convinced me that it was all OK and I shall finish responding to them over the next two days. I had my most recent epiphany on Friday just before lunch and a true weight was lifted from my shoulders. Its now up to me to remember the decisions I made at that time.

Hanging out with the girls and taking all sorts of smiley and bath-time pictures helps. LBH had whizzed off for the night on Saturday as there was some sort of 'boy celebration' to be had. I wasted no time at all in offering to help Jo-Jo with the monkey-doodles for the night. Daisy is up there, smiling away, goodness she's gorgeous!! So full of character and thoughts and REALLY tight hugs. Jo-Jo calls her a tree frog and the minute she gripped on to my own arm and buried her head in the crook of my neck I knew exactly what she was talking about.

This is the rather wonderful Truly. I'd just bathed her and was taking her in to salt and pepper her - family speak for dust her with baby powder before dressing her for bedtime. She follows you around the room with her twinkly eyes and long lashes and when you catch her looking at you and exclaim "Truly, what are doing , you little monkey you!!!!" before diving in with kisses she smiles like its the only thing she can do.

Children are a great leveller and babies, in particular, show me personally the futility of living too far in the future and not enough in the present. Thank you girls, I'll explain it all to you one day.

So, LBH and I find ourselves with a new pace. An ambling , earnest plod is trying to replace the frenetic, wired, 18 hour days. LBH is currently reading the Sunday paper while I'm watching a double bill of Two Fat Ladies on the food channel. If you have never seen anything of these two women I urge you to buy the DVD or find a re-run being shown somewhere. They present Great Britain and its food in the most gloriously seasonal and calorific way. Clarissa and Jennifer rock my world and make me chuckle from beneath my blanket on a very cold day in March. Is anybody else a fan of this much missed pair (although I know that Clarissa published her memoirs only last year under the titile Spilling the Beans)? I'd love to know as they've reminded me that I haven't posted any foodie recipes since transfering my food blog over here.

Over the last few weeks I've been slowly uploading my photographs to Flickr. I've got a flickr badge on this blog, you can click on it and go through to my album. I've also scanned and uploaded my first ever magazine article. If you're at all interested in taking a look I have added a new button to my home page and the article can be found there.

Have a great week guys and don't forget to let me know what you think of those two fat lady cooks!

Cxoxo

Mis-Matched Fun On Mothering Sunday

Yesterday was Mothering Sunday in the U.K. and so LBH and I invited everybody over to ours for a spot of lunch. We were going to be having ten of us around the table at two pm and when there are that many of us the table comes into its own mis-matched glory.

I have been collecting odd bits of crockery for years now. I often see one lonesome plate or a group of saucers which when put together with the rest of my collection seem to sit rather well. It would be nice to think that someday we'll be setting the table with Villeroy & Boch, but if that never happens I'm more than happy with my odd bits of Royal Doulton and Spode.

There is a plate in my mis-matched collection which is important to me and sits there so beautifully that if anything ever happened to it I'd be devastated. You can see it in the picture above. The creamy, pale blue trim of the plate, edged by the daintiest gold pattern you ever did see. It almost seems a shame to place anything resembling food onto the pretty flowers in the middle but I think Ms.Plate would prefer to be used than sitting on the top shelf and watching the proceedings from afar. This particular piece was sent to me by the lovely Susan of the NotQuiteJuneCleaver blog. It's taken me ages to post about it but I was excited about how the gift she sent me looked on this special day, although I can't quite remember which mother ate from the plate yesterday.

I was thrifting on Friday in my local town (I love it when you haven't been for a while and the stores are full to the brim of thrifty treats once again) and I came across this little fruit bike. Its wheels spin with ease and the fruit compartments can be lifted out and filled with miniatures. I left this on the table yesterday as I liked how it looked. There are NO RULES when it comes to entertaining if it looks good and makes nobody feel uncomfortable. My little bike was a reminder that Spring is well and truly on its way and before we know it the table will be filled with glorious sun fruits. Cherry pie, tropical fruit salad and blueberries for breakfast will be back. You can also see a small piece of green glass in the background of this picture. My mother passed that on to me just the other week and earlier in the day I had a tea light sitting in it. Until LBH said he needed a receptacle for the garnish he had made for lunch and the tea light was duly blown out and the green glass became a holder for lemon rind, rosemary and garlic.

I even managed to sneak in a Christmas plate yesterday, which is something I may not do every day but we had so many bodies in the house that every plate was needed. It was a lovely afternoon and I am struggling to believe that we are already in the third day of March. We have less than five months before we get married and there is still a fair amount to do .......Eeeeeekk! But its all OK, I think that the excitement of actually being married is far outweighing any stress that some little thing going wrong could bring, at least thats the way I'm feeling right now. Its also busy over here at Pixie Wood which is a great way to alleviate any stressful wedding thoughts.

I'm signing off now as I have a list to crack on with but I should take this time to mention two glaring points that I failed to explain before the start of the weekend.

The first is that in this post  I described the container for my Easter tree as a bed pan, when it is clearly a chamber pot. My cousin was good enough to point this out, which I'm glad she did as I had a feeling that I had got something a little wrong on that particular post and this was exactly it.

The other is that on Friday, just gone, I was meant to be telling you about a project/blog event which Yvonne and I are hosting. Having spoken on the phone last week we decided to put it back until this Wednesday as there were some bits and pieces we wanted to iron out and with both of us being a touch hectic we needed more time. I really hope you'll stop by on Wednesday and see what we're getting up to as it would be great to have you all join in.

Have a wonderful start to the week and if you have any mis-matched china collections yourself then let me know and perhaps it would be a good idea to start a Flickr group??

Cherry xoxoxo

He Seemed To Know What Was Needed & That Was To Follow The Sun

Good lord, what a week last week was. It was FANBLOODYTASTIC on many levels but I ended it by eating a bowl of pasta on the sofa and falling asleep at about 8.15pm on Friday night without ever really feeling the benefit of the fire that LBH had made in the hearth. Although I did wake up SUPER HOT and rather red of face before taking myself off to bed at around 10pm so I suppose I got something from it.

Last week was a week of meetings and tests. I'm very lucky to be building relationships with people in the television industry and find that they are as passionate and as practical as I am. I think that sometimes the industry can be given bad press as a place of insincerity but as long as you're not unrealistic I think that its possible to  forge working relationships with folk from every (within reason) industry and there is a lot to be excited about no matter what happens.

I also took my driving test - and passed.

I had been driving around for AGES, years in fact, but I always had to have someone in the car with me. This was never really a problem when I lived in London and had public transport of all types on my doorstep but now we're out in the sticks its a touch more problematic. I also want and NEED to see those babies whenever I can so it suddenly became important to pass my test.

I gave up fear in 2007 and taking this blasted test was one of the last bastions of fear that still intruded upon my life. No longer. It's over, passed. My first solo flight was over to Jo-Jo's to see the girls and now I'm free as a bird. Of course this DOES NOT mean that I shall be throwing carbon into the air willy nilly and will continue my love of WALKING into town but it does help, it really does.

So, getting back to the point of this post, after a week that was pretty taxing on my mind if not my body LBH did what he does best. He knew what was needed, when it was needed and made sure that it happened. On Saturday morning this happened to be a walk in the countryside near to our town and in temperatures of approximately zero.

As we walked we watched the sun rise higher and higher until it met us, head on as we turned down a path which lead back to the car.......

....and in passing took us by a field that implored me to yell "Oh England, my England"!!!!!

Although I didn't as LBH spotted some bunnies just in time and my mind was distracted by the site of their little white fluffy bottoms hopping across the landscape.

I'm not sure whether it was the freezing temperatures or the surroundings but this early walk worked. It jolted my brain back into gear from meetings and projects and dreams of the future to what was needed from me right now. This was companionship for LBH, dedication to my business and my home and to the other work that I do.

I don't want to sound glib when I say that I gave up fear in 2007 as I know, deep in my soul, how debilitating fear of all sorts of things can be. But the fear of what may or may not happen was taking up more time than dealing with the things that actually were happening. Its not that I don't care about the future its just that I know that no matter what does happen, eventually, it will all be OK. Those truffles in my pockets appear to be doing a good job!

Cx

Permission

I promise that I'll go back to 'making house' posts soon but I really wanted to post a picture of the girls. Thank you to all of you who have sent me private messages asking to see a pic, I'm soooo relieved that I now get to show you the object of my affection......and this time with full permission!!

Daisy is behind and Truly is in front. Darling girls....and darling readers for indulging this hyperactive new auntie.

Cx

A Little Night Magic

I will start todays post by saying that I found the comments left on the last post utterly hilarious and they made me feel very privileged to have the sort of readers that I do. I didn't smear 'horrid damp man' with the butter-cream as I prefer to only ever heap that sort of foodstuff onto LBH, and then only when he's been particularly well behaved, but we did look elsewhere for a quote and may have found a super local company to carry out the work, which pleases me greatly.

On Friday night I offered to do a night shift for my sister in order that she and her radio presenter hubby (you'll notice that the answers he gives to the interview questions reveal a dry wit which, more often than not, has livened up a family gathering no end!) a full night of uninterrupted sleep.

And so it was, after Mummy and Daddy had gone to bed, I was alone with the girls and entering the night single handedly. We had moved the two cribs into my room and placed one at the end of the bed and the other at the side of the bed. Both girls were changed, I had just completed the eleven p.m. feed and had successfully burped them both. Now all we needed to do was to go to sleep. Hmmmmm!

It wasn't that they were even crying but they were both a little grizzly. I was so determined that neither Mummy nor Daddy were going to have to come in to see if all was OK that I knew I had to come up with a solution to the grizzles. I stroked their heads, picture me at this point with both arms stretched out over each cot for about five seconds until they ached so much I had to put them down. Then I gave them a dummy each. Of course it didn't take long before both of them realised that A: it didn't contain milk and B: it could easily be spat out.

What was I to do?

I looked at them both, my little nieces, both so different and yet so perfect, and I knew that there was only one thing for it. They were both coming in with me. Now, I have heard the horrific tales of poor, exhausted parents who end up falling asleep with their baby in their arms and then rolling on top of the child in their sleep. This was simply not going to happen so I made a little pen out of the pillows on the bed and swaddled them up the way Gina Ford says to. I lay them width ways across the middle of the bed, not realising that I would not be able to get in to the bed or lay out straight until seven thirty the next morning, and gently rested my arm over both of them.

That was all it took.

I'm not being smug and I don't think that this would work every time but at that moment being there on the bed with another person very close to them both was what they needed in order to go off to sleep. All three of us, me with my sisters old dressing gown covering my fully clothed body, lay there and slept. I had set the alarm for the four a.m. feed and duly got up and carried it out. Then, once again after going through the same feeding, burping, stroking ritual we all went back to sleep again until Mummy came in, bright as a button, at around seven am.

Night time can be terribly lonely when you lay there unable to sleep. I awoke a few times that night and certainly didn't sleep deeply. I wanted to know that they were both OK in my care. I wanted to hear them both breathing through their tiny nostrils. I wanted to see both chests rising and falling in their blankets and have both sets of hands squeeze my index finger as I put it in their tiny grips. Once I had done my checks I could doze once more.

That night was wonderful, unlike any I have ever known. For the first time I was in charge of a life, two lives, and we got through it. They were OK at the end of it.

Of course at some point I had to leave them. I have my own house and I have a beautiful man that I was missing. But the wrench was something unexpected. I sit here today with the fabric you see bookending this post thinking of nothing but those girls. Those beautiful human beings. Still hearing their breath in my ear in the dead of night and their little bodies gulping down milk at four a.m. little night music that only I heard. I work with the fabric creating bits and pieces to sell in my shop and those thoughts keep me going.....until the next time I get to hold them.

 

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.....

Jumping, A Little Too High, For Joy & Producing A Giveaway

I'm trying to work out what it was that I was thinking when I decided to blog about the birth of the twins without the new parents permission!! The post was up for but a few moments but it simply wasn't the right thing to do. I'll get to share pictures with you soon, I'm sure, but I really should have waited a touch longer.

I put it down to sheer excitement and the fact that Truly - five pounds, eleven ounces and Daisy - six pounds, one ounce are the most beautiful little darlings this side of heaven. If you had nieces that cute your senses would leave you also, of that I am sure.

By way of a distraction and to keep me out of trouble until I am able to see the twins face to face I am organising a giveaway. The divine Ms. Maxwell of the lovely blog Miss Vandroo emailed me over the Christmas holidays to say that she had bought two copies of the recent issue of 25 Beautiful Homes with my article in it. She went on to make the wonderfully generous offer of giving one of the issues away to an American reader who has been unable to get a copy of the magazine in the States.

I said that I would love to take this kind offer of hers up and would blog about it forthwith.

I'm not going to make it hard or ask you a question or anything like that, but simply offer the magazine to a reader in the simple way that it was intended by Ms. Maxwell to be offered. If you would like the issue please feel free to leave a comment saying just that. If more than one person wants it I'll have a go at the 'random number generator' thingy and make sure that the winner is chosen fairly. I'll email you, asking you for your postal address and then pass it on to MM.

I should point out that this draw is only open to those who live in the USA.

Have a wonderful start to the year and may all dreams come true. My sister's have.......Eeeeeek!

Lots of love from me to you
Cherry (Aunty, if you please) xoxox

I'll Be Home For Christmas

LBH's mum arrives today. This means that Christmas has REALLY started as she is with us for the duration. She will arrive bearing gifts of venison and beef as well as practical items such as spare quilts and carpet shampoo.

This is her room. The guest room. This room has been the most well behaved room in the house lately. Why? Because it has sat there, without complaint and kept itself in shape and tidy. This means that apart from a little plumping and sprucing I have had to do nothing except close the door behind me and wait for our guest.

The cushions are fat and the tissue box replenished. I keep a postcard sized print of my favourite artist in the whole world, John Currin, by the bed and of course there is a candle. We light candles a lot in this house around this time of year and I want any person who stays here to feel free to do the same. How many of us have read by candlelight lately and gone to sleep having puffed it out and buried down into the bed?

On the other side of the bed is a more traditional 'lamp'. It was slightly dull and a little grubby so I re-covered the shade in some odd bits of fabric and added a button trim. Hand-cream is a must and I always have two or three on the go in the drawer of my nightstand, our guest gets Penhaligon's. The rose scent lasts all day and fills the room.

Look at the books. Ahhhhh, Susan Branch. Who would have thought? I have been given so much, including friendship, Rachel and more inspiration than I can shake a stick at.

Let me take a moment while I pop off to the guest room and have yet another flick through the treasures...............................................................................................................................................................

.........I'm back. Inspired and ready to continue.

I picked up a grand total of SEVENTEEN Beatrix Potter books in the thrift store just this week. They cost me thirty pence each and although there are not the classic square, white versions I am in love with the colourful spines they sport. The stories are the same, as are the pictures and I think that every home should have a little BP in it, for cosy englishness if nothing else.

This is the view that any guest will wake up to if they open the curtains in the morning and then retire back to bed. Frost. It's the closest we shall get to snow I believe and I like it. It adds a white shimmer to everything and is so fitting. It disappears as we head towards lunchtime but if the weather report on the radio is anything to go by we are headed for a cold snap.

The part of the garden that you see in the picture above is our 2008 project. I can't wait to plan, clear, dig and sew and then entertain!

Supper, al fresco by hand painted lantern light. Thats the recipe for next year. Let me at it, let me at it!

If you are reading this I'd like to wish you a wonderful day. These next few days are my absolute favourite days of the entire year. I shall potter, shop, hobble a little, tweak, hobble some more, cook, bake, wrap, sing, eat and be merry. It's not always been like this. My goodness, I spent five Christmases on the trot single, lonely in a crowd,  in between boyfriends, dating a loser or in the midst of a break up with no home of my own and only my precious family and a dream of cosiness to rely on.  I remember those years too acutely to take even one mince pie for granted.

Merry Christmas

Lots of Love
Cherry xoxoxo

Beautiful Girls - Jo-Jo's Surprise Baby Shower in Pictures

We all gathered at my parents house for Jodie's surprise baby shower this past weekend. She was arriving under the pretence of being taken out for some supper. The house was lit with candles and the fire was burning. The people that Jodie loved were there waiting for her, and her bump, to arrive.

Jodie may be preggers but that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't enjoy a tipple.....as I would later learn to my peril!

As the guests arrived they placed baked goods and nibbles onto the table for us all to enjoy...and soon enough we got the news that Jodie had arrived.

"Oh my gooosshhh", were the three words that were uttered the most upon her arrival followed in quick succession by 'pregnant lady' tears. Which doesn't explain why the rest of us also began to well up!

She was hugged and loved and made a fuss of.

There was laughter and gifts and stories and frivolity.

We recorded the night for our own memories sake and relished in the company of the 'girls'.

The baby girls that my sister is holding in her tummy are the first grandchildren and the first nieces. They make my parents grandparents and my brother, LBH and I uncle's and an auntie respectively. They are already loved and will continue to be so despite the fact that Jodie has said that if she could pull them out herself she would, such is the discomfort in these late stages.

It's a wonderful thing to have children enter a family for the first time and I'm grateful to Jo-Jo deciding to go first, as I can see first hand how hard it can be at times. But, they'll be here soon and the back pain will be forgotten.

What won't be forgotten is a small gathering of people last Saturday night.

Thank you girls, you're the best!

Cx 

Humbled By You, A Lemon And A Lime

I can't tell you what a humbling experience it was to receive your comments to my last blog post and subsequent emails expanding on your thoughts. I am humbled and in awe of the kindness and generosity that people have shown in the last few days and I only hope that I can repay it, in some way, one day.

Thank you, thank you so very much.

Something else that is rather humbling, as well as awe inspiring, is finding out that your younger sister is pregnant. LBH and I have known for a while now but I have been unable to tell anyone until the scan has shown that all is well.

Jodie and her hubby Garry went off to have to have the scan on Monday and discovered these little monkeys...........

Twin One.

Twin Two.

Apparently they are as big as a lemon or a lime right now. And Jo-Jo finally knows why she has been feeling THIS tired!

Congratulations to you both. We cannot wait to see them.

Jodie darling, you're going to make a great mummy and I'm looking forward to taking our broods to Pony Club! Hee hee!

Garry, not only are you a superstar DJ but you also appear to be a bit of a stallion! Grrrrrr!

All our love to you all.

Cherry & LBH