Tales From Pixie Wood

A Whole World Of Before & Afters

I started one of our most risky make-over projects yesterday. We had ummmmed and ahhhhed over doing this since we moved in but really wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing so have waited this long (ten months) before taking the plunge. I shall do a reveal/show & tell as soon as its all finished but starting on this project did get me thinking about all of the changes which have taken place in the house since we moved in.

The front of the house....

The Living Room......

And, the guest bedroom.....

to use three examples.

I have uploaded a huge amount of before and after pictures to my flickr account and created a set called Our House - Before & After which can be found in its entirety here!

I'm becoming rather obsessed with my little flickr account. I am very late, as usual, in realising just how useful it is to have your pictures uploaded, tagged and stored somewhere. I opened a flickr account about two years ago but sort of forgot about it and then I completely forgot what my user name and password were so I had to start over, and this is what you see here!

I'm often pretty slow on the uptake when it comes to something useful, wonderful, life changing or just hilarious. Case in point - The Mighty Boosh. I love them and recorded an entire 'Boosh-a-thon' over the Easter weekend which I then watched back on Sky-Plus. I'm only three seasons late. LBH thinks I love them, like REALLY loves them, and said as much yesterday.

LBH - Do you love them? I think you love them. This is ridiculous, you've watched a million episodes one after the other. You love them don't you?

Me - Don't be silly. Now pop off and fix me a hot supper, another episode is just starting!

I jest......he had offered to make the supper anyway, but its embarrassing to always be late on the hot tips. I remember a time when it was me with my finger on the pulse. My best friend and bridesmaid Jackie and I would be the ones bopping along to the latest disco funk in the closeted clubs of Shoreditch and would find our entire wardrobes within the hallowed lanes of Brick Lane market. Nothing was too dated and if we looked liked an extra from Pretty in Pink or Flashdance then our job was done. But that was back in 2003, only 5 years ago I grant you, but a lifetime in ones youth. I'm 33 in August and would only ever agree to go out clubbing all night if I was assured a comfortable car journey to the club, instant access to said club - NO WAITING IN LINE - and then the same comfortable car journey home - NO WAITING FOR A TAXI/NIGHT BUS/LAST TRAIN HOME where I would be deposited in to my bed. Oh, and I'd like a table for the evening in case I became tired on the dancefloor. God I'm boring.

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYBODY!!!!

Lots of love, Cherry
ex- party-girl, lover of vertiginous heels and falling out of the Met Bar on a week night. Can currently be found in Ugg boots and very old jeans mithering about the youth of today and how short everybody's skirts are. And, it would seem, in need of a kick up the boring butt!

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

The Start Of My Easter Tree

Here is the start of my Easter tree for this year. It resides in the hallway atop my Singer phone table and is no longer on the plate that you see in the picture. My aim for this year was to begin the run up to Easter with a fairly bare tree and see what goodies and random bits and bobbles I would end up attaching to its branches by the time Easter was done and dusted.

Recently, LBH and I rid ourselves of some Hazel branches which were growing in a crazy way at the bottom of the garden. So I nabbed one of them and painted it Green Ground, using one of my ever trusty Farrow & Ball sample pots.

When it was dry I plunged it into one of two white ceramic bedpans that I own, but which look far prettier as planters or receptacles for pretty Easter trees than their original use.

Bleugh..... bed pan..... BLEEEUUUGGHHH!!!!!

I covered the soil up with some bright green, 'straw like' material that I picked up in Salzburg and placed two tiny sheep in amongst it, in order that they may frolic in the sun which comes in through the front door each morning.

I also added some forget-me-not type flowers so that they may have some colour against the blinding green.

I added two painted bunnies. A pink one and a green one ,which was camera shy at the time of this shoot!

You'll also notice, standing guard, these wonderful little gnomes. I also bought these while in Salzburg from a lovely store called Mia De Roca. Regina, the owner, is a member of my forum and we had a lovely time meeting each other on our recent trip.

I've added some tiny hand embroidery......

...and the obligatory song bird.

I look forward to seeing how 'crowded' it gets as the weeks go on. There is nothing like the colours of Easter and Spring to revive me and whip me into a feeling good frenzy. Lashings of pastel shades, offset by vibrant greens are all I need to say '"Hello house, what shall we do today?" 

Does anybody else decorate their homes for Easter/Spring in a similar way to me?

Cherry xoxox

I Could Have Sworn I Showed You This.........

I had a couple of thoughts over the weekend that related to my previous post about a television presenter and the subject of focusing on all things perfect. At times I thought that I really should have been MORE aware that posting about this particular topic  and television show was incendiary but its important to own and take responsibility for what one writes whilst blogging and I do feel strongly about the enormous amount of pressure that seems to bleed in to our lives from various corners.

That said I am now moving on to a subject that I was convinced I told you about already but my published post are having a ball telling me otherwise. Our Bathroom - I previously posted about here, way back in June of last year.

Here are a few reminder pics of how it used to look.........

And here is how it looks now........

Photo by Colin Poole, Photoworld Ltd

Photo by Colin Poole, Photoworld Ltd

These pictures were taken for the magazine shoot way back in September and we have made a few minor adjustments since then, such as different door handles etc, but we're happy with the way it has turned out and it looks a lot bigger, which for a small bathroom is a 'good thing'. The wall that you see by the sink in the above picture is bare at the moment and LBH and I have agreed that we need more room for storage. You know how it goes, before long the edge of the bath and around the sink gets littered with bottles, jars and so many potions that it begins to look like an apothecary from hell! I have a wonderful, original late 1940's early 1950's cabinet which is currently in storage at my parents. I'm desperate to get it over here and see just how it would look suspended on the wall. As soon as its up and I have tinkered with it I shall post more pics.

Hmmmmm......it does seem more than a little odd to be telling you that I'll post pictures of the room which is more commonly known as 'the loo' but I have to admit to loving every room in other peoples houses and feel especially privileged when they deign to take pictures of the water closet for everyone else to see.

Today I am blitzing the house, as we have guests staying for the next two weekends, and I am getting cracking on some Easter projects that I shall share here. I shall also be  finishing my part of the project that I am running alongside the gorgeous Yvonne from Yvestown. I interrupted her sushi last night with an untimely text message because I didn't take into account the time difference. Yvonne is the type of person that is good to have around. If you have read her blog you'll get some indication as to what she is like but when you meet her and hear her laugh THEN you'll know that Yvonne really rocks. She's a good girl and I'm really excited about this little project that we'll be launching, at the same time, on our respective blogs on Friday of this week.

Have a wonderful start to the week. There is just time to tell you that I have set up a new email address which is dedicated to answering specific questions which you may wish to ask me. I miss questions which are sometimes sent as comments on this blog or to my regular email address and for this I apologise. But, when I see messages come through from this address - ihaveaquestion (at)cherrymenlove (dot) com - it shall be much easier for me to answer them in a more timely and organised fashion. 

Phew! I can see light at the end of my email inbox already.......can I go out in to the garden now and play?

Cherry xoxo   

Everything In Its Place

On Monday I worked on the kitchen. I had been colonising again and all of my fabric, trims, threads, papers, beads etc had made their way down the stairs and onto the kitchen table. They will keep doing that!!!! If I've told them once I've told them a thousand times etc,etc!!
LBH and I had been eating on our laps since the start of the year and it had started to get boring! I just can't stand to see an entire surface covered with 'stuff'. Stuff that, although important, was taking up space which should be dedicated and saved for other activities. Such as eating, conversing, winding down after a long day and greeting people as they walk into my kitchen. So it was time to take back my table and finally tackle and organise  the 'stuff' which would be heading back up the stairs and into it's proper room.

For my latest SheerLuxe article I have discussed this frenzied day of sorting and recommend a website and some products which will help if you are thinking about doing the same thing as I. If however your kitchen is looming on your mind as a room of utter chaos and the thought of dealing with it brings you out in large red blotches then take yourself through the steps that I took myself through on Monday. It depends what state your kitchen is in but these steps will either deal with it entirely or simply give you a huge head start when it comes to dealing with the details. Note - these steps do not include areas like the insides of your cupboards or the oven door, they are more general than that.

• Clear your worktops and all working spaces (including tables) of everything which is not used on a daily or weekly basis. I cleared away some beautiful dishes that although looked very pretty sitting there gathering dust, that is all they were doing. Now they are away in the cupboard I shall miss them enough to bring them out and actually use them! Smart no!?!?!?!
  ;-)
• Paper, leaflets, mail and magazines are the most common blight on any well ordered kitchen. Gather every piece together and give yourself nothing else to do but sort that pile of paper out. Keep your recycling bin nearby and be ruthless. I promise you that you will never miss those obscure leaflets that you have kept ‘just because’
• Gather all of your cloths, tea towels and cleaning equipment together and sort out what needs to stay, what can be mended and what really should be sent to the great re-cycling bin in the sky. I think that we should all be using big, sturdy re-usable cloths by now, so if you do have some which are stained into oblivion with that early morning coffee you spilt the other day then fill your kitchen sink up with very hot water, add a VERY SMALL AMOUNT of cleaning detergent and put each and every cloth into the sink to soak for a while. Rinse thoroughly with cold water when it looks like they are clean. Or save even more water and detergent by throwing them in with your latest load of laundry.
  
  This is simply a start and I have listed points which may not even apply to some of you out there. But, I have to say that, once my 'stuff' was gone, my papers were sorted and my surfaces were clear I felt like I could then get on to what it was that I WANTED to be doing, which was continuing to work on the designs for my shop.

On another note, my sister and I spent the day together yesterday. We shopped for a while before coming back to my place and settling down for some lunch and a movie. The film of choice, if anybody is interested, was Practical Magic, which we all know is NEVER watched for it's narrative or acting but for the wondrous sets and locations that are used. If you click here and enter the site you can see what I mean. After the movie and lunch were finished my sister grabbed the laptop and worked her way through the many comments that came in after I had posted a picture of her new baby daughters. She sat there exclaiming how people were so kind with their words and generous with their time. We would both like to offer our gratitude to those who sent in such warm wishes. The daffodils on the table are for you all. They are not open just yet but I like that about them. I sit and watch them gently reveal their sunny faces and I know that Spring is on its way and with that Summer and with Summer.......a wedding.

Cx

Odd, Yes, But Oh So Doable!

 

Ahhhhhhh, you guys!! I'm so chuffed that so blooming many of you want to read Mrs Dalloway. I am blown away and totally in awe of how willing folk are to jump in and join the party, especially given how little time many of us have.
I suggest that we have the book read within a month. How does that sound? Some folk may have finished it long before that but that deadline also gives those who have yet to procure a copy time to get started. I'll put up a post when we have a few days left and then the fun begins!!!

I can't WAIT to hear what we all thought about the story. To get opinions and viewpoints, ideas on subtext and character traits, comments on the narrative and language!

Be still my beating heart, thoughts like this send me all a flutter.

So, sometime around the 8th of October I'll open up the blog to comments on Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Roll on October.

This post is bookended by pictures of where I shall be reading the book. Either in bed, staring out the window from time to time or on the sofa by the bookcase.

Yes, my bed does look like this during the day as the first thing I do when I get up is make it. I'm sorry but I love my time in bed so much that I want each journey into it to begin as positively as possible. Part of that is getting into a bed that is made. I'm a stickler for tidy pillows too, even though LBH either throws them onto me or onto the floor every single night. I don't care. In the morning I make it.

Will I get told off on other blogs for showing apparently 'unrealistic' pictures such as this???

I jolly well hope so!!

;-)

Anyway, I got news today that I have exactly two weeks to decorate the house for Christmas. Now, you know that I love Christmas. I love the build up to it as much as the event itself and I am heartily looking forward to our first Christmas in this Victorian cottage of ours, but I didn't bank on having to be ready for it in September. We have a photographer arriving in two weeks time as it seems that we made the Christmas issue of a magazine.

Goodness me, I'm astounded and, to use a favourite word of mine, agog!  I shall be off hunting for a Christmas tree over the next couple of weeks so please do forgive me if postings are a little less frequent and emails, once again, take longer than they should to get a reply. I'm really looking forward to this experience. Of course it will be super to see our home in the hallowed pages of one of the glossies but more than that I can't wait to witness the process. How do they do this? How do they get this to look like that? It shall be mightily interesting.

Have a wonderful day, week, hunt for Mrs Dalloway. It warms the cockles of my heart to know that when I eventually hit my favourite spot on the sofa, by the bookcase, there shall be at least forty seven other people on the same journey as I, all over the world.

Global village??

You betcha!

Cherry xx

Hmmmmm, may move the table a tad closer to the arm of the sofa, can't bear that ugly plug!

Tales From Tile Paint Land

Your tile comments made me laugh out loud as they came in. I'm pleased to know that I am not alone in my frustration at having something that I really don't know if I can change right now. We have budget restrictions like everybody else and this situation also has a touch of the 'domino syndrome' surrounding it. You know how it goes, if we change one thing we'll have to change another and another and before we know it the WHOLE ROOM will be in pieces and the dust will be falling for weeks.

Thanks to all those who suggested painting them. But I gotta tell you, I already tried it. I painted one little tile which was tucked away in a corner no less than four times, with four different colours. The finish was totally different and all in all it just looked rubbish.

Check out how the tiles seem to be falling away from the wall in this shot. Goodness, perhaps I shouldn't post this picture, it looks like I'm living in a Romanesque excavation site.

Oh well!

Anyway, I got some good news yesterday that I'm sooper dooper excited about and although it means that once again we're full steam ahead, after, get this, a whole week of relative relaxation, I'm happy. 

Have a great weekend. I have some miniature treats that I want to post about soon which were sent to me by a gorgeous blogger by the name of Karin. Her blog can be found here, please do check it out.

My latest SheerLuxe article can be found here. This week I'm touching on a subject that I may expand on further at Pixie Wood.

My food blog is gearing up to be busy again now that the kitchen is almost finished. I'm a little sad as I had written up copious amounts of recipes which included produce that is only available in the summer months. But now it seems that the summer is over and before we know it the root veggies will be back with a vengeance. Not to worry, I love the gaming season!

I have had a number of emails asking me about my cleaning schedule and when I'll be posting about it. I have all the notes written up and ready to go but I have to hold on to them for the time being. I'm not sure which form they'll eventually take but I shall let you know as soon as I know.

Have a great weekend.

Cherry xx

The Tools Of My Trade

   

Thank you so much for all of your wedding dress love. I'm now officially very excited about the whole event. It seems that now the dress has been sorted I feel like I can cope with everything else. Everything else in the WHOLE WORLD!!!!!

Yay!

Although having said all that tiredness is something that occasionally overwhelms me. Does it overwhelm you?

On some days I rocket on through the day and never stop. Going from room to room, task to task. I whizz about the place feeling super efficient. And then on other days I feel that it would be easier for me to raise the Titanic from the sea bed with my little finger than pull the bedclothes back and step out onto the carpet. But I really feel that the trick here is not to panic. Sometimes when I'm feeling super tired I can verge on letting myself feel small and a little discouraged. And at times like this I need to remind myself that I am exactly the same person that I was on the day when I was a superwoman (ahem!!), no different. 

Tiredness has never killed anybody. Exhaustion has, granted. But I'm not exhausted, I'm just tired and there is a whole world of difference.

Sometimes, on my tired days, I try and focus on the little things that don't need a great deal of brain power. You know the ones, those things around the house that you'd like to get done if only you hadn't got the really pressing things to deal with. This set of brushes (picture above) was one of those little jobs that I like to categorise under the banner ' Trims & Things '

I use these brushes, all of them, every day. We only have carpets in three of the rooms in the entire house and the rest is wooden floors  and tiles throughout. So it makes much more sense to sweep away the dust then to risk ruining the floors by dragging the hoover over them. Besides, sweeping is a much more physical activity and exercise breeds energy. So if I'm feeling a little bit 'over' the day before it has even begun then I grab the brush and begin to sweep. I hate gyms but love to keep active so I think of this act as my treadmill.

Treadmills.
Bleugh!
The very word makes my skin creep. Tell me something, what is the point of running on something that never takes you anywhere? That to me is a simple definition of utter madness. It's akin to a bad dream. Running and never getting any further. When I run I want to get somewhere, people!! I want to see the sky and feel the air on my face. Not watch MTV and breathe in the stress sweat of other folk.

Rant over, back to the brooms.

 

I gave the brooms a make-over. I hasten to add that the ribbons I ever so casually tied around the brushes themselves won't be staying on. I'm a tad more practical than that but I wanted to dress them up a bit while they had their picture taken.

The paint I have used is in my top five of favourite paints to use in a house. Eau - de - Nil by Laura Ashley has been used on various bits and pieces to highlight an item or accent a corner. It's very similar to the Pale Powder we used on the front door but a little bluer and more chalky in it's feel. You'll be seeing a whole lot more of my eau - de - nil phase but for the time being it's back to the brushes.

It has occurred to me that the tools I use around the house are of a most primitive nature. I have no fancy machinery or gadgets. And I really do enjoy getting down and dirty with one of my super tough cloths and scrubbing the windowsills clean. I use a vacuum cleaner but to be fair it would be quicker and a great deal more effective to crawl around the room and dab sticky tape all over the floor in order to pick up the fluffs and dust bunnies. Our hoover is awful and was a terrible purchase. I may have to add a Dyson to our wedding gift list!!!!!

 

I figured that I used these tools so much during the course of each day that it was only fair on them, and I for that matter, that they look nicer, brighter and cleaner than they did before. And if they get grubby or mucky or I tire of the shade I have painted them I'll give them a face lift. Who knows, perhaps by next Spring I'll be into a soft yellow phase.

To finish off today I want to show you my favourite tool. My little pal, the fellow that I grab to help me out of a dusty corner on more occasions than I care to count......

This is my cleaning basket. I keep all of my cloths and dusters in here. On hand, laundered and ready to be pulled out and into service at the flick of my impatient wrist. *Note the chair* It went from duck egg blue to eau - de - nil in about five minutes flat. It's now brighter and I'm liking it, although the radiator behind it has a serious case of the ' dull yellows' and needs to be whitened......right now!

The small hand held brush I picked up while in Italy in May. I was inspired by the shop keepers who would diligently sweep the front steps of their shops early in the morning. They would all be using a larger version of the one you see here in the picture and when we go back I shall buy one in every size even if I have to stuff them up the sleeves of my sweater in order to get them home. If you don't have one of these little helpers then pick one up if you ever see one on your travels. I have swept my window frames free from bugs and leaves, I have cleared my skirting boards of dust, I have pushed this brush into tiny corners and it has come out victorious and covered in all kinds of dirt. It's a helpful little pal of mine and I wouldn't want to be without it.

Have a lovely day. Yesterday I painted one wooden window frame, one front door frame, one living room door frame and two skirting boards. I also re-covered one bedside lamp in a pretty new fabric and trimmed my laundry basket with some old fashioned grosgrain ribbon. I also manged to get all of my tidying up done but have yet to get round to doing our study/office. It's a hideous mess and I need to settle down and tackle it.

Today, hideous mess of an office, your backside is mine!

Cherry xx

 

Halcyon Days & Why 'Every Little Thing' She Does Is Magic

Each day I work on a different part of the house. That way I spread the load a little bit, I don't feel imprisoned by one room in particular and I have also found that each time I go back to a particular room I have more inspiration to use in it.

The unit in the picture above was found while thrifting in a place called Leominster way back last year. It has been sitting around for all these months and I haven't really known what to do with it. It is sitting on top of some old oak drawers in the guest room before we attach it to the wall. At first I thought that the guest room would end up being rather sweet. I was expecting it to be the one room that would contain various shades of pink and be rather fluffy in it's appearance. But my thoughts on this have evolved now and it is slowly transforming itself into a throwback from the halcyon days of long ago. I like to call them my 'Blyton Days'.

Both my parents and LBH and I read the Enid Blyton books while we were growing up and I'm almost certain that LBH's parents would have done, although it's never something that I have asked. While I was growing up l aways found myself a little miffed when I read that the only famous person to share a birthday with me was Enid Blyton. Nowadays of course I'd quite happily wear that information emblazoned across my chest on a t-shirt.

The Famous Five Series was my favourite, while I know that LBH loved the Secret Seven books. I wanted to be one of the gang in those books and to go on those adventures with them. Of course through the magic of Blyton's writing I could and did go on those adventures but nowadays, as an adult living in a much changed world, I appreciate the books even more than I did when I was small and just beginning to realise how important it was to fill my mind with the written word.

I bought the two books in the picture above on Saturday as I already knew what direction I wanted the guest room to go in and it seemed as if these two were sitting on the shelf and waiting for me to drop by and purchase them. The Adventures of Pip opens with this glorious first sentence...."Pip the pixie was doing the washing up for his Aunt Twinkle"

Ahhhhhhh! I love that. I love that there is a pixie called Pip, I love that he does the washing up and I love the fact that he has an aunt called Twinkle

This is not a twee, sickly sweet yearning for days gone by or a desire to turn back the clock and halt any progress. No, this is a genuine need to get rid of some of the dross that pervades my mind and life through todays media and get back to basics. Simple stories of simple adventures. Where children caught fish in jam jars and would spend days on end in the open air. Eating foods that would contain little or no additives and bask in the shade of an old oak tree if the sun grew too hot.

Ahhhhh, lazy, hazy days of summer.

This is one of the bedside tables in the same room. I'm showing snippets as I haven't even finished the room yet but I like all of the colours on this table. I picked up the embroidered pouch last week underneath the pepper pot in my town. I have filled it with soap, body spray and some other treats for my next guest to use. The Cath Kidston soaps were given to me by my mum and I have to admit to loving the way they have been wrapped up.

That enamelware jug in the background seriously needs filling with some wild daisies or cornflowers but having spoken to our local florist cornflowers have been in short supply this year. Which is sad. I do love cornflowers.

I spent most of yesterday feeling rather small. I was super dooper tired for no apparent reason and I could feel a little confusion creeping in, arm in arm with a sense of being a tad overwhelmed. It's so important to have these types of days. They are our very soul's telling us to stop, look around, check things out, re-evaluate, rest, breathe, laugh or perhaps to do what Mr R. Kipling advises and simply "delight in the simple things"

Today is clearer. I have my to-do list ready and will steadily make my way through it.

Did you see my new arrivals in the top picture? You didn't? I shall give you a close up then......

I have a family of little ducks now. Eeeeek! Amanda from Every Little Thing sent them to me all the way across the Atlantic. I love Amanda's blog and I urge you to read the post dated 30th of July. I have told her many times that I would like her to live down the street from me. We have both come to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't get a great deal of work done but what the heck! The only wrinkles we'd be cultivating would be laughter lines and that's OK with me!

My little duck family sit in my new guest room, the Blyton Room. The room that reminds me of my childhood days in the summer, the good things in life and friends. Even if they are very far away.

Have a lovely day and thank you so much for reading. I checked my blog statistics yesterday and was totally blown away by the numbers that I saw. I don't know who you all are, where you come from, what you think or how you found me. But I'd like to say welcome and thank you. I know how busy you all are and it humbles me to think that you would take time out of your day to spend it with me.

Today I'm back in the Blyton Room. I have to give some of the walls a second coat of paint. It is also exactly a year from today that LBH and I marry. If that isn't the most delicious thought to carry through the day them I'm a lost cause!  Oh how I love that man.

I'll see you again on Friday.

Lots of love

Cherry x

Let The Sunshine In!

Mmmmmm, so this was the front door before. It just wasn't doing anything for us. We needed to brighten, lighten, let the sunshine in and keep the drafts out. We also needed a door that was more in keeping with the period of the house and I wanted a different colour. We needed the house to have a door that said "Welcome! Come on in and stay a while and if you have chocolate you can stay as long as you like!!!!"

This shot was taken from inside the hall and as you can see the door made the entrance hall pretty dark. It's not an enormous hallway as it's not an enormous house. So light and the procurement of it is at the top of the list when it comes to redecorating this particular nook.

So it happened that all I had to do was to ply LBH and my dad with warm cookies.........

.... fresh strawberries with a blob of Cornish ice cream on top and copious amounts of tea for our door to now look like this.......

Much more preferable methinks. We went for a fairly traditional Victorian door and used Farrow & Ball's Pale Powder Exterior Eggshell paint. I remember going through paint-charts for the door months ago and so to see it completed, albeit with a different colour to the one we thought we may use, and hanging there is wonderful. 

To try and give it a more contemporary and cleaner feel we opted for the silver ironware as opposed to brass but I'll tell you what I love most about this door? The fact that it will serve each season so well. It will look good at Eastertime when pastel shades abound and it will look just as inviting at Christmas when it is bedecked with one of my wreaths. Even the burnt orange of a giant pumpkin will match the Powder Blue and for that I am grateful. Choosing the colour for this door took approximately five minutes. As opposed to choosing the colour for the walls in the kitchen which took approximately five weeks and included our final choice being discontinued just as were were about to place our order!!!!! One thought to the manufacturers and sellers of paint .... If you know you are going to discontinue a line of paint please remove all sample pots from the shelves!!!!!!!

There are still some odds and ends we need to tidy up. The trim needs to be replaced and we need to work on the front garden as a whole, but to be honest I think that both the front and back gardens will be a job for next year. We are fortunate as we know that the house will be ready for when we begin to hibernate a little more, which usually starts towards the end of September. By November we are well and truly hidden and that is when the longs days in front of the stove begin in earnest.

 

This is the view from inside. I took this through the stairs from the kitchen this morning. Like I said we still have some 'filling in' to do and of course the hallway looks a little bare with nothing whatsoever on the walls. But to be honest I really think that the only addition will be a mirror on the left hand side and perhaps one other thing on the right hand side. I know LBH, and I also know that no sooner than I have positioned something on the wall then he will arrive home from work late one night and knock it right off again.

What a monkey!

I'll not bore you with door tales for much longer but leave you with my two absolute favourite things about my new 'welcome aid'.....

 

...the way it throws light onto the wall when the sun shines through in the morning .....

...and the way it matches perfectly with my new William Morris gardening tools, bought for me by my dearest friend Rinky!

Hee hee! We are nothing without our accessories girls!!!!! ;-)

Goodness, I knew that this homemaking business was where all the fun was at but if anybody had told me that I would be one million times happier doing this than opening a play in front of hundreds of people I would have looked at them like they had a flower pot sprouting out of their head.

Life! You gotta love it's twists and turns.

Just A Thought!

I'm off now as the day is already galloping off without me but I shall leave you with this thought.... If the shops in your area, particularly the local independent shops, are having an end of season sale in order to make room for the Autumn stock, get yourself down there and stockpile on the stocking fillers!

It may be that some of you don't want to think about Christmas right now but I will never, ever be ashamed of being prepared. When it comes to December and I have a huge pile of wonderful gifts filling the back of my wardrobe that cost me mere pennies, I shall revel in the warm and cosy feeling of smugness that I am sure will envelop my entire being!

Have a wonderful day and may your week get off to a splendid start.

Love Cherry x