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!

Still On The Mis-Matched Tip

As a storm rages across England and I snuggle down into the depths of my study/crafty room/ place where if you don't look closely you won't see me for all of the STUFF laying around, I thought it was time to tell you of my love of postcards.

I love postcards.

OK, thats it, I've told you, see ya, BYYEEEEEE!!!..............................hee hee!

I love their size and shape, the classic postcard I'm referring to, and I love the fact that you could decorate your entire home with postcards picked up on your travels and it would appear as if you had little works of art all over your walls.

I have carefully chosen postcards on my fridge and an entire row of vintage postcards balancing on the skirting board of my guest-room. I am going to be sprucing up the frames that this collection sits in and I'll post them here. They are all from Lake Como and need a little more attention than they have been given of late.

Anyway, I picked up the three postcards in the first picture whilst in Salzburg, Austria. I loved the colours that are featured in them and as I'm constantly trying to add colour to my kitchen I thought that these would suit the room. I had three, rather sturdy, plain white frames from Ikea to use but I wanted to give them their own look. It has to be said that certain Ikea accessories are good for a little make-over. I remember someone I know bemoaning their partners love of Ikea and how all their house needed now were the yellow arrows on the floor telling them how to get to the market place and they'd be all set! 

So, I covered the back of the frame in three different types of fabric, this is great for using up scraps...

....and used my old pal glue gun to fix the fabric in place.

Then I popped the postcards front and centre and placed them on the wall to your right as you enter from the hall in to the kitchen.

*note to self* May have to think about getting a new light switch due to its un-photogenic qualities!

At the moment, as you can see, there are only six frames adorning this wall. I am aiming to fill it over the next few months. I think that this small section of wall could cope with being filled and I'm aiming for a colourful diversion as one enters the kitchen.......this is in order for the MESS and CHAOS of the rest of the room to be glanced over as opposed to dwelt upon!

At the top are two postcards I bought in 2006 on a trip to Cornwall. We visited the Museum of Gardening, Trevarno, and I saved them until the right place popped up. Again I used little wooden Ikea frames but added some hand-painted polka dots to the frames in primary red and green.

I'm not leaving my study/crafty room/ place where if you don't look closely you wont see me for all of the STUFF laying around today. The storm can rage outside my window all day long but I'm in the middle of prepping some bundles of products for a couple of magazines and I HAVE to get them finished.

Have a good day wherever you may be. My thoughts are with you all today, whoever you may be. I had two intertwining dreams last night which were exhaustingly awful and emotional in equal measures and dreams like that always make me contemplative and more aware of the smaller things. So if you're reading this I'm thinking of you, even if I don't know you're there.

Cherry xoxox 

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

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!!!

;-)

   

How We Got There!

Now we have finished most of the hard work on the house I am able to rest a while, sort of, coffee in hand and show you all of my thrifty finds and subsequent make-overs. This darling I picked up in my local town for £10. I saw it in a thrift shop window being fondled by a man wearing a rather short pair of shorts. Surely not, I thought to myself, that mirror wouldn't suit him at all. He needs a mirror with army camouflage adorning every corner, not fake gilt. His fingers lingered for a moment longer before he took himself and his hot-pants off to the book department. It was at that moment that I wisped into the shop, lurched into the window and was making my way out the door with this mirror, having paid for it of course, before man in short shorts could flick through his first Andy McNab novel.

Now, I knew that once LBH saw a gilt mirror sitting in our house I would get the inevitable "Will that be going after the shoot?"
My name is LBH, I live with Cherry Menlove, I precursor everything I say to Cherry nowadays with "Will that be going after the shoot?"

Well, to be honest it seems that everything I bought into the house in a rush in order to get ready for the photographer arriving was bought with my instinct firmly in place. I had to think super quickly about whether or not this item would look good in that corner or whether that piece of thrifty goodness really should be shizzled up a tad in order for it to make a positive difference.

This mirror was one of the items that needed shizzling up. At times of needed shizzle I reach for my trusty sample pots of Farrow & Ball. This time in the colour Bone.

And this is what happened to my faux gilt friend. He now looks rather nice sitting in the corner above the tallboy in our bedroom.

You can't tell from these pictures but I assure you that I didn't blot out the whole of the mirror's former look with the new coats of paint. I took an old brush and stabbed the new paint into the gilt, very small amounts at first. I didn't want the mirror's edge to have a flat, matt look to it. I wanted to retain the texture that the gold and the blackness gave it while at the same time lightening the whole object up so it hung like a contemporary antique .....er.....thing!

Mmmmmmm, antique indeed. Ms. Menlove it cost you £10 and is as light as a feather. In fact it could very well be made from papier mache or plaster of paris!!!

Do I care? Not a jot!

I keep going on about the new website but I'm so very much in love with the whole idea of having everything in one place. I have been working on the look and the feel of it all week and I know that I want it to be clean, fresh, simple to navigate and for the only real colour to come from the pictures that I add to it. There will be how - to's, projects, ideas, articles, stories, pictures, recipes and another rather secret function that will give us all the chance to discuss again!

We also have the round up of Mrs Dalloway coming soon. I have had a few emails through that have told me they either adored it or didn't quite get it. Let me make it clear that WHATEVER you thought of this book it is entirely valid. There is to be no judgement here. Do not say that you liked it when you didn't or that you throughly understood the sub-text and the use of imagery when all you really saw was a lady talking to herself. Ms. Woolf was a very particular type of person and this is wholly reflected in her work. I am thinking about adding a book club to the new site depending on how well this one goes. We could cover classics, modern classics, biography's. Anything we wanted really and discuss in an environment that we all feel safe in.

Have a wonderful weekend. Whether you live in the town or country, have a family or live alone do one thing this weekend that makes your house a place that you want to come home to just that little bit more. It could be buying a humble packet of crumpets and some real English butter for your supper on Sunday evening or it could be poking your head up into the loft and measuring up for some insulation to see you into those chilly winter months. LBH and I are going to our local farm shop. We are going to walk SLOWLY around it and I am going to pick up and fondle, in wide eyed wonder, every single muffin, pie, organic chicken breast, turnip and truffle that I can get my hands on. Then we are going to come SLOWLY home and watch a movie. That, my friends, is all we shall be doing. Shall I tell you why we are doing nothing more extravagant? Because we've finished the house!! .............................................................................................(almost)!!!!!!!

Cx

Please feel free to contact me at cherry@cherrymenlove.com with any questions or thoughts.

Patiently Waiting

Now, this little chap has been waiting around for almost a year. I picked this 'pigeon hole' unit up in Leominster last October/November for the grand total of five english pounds. I had some idea of what I wanted to do with it before we had even found our house but since then it has languished. It  spent time in my parents garage, our old flat, the spare room and the back garden.

It wasn't until this package arrived that I knew that I could finally get it on the wall and looking the way I had imagined.

Karin from the blog MardreKarin sent me a care package. Just look at it! Wrapped to perfection in vintage wallpaper, that has now been ironed and is carefully stored away for a project I have in mind. Her parcel  contained a never ending stream of beautiful gifts, craft projects, ceramics and trinkets. I had seen the M.Stew crafty kits online but had never held some in my hands until this parcel arrived. *I just tried to link to the MS website for you to see the craft kits but randomly it appears to be down for maintenance*

As I went through the parcel that had been sent to me it became clear that finally I could decorate the postal unit I had picked up all those months ago. As the unit itself is made from a wood that has been stained to a dark colour I knew that each compartment needed to be bright and colourful. I also knew that the unit would be going on a wall in our guest 'Blyton' room. This is the only room that I have used such a plethora of primary colours in. It's not a subtle, tasteful room. But it's bright, interesting and has lots to look at. I love rooms like that. So I wanted one in my own home and Karin's package helped me to obtain it.

Take a look..........

Can you see them? In some of the compartments there are tiny little bathroom fixtures. There sits an old fashioned sink and vanity mirror.

And here you'll find a roll top bath. Everything you see in this picture apart from the pot of Glossies and the unit itself was sent to me by Karin. Does the blogging community's generosity know no bounds? I don't think it does. And it was this act of generosity that got me thinking.

It seems that although the crafting, homemaking, working women, decorating, young things, older things, female entrepreneurs, small business owners, writers, knitters.....BLOGS OF THIS TYPE WRITTEN BY WOMEN (and it would appear some men too, welcome boys!!) number many, many thousands there is still a deliciously respectful and intimate feeling to this particular online community, you'll find that the food blogging community has a very similar atmosphere. We are invited to take part in tours of peoples homes, views into books that are being written, family life, craft projects, new recipes and the basics of life.

The basics of life.

I LOVE THAT and I feel oddly protective over this corner of the world wide web although I have only met a few of you all in real life. Am I alone in this? Should I feel that or let it go? Does anybody else feel like this or am I being too sentimental?

As the house is pretty much finished I can get back to work on the items that I will soon be adding to my store. The shop has been closed for far too long and needs to re-open. I am working on only two products for the Autumn and one product for Christmas. It's not a great deal but I'm able to spend time on them and create a finite number of limited edition, handmade items for your homes that I hope you like. Of course if nobody likes them and refuses to buy them I'll have to keep them all and use them here! Mmmmmmmm.........

Karin, thank you so very much for your wonderful gifts. I hope you like what I have done with them.

I'm about three weeks behind on emails right now but am slowly catching up and hope that no offence is caused by the delay in my responses.

Have a wonderful September day.

CM x

*good lord, did you all see the spelling errors in todays post!!!!!!! I'm sorry, I was listening to some article on Radio four about Bill Clinton and my attention was not on my spelling. How embarrassing* 

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

 

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 

Oops, She's Gone A' Thrifting!

Ahhhhhh, we needed to get away and so we went to West Dorset. And what does one do when one is in West Dorset and in the process of buying a house? One goes a' thrifting. That, my friends, is what one does.

Here are my delicious finds from only one day spent in what can only be described as God's country!

This white and powder blue plate was FIFTY PENCE! I felt so bad that I handed the woman selling it SIXTY! LBH and I got up early on Sunday and headed straight into West Bay. We pulled into a car park and lo and behold there was a boot sale in full swing. LBH stayed in the the car, with the heater blowing hot air straight into his face. "You go, let me know how you get on" was all I needed to hear and I was off. This plate will probably not actually spend much time indoors to be honest. I have a number of pieces this shape and I really like to sit small plant pots on them. There is nothing more luxurious than having china in your garden, sitting there like it was born to be outside. At fifty pence I can afford for it to be outside with some pansies or miniature roses sitting on it.

You can probably tell by the way I'm talking about a garden in this post that we are still behaving like the purchase of the house is all going to go through just fine. Well, sometimes you just have to keep on keeping on. The fat lady hasn't begun warming up her vocal chords just let, let me tell you!

This enamelware jug is another thing that wont see indoors a whole lot. The new garden is small and needs to be treated like a secret hideaway. It needs to be given nooks, crannies and lots of flowers. It also needs decorating. This will hold cornflowers just wonderfully and will probably reside in the middle of the garden table. This cost £2, I think. An absolute steal.

After leaving West Bay we headed into Lyme Regis. We took a walk along the beach and headed on to Cobb Harbour. I did my best Meryl Streep ' French Lieutenants Woman' impression with the help of my pashmina and a very strong wind coming in off the sea. HAHAHAHA! LBH was standing there with the camera saying " you'd better hurry up, there are people coming and if they see you they will know what you are doing and you'll feel silly". HAHAHAHAHAHA!

The worrying thing is that I don't think I would have felt silly. You can take the girl out the theatre....etc...........

Having exorcised my dramatic demons we headed off to a wonderful antiques hall that sits right on the beach front in Lyme Regis. It was here that I picked up some more enamelware in the shape of these candle sticks as well as this little treasure......

 

I picked up this Gigi sheet music from a box containing many other pieces. It was from a house clearance that had recently taken place. I love Gigi and of course the beautiful Leslie Caron but what I saw when I looked at this were the colours. They are beautiful and bright and shall be finding a way into a frame and onto a wall in the new guest bedroom.

   

It wasn't until we left Lyme Regis and started to head out into the country that my 'purchase of the day' was made. LBH and I stopped off in Abbotsbury for lunch. We drove into the village at one end and past this little antiques shop. After lunch at The Swan Inn we decided to walk off our Ploughman's with a trip back to this converted thatched cottage.

Just after Christmas I had seen a picture of a bedroom in one of my mums house magazines. They had a shaker style oak bed and had coupled it with walnut bedside cabinets, dark wooden floors and dusty rose rugs. Well, we have the oak bed on order, the dark floors are residing under the current carpet at the new place and after our trip into this delightful little nook we also have one of our bedside cabinets......

 

LBH and I furtively discussed the options both inside and outside the little shop before deciding on buying it.

LBH: We should buy it if you want it hon, but it will have to go on your side..

Me: Well, what sort of cabinet do you want for your side?...

LBH: Not one like that..

Me: There really is no point in getting it if you are going to have one that doesn't match. You don't need one exactly the same but they have to look right angel!!!!!!!!!!!

LBH: Mmmmmmm........I don't mind having one that colour, just not that style.....

Me: WE'LL TAKE IT!!!!!!!

I had a moment when I think I actually squealed while putting it in the back of our silly car. This is one of the most satisfying and creative processes that I can possibly imagine. Making house. It is not akin to being an interior designer and doing it full time for somebody else. I really wouldn't like that as much. But I love the fact that I have these pockets of joy and I get to tell all these folk about it through the medium of blogging. You'll see these pieces in situ soon, I'm sure and positive and hopeful and AGGGGHHHHHHH..........never wanting to buy another house!!!

Have a wonderful day wherever you are. Thank you so much for reading. I really hope that you are able to glean some inspiration from your visits here. Or at least go away from Pixie Wood having had a nice visit.

I shall see you soon and continue to regale you with tales.......if you don't mind of course!

Cherry xx

London Town With Yvestown

Well howdy! British Telecom came up trumps and got us back online two days faster than they said they would, this means I can post about Saturday.

I have been really fortunate with all of my blog meets. I told you about the wonderderful Violette last week and this past weekend I was fortunate enough to meet with Yvonne from the Yvestown blog. Yvonne summed it up over at her's when she said that a blog meet is like a blind date in a way and can be a little nerve wracking. You know them only from their blog and if they turn out to be vastly different from that what the heck are you going to do?!?!?!

I needn't have worried, Yvonne was fabulous. There she was, right on time and with the green rucksack that she had told me about. This meant that I had no trouble finding her in the crowded ticket hall of Liverpool Street station. Yvonne has already mentioned that I'm talker and it was great to meet my match in her. We conversed like we had known each other for years and it was really good to meet yet another blogger who has such a wonderfully warm personality. When I looked back over the pictures that I took of the day I couldn't help but notice how colourful they were. It was a mighty cold day in London on Saturday but the pictures don't betray that. They show a day of colour, fun, lots of Cath and edamame beans. PERFECT!!

Yvonne sweetie, I had such a good day with you and cant wait to hook up again. I promise to send you the pics but here's a taster.

Fresh green edamame beans. I could eat these until they pop out of my ears....

Yvonne made me a bag that she had filled with caramel cookies and a pretty, pretty pin cushion.....

We stopped off at VV Rouleaux in Marylebone but balked at the price of the pom-pom trim. Ebay will have to suffice for a bit longer methinks! Still, the window displays are wonderful this Easter aren't they?!

 

Emma Bridgewater's store on Marylebone High Street pulled us in as we made our way up to CK's. I LOVE these circus mugs and I think I have my eye on a kitchen table that would suit these fellas nicely. But even Emma B couldn't contain us for very long. Nope, the lure of Cath was too strong and we felt pulled along until we reached her door.

I'll leave you to peruse without interruption.......well, very little interruption is probably more truthful.......

 

It took Yvonne and I FAR TOO LONG to realise that we were standing still on the stairs while deep in conversation. Hey ho! Thats what days out with the girls are for. It wasn't until we reached the till that I was told off for taking pictures in the store. Apparently they have had trouble with folk copying Cath's designs. Mmmmm.....I was tempted to utter a sentence with the words are, you, kidding, pot, kettle and black in it but decided not to. The lady was only doing her job after all. I knew I liked Yvonne when she said that she felt like she had come home when she stood in the CK store. I knew I REALLY liked Yvonne when she admitted that CK was overpriced!! Hee hee! 

As is usually the case with me these days I had to rush off after seeing that Yvonne had checked into her hotel OK. LBH and I have been having some trouble with our house purchase and to be honest if we had stayed indoors all weekend surrounded by boxes that may not be going anywhere fast I would have wept the whole of Sunday.
Any regular pixie readers will know my love for West Dorset runs deep and if there was one place that would take my mind off the move it was there.

But I'll tell you about that next time...........

I'm going to be uploading some house keeping files to my blog sidebars in the next day or so. I hope you find them useful. I'll be working through them myself when we move in to the new place.

Now if that wasn't a statement of faith for it all to go through I don't know what is!!

Have a lovely day angels.

Cherry xx