Tales From Pixie Wood

Like Snow in Rosebud - home ware by Cherry Menlove is now open for trading!

Wow, I beat my own deadline. I wanted to be hitting publish on my revamped on-line store, Like Snow in Rosebud, tomorrow morning. It appears that I did more preparation than I had previously thought and so its up and running NOW, which is GREAT. There were times along the way when I seriously doubted ever having a shop to tend to again.

I think I lost my crafty mojo last year, which is understandable as it was all house, house, house. Of course now the house is tickety boo I am finding that I am working on creating products that I would like to use myself. Take my new 'Flying Fancies'. They are colourful flags for use in food. I have a bunch of these sitting by my desk for my own personal use this spring/summer. I can envisage large plates of cupcakes and picnics full of teeny sandwiches that would look great accessorized by these.

You can visit the store front and wander around at your leisure by following this link......

'Like Snow in Rosebud' home ware by Cherry Menlove

I hope you have a lovely visit and remember that there is always help on the end of email for any questions you may have. Each page has a contact button for your convenience.

I'm really looking forward to continuing to fill the pages of the shop with all of my other imagined goodies. At the start of this year I bought a wall planner and have already marked on it when each new product will go on sale. I hope that by November we're rocking and rolling with a shop that's fit to burst.

Before I pop off to busy my nose in some other exciting stuff I'd really like to show you some pieces for sale which are a slight departure from all of my usual products but ones which I have had the most fun creating.

What's That Pretty Thing On Your Wall? - Colour, Fun & Happy Days For The Walls In Your Home

This is a series of wall hangings that I have been working on. I have been totally converted to the use of primary colours with a dash of naivety in many of my pieces and this theme features heavily in this first selection. Created to give your walls an enormous big kiss of colour I am already working on cup cakes and other designs for the coming weeks.

Thank you so much for looking and may I wish you all a great start to the week.

Let Me Out!

The room I work in/make stuff in and write in when I am at home is not big. Not big at all. So after having spent a great deal of time in this room over the recent weeks I am very ready to leave it and come out to play.

In the past I have had a real tendency to put things off until I think the thing is perfect and ready to be looked at by others eyes but I think Nike summed up my current mood which is one of  'Just do it'.

Just do it so that I can leave this bloody room and get some air!

So, I'm hitting publish on my new and improved on-line shop - Like Snow in Rosebud - on Monday, 14th of April. I had originally aimed for Valentines Day as the day I would be selling again. Mmmmmmm......now what happened there?!?!?!?

I've photographed the products I'm ready to go with and now they just have to be entered in to the site. I have the luxury of being able to add products as and when I can and will be popping more up as the days go by.

I don't have any fancy photographic equipment, as you can see. The tripod I use was bought for £10 on a street market in Bridport, West Dorset. I salivate over a nice big, black chunky Canon and I may just buy myself one when I'm in California this summer. At least then I'll be able to buy it in dollars!

I hope you're all having a great week so far. It's been super cool to see so many of you on Flickr, thank you for asking me to be your flickr buddy, I love it!

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 

....and like that, they were gone.......

I made a small number of these, hand-stitched, lavender hearts as something to take my mind off of being on the sofa for a week when my hip popped out and then popped right back in again. I thought I'd give a few to friends and then sell the rest. I sold the lot and I'd like to say thank you. What's even more than shocking is that I sold them before I put them out for sale proper. Through the lovely ladies in my forum and the hidden goodness which is private email they have all gone. So this weekend I shall be sitting on my future mother-in-law's sofa and making some more. Which I shall then duly put up for sale in a more 'shop like' environment.

You may remember that I had chosen the name for a new collection of home wares from a Kate Bush song that I was inspired by. The line is, if you haven't guessed "like snow in rosebud" and the song was King of the Mountain from her album Aerial. The hearts are the first part of a collection using embroidery, stitching and a tiny bit of beading that I have called '...and it rained blossom......'

There is something so terrifically romantic about walking through a flurry of blossom and I can't think of a pink that is more life enriching. Of course its always so harrowing to see the blossom, which sat plump and proud on the tree, turn to brown, gooey smudges on the pavement or worse still in the gutter resembling a flood from a fairy tale, but we shan't think on that for any length of time. We shall remember her as the individual pieces of an angel patting us on the head as we head home thinking of supper.

Thank you to my customers, thank you so very much.

Cherry xoxox