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!

Home

The roses came out. They were out on Friday as we arrived at the new house, weary, with a large van full of everything that belongs in our lives. I'm slightly ill, slightly delirious, slightly nauseous, slightly exhausted and should not be attempting anything longer than a paragraph this evening as it would be more stream of consciousness blogging than anything that resembles any sense.

Nobody told me it would feel like this. Had they tried to do so I would not have believed them. Heaven does indeed exist on earth.

I'm home.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz................................................

Love Cherry xx

Leaving London

 

And so, with exactly a week to go until we close the door on this abode for the very last time I thought I'd show you the area that we are leaving. I think it's acceptable to call these shots pictures of my neighbourhood. I have walked to all of the destinations shown many times and none of them take longer than 30 minutes.

I took the picture above while standing on Blackfriars Bridge. I was walking across into Covent Garden to do some shopping and the light was lovely.

Bye bye River Thames. I shall see you soon I'm sure, just not as often.

 

I took this last November. LBH and I knew that we would be leaving town in 2007 so we spent the day doing things in our neighbourhood that we hadn't done before. You know how it is, you can find yourself never taking advantage of things that are on your doorstep. On this day we went to the Imperial War Museum (LBH's choice) and then we hopped onto the London Eye (not my choice exactly but as soon as LBH discovered I had never been on it he went off and promptly bought us tickets). I'm glad he insisted. Look at Westminster in the fading November light. There's no doubt, London is a terrific place to be, live and visit.

Bye bye Big Ben. I shall see you soon I'm sure, just not as often.

 

I really don't mind the tube although I do have a problem with folk who try to get on before I have gotten off. But I no longer tut very loudly in their direction when this occurs. I figured that it was my blood pressure that became raised by me prolonging the incident so instead I send tiny pixies of compassion their way and wish them a happy day.......UNLESS someone gets SO CLOSE to me they actually pull my Birkenstocks off of my feet, then I have to bite my lip and smile through pursed lips. It can really hurt sometimes I promise you!!

When the tube is working well you can hop on and off and arrive in all sorts of London corners within just a few moments.

Bye bye tube. I shall see you soon I'm sure, just not as often.

Ahhhh Borough Market! Just down the street from me and the location for my 'food in season' photographs. Borough Market has been voted Londoner's favourite place to visit many times now and it is always heaving on a Friday and Saturday. LBH prefers it in the winter and I like it in the summer. We have had some wonderful conversations with stallholders in the market. One farmer recommend a fantastic driving route in West Dorset. His daughter worked at The River Cottage. We took the route when we were in the area and were very glad we did. It was wonderful to see the Jurassic coast in all it's splendour.

Bye bye Borough Market. I shall see you soon I'm sure, just not as often.

 

Tower Bridge is a four minute walk from our home and it's one of my favourite London sites. We walk across this bridge to grab a quick supper when we can't be bothered to cook and can see it from our kitchen window. We have been so lucky to have such a view.

Bye bye Tower Bridge. I shall see you soon I'm sure, just not as often.

 

The Tower, about 10 minutes across Tower Bridge from where we live. If Elizabeth the 1st could see it's surroundings now I think that even a woman as smart as she would find it all a little puzzling. They now install a ice rink into the moat each winter and there have been several rock and pop concerts that have taken place within the grounds. This is one of those places that sits on my doorstep and yet I have never been inside it, although my Dad insists I have!

Bye bye Tower of London. I shall see you soon I'm sure , just not as often.

Phew! That was good for me to do that. I needed to take a look through old pictures of my neighbourhood and blogging today has been a cathartic experience as it often is. Forgive the indulgence. I am looking forward to leaving London but I never want to forget it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Just enough time to tell you that I have baked a creamy Trout & Tarragon pie and the recipe is over in my kitchen!!

Love Cherry xx

Deep & Meaningful

 

The best bit about moving house (I'm staying positive, can you tell?) is that the home you are about to leave gets the deep clean of it's life!

LBH and I have thrown, chucked, recycled, put back in the cupboard only to throw again a few days later, torn up, rolled up, packed up and sealed up and have both been very proud of the amount of  "stuff" we have managed to sacrifice in the name of a new start.

Another thing I am liking about moving house (see? still positive, still positive)  is that you simply HAVE to do all of the jobs that you have been putting off. All of  the sneaky, grimy, nobodycanseethatifiputsomethingonit jobs.

Today I did the taps. I love doing the taps and the taps were looking baaaaaddddd (top photograph). I took such care to get every little piece of crap & limescale off of the ends of the taps and from within the cracks of the taps. I used a toothbrush, a nail brush, a paint brush, some kitchen paper and finally some cotton wool for the shine............. er.......oh alright, and I promise that once we have moved I will endeavour to get out more and get a life!

Boo is insisting on it. So much so that she sat in the sink in order to stop any more buffing with cotton wool.

Cats! What can you do with em?!?!?!?!

Love Cherry xx

*edit* - I just noticed that if you enlarge the picture you can clearly see that I did not get around to doing the little bit that attaches the plug to the sink.

Blame Boo. I gave it my best shot!

Solace In The Work

I have been feeling very weepy lately. Walking around, going about my business with tears always ready to form behind my eyes and roll down my cheeks. I'm not sad but I feel sad. I'm not unorganised but I feel terribly unorganised. I'm not restless and yet I feel like I have ants in my pants. I'm achieving all that one person can with only 24 hours in a day and yet I feel like I'm getting nowhere. Trying to perform the butterfly stroke through treacle while dressed in a ball-gown.

Does anybody else ever feel like this?

Our bodies never lie and I realise that these weepy sessions, always followed shortly after by much giggling and hugs from LBH, are only because I'm a little tired. But it has got me thinking about counteracting this with an activity that, in times of prolonged busyness or some stress, I can simply 'get down' to.

There is not time right now to join a new yoga class. I won't be attending it after we move. I can't cook up a storm in the kitchen as all of my equipment is in boxes & I'm wishing I hadn't packed my piping kit away so early. There is something tremendously meditative about creating patterns on top of a cake. Squirting little piles of butter-cream frosting in myriad shades of pink and blue takes me to a nice place. Cupcake Land. Where all is well, calm and .......er........pink!

But when Cupcake Land is but a dream and I am limited as to what it is I can do to combat feelings of tiredness or anxiousness, where do I go? What do I do?

I found the solace I was after in the strangest place. I found it in work. I've noticed recently that each time an order comes in I am washed with a sense of relief. My mind will leap out of weepiness and into a state that wiggles for joy and sings "Yey, I get to go off to the sewing machine again and create, create, create"
Of course there is no way I can put this activity off. I can't persuade myself that there are more important things to be getting on with because even though we are moving I still have a business to run. And I don't want to put it off. Needless to say my orders have been going out a great deal faster over the past few weeks ;-)

I'm pleased with this discovery. I once again find myself feeling entirely fortunate. I love those two words together, entirely & fortunate. I'm not sure how I got to this point of fulfilment but I think it has a great deal to do with the choices that I began to make. Choices that were different to ones I would have made at other times in my life. That's growing up I suppose. We never grow up completely as we'll always feel twenty one even when we sit on the porch in an eighty one year old body. I am also under no illusions that this time of satisfaction will last forever. How can it? It's life and I'm a player. Life is cyclical, a series of tunnels and sometimes the light that we see up ahead is indeed the end of said tunnel but sometimes it's another train, heading directly for us.

My home, my business, my creativity, my cooking, my clothing and even the mischief that LBH and I get up to are all based entirely in the seasons. How can they not be? And so I shall continue to rest in the season I find myself in right now. The season that calls itself Entirely Fortunate.

Love Cherry xx

PS
I am putting together a list of the best re-cycling, carbon footprint etc sites and blogs that I can find and shall add the list to both of my blogs in the not too distant future.

Variations On All Sorts Of Themes

 

OK, so I colour coordinate my books. Yep! I think they look GREAT when they are sitting on my shelves or in my bookcase and the spines all seem to match. We have picked out an oak bookcase for one of the alcoves in the living room of the new house. It will go floor to ceiling and is a nice chunky number with shelves that have 'depth'. We'll be putting novels and other odds and sods on this particular bookcase, colour coordinated of course. I'll put all of my cookbooks into the kitchen obviously and the crafting, decorating, thrifting books etc will all go into our new home office (i.e. spare bedroom that will one day be a nursery.....I hope.......eek!....going through a broody phase).

It grieves me when I see a bunch of books that look good together but I know that they will not be able to reside in the same room. Take the picture above for instance. There we  have two craft books, two foodie books and a garden book. There is no way that they can all hang out together and that makes me a little sad because I find them, collectively, rather pleasing to the eye.

 

These books however (above) WILL be able to spend eternity nattering. Susan Branch sent me possibly the most beautiful package I have ever received and two of the books she sent are in the picture. It was sent to Pixie Wood and my mother, who received it for me, was just as excited as I was at the opening ceremony. Ahhhhhh! I felt like I had been dropped from a great height and landed in the largest pile of feathers imaginable. The packaging, the note inside, the books themselves were all perfect. Susan's books sit with a book that The Ritz of London put out on the subject of afternoon tea and my battered notebook, purchased from the Anthropology that is right by the farmers market in L.A., sits with them also. Now officially the book on afternoon tea should be in the kitchen with the foodie books but it's more of a reference book, hence the fact that it shall go in the new office with all of the other pretty books.

Is that not so true?? All crafting, decorating, homemaking & thrifting books are simply the prettiest things. Whether they be hard or soft-back, illustrated or filled with photographs. I have bought a book on account of the pretty picture on the front so many times I have lost count. They reside in our homes like paper jewels. My agent and I (how wonderful that feels to write, let me tell you) were discussing books the other day. We both have emotional reactions to books and her background in television is of the lifestyle kind. Perfect for me really as if it were cars or sports I don't think our meetings would be as fruitful ;-) But we both sat there and were able to make pages of notes outlining the types of books we'd like to see published one day.

Of course the books don't all have to be kept on shelves with only their spines on show. My reason for keeping all of my books in certain rooms in the house is simply so that I am able to find them. I know myself too well and also know that if I need a book at a moments notice I need to know exactly where it will be. But I shall be creating vignettes around the house using certain books and other accessories. The books in the picture above are really small and only have about 30 pages in them. They sit with a knitted tea cosy that LBH's great aunt Violetta gave to me when we visited Zurich last Spring. I like this set up. And as long as the books are in the kitchen they can sit with the tea cosy for as long as they like. One of the books can even elope with the tea cosy for all I care as long as they DO NOT LEAVE THE KITCHEN! ;-)

I'd like to show you something else today.........

This is a Love Box and it was sent to me by Tiffany . Let me tell you that it is absolutely perfect. And charming. And pretty. I ran my beady eye over it and could find no fault, her work is totally precious as was her letter. Do visit Tiffany, she is a gentle soul with a lovely blog.

And so all I have to do now is to thank you profusely for your name suggestions for the new bag. I am writing them up and putting them all into a rather large receptacle. I shall be doing the draw on Saturday morning and recording it for you to see. I shall post the result on Monday and put the collection onto the website for sale. The thought and imagination and generosity that has gone into those names is............too much and I feel totally ill equipped to thank you adequately. One bag hardly seems enough.

So, have a wonderful day wherever you may be. I wish you light, love and a spring in your step. I myself am spreading myself very thin these days with all that I have to get done and my to-do list has imploded under the weight and is very cross with me. But I have LBH, Boo, coffee,  a new house, a wedding to plan and a double bill of Greys Anatomy every Sunday night to keep me happy. And that, my friends, makes everything else achievable.

Love Cherry xx

It's Ours!

You see these tiny branches? In exactly a month from today, 18th of May 2007, these tiny branches will belong to LBH and I.

The house went through. It's ours and we move in 30 days time.

Forgive the short post..........if anybody needs me I shall celebrating........glass in hand of course!

 

Love Cherry xx

I Didn't Expect To See These Again!

 

Back by, what appears to be, popular demand.......my hand printed t-shirts. Towards the end of last year I was wanting to move away from selling these fellas and was not going to be getting any more printed. But they seem to be experiencing a little bit of a renaissance.

 

This line of t-shirts and their slogans were the first thing I ever designed. I thought long and hard about what I wanted each one to say as I was working to a budget and had to make each one count.

 

I sourced the best t-shirt I could find, a great fitting, soft cotton number and spent ages deliberating over who I should use to print them. I stuck to my original premise of a simple white t-shirt with something colourful and meaningful to sit on the front. I had the slogan printed higher than usual as I didn't want the wearer to feel that their boobs were being stared at when somebody was reading what it said! The devil's in the details people, the devil is in the details!!!

 

The price is the same as they were last year as I'm not a fan of charging folk extra simply because something becomes popular and depending on where you live we can get it to you in just a couple of days.

The short sleeved are here!.....

.....and the long sleeved are here!

 

I can now confirm that all of Susan Branch's answers to your questions are now in. I read through them on Saturday night while we were in the car on our way back from the Cotswolds, more on that another day. Susan's answers are more thorough and considered than I have seen in any magazine or interview with anyone EVER. And the beauty of having your own blog is that I can publish these answers in all of their pure and unadulterated glory. NO EDITING!!!!

I shall be posting the interview in just a few days.

I sincerely hope that you all had a wonderful Easter. LBH and I went to Blenheim Place for the day on Good Friday and had a carnic (a picnic in the car as it was slightly too windy to set out the rug). Then we drove onwards into the Cotswolds where we stayed for the night. We awoke early on Saturday and drove an hour or so into Bath where we did some shopping and lusting. Shopping for easter gifts and lusting after some limestone flooring we want for the new kitchen. And then we headed off back through the beautiful villages of Broadway and Chipping Campden before driving into London as the sun was setting. I shall go through the millions of pics and add some here in the next few days.

The new house and it's purchase is becoming a right royal pain in the bottom to be perfectly honest. I have gone through the "whhhhhhhyyyyyyyy, all we want is the house" stage and now I'm beginning to get rather peeved and a tad cross. I feel that there are people in our chain that are starting to take advantage and I will never accept people behaving badly when they know they are in a position of false power as it is subversive bullying in my book. And if you ever try to bully me I shall eat you on a slice of ciabatta bread with a juicy tomato and the ripest avocado I can lay my hands on! 

Phew! Now thats off my chest I can take the time to wish you a wonderful post-Easter week and am sending love and kisses your way!

;-)

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

 

My Life In Boxes

On Saturday I began to pack. The action of packing is slightly, if not very, premature as we don't actually have a date for completion or even a date for exchange yet. But I want out of London, so my brain thinks that if I begin to pack the whole process will move along a lot faster than it would if I didn't. There is no logic to this and I may very well have to unpack if it all falls through, but I shall continue to move forward in faith. It makes me happy to see my life being packed away in boxes as I know that all the bits and pieces in said boxes will have a wonderful surprise when they see their new home.

On Saturday I was packing away my magazines, the ones I intend to keep whole and take with me in one piece. I had separated out all of my Country Livings and specialist magazines and placed them in the big magazine box. I was left with only my copies of Vanity Fair as I had manged to file the rest. They sat there for a while on the carpet staring at me. Should they stay or should they go? Eventually I packed them. They were coming with us. I reminded myself that sometimes there is nothing like taking an old, dog eared Vanity Fair into a hot bath with you. Besides the issue on the top of the pile had George Clooney on the front and I don't think George would appreciate being surrounded by black bin liner and thrown out whether the bin liners were bio-degradable or not.

I also managed to clear some of the shelves in the kitchen and gave everything a good scrub. Then I dried all of the objects off and wrapped them into tight little parcels using last weeks Culture magazine and brown tape. LBH had gone out by this time and I was left alone with my wrapping and Radio Four. My love for Radio Four is all consuming. My days have become radio days and my activities are measured by what show is coming out of the radio speakers in the kitchen. The other day there was a show about Shakespeare and how he has been taught down the years in schools. Very badly by all accounts. So Lenny Henry went on a quest to find out from experts how Shakespeare SHOULD be taught in order to give school children a greater understanding of the genius that is the Bard. I forced myself to stop for a bit while people like Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and Judi Dench all shared their secrets to understanding Shakespeare. They all said that if it were the story that were told and not the language that were concentrated on then school kids across the land would be spouting verse in the playgrounds. Think about Romeo & Juliet. It's not a soppy love story, its in the category marked tragedy. It's about love, lust, fear, violence, two warring families, tradition, drugs and more testosterone than you can shake a stick at. That is what is important about Shakespeare, the story not the language. I sat there glued to the radio while the famous voice coach Patsy Rodenberg taught Lenny the basics of speaking verse while Judi Dench finished the program by reciting Sonnet number two. A sonnet that I had chosen to recite in one of our Shakespeare terms at drama school. It was great hearing how it SHOULD have been recited.

Where else could my mind have been fed like this but by listening to Radio Four? You can listen to the station here at any time and from anywhere on the planet. I promise you that The Archers has a strange way of sucking you in not matter how hard you try and resist! It has to be the hypnotic qualities in that famous theme tune that does it.

 

I'm working away at my Easter projects at the mo. Not to sell but to add to my website as How - To's. I shall be presenting them to you soon. I hope you like them and find them just a little bit useful.......and pretty too! We can't be doing with them if they aren't pretty.

Cherry x