Tales From Pixie Wood

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* 

As Our Heads Are Down, So Time Speeds Up

LBH has been on holiday from work for just over a week now. It's been mighty nice for me to have him around and already I'm counting the days until he has to step back on the commuter train with dread.

"Start you own business" I whine in his ear, all day long.

"Work from home. It's better for everybody if more people work from home" I continue to whine. I should say that I have perfected a rather nice whiny voice that I pull out more often than not.

"Ah hon, it's nice that you want me here but it's not quite as simple as that. Now get back to work......."

Hee hee!

And so, I head off back to the part of the house that I am working on at any given moment and leave him to finish what he is doing. Which today happens to be the kitchen. I have been unable to get stuck into any form of hardcore recipe experimenting due to the kitchen not quite doing what it should, but all that should change today as there is a new beech worktop being installed and a hand-blasted sink.

If you are looking at the kitchen while standing on the stairs this is the work that will be done on the left hand side of the room. I have been hard at work on the right hand side.

I took this picture just after we had moved in. The green paint on the wall made the kitchen very dark and needed to go. So we bashed on some white paint, simply to cover it up, and then set about finding the final shade that we would use throughout. We realised early on that we would have to use the same shade of paint in the front hall, the entire kitchen, the walls going up the stairs and the landing as they all bleed into one.

Eventually we settled on Craig & Rose - Regency White. 

 

For a few weeks the right hand side of the kitchen looked like this. But you know that as I have posted this picture before. However I found that after my many thrifting trips I needed somewhere to put some of the mis-matched dishes that were starting to pile up. So we decided on a single shelf. A single, rather long, shelf.

 

You can see that there is work going on in the kitchen as a rather lengthy spirit level is protruding from the bottom of the picture but this is how the shelf is looking right now. I have been able to put some of my serving bowls on it as well as some darling espresso cups that my lovely future mother - in - law bought me for my birthday. I have a feeling that this space will alter from time to time and certainly as the seasons change.

Can you see the garland that is hanging along the bottom of the shelf?

 

This garland was sent to me by Lesley of Small Meadow Press. Lesley also writes a blog called The Bower. I found The Bower when I first happened upon the world of blogging and was totally inspired by both Lesley and her business. When I received an email from her recently I was totally overwhelmed as I had been a long time fan of hers. Her gentle spirit comes through in her work and I am aware of the fact that my picture of her garland does not do it justice, so please check out her website for more of her collection.

It's folk like Lesley that inspire me. People that are prepared to put their heart and soul on the line and in their work, cynicism be dammed. I have no time for cynicism quite frankly and try hard to keep all areas of my thoughts free from it. That's not to say that I don't question, I do, I question each and every day. But sliding into cynicism and then ultimately criticism seems so easy to me. I prefer a challenge!

Lesley thank you so very much for your gift. It meant more to me than the garland itself because it arrived with your sense of design and warmth all over it. It also arrived on a day when I needed it to arrive.

Have a lovely week. I'm finding it hard to post at the moment as we are rushing around on the house and have just found out that we need to go on a trip abroad to see an elderly relative of LBH's.

Schwester Violett, we'll see you shortly my darling..........

Lots of love

Cherry x

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