Tales From Pixie Wood

Well........

....there's just time to stop by and tell you that right now I'm at this sort of stage in the 'getting the house ready for the magazine shoot' proceedings........

I look at this pile and think " but you haven't even cleaned the bathroom yet...PRIORITISE MENLOVE!!!!!"

So that's where the butter dish got to!

Okay, who put the wreath in the fridge?!?!?!?!?!?!

Anyway, that's what it's like around here right now. Organised chaos. Moments of tension occur but only when I run up the stairs, trip on the top step and land ribcage first into the walnut set of draws at the top. I lost an entire day doing that! I haven't run that fast up the steps since, let me tell you. Or when my alarm went off one morning and it was SO early and I was SO not allowed to wake LBH up that I hit my head SO hard on the corner of my nightstand that the blood made my hand wet in the dark. LBH got up after that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a short post as we are now entering the evening and there is still a lot to do. I should tell you that it was a conscious decision of mine to turn the comments off. For no particular reason at first except for an inkling that it may provide me with a wondrous sense of freedom. I was right. I have also been lucky enough to receive some wonderful, heartfelt emails from some of you this week and I have even managed to respond to several of them and that fills me with peace. I'm a doer, I like to get things done.

I will of course open them back up when we do the round up on Mrs Dalloway but I need the freedom to potter about the house and then tell you all about it. If you feel like getting in touch after that I would love to hear from you.

I had a meeting this week with the team of people that I work with on all things great and good. I love and adore meetings, this may change down the years, but right now I love them. Many things were discussed and plans were talked about. It's an exciting time with hard work down the road and changes too. There was a time I didn't like change, I liked to keep everything just the way it was. But if remember my own personal mantra, to not be afraid of anything and to always be kind, then change can only ever be positive.

A 'Good Thing' you might say!

;-)

KIDDING!!!!
I'm kidding I promise!!

Lots of love
Cx

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or thoughts at cherry (at) cherrymenlove dot com
I love to hear from you.

A New Light

 

Lions & Tigers & Bears..........OH MY, IT'S BEEN BUSY AROUND THESE PARTS LATELY!!!! For the past few days my beribboned, ballet pump shod feet have been carrying me here there and everywhere. I have had meetings in Notting Hill, central London, Brighton and I have also been doing a lot of cooking, hence the ballet pumps. I could not have gotten through the week so far had I been in heels. Although I have to admit to being a MASSIVE fan of the odd pair of stilettos and there once was a time when a pair of flats did not exist in my wardrobe. That was also around the time that my days consumption consisted of buckets of coffee, Cosmopolitans and lots and lots of cigarettes. Ah those heady days of youth, how long we like to linger!!
Now I'm all pure. I wear flats and bake cup cakes all day long! Mmmmmm......nothing if not extreme I suppose. ;-)

 

Anyway, I'm glad I have finally had a chance to sit down and begin typing away.   Remember when I told you that I had chosen the word 'organisation' as my word for the year? Well it is now that I need to start putting it to work. At around this time I would usually start to get my house ready for Spring. As soon as the sun begins to shine on the furniture and on the surfaces the wrinkles that have built up over the past few months begin to show. The place needs a lift and a sparkle and it needs it now. Linens need to be changed as do soft furnishings. Items need to be laundered and put away for later on in the year. New treasures need to be sourced and old treasures need to be lifted out into the open.

 

Except that this year there will be no need for my grand Spring clean as we shall be moving. Instead everything shall be put into boxes only to be retrieved at an entirely different location. LBH and I have been at pains to chuck or re-cycle as much as we can before we leave this place. We want to be travelling lightly and moving in with a clean slate. We have both made concessions as to what we will take and what we shall try and lose before we head off into the Surrey countryside but there is one thing that I am most definitely taking and you can see parts of it in the pictures littering today's post.

I am a collector of Milk Glass. If I was going to get arty farty about my Milk Glass and start to refer to it metaphorically I would say that Milk Glass represents the innocence, purity and joy of keeping house. Depending on the piece it can be robust enough to hold any number of chunky Italian sugar cubes or just a single bud. It compliments many colour schemes but only really does well in a house with fun running through it's veins. I don't believe that it should be taken seriously. Come now, look at the creamer in the picture above. It has little nodules all over it for goodness sake! I know I just referred to it as the joy in housekeeping but it certainly isn't akin to a piece of Spode 'Blackbird'.

   

The only item I have ever regretted not bidding for on ebay was a Fenton, hobnailed cake stand. It was a stunning piece and they rarely come up for sale here in the UK. It went for about £30.00 and now when I think about it I simply can't believe that I let it go. Cakes, biscuits, marshmallows, chocolates, they all would have found themselves being presented on this one cake stand simply because the milky whiteness of  it looks beautiful behind just about every type of dessert, cake or biscuit. Except shortbread perhaps, too insipid. Or gingerbread, unless it's the traditional Lebkuchen loaf.

And so soon enough the day will arrive when I have to gather up all of my precious pieces and slowly begin to pack them all away. I'll wrap them up and pop them into the boxes. I really do not know where they will end up. I can't picture the pieces in any one room of the new house just yet but I am sure my epiphany will come.

Have a wonderful day. My feet got wet during my walk home and I need to go and dry them. Those ballet pumps do help to aid you in a brisk walk but they are no match for a London puddle.

C xx

ATTENTION ALL OF THOSE WHO WORK FROM HOME!
I am now a contributor to a brilliant website called Enterprise Nation. The guys at EN have constructed a fantastically informative, relevant and current website that is perfect for you if you work from home and are running your own business. You may be a stay at home mother who wants to start selling her crafts or you may be in the throes of launching your own consultancy.

Whatever you are doing please pop on over and take a look at the website. One of the most helpful features on the site is the podcasts. I have listened to several and have to say that the content and contributors are top class. I'm not talking about myself in that last sentence, although my latest series is rather good. You really should check it out!!!  ;-)

Choosing My Direction

I have been reading a number of blogs since the start of the year in which the authors have chosen a word for the coming year. This word is the word that they shall try to live by. A few people have chosen peace, some more have chosen kindness and I have seen some that have chosen happy. I have been thinking about this over the past few days and I have decided to choose a word for myself.

For me the most sought after state of being is peaceful. A better way of saying that is that I like to be at peace. Even if busyness causes my hours of sleep to drop to around four or I have a to-do list that is as long as the wall of China, I can cope with that if it is not coupled with a feeling of being anxious. I have the ability to worry like it's an Olympic sport and this can sometimes be debilitating. Granted it's usually only about one thing but this year I am going to get a handle on it.

Why this year?

Two reasons. The first being that my worried expression is causing wrinkles and the second is that I have so much to organise in the next eighteen months that I shall be walking down the aisle like a quivering, haggard prune if I'm not careful.

So, like I said, a few days ago I began to think of a word that I could meditate on in the coming year that would help me on my way to extraditing a large portion of worry from my simple little life and in the course of that extend the warm hand of peace.

The word I have chosen is organisation.

In the next eighteen months there is an extraordinary amount of work that has to be done and if I am not organised then I'm screwed. My peace will fly out of the window like a candy wrapper on the freeway. Admittedly there are only three things that will be holding my attention, the wedding, the house move and my business, but they all need quite a bit of attention. And thats before having a life, keeping my relationship alive and making room for some fun.

Fun? Now what exactly is that? ;-)

So I'm starting on the little things. I have done the wardrobes and LBH and I did under the beds last weekend. As you can tell, a weekend with us is about as rock 'n' roll as you get. ;-)

The kitchen cupboards have been organised. When you open the doors nowadays you are no longer met with a tin of chickpeas flying in the direction of your left eyeball. Everything is easily accessible in a 'Sleeping With The Enemy' kinda way.

I have begun the laborious task of cutting and keeping the articles I need from the very large number of magazines that reside in my home. I have a filing system already in place, I just don't use it. Approximately 0.1% of my collection is shown in this picture.

I have started my wedding ideas scrapbook. Everything I see that might be a good idea for the big day shall go into my little book. This is one of the nicer parts of getting organised.

Forgive the dodgy light in the pictures today. It seems to be so dark ALL THE TIME! This is the list of estate agents that we have registered with in one of the areas that we are looking in. It shows the name and phone number, any viewings that have taken place and the last time I called them. I'm on these chaps like a rash at the moment and had to take a rather firm tone with one of them last week. I'm sure he'll get over it though. I'm also sure that he will now CALL ME when a potential house comes on to the market.

I haven't yet started on my desk. It looks slightly worse than it is......no it doesn't, it actually is this bad. But I'm getting there and it feels really, really good. I like it. I can see where I am going, what needs to be done and how I am going to do it. My camera battery ran out of juice before I could shoot the lovely neat piles fabric that have been stashed away for future use but believe me when I say how pretty they look.

So how am I winding down after a long day of getting organised and finding my peace? I'll give you a clue.

Sandra Oh, Isaiah Washington, Patrick Dempsey I worship at the temple of your talent and marvel at how the Americans have once again given me television that takes all my worries away in the form of a DVD containing the entire first season of a drama set in Seattle Grace Hospital.

Grey's Anatomy, I salute you.