Mass baking

Last night I took myself off into the kitchen to have a mass baking session. I love baking, especially when it involves using up lots of our free range eggs. So, I asked the birthday boy (Gregg) what kind of cakes he would like for his birthday as I was planning on making him one to have tonight and one to take into the office with him today. The request was for a carrot cake and a sponge cake and I also suggested I'd make him a tray of mars bar crispie cake as he rather likes that too.When we were at the CL Fair last week he kept pestering me for mini eggs as I'd made some little jars of treats - jam jars filled with mini eggs with a fabric lid, tied with a ribbon and a cute little hand written tag. Like last year they sold really well and we also had a little bowl of eggs on the counter for people to help themselves to, quite a nice little touch I thought. So he knew I had a bag stashed in one of the boxes but I wouldn't tell him where they were as I knew he'd eat them all! I'm such a spoil sport aren't I?!! So I've made him what looks very much like an Easter cake for his birthday to make up for my stingyness last week! It's just a simple victoria sponge with home made strawberry jam in the middle and pink butter cream icing on the top, not quite sure what he'll think of that little touch!!

As promised, here are some photos of the pots that I did for display at the fair, just another little touch that I though looked rather sweet dotted around the stall. So many people asked if they were for sale and there were nearly a few flower heads pulled off as people were convinced they were artificial - really, what next?

Birthday boy and I are are heading out tonight, we thought we'd head down to Dundee for a bite to eat, we've been recommended to go to a Turkish restaurant, so we might give that a bash.

Speak to you all tomorrow!

L x

The pottery range

Seeing as all you eager beavers are desperate to get your hands on our lovely new pottery range, I thought I'd give you all a little treat this morning and put it up for sale on the blog today. It'll be a couple of days before Gregg and I can sit down together and put it on the website, plus I'd like to get some better photos of it taken before I do. So here it is.....

Mugs approx. 7.5cm high. £10 each.

Heart design all the way around the top of the mug and a little heart inside the mug too.

Little jug approx. 9cm high. £12 each.

Heart design all the way around the top of the jug and a little heart inside it too.

Tea plate approx. 20cm dia. £12 each.

Heart design all the way around the edge of the plate.

Bowl approx. 7cm high. £12 each.

Heart design all the way round the top of the bowl, plus either one, two or three hearts inside the bowl too.

T-light holder/vase or whatever else you fancy using it for! (Comes with a t-light in it)

Approx. 6cm high. £7.50 each

Heart design all the way around the top.

Each piece of pottery is hand thrown on a potters wheel, the little heart is imprinted into the clay, the hearts are then hand painted and it is glazed. Due to this, no two pieces are ever the same and all have a very rustic, organic feel and look to them.

Not suitable for the dishwasher I'm afraid!

If you would like to enquire/order any of the above pottery please drop me an e-mail at info@primrosehillinteriors.com and we can take it from there. The above prices do not include postage. We've not got a huge amount of stock left so it'll be on a first come first served basis and then I'll have to take orders. As Diana makes it all herself it will be next week before she can get started on any new stock!

I'm now off out shopping as I completely forgot that it's Gregg's birthday tomorrow, oops! I shall have to make him an extra large birthday cake tonight I think! If it's a success I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

Bye for now,

L xx

Home from the fair.....

Aaaaaah, home at last and into my own bed, but returning a very happy bunny having had the most amazing few days down at the Country Living Fair! This is my second attempt at this post, I sat last night for almost 2 hours typing out this huge post with loads of pictures, only for it to disappeared into thin air, bloody blogger, so here goes attempt no. 2!

The cars were rammed full on Tuesday night as well as a roof box and we thankfully had a more successful start than last year (the battery in my car was flat- picture it, me having kittens and a major panic - not good!). We headed off down to the "big smoke" and were setting up by 8.30am. We painted the stall again this year, trusty F&B, it makes a huge difference as our customers always comment on how much we stand out from the others that don't paint. We were a lot better prepared for it all this year so I think that's a big reason why we enjoyed it so much more, plus knowing what's in front of you is a huge help! Even though you get 12 hours to set up, it's still never enough, we were still titivating by 8pm and had lots to do on opening morning!

I had the help of my friends Ann-Marie, Ali and my sister Nicola, so between us all we made a fab team over the four days. Thusday and Friday were pretty busy, but nothing could have prepared us for the madness of Saturday, it was soooo busy but totally fantastic! I also met a few blog friends, including my cyber twin Rachel, more on that another day! So thank you to you all for coming and introducing yourselves and purchasing a little bit of Primrose Hill, it was lovely to put faces to the blogs at last!
The best bit for me about the fair is getting to chat to all of our customers, many returning from last year or having seen us at other fairs, often to buy something for themselves as they'd previously bought for friends or vice versa. They love chatting away about our adventures in the country, doing up the "shack" and about our brood of chooks, I even had some interesting chats about our problems with the mink! But the best bit of all was that so many people have commented on the quality of our hand made products, head and shoulders above others in the same game. Now I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, but receiving a compliment like that is just fab, it means that all those hours of hard work that go into designing and making our products special has really paid off, so thank you all for that, it really does mean a lot to me.

So many of our products sold out very quickly, especially the little china cups and saucers filled with violas and spring bulbs, they recieved so many lovely comments! I had plonked some branches of flowering currant into a jug on one of the shelves, the heat of the hall had brought the flowers out and they looked stunning! If I'd had a £1 for every person that wanted to buy them I'd be a very rich girl! Why is it that people always want what they can't have? As you can imagine, the pottery went down a storm too, the fact that it is completely hand made and hand painted gives it a very rustic, organic feel and each piece is completely individual, one customer has already commented on how she loves her mug! As is always the way, I only got a very quick chance to look around on Sunday afternoon (to buy some sausages actually!) and chat to other stall holders. I was so pleased when I found out that Hume Sweet Hume had won the Best Stand Award, I feel they truely deserved it, they design and make the most amazing knitwear collection from hats, scarves and bags to cardigans, cushions and purses. The girls come all the way down from a tiny island in Orkney and exhibit at both the London and Scotland Fair, so by the time I got to their stand on Sunday afternoon it was looking a little bare! (sorry I don't have a decent photo of their stand on the first day as that would have shown it at it's best!) The girls make the most wonderful little brooches that look like thistle heads, they had had this made into a stencil and also a beautifully handwritten slogan "handmade in Orkney". This had been hand painted all over the walls of the stand and gave it a really special touch, but you had to look closely to notice it. I think it's the little details like this that make you stand out from the rest. They also took the time to display their wares nicely on painted and aged shelving, so many of the clothing companies just roll in the clothes rails and off they go.

A lot of people probably don't "get" why they won - to me it's quite simple - they are what Coutry Living Magazine is all about. They are a small rural business based in probably one of the most remote places in Scotland, yet they have succeeded in running a successful business from there. They could have quite easily chosen to stay on the mainland but they didn't, they returned to the little island that was home and set up their business in the old Fish & Chip shop - how fab is that? Also, every piece of their work is completely hand made, nothing on their stand is bought in to fluff it up (unlike myself!), even down to the buttons they use, they are pebbles collected from the beach with two holes drilled into them - you don't get much more original than that. Also, they employ a team of what I call "little sewing ladies", so by doing this they are supporting what is probably a very fragile economy on a tiny island in the Orkney Isles. Well done girls, I think you totally deserved it.

So, now that the fair is over, it's time to get back into work, it would be so easy to just have a couple of weeks pottering around, but we've got to hit the ground running I'm afraid! The website needs to be updated with all our new products that we launched at the fair, plus I've got loads of orders to get out the door now - no rest for the wicked! I am looking forward to getting to spend a bit of time in the garden though, it has been seriously neglected - but at least the front door is looking particularly fetching at the moment as all of my display pots are flowering away, I'll show you a picture of them all tomorrow!

L x

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to the fair we go.....!

At last, we are nearly at the end of March, Spring is well and truly here, as is the Country Living Spring Fair Scotland, aaaargh! We're nearly all organised, although I've still got a million and one things to do tonight, including filling and sewing up another 10 door stops! I spent part of the morning doing something I've been looking forward to for ages, I had planned to do them last year, but as usual ran out of time! What do you think of these.....................?

My friend Diana who has Glenshee pottery sold me some of her old china, she used to have a tea room on Mull, so had plenty going spare! I think it's such a sweet way to recycle old cups and saucers, I just hope the Country Living visitors think the same! Although if I was bringing them home to dot around the house I wouldn't be too sad! As you can see I've got a bit of a production line here.....!

I'm really looking forward to meeting a few of the Scottish bloggers at the fair so please do come along and say hello, we're at stand C34. Tomorrow is set up day and the fair runs from Thursday 22nd March until Sunday 25th March at the SECC in Glasgow.

I'll be back next Monday with all the tales from the fair and lots of photos!

Right, I really must go and get on!

L x

New job & CL Fair London

Just a quick post today about a couple of things. For all our friends and family that read the blog Gregg got on fine in his new job yesterday. It was quite surreal sending him off with his packed lunch (made by me I hasten to add!) all suited and booted, looking very smart! They all seem like a nice bunch in the office so he'll hopefully settle in quite quickly. It has certainly got me into a far better routine as it gets me out of my pit in the morning! Well so far so good, we are only on day two I suppose!

Sorry to go on about the Country Living Fair again, in a couple of weeks time it will all be over for another year! Two of my blog friends are heading down to the London Fair today, Samantha over at Plump Pudding is heading down from Wales, you can go and visit her on stand H17 on the mezzanine floor. Caroline over at Twice is travelling all the way down from up my neck of the woods, you can find her at stand G1. Do go along and say hello to the girls, I'm sure they'll give you a very warm welcome! The fair is on from tomorrow through until Sunday at the Business Design Centre in London.

At last the geese have started to lay again this year, they lay the most wonderful, huge white eggs, great for baking with. I've had to rescue one of the geese twice from the nesting box as she gets so excited whenever I go into the run she gets herself all stuck inside it, stupid bird!

Thank you all for your encouraging comments about the new pottery range, fingers crossed it goes down well next week!

Off to get on with yet more sewing and tagging, a week to go until we head down to Glasgow, I hope all the Scottish bloggers have it in their diary!

L x

Glen of the fairies and a pottery range

Today I got to drive one of my favourite journeys up to Glenshee. From the end of the farm track you can either turn right to go down to Alyth or turn left and head for the glens, referred to by the locals as the back road to Glenshee. It's a beautiful drive taking you high up over the hills looking right up the glen, until you meet up with the A93. I was lucky enough to see three roe deer today and numerous cock pheasants that had managed to survive the shooting season for another year.

Glenshee is special because there is nowhere in the world quite like it, wild, romantic, beautiful, and steeped in history and legend. It has always been known as Glenshee, or as it is in Gaelic, Gleann Shith, the Glen of the Fairies. It has never had any other name, and until the old tongue died out the inhabitants were known as Sithichean a' Ghlinnshith or "Elves of Glenshee".

The reason for my trip up the glen today was to collect our latest addition to the Primrose Hill Interiors range. I've always wanted to have my own range of pottery, but as I'm not a potter (although I have often been refered to as a bit potty!) I didn't really think I'd ever get round to it. There are a number of beautiful ranges of pottery out there but I didn't just want to go and buy it in like everyone else does.

The summer after we moved up here I took a trip up to the local pottery, Glenshee Pottery, as they were holding an open day with a local girl who does felting, she had her yurt set up and was telling us all about her recent trip to Mongolia. I signed up for a day course "Hats from the Hills", a days felting where you learnt how to make a felt hat, inspired by something from nature. I also got chatting to Diana, the lady who owned the pottery as she was interested in stocking some of our products in the shop. I have to say, the pottery is one of my favourite shops, it's always lovely and cosy as there is a huge red AGA in the middle of it, there is generally at least one cat sitting sleeping in a chair and you get a lovely cup of tea or coffee made for you to have while looking around the shop. The pottery workshop is through the back but as there is a stable door separating the shop and the workshop you can see everything that is going on through the back. They have a fab range of products including knitwear and other crafts, as well as all of the beautiful pottery handmade by Diana.

So, I gradually got to know Diana over the next few months as she came along to quite a few of the fairs that I was attending in the run up to Christmas. You know how it is, you meet someone else who is crafty, has their own small rural business and there is a bit of a connection, plus the two of us could talk the hind legs off a donkey! After the madness of Christmas I had my thinking cap on for new ideas for the Country Living Fair, I wanted something different that no one else would have, exclusive to us and handmade in Scotland, *PING*, light bulb moment, why don't I ask Diana if she'll make me a range of pottery! The two of us got our heads together, and with the help of her ever so delightful assistant Nicola, the new range was born - all that was left was for Diana to make it all. In a couple of months. As well as getting all of her own stock made for the shop opening in April. I take my hat off to her and the team (Nicola & Jennifer), they have worked their little socks off up there, maybe with the help of some of the fairies from the glen. They have created me a range of beautifully hand made pottery, each piece being totally individual, I LOVE it.

So here it is, a little sneaky peak for you all, it will be going up for sale on the website after the fair.

A big thank you

The big birthday came and went last Thursday and it was a lovely day. I spent a bit of time in the morning getting the last of the spring bulbs in the garden with help from my neighbour Ruth - fingers crossed they flower this year, better late than never!

We went to Ballathie House Hotel (pictured below) for lunch, we met up with my Aunt Alison, she's 40 today, Happy Brithday Alison if you're reading this! It's a beautiful stately manor type place, very relaxed and great food. Later in the day I popped along to another rather posh place called The Lands of Loyal to have a couple of glasses of wine with my friend Christine, sat next to a huge roaring fire, it was bliss! We then came home to have a bottle of champers and birthday cake, made by Gregg and very yummy it was too.

The best bit was definitely present opening, which I did in bed first thing, here are some pictures of my beautiful gifts.....

beautifully wrapped.......

ooh, looks exciting......

a hidden parcel......

the most gorgeous pair of diamond earrings, how lucky am I?

I'll post more pictures of all my goodies later, too many to show at once! Thank you everyone, especially to my gorgeous craft roadie!

A young twenty something......

Well, today is my last day of being a young twenty something, I got a bit down about it all a few weeks ago, but I think I'm over it now. So many people say "it's all down hill after you hit 30" and such like, but I'm beginning to realise that life is totally what you make of it and you're only as young as you feel.

I want to make some changes to my life this year, I've also realised that it is up to you to make your life a happy one as nobody else is going to do it for you. I need to learn to say no.

So, things are going to change with the business, no longer will I be sat all day making door stops as that's what I've done for the past 2 and a bit years! Yes, it's nice being known as the "door stop lady" but my sewing machine knows how to make lots of other beautiful things, as I've discovered over the past few weeks. Also, in a couple of weeks time my routine will be completely flung up in the air, I'm going to be a 6am - 5pm working girl, Monday to Friday, no more working weekends or going to sleep in an empty bed as Gregg is away on night shift. He starts a new job, a regular working hours job, so hopefully some sanity will be installed back into our lives instead of the sporadic way of life we have always known. I'm really looking forward to it.

This change will hopefully mean that we can start to live our life the way we have wanted to since moving to the sticks, we'll be able to spend a couple of hours in the evening in the garden tending our veggie plot, and, fingers crossed, we may even get those pigs that I've been hankering after for years. My next purchase from Amazon will be a book about keeping pigs me thinks, any recommendations?

It's funny how reaching a milestone birthday like this makes you sit back and re-evaluate your life, it does feel slightly grown up making these choices - something I have never ever really felt, I've always been a bit of a tearaway, mischief follows me and I still love a bit of a wild night out (as much as everyone thinks you live the quiet life out here in the sticks, I would beg to differ!)



I shall leave you with a picture from the garden last summer, my favourite season of the year. Fingers crossed my plans come to fruition, at the end of the day it's up to me to make sure that it does, as, unfortunately for me, the fairies around here won't do it!

Busy, busy....

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, it's all a bit mad over here at PH HQ just now. Four weeks today will be the opening day of the Country Living Magazine Scotland Spring Fair , and I'm starting to get my knickers in a bit of a twist now. As usual, I leave everything to the last minute, I drew up a list last night of things still to do other than loads of sewing and creating, and it's huge! Never mind, we'll get there, Gregg is almost finished all the new bits and bobs for the shell of the stall so that's one less thing to worry about, where would I be without him, my "craft roadie" as he calls himself!!

While sewing away yesterday, I listened to podcasts from the Wiggly Wigglers site, they are fab! A real bunch of gigglers with lots of very interesting stuff to talk about, it really kept me going all day. I would highly recommend them if you're into gardening, issues about the countryside and the running of a rural business, highly entertaining!

I'm hoping to enlist the help of my little friend Catriona at the weekend, she is my top door stop filler and may hopefully progress to label attacher this weekend - are you around to help this weekend Catriona? - in return for lots of hot ribena and copious amounts of pancakes with nutella? :o)

Anyway, must get on, off to listen to the last couple of Wiggly Wiggler podcasts and crank up the sewing machine!

L x

Vintage buttons and Country Living

I've just come in from walking Chrissie, windswept and rosie cheeked, it's wild and dreich out there. "Dreich", such a great Scottish word, don't you think? At last, my March Country Living has arrived, it's normally here long before it hits the shelf of our local newagents, was not impressed when I popped in yesterday to see it sitting there and I STILL didn't have mine, humf! Anyway, I'm so pleased, my friend Caroline who has the Twice shop, has a little feature in it this month, her sewing roll has been featured in Emporium. We met last year when we both had stalls at the Travelling Souk and at Perth Mart Christmas Fair. Her products are gorgeous, real vintage beauties made into a lovely selection of gifts and goodies for the home.

This lovely little lot arrived in the post this morning too.............

Just over 100 real mother of pearl vintage buttons, some of them are really gorgeous, I have a real thing for mother of pearl buttons and use them on so many of our products. I'm also waiting on another lot arriving, this time 600! Yes, 600! I'll maybe have to part with some of them and sell them in the shop............. hmmmm, we'll see!

We're also waiting on another arrival, but of a different sort, the geese are apparently due to start laying on Valentines Day, but so far no eggs from them. I went out and spoke to them today, I told them that if they didn't start laying soon they'd go in the pot, that normally works with them! Their eggs are fab, they are huge with really tough shells, great for baking with and Gregg loves them for breakfast, they make HUGE fried eggs! Fingers crossed they'll start laying soon.

Thank you all for telling me what you got up to on Valentines Day, it's nice to know there are still some romantics out there! The chocolate cake was yummy, I was worried it wouldn't be very nice as it was a bit hard when I put the chocolate ganache over it, but as Julia over at Chrystal Mountain said, 20 seconds in the microwave with lashings of cream and it was dish delish! Left overs for pud tonight, guess who's going to be a few pounds heavier by the end of this week!

Sweet Valentines..........

Do you remember when you were little, waiting on the postie arriving in the morning, was there going to be any Valentines cards for you? Or even worse, would there be one for your brothers or sisters and not one for you? If Valentines Day fell on a school day they had a "Valentines Post Box" in both our primary and secondary schools, it caused great hilarity, and you could get up to all sorts of mischief sending naughty cards - not that I ever did of course! ;O)

Today I got one lovely card and a bunch of flowers, in return I have baked a chocolate cake and never quite got round to making that card.......................oops! Much creativeness has been going on in the workroom today though, so that's my excuse. At last I feel as if I'm getting somewhere, lots of new products have been flying off the sewing machine, all of which I'm really pleased with, I'll maybe show you some of them nearer the time of the fair..............!!

I'll leave you with a picture (sorry it's not the greatest photo) of our yummy cake - well I hope it will be! I've used some of our lovely blue duck eggs to make it! Gregg is busy making the supper, fillet steaks (from a local farm), dauphinoise potatoes and fresh veg from the organic shack down the road, mmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Happy Valentines Day to you all, whats is everyone doing tonight I wonder?

L xx

Blizzards and snow babes......

Well at last the snow has made it's way north, it's snowed all day today and has been on and off for the last 3 days, so we have a good 4 -5 ", it's fab! Today has involved mega snowball fights including rolling around in the snow getting it shoved up my back and down my bum!, walking about in a blizzard trying to find ski poles, but best of all was this........

Meet Sadie Frost, the snow babe! We decided, rather than to build the conventional snow MAN we would build a snow lady! Gregg had a bit of creative direction in the modelling of the body, hence the rather large boobs! I decided she must cover up so we gave her a rather fetching red bikini, hope she doesn't get frost bite on her bum!!!

Here's more pictures of today, me, Catriona and Gregg all posing with her!

Catriona making her head!

Gregg posing with his new lady friend!!!

Catriona and me making some moves on the snow dance floor!

ooh, ooh, must tell......

I don't think I have ever posted twice in one day, but this afternoon there was much excitement in the hen house. Our hens are starting to come back into lay now, the most eggs we've had in one day is 5 so far. You can generally tell which ones are either laying or about to come into lay as their combs go really red. I've been keeping an eye on them all, the light sussex are laying, one of the rhode Island reds is laying and a couple of the little wyandottes, probably the red ones, but some of the others are starting to go really red too.

So, this afternoon when I went into collect the eggs, I found 2 in the little corner where some of them seem to be laying and there were 2 in the nesting box closest to the door, a nesting box that hardly ever gets used (we have 5, but they generally only lay in 2 or 3 of them). To my delight, both the eggs are a gorgeous blue colour, a complete surprise as I didn't think any of our hens laid blue eggs. So, I am now left wondering are these eggs from 2 of the three blue laced wyandottes that we have (2 of them are very red in the comb) or are they from the apricot call ducks? As far as I'm aware, the ducks will only lay about 10 eggs in the year and are more likely to go off and build a nest somewhere, lay their eggs and then come back with ducklings (or am I being completely naive in thinking this - they'll probably all get eaten by the mink?). So only time will tell, I really hope that it's the little wyandottes that have laid them as then we'd have lovely blue eggs to add to the deep brown and white eggs we get from the others. Here's a picture of todays eggs.

Will keep you posted, it's no wonder I never get any work done!

New stockist

Today sees another delivery flying off via Royal Mail to a wonderful little shop in Glasgow, in Princes Square, Fifi & Ally - don't you just love that name?! This is a new stockist for us which is always quite exciting. I haven't actually been to the shop yet but I have read lots about it, you can read a little bit here, another really fabby blog. I've also read that it was recently voted one of the top 100 shops in the world, "Fifi & Ally is Glasgow’s hippest lifestyle concept store specialising in quirky fashion and lifestyle ..." how cool! So, another addition to the "to visit" list, I really must get down to Glasgow, I'm in desperate need of a VV Roleaux fix and haven't been to visit my sisters new flat in Glasgow, tut-tut, what a bad sister I am.

Cyberspace.........

Ok, this is a bit weird. It would appear that I have a cyber twin. What?, I hear you all say, yep, a cyber twin. While taking my usual trip through blogland, checking my fave sites, I came across this.

Ooooh, I hear you all say, that is a bit freaky. The freakiest bit of all, is that Rachels blog was probably one of the first blogs I started reading when I entered this other universe, yet I've only recently felt compelled to comment, I think that's what you call a "lurker"!! The only bit in Rachels comparison of our two parallel lives that isn't quite accurate is that I didn't move to Scotland, I've pretty much always lived in this country all my life. But the even freakier bit is that before we moved up here to the sticks, I lived not that far from her..........

So, I wonder if we will ever meet? will we be alike? or are there thousands of us out there all living this idyllic life of crafting, chicken keeping, house renovating and gin drinking at the wonderfully young age of 30 (not quite there yet, still another 22 1/2 days to go, sorry Rach, didn't mean to rub it in!), is it just a coinicidence that our paths have crossed......................?
We'll see.

You should have a read of Rachels blog, Oh, the glamour....,about life in general and extremely entertaining.

Ooh, and another thing while I'm talking about all things weird and bloggy, I'm not sure about everyone else, but I get a bit freaked out when "anonymous" people start leaving comments and I don't have a clue who they are. I feel as if I should know who they are but don't, as they seem to know me - so can you make yourself known please? Ta.

L x

P.S. Yes, I know you're probably all thinking, poor thing, she's been on the gin already this morning, well I haven't, the bar doesn't open until 5pm in our house. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, but if you have time to blog you have time to have a G&T, both can be done in tandem and it is generally a very nice experience!

Right, I think I've said enough for one day.

Gorgeous day

Work wise, today has been crap, one of those days when you really just feel like throwing in the towel and getting a normal job................

But, thankfully it was a gorgeous sunny day, I took myself off for a long walk with Chrissie this afternoon to sort my head out, I'm a great believer in thinking that you have to have the lows to appreciate the highs, my way of putting a positive spin on having a rubbish day!

But best of all was this........................................

.....................getting the washing out on the line! And there's nothing better than bring it in, pretty much dry and smelling wonderful................until you get a whiff of the sceptic tank and then the moment is totally lost! Ooh, the joys of living in the country, I'm off to put the chickens to bed, light the fires, make the tea and have a large bombay sapphire and tonic, I think we may even have a lime lurking in the fruit bowl.

Enjoy your weekend.

L x

Do not read if you're a vegetarian.............

The other night there was a knock at the door at about 9pm, I was in alone and thought "who on earth is it at this time of night?" Well, when I opened the door (with Chrissie at my feet incase it was someone dodgy!!) I got a bit of a shock. It was our neighbour with a brace of duck for me, shot that day. Hmm, what do I do with these was my intial thought, but being the thankful neighbour that I am, I gratefully received them and accepted the instructions as to how to "deal" with them. "Don't bother plucking them, too many feathers, just slice them open and cut out the breast!" was the instruction - boy could I have done with Hugh F-W! I left them hanging at the front door overnight while I deliberated over my dilemma. Gregg wasn't home until this morning, so do I deal with them myself or be a wimp and leave them for him? I very pathetically opted for the latter!

So, Gregg got to it this afternoon, with me watching, he's skinned a mink before so kind of knew what he was doing! After a bit I got bored and decided that I was probably never going to have to do this kind of thing so I didn't really need to know, a bit pathetic, eh! I didn't think you'd really appreciate photos of him skinning the duck, so I'll spare you the gory details.

It has brought us back to a conversation we have constantly, one of our main reasons for moving to the sticks and having some land was so that we could be more self sufficient. We have just over an acre at the moment, enough to keep the chickens, geese and ducks, a large veggie plot and lots of room for growing flowers. We'd love to have a bit more land, ideally the field across the burn from us would be perfect. My dream is to Keep Tamworth pigs, breed them, some for selling and some for the freezer. I'd also like to keep sheep, again to sell, for the freezer and for their wool, ideally a rare breed too as we would then at least feel as if we were contributing to the preservation of our rare breeds. I quite fancy an Anglo Nubian goat too, but that's more for a pet and just for the fun of having a mad goat, she would of course have to be called Gertie!

So, we were sat at the table this evening enjoying our duck, although I have to say I did find it a bit weird eating meat that still had feathers and a head attached to it a few hours ago? Gregg asked me the question that he asks me all the time whenever I'm whittering on about this menagerie of animals that we're going to acquire "so, do you think you'd be able to take one of your little piggies or lambs down to the abatoir for slaughter and then enjoy a nice Sunday roast?". Hmm, I think I could, I would love to think that we will one day, but how will I actually feel when it comes to eating it? Only time will tell, I know for a fact though that if we do get all these animals I won't be able to use the excuse "but they're our pets", from the outset they will always be destined for the freezer, maybe that will help me get my head around it.

I'll leave you with a picture of our supper, pan fried duck breast on mashed potato, veg and a good dollop of leftover home made cranberry sauce! It was rather tasty...........

Could this be Spring?

Well, it's the 31st of January and boy, is it mild. I can't believe the first month of 2007 is almost passed, not that I'm particularly sad as I hate the long, dark, cold days of January. But amazingly after all the gales, snow and freezing weather we've had over the past couple of weeks it has now turned to be so mild and Spring like - what's happened, January is never like this? In fact it is so mild that I have taken my sewing outside to do. I just can't bare to sit inside when it's mild like this, the birds are cheeping away, the chickens are scratching about in the garden, and best of all the spring bulbs are at last starting to show (not that there's many as most of them only got put in the ground on sunday!!!). I've got a stinking cough at the moment so I'm a tad zomby like, getting outside will do me the world of good and hopefully waken me up a bit!

Just being able to get the washing out on the line is such a treat, I have to say, hanging out the washing is my favourite chore - peg bags are a must for this year and will definitely be crossed off the "to do" list! I've also decided to stick with my trusty "dotty" fabric. I've always worked along the lines of once a fabric is finished it's finished as I don't like the idea of churning out hundreds of the same product in one fabric (not that I ever make 100 of anything - I'm lucky if I make a dozen at a time!!). But, seeing as it is soooo popular I've decided to stick with it, a bit like Emma Bridgewater and her dotty china, everyone loves it and it's a bit of a classic in every country kitchen.

I've plonked a jug of my daffs on the table outside with me, seeing as there aren't any out in the garden yet, but it's something to look forward to - if the hens don't scratch them all up! I seriously think mother nature is fooling us though, there's no way it'll stay like this for next few months, I'm sure there'll be a cold snap just around the corner? But I'm going to make the most of it while it lasts.

Right, I think that's the bread maker I hear bleeping, fresh bread for lunch - outside of course, anyone joining me?

L x

Maintaining a website

We've had the website for three years now, and as much as I love it, it's really hard work and I never really feel as if I'm on top of it. Because of the nature of what I do, I'm always creating and making new products, especially with new fabrics etc as you never know what lovely little gems your going to find when you're out for a rummage in the shops! New products just never seem to sit around for long enough in order for me to get some nice photos, either that or the weather is crap and I can't get outside to take the damn pictures!

I am soooo lucky that I don't have to pay someone a fortune to "do" the website for me, thankfully I have a very patient husband who has quite happily taught himself how to do it for me, if it wasn't for him I'd have no web site at all! We are always debating over the whole "click & buy" scenario too, but to be honest, I'm quite happy with the set up as it is - if I had orders coming in left, right and centre I wouldn't be able to cope as I never seem to have a massive pile of stock - it's generally all for a shop or for stock for a fair!

We spent last night getting rid of the terrribly out of date Christmas web site and making it a bit more spring like - but as usual while I was sitting updating all the text, I'm busy gabbering away to Gregg about how I want to change it before we do the Country Living Fair?!!

I am totally in awe of all the ladies out there who manage to create such beautiful crafts and maintain a web site too, how do they find the time? You should have a look at them, there's Cherry, Samantha and Tracey for starters and Donna, Fiona and Clare are busy working on theirs too, all very exciting.

So ladies, I'd like to pick your brains. I am very much of the opinion that because I am a very small rural business I get away with not being a fancy, slick set up, I don't do credit cards, it's payment by cheque or Paypal and I don't have a brochure (lots of people asked for them over the Christmas spell). I like to think that our lifestyle is very much a part of the business and the business is very much a part of our lifestyle - all very organic - if you see what I mean? Your thoughts on this would be very much appreciated, and thank you to everyone who comments on the site, it really does mean so much to me that people take the time to say their bit.

Thanks,

L x

I've been tagged!

I was tagged on Friday by Nonnie

Here are the instructions - The Rules: Each player of this game starts with "6 weird things about you". Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means. So here are my six weird things.

1. I adore my chickens to the point where I talk to them every day, I have wanted to keep chickens for years - but I don't actually like eggs! I'll go as far as having French toast and use them for baking, but a boiled, poached, fried or scrambled one just doesn't do it for me!

2. I get very attached to my socks, especially warm pairs, to the point where I will wear them until they are literally falling off my feet, I don't care if they've got holes in them!

3. I will only drink water if it comes from the kitchen tap, not the bathroom tap, to me it's just not as clean although it comes from the same source and pipe!

4. I wiggle my foot in bed to make myself go to sleep, it drives Gregg insane!

5. If I have a bath at night I love to go into a cold crisp bed, none of this putting the electric blanket on to continue the warmth.

6. And last but not least, I love to walk in the rain but only if it's not windy too.

So there you have it, 6 weird things about me, I found this quite difficult so maybe I'm not so weird after all!

I would now like to tag Donna, Samantha, Julia, Ginny, Jane, and Tracey.