Auction love

Fiona commented on my last post that she loved my red dresser, so I thought it was only polite to tell you a little bit about her. I found her loitering at the back of the auction that I frequent, she had my name written all over her, no matter what, she was coming home with me.

She wasn't in too bad a condition, lemon yellow and white, not too ghastly and nothing that a lick of paint wouldn't sort out. So, in my usual fashion, I got round to "doing her up" all of five days before the opening, she had been living in the garage since last summer, shame on me, the poor thing!

Seeing as red is the order of the day in our house, it would have been rude not to paint her red and white. She's told me that she loves her new outfit, wants to live with us forever more and will gladly look after all the lovely things that we put in her..........

Everyone else loves her too, she has received many an "oooh" and an "aaaah", and "ooooh my Granny used to have one of those"!! My nana had one too, I fondly remember playing underneath the counter as a child and constantly banging my head on it........

I think she may be getting a sister soon.......................

L x

Buttercup meadow

From this.........

.......to this.............

I didn't have the heart to cut off all their little heads, and I like the idea of the garden being interesting rather than just a big slab of green grass. The little race track around the bottom of the garden draws you to wander all the way down and look at all the wild flowers.

The Studio has been busy with people popping in and me getting some sewing done, I'm loving having this new space to play in! For those that are local or on holiday in the area we are open:

Monday 12pm - 4pm

Wednesday, Friday & Saturday 10am - 4pm

Or call to come along at a more convenient time and we'll make sure we're here to welcome you.

Some lovely new goodies arrived in the shop today so I must give you a guided tour later on in the week.

Be back soon,

L x

The opening

Well, what can I say? We made it just by the skin of our teeth, some extremely late nights and early starts were had, but it was worth every minute of it. By Saturday morning we had moved into the studio and the shop was all set up, ready and waiting for customers. The other stallholders were all raring to go, lots of plants, cake and candy and vintage bits and bobs were on offer, and the tea tent was brimming with the most yummy selection of cakes I have ever seen.

So did anyone turn up? Gosh, about 200 to be precise! On Saturday the place streamed with people, the sun shone and there was a real magical buzz about the place, it was a really special day, one we'll never forget. Sunday was nice too but the weather broke later in the day, we had a lot of old friends that had come to visit, some that we hadn't seen since we'd moved up here, so it was wonderful to see them all. All in all a fanstastic weekend.

My feet haven't hit the ground since, hence the reason I'm just getting round to posting now! I'll get some better photos taken this weekend, all I can say is that I'm loving working in my studio, I'm having to be dragged out of the place! And amazingly we've had customers every day this week so far! Long may it continue!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the weekend, will be back soon.

L x

The big countdown

Only 4 more working days to go, yet so much still to be done! but, we're getting there slowly. At the beginning of last week the windows went in (made by Greggs fair hands too), now we've just got the floor to lay, skirtings to go on and the sockets to wire up. Outside there's still lots to do, we're not going to get the deck laid in time, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day! The photo above is of me contemplating how much still had to be done!

Here's how we left it tonight, the roof is up, the walls are clad and painted and the lights are up too, it's all coming together really nicely. Just need lots of stock to fill it now!!

On the sewing front, I'm disappointed in the lack of stock I've got made, I just didn't appreciate how much organising this would take and also how much painting there was to do!!! Hopefully in the next day or so the sewing machine will be working over time!

On the animal front, over the weekend the ducklings hatched, 8 little bundles of fluff, the cutest little things I've ever seen, and boy do they hit the ground running!!! I'll get some decent photos of them this week, as they grow at a tremendous rate.

So, I'm off to get a bit more sewing done, it would be nice to get to bed on the same day as I got up.........

Will try and post photos of it all before Saturday, wish us luck!

L x

The red door

What do you think? When we were up North I was inspired by a little white cottage with red woodwork and doors, I fell in love with it! So we now have a lovely red reclaimed door and the windows are going to match. Only 3 weeks to go until the grand opening so we're on the big count down, fingers crossed it all comes together!

L x

Another step forward...

There are some parts of the business that I love, and there are some parts that I feel I'm constantly chasing my tail with, forever. Yep, you guessed it, the website. Whenever I talk to anyone in business about web sites I'm constantly met with the comment "they're great but they just constantly need updating!". It's true, no sooner have you uploaded your latest additions than you're thinking about how you're going to change it again!

So, at last we have made a huge change to ours, we've added a "click and buy" system, it's been long enough in the making, but I'm actually quite pleased with it. It's no great shake, loads of sites have it, we've just been extremely slow in getting round to doing it. The desire has always been there, but time is never on our side! Me being me, I was never going to be happy with using the standard Paypal buttons on offer, so I messed around for a while until I got something I was happy with, simple, but rather good looking, I think so anyway.

I say "we" as it's pretty much all of Gregg's hard work, I provide photos, text and design direction and he does the rest, without him, I wouldn't even have a website. For that I am extremely grateful. Aren't husbands wonderful things..... ;)

Have a look and let me know what you think, all feed back is greatly appreciated.

Happy Friday for tomorrow, I'm painting the studio door, making up a couple of orders for new shops that are opening and hopefully a little bit of gardening too. I might give you a sneeky peak of that door if you're lucky.

L x

The swallows have arrived.....

Summer must be on it's way as the swallows arrived this weekend. Sunday was such a glorious day, made even more special by their arrival, sat twittering away on the wire above. One pair has arrived, so hopefully there will be more to follow.

It's all go here at the moment, we have set a date for the "Grand Opening", Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June, so do come and join us for our tea party in the garden. The studio will be open with a new range of products (in the process of being made at the moment!) along with a collection of work from other artist friends. Katie's fab felted jewellery, Rach's stunning handmade quilts, Lynne's gorgeous felt and feather brooches, Claire's organic range of soaps and smellies, Ali's beautiful handmade cards, aswell as a nice little collection of gardening goodies to tempt you with.

We're having a marquee in the garden with a few other stalls in it, Pat selling her wonderful range of herbs and flowers, Katie with her range of vintage bits and bobs (she's a very busy lady!) and hopefully a local girl who sells the most divine cake and candy. We'll be serving tea, coffee and lots of home made cakes all day from 10am until 4pm, so if you can make it along it would be lovely to see you.

Over the past couple of years I have met a range of extremely talented people, so the plan has always been that as soon as I had my own dedicated space we would start to run day courses here too. I have managed to cajole a few friends into agreeing to come and teach others their wonderful skills so we will be holding classes in Keeping Chickens, Dry Stane Dyking, Needle Felting, Quilting, Knitting and Willow Weaving to name a few. Having done a few courses up at the pottery, the best bit (other than learning a new skill!) has most definitely been the great spread of food we've had throughout the day, from morning coffee with fresh scones, a great lunch and then afternoon tea with a huge selection of cakes, yum! We will most definitely be following suit in that department! So, if any of you are interested in the above please do let me know as I'll be getting dates in the diary fairly soon.

It's another sunny day here today but it's back to the sewing machine for me!

L x

P.S. The gorgeous posy of flowers are courtesy of my gardening guru and great friend John, fresh from his garden. x

Exciting times ahead

This week has been an exciting week, all the pieces of the jigsaw are starting to slot together now. When we came back from the Western Isles last summer I was very inspired by the Uists Open Studio event that had been on while we were there. When we were on Orkney earlier this year they had a superb tourist Craft Trail, the art up there is second to none, but more on that another day. So, I was really excited this week when I discovered that Perthshire is hosting it's own Perthshire Open Studio event later on this year, and we're going to be a part of it. This is exactly what we need to promote all of the small designer/makers thriving in this area, and I'm hoping that on the back of it all we shall be able to have a permanent art trail around the county.

The event will take place from Saturday 27th September through until Sunday 5th October, a bit like the Pittenweem arts festival, taking in two weekends with the week in between. We don't intend on being open 7 seven days a week normally but for this event we'll be open right through, which will probably be quite a good thing as I'll be mad busy making for Christmas by then!

Hopefully it will bring in lots of tourists, but also it will allow local people to see the vast amount of talent that is on their doorstep. So off you go and pop those dates in your diary!

Have a great weekend.

L x

Taking stock

Today has been stock taking day to coincide with our financial end of year. I have never done this previously but seeing as I have a fantastic new accountant things are all done "properly" on the paper work front now. I never quite appreciated how much of a relief it would be handing over receipts and invoices at the end of every month and somebody else just "dealing" with the rest for you. She's very good and very focused and understands exactly what I'm doing here. She shares the same vision I have for the shop and can see the potential. She also likes to drink coffee and have a good old natter while counting things! I think we're going to get on rather well.

I feel like we're a grown up business now, all we need is for the studio to be finished and then the skies the limit as they say!

L x

P.S. Mr. Mouse has managed to keep out of the claws of the cats. Him and his friends will be for sale on the web site very soon. x

The perfect working day

Today has been the perfect working day. The sun has shone, while out walking Chissie this morning I stopped to let the sun beat down on my face for five minutes, that always sets me up well for the day.

A bit of sewing was done this morning, then a friend popped round for a quick cuppa, some cake and some gardening chat. Photos were taken of said sewing done this morning and a wander round the garden to see what else was in need of some camera love.

Seeing as it was such a lovely afternoon, the wellies stayed on and some gardening was done.

A bed was cleared ready for planting and some seeds were sown, sweet peas and cornflowers. I've come in rosy cheeked and full of fresh air.

Here's a picture of Mr. Bud cat giving my wellies some love and the next one is of him watching the world go by.

A wintry Easter weekend

It was to be expected I suppose, given that Easter is so early this year, that we would have snow in between fleeting visits of the sunshine. We've just had the most horrendous blast of wind, hail and snow all mixed together, and now the sun is out in it's full glory, Spring showers in their truest form I think.

The above cherry blossom tree hasn't quite come out yet this year, when it does it puts on a beautiful show of tiny delicate pink flowers. I've brought some branches in and hung the Easter decorations from them, the stove is lit so hopefully the warmth will bring the buds out fairly soon.

The dining room also looks a bit like a florists shop at the moment, jugs and jugs of daffodils and masses of branches of flowering currant. Gregg will come home and complain that it smells of cat pee, but I quite like the smell, I think it's almost earthy, a real spring smell. I've volunteered to do the flowers in Church tomorrow for Sundays service, so hopefully the daffodils will come out in the warmth of the stove too. One of the joys of living in the sticks is that there is still a lot of "by the gatepost" selling. The daffodils came from a local farm, they leave a couple of crates with bunches made up and an honesty box, 25p a bunch and locally grown, so a dozen bunches were bought for the church.

Our little enterprise of selling by the gate is also doing well, we now have 20 chickens and a bunch of regular customers that either collect their eggs or I deliver them on a Friday when I'm down in the village. It was Easter last year that we put the sign up, it still amazes me that we get so many people popping in, especially walkers with a little room in their rucksack to squeeze in a half dozen eggs!

Some of you might remember that we hatched our first lots of chicks last year, 9 in total, 3 hens and 6 cockerels. The three hens are doing great, one of them is a real little madam, she jumps up and pecks me on the leg every morning, although I am getting wise to her now! I'm obviously not quick enough in giving them their grain! Anyway, your probably thinking, what did we do with the six cockerels? Well, one of them went to a small holding up the road and as far as I'm aware he's still doing well. We ate the other 5. They were delicious. I'm now thinking we should hatch some free ranging table birds and then start to breed them for ourselves to eat all year round. We shall see, we need a bit more land and I'm still working on that one, hence the reason we have no pigs as yet :(

We also had to despatch our much loved cockerel William, he was very ill with an infection that hadn't cleared up, so he's now buried in the garden. I cried when we had to do that but it didn't bother me at all when we had to kill the others that we ate. I quite happily plucked them and got them ready to roast for Sunday night supper. So, we now have William II, he's another Welsummer cockerel and is enjoying strutting his stuff in front of the ladies and crows away quite the thing on top of the fence post.

I also mentioned the other day that I had to try and catch one of our drakes, we currently have 2 drakes and 3 ducks, all Indian Runners, as our little call ducks got eaten by something when they decided to sit on eggs and we couldn't find them to bring them in at night. Anyway, as you can imagine, with it being Spring and all, the drakes are rather randy at the moment and have decided that three ladies is just not enough for them, so our two chinese white geese, Florence and Felicity, have been getting chased to the point where they dissappear down the burn and don't know how to find their way back! One of the drakes has to go, we could eat him, but I'm going to give him back to Diana (pottery friend!) as she's just lost her drake to the fox. He has been given a reprieve at the moment as I've not had time to go up to the pottery, maybe this weekend, then hopefully peace will be regained in the hen house!

So, I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend, we'll be dodging the snow showers, hopefully getting some more studio building done and a bit of gardening. We might even go and roll some eggs!

Love,

L x

WRI night

Tonight is the monthly meeting of the Mount Blair rural, yep, I've joined the rural, or should I say WRI. And no I've not started putting a blue rinse on my hair and wearing a pleated tweed skirt before you ask! Our group has a real mix of ages and some real characters. The first night I went along I was warmly welcomed and taken by the arm by one of my egg customers (a dear little lady who lives up the road) and she took me round and introduced me to everyone, now how sweet is that? I've made loads of new friends and really do feel like I'm a part of the community now. I've been cajoled into entering competitions and the like, and if I'm totally honest I absolutely love it.

Tonight we are having a joint meeting with the Kirkmichael group, over at their hall. The talk tonight is "A day in the life of a vet" by one of the local vets from Blairgowrie, I'm really looking forward to it as it's one of the many jobs that I fancied doing when I was a child. For me the best part of the evening is most definitely the supper, some groups just have tea and biscuits, whereas our group really goes to town with a full supper of savoury and sweet goodies, so no dinner is required before you go!

The competitions this evening are a bowl of bulbs and a jar of marmalade. As usual I checked the programme at the beginning of this week (always at the last minute!) and luckily had some hyacinth bulbs flowering, so I've titivated them with some pussy willow twigs and raffia. I made marmalade a couple of weeks ago with some lovely organic seville oranges, so bobs your uncle I'm all sorted for tonight!

Right, better go and get on, eggs to collect, dog to walk and a drake to catch, more on that one tomorrow!

L x

And the winner is.........

Drum roll please.............






The lovely Katherine at Chatiry World is the winner, a tea cup and saucer cushion will be winging it's way to you this week, can you send me your details please?


Right, off to walk the dog and let the chooks out, will be back later with tales of our trip to Orkney.


Bye for now.


L x

The month that was February!

Well, February has been and gone and we're well into March now.......where has the time gone? It was a busy month, so much happened........

I met up with this lovely lady for a day in Glasgow, we had great fun shopping for fabric and trimmings, I took her to VV Roleaux.......need I say any more!

I received this amazing gift in the post, not only is she a great friend she's a very talented lady - could you whizz up one of these in a weekend?

A friend recommended her hairdresser at Christmas time when I commented on how lovely her hair was, so I went and got a new hair cut, 5" off as I hadn't had it cut for over a year, very drastic but I'm now getting used to it. I'm not a fan of going to the hairdressers but I think I'll go back again...!

The reason behind the hair cut was because we were going to a christening here and a wedding here, a post about this will follow as I've got so much to tell you all about it!

It was a busy month with work too, lots of sewing for Valentines orders and lots of shop orders winging their way out of the workroom.

We've also been busy with the studio - what do you think so far then?

Ooh and it was also my birthday on March 1st, my mum and my two sisters came and visited for the day and then we had friends round for supper. Gregg cooked, Greek lamb with lemons and feta, I made pud, marmalade ice cream and chocolate brownies - good food and good company, what more could a girl want?!

So, now that I'm back out of hibernation I shall do the cushion draw tonight and post the winner tomorrow.

See you all then!

L x

P.S. Hope you like the spring cleaned look of the blog!

Keeping out of trouble....

....yet I feel a little bit naughty, only 4 posts in January, that's a bit slack isn't it? Well, all I can say is that I've been a very busy girl, even though I have really struggled with the January blues.

Last week saw some new designs coming out of the workroom,
and a stack of lavender hearts and bundles, can you tell Valentines Day is just around the corner?! I also managed to buy some lovely new fabrics that I'm enjoying being creative with, so keep an eye out here for new things arriving soon.I also popped down to Glasgow on Sunday to the Scottish Trade Fair. I'd been a couple of years back, and to be honest it was pretty rubbish, so I was glad to see a huge improvement this year and felt it was well worth the visit I'd paid.

I've also been busy planning for this, which I'm getting really excited about. The roof is hopefully going on the studio this weekend so I'll post some photos next week.

Seeing as this is my 100th post ( I know, it's taken me ages to get here!!!) I thought I'd do a little giveaway, the lucky winner can choose one of the above cushions. So either leave a comment or drop me an e-mail (info@primrosehillinteriors.com) and your name will be added to the draw.

Good luck!

L xx

Fun in the snow

Friday's fun in the snow was make or break day. I had to decide whether to stick with snowboarding, give it up and try skiing again (I've not been on skis since I was a teenager) or just give up the whole snowsports thing, because constantly snowballing down a hill just isn't my idea of fun....

So, what was it to be then? You can probably tell from the smile.........

I'm sticking with the snowboarding, I was pretty much linking my turns ( where you turn the board from edge to edge in order to snake down the hill) by the end of the most amazing day I've ever had on the slopes. You see, for those of you that aren't into this mad sport where you throw yourself down a hill strapped to a very slidy board, it's not easy. I have struggled with it for years, and only getting a smattering of days a year at it probably doesn't help. It looks really simple when you see others doing it, but building up the confidence to point the board straight down the hill in order to turn from side to side is not for the faint hearted. Physically having to lean your body down the hill, rather than naturally lean back into the hill is a tricky thing to get your head round, but I'm getting there....

On Friday, I had my determined head on, took loads of snowball like tumbles, but came up smiling every time, more and more determined to crack it. There were no tears ( a first for me ) but lots of bruises, and I have to say the impact shorts and wrist guards are worth their weight in gold. If there's anyone reading this and thinking about taking up the mad mountain sport I would thoroughly recommend you buy yourself some.

We had a perfect day of blue sky weather, amazing snow conditions, and we spotted loads of wildlife, Snow Buntings, Black Grouse, stags and white mountain hares. It made me realise why I truely love living up here, to have all of this on our doorstep really is quite breathtaking, lets just hope it lasts......

On the sewing front, I'm busy getting orders finished that weren't essential for Christmas, making up samples for the new Spring collection and off to visit a new stockist tomorrow. So it's a busy week, but we'll maybe try and squeeze in a bit more snowboarding if the weather's good.....

L xx

Getting back to normal.....

This week we've been trying to get back in to the swing of things, routine, boring, boring, I find it very difficult! It's hard enough to get into the swing of the holidays, not always having something to do, then, just as you begin to relax a bit the holidays are over........yep, you guessed it, the January blues......................

Anyhoo, today Katie and Lynne were round for coffee and scones while discussing lots of crafty things. It was fun. They also sorted out my prize draw for me that I did over the Christmas Fairs, a basket of goodies for one lucky winner..........June Heggarty from Dunblane, it'll be winging it's way to you some time next week!
So, seeing as it's Friday tomorrow, and there's lots of snow up in them big hills called Glen Shee, we've decided to have a cheeky wee Friday off and go snowboarding for the day. Now, the last time I did this I broke a bone in my hand..................... and I cried loads...................hmmm, off to find my impact shorts (they make you look like you've got a HUGE arse but save you having a very sore bottom from falling ALL the time!!) and wrist guards..................


See you soon, hopefully with lots of photos of the two of us flying down the slopes and no broken bones!!!! The photos above are of us snowboarding in Canada three years ago, THE BEST snow ever!

L xx

Fond wishes for 2008

It's been a while, so I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and wishing you all a warm welcome into 2008. As usual, the run up to Christmas was a bit mad, the decorations were only just up by Christmas Eve and all of the parcel wrapping was done that night, some things just never change in this house! It was lovely though, to be giving lots of home made pressies this year, and I think they all went down rather well.

Much celebrating has been done, we brought in the New Year with good friends in their lovely "newly extended" home. Lots of good food ( Rob's game pie was fantastic!) was eaten, not too much whisky was drunk, and much merriment was had! New Years day consisted of a hearty breakfast, a good walk and then lots of tea and cake, my idea of heaven!

Today, the snow has arrived, just as Gregg went back to work, typical! So, we're cosied up, the fires are roaring and lots of candles are lit. Bliss. I do tend to hybernate a bit at this time of year, but that's ok, it is January after all. I like to spend this month planning ahead for the coming months, plans for the business, the veggie garden, the flower garden, the extension, holidays..............the list goes on a bit! But it's all exciting, don't you think? What are all your plans for 2008, anything exciting happening?

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone over the next couple of weeks and hopefully making lots of new friends in blogland, that's the fun bit don't you think?

L xx

A fab weekend

Well, we're onto the last push this week, it's more mad sewing for our Open Day this Saturday (all welcome if you're in the area). We had a fab time at The Green Gallery Fair this weekend, we were beside some lovely stalls in the conservatory, it always helps when you've got nice "neighbours" at these things.

I love the fact that quite a lot of bartering goes on between the stall holders, I did swaps with Emma of Pumpkin Sputnik who was next to me, she makes the most fabulous stationery, have a look at her site. We're hopefully going to work on a project together some time next year.......

We were also kept well fed and constantly tempted by The Cookroom, the most delicious range of cakes, all gluten and wheatfree. The Fair was their first weekend of trading so I really hope they do well in the future.

I also got to meet the lovely Jane Keith, the sister of my friend Sara Keith, both extremely talented textile artists. Jane was there with her fabulous range of hand printed and painted silk ties, I think we're planning on doing swaps too, she loves our dotty aprons and is getting one of our dotty door stops for her Christmas..........!

Right, must get on, loads to do this week, plus the house looks like a bomb has hit it, so a fair bit of tidying will be required before Saturday.........!

Bye for now,

L xx

P.S. the pictures are of Katies gorgeous felt jewellery, it flew off the stall this weekend. x