A little something for the weekend.............

My word, it's a while since I last posted on here, time just seems to fly by while you're having fun, or in our case lots of visitors, painting and decorating, trying to tame the jungle outside and get the veggie plot going! Busy, busy, busy..........and of course the little star to keep entertained!

To add to the chaos, I've been helping out my lovely friend Gillian get her exciting venture, Eggshell & Chalk at The Bothy, set up for it's grand opening this weekend (7th & 8th May).  For sale at The Bothy will be a gorgeous range of Hand Painted Furniture which Gillian paints herself and a superb range of vintage homewares which she scours the auctions for.  Also joining her for the weekend will be Katie at Vintage Squirrel, Three Bear Prints and me with my Primrose Hill range.  Tea and cake will be for sale on both days and the Bothy will be open from 10am to 4pm.  The address and directions are as follows:


Eggshell & Chalk
The Bothy
West Balgersho Farm
Coupar Angus
Perthshire
PH13 9LW

Heading from Coupar Angus towards Perth take the first left as you reach Woodside, signposted for Abernyte.  Pass the bus depot on your left hand side, as you come to the corner you'll see the sign for West Balgersho Farm, so instead of continuing round the corner go straight ahead up the farm track.  The bothy is at the top of the road on your right hand side.

So tomorrow and Friday will be busy sewing days, as usual it's the last minute rush to get new stock made, I'm quite enjoying my new swallow design, our first pair arrived back in April, it's so lovely to hear them twittering away on the wire outside the back door.

Hopefully see you over the weekend!

L x

Some sunshine please........

Oh these dreich days are really getting the better of me............the lurgy has been hanging around in our house for weeks now, little star was ill for about 3 weeks, she then had a small spell of jollyness and is now full of coughs and cold again :(

Last week I coughed like I smoked 40 a day and then eventually took to my bed at the weekend, full of the cold and feeling very flu like.........bleurgh.

So, in an attempt to try and cheer myself up, I decided to take a look through some lovely Spring pictures taken in the garden either last Spring or the Spring before that (I'm thinking prob the Spring before that as Stella took up all of my time last year!)

Where is the sunshine of February? The lovely sunny days promising us that Spring is just around the corner? There is nothing nicer than being able to take a cuppa out to the back door and sit and enjoy a bit of early Spring sunshine on your face, it warms the soul out of hibernation, don't you think?

Oh how I long for the yellow burst of little celandine flowers along the bank of the burn, and that sparkle of sunlight off the water as it trickles down to the big burn...........

Fingers crossed Mr. Sunshine arrives back from his long holiday fairly soon. In the meantime, I hope this little burst of Spring has cheered you up, it's certainly given me hope!

L x

Marmalade making

Well, that's January been and gone for another year! I have a bit of a love hate relationship with January, the house looks so bare without the Christmas decorations, but before long the spring bulbs are in, so I just have to fill the house with blooms.

So far we've had few pots of hyacinths blooming away and filling the house with their gorgeous scent, a bunch of tulips and now we're awaiting the burst of sunshine from a little pot of tete a tetes.

January can be such a long dark month, but this year we had a lovely week of sunshine, and the days were noticeably getting longer. Little star and I went out for a few walks with the dogs at about 4pm and Spring was most definitely in the air.

I do love curling up at the fire with a good book though, especially on a Sunday afternoon. I've just finished this book, a very good read, given to me by my Mother-in-law for Christmas.

We've at last almost finished the kitchen, there's still a wood store to build, a shelving unit to get painted up and a few finishing touches, but it is so lovely having the space to live in. Getting the cook books out and having a play in the kitchen has been great fun after a year of no kitchen!

Marmalade making was started last night so the first batch is done.

See you soon!

L x

Winter Wonderland

Baby it's cold outside, -15 to be precise! We had snow for 10 days on the trot, fun at first, then very frustrating! The log pile is diminishing rather quickly, but at least we're keeping cosy!

These photos were taken at the beginning of last week, we've probably had another 10" on top of this, about 2 1/2 ft in total! Gregg and I walked into the village as it would have taken us as long to dig out the car and the driveway! It was hard going trudging through the snow but beautifully still and sparkly.

The studio is cosy and busy! I had my mum up for 10 days, stranded here! So I made the most of it and got through the orders, the biggest problem was getting them to the Post Office, but we're managing, just! So I'm now having to be mummy by day and demon sewer by night to keep on top of things...............but it's all good.

Sadly I had to miss the Green Gallery Fair, it snowed all day on Friday, the roads were awful and I didn't want to leave the bub and G stranded with no car...........it was such a hard decision to make, but I think it was the right one. The Fair went well and lots of people turned up, which was great, especially after the huge effort that Becky puts in every year to make it such a special event.

Anyway, there's one week left for people to buy some Primrose Hill loveliness on-line before Christmas, we have a few goodies in our Not on the High Street shop. If there's anything else you've seen before and isn't in the shop, just give me a call or drop me a note.

You can also follow us on Twitter now too, it's quite good fun and so many lovely folk out there!

L x

Handcrafted & Vintage Christmas Fair

I can't quite believe it's that time of year again! This time last year I was spending my first few days at home with our little Stella, where has that year gone.........?



Somehow, in the midst of the madness, I have managed to keep the business ticking along, only just! So, after the Open Studios back in September, Katie and I got our acts together and organised the above fair, and in the blink of an eye it is upon us already!



We have a great selection of stall holders, everything from beautiful porcelain ceramics, to knitwear, vintage and textile homewares, artwork, photography, fashion accessories, painted furniture and lots more.



We've decided to do it as a fuindraiser for Help for Heroes as Rob, Katies husband, was in the Royal Dragoon Guard for 16 years. As far as we know we think this may be the first ever Handcraft Christmas Fair held in aid of the charity in Scotland, so lets hope we get a big turnout.

We've got the local SWRI serving up tea, coffee and lots of home baking, so hopefully that will pull people in too!



So, if you fancy a wee day out on Friday or Saturday of this week do pop along to the fair, remember to come and say hello!



L x

Perthshire Open Studios

This Saturday sees the start of the Perthshire Open Studios 2010 and I'm really looking forward to it! Last year was such a big sucess, Katie, Diane and I all did well, so the three of us have got together again this year to put on a quirky and colourful exhibition of textiles, jewellery, photography and ceramics.

We had a nice little selection of home produce, so hopefully we'll have more of that this year!

We've got live Scottish music on the deck again on opening day, and as an added extra this year we're doing tea and cake in the garden over the opening weekend, what more could you want!

So, if you're local please do come and visit us, we'd love to see you! Fingers crossed the weather stays dry!

L xx

Back to work

Well, supposedly! I've been back at the sewing machine for about a month now, gosh how I've missed it! Stella is 10 months old now, where that time has gone I do not know......but I've been itching to get back into the Studio for the last 6 weeks or so, does that make me a bad mummy?

Over the last 10 months, life has changed so much. We no longer spend hours working away on the house and garden, there's another little person now who needs to be fed, changed and entertained, and of course absolutely adored.

Life has changed in a very good way.

We've had our first family holiday on the stunning yet sleepy island of Tiree, but more on that another day.......

Somehow today is the 1st September, in 10 days we'll be back open again for the Perthshire Open Studios. I'll tell you all about our plans at the end of the week, it's going to be a great opening weekend though so put 11th & 12th September in your diary......

It's good to be back folks :)

xx

Our new toy....

Ever since I was a little girl I've always wanted one of my own.................

I learnt to cook on a Rayburn and an Aga, so you can imagine I'm in heaven right now. Gregg is rather enjoying it too, it's woodburning, heats the house and the hot water, so it's butch enough for him to play with too......!!

Christenings and finishing off with the trademen has been keeping us busy, but I'll be back again soon. Life is a little more calm again, which is good. :)

L xx

The last 13 weeks

I think we're just about out of the fog! Life with little Stella is good, although where the last 13 weeks have gone, who knows!

Christmas came and went, spent with the family and was a very chilled out affair, just what we were needing.

The house renovation (part 1!!!) is almost there, the next couple of weeks will be exciting as the woodfired ESSE will hopefully be getting fitted........watch this space!

Hopefully it wont' be quite so long until my next post............

L xx

Christmas "Open House" at Lilybank

Hello all!

I'm in the land of pink and babies at the moment so this is very short and sweet! Thank you all for your lovely messages welcoming our little Stella into the world! She's doing extremely well, Mummy & Daddy are a little sleep deprived, but hey, it could be worse!

Just a quick post to invite all the locals along to this years "Open House" event. Seeing as we have our hands full at the moment, Katie at Vintage Squirrel has kindly offered to host this years event, and would love everyone to come along. We'll both be selling our wares, plus another friend is coming along to sell her gorgeous painted furniture, so do come along and start your Chistmas shopping!

It's at Lilybank, 32 Mercat Green, Kinrossie, Perthshire, from 11am until 4pm, this Saturday, 14th Nov. If you'd like any further info or directions give Katie a call on 01821 650632.

Hopefully see you on Saturday!

L xx