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