Missing in action.....

Gosh, where have the last couple of weeks gone? Well, it's been a bit mad around here of late, what with courses going on, orders coming in, and a nice little break to Edinburgh.



So, what have we been up to? The knitting course was fab, Karen did a great job and we all had a lovely day blethering away to the sound of clacking needles. As usual I forgot to take photos (taking part and playing hostess isn't the easiest you know!) so you can see us in action over on Karen's blog here.

Then we had the needle felting course the following week with Katie, 6 lovely ladies came along to learn how to needle felt and all made a really cute little angel. I have to admit to getting a rather warm fuzzy feeling inside while watching everyone felting away, all quite content (with lots of tea and cake!) and learning a new craft. There is something quite special about promoting crafts and seeing everyone go home rather pleased with their creation from the morning, plus rather sore arms from all the needle jabbing into wool tops!

Gregg and I then took ourselves off to Edinburgh for the night as we were attending these awards. Friends were finalists for a couple of awards and had invited us along to join them, we had a wonderful night with scrumptious food, great company and then a rather plush hotel to return to. We battled George Street in the wind and rain on Saturday and I at last made it to the Cath Kidston shop, believe me, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

So, back down to earth with a rather large bump this week, back to the sewing as deadlines are looming........

Happy Tuesday.

L x

Emporium feature

We are in the latest edition (November) of Country Living Magazine, in the Emporium section, our famous dotty door stop gets a lovely little mention. We were last featured nearly two years ago in December, but we weren't "click and buy" then, so it will be interesting to judge the difference in sales. Let's hope lots are doing their Christmas shopping on-line this year!

Ooh, it's all very exciting!

L x

Christmas scents

Much stuffing of Christmas hearts and pillows has been done this weekend, so the herb jar has been hit fairly hard. A mix of cinnamon, cloves and rosemary, with a little clementine essential oil added too. The best bit is definitely bashing up the cinnamon sticks, very good for anger management............

This year our little Christmas hearts are made from locally handloomed linen with an embroidered snowflake in red stitching, and stuffed with said herbs. All we need now is jingle bells playing in the background.............

Happy Monday.

L xx

Evening walks

Gregg has been off this week, change is in the air and it's all good. I've appreciated him doing the morning routine of dog walking and seeing to the chooks so that I can get on. He's also turned into a bit of a cook this week, right now he's rusting up a little chick pea and chorizo stew, just perfect for a chilly night.

I've enjoyed going out for the evening walk with him and the pooches, a well deserved break from the sewing machine. I've even managed to remember to take the camera with me a few times ;) The trees are just starting to turn, autumnal hues starting to run through the woodlands, just gorgeous from up above. The sun is so much lower in the sky too, catching the grasses with the last golden glow before dissappearing below the horizon.

Little Miss Moss is getting bigger by the day, four and a half months old tomorrow. She loves her walks but is a real fireside dog. Not the easiest to take photos of as she never stops flipping moving!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

L x

After the event

Phew, my feet have at last hit the ground today, a full day of uninterupted sewing, probably the first in almost 2 weeks! The Perthshire Open Studios was a huge success, I was amazed at how many visitors we had over the 9 day event, I think from my notes between about 70 and 80 people came along. It was lovely to chat to everyone, I met some really inspirational and interesting folk, and there was an awful lot of studio love going on, I only wish Gregg had been around more to hear everyones comments.

It was really interesting how many people who visited had seen our little article in Homes & Interiors Scotland, so it just goes to show that P.R. does work!

The venue up the road from us at Bamff House was fabulous too, I met a couple of the artists who were exhibiting there, Penelope Anstice and Lulu Washington. Lulu is a total inspiration, her paintings of chickens and ducks were understandably snapped up quickly on the preview evening. She came down to visit us and fell in love with Florence and Felicity our geese, so hopefully they may feature in some of her work soon!

I met this lovely lady too, she came to visit on Sunday and we had a great old chat, Lucy organises the North Fife Open Studio event so it was interesting to hear how they were doing now in their fourth year.

I was also thoroughly delighted when the author of this book compared our setting to that of Enid Blytons, apparently she used to cross the bridge over the burn and into the woods, just like ours outside the studio...... Duncan and his partner Kate came to visit during the POS week and were quite taken with our little bit of heaven here.

Right, I'm off to have some supper and then back out to the workroom, 20 Christmas hearts are a calling.

L xx

Vintage corner

It's a gorgeous, crisp, cold and sunny morning here, just the type I like. The first of October is always a special day for us, five years ago today I "officially" started up the business and it's also my brothers 21st Birthday today. I think a cake shall have to be made in celebration this evening, or maybe a crumble, perfect for enjoying in front of a toasty fire with a glass of bubbly.

As promised, here are some of the little vintage bits and bobs we've got in the shop just now. I'm a bit of a sucker for old china so it took a lot for me to be able to part with these little lovelies. Gregg talked me into keeping a few of the lovely old glass bottles, so they are lined up on the window sill with flowers in them :)

Aren't those little teacup, saucer and tea plate sets just adorable?

I also found this cute little stool, perfect for display in the shop, and it already had that lovely distressed look, so it all needed was a bit of a clean.

So, off out to the studio now to get on with some more sewing, it's nice and cosy out there as we've got a little radiator timed to come on in the morning as there's nothing worse than going out to a cold workroom!

See you soon,

L xx