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

Our little star has arrived.

Meet our little bundle of joy, Stella Rose! She arrived on Saturday 31st October at 4.50pm, weighing in at a healthy 7lbs 14oz and without too much drama, just 10 days late!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much we love her already, I would walk to the ends of the earth for this little button if I had to.

See you all soon. x

Lisa & Gregg ( a very proud Daddy) x

I'm still here.....

For those of you itching to know, I'm still hanging on in here with no signs of the bean arriving! So, tomorrow is D-day, he/she will have no choice in the matter!!!! Will hopefully have photos next week when I'm looking forward to being home with the little bundle that we're so eagerly awaiting the arrival of!

L xxx

Hanging on in there....

Hello abandoned little blog, where has the time gone? I feel very bad for not updating you very often but life just seems to have gotten in the way, building, sewing and a growing bump taking up lots of energy.

Photos of cute windows, big spaces, and the view from outside.

But, we're hanging on in there, the new part of the house is nearly finished so we'll be able to move in soon and then the renovation part can be done on the existing house. A week to go until the bump is due to arrive, although I have a feeling he/she may be early.........x

Sorry for not visiting many blogs to say hello, my report card would most definitely say "must try harder" this year...........

Hopefully speak to you all soon with news from the stork.x

Lxx

Progress

It's a dreich Sunday afternoon, so I've spent a couple of hours downloading photos and catching up whilst sat next to the stove......and this is August weather??? So at last, here are some photos of the progress of the build, it's coming on but the rain hasn't helped over the last week.

Everyone keeps asking me if we'll be finished before the babe arrives, do you think we'll be finished in 8 weeks..........?

This is our bath for the main bathroom, salvaged from our friends garden, they rescued it from a flat in Edinburgh, but had 3 to choose from so we got this one for a box of beer!!!! The feet have to come off and be cleaned up and I'm planning on painting the underneath a nice Cornflower/Forget - me - not blue, another job to add to the list!

The windows arrived on Friday afternoon, after a little bit of humming and hawing I decided I liked them........good job eh!

Enjoy the week ahead, fingers crossed the weather is a bit better!

L x

I'm still here.....

just......and no more! Boy this project managing lark is a full time job! As you can imagine, between things being rather busy with the business and the start of the extension/renovation, there hasn't really been a minute lately. Plus of course the little bean growing away daily.......I'm getting rather large..........hmmm, the next few months are going to be fun!

Anyway, I'll hopefully be back with a full update of the job in hand as I really want to document it on here, so fingers crossed our paths will cross again later this week.

I'll leave you with some summer loveliness from the garden, there is the odd corner in amongst the building site!

L x

The joys of country life.

Just thought I'd quickly pop in and say hello, it's been a busy week, can't believe it's Friday already! In between the showers, I've been taking lots of photos of new products. Today Nicola (the elf!) and I set up a cute little photo shoot with the pottery, as the photos I had weren't the greatest. I'm really pleased with the results so I must get the website updated, another job to add to the list!

And the dreaded "C" word is being banded about here already........

We (Gregg) had a bit of a nasty deed to do this week, you'd better not read on if you're of a delicate nature..... The other day, while taking photos, I happened to look over to the chicken run and noticed one of our little bantam hens lying on the ground looking like she was having a fit. When I got over to her I knew exactly what had happened. Her feathers were wet and she was in a bit of a mess, the drakes (male ducks) had attacked her. I think they may have broken her neck. She was beyond saving, so for the first time ever I had to despatch one of our chickens, not the nicest job, but unfortunately one that goes hand in hand with chicken keeping.

So, the two drakes were despatched last night and will be slow cooked this weekend in a casserole. The four remaining ducks seemed a bit lost this morning, but there did appear to be a bit more harmony in the hen house. I think we've done the right thing.......

I let you know how the casserole tasted.........:)

Enjoy your weekend.

Lx

The view from my desk....

Glorious sunshine, sitting out on the deck outside the studio. Listening to the babbling burn, ducks quacking, and hens clucking away. The wonders of wireless broadband allows me to work on-line, what more could a girl want!

Even though it was a wet and miserable weekend the opening was fun, it's lovely to have the studio back in working order and looking very smart even if I do say so myself! The deck is almost finished, just the balastrade and rope to go around the edge and that's us, another project finished at last.

Photos of inside shall follow this week. Hope you're all having a lovely sunny one like us.

L x

The madness....

The deck is nearly finished, Gregg is still out there working at nearly 10pm......

The studio had a mass blitz on Friday, one half is tidy, the other half is like a bombsite.......

The list of stock I still have to make is rather large, hmmm.........

But, the tablet is made (I delegated that one!) and the lemons and sugar are ready to be made into old fashioned lemonade.........

Do you think we'll be ready by Friday at about 11am? Did I tell you we were opening for the season then? Come and join us if you're in the area.........

L xx

A lovely new blog to visit....

.....pop over and say hello to Rebecca at POLKADoT Farm, a fab blog about life on her and her husbands farm in rural Stirlingshire. I met Rebecca a couple of years ago at a Christmas Fair we were both selling at, it's lovely to see her here in blogland.

Image is a toadstool keyring, one of last years big sellers and making a return this year in many more products! x

Stuffing & handsewing

I'm a real Friday loving girl, the weekend is about to start, I deliver the eggs in the village, Fridays just buzz along nicely. Today, I decided to stuff and handsew some of this weeks production, seeing as there was a rather large pile of it mounting up.

We open up for the summer two weeks today, as usual I'm leaving it all to the last minute! The studio looks like a bomb has hit it and needs a major tidy and move around, there's still pine needles on the floor from the Christmas tree...........the next couple of weeks are going to be busy.

Seeing as I feel I know my customers quite well I decided to start making lots of what I know sells well, so lavender bags were the order of the day today in the handsewing. Next week I'll get making some other new pieces, which I'm rather looking forward to.

We're off for the weekend, back down the road to visit friends and family, we're both looking forward to it as it'll be our last weekend off for a while. For the next few weeks it'll be all hands on deck, literally......Gregg has started on the deck outside the studio and has promised me it'll be finished for us opening back up in May.......fingers crossed eh!

Happy weekend. I'm off to put eggs in boxes. xx

Bumblebees & Swallows

I've been watching out for them for the past couple of weeks, then they arrived on Sunday, one week earlier than last year. Don't you just love it when the swallows arrive? Although they do say one swallow doesn't make a summer......?

My Papa keeps a diary, he has done for as long as I can remember, but not the sort with Dentist and Doctors appointments, nope, he records nature and and it's goings on throughout the year. I must have taken it from him as I've become a bit of a recorder of dates too. We also have lots of House and Sand Martins too, they've been with us for about a month. I love sitting watching them all swooping and diving, filling the sky with their magical dance.



We've also had an abundance of bumblebees this year, has everyone else found that? There's been some huge bumbles bobbing about in the garden, they obviously survived the winter well.


The cherry blossom tree was buzzing with them when in flower over Easter weekend, such a lovely site. So it's not really surprising that they've began popping up in this years designs, don't you just love being inspired by nature? x



P.S. Thank you for all the congratulations on our news, we're both so excited, 2009 is going to be one heck of a year! xxx

Easter bunny a week late

On Friday morning I opened the porch door to find our ginger tom parading around a helpless little baby bunny cowering in the corner. After an initial squeek from me at the thought of having to put little bunny out of it's misery, I picked him up and checked him over for any gashes/bits missing, thankfully there were none and he seemed to be in good health other than being a bit stressed.

Thankfully Nicola works with me on a Friday so she kindly took some photos of me and little bunny before we returned him to the burrow where I thought he'd probably come from down the road. I was very tempted to keep him but Gregg said a firm "no", we have enough on our plate at the moment without adding to the menagerie!

And yes, for those of you wondering, I have a "bump" rather than a fat middle, we're due in October. Just to add more chaos to the madness.....x

Back to it

After a lovely Easter break it's back to the grindstone, sew, sew and a bit of sowing! We had a lovely time with family and friends over the last few days, lots of good fun and some really special moments. So it's back to it in the Studio, Nicola is back helping me again as we're opening for the season on Friday 8th May. This year, due the extension build, we're only opening 2 days a week, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am - 4pm. I'm terrible for biting off more than I can chew and this year I'm having to be a bit more sensible about things, so I think two days a week will be more than enough as I have a feeling builders and customers together could be a bit of a recipe for disaster!!!

So, over the next few weeks you'll get little sneak previews of the new collection for this year, and you never know I might even venture back into the world of wholesale seeing as we're only open two days a week........we'll see how it goes.

I'll leave you with some rather cute photos of the highland cows living up the road from us, they are so adorable.

Hope the sun is shining where ever you are.

L x

An impromtu break....

Sorry, a bit of a break in blogland there.....we had a lovely and much needed break up north a couple of weekends ago and then time just seemed to disappear. A bit of research for a rather important bit of kit for the extension was done here, and just general chilling out with lots of wonderful beach walks. Little Miss Moss was in her element splashing in and out of the sea.....

So, it's back to the grindstone with a rather busy and exciting week ahead.....and then family visiting for Easter.

See you soon,

L x

Sunny days

The last couple of days have been absolutely glorious, real spring sunshine with a warmth that gets the washing on the line perfectly dry!

Today I planted my garlic and red onion sets, a little bit late, but hopefully they'll produce something, it was just so good to get outside and working away in the garden again.

Yesterday two friends came round to organise our application for the Perthshire Open Studios event which we're taking part in again this year. Between the three of us we'll have a really varied selection of work, from painting and photography to textiles and ceramics, plus we've decided to do a produce table as we should all have spare cut flowers, veg and eggs, something for everyone hopefully!

What I really enjoyed yesterday was having the support of others and not the usual "having to do everything myself, therefore it gets done at the last minute in a bit of a panic". I think that's why I've enjoyed doing all of the fairs over the last couple of years with Katie, the company and the shared responsibility makes all the difference, even though we are both separate businesses yet working together.

I really hope this great weather continues, wouldn't it be wonderful.......

L x

The man with the chain saw

This year our big project (we've got to have something going on to take up our time!) is finally getting our shack of a cottage sorted out. We're knocking down part of the house and adding on a rather large extension, which will bring together the "sleeping" and "living" areas rather than it all being higglety pigglety as it is at the moment. We're hoping to start the exentension within the next month or so, with it hopefully being finished by Christmas......

So, a couple of weekends ago we made a start, there is much demolition to be done before the builders can come in......a bit that Gregg is thoroughly enjoying! Out came the chain saw and down came the trees at the back of the stables, as we didn't want any little birdies nesting in there.......

Next is the stables to come down and the kennels moved, a storage area which will be greatly missed until a replacement is built. Then there is the back porch and spare room to come down, then we'll be in a right guddle! The back porch is probably the most used room in the house and belongs to the pooches so goodness knows where they are going to sleep once it comes down......Ah the joys......it'll be worth it all in the end. We'll have fun recording it on here though!

Off out to the studio to do some long overdue sewing!

L xx

Hello there....

Ok, so hibernation lasted a bit longer this year.......but the sun has been out for the last couple of weeks, the snowdrops are out in full force, the birds are singing away and all of the snow has gone (although we had lots of flurries yesterday!). So all in all, I think I've eventually thrown off that duvet and joined the human race again...!

I haven't been sitting around doing nothing over the last couple of months though, there has been much planning, sourcing and decision making going on, but I'll tell you all about that later.

I just thought I'd pop back in and say hello, along with Lexie enjoying the sunshine last week.

It's nice to be back. I promise I won't leave it so long next time........

L x

Hibernation

I think I've gone into hibernation. Last week saw lots of drab, dreich days, I just wanted to curl up under the duvet and sleep.......

But this week has been all about crisp, hard frosts and Mr. Sunshine has come back out to play. It's amazing how a bit of sunshine can totally change your day :)

Some photos of the dazzling crystals in the garden.

Anyone else out there in hibernation?

L x