Beach Sunday

At last we've had a bit of time to ourselves at the weekend and a trip to the beach. I was starting to have withdrawl symtoms as I hadn't been to the beach since we were in Orkney at the beginning of the year. We packed up and took off this morning to St. Cyrus, a lovely beach on the east coast. The first time Little Miss Moss has seen the waves, she loved it!

I always enjoy discovering another part of our surrounding area, I think that's why I love living here so much, we are tucked away in the depths of East Perthshire, yet within an easy hours drive we can be on the fabulous east coast taking in such totally different scenery.

We also discovered a fabulous junk yard type Aladins cave, thanks to this lovely lady. We came home with a back seat full of goodies...!

Little things that make me smile, lots of honesty boxes at the road sides.

The fire is lit, as are all the candles, so I'm off to sew up 20 little mice.

Happy Sunday evening.

L x

Harris & Lewis

As promised more photos of the holiday. We started our little island hopscotch by sailing over to Harris, one of the most spectacular places on earth. As we drove to the south of the island to spend our first night in the sweetest little B&B ever, all we could do was soak up the amazing scenery of one golden beach after the other.

An evening stroll along Scarista beach

Sorrel Cottage B&B, Leverburgh, a stunningly simple, home from home place to rest your head, made even more special by the lovely warm welcome from it's owner Paula.

Flying the kite on Luskentyre beach, Harris.

Luskentyre is also home to Luskentyre Harris Tweed Company, we had a great chat with Donald, who showed us his workroom, the weaving loom and how it worked. He designed and produced the Harris tweed that was used for the limited edition Nike trainer back in 2004. On looking out of his shop window I asked him where he got his inspiration from, but kind of knew I was looking at it, the aquas of the sea, the golden sands, the pale blue skye and the amazing colours of the machair.

The view from our first nights campsite, at Cliff on the West coast of Lewis. This patch of harebells just gently bobbed in the sea breeze.

Our second nights campsite on the beach at Garenin, the blackhouse village, a conservation village of traditional blackhouses, some of which have been turned into a hostal. There is also a wonderful museum set up as to how the house would have been originally, (another) Donald weaves all day demonstrating to visitors in the weaving shed, and then through in the kitchen there are demostrations of spinning, making oatcakes and the day we were there how to make butter. Theres also a superb little tearoom selling good coffee and great homebaking!

Donald weaving Harris Tweed.

Butter making with a roaring fire in the background.

Looking down through the black village.

Callanish Standing stones.

Feeding the pigs at the Callanish Visitor Centre - really nice little place that do a great bowl of soup, coffee and cake!

Uig Sands, a gorgeous big stretch of sands of Lewis.

Surfers at Dalmore beach, this was probably my favourite beach, a little cove of golden sands, aqua sea and great waves - ooh how I wish I'd had a surf board! It was so hot I ended up sunbathing for the afternoon, stripped down to my bra and my jeans rolled up as there was hardly anyone else there!

We spent our last night on Harris camping at Scarista beach, shown in the first photo. We sat down on the sands with a bottle of wine and watched the sun set (more photos but taken in a different format, will show them later!). It was such a beautiful night, not a single soul on the huge stretch of beach, then, all of a sudden what pops up in front of us but two dolphins! They gave us the pleasure of watching them play for a good five minutes, you can't pay for scenery like that. It just rounded off our first few days perfectly, we were off to The Uists the next day, once we'd seen a bit of the east coast of Harris. I have to admit I was looking forward to a soft bed and a good shower, our second night of B&B....

More to follow on the Uists next week, see you all soon.

L x

Fabby weekend

Friday morning arrived, and for once we were organised and away almost on time on our treck up north to Thurso. We stopped at a lovely little place on the way up called The Storehouse of Foulis for a bit of lunch and a look around the farm shop, I would definitely recommend stopping there if you're in the area. We also stopped off at ANTA in Tain, a Scottish company that have their own range of fabrics, pottery, furniture, handbags and scarfs. The Showroom is lovely inside but a bit dissapointingly messy outside! I did however get a few bargains as they have their sale on at the moment. I got a lovely little jug to add to the collection, a christening gift for friends and some gorgeous fabric to make a curtain to go over the dining room door. Here is a picture of it with some lovely horn buttons I've got that I might use to trim it, we'll see!

We spent a fab weekend with Graeme, Julie and little Innes (commonly known as Inky Monster!). We went along to John O'Groats on Saturday and walked out to Duncansby Stacks, and also along the "shell beach", so much beach combing was done, with Julie and I oohing and aahing over our finds!

After a night out in Thurso on Saturday we decided the best way to cure our hangovers was to got to the Surf Shack for breakfast and what a breakfast it was too! The boys were supposed to be going surfing but decided that they just weren't quite up for it, so instead we went for a lovely walk along Melvich beach in the afternoon. Gregg and I whipped up a curry for tea for Jules seeing as it was her Birthday and she more than deserved the night off!

We headed off on Monday morning, almost sneaking little Inky in the car, as I'd fallen completely in love with the little boy who spent the morning running around with my pink bra on his head! (sorry don't have a photo!) We stopped off at Dornoch to stretch our legs and walk Chrissie along the beach, another opportunity for beach combing and much photo taking.

I also wanted to stop in at The Village Green, a delicious little shop at Cawdor Estate, that opened just before Christmas. They are a stockist of our products so I'm always keen to meet the owner and have a wee nosy at the shop. As I expected it was gorgeous and full of all the quirky little goodies for the home that I just love. The shop was actually closed, but Jenifer very kindly came along and opened up especially, so if you read the blog Jenifer, thank you!

Unfortunately Johnstons of Elgin was closed for stocktaking so we didn't get to have a look round, probably just aswell as I'd have spent a fortune! Never mind we'll just have to go again. We eventually made it over to Gregg's mum and Douglas' in Monymusk just in time for dinner and we very gladly stayed the night as we really didn't fancy going back out into the dark to have to drive home. Instead we came home this morning to a house still full of Christmas decorations and in need of a bit of a spring clean. Between us we got it done in a few hours, and have hopefully managed to hoover up most of the pine needles! Both the fires were lit so we were nice a cosy by the end of the afternoon.

So, it's back to it now, orders to be done and the Country Living Fair to start planning for and getting stock made. I've got so many new ideas buzzing around in my head and also Valentines to think of, so it's going to be a busy old week. Here's one more photo of me enjoying the sunshine on Dornoch beach.

I've got a few other lovely photos but I'll share them with you later in the week, it's time to go to bed now. Graeme & Julie, thank you so much for a super weekend, we just wish the distance between us wasn't quite so much, but it just makes these weekends even more special when they do eventually happen! I'm missing the bletherings of the little Inky Monster sooo much you wouldn't believe it!

L x

Trying to get back into the swing of things.

I'm trying very hard to get back into the swing of things this week but I'm not really getting anywhere! Yesterday didn't really turn out to be a very productive day as the weather was so rotten I ended up sitting at the fire reading a book most of the day as it was so cold and windy! Not a bad thing to do, and I did say to myself well this is the last day of my holidays, tomorrow will be all systems go again! Today, the weather has been a huge improvement on yesterday, our first lovely sunny day of the year, but sooooo windy again, I thought the roof was coming off at one point! Just having a bit of sunshine makes such a difference though, it really does lift the spirits.

So, I've managed to clear my work table so that I can get some sewing done and have made a few phone calls, I feel as if I'm getting there slowly! By the end of today I'll hopefully have a few parcels ready to go in the post tomorrow morning and a slightly tidier workroom than shown below so that's at least something!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend as we're heading north to Thurso to see friends we haven't seen for over a year, it'll be great fun. The boys will go surfing (too cold for me at this time of year!) and the girls will go beach combing, which I absolutely LOVE doing! We're also hoping to pop into ANTA on the way up and Johnstons of Elgin on the way back down so a bit of a working trip too, or so I tell myself!

I'll make sure I take lots of photos, especially at the beach, we might even get to fly the kite!