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

Autumn Courses

At long last I got the Autumn courses organised last week, details sent out and the website updated, so places are now booking up. I enjoyed the courses that we did over the summer, and from the feedback we've had everyone enjoyed themselves and would like to return, so I have a list of requests for courses next year.

I'm really looking forward to the more craft orientated courses we're doing, needle felting and knitting, both being held in the cottage, sat around the dining room table with the woodburning stove going. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day, good chat, good food and getting creative.

It's a busy week this week, I'm off to a charity fashion show tonight (a girl is allowed a night off every now and then!). It's for a charity that is very close to my heart, The Sandpiper Trust. The family who have set up the trust are very good family friends and own the estate where I was brought up. So I'm looking forward to hopefuly seeing a few familiar faces this evening and catching up with old friends.

It's madness in the studio just now, trying to get enough stock made for the Perthshire Open Studio event, although it's a bit of a stab in the dark as none of us know how many visitors to expect.......

And then there's all that stock to be made for Chirstmas......?

See you soon,

L x

P.S. Another photo of us on the beach on Sunday. x

The Gardening Course....

All was going well on Friday night, the baking was done, the note booklets were made and printed and the marque was still up from last weekend.

Then on Saturday morning we woke up to find this...........

................it had been a bit windy during the night..............

Not ones to let anything like this stop us, the marquee was rebuilt, taped together in bits and weighed down with rather large logs!

I prayed for good weather while making the soup that morning and we were blessed!

So much was covered during the day, John kept everyone busy and all went home with lots of goodies. The day was most definitely a success, the sun shone, the food went down well and everyone learnt loads. I just need to twist Johns arm to do it again for me and also find someone to do a garden design course, so that's on the list for next year and I have someone in mind already.......

I'll leave you with more photos of the day, I'm now off to write up and print the leaflet with our next lot of courses, some kind of newsletter ( a new thing for us!) and information on the Perthshire Open Studios as I've got a big mail out to do this week. So much for a quite Sunday night in front of the fire, I shall be glued to the laptop instead, but still in front of the fire :)

Everyone enjoying afternoon tea

A Birthday this week

Can't believe it's Thursday tomorrow, where has the week gone? The Chicken Keeping course went fantastically well on Sunday (apart from the rain in the afternoon!). My nerves soon disappeared once we got going, a great bunch of folk that all got on great. So, more Chicken Keeping courses will be planned for the next year, probably Spring and Autumn, so do let me know if you're interested. Herbaceous Gardening course this weekend which is fully booked, so really looking forward to it.



As if Sunday hadn't been a busy enough day, we then tootled up to a friends to pick up a birthday pressie for my youngest sister Zoe. It's her 16th Birthday tomorrow and I had a big surprise planned for her. Things have been pretty tough for us as a family lately, my dad is in the final stages of cancer, so I thought it would be great to treat Zoe to something she has wanted for such a long time.

So, on Sunday night, this little lady came to stay with us ...........

I had the pleasure of looking after her on Sunday night and Monday, before I took her down the road to her new home, it was just delightful. She kept me company in the studio, climbing up my leg and falling asleep on my knee while I worked at the sewing machine :) And played with a piece of string and climbed up a customers leg too........!

She slept all the way down the road while we listened to KT Tunstall......and then a quick phone call to my other sister when I was just around the corner ensured that Zoe was in her bedroom, eyes closed and wondering what on earth was going on! I sneaked in and put little Milly on her knee, Zoe screamed and then burst into tears, as did my mum!!! It was such a sweet moment that I'll never forget.

She has settled in well, after one sleepless night for Zoe as she was kept awake by someone pawing at her hair all night wanting to play.....! Right now I think I may well be the best big sister in the world ;)

Life is never dull around here, great friends coming to visit tomorrow, little Inky Monster (my little boyfriend) is coming to entertain me tomorrow with his wee brother Ian. So the house has been polished, hoovered and floors mopped (doesn't happen very often!!!) and mass baking and cooking will be done tomorrow morning. Can't wait.

Shall report back tomorrow on all the frivolities!

L x

Chickens and fairies

This weekend is our first course, Beginners Guide to Keeping Chickens. I'm getting organised over the next couple of days, but have to admit to being a little bit nervous. It's a mix of adults and children coming along so hopefully that should make it really fun.

A postcard and a cheque arrived in the post the other day from a friend who is sending her husband and little girl along on the course. The little girl had spent part of the summer holidays over at her grandparents in Ireland and when asked what was the best bit of her holiday her reply was feeding the neighbours chickens! So this week when her tooth fell out, there was a note wrapped around the tooth asking the tooth fairy for a chicken rather than pennies, how sweet is that!

So hopefully, by the end of Sunday afternoon she'll be ready to embark on the great hobby of chicken keeping, I'm sure the tooth fairy will oblige!

L x

Autumn Courses

I have at last got something organised that has been in the pipeline for a while now. On Friday I had a meeting with my friend Nicola Poole-Reeves as she is going to be taking one of our courses over the Autumn/Winter months. Nicola is the type of person that I would love to employ full time. She always knows what to be getting on with, is great with the customers and is just generally lovely to work alongside. With 20 years experience of running her own floristry business under her belt, she certainly knows a thing or two about flowers. Her business was based in Devon, so this allowed her to support many local flower growers by selling their flowers in her shop. She traded that life in two years ago and moved up to Glenshee with her husband, her two passions now being pottery and growing her own flowers and veg, along with doing up their cottage (many of us seem to be in that boat up here!).

So, we have put our heads together and are going to do a day course on Christmas Flower Arranging. She will demonstrate how to make a mossed wreath (which everyone will get to make and take home too), putting together a gift wrapped posy, bulb planting and a table centre decoration. I'd like the emphasis to be on using natural ingredients foraged from the garden and woodlands, so my dog walks are now centred around looking for seed heads and nice greenery to be foraged later on in the year!

We have set the date of * changed to 6th November rather than 27th, sorry!*, so everything should be fresh in your head for making your own the following month. The course costs £50 for the day 10am - 4pm, and includes morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea. Drop me an e-mail(info@primrosehillinteriors.com) if you'd like more info or to book a place.

I'm also in the process of organising our other courses which will be held in October, day courses in quilting, knitting and needlefelting, again let me know if you are interested as spaces will be limited.

Gosh, it's just all Christmas, Christmas, Christmas at the moment, mad really given that it's August, but then the weather is fairly lousy so it's not really difficult to get into the spirit of it all!

L x

Courses at Primrose Hill

As I've mentioned before, we're running courses over the summer months here at Mill of Fyall. Never having done this kind of thing before I'm very aware of not biting off more than I chew, something I've been guilty of in the past! So, we're running three courses over the summer, quilting, keeping chickens, and gardening. The dates and details for these are as follows:


19th & 20th July - Quick Quilt in a weekend - with Rachel Simons, award winning quilter and fellow blogger! Great course for anyone wanting to try their hand at quilting, by the end of the weekend you will go home with a lap quilt. 10am - 5pm, £60 per day. Max. of 4 people.


15th August - Patchwork for busy people - Day course exploring time saving techniques in quilting, again run by Rach. 10am - 5pm, £60 for the day. Max. of 4 people.






2nd August & 31st August - Beginners Guide to Keeping Chickens - run by me! A day learning all there is to know about keeping a few chickens in your back garden. You will go home with a half dozen eggs from our flock and hopefully the desire to get your own chickens! 9.30am - 4pm, £45 per day. Maximum of 8 people.




6th September - Herbaceous Gardening - with John Munro, my good friend and gardening guru! John studied at the Royal Botanic gardens in Edinburgh and has lectured at Askham Bryan College in York. He has gardened all over the UK, his last being in Orkney where he had a daily open garden and was in the Yellow book. Now living in Perthshire, he has a wonderful garden that has provided him with many more challenges and again is about to become part of the open gardens scheme in the yellow book. The day course will cover all aspects of herbaceous gardening, both theory and practical. Everything from designing, planning and choosing plants, to division, cuttings, propagation and maintenance. You will go home with plants and also have the oportunity to buy plants. 9.30 for 10am -4pm, £45 for the day.



All of the courses will begin with coffee and scones in the morning, a home made lunch of soup, bread, salad and cheese, and then afternoon tea and cakes.

If anyone is interested in any of the above courses, drop me a line at info@primrosehillinteriors.com and I'll send you the information leaflet.

L x

Projects......

Time is flying by, it's July already and I've been in the studio for a whole month. The divide between work and home is so much better, Sundays are our day off now, and we love it! The house is just about back to normal, although there is still a rather large pile in my old work room to be sorted out.

I had a great excuse to get tidied up at the weekend, this lovely lady was coming to stay. We had such fun catching up with each other and also planning the first of our summer courses. Rach is coming to do a weekend course "Quick quilt in a weekend" on 19th & 20th July, as the title suggests, you'll go home with a gorgeous lap quilt after two days of expert tuition from this award winning lady!

Along with Rachel's courses we're also going to be doing "Beginners guide to Keeping Chickens" and a gardening course on "Herbaceous Gardening". The leaflets will be finished by the end of this week so if anyone is interested drop me a line at info@primrosehillinteriors.com

Another project that I am working on is really quite exciting. I have been asked by Visit Scotland to produce a collection of work for them to take to the Festival Interceltique in Lorient, Brittany. I don't really do tartan twee so this has been a bit of a challenge, plus there are only so many things that you can make at trade and still make a decent profit. So, my harris tweed stash has been raided and some sketching of thistles has been done.......

I've decided to go for an earthy-grassy-sea inspired pallete of colours, not my usual bright and breezy stuff, and I'm really enjoying the change. The deadline for the finished work is fairly soon, so I'm going to be burning the midnight oil I think, what's new eh!!!

The pictures are of the fabrics I'm using and of the progress I've made today.

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