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

Back to work

Today we returned back to routine, the festivities over for another year. We both felt we'd had a good holiday and really enjoyed this Christmas especially. The house started to fill up on 23rd December, I was kept busy with sewing and orders right up until the day before, so it was a welcome break to start the holidays when the guests arrived! There were 6 of us in all, Gregg and myself, my Mum, my two sisters and my brother. We knew it would be strange, the first year without Dad, but somehow it has brought all so much closer together. Some tears and much laughter, but Dad certainly wasn't forgotten, we dragged everybody up Alyth Hill on Christmas Day to have a wee toast to Dad, I'm sure he was with us somewhere.

Lots of long walks were had with friends and dogs, a childrens reel with friends in the village hall, visitors coming and going, lots of good food, a little too much whisky but lots of fun was had over the last couple of weeks, it's just a shame it's all over for another year.

2009 will hopefully be a special year for us, I really do hope so. Plans are afoot for lots of exciting things, so fingers crossed that it all works out.

Wishing a very happy & prosperous 2009 to everyone who reads our little blog and supports our adventures in the country, I hope you all continue to enjoy it as much I enjoy writing it!

Love to all,

L xx

Busy bee

It's been a busy old week this week, trying to wade through a HUGE order for a shop in Portree - I'll be glad when it's finished!

A little sandy beach on Eriskay looking over to S. Uist.

The gang at the hostel.

The hostel at Howmore.

Here's some more photos from the Uists, we camped for three nights at the hostel at Howmore. A great little place with a lovely atmosphere, we met up with some super people there, with whom we shared evenings of flying the kite on the beach, fishing and playing scrabble - great fun. The days were spent looking for otters (which we saw), listening to Corncrakes and dotting around the islands looking at various artists work during the arts festival, just my cup of tea!

A gorgeous little croft house.

Wild orchids.

Otter watching.

Unfortunately it's gotten to that time of year again when the "C" word (Christmas!) is being banded around the house like it's just around the corner, not something that I particlurly enjoy, seeing as the sun is shining and it is actually quite warm outside! Hey ho, the joys of being wrapped up in the world of retail...............(ha ha!)

Enjoy your weekend.

L x

P.S. Thank you to the lovely ladies Marie and Tracy for the awards, will post about them next week.

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

Back to work!

Back to work today after two glorious weeks of holiday. To say that we were both a tad stressed before we left would be a bit of an understatement, so our holiday in the Outer Hebrides was just what we were needing. We were lucky enough to get great weather the nights we were camping and met up with some really super folk.

The wildlife is quite amazing over there, and the beaches are just mind blowing, but more on that tomorrow.

As usual the work load has pilled up after two weeks away so we're going to be busy bees over the next few months. We've come home completely inspired by all of the artists living and working over on the islands so it's full steam ahead with building the studio and shop, I've put a deadline of the end of September on it................hmmm, we shall see, watch this space!

Will catch up with you all soon, in the meantime I'll just have to tease you with a couple of photos!

L x

Time to rest

We are away for a much needed break, off up north to the Outer Hebrides.

Any orders will be dealt with on my return to "the office" on 6th August, at last I'm having a proper holiday away from the business!

See you all soon, fingers crossed the sun is shining!

L x

Lots of news

Gosh, it's Monday already where does time go?!! Thank you to everyone for their well wishes, I'm feeling a million times better, just need to get rid of the horrible cough now!

Lots to tell today, firstly, a post that has been long overdue! The lovely Marie, over at Marie Chantal sent me a parcel a little while back with lots of her beautiful rose skin care products which are scrumptiously packaged. I at last managed to get my return parcel in the post just before I was hit with the lurgy! Marie received her parcel last week and has very kindly posted about it at the weekend, thanks Marie. Having used Marie's products over the last wee while, they are gorgeous! They smell divine and the rose cream is silky smooth and lovely to use. I've also got the Skin Freshener and the Cleanser, which again are both delicious to use. Here's a picture of some of her products ( Marie, I've pinched the picture from your blog as it looks really good, hope you don't mind!)

Marie has just opened up her fabby on-line shop, so head on over there and get buying girls as, luckily for us, she ships overseas!

Another lovely lady who has inspired me lately is Cherry over at Tales from Pixie Wood. I was catching up with her blog, reading about her trip to Florence last week. This time last year we were in Florence, I looked back at some of our photos from the trip and thought about how happy we both looked, it was such a fab holiday. So, feeling a bit "down in the dumps" last week I promptly went about booking us a holiday. Now, in the Hector house this is generally Mr. H's job, and a grand job he always does! But, I needed something to pick up my spirits and get me back into the swing of things, so holiday hunting I did.

Not one to go down the "let's go to the travel agents and let them do it all" route, not that there's anything wrong with that, and to be honest there's probably not a travel agent that could organise this type of holiday, I got surfing on t'internet!!!!! So, where are we off to I hear you all mutter..............

Here's a clue.......................

stunning beaches.....................

rugged landscapes.................................

Have you guessed yet?

We're off to the Outer Hebrides to do a bit of an Island Hopscotch, and how are we doing it? Well, we're camping, yes, camping!!!!! And the bit I'm looking forward to is this.........

.........sitting on the beach watching the sunset, with a large G&T and then sleeping under the stars!

Most folk that we've told think we're nuts, but hey ho, we were both in the Guides and the Scouts so we at least know how to put up a tent!!! Lets just hope it doesn't blow away in the wind like the last time!!! ( We have bought a new, slightly smaller and cosier tent for this trip!)

So the plan is, we sail over from Uig on Skye to Tarbert on Harris, spend a couple of days discovering Lewis and Harris and then sail over to North Uist, to do a whistlewind tour of the Uists and Benbecula. We are booked into two B&B's, the first night and the middle night, just in case the weather really is awful!! And if it's just not good enough weather for camping we can hopefully stay in some of these cute little places that are dotted around the islands........

We have both always wanted to visit Lewis and Harris, the thought of being able to camp on those amazing beaches just fills me with excitement. The opportunities to spot some of the wildlife that surrounds the islands is another huge spine tingler for me, imagine being sat quietly on the beach and then suddenly seing an otter in the wild? You can't get much better than that can you...? The camera will be at the ready........!!

On the nature front, I witnessed an amazing scene in the garden this morning. I was busy sewing away in my workroom, looking out over the garden, when I saw the familiar flash of the woodpecker fleeting over to the peanut feeder. A couple of seconds later another woodpecker joiner her, a fledgling woodpecker! She pecked away at the nuts and then fed them to her baby, it was like a scene from Springwatch but in our own garden! I shall try and get some photos but I can't promise anything...............

See you all soon,

L x

P.S. the photos are thanks to the visit hebrides site.

A quick hello.....

Just a quick hello from me before the weekend begins. The dreaded lurgy attacked this time last week, needless to say I ended up in bed for a few days. Not one to play the martyr I slept it off, best way in my opinion! So, feeling a lot better now but sounding like I smoke 40 a day (although I do quite like having a Mariella Fostrup type voice!), I've been playing catch-up these last few days. I have managed to get a few parcels in the post and have another order ready to go out, so roll on the weekend!

I'll be back on Monday with lots to tell, I've spent a good bit of this week cheering myself up by organising our holiday, all will be revealed on Monday, lets just say I'm VERY excited!!

Have a great weekend, what are you all up to?

L xx

P.S. The picture is of Jacobs Ladder, we've got tonnes of it in the garden just now, it makes a lovely cut flower so I'm off to fill up loads of jugs to dot around the house! 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