Back to work

Well, supposedly! I've been back at the sewing machine for about a month now, gosh how I've missed it! Stella is 10 months old now, where that time has gone I do not know......but I've been itching to get back into the Studio for the last 6 weeks or so, does that make me a bad mummy?

Over the last 10 months, life has changed so much. We no longer spend hours working away on the house and garden, there's another little person now who needs to be fed, changed and entertained, and of course absolutely adored.

Life has changed in a very good way.

We've had our first family holiday on the stunning yet sleepy island of Tiree, but more on that another day.......

Somehow today is the 1st September, in 10 days we'll be back open again for the Perthshire Open Studios. I'll tell you all about our plans at the end of the week, it's going to be a great opening weekend though so put 11th & 12th September in your diary......

It's good to be back folks :)

xx

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

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

Little mice

Today I have been mostly making these little cuties. We were lucky enough to have a product feature in the Christmas Gift Guide of The Scottish Field, so the orders have been coming in thick and fast for these little guys.

The Studio is looking particularly fetching at the moment, adorned in all it's Christmas finery, especially last week in all the snow we had.

Chrissie was loving her snowy walks, she loves to poke her nose in the snow and throw it about the place. Even though she's a lady in years she loves to act like a pup every now and then!

L x

P.S. Thank you for all the get well soon wishes, I'm feeling a lot better. The last Christmas Fair was over the weekend, it went well, but I was glad to be home!

Door wide open, come on in!

Today has been the first day of the Perthshire Open Studios event. People have been dropping in throughout the day, all interested in what we do here, my sewing, the chickens and just country life in general. The eggs that I had for sale sold very quickly! Everyone was fairly local and enjoying the opportunity to see lots of artists at work and have a nosy in their studios and workrooms. Many commented on the fact that they didn't know of all this rich talent within the area and that it was a great chance for them to find places to bring visitors and friends, so fingers crossed they all come back!

I spent yesterday having a bit of a blitz in the workroom and tidying up the shop. I've got some lovely new vintage finds for sale now, I'll show you pictures later in the week. The pictures show our new candles that I'm trialing. Gorgous reusable pots made by Diana up at Glenshee pottery, filled with Elderflower and Wild Nettle candle. I have to say I'm really rather please as the scent is just delicious.

Off to have supper and then sit in front of the fire and do a bit of sewing.

Enjoy your Saturday evening.

L xx

Product Focus

A part of the business that I really enjoy is working with other makers. I've come across some great folk over the last couple of years, especially since we've moved up here. I like being able to give other makers the opportunity to sell their work in the studio, and working with them to make products exclusively for us.

One lovely lady that I've met is Claire from Barony Crafts. She makes a fantastic (and huge) range of hand made soaps, tioletries and candles. We sell some of Claires soaps in the studio and they go down great with the customers, we've gone for the fairly natural scents like Red Poppy & Ginger, Elderflower & Nettle, Under the Gooseberry Bush and her organic range too. The great thing that sets Claires soap apart from others is that it doesn't go to mush in your hands and lasts more than a couple of washes! She also gave me one of her little hand poured soya wax candles to try, we had it burning in the back porch as that's where the dogs hang out and it certainly got rid of any doggy smells! She has just recently started up a blog about life as a soap maker, so pop over and say hello.

Claire and I are hoping to get together on a little candle and soap project for Christmas so watch this space!

Back to the Christmas samples, you'll maybe get a little peak tomorrow.

L x

Juxtaposition

I'm loving the fact that we do things in a bit of on old fashioned way around here, yet to be able to keep up with everyone else we have to be state of the art too.

So, if you pay cash or cheque it gets stored in this lovely old piece of kit,

or if you choose to pay with plastic we can still oblige :)

It also means we can take orders over the phone now so it's another step in the right direction.

Organisation isn't my number one skill but I do get there eventually.

Off to sew in the studio and work on some more Christmas samples, you'll maybe get a sneaky peak later in the week.

L x

Parti en France......

In my usual fashion, I was winging it by the seat of my pants last night and doing everything at the last minute. The order for the Interceltique Festival has now "gone to France...", being driven over there today by the lovely Philip. It's a bit of an exciting project, part funded by the Scottish Government and Visit Scotland, Philip and his team are representing Scotland at this huge festival, it attracts over 650,000 visitors over 10 days, so fingers crossed his collection of Scottish goods go down a treat.



I was really pleased with the collection that I came up with, the Harris Tweed was just divine to work with, so I'll have to get back on the phone to the weaver in Harris and get some more sent over I think. The fabrics and colours all sat really nicely together and I came up with a nice thistle design to applique onto the lavender pillows, quite contemporary and not too twee. I shall have to make some more for in the studio to sell seeing as we're getting into the "tourist season" up here, everyone that saw them loved them!



I was muttering away to myself about how I leave everything to the last minute and will I ever change while packaging up doorstops etc, Gregg reminded me that it was almost the last of the "big orders" to go out. Hopefully by the end of this month I'll be free to design and make whatever takes my fancy, but more on that another day.



Off to blitz my old workroom as we have a rather important visitor coming tomorrow and the house needs to be worthy of writing about, I have my doubts, as it really is a shack!

L x

The veggie garden in flower

Seeing as I've found my blogging mojo again (yeah!) here are some photos I took earlier this week of the veggie garden. After a few days of rain the weeds will no doubt be appearing pretty quickly again.......

Runner beans.....

Broad beans.....

Courgettes......

peas........

the first cornflower........

Californian poppies adding a splash of orange.......

It's been a funny week, lots of time spent glued to the computer putting together leaflets on our courses and doing a bit of P.R. At last I spend the whole day out in the workroom today and it was bliss. Some samples are off in the post, winging their way down to London, so fingers crossed they are magazine worthy.......

Right, off to walk the dog and pop in on some friends for a glass of wine. Have a great weekend.

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

3 years on......

On the 8th of July 3 years ago we got the keys to our little shack in the country. We were about to embark on a new journey in our life together. Over the last 3 years there have many ups and downs, lots of hard work and far too much blood, sweat and tears shed! Amusingly, I've heard that Gregg was dragged here kicking and screaming to live the life that I wanted........I know that he kind of likes it here, he tells me pretty much every day! The man does have a voice after all, if he really didn't want to move here, I don't think he would have.......

We have met so many wonderful people over the last 3 years, many of which I know we will be good friends with forever as they are very special folk :)


The menagery of animals has grown over the last few years, we still have our two loyal cats, Bud and Lexie, and we have added Chrissie the dog, 22 chickens, William II the cockerel, our two very friendly geese Florence and Felicity, 10 ducks - 8 of which are our ducklings hatched this summer, and a new arrival is coming to join us next month.................

We are gradually getting on top of the garden, the veggie plot has come into itself this year and we only have a tiny bit of fencing left to be done! Gregg has built me the most wonderful studio and shop, a true labour of love. The house is still a bit of a shack, but plans are in hand to sort that out..........
Anyway, I shall leave with some photos of when we arrived to how it is now, a bit of an improvement I think...

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.