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

A sick day...?

In the world of self-employment there doesn't appear to be a clause for compassionate leave or sick leave, it's crap! You've probably guessed, after a couple of tough weeks lately, we are now experiencing the dreaded lurgy in this house, do things ever get any easier....nope, I guessed not.

After a really lovely day listening to the seriously talented Sarah Raven last Wednesday, I came home a shivering wreck and went straight to bed, flu had hit big time. By the end of the week Gregg had it too, fair cancelled on Saturday, but it was our annual Christmas Open Day yesterday and the show just had to go on. Thank you to Nicola and my family for saving our bacon, you're all stars. xxx

So, orders are now being processed again (will I ever catch up with myself again or should I just throw the towel in now...!) and hopefully the nice doctor is going to give me something to fix my throat and horendous cough tomorrow.

I'll hopefully be back in a couple of days feeling a lot better (fingers crossed). Off to have a hot bath and a bottle of whisky to help me sleep ;)

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

Changing times and dropping the "interiors"

Since opening the studio, things have been changing around here. In the run up to the grand opening I found myself saying "yes" to orders, people also opening up new shops and desperate for stock. Really I should have been saying no, concentrating on getting my own stock made for the big weekend. But then, most business folk never like to say no do they. The upshot of it all was that I totally underestimated the time and effort required to pull everything together and as usual the sewing went on the back burner, otherwise there wouldn't have been a studio to open!

In contemplating this and thinking back to when I was tempted to give up wholesale some time ago but was talked out of it, I've realised that I just don't want to do it anymore. It has become a chore and that's not what this game is all about. Don't get me wrong, over the last five years, it has done us so much good, getting our name known and getting us out there, really it's the only way to do it. But now that I have this fantastic space that's just crying out for lots of one-off pieces, a place to experiment with products and get feedback direct from the customer, I can't really throw this opportunity away can I?

I've gone through the figures with the accountant, looked into getting someone to do the sewing, but is that what Primrose Hill is really about, someone else doing it? And at the end of the day, I would still have to have some kind of input, fabric and ingredients ordering, managing it all, that's not what I want to do.

So, the decision has been made, after 5 years of hard slog and being the basis of how the business started up, no more wholesale. It's been a really hard decision to make but it's done now, and I've put it here on paper so to speak, so I'll have to stick by it..! The only outlet I will continue to supply is the Fotheringham Gallery, as they were the first business to support us and they sell our products so well, I want to keep that relationship going. And as it's a gallery it's on a commission basis which is totally different to supplying shops.

We've also learnt over the last couple of months that people seem to think that the word "interiors" means that you make curtains for a living. Now this is something that I used to doing when we lived in Stirling. I had a sewing lady who made up curtains and blinds etc for me, but since moving up here I've kind of gotten out of that side of the business. Again, having thought about going back there I've decided not to, it's just not something that I want to do. So, Primrose Hill Interiors is now just Primrose Hill and we're focusing more on the studio side of the business as you can see here. A little bit of housekeeping has been done and I think it looks a lot better, what do you all think?

So, there we have it, a rather long rambling post for first thing on a Monday morning, you've done well if you've gotten this far! It's good to put these things out there though, people like to follow the story of a business and know the history of it all. I'd be interestd to know what all of you guys think though, have any of you gone through the same changes or thoughts with your businesses, do let me know as it's great to get feedback.

Right, off to tackle a rather large "to do" list.

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

Another step forward...

There are some parts of the business that I love, and there are some parts that I feel I'm constantly chasing my tail with, forever. Yep, you guessed it, the website. Whenever I talk to anyone in business about web sites I'm constantly met with the comment "they're great but they just constantly need updating!". It's true, no sooner have you uploaded your latest additions than you're thinking about how you're going to change it again!

So, at last we have made a huge change to ours, we've added a "click and buy" system, it's been long enough in the making, but I'm actually quite pleased with it. It's no great shake, loads of sites have it, we've just been extremely slow in getting round to doing it. The desire has always been there, but time is never on our side! Me being me, I was never going to be happy with using the standard Paypal buttons on offer, so I messed around for a while until I got something I was happy with, simple, but rather good looking, I think so anyway.

I say "we" as it's pretty much all of Gregg's hard work, I provide photos, text and design direction and he does the rest, without him, I wouldn't even have a website. For that I am extremely grateful. Aren't husbands wonderful things..... ;)

Have a look and let me know what you think, all feed back is greatly appreciated.

Happy Friday for tomorrow, I'm painting the studio door, making up a couple of orders for new shops that are opening and hopefully a little bit of gardening too. I might give you a sneeky peak of that door if you're lucky.

L x

Getting back to normal.....

This week we've been trying to get back in to the swing of things, routine, boring, boring, I find it very difficult! It's hard enough to get into the swing of the holidays, not always having something to do, then, just as you begin to relax a bit the holidays are over........yep, you guessed it, the January blues......................

Anyhoo, today Katie and Lynne were round for coffee and scones while discussing lots of crafty things. It was fun. They also sorted out my prize draw for me that I did over the Christmas Fairs, a basket of goodies for one lucky winner..........June Heggarty from Dunblane, it'll be winging it's way to you some time next week!
So, seeing as it's Friday tomorrow, and there's lots of snow up in them big hills called Glen Shee, we've decided to have a cheeky wee Friday off and go snowboarding for the day. Now, the last time I did this I broke a bone in my hand..................... and I cried loads...................hmmm, off to find my impact shorts (they make you look like you've got a HUGE arse but save you having a very sore bottom from falling ALL the time!!) and wrist guards..................


See you soon, hopefully with lots of photos of the two of us flying down the slopes and no broken bones!!!! The photos above are of us snowboarding in Canada three years ago, THE BEST snow ever!

L xx

A few photos....

I'm absolutely pooped! Not long home from another fair, a big one in Perth that was on tonight and all day tomorrow - if you're in the area do pop along to say hello, there are some lovely stalls there........

The fairs are all going well, some better than others, but that always tends to be the case in this game, you can just never tell...... I should really be going to do some sewing now as we've sold out of a few products tonight, it's very heartening to see that it's the handmade goodies that are selling out, it makes all the hard work worthwhile!

Seeing as I've not shown you any photos of the studio build for a while I thought I'd post a few tonight, it's really coming on.......

The roof trusses inside, it's going to be open plan to make it feel nice and airy....

The sarking boards going on the roof......

At the end of this weekends work, roof water tight, the back wall clad and the side wall started.......

A rather blurry photo of Gregg on the roof playing with his favourite toy, the nailgun.......!

Right, I suppose I'd better go and get a bit of sewing done before I go to bed, it's going to be a long week I think!

Night, night,

L xx

Friday Fair

As usual, I forgot to take my camera last night to take a picture after the set up, but never mind, better late than ever eh!

As you can see, that's not me standing behind the stall, it's Katie, my great friend, who I'm doing all the fairs with this Christmas. Katie makes the most beautiful felt jewellery, and lots of other gorgeous little bits and bobs and trades under the wonderful name of "Vintage Squirrel"! We had a great time today, met lots of lovely people and lots of friends came along too, so a successful day was had by all.

So it's stocking up time next week as the next fair is a week on Saturday, no rest for the wicked as they say! It's also an exciting week here, but more on that at the end of the week.

Have a good weekend, hopefully the weather will be good so more progress can be made with the studio, cladding on the walls this weekend!

L x

Progress

Just a quick update with the progress of the studio, it's coming on, as you can see......

We have decided that we're probably not going to get it completed for a Christmas opening, which is a shame, but we'd rather not rush it just for the sake of being open for a couple of weeks, plus the weather is bound to turn sooner or later...............!

So, I've started making plans for the grand opening next year, probably even more exciting than a Christmas opening actually, but more about that in the new year.

Julia, you mentioned in your comment about having a wood burning stove in the studio, well funnily enough that's exactly what I was thinking!! It's all dependent upon space as it is a bit of a luxury and there are certain things that I must fit into the studio, but hopefully we'll be able to squeeze one in somewhere. It would just be rude not to have a stove for Chrissie to lie in front of now wouldn't it!!

Tonight is a tagging and organising of stock evening, the first Christmas fair is this Friday at Letham Grange Hotel, from 10am - 4pm, so if you're in the area do pop in and say hello. I've been sewing like a mad woman for the last few weeks now, so hopefully I'll have enough stock made. We set up tomorrow evening so I'll take some photos and try and remember to post them!

Anyway, better get on, loads to do tonight. I promise I'll come and visit you all very soon.

L x

P.S. Blogger was playing up so I've only just managed to load up the photos after umpteen attempts last night - it seems to be behaving a little bit better this morning! x

Spring showers

At last some rain has arrived in our neck of the woods, in the form of spring showers, little bursts of really heavy rain, on and off all morning. It always amazes me the weather and peoples reaction to it. We have a spell of beautiful Spring sunshine, perfectly timed with the Easter holidays, but we still manage to complain, everyone talking about how dry the ground is, having to water spring plants and the like, and how they wished it would rain! Why is it that sometimes we are never a happy nation?

Anyway, amidst the glorious sunshine of last weekend we managed to have our first BBQ's, both Saturday and Sunday night, sitting outside enjoying the last of the days rays, how fab is that for mid April?

I also got stuck into the seed planting in a big way, probably a little bit late, but still early enough not to be too worried that I'll be harvesting my peas in September! I got the pasting table set up and had a little production line going, while dancing away to a digital radio station we've just discovered, Life, they play lots of oldies mixed in with some new stuff. Gregg and I spent the whole weekend saying to each other "ooh listen to this one, I haven't heard that in ages......." boogy, boogy, boogy!

It was actually mostly flower seeds that I was planting, 17 varieties in all, so no excuses for empty beds this year! The last of the veggie seeds will be planted tomorrow hopefully, if I get my finger out of my (slightly bruised) bottom and get all my work finished today, nothing like a deadline to get you going and the thought of a day off spent in the garden!

Photos are of the quickly filling up greenhouse and some Rocket that has germinated already.

On the chicken front, the duck came off the nest yesterday so no ducklings from her I'm afraid. Bit of a shame but I had my doubts after we'd disturbed her, I'd rather she was safe than foxy loxys supper though. Plenty of time yet for little ducklings though, we have to live and learn from our mistakes!

The pottery range

Seeing as all you eager beavers are desperate to get your hands on our lovely new pottery range, I thought I'd give you all a little treat this morning and put it up for sale on the blog today. It'll be a couple of days before Gregg and I can sit down together and put it on the website, plus I'd like to get some better photos of it taken before I do. So here it is.....

Mugs approx. 7.5cm high. £10 each.

Heart design all the way around the top of the mug and a little heart inside the mug too.

Little jug approx. 9cm high. £12 each.

Heart design all the way around the top of the jug and a little heart inside it too.

Tea plate approx. 20cm dia. £12 each.

Heart design all the way around the edge of the plate.

Bowl approx. 7cm high. £12 each.

Heart design all the way round the top of the bowl, plus either one, two or three hearts inside the bowl too.

T-light holder/vase or whatever else you fancy using it for! (Comes with a t-light in it)

Approx. 6cm high. £7.50 each

Heart design all the way around the top.

Each piece of pottery is hand thrown on a potters wheel, the little heart is imprinted into the clay, the hearts are then hand painted and it is glazed. Due to this, no two pieces are ever the same and all have a very rustic, organic feel and look to them.

Not suitable for the dishwasher I'm afraid!

If you would like to enquire/order any of the above pottery please drop me an e-mail at info@primrosehillinteriors.com and we can take it from there. The above prices do not include postage. We've not got a huge amount of stock left so it'll be on a first come first served basis and then I'll have to take orders. As Diana makes it all herself it will be next week before she can get started on any new stock!

I'm now off out shopping as I completely forgot that it's Gregg's birthday tomorrow, oops! I shall have to make him an extra large birthday cake tonight I think! If it's a success I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

Bye for now,

L xx

Home from the fair.....

Aaaaaah, home at last and into my own bed, but returning a very happy bunny having had the most amazing few days down at the Country Living Fair! This is my second attempt at this post, I sat last night for almost 2 hours typing out this huge post with loads of pictures, only for it to disappeared into thin air, bloody blogger, so here goes attempt no. 2!

The cars were rammed full on Tuesday night as well as a roof box and we thankfully had a more successful start than last year (the battery in my car was flat- picture it, me having kittens and a major panic - not good!). We headed off down to the "big smoke" and were setting up by 8.30am. We painted the stall again this year, trusty F&B, it makes a huge difference as our customers always comment on how much we stand out from the others that don't paint. We were a lot better prepared for it all this year so I think that's a big reason why we enjoyed it so much more, plus knowing what's in front of you is a huge help! Even though you get 12 hours to set up, it's still never enough, we were still titivating by 8pm and had lots to do on opening morning!

I had the help of my friends Ann-Marie, Ali and my sister Nicola, so between us all we made a fab team over the four days. Thusday and Friday were pretty busy, but nothing could have prepared us for the madness of Saturday, it was soooo busy but totally fantastic! I also met a few blog friends, including my cyber twin Rachel, more on that another day! So thank you to you all for coming and introducing yourselves and purchasing a little bit of Primrose Hill, it was lovely to put faces to the blogs at last!
The best bit for me about the fair is getting to chat to all of our customers, many returning from last year or having seen us at other fairs, often to buy something for themselves as they'd previously bought for friends or vice versa. They love chatting away about our adventures in the country, doing up the "shack" and about our brood of chooks, I even had some interesting chats about our problems with the mink! But the best bit of all was that so many people have commented on the quality of our hand made products, head and shoulders above others in the same game. Now I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, but receiving a compliment like that is just fab, it means that all those hours of hard work that go into designing and making our products special has really paid off, so thank you all for that, it really does mean a lot to me.

So many of our products sold out very quickly, especially the little china cups and saucers filled with violas and spring bulbs, they recieved so many lovely comments! I had plonked some branches of flowering currant into a jug on one of the shelves, the heat of the hall had brought the flowers out and they looked stunning! If I'd had a £1 for every person that wanted to buy them I'd be a very rich girl! Why is it that people always want what they can't have? As you can imagine, the pottery went down a storm too, the fact that it is completely hand made and hand painted gives it a very rustic, organic feel and each piece is completely individual, one customer has already commented on how she loves her mug! As is always the way, I only got a very quick chance to look around on Sunday afternoon (to buy some sausages actually!) and chat to other stall holders. I was so pleased when I found out that Hume Sweet Hume had won the Best Stand Award, I feel they truely deserved it, they design and make the most amazing knitwear collection from hats, scarves and bags to cardigans, cushions and purses. The girls come all the way down from a tiny island in Orkney and exhibit at both the London and Scotland Fair, so by the time I got to their stand on Sunday afternoon it was looking a little bare! (sorry I don't have a decent photo of their stand on the first day as that would have shown it at it's best!) The girls make the most wonderful little brooches that look like thistle heads, they had had this made into a stencil and also a beautifully handwritten slogan "handmade in Orkney". This had been hand painted all over the walls of the stand and gave it a really special touch, but you had to look closely to notice it. I think it's the little details like this that make you stand out from the rest. They also took the time to display their wares nicely on painted and aged shelving, so many of the clothing companies just roll in the clothes rails and off they go.

A lot of people probably don't "get" why they won - to me it's quite simple - they are what Coutry Living Magazine is all about. They are a small rural business based in probably one of the most remote places in Scotland, yet they have succeeded in running a successful business from there. They could have quite easily chosen to stay on the mainland but they didn't, they returned to the little island that was home and set up their business in the old Fish & Chip shop - how fab is that? Also, every piece of their work is completely hand made, nothing on their stand is bought in to fluff it up (unlike myself!), even down to the buttons they use, they are pebbles collected from the beach with two holes drilled into them - you don't get much more original than that. Also, they employ a team of what I call "little sewing ladies", so by doing this they are supporting what is probably a very fragile economy on a tiny island in the Orkney Isles. Well done girls, I think you totally deserved it.

So, now that the fair is over, it's time to get back into work, it would be so easy to just have a couple of weeks pottering around, but we've got to hit the ground running I'm afraid! The website needs to be updated with all our new products that we launched at the fair, plus I've got loads of orders to get out the door now - no rest for the wicked! I am looking forward to getting to spend a bit of time in the garden though, it has been seriously neglected - but at least the front door is looking particularly fetching at the moment as all of my display pots are flowering away, I'll show you a picture of them all tomorrow!

L x

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to the fair we go.....!

At last, we are nearly at the end of March, Spring is well and truly here, as is the Country Living Spring Fair Scotland, aaaargh! We're nearly all organised, although I've still got a million and one things to do tonight, including filling and sewing up another 10 door stops! I spent part of the morning doing something I've been looking forward to for ages, I had planned to do them last year, but as usual ran out of time! What do you think of these.....................?

My friend Diana who has Glenshee pottery sold me some of her old china, she used to have a tea room on Mull, so had plenty going spare! I think it's such a sweet way to recycle old cups and saucers, I just hope the Country Living visitors think the same! Although if I was bringing them home to dot around the house I wouldn't be too sad! As you can see I've got a bit of a production line here.....!

I'm really looking forward to meeting a few of the Scottish bloggers at the fair so please do come along and say hello, we're at stand C34. Tomorrow is set up day and the fair runs from Thursday 22nd March until Sunday 25th March at the SECC in Glasgow.

I'll be back next Monday with all the tales from the fair and lots of photos!

Right, I really must go and get on!

L x

New job & CL Fair London

Just a quick post today about a couple of things. For all our friends and family that read the blog Gregg got on fine in his new job yesterday. It was quite surreal sending him off with his packed lunch (made by me I hasten to add!) all suited and booted, looking very smart! They all seem like a nice bunch in the office so he'll hopefully settle in quite quickly. It has certainly got me into a far better routine as it gets me out of my pit in the morning! Well so far so good, we are only on day two I suppose!

Sorry to go on about the Country Living Fair again, in a couple of weeks time it will all be over for another year! Two of my blog friends are heading down to the London Fair today, Samantha over at Plump Pudding is heading down from Wales, you can go and visit her on stand H17 on the mezzanine floor. Caroline over at Twice is travelling all the way down from up my neck of the woods, you can find her at stand G1. Do go along and say hello to the girls, I'm sure they'll give you a very warm welcome! The fair is on from tomorrow through until Sunday at the Business Design Centre in London.

At last the geese have started to lay again this year, they lay the most wonderful, huge white eggs, great for baking with. I've had to rescue one of the geese twice from the nesting box as she gets so excited whenever I go into the run she gets herself all stuck inside it, stupid bird!

Thank you all for your encouraging comments about the new pottery range, fingers crossed it goes down well next week!

Off to get on with yet more sewing and tagging, a week to go until we head down to Glasgow, I hope all the Scottish bloggers have it in their diary!

L x

A young twenty something......

Well, today is my last day of being a young twenty something, I got a bit down about it all a few weeks ago, but I think I'm over it now. So many people say "it's all down hill after you hit 30" and such like, but I'm beginning to realise that life is totally what you make of it and you're only as young as you feel.

I want to make some changes to my life this year, I've also realised that it is up to you to make your life a happy one as nobody else is going to do it for you. I need to learn to say no.

So, things are going to change with the business, no longer will I be sat all day making door stops as that's what I've done for the past 2 and a bit years! Yes, it's nice being known as the "door stop lady" but my sewing machine knows how to make lots of other beautiful things, as I've discovered over the past few weeks. Also, in a couple of weeks time my routine will be completely flung up in the air, I'm going to be a 6am - 5pm working girl, Monday to Friday, no more working weekends or going to sleep in an empty bed as Gregg is away on night shift. He starts a new job, a regular working hours job, so hopefully some sanity will be installed back into our lives instead of the sporadic way of life we have always known. I'm really looking forward to it.

This change will hopefully mean that we can start to live our life the way we have wanted to since moving to the sticks, we'll be able to spend a couple of hours in the evening in the garden tending our veggie plot, and, fingers crossed, we may even get those pigs that I've been hankering after for years. My next purchase from Amazon will be a book about keeping pigs me thinks, any recommendations?

It's funny how reaching a milestone birthday like this makes you sit back and re-evaluate your life, it does feel slightly grown up making these choices - something I have never ever really felt, I've always been a bit of a tearaway, mischief follows me and I still love a bit of a wild night out (as much as everyone thinks you live the quiet life out here in the sticks, I would beg to differ!)



I shall leave you with a picture from the garden last summer, my favourite season of the year. Fingers crossed my plans come to fruition, at the end of the day it's up to me to make sure that it does, as, unfortunately for me, the fairies around here won't do it!

Panic stations...........

It arrived in the post this morning, the Country Living Spring Fair Exhibitors Manual, we have officially arrived at the panic stations! It also means having to spend time filling in copious amounts of forms, time that could be spent sewing, chunter, chunter, chunter..............!

Never mind, it made little butterflies flutter away inside me and a big broad smile spread across my face, I absolutely LOVE it all, the stress, the manic sewing until all hours of the morning, getting to be creative, but best of all, the fact that people also love and appreciate what you make, it's what makes it all totally worthwhile. Right, I'm off to get on, have a fab day whatever you're doing.

L x

P.S. I adore the little stickers that they give you to put on your mailings about the fair, ooh how the simple things in life give so much pleasure......................... 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!