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!

Busy, busy....

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, it's all a bit mad over here at PH HQ just now. Four weeks today will be the opening day of the Country Living Magazine Scotland Spring Fair , and I'm starting to get my knickers in a bit of a twist now. As usual, I leave everything to the last minute, I drew up a list last night of things still to do other than loads of sewing and creating, and it's huge! Never mind, we'll get there, Gregg is almost finished all the new bits and bobs for the shell of the stall so that's one less thing to worry about, where would I be without him, my "craft roadie" as he calls himself!!

While sewing away yesterday, I listened to podcasts from the Wiggly Wigglers site, they are fab! A real bunch of gigglers with lots of very interesting stuff to talk about, it really kept me going all day. I would highly recommend them if you're into gardening, issues about the countryside and the running of a rural business, highly entertaining!

I'm hoping to enlist the help of my little friend Catriona at the weekend, she is my top door stop filler and may hopefully progress to label attacher this weekend - are you around to help this weekend Catriona? - in return for lots of hot ribena and copious amounts of pancakes with nutella? :o)

Anyway, must get on, off to listen to the last couple of Wiggly Wiggler podcasts and crank up the sewing machine!

L x

Vintage buttons and Country Living

I've just come in from walking Chrissie, windswept and rosie cheeked, it's wild and dreich out there. "Dreich", such a great Scottish word, don't you think? At last, my March Country Living has arrived, it's normally here long before it hits the shelf of our local newagents, was not impressed when I popped in yesterday to see it sitting there and I STILL didn't have mine, humf! Anyway, I'm so pleased, my friend Caroline who has the Twice shop, has a little feature in it this month, her sewing roll has been featured in Emporium. We met last year when we both had stalls at the Travelling Souk and at Perth Mart Christmas Fair. Her products are gorgeous, real vintage beauties made into a lovely selection of gifts and goodies for the home.

This lovely little lot arrived in the post this morning too.............

Just over 100 real mother of pearl vintage buttons, some of them are really gorgeous, I have a real thing for mother of pearl buttons and use them on so many of our products. I'm also waiting on another lot arriving, this time 600! Yes, 600! I'll maybe have to part with some of them and sell them in the shop............. hmmmm, we'll see!

We're also waiting on another arrival, but of a different sort, the geese are apparently due to start laying on Valentines Day, but so far no eggs from them. I went out and spoke to them today, I told them that if they didn't start laying soon they'd go in the pot, that normally works with them! Their eggs are fab, they are huge with really tough shells, great for baking with and Gregg loves them for breakfast, they make HUGE fried eggs! Fingers crossed they'll start laying soon.

Thank you all for telling me what you got up to on Valentines Day, it's nice to know there are still some romantics out there! The chocolate cake was yummy, I was worried it wouldn't be very nice as it was a bit hard when I put the chocolate ganache over it, but as Julia over at Chrystal Mountain said, 20 seconds in the microwave with lashings of cream and it was dish delish! Left overs for pud tonight, guess who's going to be a few pounds heavier by the end of this week!

Sweet Valentines..........

Do you remember when you were little, waiting on the postie arriving in the morning, was there going to be any Valentines cards for you? Or even worse, would there be one for your brothers or sisters and not one for you? If Valentines Day fell on a school day they had a "Valentines Post Box" in both our primary and secondary schools, it caused great hilarity, and you could get up to all sorts of mischief sending naughty cards - not that I ever did of course! ;O)

Today I got one lovely card and a bunch of flowers, in return I have baked a chocolate cake and never quite got round to making that card.......................oops! Much creativeness has been going on in the workroom today though, so that's my excuse. At last I feel as if I'm getting somewhere, lots of new products have been flying off the sewing machine, all of which I'm really pleased with, I'll maybe show you some of them nearer the time of the fair..............!!

I'll leave you with a picture (sorry it's not the greatest photo) of our yummy cake - well I hope it will be! I've used some of our lovely blue duck eggs to make it! Gregg is busy making the supper, fillet steaks (from a local farm), dauphinoise potatoes and fresh veg from the organic shack down the road, mmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Happy Valentines Day to you all, whats is everyone doing tonight I wonder?

L xx

Blizzards and snow babes......

Well at last the snow has made it's way north, it's snowed all day today and has been on and off for the last 3 days, so we have a good 4 -5 ", it's fab! Today has involved mega snowball fights including rolling around in the snow getting it shoved up my back and down my bum!, walking about in a blizzard trying to find ski poles, but best of all was this........

Meet Sadie Frost, the snow babe! We decided, rather than to build the conventional snow MAN we would build a snow lady! Gregg had a bit of creative direction in the modelling of the body, hence the rather large boobs! I decided she must cover up so we gave her a rather fetching red bikini, hope she doesn't get frost bite on her bum!!!

Here's more pictures of today, me, Catriona and Gregg all posing with her!

Catriona making her head!

Gregg posing with his new lady friend!!!

Catriona and me making some moves on the snow dance floor!

ooh, ooh, must tell......

I don't think I have ever posted twice in one day, but this afternoon there was much excitement in the hen house. Our hens are starting to come back into lay now, the most eggs we've had in one day is 5 so far. You can generally tell which ones are either laying or about to come into lay as their combs go really red. I've been keeping an eye on them all, the light sussex are laying, one of the rhode Island reds is laying and a couple of the little wyandottes, probably the red ones, but some of the others are starting to go really red too.

So, this afternoon when I went into collect the eggs, I found 2 in the little corner where some of them seem to be laying and there were 2 in the nesting box closest to the door, a nesting box that hardly ever gets used (we have 5, but they generally only lay in 2 or 3 of them). To my delight, both the eggs are a gorgeous blue colour, a complete surprise as I didn't think any of our hens laid blue eggs. So, I am now left wondering are these eggs from 2 of the three blue laced wyandottes that we have (2 of them are very red in the comb) or are they from the apricot call ducks? As far as I'm aware, the ducks will only lay about 10 eggs in the year and are more likely to go off and build a nest somewhere, lay their eggs and then come back with ducklings (or am I being completely naive in thinking this - they'll probably all get eaten by the mink?). So only time will tell, I really hope that it's the little wyandottes that have laid them as then we'd have lovely blue eggs to add to the deep brown and white eggs we get from the others. Here's a picture of todays eggs.

Will keep you posted, it's no wonder I never get any work done!

New stockist

Today sees another delivery flying off via Royal Mail to a wonderful little shop in Glasgow, in Princes Square, Fifi & Ally - don't you just love that name?! This is a new stockist for us which is always quite exciting. I haven't actually been to the shop yet but I have read lots about it, you can read a little bit here, another really fabby blog. I've also read that it was recently voted one of the top 100 shops in the world, "Fifi & Ally is Glasgow’s hippest lifestyle concept store specialising in quirky fashion and lifestyle ..." how cool! So, another addition to the "to visit" list, I really must get down to Glasgow, I'm in desperate need of a VV Roleaux fix and haven't been to visit my sisters new flat in Glasgow, tut-tut, what a bad sister I am.

Cyberspace.........

Ok, this is a bit weird. It would appear that I have a cyber twin. What?, I hear you all say, yep, a cyber twin. While taking my usual trip through blogland, checking my fave sites, I came across this.

Ooooh, I hear you all say, that is a bit freaky. The freakiest bit of all, is that Rachels blog was probably one of the first blogs I started reading when I entered this other universe, yet I've only recently felt compelled to comment, I think that's what you call a "lurker"!! The only bit in Rachels comparison of our two parallel lives that isn't quite accurate is that I didn't move to Scotland, I've pretty much always lived in this country all my life. But the even freakier bit is that before we moved up here to the sticks, I lived not that far from her..........

So, I wonder if we will ever meet? will we be alike? or are there thousands of us out there all living this idyllic life of crafting, chicken keeping, house renovating and gin drinking at the wonderfully young age of 30 (not quite there yet, still another 22 1/2 days to go, sorry Rach, didn't mean to rub it in!), is it just a coinicidence that our paths have crossed......................?
We'll see.

You should have a read of Rachels blog, Oh, the glamour....,about life in general and extremely entertaining.

Ooh, and another thing while I'm talking about all things weird and bloggy, I'm not sure about everyone else, but I get a bit freaked out when "anonymous" people start leaving comments and I don't have a clue who they are. I feel as if I should know who they are but don't, as they seem to know me - so can you make yourself known please? Ta.

L x

P.S. Yes, I know you're probably all thinking, poor thing, she's been on the gin already this morning, well I haven't, the bar doesn't open until 5pm in our house. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, but if you have time to blog you have time to have a G&T, both can be done in tandem and it is generally a very nice experience!

Right, I think I've said enough for one day.

Gorgeous day

Work wise, today has been crap, one of those days when you really just feel like throwing in the towel and getting a normal job................

But, thankfully it was a gorgeous sunny day, I took myself off for a long walk with Chrissie this afternoon to sort my head out, I'm a great believer in thinking that you have to have the lows to appreciate the highs, my way of putting a positive spin on having a rubbish day!

But best of all was this........................................

.....................getting the washing out on the line! And there's nothing better than bring it in, pretty much dry and smelling wonderful................until you get a whiff of the sceptic tank and then the moment is totally lost! Ooh, the joys of living in the country, I'm off to put the chickens to bed, light the fires, make the tea and have a large bombay sapphire and tonic, I think we may even have a lime lurking in the fruit bowl.

Enjoy your weekend.

L x

Do not read if you're a vegetarian.............

The other night there was a knock at the door at about 9pm, I was in alone and thought "who on earth is it at this time of night?" Well, when I opened the door (with Chrissie at my feet incase it was someone dodgy!!) I got a bit of a shock. It was our neighbour with a brace of duck for me, shot that day. Hmm, what do I do with these was my intial thought, but being the thankful neighbour that I am, I gratefully received them and accepted the instructions as to how to "deal" with them. "Don't bother plucking them, too many feathers, just slice them open and cut out the breast!" was the instruction - boy could I have done with Hugh F-W! I left them hanging at the front door overnight while I deliberated over my dilemma. Gregg wasn't home until this morning, so do I deal with them myself or be a wimp and leave them for him? I very pathetically opted for the latter!

So, Gregg got to it this afternoon, with me watching, he's skinned a mink before so kind of knew what he was doing! After a bit I got bored and decided that I was probably never going to have to do this kind of thing so I didn't really need to know, a bit pathetic, eh! I didn't think you'd really appreciate photos of him skinning the duck, so I'll spare you the gory details.

It has brought us back to a conversation we have constantly, one of our main reasons for moving to the sticks and having some land was so that we could be more self sufficient. We have just over an acre at the moment, enough to keep the chickens, geese and ducks, a large veggie plot and lots of room for growing flowers. We'd love to have a bit more land, ideally the field across the burn from us would be perfect. My dream is to Keep Tamworth pigs, breed them, some for selling and some for the freezer. I'd also like to keep sheep, again to sell, for the freezer and for their wool, ideally a rare breed too as we would then at least feel as if we were contributing to the preservation of our rare breeds. I quite fancy an Anglo Nubian goat too, but that's more for a pet and just for the fun of having a mad goat, she would of course have to be called Gertie!

So, we were sat at the table this evening enjoying our duck, although I have to say I did find it a bit weird eating meat that still had feathers and a head attached to it a few hours ago? Gregg asked me the question that he asks me all the time whenever I'm whittering on about this menagerie of animals that we're going to acquire "so, do you think you'd be able to take one of your little piggies or lambs down to the abatoir for slaughter and then enjoy a nice Sunday roast?". Hmm, I think I could, I would love to think that we will one day, but how will I actually feel when it comes to eating it? Only time will tell, I know for a fact though that if we do get all these animals I won't be able to use the excuse "but they're our pets", from the outset they will always be destined for the freezer, maybe that will help me get my head around it.

I'll leave you with a picture of our supper, pan fried duck breast on mashed potato, veg and a good dollop of leftover home made cranberry sauce! It was rather tasty...........

Could this be Spring?

Well, it's the 31st of January and boy, is it mild. I can't believe the first month of 2007 is almost passed, not that I'm particularly sad as I hate the long, dark, cold days of January. But amazingly after all the gales, snow and freezing weather we've had over the past couple of weeks it has now turned to be so mild and Spring like - what's happened, January is never like this? In fact it is so mild that I have taken my sewing outside to do. I just can't bare to sit inside when it's mild like this, the birds are cheeping away, the chickens are scratching about in the garden, and best of all the spring bulbs are at last starting to show (not that there's many as most of them only got put in the ground on sunday!!!). I've got a stinking cough at the moment so I'm a tad zomby like, getting outside will do me the world of good and hopefully waken me up a bit!

Just being able to get the washing out on the line is such a treat, I have to say, hanging out the washing is my favourite chore - peg bags are a must for this year and will definitely be crossed off the "to do" list! I've also decided to stick with my trusty "dotty" fabric. I've always worked along the lines of once a fabric is finished it's finished as I don't like the idea of churning out hundreds of the same product in one fabric (not that I ever make 100 of anything - I'm lucky if I make a dozen at a time!!). But, seeing as it is soooo popular I've decided to stick with it, a bit like Emma Bridgewater and her dotty china, everyone loves it and it's a bit of a classic in every country kitchen.

I've plonked a jug of my daffs on the table outside with me, seeing as there aren't any out in the garden yet, but it's something to look forward to - if the hens don't scratch them all up! I seriously think mother nature is fooling us though, there's no way it'll stay like this for next few months, I'm sure there'll be a cold snap just around the corner? But I'm going to make the most of it while it lasts.

Right, I think that's the bread maker I hear bleeping, fresh bread for lunch - outside of course, anyone joining me?

L x

Maintaining a website

We've had the website for three years now, and as much as I love it, it's really hard work and I never really feel as if I'm on top of it. Because of the nature of what I do, I'm always creating and making new products, especially with new fabrics etc as you never know what lovely little gems your going to find when you're out for a rummage in the shops! New products just never seem to sit around for long enough in order for me to get some nice photos, either that or the weather is crap and I can't get outside to take the damn pictures!

I am soooo lucky that I don't have to pay someone a fortune to "do" the website for me, thankfully I have a very patient husband who has quite happily taught himself how to do it for me, if it wasn't for him I'd have no web site at all! We are always debating over the whole "click & buy" scenario too, but to be honest, I'm quite happy with the set up as it is - if I had orders coming in left, right and centre I wouldn't be able to cope as I never seem to have a massive pile of stock - it's generally all for a shop or for stock for a fair!

We spent last night getting rid of the terrribly out of date Christmas web site and making it a bit more spring like - but as usual while I was sitting updating all the text, I'm busy gabbering away to Gregg about how I want to change it before we do the Country Living Fair?!!

I am totally in awe of all the ladies out there who manage to create such beautiful crafts and maintain a web site too, how do they find the time? You should have a look at them, there's Cherry, Samantha and Tracey for starters and Donna, Fiona and Clare are busy working on theirs too, all very exciting.

So ladies, I'd like to pick your brains. I am very much of the opinion that because I am a very small rural business I get away with not being a fancy, slick set up, I don't do credit cards, it's payment by cheque or Paypal and I don't have a brochure (lots of people asked for them over the Christmas spell). I like to think that our lifestyle is very much a part of the business and the business is very much a part of our lifestyle - all very organic - if you see what I mean? Your thoughts on this would be very much appreciated, and thank you to everyone who comments on the site, it really does mean so much to me that people take the time to say their bit.

Thanks,

L x

I've been tagged!

I was tagged on Friday by Nonnie

Here are the instructions - The Rules: Each player of this game starts with "6 weird things about you". Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means. So here are my six weird things.

1. I adore my chickens to the point where I talk to them every day, I have wanted to keep chickens for years - but I don't actually like eggs! I'll go as far as having French toast and use them for baking, but a boiled, poached, fried or scrambled one just doesn't do it for me!

2. I get very attached to my socks, especially warm pairs, to the point where I will wear them until they are literally falling off my feet, I don't care if they've got holes in them!

3. I will only drink water if it comes from the kitchen tap, not the bathroom tap, to me it's just not as clean although it comes from the same source and pipe!

4. I wiggle my foot in bed to make myself go to sleep, it drives Gregg insane!

5. If I have a bath at night I love to go into a cold crisp bed, none of this putting the electric blanket on to continue the warmth.

6. And last but not least, I love to walk in the rain but only if it's not windy too.

So there you have it, 6 weird things about me, I found this quite difficult so maybe I'm not so weird after all!

I would now like to tag Donna, Samantha, Julia, Ginny, Jane, and Tracey.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

At last, it has arrived! We had a smattering yesterday morning along with a lovely sunny day, but since we got up this morning the snow hasn't stopped, there's a good couple of inches lying now. The chickens are not too pleased and are grumbling away in their house, but the geese and ducks don't seem too bothered. Chrissie is in her element bouncing about in the snow, she looks so cute with her little snow covered face. The cats have the right idea, they are curled up in little balls sound asleep!

The only hope now is that it is a tad colder up at Glenshee, ideally it needs to freeze to make a good hard base and then more snow on top so that we can get a bit of ski-ing and snowboarding done this winter! So fingers crossed!

I just love it when the spindly bare branches of the trees are covered in snow, it's just balancing there so delicately. There is a special kind of silence when there is snow, it really is magical. Can you tell I LOVE snow!

I definitely think a bit of sledging will be required this afternoon, it is just the best fun ever. When my mum and my youngest sister visited over Christmas last year we spent a day out in the field sledging, we even managed to get my mum on the sledge, she screamed all the way down the hill!

The stove is lit and all the wet outdoor clothes are drying off in front of it, I always think that the cottage has the feel of a ski chalet at this time of year, there's always wet outdoor gear drying off in front of the fire!

Right, I'm off to get on, a big pot of soup to be made and then on with the sewing, lavender hearts today I think!

L x

Spring flowers

It's the start of another week, the bed is stripped, the washing is done and the bread maker is on, filling the house with the gorgeous smell of baking bread. The stove is lit as it is yet another grotty day, windy and raining, grey and dark, oh how I wish for spring.......

At last the planning for the Country Living Fair is now in full swing (thankfully!) so I'm feeling very inspired and raring to go. I spent Saturday afternoon in Borders book shop with a friend, we had a lovely time looking at so many interesting books and dribbling over the stationary in Paperchase! I bought a couple of lovely craft books, hence the inspiration!

We had our first little flurry of snow on Saturday night, it was only on for about an hour and didn't lie as the ground is just too wet, when is the rain and wind going to stop? It's no wonder we all hate January!

The only way of brightening up the cottage at the moment is to fill it with spring flowers, beautiful red tulips in one of the kitchen windows and blue hyacinths in the other, the smell is fantastic.

I have yet to get my spring bulbs into the garden, hopefully there might be a dry day this week but the ground is just so wet, what can I do? I have bought a lot of spring bulbs this year as last year was our first spring here and we didn't know what was in the garden. So the plan was to plant daffodils all down the burnside as you come in the front gate, I have a feeling they might be a little late in flowering this year.........................

Oh well, off to get on with the sewing, I think I'll have a day of making new products today and planning what new fabrics and trimmings I'm going to order later in the week, one of my favourite jobs.

Enjoy your Monday.

L x

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!

Another New Year lies ahead............

Another year has passed us by, our first full year here at Mill of Fyall................

It has been a great year, very busy, but a very happy one. We spent a magical Hogmanay "up the glen" at the Blackwater Hall, not far from Glen Shee. Lots of ceilidh dancing was done until the power went off at about 11.30pm, but it wasn't long until we were back in action once "the geny" was hooked up, all very "Monarch of the Glen" and absolutely wonderful!

2007 will hopefully be a good year, I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the garden this year now that the veggie garden is built, it'll be nice to keep a diary of it all here. It will be another busy year with the business as we're doing the Country Living Spring Fair Scotland again at the end of March, which I'm really looking forward to. Gregg also has an exciting year ahead as he starts a new job at the beginning of March.

The photo above was taken this time last year when we had about a foot of snow, it was amazing! We congregated with all the neighbours and their children in one of the fields and had a mass sledging, snowboarding and skiing day, it was just fab! Unfortunately we've not had any snow yet this winter, but as soon as we have I'll post some pictures!

Well, all thats left for me to say is that I wish everyone a prosperous and safe 2007 and hope that you all stick to those New Year resolutions (at least until the end of January!).

L x

The Christmas break.....

Well, it has passed for another year and 2006 certainly proved to be the busiest one! By the time Christmas Eve arrived all orders and Christmas pressies had been delivered to customers, friends and family. The stove in the dining room was finished and chugging away - just having a warm house for Christmas was such a treat!















The tree and the rest of the house were eventually decorated very late on but I did enjoy doing it this year. The tree was kept very simple with lots of fairy lights, glass, white decorations and silver jingly bells.
















The dining room was a bit more festive with red berries, holly and ivy, and traditional scandinavian style decorations.
















The weather has been amazing, very cold with lots of heavy frost, but beautiful blue skies, it couldn't have been more perfect.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas so far and are enjoying the break, it has certainly done Gregg and I good to just stop and relax for a few days. My mum and two sisters arrive tomorrow so the house will be full of fun and laughter for a couple of days.