Milkchurn Cottage

Busy days

2011-08-05T15:40:00.006+01:00

Hello, ladies. I'm sorry but it has been absolutely ages since I have done a blog post, I just never seem to get the time these days.

I have a blog for my pretty shop - Milkchurn Cottage The Shop Blog. In that blog I natter about whats new and what I'm painting or sewing or just what new vintage things I have in.

I also have a Facebook page for the shop - this is mainly just pictures of all the new stuff which I update every week (normally.)

With these two I seem to run out of time and things to say when I get to doing just my blog (this blog) and as a result it has been neglected lately.

On top of that I have just started a new business - Raindrops on Roses Vintage China Hire - catering for weddings, tea parties and any other event. This is where all the pictures on this post are hopefully going to end up. I have just created a Facebook page for the new business too, so if you'd like a peep I'd love to know what you think up to now.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I am writing this to say thank you very, very much for reading my ramblings up to now. It amazes me that you do, it makes me smile and it is really nice to now someone is interested. However, despite that, I just don't get around to it often enough so this is my final post on this particular blog. If you would like to follow me on the other blog or on either Facebook page I would really like that very much. In a small business every bit of interest helps and although you may not want anything from me, someone who links into me through you may do. As they say - every little helps. And knowing someone follows me makes me think I'm at least in the right ball park in some way!

So thank you again for reading my stuff, I hope you are all happy and healthy and live gorgeous lives (mine is a bit frantic but gorgeous in my head) and hopefully I will see you again somewhere else

much love, Karen xxx

Makes and put togethers

2011-04-04T22:26:00.019+01:00

Hello ladies, I hope that you are all happy and well and that the sun is shining on you.

Today's post is a bit of a mix of makes that I have made and makes that I have put together, so not really makes, but almost. These lovely Primulas in this 1950s boat vase are a great example.

This vase has been kicking around unloved for ages. I'm not sure where it came from but it has never really had a proper home with me. I just kept moving it around in the hope that it looked right somewhere. But it never did. I almost threw it away on several occasions, but I just hate throwing things out so it survived. Then, last week, I bought some stuff for the shop. In it was a really pretty Victorian tureen missing its lid. I had alos bought some Primulas for my pot outside and I popped a couple of them in the tureen to carry them inside and was amazed at how lovely they looked, so planted them up.

And, amazingly, they sold almost straight away. Well, that put me on a roll - not that I'm money mad, you understand. But it is nice when something you thought no one would want suddenly becomes desirable because of something you've added. Especially when its this easy to do.

Next I put. a white Cyclamen in a blue and white tea pot that was missing its lid. This had been in my cupboard for years (too pretty to throw away, too useless to use) I wish I could show you how lovely it looked but it sold before I got a picture. And at the same time I put this purple Cyclamen in this pretty Flora Dora pattern sugar bowl.

That one sold straight away too.

And this lovely yellow Primula went into another vintage sugar bowl. I was so pleased with the simplicity of these - in my job I get lots of oddments of really pretty china and it really hurts me to throw them out, but I have no storage and only a few kitchen cupboards so I can't keep everything. Its so nice to have found something pretty to do with all these 'lost soul' bits.

Anyway, these little success' are what inspired me to try to pretty-up my sad unloved homeless boat vase. And I'm so pleased I did, for the first time ever I like it and it has a home. So those are my put togethers, not really makes, just stuff put together for a new lease of life in the light and out of the cupboard at last!

I have been lucky to have managed a couple of days sewing this week. I am not good at an hours sewing, I am quite greedy and like to have a good run at it so it has to be a whole free day for me to get anything done. This week I was really going for it and had 2 full days. It was lovely. Very relaxing.

I have had this gorgeous vivid pink toille for a while now and have got a huge floor cushion almost done but kept forgetting to get a 45 inch zip, so couldn't do anything more to that. Except order the zip - which I have now done. So instead I made these huge lavender and wheat hearts.

And these smaller lavender and wheat hearts.

They look lovely stacked together and smell divine.

I also made some more wheat bags, with just a bit of lavender in, otherwise I think the wheat smells a bit, well, wheaty.

And some straight forward just lavender bags.

Then cos I was getting a bit bored with the toille by then I made a couple of lavender bags from a vintage dressing table mat, prettied up with some pearlised buttons and gorgeous ribbon.

I think these are so pretty.

And finally I made this lovely bolster cushion. This is a really gorgeous white cotton cut work tray cloth. No one uses tray cloths any more so they just languish, which is sad. The back of this is just two napkins, they were the same width and just the right size to overlap enough for the cushion inner to go inside and be properly covered and secure. This was the easiest of makes and looked super. I put it in the shop and it went the same day!

I love it when I have days when I feel like I've actually produced something. Most days I work in the shop and I enjoy it, but I love making things. I wish I had more time to fit my to do list in!

Well thats it for today, I hope you've enjoyed it and it doesn't just sound like a smug list. I enjoyed doing it and a lady today told me she put a single pansy in a tea cup so I'm off to try that now.....

Have fun, Karen xx

Grand children and my "I don't want to do this' list

2011-03-20T15:11:00.015Z

Hello ladies, gosh this has been a busy week. I have been trying to get some sewing done to use some of the fabrics I showed in my last post but life just gets in the way.

Last Wednesday I decided that I really must stop putting off everything I didn't fancy doing. On the very top of my list was a replacement seat cover for the seat of a lovely Lloyd Loom chair I had in the shop. I had this fantastic Sanderson 'Tree Peony' print (the one in the picture) ear-marked in my mind for this project. The chair had been sitting in my shop with the most disgustingly dirty faded seat, casting an air of gloom over the whole shop. Well, praps not, but certainly making the chair look undesirable when it should look inviting and sitable-in. The main reason that this was on my 'don't want to do this' list is that it needed piping and I had never done piping before. These sort of seat pads look badly home made and bodged without piping and piping inspired a kind of fear in me. But, needs must so I bit the bullet and gave it a go.

I love these 1930's Lloyd Loom chairs, they are such an iconic design. I still don't like piping but I am pleased I gave it a go and am happy with how it looks. But if anyone has any tips to make going around corners with the piping cord I would be most grateful. I have another two of these to do and I fancy doing cute piped cushions to match, but the piping is still putting me off actually getting on with it.

So that was one job off my list and I felt quite smug, but then my lovely daughter asked me to have my equally lovely grandson for a few days. I was working, but as I live on the premises it wasn't impossible and isn't that what families are for?

This is the three of them - the child I had to stay is on the left, looking like he's up to something! Mind you, they all look like they're up to something, dont you think? He arrived on Friday morning and was as good as gold while I worked in the shop all day. He read, colored, played with the dog, watched a bit of TV and talked to me between customers. Luckily at this time of year I'm not too busy so we were fine. He tired the dog out tho' and tucked him up on the sofa with a blanket, not quite what he's used to but he took it well. And the poor baby slept all day Saturday.

Not the grandson though! On Saturday morning my friend Karen collected him to take back to her farm. She has a little boy the same age and thought they would get on. I was quite envious when they left. It is lambing time here and Karen was trotting off to another farm to collect a spare lamb. Sadly a lot of sheep are lost during lambing, sometimes the ewes just don't make it and their babies become spare lambs. And sometimes the lambs don't make it and the mothers have lots of milk and no babies to feed. If the spare lambs can be re-mothered quickly they stand the best chance of survival so the farmers do their best to make sure this happens.

This was why Karen was trotting off. She came back to her farm with a freshly orphaned lamb to put to her baby-less ewe. And Karl got to go with her and nurse the baby on the way back. I so wanted to be him - sometimes is just no fun being grown up. But I'm making light of it. Lambing is a hard time for farmers, it is a labour intensive period and it must be heart breaking to loose such adorable babies, especially if you've been up all night trying to make sure it doesn't happen. And obviously the financial implications are pretty naff too. For those of us not involved its so nice to see the lambs out in the fields jumping around like mad things. You can't help but smile at them and it shows that Spring is here.

My lovely grandson had a fab day at Karen's farm. He came back full off his new friend, rabbiting on and on about the lambs, their evil cat, the dogs, playing out -v the whole thing was a new experience for him. I love the fact that my townie grand children get to see all this, so many children these days only get to wear their wellies on the few days that it snows. I will never forget my youngest grandson (the other one in the earlier photo) when his shiny new red wellies got covered in mud and he realised that not only was this allowed but this was what they were for! He squelched with such glee, I loved watching it. I even found the picture!

I'm a firm believer that children should get dirty every so often. How else will they build up the immunities they need to survive in towns?

I do love these children, despite the noise and chaos that accompanies them!

On Saturday night my grandson and I were invited to my friend Sarah's for tea. Sarah has a lovely little girl who is 5. Karl is 8 but I knew Esme would be able to cope! She is so like her mum. Karl wasn't too keen at first, he'd had a busy day and for an 8 yr old boy a 5 yr old girl holds very little appeal. However he's smaller than me and the things that you don't think you'll enjoy quite often turn out much better than you expect, don't they?

He had a Beano! Esme certainly gave him a run for his money and Sarah cooked toad in the hole with her own free range eggs. All my grand children love Yorkshire Pudding so this went down really well - he had 3 helpings! His face painting left a bit to be desired though. Needless to say he slept really well.

My Sunday was taken up with taking him home so I didn't get chance to take anything else off my 'don't want to do this' list. But I had a fabulous week. I loved having him and he had a great time. I have 3 grandchildren and I think I was made for this!

Next week I'll do more, I promise

Take care

Karen x

Fabric Feast

2011-03-05T14:11:00.017Z

Hello ladies. I hope you are suitably impressed by this - it is less than a month since my last post! I am trying really hard to get into a more acceptable bloggy rhythm. Once a week is my aim, but fortnightly is better than my recent hit rate. Anyway, today I wanted to tell you all about the collection of fabulous fabrics I seem to have accumulated recently. Like these hens, they are so fantastic! Just look at them! Oh the things I have planned for these little beauties! This is a lovely french linen and the hens and eggs are just begging to be cut apart and stitched onto cushions and draught excluders and pictures and book covers and door stops and, well you get the picture don't you?

And to go with them I bought this...

Homespun heaven!

Look how well they go together.

I just can't wait to get started on my list!

These are both Annie Sloan fabrics - French country chic at its best. I hope to stock these in my shop soon, I'm saving up!

And then there's this

Isn't it pretty?

This is a lovely vintage piece I bought while on holiday in Norfolk. I love it and am savoring it until just the right project comes along.

And for something completely different, what about this?

Isn't this cerise amazing. I have seen Toile in loads of lovely colours, in fact I have bought Toile in lots of lovely colours. But this stands out. I am in the middle of making a huge circular floor cushion from this. It is 3 foot across and 8 inches deep! Well a statement fabric like this deserves a statement project, wouldn't you agree? I'll show you when its done.

And talking of Toile, I have this

Laura Ashley, lovely pinky red on cream.

I have nothing planned for this just yet, but something will pop up later, I'm sure.

And this, I love this. Its so delicate and pretty.

I have made loads with this.

Wheat bags with Lavender to smell nice.

Draught Excluders.

Cushions.

Little Lavender Bags.

Oh and a gorgeous wall hanging tidy thing that I forgot to take a picture of - typical really cos that was the best. I'll have to take one later. And there's till loads of this left. I like stuff that lasts forever.

And on a more modern note, there's this

This is a Sanderson print. I have just 3 meters of this and half of it is almost a bean bag. Well, it's cut out and tacked up and the inner is done, so it is very nearly a beanbag. (Dogly enjoyed the bit where I filled the inner with the beans. I didn't see him eating any at the time, but they were there in his deposits later, so he must have done.) My friend Sarah bought some of this too and had it made up into roman blinds and seat pads for her kitchen. It is a fabulous print.

And that's it for now. I do have more, I am a hoarder of fabric, my stash is quite scary really and dates back quite some time. This year I have promised myself that I will USE it. It is not just to look at and stroke. In order to be able to indulge myself in yet more purchases I have to actually make something with it. So this is me, trying.....

I hope you have enjoyed sharing my secret stash

(well some of it)

See you soon

Love Karen x

Lots of new things happening...

2011-02-22T15:10:00.007Z

Hello ladies, I know it is ages and ages since my last post but I have been amazingly busy. I sometimes can't believe where the time has gone. As some of you know in my day time life I run a very pretty, girlie little shop in Hawes - right in the center of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Well things have been happening there that have cheered and inspired me, but have taken all my time and energy and blogging was neglected as a result. I actually closed for 6 weeks to decorate and do my tax return (I'm rubbish at paperwork so this took the whole of the first week) Also I needed to get some R&R before the start of the new season. And I wanted to do an Annie Sloan painted furniture course. So that's what I have been doing whilst I have been away.

I have been painting furniture for years - long before I started selling it. When my children were small I got divorced and went back to university. Obviously this meant there was never any spare money for nice furniture, in fact when I look back I'm amazed we managed to eat, but we did. Anyway, I started painting furniture because I have this need for pretties. I get quite claustrophobic (moody, tetchy even, some would say) if I am surrounded by ugly things and much of the furniture I lived with had lived with others before it came to me and was well out of its prime. So I painted it, usually with what ever paint was around or hiding in my dad's garage. I had some disasters initially, but on the whole had quite a few successes and have been painting furniture ever since.

When I took the shop on two years ago I wanted to sell this sort of thing - boring ugly furniture that had been transformed by a simple paint job. This 1930's chest on chest looks gorgeous now, painted a soft country grey, but look at how it looked last week.

It just doesn't look like the same piece of furniture, does it? And all its had is a coat of paint and a wax. I love this, I like doing it and I like the results. So when I started the shop I wanted to do my painted furniture, but I just never seemed to have the time. A small business like mine means you do most of it yourself and you can't paint and serve customers at the same time in the same space. So it just didn't happen. But this year I have made plans. I have decided that we (me and the shop) have needs and that this is what we both need so it must be achieved somehow, by hook or by crook.

I have always been influenced by Annie Sloan. When I first started painting stuff she was the lady in the know, she wrote books and taught courses and I thought she was ace. Annie has now written countless books on the subject (the latest being Creating The French Look - and I'm in it!!!) and is still the lady in the know. If you watched Kirsty's Homemade Home, Annie appeared in one of the episodes. Anyway, cutting to the chase, Annie has developed her own paints specially formulated for painting furniture and which cut down on the preparation work needed and are gorgeous to use. I decided that if we (me and the shop or more strictly speaking - the shop and I) were to go down this road we should use only the best paints and should stock them to sell to others as well. And that is what I did (just me - the shop is a bit static in that respect.) I contacted Annie, who was delighted to have a prospective stockist in the north, and went down to Oxford to meet her. Her shop is amazing! As well as the paints she has a range of fab fabrics - very French Country chic! (Hopefully I can stock these later)

I attended one of her specialist paint courses for retailers, which was so inspiring! Annie runs courses for the public too, but the retailers' course was so that I could teach her techniques myself to my customers from my own shop. Although I've been painting furniture for years, her approach was so laid back and easy and she had some different methods and taught a couple of things I'd not done before. I loved it and came away all fired up and raring to go! So now, not only do I sell her paints in my shop - I also run painted furniture courses too! As you can imagine, much of my supposed R&R time was swallowed up by these new developments and the rest of it was swallowed up by me painting everything that stood still. And I still had the whole shop to re-decorate, new lights to go up and a new carpet to go down.

It looks OK tho' - don't you think?

All in all it has been a bit manic, but so worth it. I hate pushing my shop on people - but please have a look - not particularly because I want you to buy anything (although I won't stop you if you do) but because I'm soooo proud of it now. Its a proper, real, all growed up shop and looks so posh it can't really be mine.

Click here to have a proper look.

Well, that's it for today, I hope you get chance to look at the shop, but if you don't thats OK, I'll still love you all anyway

See you soon, Karen x

Snow and a newcomer!

2010-11-28T22:38:00.014Z

Hello ladies. I have been busy here in the arctic north;

squirreling away in my pretty shop trying to get ready for Christmas and hoping and praying and begging and reasoning that it really couldn't and wouldn't snow until after Christmas.

My shop more or less grinds to a halt for 2 months after Christmas anyway so I really need people to shop with me for as long as possible before then. Snow just panics visitors, they think the roads will be bad and they may not get home and also that they may just freeze (this point is valid actually - it is blinkin cold) so they just don't come. Snow this early is very bad news for me. But just look at it, isn't it beautiful?

How can something this pretty be this bad?

It is just stunning.

But bad. Very, very bad!

And look what else I have had to keep me busy.

This is Mac. He is new. He has no qualms about the snow. He just loves it. He turned into Tigger; bounce,bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.

I don't know if he appreciates the stunning scenery, he tears up and down with his nose as close to the ground as possible, so prob not, but he loves the space.

This is our morning walk.

Do you think he likes it?

He is 7 months old, a black Labrador big puppy. I have had him almost a month now and I have already got this big place for him in my heart. How do dogs do that? He has become my child, its so weird.

I think he likes it here.

Don't you?

I can't say I blame him though, it is a bit special.

Blinkin' cold though.

See you soon, I hope

Karen x

Quickie Tutorial Christmas Wreath and Dangly Pine Cone Decs

2010-10-30T13:52:00.024+01:00

Hello ladies, this is a quick bloggy tutorial for the Christmas wreath shown on the left here and on my shop blog.

This is really easy to do and other than the base wreath can be made with bits and pieces collected out walking or gleaned from your existing Christmas decs and the kitchen.

For this particular one you will need:

Base wreath

Cinnamon sticks

Dried Orange slices

Small pine cones

Fake berries

Homemade Fabric Hearts

Ribbon

I used a bit of floristry wire, but its not strictly necessary, you can manage with string. I used a glue gun, which made it easy, but I'm sure superglue would do it too. PVA is not strong enough though.

Start with the base wreath

This one was from my shop but you can get them from most florists or craft shops.

Lay your bits and bobs on and jiggle them until you are happy with the basic shape. It is a good idea to decide where the top is and work with this in mind. I started the shape off with the cinnamon sticks. I wrapped 4 bundles of cinnamon, each containing 3 short sticks with fine florists wire. I placed them roughly equally around the wreath and when I was happy glued them down with the glue gun.

I added the oranges and fabric hearts next, not gluing until I was happy with the spacing. The fabric hearts are ones Fiona of Marmalade Rose made for me, because she's so much neater with a sewing machine than I am. They are quite simple, I'm just not neat enough - two fabric hearts sewn together with interfacing between them for a bit of extra body.

When these were placed on and I could see the basic shape was OK I glued them down and started to play with the berries and pine cones.

Juggling is the key to sucsess here. Keep standing back and jiggling and admiring (or not) until you are convinced it is right before going near it with the glue.

When you are happy with the final design and it is all glued in place all you need to do is pick some ribbon

and tie a pretty bow to finish it off

and then stand well back and oooh and ahhh at your cleverness.

Not bad for just bits and bobs.

Just in case you fancy trying something else, I have had some of these dangly pine cones on ribbon for years. Mine were made for me by a friend when my children were young and are really ready for new ribbons now, but they still look good.

This is not a good picture, but they really do look lovely either side of a fireplace and are really easy to make.

This is a better pic.

For these you will need:

2 Large pine cones of roughly equal size

Ribbon - Tartan looks nice

6 Sprigs of fake spruce (or the real stuff if you don 't mind replacing it every year)

Fine floristry wire (or string)

Glue gun (or superglue, but watch your fingers)

Start by wiring the pine cones.

I have used quite large cones because I want the decorations to be quite long, but smaller cones would work with shorter ribbon. The cones were £2 each this size, but smaller ones can be collected anywhere.

To wire them wrap the wire around the cone gong under the umberella of the first open 'leaves' of the cone. On the cone in the picture above you can just see a bit of string pointing out near the top on the left - this is the level you need to be aiming for. Wrap the wire (or string) as tightly as you can and tie it off, leaving about 8" to play with. Repeat this in the opposite direction, so that the tied ends stick out at the opposite side of the cone.

Then take the 2 lots of wire or string and tie them together at the center of top of the cone, leaving a small loop. This is for the ribbon to go through later.

Next you will need the spruce. I have used a fake spruce spray because I don't want to replace it each year, but real stuff is fine if you don't mind replacing.

This came as a spray for 99p from a craft shop

and I just pulled 3 little twigs off it for each pine cone.

Next you need to glue the spruce sprigs on to the cone. These look pretty, but are also useful for covering the wire, so be sure to place them to hide any wire or string.

Next you will need to choose your ribbon. You need about 3 mtrs because you need one long length to make a bow on one cone, then go up to a hanging loop and another bow AND then to do the same down to the second pine cone.

To start the ribbon off make a bow by making 6 loops. The cut end should be under my thumb. Tie the bow tightly with wire or string where my thumb is, making sure that the cut end is tightly fastened in. Spread out the loops of the bow equally and place it on top of the cone and the spruce, gluing down the underneath ribbon of the loops to hold them where you want them if necessary. Be sure to leave enough on the end off the ribbon to do this again for the other pine cone and the length of the drop and a bow at the top. Don't cut the ribbon until you have finished both pine cones in one continuous run. After you have secured the bow thread the rest of the ribbon through the wire and tie it securely before leaving your desired length up to the center top. Hopefully at this stage you should still have about half of your ribbon left.

At the top you need to tie a knot for a hanging loop

and a bow.

Then do exactly the same going down the other side for the second cone, finishing off by looping the ribbon through the wire loop and knotting.

When you get to the second pine cone it looks nicer if its slightly off set.

And thats it, easy peasy.

Hopefully - if I've not made it confusing

Best wishes

Karen x

Tea Cup Candles and The Wensleydale Show

2010-08-29T12:34:00.019+01:00

Hello ladies, I'm sorry it has been so long since my last blog; life just takes over sometimes and I must admit that I feel as if it has been quite hard on me the last few weeks so I haven't really been overly chatty or in a blogger type frame of mind.

But it is Bank Holiday and my daughter has descended upon me once again with The Noisy Ones, so I thought I'd share them with you to save my ears!

And they have cheered me up a bit too!

They arrived on Friday night, just in time for bed so got up on Saturday morning in fine fettle. But they were all wellington-less! How can anyone come into the dales for a country show set in a field, bearing in mind that it rains A LOT up here, and not come equipped with wellies?

My daughter just looked at me astonished and said she didn't own any wellies. I have told her that you can buy them now with wedge heels, so she may just concede, but mostly wellies don't go with her self image. She makes me laugh sometimes and wasn't impressed with the mirror when she finished her careful ensemble with my pink and white stripey Joules wellies. I thought she looked sweet, but she wouldn't pose for a picture so you'll just have to imagine it!

We headed for the main ring first, to see what was happening before going any further. It was pretty good timing because the boys were transfixed and didn't take their eyes off it until it was all over.

The Noisy Ones were quiet!

I was amazed and more than a little impressed.

Do you want to see the miracle that achieved this staggering result?

It was a man in a (very tight) lycra suit, although I think it was the bike that the boys liked!

I don't think I've ever seen them this quiet unless they are asleep - and the little one even talks then sometimes.

They particularly liked it when he failed to jump a big ramp and got stuck on the top.

I must admit that he was good, and very close up so the effect was even better.

After this we headed off to see what else was around. One of things I love about children is how they can become fascinated by things you'd expect them to find quite boring. Both boys were hugely impressed with the show tent for produce. I think it was the huge cabbage as we first went in, it was so enormous. After this we discussed leeks, onions and carrots as if they were

at least as interesting as a man in lycra on a stunt bike. And pretty girl Megan just trots after them like a little happy little puppy, chattering away (another noisy one in the making I think.) The boys really liked the idea of winning a prize for the best veggie and compared first and second place winners like they'd been judging for years!

But not wanting to push our luck we headed over to the boys idea of action, a climbing wall.

I thought that this might be a bit much for my little Jake.

It was absolutely huge, but no, he was up at the top before I'd finished asking Sarah if she was sure he was big enough.

The bigger, noisier noisy one was less impressed. He was the one I thought would be up there in no time, but he really wasn't keen and came down after not really going up, saying in true man fashion that it was a stupid wall. Don't you just love them!

But my little Jake was smug. He didn't say much but you could tell he was dead chuffed that he'd gone up further than his big bro.

After this they went on quad bikes, watched Punch and Judy (avidly) and ate lunch. We had venison steak sarnis and the boys wanted a burger and a hot dog respectively. The hot dog was pronounced funny but we didn't tell him it was a gamekeepers sausage (venison, pheasant and rabbit) We just gave him more ketchup which seemed to do the trick. The wild boar burger disappeared quickly so must have been good. Pretty Megan likes variety and just ate a bit of everyone else's. She was funny watching the boys and was engrossed in the Punch and Judy show, giggling away and clapping. But as soon as she saw the bouncy slide she was bouncing out of the arms that held her. The first slide was huge and the boys dashed off, leaving her pointing after them, her little mouth quivering as she realised she couldn't get up the steps.

Daddy quickly whisked her off to the smaller slide (what a hero) but she was still too small to get up the steps! Daddy then showed the world his boxers whilst pushing her bottom up to the top so she could have a go. But she just sat at there for a good few mins looking quite pathetic, I think somewhat daunted by the size of the drop before her. Finally she went for it - launching herself down at full pelt.

She had a couple more goes but I don't think her heart was in it. I think she liked the slide bit but not the setting off bit, poor baby. I thought she was really cute and ever so brave, but I am a bit biased I s'pose.

After this they went on those bouncy things (not Meggie tho) like a bungie jump thing, but not

I thought this looked ace and really would have liked a go myself.

Boys stuff done we had a wonder around the stalls, bought hot hot hot chilli jam and a pepper plant and got extremely wet when the heavens opened, making us run for the big cattle tent. The noisiest noisy one pronounced it smelly, but it was lovely and warm and dry and I do have a love of show cattle. It just amazes me how lovely and clean they get them. All well brushed with almost polished udders and gleaming rumps. It must take such a lot of effort. The noisy ones were quiet when they all got to stroke the Holsteins laying in the straw and were a bit awed by the sheer size of them that close up. The rain stopped and we toured the sheep, Paul (daddy) was a bit startled by the horns on the Jacobs and then we were in time to watch the beef cattle judging. Again, my hat goes out to the owners of these fabulous beasts, so perfectly turned out in every way.

And then we had a cup of tea (finally) and sauntered back to the car. I think a good time was had by all and they were not quite quiet but as close as they ever are on the way home.

I was going to show you my tea cup candles after the show stuff, but have run out of time, sorry. I will do it in the week, honest.

Hope you enjoyed the show

Karen xx

Another Mixed Blog, Hawes Gala, the Woolfest and other bits.

2010-06-28T15:08:00.043+01:00

Hello ladies, today is another mixed post I'm afraid.

It has been such a busy week.

I really must try harder to do this more often.

I mean well, but good intentions are just not enough without the follow through!

This week has been a bit special though.

My gorgeous boys and pretty girl were here for the weekend so I thought I'd share the joys of Hawes Gala with you a bit further on.

But before I unleash the noisy ones up on you I thought you might like to hear about the Woolfest.

It was fantastic, I really enjoyed it and would urge anyone who has any interest at all to go and have a look (and sniff and stroke and oooh and ahh) because it is well worth a visit.

I have been looking forward to this for a while. Fiona and I decided much earlier in the year that this was going to be one of our 'day out' destinations. Sadly I am not a good knitter but I love yarn. So I have always found it quite depressing that I can't achieve anything I actually want to own from my efforts. However, I have recently learned to crochet and I can do it !!!

I was really pleased to find a yarn craft that I can get enthusiastic about and have been looking forward to going to the Woolfest as someone who actually might achieve something with her purchases!

We arrived at the Woolfest at just after 10am - perfect timing for their 10am start - although I suspect this may have more to do with Fi's map reading than with my driving. You could tell straight away that this was a ladies' event because it was so well organised - the parking was close and free - always a good start for me. There were lots of enthusiastic ladies in the (not too big) queue. There were some men, there were even some dogs, but it was mostly ladies.

This is it, just inside the doors, not the most inspiring photo I know, but it gives you an idea of what to expect, it is held in an auction mart after all. (In my experience Auction Marts have very good cafes.) And it gets better...

The first stand we saw was bagged fleeces. These are a bit advanced for me, but I love looking. They feel so sheepy - these are in their un-washed state, still with all the lanolin in and are a tiny bit whiffy with the odd bit of field or branch still attached. But where else do you get this! Each fleece is labeled with the breed and some have comments about the quality of the wool.

This one was my favourite. It was labeled properly, with the added info that the bag contained 'PomPom's fleece, still full and plentiful this year.' If I'd had anything to use it for I would have chosen this one over all the rest, just to have something made from a fleece belonging to a sheep called Pom Pom! And it looked crimped too - what more could anyone want!

Apparently the fleeces are snapped up quite early and the organisers have a stand designated as a Fleece Creche so that buyers don't have to cart their purchases around all day. I told you it was organised by women. The government has much to learn from the organisational skills of Country Women.

This lovely lady had the most gorgeous Wensleydale Sheepskin Rugs on her stand. The Wensleydale sheep is a rare breed and the fleece is curly, making it really gorgeous and quite different. My friend Ruth and her partner Anne run the Wensleydale Long Wool Sheep Shop at Barden just outside Leyburn so I have used Wensleydale wool before. It is lovely and soft; because it is long all the fibers run the same way so it is really smooth and lustrous. But they don't do the skins so I was fascinated by these. The lady has hers tanned in the Orkneys and they are so soft you could get lost in them. She only does about 10 a year and I sooo wanted one but my pennies were not sympathetic so I just took a card (just in case.)

This is the Wensleydale sheep.

Don't they look majestic?

They are quite big sheep and look like they have tidy dreadlocks.

One of the nice things about the Woolfest is that you get to see what the wool looked like whilst it was still on the animal as many of the stall holders have examples of their breeds.

And it's not just sheep, Fiona is having a go at bobbin spinning here...

...using hair from the Mohair Rabbit!

You'll have to look at Fi's blog for pictures of the rabbit - it obviously fancied her more cos it wouldn't pose for me!

This floppy eared creature is an Angora goat.

And there were the most adorable baby Alpacas (I couldn't get a good pic, but Fi triumphed again, so check hers out.) The Alpacas had just been shorn which exaggerated their huge, huge eyes and long, long lashes and I wanted one (no pennies again - life's just not fair sometimes.)

I tried to convert Fi but she wasn't having it either.

Anyway, we had a lovely day. We bumped into Sarah Carr in the cafe and drooled over her purchases. Sarah makes lovely felted bags which I sell in my pretty shop and she had bought the most amazing wools so I can't wait to see the new lot. One of her wools was labeled with the sheep's name and she says this will go on the bag's label too. I love it!

This is one of Sarah's current lot of bags. She never does two the same, which I like. Its always nice to sell something no one else has!

We also bumped into Anne Hewitt, another local lady from Carperby in Wensleydale. Anne spins her own yarns and designs and makes the most fantastic fine lace blankets. She is also a talented quilter - one of these ladies who are amazingly good but don't realise just how good they are.

This is Anne's work. It is the most intricate quilting with Wensleydale wool crocheted flowers and a patchwork design. All original. Anne has just started a blog and I will add a link as soon as she gives it to me.

And, Ruth and Anne from the Wensleydale Long Wool Sheep Shop were there too. It was nice to see their stand and I bought a lovely wooden crochet hook with a turned end which was put to immediate use to hold my hair up in a messy bun - it was a hot day - but I put it to its proper use when I got home.

The Woolfest is held annually in June at Mitchell's Auction Centre near Cockermouth. It was a great day, the cafe was as good as I hoped (fab steak pie) and I could have spent a fortune.

I will show you what I did buy next time.

Now for the Gala!

It was my daughter's birthday on Sunday and with it also being the Gala weekend it seemed a good time for her to visit with my grandchildren.

This is my beautiful daughter, Sarah.

She raided my shop for her birthday pressies - she works on the basis that she gets more because she is getting stuff at cost, and she certainly takes full advantage of this perk! Not that I mind, I don't see her often enough to mind anything really. Of this lot she chose the hat, necklace, bracelet, ring and earrings from the shop - plus a pink cardigan not in the photo! But it does all match her dress (Asda, not me!)

Sarah has 2 boys, aged 5 & 7 and a daughter who is just 2. So the Gala was a good day for them to come. It started with the parade after lunch and the boys loved the band and the fancy dress, but really loved the vintage tractors and followed them (with parents) up through the town to the field to see what else was happening.

It was a little boys dream!

a Bucking Bronco ride

Not quite my cup of tea, but they both thought this was ace!

But what really made it for them was Hawes' version of a water slide.

There's nothing like country folk for ingenuity! The Yorkshire Dales have plenty of slopes and the Gala field is no exception. If you take a nice slope, cover it in a big tarpaulin, let plenty of water run down it and then add washing up liquid you get a hellish good slide!

And the boys loved it!

They went up.....

and came down.

They had a bit of a breather

and my much loved Jake fell off....

...but it didn't stop him - that's him, the little one in the blue going up again - he moaned all the way up but didn't consider not going for yet another go!

Luckily it was a beautiful sunny day, because they were soaked - clean, but soaked!

After this they 'needed' ice cream.

All this whilst pretty girl Megan just looked on

She was not too impressed, but not quite big enough yet.

On Sunday they messed around by the river

& played cricket

Which even Meggie can do

especially if daddy helps

I love times like these

Its what childhood is supposed to be, out in the fresh air, doing something with the family, it doesn't really matter what you do. Its being together that memories are made of.

I'm really lucky to live here and to have such a beautiful family.

I think a good time was had by all!

I hope you enjoyed our weekend

Karen x

Mad post of all sorts of things...

2010-06-11T21:16:00.023+01:00

Hello ladies, I hope you are all happy bunnies today. The sun is shining again and it is just too nice not to be happy. I haven't done a post for ages so today's is a bit of a jumble of everything I should have posted but didn't get around to til now. Hopefully the odd bit might be interesting.

I will start with this pretty washstand I bought recently. I bought it especially to paint because it is such a lovely shape, but it was such a dull, dark colour. I had a bit of a lazy streak lately and this wash stand has been clogging my kitchen, waiting to be painted for a while. But I finally got it started at last. I had meant to take a picture of it before I started to paint it, so you could see it in its previous life. But I forgot! I'm just rubbish! So here it is - better late than never - half way through its first coat of undercoat. I love wash stands with marble tops, I don't know why, I just do, they look so elegant somehow. This one has lots of twiddly widdly bits and itty bitty corner shelves and a lovely curvy shaped bevelled mirror and a carved fancy bit on top just for the sake of it. It really is quite pretty. But it was very dark and with the grey marble top and dark green tiles it just didn't look its best. It looked a bit sad and forlorn.

All the fancy-ness on the top was wasted, although you'll have to take my word for it because it already looks loads better with just its scruffy half first coat of white (F&B Chalk White no less)

The base in particular was very dull. The doors are paneled but the varnish was so dark you could only just make out the moldings.

But look at it half way through!

Sometimes it amazes me the difference a coat of paint can make!

Several coats later, masking tape is removed and ta da...

Isn't she pretty?

I painted her inside too, so she didn't look unwelcoming for soft white towels and other pretties. I even polished her marble and mirror.

I love these bits, all the fancy shelves and curves, the additional bits of carvings and the gorgeous bevelled edge to the mirror. They don't do anything, they just look pretty. I'm really pleased with her now and have found her a home in my pretty shop (for the time being.)

I have put Thomas on her, to keep her company until I find her a forever home with a new family. So if you fancy her she fits in a family hatch back and can be collected any time!

When I put her in the shop my kitchen was empty !

You could move around it with ease, getting to the sink without having to breathe in or tripping over anything. It felt quite strange, like someone else's kitchen. And I didn't have a project - a girl needs a project.

So I bought these....

I bought 4 of these at auction last week (not just to fill my kitchen, honest.)

They are solid oak chairs, very well made but very neglected. The wood is incredibly dry, almost at the splinter stage, and very pale in colour. There is no warmth in it or depth and no gleam of polish anywhere. And the seat pads are awful. Naff nylon and again, no warmth, just a dull green with a beige bird emblem, no colour to bring joy to them, just very, very dull.

But the bones of these chairs are so good, just look at them, so traditional, they would go anywhere. I can't wait to get them back to touchable, desirable gorgeousness.

Just look at the backs.

And the legs - I know they need tlc - but look at the shapes.

And when the naff nylon seat cover is replaced with a traditional warmer Morris type tapestry, praps in warm autumn colours, oooh I can't wait.

Have faith and I'll show you when they're done!

Another project on my mind is my sitting room.

I don't know whether you remember but I moved to this cottage back in January and showed you my bedroom make-over, saying my sitting room was to be next. Well, its still waiting. The lovely Fi and I have painted it, which took some doing, so thank you Fiona, above and beyond the call of normal friendship as its a weird shaped room with lots of stairs off it, all needing to be the same colour. But it has just never really looked right. Much pondering has been done and I have decided that my navy blue Laura Ashley Chesterfield has to go. It is just too big and too blue for the space. I think the space needs a less dominant colour sofa, softer and more gentle than a huge navy chesterfield. That means my curtains have to go too, they are also mainly blue, lovely but for a much bigger scale room than my current sitting room, very heraldic and grand, not cottage-y and pretty at all. So I have bought this.

I love it.

It is to be the basis of my new look sitting room. I don't know if it is going to become curtains or a blind, or even a fitted cover for my wing arm chair, but it is going to be the building block for the room. I have got my eye on an old Victorian Chesterfield sofa, a bit lower and softer than my LA one, in a soft green figured velvet, which should look smaller because of the colour. I need a decent sized sofa, but mine dominates the room and nothing looks right around it so I have finally admitted defeat and it has to go!

I will take some pics soon and let you see how its going!

And today I have been out for a bimble with Fiona, looking very smiley below.

We went over to Swaledale. (We went over Buttertubs Pass but I was driving so you'll have to see Fi's pics of this bit - she gets strangely worried if I take my eyes off the road and really quite irate if I take my hands off the wheel, so I don't have any pics of this bit.) We headed to the lovely tea rooms at Muker. Just what was needed today - tea and cake out side in the sunshine looking at the beautiful scenery! We became quite smug really, congratulating ourselves on living somewhere so pretty on this particular day. I should also point out that it rains a lot here and that we had snow FOREVER this winter, so its not all smugness. But today it was very pretty!

The fields were covered in buttercups and clover and flowers were out every where we looked.

The tea rooms at Muker are lovely, the cake was superb and the waitress spoiled us rotten. If you get up this way its well worth a visit!

The little garden outside was brimming with herbs and flowers and inside is a shop selling local Brymor Ice Cream (really good - esp the Black Cherry Whim Wham.) Despite only being a few miles from home I decided to send all my loved ones postcards. I felt quite touristy buying them, which added to the holiday feeling. I thought it would be nice for them to see something pretty on their door mat in the morning!

The Swaledale Woolen Mill Shop is just next door so we popped in there for a mooch and Fi tried on a hat which quite suited her (and I tried one on that didn't at all.) And then we went to the gallery a bit further up and mooched a bit more. It was very pleasant, just mooching. Nothing was bought but thats OK.

The Gallery had this fab Honeysuckle outside, which looks just gorgeous.

After a bit of a walk around Muker village we decided to head over to Reath where we had another bit of a walk around. It has been a day of flowers for me and our walk down to the river showed yet more of them in all their glory.

Beautiful blue Geramiums.

And more Buttercups with Cow Parsley.

And just looking up from taking these this curious cow was watching me taking pictures.

There were Pink Campions with Forget Me Nots.

And pretty blue Speedwell.

And these pale pink ones (not sure what, but pretty anyway)

And then we had more tea. Well, we had walked a bit and it is quite hilly in Reath, and it was warm, so we did deserve it. It has become obvious to me, as I have been writing this, that tea plays quite a large part of our friendship, we do drink quite a lot of it.

I like Reath because of the Fat Sheep Shop but today we also saw a lovely little pottery and an Ice cream Parlour that I didn't know existed! Having just finished our second tea stop I was full at the time so will have to go back for a closer look another day.

And thats it, after this we ran out of time and went home!

I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

See you soon

Karen x

Chests

2010-04-14T16:08:00.012+01:00

Hello ladies, I hope you are having a lovely day. I have had a productive few days here. I've been quite busy in the shop over the Easter holidays and I am running out of stock. So, out of desperation, I have dug deep and dragged out this rather battered and sad looking pine chest of drawers. It looks dire but is an old one, probably Edwardian, so should benefit hugely from some well overdue tlc. I bought this chest ages ago in an auction with another one for the grand total of £12. They were a sorry looking pair. The other one has no feet and sways from side to side if you touch it - never a good sign in furniture - so needs a bit more than tlc. That one may really be past its sell by date. This one however, looks worse than it actually is. It is missing some handles on the bottom drawer, so needs these replacing. It has been stripped at some time in its previous life and the residue of the stripping solution has dried on the wood leaving white hard patches. And although it has all its feet they do wobble a bit. But its biggest problem is that the drawers won't open without a fight and then when you have prised the open, they won't close either! Oh and it's an awful colour too! But that said - its all easily fixed or cosmetic and its about to get a makeover!

This is an all over makeover and starts with the feet, so the whole thing gets turned on its head with its legs in the air for easy access. (Hmm - those of you who have children may well sympathise with the chest at this point)

The feet are a lovely shape but wobble a bit. This is really easy to fix, they just needed a bit of glue and a couple of screws going through the foot diagonally from opposite sides and into the base of the chest. If you put two screws in at an angle from opposite directions you are adding strength for when ever someone tries to drag the chest across a room. This happens a lot in my house, usually because its not in quite the right place. Now the feet are secure the chest can go back to being the right way up.

The most difficult problem this chest has is that the drawers don't open or close easily. Sometimes this is because the wood has swollen and the drawer edges need a bit of wood sanding or planing off to give them room. But in this case there is plenty of room, its just that the wood is so dry it is catching on the sliders at every opportunity and they just won't run smoothly. The easiest way of fixing this is to take the drawers out and rub an old candle along the edges of both the drawer itself and the inside of the carcass wherever the two are likely to touch. This takes a bit longer than you'd expect because the drawer touches quite a bit of the carcass and I just rub the candle every where I think may be relevant so that I don't have to do it again. For these drawers that took about 2 inches of a dinner table sized candle (mine was scented so the drawers smell slightly of vanilla which is quite nice.) Once that is done the drawers should slide nicely, as these do now!

Next I replaced the missing knobs with two I had from a previous project. B&Q or any other hardware store stock new knobs and they are quite easy to fit. The beauty of bare wooden ones is that they are easy to colour, this means that even if they are slightly different in design (my replacements are slightly more domed than the originals) this isn't noticeable when the whole chest is colored and waxed.

Now my chest (of drawers) is mended. The feet are steady, the drawers open and close and it has handles where it should. This said it doesn't look like I have achieved anything because it still looks dire!

It looks so bad because it is dry, almost white. It has been stripped and this is a bit like peroxiding your hair. It leaves the wood very dry and removes any colour. This one also has a dried on scummy bit here and there which needs sanding off. I just use normal rough sandpaper and once to roughness is off I go over it lightly with fine grade wire wool (0000 grade.) This is ace for smoothing and for polishing. It leaves the wood lovely and soft to touch and gets rid of any snags at the same time. But the next bit is where the transformation takes place!

The colour of the wood and the soft sheen that waxing adds to wood really makes a difference and turns this sad looking piece from something that has to stand in the garage into something that can be used in the house. I like this bit best because you can see results immediately. Even after just one coat the top of this chest already looks warmer.

I use Briwax for both coloring and waxing pine. There are loads of different waxes and colours around and Briwax is by no means the cheapest. But it is worth it. It goes on easily, the colours are good - the antique pine does look like antique pine, its not orangey like many of them are - and it gives a nice sheen rather than a high gloss or flat matt finish. I think this suits old wood better because it makes it look loved and warm. You can also buy colurs and waxes seperately, but it takes twice as long and with something like this Briwax is ideal. I gave the chest a coat of wax, let it dry for a few mins and then rubbed it up. Because this chest was so very dry I gave it another coat of wax and a final going over with a soft duster.

Da Da !!

And that's it!

From start to finish this took me 4 hours - including a tea break with Fiona half way through. And although I know its never going to be a top knotch antique, its not half bad for £12!

I hope you enjoyed that, its a bit different to my normal stuff but I thought might interest a bit.

Take care and see you soon

Karen xx

Works in Progress, some successes and some not quite successes, and new bits!!

2010-04-02T15:31:00.018+01:00

Hello ladies, Happy Easter to you.

I know its taken a while but I finally have some finished works in progress to show you!!

First on my list is the fab, scrummy 1950s/60s Kitchen Unit.

TA DA!

I'm so pleased with this now its finished. I pondered so long over the colour. My friend Fiona - Marmalade Rose - has one of these in her kitchen and hers is painted pink. It looks loverly. But I know I have to sell this, it was bought for the shop after all. So I knew the colour had to have as wide an appeal as possible, and I wondered if pink, although I would love it, may not appeal to everyone. I was going to paint it all cream originally, but in the end decided on the green because it matched the handles. I'm really pleased with it. I don't know if you can remember how dire it looked two weeks ago, so here's a quick reminder.

The glass was broken and the paint was scratched and dirty, and although you can't see this, it smelled a bit too! But now it has had a good scrub - by my own fair hands no less - so it is now totally smell free. Then it had a coat of F&B cream inside and out and pretty green paint on the doors. The handles were scrubbed to within an inch of their lives and refixed. And a friend fitted the new glass. So it looks as good as it ever did now, I'm sure. I feel quite smug.

It looks absolutely ace open in my pretty shop with Fi's cakes on it. Click here for more pics of the unit, plus a good look at Fi's fab cakes, especially her amazing wedding cake!

Isn't it amazingly amazing?

The second of my finished WIP's wasn't even on my list! I'm getting ahead of myself.

Big Ta Da!

These pretty hearts are keyrings and I am very pleased with these. Since moving my sewing has been severely limited. My upstairs attic room is still full of boxes and excess furniture so there is no room for me to sew in it just yet. I only get to sew at Fiona's these days, which is lovely in its own right. I get to sit and chat and sew and be delivered with regular cups of tea. It is my idea of a little bit of heaven. But despite all this lovely-ness I can't just pick it up whenever I want or walk away and leave it lying there til next time, can I? That's a bit much to expect really isn't it? You can only do that at home. So it was specially nice to do these because I can sit and do them by hand, in front of the telly. Ideal, and they came out so pretty too!

I put them in the shop this morning and have sold one already! Yipee!

There's something really satisfying about someone buying something I have made. It's not just the dosh, although that's nice because it means I can buy more fabrics. It is just that someone actually likes it enough to want to pay for it! It's such a feel good buzz.

Next on my list was my crocheted purse. I have finished this, finally. The long piece of stripey double crochet hung around for ages. I just couldn't work out how to do the joining and edging all in one. I knew what I was aiming for, but it just looked wrong. Eventually Fiona showed me how and it was easy. I knew it would be. So here it is, all done.

Ta Da number 3

Number 4 on my list was this rather sad looking chair.

Doesn't it look dire?

Sadly isn't a ta da just yet. I spent a full afternoon at Fi's re-doing the back fabric and seat of this chair. And it looks ace, really good fabric for the frame. It suits the era of the chair perfectly. However when you sit on it it fails somewhat. You just go straight through, so that your bottom sits on the floor. (I got Fi to test it - she looked quite shocked to be quite so close to the ground.) However, working on the principal that you don't really need a chair if you are going to sit on the floor, this can't be called a finished WIP, despite it looking good!

So until I have worked out how to solve this minor problem it can't be a ta da. Sadly.

But this is a sneaky peek at the fabric used. Engineering pondering is currently underway!

And Number 5 is my stripey crocheted string type bag. But its not quite finished yet....so that's everything for now. It is getting there though, the bag bit is all done and the stripes are great and will be finished soon. It just needs all the ends hiding and two handles. Then its done!

I hope you have enjoyed my successes and my failures.

See you soon, Karen xx

PS. Yes - Fiona did look funny when she went straight through the chair!

A series of Works in Progress, Part 1

2010-03-12T19:44:00.021Z

Hello out there. I have had a very busy week here, but haven't actually got anything finished yet so this week's post is a series of part 1s or multiple WIPs.

Number 1 and 2 WIP part 1s are both auction buys for my pretty shop.(You can see all the other goodies I bought here.) The 1st is this lovely (use your imagination) kitchen cabinet.

Isn't it fantastic?

I have wanted one of these for ages and this one is in really good condition, but does need some tlc. It needs a good scrub and the old black and white lino really needs to go in the bin. The drop down shelf has this great enamel work surface which is like new, still clean, shiny and not scratched at all.

It also needs a paint job I think. I like the blue, its a good blue, but the handles are original and are that shade of Art Deco green that really doesn't go with blue and I think the handles have to stay, so the blue has to go unfortunately. I think cream. I considered pink, which I was quite tempted by, but I have bought this to sell not for me and I think cream will sell better.

Can you see it in cream?

What do you think?

And it needs some new glass, one of the glass doors has broken glass in it so I have ordered more which will be here next week. I have learnt the value of patience since moving here, it is a bit off the beaten track, you can get most things, but it sometimes takes a bit longer.

One of the things I like best about this is the original little label saying it is an original Kitchenmaid by Lusty and British Made.

Little things please me!

So that is my number 1.

Number 2 is a Victorian folding chair which I bought because it was in the same lot as a set of wall shelves that I really wanted. It looks a bit sad I know, but it can only get better, surely.

I didn't even notice it at first. It is hidden behind the pine shelves and has a piece of really dusty old carpet as a back and an even dustier bit of hessian as a seat. It is filthy, when you move it dust comes off it in puffs and clouds.

It has quite a nice frame in mahogany and folds smoothly so I think a new seat and back in matching fabrics could make all the difference. It certainly can't look any worse.

So that is project number 2.

Number 3 is crochet.

Late last year my lovely friend Fi taught me to crochet squares and I have been making then on and off ever since - in between moving house, decorating and looking after my mum. But last week I decided I wanted a quick fix finished product so I bought myself some new jewel coloured cotton and got Fi to show me something other than squares. She taught me to do straight lines. I know that sounds easy but I'd only ever done squares.

So I did lines.

Lots of lines in lovely stripes. I wanted to make a fold over wallet type purse so I cracked on and got my stripey bit done in two sittings. But after I had been really good and sewn all my ends in I wanted to do a cute little double crochet edge in the brighter red to both stitch it together and to trim it up a bit. But I tried 3 times and each time I took it out because it just wasn't right. How can it be so tricky? So this is waiting for lovely Fi to show me exactly precisely what I'm doing wrong. Therefore its not finished.

This is my number 3.

Number 4 is also crochet.

Fiona very kindly loaned me this lovely book. She's very good to know is the lovely Fiona, a mine of crafty knowledge and craft books (I love craft books too.)

And I saw this bag in it. I like bags.

And I liked my stripes and was so disappointed not to have anything finished that I decided this bag was a good candidate for stripes and looked easier than double crochet edging/joining.

So, I started with a red round.

Then a few lilac rounds. And now I'm working my way up the bag in my stripes and its looking good. But its not finished, yet.

So this is part my number 4 WIP.

That has to be a record doesn't it?

So just to show you that I do actually get things finished these are my steps.

I bought them from the same auction sale as the kitchen cabinet and the chair. I know they look bad here but I was sure I had seen this type of wooden steps in glossy mags, all polished up and looking very smart as display 'shelves'.

And if you look here you can see the finished, yes finished, article, all done, scrubbed and polished by my own fair hands.

I hope you have enjoyed this little lot, I will show you the finished products soon, I promise. The cabinet is my fave but will probably take longest as the glass isn't due for a week.

So watch this space....

Love, Karen x

Green Gate and a run out to Kirby Lonsdale & The Hen House

2010-03-03T16:51:00.013Z

Hello ladies. How are you all today?

I know this is my blog and separate from my shop blog but today I just have to tell you about my Green Gate delivery. I just can't help myself. It came in these two huge boxes and I have waited so long for it that I just have to share it with you. So if your interest has been piqued, even just a tiny weeny bit, pop over here and have a better look. I think its scrummy.

It is, isn't it?

But today's short post is not actually about Green Gate, despite it being a reason for smiling. Today's post is about my run out to Ingleton, which led to a run out to Kirby Lonsdale where I saw The Hen House (see later, further down) and that made me think about other bloggers, particularly Hen at the Hen House and Lucy at Attic 24, amongst others I read regularly. (And Fi at Marmalade Rose, of course, but I think cos I know Fi she knows that I read hers regularly.) Isn't it funny how one's mind skips from one subject to another and only someone with the same knowledge would follow it as a logical train of thought?

Anyway, the other day we took a trip out to Ingleton. I had wanted to go for a while. It is one of those places I drive through and looks quaint, but never have time to stop at. So I thought, day off, not raining, why not? From Hawes its not far and the run is stunning. We pass the legendary Ribblehead Viaduct....

and Ingleborough, one of the Three Peaks.

And then come into Ingleton itself, a small town dominated by a grand viaduct.

We parked up and walked through the town, expecting a good browsey day. There is a pottery, which was lovely and the little Jack Russell inside was v friendly. But the potter was not overly so, not at all in fact. Which was a shame because the pottery shop itself, although small, was very nice and worth a look. (So don't let the man put you off, he may have had a headache, or a row with his wife, or something.) We walked up the hill under the viaduct and looked at the river, which was quite puff making for me, I'm incredibly un-fit. The view should have been stunning; you have this hugely tall viaduct and a river underneath surrounded by hills. But there is a static caravan site around the arches which detracts a bit. In the town there is a fab butchers with very nice staff and we had an award winning sausage sarni sitting on a bench near the church, but after that there was nothing else. A river walk to the waterfalls cost £4.50 each and I s'pose we are spolied living here in Hawes because we see lots of lovely falls for free whenever we go more than a minite from the front door, so £9 for a walk seemed a bit steep (and I was already out of breath.)

So we decided to move on and as Kirby Lonsdale was only 6 miles away it seemed logical to go there. This was much better. I like it there, lots of browsey shops, a sale room, pretty streets, stunning buildings, like this Manor House.....

Plus hills, a river and the legendary Devils bridge. (Photo from this site, not mine.)

It was well worth the effort.

And then, after looking and browsing and mooching I saw this....

Amazing.

Who would have expected that?

But Hen would have done it better. I know that I only know Hen from reading her blog, but I was so pleased to see her name up in lights (as it were) and in my mind the shop inside was already my idea of heaven. Lots of fabric, lovely vintage finds, pretties all over. Truly nice, clean, fresh and desirable. But no, sadly this Hen House looked a little forlorn. No pretties inside, and a bit sad looking don't you think? Not living up to the name, in fact.

And that made me think about what we (or at least me) get out of blogging. I don't know Hen, we have never met, but I love her blog. I am fond of the Munchkin and the cats and take interest in her projects. I am always pleased when a new Hen House post shows up on my sidebar. I have taken time off from blogging in January/February because I moved house and my mum had a big heart operation. But despite not posting myself I still read my regular blogs and somehow other peoples' normality's kept me sane. Its lovely. So thank you Hen who I've never met, and Lucy at Attic 24 and Lynn and Suzie and lovely, lovely Fi. And thank you blog land, all of you.

See you soon with a more normal post, Karen xx

Bedroom Post, part 2

2010-02-19T14:21:00.018Z

Hello ladies. Thank you so much for your comments. It's nice to find that you still read me, I think my previous proper post was back in November, which is ages back, so its reassuring to have interest in my ramblings. I must admit that I love looking at other peoples' houses. Its nice to see what they do to make them look good. So, this is my bedroom now that its finished. The dark red was finally hidden under 4 coats of F&B cream and my Edwardian pine wardrobe looks lovely snuggling into the corner. The windows are lovely in here. They are the original sashes and are lovely and big, letting in loads of light. The shutters were made later and are really heavy pine. They look nice but don't fit well, so we removed the side ones as they got in the way. I love shutters but these really didn't do the job, but the front ones do so they can stay.

This corner is my favorite bit. I bought this wash stand years ago, intending to strip it, but when I got all the horrid brown paint off it had the most enormous crack from one side of the top to the other which had been filled with what looked like cement. It can't have been cement, but it was really hard and wouldn't budge so the easiest option was to repaint it. Such a waste of all that patient striping. But it has been this colour ever since and it does suit it. It is such a pretty shape that I have been in love with it for over a decade now, despite it being impractical, it has no storage capacity what so ever, but I just love it.

The mirror is a modern one my mum bought me when I first left home 33 years ago. The frame was dark with dark red flowers on it and I loved it in the early 80's, but it was ready for a makeover by the time I bought the wash stand and the two look made for each other now.

The chair was another paint job. This one started life in Victoria's time so is about the same age as the wash stand but was a very sad and sorry chipped white when I bought it. Again it has such a pretty shape, I love the curves and the basket weave seat, but chairs are tricky to strip. If you dip them the joints are rarely the same afterwards and if you do them by hand you need eons more patience that I possess as they are so fiddly. Paint is the answer. I love paint.

And the cushion. I have a cushion fetish I think. This one came in a job lot of furniture I bought for the shop and should probably have become stock, but sometimes its just too too hard to do the right thing and it told me it wanted to live its life out on my chair. How could I refuse? And it looks just right there too. The flowers echo the ones in my droopy roses on the window sill.

I made these for my sitting room in the old house, but they never really looked right. They look much better here. I like droopy flowers, I love tulips when they start to fall over, they look so elegantly drunk. I never managed elegance when drunk.

I'm really quite pleased with the room now.

The curtains were mega cheap from Dunelm's sale. Twice reduced and the perfect colour! Although I did have a few miss-givings when my daughter spotted them in my boot the other week and pronounced them hideous. She said they were dull, dull, dull, old ladies curtains.

Silly girl, she can't be mine?

Still, she doesn't like Marguerite either, she (Maguerite, not my daughter) was bought at auction and I took her home to put new glass in her frame. She still has no glass, poor thing, but is loved despite this. I think she's pretty.

How can I have raised a child with so little taste?

The dressing table is the focus of my bedroom, I know it should be the bed, and the bed is nice, but for me the dressing table reigns supreme. Its where I keep my array of important bits.

My photo of my lovely boy as best man at my brother's wedding when he was 11.

(I cried. Quite a lot actually. He looked so wonderful. I can't remember anything else about the wedding other than how handsome my boy looked in his top hat and tails. Was there a bride?)

Wasn't he gorgeous?

(He still is, you can see him posing as James Bond in the photo frame at the side of my droopy roses, but I could be biased.)

These are my beautiful grandson snuggled up smiling; me with just one chin, even when I smiled; and my daughter (mother of the grand child) at two, doing her now well practised Bardot pout. Happy days.

And my perfume. I love perfume. Just the bottles will do, but nice flowery perfume is my perfect pressie.

And finally, the bed. The bed is quite big and was made by a lodger I had years ago. He had a complicated love life and his wife understandably kicked him out. He was a great lodger though. He spent two nights with his wife, two with his girlfriend and two on the razzle with his mates. Exhausting, but he paid the full weeks rent for one night and was very quiet as he obviously needed his sleep. But back to the bed. He had a business making pine beds and he made this one for himself. He finally decided upon the girlfriend and moved on but left the bed in the room, saying he'd come back for it. Eventually he phoned to say he didn't want it and did I want to keep it, so it has been mine ever since and it is rather nice, plain and simple, but nice. Unfortunately after all this build up I can't get far enough back to get a photo of it, so you'll just have to imagine how nice it is, deep mellow pine, covered in my collection of quilts.

I can get a picture of these.

The one you can see most of was bought at auction in a mixed lot of fabrics for the shop but again didn't quite make it.

(I do put some stock in the shop, honest.)

It is really pretty in pink and blue florals on a white ground.

The bottom one is a Durham quilt, from the turn of last century. Again it was bought for stock, but it had been re-covered in this tiny rose print so was not really an antique anymore. So it wouldn't have been right to put it in the shop, would it? It is very hard work being a shop keeper, you know, all these tempting things that just need loving homes and me being a good and loving person. The cream quilt you can see poking out at the top is actually blue and cream and is probably the only thing in the room I paid full price for in a real shop. I bought it in Covent Garden many moons ago because it told me that it was made for me, despite its hefty price tag. I had guilt pangs for weeks because I really couldn't afford it at the time, but it was my first ever quilt and I was besotted.

And that's it, that's my haven of peace and tranquility.

Except for Henry and Henrietta.

Aren't they ace? They were from a salvage yard, just sitting outside in an old railway shed open to the elements, desperate to be saved. Poor H&H. But they're happy now in my peaceful room. If you could see what needs doing in all the other rooms in the cottage you'd understand just how treasured this finished haven is.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at it as much as I've enjoyed posting it.

See you again soon, Karen x

My Bedroom Post, pt 1

2010-02-16T21:04:00.010Z

Hello ladies. I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post but many things have been happening and life has just eliminated my blogging time. The most major of these changes is that I have moved house. I really hate moving house and you've probably done well to have heard almost nothing of me during this process as it makes me grumpy. But its done now, thank goodness, and today's post is about my bedroom. This picture of the huge fireplace on the red wall is what my bedroom looked like just before Christmas. At that time it was being used as a showroom for an interior designer who had dressed it for her winter look. I should say here that the room is above my pretty shop and that the afore mentioned designer sub-let this space from me. It was a bit dark for my taste, but I have to say it did look very nice. Anyway she left just after Christmas and I decided that it was a shame to be traveling every day when I have a lovely cottage at the shop, just sitting empty, all lonely and unloved. So, this is what prompted the big move. However, things are never that easy and my poor mum went into hospital for a major heart op, right in the middle of the great move week. So, boxes were plonked, my pretty shop was shut (thankfully it was January so v quiet up here anyway) and off I trundled to be dutiful.

Eventually I returned to unpack and to look at the room destined to become my bedroom. It no longer looked as it did in the picture and it was hard to see my vision of a calm serene bedroom beyond the desolation. The poor room looked so sad. The fireplace in the first picture was not mine, it was a prop belonging to the designer, so obviously it had gone with her to pastures new. The false chimney breast had been removed and the wall looked a bit daunting to say the least.

Didn't it look dire?

There were major holes all over it.

And where the hearth was it looked awful.

It had huge gaps all round the edges of the floor and the wind whistled through these, making it feel like Siberia - not at all relaxing or bedroom-y.

My vision for this room was creamy cream and gentle soft duck egg with a hint of warm colour. I have an old pine wash stand which I use as a dressing table and I painted it duck egg blue and lime waxed it years ago, along with a delicate Victorian chair and a modern pine mirror. The rest of my bedroom furniture is old pine so is a deep honey now and my old bedroom was warm and relaxing. I must admit that I did have a few misgivings about whether I could turn this dark, dingy, cold and dismal room into my vision. But paint was bought and my beloved set to to erase the thick ridge of red that the removal of the fake chimney breast had left along the planked ceiling.

He did a great job. Not one I envied. I hate ceilings. Anything to do with ceilings makes your arms ache and gives you a sore neck. Da Vinci had the right approach - lay down on a plank just a few inches under it so you don't have to stretch in any way. But real mortals get a stiff neck so I am so grateful that I didn't have this job.

So, now its done......

It looks so nice......

I really want to show you. So tomorrow I will get batteries for my camera and show you then. But it does look so nice.....

Take care, Karen xx

'Specially for Fiona : A Sofa Blog

2010-01-09T18:21:00.011Z

Hello out there, I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post, and I'm sorry about today's post because it isn't even a real post, it's especially for lovely Fi - Marmalade Rose - because she wants pics of my sofa. Fiona quite fancies my sofa, which is sadly surplus to requirements due to moving home, but my email can't seem to cope with more than one pic at once, so if you want to see more of the sofa she lusts after please read on, and if you don't I will post again soon, I promise.

Well, this is it. It sits in my kitchen at the moment and is surrounded by chaos, so please ignore the bags and boxes around it, it is an island of comfort amidst the mess of moving. It has proper back cushions but I never really liked them so I just used my vintage tapestry ones. Plus you can curl up on it better like this, more room to tuck your feet up or plonk your crochet bag. But, just so you can see, here's what it looks like with its own clothes on.

I seem to have a blotch on my camera lens, please just ignore it (and the hula hoop hiding behind it - by the way, if anyone knows how to hula please can you explain it to me as I can't keep it up even for one hula and I had visions of myself hula-ing to a size 12 when I bought it.) Anyway, back to the sofa. It doesn't look as good with the cushions on, does it? I think it goes from being quite elegant to being quite ordinary. Or praps I just need to personalise everything and make it mine? Hmm, his is getting a bit deep and meaningful for a sofa blog, so best get on.

This is a close up of the back cushions

This is what all 3 back cushions look like on the reverse - the front really - see above for explanation of why the front is the back. I didn't like the pattern, or the colors much, mostly cos it looked ordinary. I must have delusions of being more stylish than the average bear, but luckily I have a puppy (actually he's a man, but he's cute and the work load is the same - ask Fi) who reminds me that I am just delusional.

Happy New Year to all and see you soon, hopefully.

Love, Karen x

Forgot this

The front feet are like this, I like these lovely brass castors.

The back legs/feet are just plain so no piccie, sorry.

Bye again, Karen x

My favorite things

2009-10-12T21:39:00.009+01:00

Hello out there. I have been really busy lately with big changes at my pretty shop and my blog has sadly slipped as a result so it has been ages since my last post and I have missed it. So today I thought I would share a few of my favorite things, starting with my kitchen and in particular my cooker. I should add that these favorites are in no particular order, just in case anyone should think that I love my kitchen and cooker more than my offspring, I don't, not really. But I do love this cooker, I'm not entirely sure why because it is a bit temperamental, the top is ace but the oven can be finicky. It doesn't really have much of a turn down facility and it is much hotter on the left of the oven than the right. But, it is very pretty and lovely and warm and I know it loves me back and it produces some wonderful food and gives my kitchen a real homely feel and I just do love it. So thats number one of my fave things (but in no particular order, honest.)

Number two on my list has to be my grandsons

They are both beautiful, bright, funny and very noisy. They bring chaos to my tidy(ish) house, fill it with toys, clothes, books, more questions than seems possible for ones so young and are completely knackering but absolutely adored, particularly if quiet, which is v rare whilst awake. They also took quite a shine to my sun hat which never fully recovered and now has that well lived in look.

Also at number two on my list is my granddaughter, now 16 months old she holds her own quite well amongst the chaos and next year looks like being even more knackering, but also even nicer for her presence.

This is her hanging on to Kitty who would much rather she didn't but is far too sweet natured to do anything other than run for it as soon as pos. It is nice to have a girl, even one covered in chocolate. I can buy cutesy pink things and revel in how pretty she is (which I must admit I did with the boys - not the pink stuff, just the reveling.) Before the eldest arrived I worried about having a grandchild, I wasn't really old enough (41 then) and although I loved my own I've never been a fan of babies, I prefer them when they know who you are and are a bit more interesting, but mostly I worried that my daughter (who loves all babies) would produce this child and I would feel no true love or connection and she would be able to tell how I felt and not like me for it. But that was just silly because I have adored each of them from the second I first saw them and I know its a cliche but you really can give them back when they're a pain. It's good.

Next is my house.

This pic was taken in winter, as you can see. But its gorgeous all the time, even covered in snow I still know what it is waiting for Spring underneath. I should tell you that its not all my house. I live in what was 3/4s of the old village pub, facing south with sheep over my garden fence and gorgeous views of Penn Hill and the dale. I am the 5th house from the left; there are 3 cottages and the first 1/4 of the pub, now another cottage, then me. In this pic I am the 5th and 6th chimneys on this roof line, with the rest of the village appearing further right but actually tucked away behind. We nestle in the dale sheltered by the fell on one side and Penn Hill on the other and is a lovely place to live.

After this, not including my two offspring and my lovely Jen I have many many other loved things but again its late and bed beckons. But I will just show you one last thing....

Holly. Because its coming....... Its a little way off yet, but it's definately on its way and I really love Christmas. This next part of the year is just fantastic, all the getting ready, the present buying and wrapping, the hiding it all away and thinking about trimmings and Christmas dinner and ooooo I just love it!

See you soon, Karen xx

My Pretty Shop now has its very own Blog

2009-09-21T22:29:00.004+01:00

Hello everyone.

Today is just a quick post to let you know about the new blog I have just finished for my pretty shop, Milkchurn Cottage Interiors and Gifts. I would love you to pop over and have a look. It shows what I do and what I sell and I would really appreciate your thoughts on it. You can get there by clicking here or on the links in my sidebar. It is still in its baby stage and I hope to add lots more pictures to it, both of the shop and what I sell. It is a relatively new shop, I've only been open since April this year, so it's still developing and I am open to suggestions and really interested in all feedback.

And thank you for your comments on my scary scarecrow. She didn't win unfortunately. She was squarely beaten by Pigman and Batman - a tableau in which Batman rescued our village from an outbreak of Swineflu; both topical and relative to rural life, as well as being very funny. Never mind, better luck next year.

Bye for now, Karen x

Look, look, look.....

2009-09-17T23:13:00.007+01:00

This is Little Bo Peep, isn't she ace? I have finally gotten around to making my scarecrow for our village's Feast Day on Saturday. My friends Karen & Gill came round tonight as my beloved is away so couldn't see the straw all over the kitchen floor. They hadn't done their scarecrow either. Apparently this last minute frenzy of activity is part of the Feast Day tradition and nothing is ever really achieved until the last 2 days. There's no wonder I feel so at home here. Karen and Gill decided on Little Bo Peep and Karen made some pigs out of cotton wool to go in the garden with her. (Yes I did say pigs. They look like pigs to me, to her brother James and to anyone else with an eye for bacon, but she says they're sheep and that its been a long day.) I have plumped for the Wicked Witch of the West wearing Dorothy's red shoes. She looks pretty Wicked too. I love her legs though. They are really wicked in the more modern sense of the word!

This is her waiting for Saturday, sitting in a quiet corner of my kitchen. I hope I remember she's there if I get up in the night. But just look at those legs!

Scary or what?

I've never made a scarecrow before so am really quite chuffed with her. I begged a sack of straw from my neighbours at the shop and lovely Fi produced the mask and cloak from her children's Halloween costumes and the rest was achieved with some twigs and a stick from the garden, a bit of rope, some thick winter tights stuffed with newspaper and my red suede sandals. With my beloved away til tomorrow I decided to have her sitting comfortably (no tricky frame to fix together) and tied her to her chair for safety. I'm so proud - I had to share her with someone. I shall send photo's to my children later, but they will raise their eyebrows in mild amusement so feel free to make more suitable noises (please.)

Little Bo Peep was trickier. Karen's dad had made a frame for her so we stuffed a carrier with straw for her head and wrapped an old white tea towel round it. Her hair is wool and I was voted best at drawing so I did her face in marker pens. She has my much used and very nearly knackered sun hat tied with a floaty scarf as a bonnet and we stuffed on old rugby shirt with straw for her body, giving her a shawl made from an old table cloth of mine which I died pink to cover a stubborn stain ages ago.

We attached Gill's green skirt with pins to her waist to cover the rest of the frame and popped Gill's sexy red lace up wellies underneath as the finishing flourish. She is quite a big girl but has a certain something, don't you think?

She wouldn't fit in the car so Karen and Gill walked her home in the moon light, so romantic.

Who says there's nothing to do in the country?

The Feast is on Saturday; country produce and children's entries first thing, followed by children's sports and stalls on the village green, a fell race for the fit and quoits for the men. Little Bo Peep and The WW of the West plus about 20 others are entered for the Treasure Hunt Scarecrow Trail which starts mid afternoon and then it's the Childrens Tea and Quiz followed by grown-ups Curry and Quiz (for which I have now done the questions, thank goodness.) All for £2. I know I'm biased but that really is amazing value!! Plus a booze licence. What more could you want? Except sun, hopefully.....

See you soon, Karen x

Happy days, learning to crochet, granny blankets, tractors and not being ready for the Feast

2009-09-13T17:38:00.019+01:00

Hello wonderful world. Say hello to Sarah's (my daughter's) mad cat, she loves boxes. Isn't she cute? Ever since I got back from my dad's funeral, which was sad but really lovely, I have been on a high. I have no idea why this is and it does somehow feel a touch inappropriate, but the sun has shone, and I have driven to work every morning surrounded by beautiful Yorkshire feeling grateful that I am here. He will be missed, but on a day to day basis I live here, surrounded by perfection and the sun is shining. It is confusing, but I feel fab. I'm even contemplating a Diet, and I have to be in a really good mood to even think the big D word. (Please note that I am at this point in time still only thinking about it, but one has to take things carefully.)

Just before my dad died my friend the lovely Fiona at Marmalade Rose was successful in teaching me something that I have wanted to be able to do since I was six - something that a lot of you bloggers seem to be able to do lots of. It was making me quite jealous. But the lovely Fi has put this right and has taught me how to crochet. My nana almost taught me how to crochet, but we never progressed beyond a chain, so I could do great chains but nothing else.

Until now.

And just look at this........

This is my first ever granny square, isn't it ace? I'm so hooked (pardon the pun.) Yes I know the colours are a bit naff, they were whatever was in my knitting bag from ages back. And yes it did take me about a hundred attempts to make it into a square that actually looked square. I spent easily as much time taking it all out as I did actually crocheting, (I understand frogging is the term.) At one point I made a fairly adequate looking circle, but finally it did dawn on me where I was going wrong and I produced this. I'm so proud of it. I think I will just keep it forever. Anyway, just to prove I it wasn't a fluke I made another with equally naff colours.......

Am I good or what?? You must excuse my bragging but my lot here just don't seem to be able to grasp what a big deal this is. My daughter has been quite nice, but I can tell when she's humoring me, and my beloved is obviously amused by my enthusiasm for colouring in tiny squares of paper. He thinks I've cracked under the strain and is being patient. After my second naff coloured but successfully square square I was convinced I'd really got it so I bought some real wool, well its cotton actually, but you know what I mean.

'Cos my aim is to make a granny blanket - I'm a granny therefore I should have one (obvious, really, don't you think) and they are so gorgeous and I deserve one. My colours are really pretty, but I have decided against the cream. It seemed to look dirty against the other colours, so just 5 muted sort of sludgy gentle colours. So I got going, and it was going well. I'd just about finished my first granny blanket square when the phone rang. It was my mum, who was upset cos my brother was being a pratt and wasn't sure he could 'manage' to be at dad's funeral and I was sooooo mad with him but not able to tell him off in case I made him decide he really couldn't manage it that when I put the phone down I just kept crocheting, muttering to myself, which I found soothing. After another hour I realised I'd made a deep grove in my finger with the crochet hook and that my small granny square was enormous.

It is, isn't it? Its very big. It was 'sposed to be 6 rounds. It is 20. (Not bad for a first attempt) But not quite what I had planned. Anyway... I thought about pulling it out, but like the big D word, that was as far as it got. I did contemplate just continuing going round but I really wanted proper dinky little granny squares so I wondered what it would look like if I used this as the center and made squares to go round it. I thought about drawing it out on graph paper but Fi said squared paper would be better so I sent my beloved child to Staples in search of 'squared paper like you used to get in kid's maths books' and some coloured pencils. She questions my sanity sometimes, bless her, but she came back with the goods and here is my plan.

I think if I do a couple more rounds of the rust (looks red in my pics, but is softer in real life) The plan is to do 8 squares of each combination and go right round the big square. And if that works I can go on from there. And if it doesn't I'll have 24 squares and I might not feel quite so devastated about pulling the big one apart. It's a doddle this crocheting lark !!! (yeah, right.)

So, watch this space and wish me luck. (And yes, my brother did come to the funeral - he and my son carried my dad into church, my dad would have been very proud of that, so it turned out better than ever expected. Praps thats why I'm on a high.)

I still haven't done anything other than paint half of the nasty buckets yet, so they are still lingering in my kitchen, as yet still unsaleable. Next weekend is our village Feast Day so I can't see when I'll get around to them. Within 6 days ( 6 days in which I am working full time in my pretty shop) I have to make a scarecrow for outside my house for the Feast Day Scarecrow Trail, I have to do a tray of sarnis for the children's tea, I have to bake my allocation of baked potatoes for the adults' chilli supper and I have to produce a quiz for which almost every house in the village has entered despite there not being a single question yet written.

(Luckily they don't know this.)

3 weeks ago I had loads of time to do all this, but then dad died suddenly and everything else took over and now suddenly its less than a week away. Strangely I am not worried. I'm on a high, if I was less high I would be worried by my lack of worry, but now I'm just aware that I should be worried, but I'm just not. Today I could have made a scarecrow and written a quiz, but instead went up to Hawes where my pretty shop is. Not to work but to browse the other shops and look at the craft fair. (It wasn't on but even that didn't spoil my mood.) On the way back I stopped at Gunnerside to look at the Beck which is very pretty.

And to take pictures of the tractors, I love tractors, especially old ones, and this one is definitely old.

And I'm not sure what this is but I liked this too.

And just as we were leaving a couple of ladies and a man got into this gorgeous Riley and drove away. You should have heard the lovely solid clunks it made when they closed their doors. And it started first time. It purred more than Sarah's cat in a box and they glided away like royalty.

I love England.

Anyway, must go and at least think about the scarecrow.........and the quiz.

See you soon, Karen xx

PS Thank you so much to everyone who sent lovely comments to my last post. It was great that you bothered and I found it really comforting that people who don't even know me cared. It reassures you that the world might be going mad in parts but really we're doing fine. Thank you xx

My dad, friends, big thank yous and car boot finds

2009-08-30T14:33:00.014+01:00

Hello again. I'm afraid I haven't got very much further with my nasty buckets just yet, although half of them have had a couple of coats of paint and I'll show you in a min. First of all, aren't my flowers lovely? Sadly my dad died very unexpectedly on Tuesday and I had to abandon my pretty shop to go and be at home with my mum. My lovely friend Gill dropped her life and took over the shop and when I finally returned after 3 days, she brushed my thanks aside and presented me with this gorgeous bouquet, roses and lilies. He'd have liked that. I shall have to return to mum's this coming week to deal with the coroner and all the arrangements and next week for the funeral and Gill will once again put her life second to mine. In the hardest of times true friends are angels and I can't thank her enough. And thank you too to Fiona at Marmalade Rose who phoned and listened to me wittering on for ages yesterday. I haven't known Fiona long but with some people you don't need long to know their worth. She's one of life's lovely people. Isn't it funny how a good natter makes the world feel softer somehow?

Anyway, as I said, I haven't done much to the buckets yet, but here are half of them painted up.

I think the red worked best, the yellow needs a 3rd coat (so I won't be doing any more yellow ones) and the pale green is sweet. I know its not much progress and will show you more when I finally get them finished and I have decided whether or not to fill them with goodies.

Today is our local annual car boot sale in aid of a local village sports pavillion. It's not very big because locally we don't have that many people really. I have been hankering after a two tier cake stand for ages and I thought I might just find one at the car boot, so my beloved and I got up early and tootled off.

On the first stall I found an open picnic basket with space for upright bottles and a fab old hamper type basket so I had to have those. And on the next stall I spied a huge (really big) oval basket perfect for fabric in the shop so I had to have that too, it was just too good to leave behind. A bit further on there was a dinky little modern trunk basket which is perfect for hiding bits in and then I found a nice chunky log basket which was an absolute steal. My poor friend hiked back to the car at this point as we were getting a bit bulky. And then I found a pair of small raffia baskets which will be lovely in the shop for my bath potions (or something else). So all in all a bit of a basket fest really. They filled my kitchen sofa when we got home and spilled onto the rug.

And not a two tier cake stand in sight!

But I did find this....

A perfect glass cake stand for a pound!

Not the two tier china one I'd hoped for but a very satisfying second best. And just after I found a brass pan for another pound and a small metal bucket which I shall fill with bath bombs. These are on the sofa (or rug) with the baskets. One of the nice things about having a shop is being able to justify why you must have something. I sell handmade soaps and bath potions, sea salts and bath bombs in my pretty shop and display them in buckets and baskets on a big stripped pine table. They smell gently delicious as you walk in the door and the bucket will fit in nicely. The table looks a bit full but I like that you can pick the stuff up and feel and smell before I wrap it so my customers know what they're buying. And all handmade in Yorkshire. I'm getting very traditional as I get older and love to buy handmade where possible, especially locally produced stuff.

The bucket will find a home somewhere in this lot.

I love car boots.

Just one last close up of my lovely flowers

And I'll see you all again soon.

Karen x

Not so pretty buckets

2009-08-22T19:58:00.013+01:00

Hi world. I think that I may have made a mistake. A while back I ordered what I thought were cute little buckets for my pretty shop. In the catalogue they looked to have that painted rusty finish that looks sort of soft and country and is 'in' at the moment. Well, they've arrived. 6 of them - each has 3 little buckets sitting in their own little tray - thats 18 buckets and 6 trays. And they're horrid. Just plain nasty. Battle ship grey - nothig soft or country about them, just very ugly and very, very dull. And they're s'posed to sell for £9.95 per set. Not a chance. So I have brought them home and they are now sitting on my kitchen table, looking at me. They know I don't like them. I have decamped to the sofa to think about how they can redeem themselves. I mean, 6 lots at £9.95; thats a lot of pennies. But, I have paint, lots of paint, red and yellow and green and some pink. And ribbon, I sell East of India ribbon in my shop (in theory anyway, I bring most of home, but if my customers are really quick I do sell it occasionally - Marmalade Rose is really canny, she must be psychic, she always manages to come in as I'm unpacking it and makes me sell it to her.) Anyway, I'm going to have a think so best go an put the kettle on.

This is my ribbon, isn't it lovely. Whenever I sell any I want to tell the new owner to look after it properly and not leave it hanging around, abandoned. It needs to be loved. Can you imagine what I'd be like if I sold puppies?

This one's full of pinks, and ric-rac. I love ric-rac too. (And my children, I love my children too.)

I brought these home tonight, to go with the red paint, maybe???

Right, the kettle has boiled and I must go and think. See you soon, Karen x

A Bit about my Shop

2009-08-20T22:02:00.009+01:00

Hello and thank you to everyone who left those lovely comments. I don't have an on line shop at the moment, but I am happy to post most things to most places so feel free to ask if there's anything you really like. You can email or phone me 01969 667847. Tonight's blog is a little bit about my real life shop at Hawes in Wensleydale; Milkchurn Cottage Interiors and Gifts. I am open every day from 10am til 5pm and sell antique furniture, (mostly pine and country bits, some painted pieces and I have a weakness for chairs so I usually have a few of these) and other antiques like Victorian dinner services and prints, mixed with contemporary stuff like lamps, mirrors and soft furnishings - nothing over fussy, but things that make a house homely, like old embroidered linens and lovely hand stitched quilts - some new and made by a lovely lady called Anne further down the dale, and some old. I love the mix of old and new. The pretty dresser below is a Victorian Chiffonier made of pine but had been stained very badly so has now been painted in a soft eggshell and then lime-waxed. I think it looks lovely piled with modern lamps, a classic design Royal Worcester Tea Service and Marmalade Rose's perfect cupcakes and bunnies made them from vintage embroidered linens, so gorgeous. I liked her cupcakes so much and sell so many of them that I have now bought a glass cake dome to display them in.

Don't they look pretty under the glass? But they go so quickly, just like the real thing. And I love the crocheted flowers behind them. I'm still not too good at this (blogg stuff) but I think if you click on the picture it gets bigger. Well, some of them do but this one doesn't seem to. If any one knows why some of my pictures do get bigger and some don't please can you tell me ? Other pretty things include a lovely pine sideboard with a Victorian blue and white dinner service on top next to an amazing Peacock charger by Avis Murray, this picture does get bigger if you click on it. The charger is a one off piece and is gorgeous, my pictures don't pick up the depth of colour and it is so heavy, but quite pricey. And a dinky painted stool, lovely for a child or for reaching things when a stretch is just not enough.

And the stool, very girlie

It's getting late now so I'll tell you about the gift stuff next time (I love the gift stuff - its my excuse to buy lots and lots of nice things) but before I go lots of people made nice comments about the fabric shown on Marmaladerose's blog, which she bought from me, so I have just got time to show you my basket of fat 1/4s.

These are 100% cotton and measure 50cms square. I sell them individually at £3 each, including UK postage or in packs of 12 (like the pretty pinks in Marmalade Rose's picture) for £33, again including postage. The fabric is from Germany and is all natural, no bleaches or formaldehyde are used in the manufacturing process so it is very eco friendly.

The shop is open every day between 10am and 5pm so if you want to come and see me please feel free. I am there every day except Sunday and Tuesday, on these day's its a lovely lady called Kay who will serve you and answer the phone.

Please let me know if you find this blog interesting and worth reading because its nice to do and there's lots more I can show if I'm not boring you to bits. Bye for now, Karen

Leyburn on 1940's day

2009-08-16T18:42:00.000+01:00

Hi, today is my day off and I thought I would show you a little of where I live. Like Fiona at MarmaladeRose I live in the wonderous Yorkshire Dales. My shop is in Hawes, right in the middle of the National Park. I sell lots of pretty goodies and I have packed my camera to take lots of pics when I go back to work tomorrow. But today I thought you might like to see my nearest "town" Leyburn, which is about 14 miles away. It still isn't what my townie son calls a town, he still refers to it as a village, but to us its as good as it gets within an hour+ and is pretty enough to make up for its lack of M&S, Boots etc. Recently Leyburn hosted a 1940's weekend. Our local Wensleydale Railway put on steam trains, retailers dressed their windows with Union Jacks and items from the era and lots of people descended on us dressed in 40's attire. Everywhere you turned people looked as they would have been around the time of WW11. Some of these are ace.

I mean - how good is that? I have never seen a real man in a knotted hanky hat before. I thought they were just something on old fashioned post cards.

They came with their own cars, this one was just gorgeous, not overly big inside though, but can you imagine traveling in this.

And lots of men in uniform (that had nothing to do with my wanting to go to Leyburn that day tho - honest) These are a bit old for me.

These are a bit younger

And this one looked very smart

Not just men, either. The women looked great, some mega glam and some fantastic in everyday attire.

Doesn't she just epitomize 40's glamour ?

This lady had to be cajoled int having her picture taken with her bike and she looked brill, her headscarf knotted on top of her hairdo reminded me of my nana.

And the girls below were chuffed to bits when I asked if I could take their pictures - who, us ? they said. I saw these ladies over and over again and they never stopped smiling all day.

Hmm.. bit of a hiccup with photo positions here, not quite mastered this yet. But.... This last pic below of the ladies was one I couldn't resist, it looks like a scene from Dad's Army. These ladies look just like school girls, they were all dressed up and swinging their legs, proving age is just a number after all.

Even the real kids looked the part, although I'm sure one of these was giving me the finger whilst posing for this pic. Boys.

And to finish there was a fly by from a Spitfire

It was a lovely day out, repeated annually. Why not come and see for yourself next year? Info at www.wensleydalerailway.com

Thank you Marmalade Rose and Maggie Ann

2009-08-12T22:24:00.000+01:00

I'm all excited because I have just looked at my blog today, which I wasn't very happy about - I wasn't sure I'd done it right really - and lovely MarmaladeRose has added my shop as a link in her Blog and I have 2 really nice comments. Thank you very much, its silly how much it made me smile. I am now encouraged to find pictures and pretties to write about so watch this space and I promise more interesting things soon. Bye for now, Karen x

2009-07-07T23:00:00.000+01:00

Hello world. This is my first ever blog and its taking more time than I imagined to make it look pretty. It has been sunny here today, in between heavy rain and the countryside has that fresh new look that sumer rain brings. I have had a day off from the shop and have spent it visiting a Factory Shop in Lancaster perusing fabrics to make into cushions and other lovely things. One of my customers told me about the Factory shop which sells Liberty, Zoffany, William Morris, Sandersons and other designer fabrics at very reasonable prices so I couldn't resist having a look. I came away with far to much stuff and spent the afternoon creating Cath Kidston cushions to ease the guilt of what I spent. On the way home I passed the Ribblehead Viaduct which was well worth a picture but it was raining so I have put this Cockerel strutting his stuff instead. More another day as its getting close to bedtime.