Not a great way to end the week....

 

Breakspears Haven will not be going ahead. It seems the correct permission for us to renovate the house was not gained. The plans won't be approved.

Frustrated - yes. Worse however is that I promised these young women and their babies a haven, and a new start.

We had much donated and hadn't even got started. Sarah Beeny has been amazing and the list of products and companies she gathered for us was extraordinary.

Creating havens for people is really important to me, so we will gather together, put our thinking caps on and 'make like a phoenix'. 

 

Lucky

Take

One hippopotamus from when he was a baby

One t-shirt from the day they first met

One sari from when they first moved in together

One wedding tie

One bridesmaids dress

One sliver of silk chiffon from the top she wore when pregnant with their sons

One pair of baby trousers

Add some of my stash

Design a pattern that is all about the two of them and their sons

And you have one 40th birthday present.

He cried and I realise how very lucky I am to do this.

Thought for the week - the necessity of beauty.

That's all there is really.

The winter garden

There isn't much in our garden - the previous owners took most of it with them it seems. However, there is 50 feet or so of it, with a lovely big studio in the middle of it, and if you're in the  northern hemisphere you'll appreciate that it faces south.

We have a willow, which although beautiful, does not belong 10 feet from the house, so it has to go. We have a small (read diddy) fig, and unidentifiable soft fruit tree - again planted too close, and a large apple/plum tree. 

The only hint of colour is the yellow bush coming over the fence from our neighbours garden. A little bleak and about to get bleaker.

I have gardening books and catalogues at the ready and we are both excited about what we will be creating, growing and eating. I keep watching Nigel Slaters 'Simple Suppers' just to grab a glimpse of his paradise. 

Just a bit more paint scraping and then we can change the building gloves for the gardening gloves.

Happiness is

New, old radiators have finally put in all through our house. Lovely matt black beasts, that keep our home and doggies warm and look super lovely (how's that for a dog bed!). 

I feel good about putting the right things back into the house where they used to be. We are lucky in that the house has pretty much all of the original features, bar one fireplace - which I'm hunting for now. Everything is just hidden under layers and layer of 'interesting' choices, although scraping back layers of paint to find the original Victorian chocolate brown has been so very satisfying. Even the neon pink window frames (about layer six in F's room) must have a great story attached to it. 

I hope that whoever moves into our home after we move on, will see what we saw and will love the radiators and the history of this lovely house just as much as we do.

Um - how could I forget this!

 

Not just a favourite for the week of course.. but the new addition to the family - Darcy - or Mr to loved ones. Marvelous and already better behaved than his big sister. 

These are our favourite things - a veritable assortment

Al the things and people that are a little exciting to me this week..

 

Book cloth blinds from Marianna Kennedy. A-ma-zing....

Brassica - one of the eleven new colour's from Farrow & Ball.

I'm thinking Front Door....

I saw Gary Allson's work at Origin. His plates are beautiful. Handmade from locally sourced, sustainable timber in Cornwall - you can truly feel the hand of the maker.

Small glass lamps from Emery et Cie. Affordable, hand-made and just beautiful.

A Multi-colored Boro Shikimono: Pieced Cotton Sleeping Mat from Sri threads. Between seeing and posting - it's already sold........ bugger

And last, but by no means least - the latest entry from The Improvised life. One of my favourite daily reads.

As I juggle the renovation budget and the renovations themselves with current commissions and goods for Liberty, I worry. But I shouldn't and won't - especially after lifting 50kg restored radiators into the house. How can a radiator bring such joy?

Let us start the year off right!

 

How was your Christmas break? Did you rest, over indulge, make lists, scrap lists? I kept renovating, painting, moving, cooking.  What I enjoyed was the time to read design books, not just look at the pictures. I enjoyed a super walk on top of the downs. I really loved it when I had a bit of time to notice things properly - like how fantastic our new door handles feel and how quickly our new puppy is growing. Oh - and the fact I watched a whole series of The House of Elliot - simply marvellous. What I didn't enjoy (and we wont dwell) is the waste and the feeling of too much. Wasted food, wasted packaging (Ed is having conniptions' now that we have separate recycling bins) and unfortunately children already thinking about birthday presents without remembering what they got for christmas....

So very few NY resolutions except for the above. Maybe it's because I'm no longer 27 , or maybe because it's has become more prevalent in our societies, but I can guarantee you that happiness lies more in the field of time for friends, cooking and creating than it does in a 25inch television for your bedroom......

I over dwelled, but let's all think about getting to grips with the little and lovely things.....

)