What you find when you go for a walk

E works ridiculously long hours. 5am starts two days in a row and often working late, late, late into the evening. It would be very easy to slip into the never seeing each other, but every day we go for at least one walk together. A stroll, or a march dependent on weather, time and fitness needs! We try and take different routes, just to turn down a new street or discover a building (or bar) not yet found. 

We do however have one spot that we often walk past, that always brings joy. On a fence outside a house on a lovely street, is an ever changing tray of plants for sale. You can see the seasons coming and going just in that small tray. Last night, there were the first flower offerings. £2 in an envelope through the front door, and these lovelies were ours.

A walk, a glass of wine, flowers in a favourite jug and it was a very, very lovely evening.

Enjoy the beautiful weather today. We're heading out to the studio after a lovely morning in town picking up fabrics. Happy days.

Need Inspiration?

 

Then choose Trend Tablet by the great and clever Li Edelkoort. I guarantee it will be responsible for many hours on the computer and much thought once off it......

Happiness is

 

Enjoying the dappled sunlight with furry friends

Drinking a super fantastic brew

Watching the many butterflies and bees in the garden

Re-reading one of my favourite interiors books

30 perfect minutes 

A veritable bounty

E says 'what's for dinner?'. I say 'fish, steak, pasta, fish cakes etc etc'. E says 'I'll pick some salad and herbs'. I say 'squeak'.

The bounty soon to be joined by cherries, tomatoes, damsons, figs, apples and pears.........

L says 'I promise THIS apple won't give me a sore tummy'........

Have a lovely weekend.

Classes - last spot or so

We have a spot or two left on our two special classes - July 3rd or August 7th - have a looky looky here.

I'm really looking forward to it!!!!!!!!!!!

On Beauty

Beauty is as much about touch, taste, smell, sound and emotion, as it is about visual perfection.

I know the flowers don't look pristine anymore, but I can't quite give them up yet. There is something about that day between perfect and 'yucky' that seems to be the most beautiful of all. 

NB: The following morning, we have definitely tipped into the 'yucky' category.......

The tea quilt

A design inspired by the Gees Bend quilts mixed with a little bit of Japanese Boro covers. I tea stained a few pieces to make sure the whole quilt had this lovely warm but serene feeling. In it there is...

A section of vintage sari

A wedding cravat

Japanese silks - both embroidered and handpainted

African kuba cloth

Remnants of old Indian kantha quilts

hand loomed tussar silk

hand loomed organic cotton

luvverly, luvverly

Finding a happy place!

We've had two photo shoots at the house in the last two weeks - one for a major Brit newspaper and one for an overseas mag. Stressful yes - distracting - yes. Top tip - don't hand sand floors the day before they are due........

It is a little odd to walk around our home knowing that for now - it is finished. Yes the laundry room needs work and the windows need serious tlc, but for now it is done - all our possessions in the right place for us. The nicest thing about it all is realising where I'm happiest at our place. Firstly - the library. The smaller living room which we decided to use to read, watch movies and if the mood takes us, drink a drink or four. There is a lovely grey chesterfield behind the door which I shared this weekend with both dogs (when a labrador puppy is 30kg this is no mean feat) whilst designing some new products. I'm not good at sticking to the 'studio' for this -  unsurprisingly, better work came out of the library.

The other place - well it's that homemade bench under the apple tree. Getting sunshine just about now - it's a very happy scented corner of the garden.

The big and the small

Sometimes we are waiting, waiting for something BIG in our lives, that we forget to appreciate the small. The little things that bring a sense of joy that really, far outweigh what they are. We think the 'big' things can change your life - of course they can. For me the big thing that brings me continued happiness was meeting my Ed. I can't imagine the conundrums I would still be in now if I hadn't.....

However, many big things just push you off into a different road - the road not taken Mr Frost?. They don't guarantee a life of happiness, but they can send you off somewhere unexpected.

So whilst I'm waiting for a couple of big things that may/may not change my life for the better/worse/somewhere unexpected, I went outside into the garden.

I have an apple tree in my garden for the first time since I was a child. It's dropping a few wayward apples, or maybe it's the birds releasing them for lunch. The smell reminds me of my sister hanging upside down of one of the many fruit trees in our childhood home. I was always amazed how she could hang upside down so much! I - terrified, stay on the ground under them. We also have our first cherries ripening and our first ever flower seedlings growing - I'm sure I'm not meant to poke around in them to check the seeds but hey ho it makes me ridiculously happy when I see a shoot. So whilst drinking a mug of very fine tea in the very fine sun, happiness came from a fallen apple, a cherry tree and poked about seedlings.