Tales From Pixie Wood

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Permission
2008-02-06 21:09:00
I promise that I'll go back to 'making house' posts soon but I really wanted to post a picture of the girls. Thank you to all of you who have sent me private messages asking to see a pic, I'm soooo relieved that I now get to show you the object of my affection......and this time with full permission!! Daisy is behind and Truly is in front. Darling girls....and darling readers for indulging this hyperactive new auntie. Cx
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A Little Night Magic
2008-02-04 20:06:00
I will start todays post by saying that I found the comments left on the last post utterly hilarious and they made me feel very privileged to have the sort of readers that I do. I didn't smear 'horrid damp man' with the butter-cream as I prefer to only ever heap that sort of foodstuff onto LBH, and then only when he's been particularly well behaved, but we did look elsewhere for a quote and may have found a super local company to carry out the work, which pleases me greatly. On Friday night I offered to do a night shift for my sister in order that she and her radio presenter hubby (you'll notice that the answers he gives to the interview questions reveal a dry wit which, more often than not, has livened up a family gathering no end!) a full night of uninterrupted sleep. And so it was, after Mummy and Daddy had gone to bed, I was alone with the girls and entering the night single handedly. We had moved the two cribs into my room and placed one at the end of the bed and the oth...
More About: Magic , Night

Dusters At Dawn
2008-01-30 22:01:00
It was all set to be a pretty good end to the day. I had been running around for most of it and now, late in the afternoon, I was settled and began to bake some pink fairy cakes as I'll be having a visit from Jo-Jo and the monkey doodles tomorrow. All I had to do was make sure I was in the house for when the man from the damp company arrived. I was in when the man from the damp company arrived and so was he .......IN A BAD MOOD!!!!! I wasn't quite sure what was happening at first as he seemed fine. I told him briefly about our damp situation and how we were told that we had damp on one wall before we moved in and that now we had decided to pull up the hideous dark orange tile that currently resides on our kitchen floor we thought we really should get it dealt with. So far so good. He said that needed to do a quick sketch of the "downstairs living area", I asked him if I could let him get on with it and it all seemed OK. I switched the Kitchen Aid on to continue with ...
More About: Dawn

Thoroughly Modern Weekend
2008-01-29 10:06:00
This past weekend LBH and I went to stay in Shropshire with LBH's mum, Precious Sue. It was a good thing to be able to sit in a house and not look around and stare at the things you wanted change or needed to be fixed, do you know what I mean? It was also nice as we were able to fit in a short visit to Much Wenlock.  It was lovely to walk aroundon a fresh Saturday morning and see the whole village going about its business the way villages know how. I have a romanticised view of all things nostalgic and anything thats drenched in community. I'm whole heartedly unabashed by this quality and therefore take great delight when I see people in line waiting to be served at the local butchers. The iconic red letter box. So many of the darling red phone boxes have been sold off to private collectors and I understand why when we all have phones in our pockets but if it had been up to me I would have turned them all in to honesty boxes and sold local produce from them. I told y...
More About: Weekend , Modern

A Cosy Corner of Constants
2008-01-25 21:30:00
I appreciate what LBH does during the week. Don't get me wrong, his commute is about three hours a day and he works hard - but I find it hard when he has to stay late-ish on a Friday night. There is something about Friday nights that we look forward to. I'll be honest, unless we have plans to go out or have guests arriving we always do our grocery shop on a Friday night. We arrive at about eight thirty pm, start at the top end where its warmer and pretty much have the place to ourselves. Before Christmas we signed up to the 'scan your own items as you shop' scheme. LBH and I are both the eldest children in our respective families so it was fun experiencing another person being just as determined to use the scanning gizmo as I was. In fact it got so heated at one stage that I stopped in the middle of the freezer section and threatened to kick LBH if he didn't let me have a go. There I was staring up at him demanding that he hand over the scanner so that I could have a go, I may ...
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Not About the Home Today
2008-01-23 10:20:00
I find the news of Heath Ledger’s death very saddening. I watched his work, most notably in Monsters Ball and Brokeback, with utter admiration. Actors, of the sort that he was, are terrifically sensitive; otherwise they wouldn’t be able to move us with their performances. I know this because I grew up around them and studied with them for three years in an intense environment. I think I was one of them for a very long time. But that place, the place where you abandon yourself to sensitivity, is a hard place to live in for any length of time, no matter how good the performance. It grieves me most of all that his daughter will never know her father, will never be able to climb in to his lap and have him whisper how much he adores her in to her ear after a tough day in the school playground. I couldn’t care less for celebrity but the life of actors such as Heath Ledger and others of his calibre I find myself caring a great deal about. I had a dream, last Friday night about Br...
More About: Home , Today

....and like that, they were gone.......
2008-01-22 19:32:00
I made a small number of these, hand-stitched, lavender hearts as something to take my mind off of being on the sofa for a week when my hip popped out and then popped right back in again. I thought I'd give a few to friends and then sell the rest. I sold the lot and I'd like to say thank you. What's even more than shocking is that I sold them before I put them out for sale proper. Through the lovely ladies in my forum and the hidden goodness which is private email they have all gone. So this weekend I shall be sitting on my future mother-in-law's sofa and making some more. Which I shall then duly put up for sale in a more 'shop like' environment. You may remember that I had chosen the name for a new collection of home wares from a Kate Bush song that I was inspired by. The line is, if you haven't guessed "like snow in rosebud" and the song was King of the Mountain from her album Aerial. The hearts are the first part of a collection using embroidery, stitching and a...

A Draw And A Thought
2008-01-20 18:42:00
Ahhhh, that's better! I was getting into a muddle a few days ago and needed to step back, work out what needed to be done first and simply begin. As soon as January arrived I think LBH and I both realised that our wedding was to take place in exactly seven months and we still had heaps to do before then. We counteracted feelings of stress by popping out yesterday and coming home having bought my wedding ring. I wasn't sure whether I'd ever actually find myself skipping down a crowded street again but I did yesterday. LBH made me laugh by saying that he liked that kind of shopping as he got to sit in a chair and have things presented to him. I'll have to take him shopping for diamonds more often! And of course the babies are now here, oh the babies, my goodness we had no idea that our hearts were capable of such outpouring. My entire family has become a cliche in the truest sense of the word with statements like "are they not THE most perfect children you've ever seen?!?!...
More About: Thought , Draw

An Act That Is Almost But Not Quite Together
2008-01-17 11:58:00
I'm not quite sure how I got into this much disarray so early into the year! The two words that run through my mind the most right now are 'oh' & 'crap' as I remember something else that has to be done. So this post is super short. I know we have business to take care of and a magazine draw to do but I also know that if anybody understands a juggling act, you do. We are also smart enough to know that it's not the act of juggling but the attitude towards it. Mine's a bit stinky right now! Here's a metaphor for ya - instead of freshly laundered bed linen it's all becoming a bit 'slept in' I KNOW YOU GET THIS! PLEASE TELL ME YOU GET THIS! Therefore I shall take myself away, FOCUS, sort my bits and bobbles out and arrive back fresh and ready to go again. Cherry xoxox *exhale* The picture in this post is part of my new collection of embroidered pieces. Coming soon.....

Falling, Falling......
2008-01-10 19:31:00
I've fallen in love. A deep profound love that is the sort to make one distracted, all day long. A love that has you thinking about tiny expressions and yawns that make your heart melt. A love that has you biting your lip when they sneeze and stop what you're doing when they murmur. A love that has you itching for them to be awake and not asleep whilst you're there. A love that has you yell "I'LL DO IT" as soon as someone smells poo-poo emanating from a nappy. They were at our place last night with their mummy and their daddy and when they went  home LBH and I came back into our living room and it felt empty. It still does. A shift has taken place over here, at our place. It is an undetectable shift but seismic in it's effects. A shift in hearts, minds, attitudes and opinions. A shift that I knew would take place and one which I welcome with my arms wide open. This is also why my word for 2008 is .....Focus. Sounds a bit lofty, no? A bit cheesy and lathered w...

One For All
2008-01-06 19:54:00
Well hello there!!!! You guys are LOVELY!! I feel like we have all just sat down and shared a pot of Fortnum's tea over a toasted tea cake and a gossip. We have all shared baby stories and squeezed our eyes shut as we remember how cute and edible little people are when they first come out. My sister's new daughters are on the minds of our family members all the time right now. LBH asked me what I was thinking about early the other morning, before we'd even turned the light on, and my answer was "the babies". I held Truly last night as her little feet poked out of her blanket and her toes said 'hello' to the rest of the room. I kissed each toe and tucked them back into the warm.......before unwrapping them again to have another look and a kiss. Hahahahahahaha! I wish I could send each person that left a comment a copy of the magazine. I'm super touched by the amount of American people that there are who read this blog. "Hello America", I love your country a...

Jumping, A Little Too High, For Joy & Producing A Giveaway
2008-01-02 21:31:00
I'm trying to work out what it was that I was thinking when I decided to blog about the birth of the twins without the new parents permission!! The post was up for but a few moments but it simply wasn't the right thing to do. I'll get to share pictures with you soon, I'm sure, but I really should have waited a touch longer. I put it down to sheer excitement and the fact that Truly - five pounds, eleven ounces and Daisy - six pounds, one ounce are the most beautiful little darlings this side of heaven. If you had nieces that cute your senses would leave you also, of that I am sure. By way of a distraction and to keep me out of trouble until I am able to see the twins face to face I am organising a giveaway. The divine Ms. Maxwell of the lovely blog Miss Vandroo emailed me over the Christmas holidays to say that she had bought two copies of the recent issue of 25 Beautiful Homes with my article in it. She went on to make the wonderfully generous offer of giving one of the issue...
More About: Producing , High , Jumping

How It Seemed To Me, Upon Reflection
2007-12-29 16:24:00
It all seems so long ago. We baked, prepared, tidied, fussed, unwrapped, laughed, exclaimed, threw more coal on the fire, slept, ate, knitted, opened bottle upon bottle of Champagne followed by Cava when the good stuff ran out. We touched Jo-Jo's heavily pregnant tummy and urged the girls to come out while indulging in a game of Cranium that lasted well over two hours. It was good, oh so good and it was fulfilling because it was such hard work. I would do things differently should we ever host the event again but not too differently. I think the difference would be in my head. My thoughts would be focused on a different set of things and worry/stress would enter the fray a little less. But now, in hindsight, looking back on a Christmas that has passed I see the whole thing like one big pink Champagne truffle. And if that sounds a little too good to be true or perhaps even like one big fat fib then let me explain why.......... This past Christmas does not remain in my mind as ...
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All Is Calm, All Is Bright
2007-12-22 10:20:00
It's time to batten down the hatches and settle back in to the nook for Christmas. The outside has been lit and glows in the freezing mist that makes it's way through the streets of the town. I can't see Santa  making his way through the cold air just yet but Boo thought she heard something coming down the chimney yesterday. I'm not so sure , it seems a little early and I haven't had time to put out his mince pie and glass of sherry!!!! The cake has been iced and sits in the kitchen, resplendent in it's covering and complete with a narrative this year. LBH's mother and I decided on a little scenario for Santa, his helper the Snowman and some observant reindeer's........ ......it's the little things and Santa falling on his bottom while Mr Snowman chuckles at his misfortune and then promptly joins him makes me smile and wish for a brood of children running around the kitchen. One day. Until then we have Boo to look after. We'll make sure that she is fe...
More About: Bright , Calm

I'll Be Home For Christmas
2007-12-20 10:53:00
LBH's mum arrives today. This means that Christmas has REALLY started as she is with us for the duration. She will arrive bearing gifts of venison and beef as well as practical items such as spare quilts and carpet shampoo. This is her room. The guest room. This room has been the most well behaved room in the house lately. Why? Because it has sat there, without complaint and kept itself in shape and tidy. This means that apart from a little plumping and sprucing I have had to do nothing except close the door behind me and wait for our guest. The cushions are fat and the tissue box replenished. I keep a postcard sized print of my favourite artist in the whole world, John Currin, by the bed and of course there is a candle. We light candles a lot in this house around this time of year and I want any person who stays here to feel free to do the same. How many of us have read by candlelight lately and gone to sleep having puffed it out and buried down into the bed? On the other...
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If It's There, I'll Decorate It - AKA 'Getting Up To Mischief&#
2007-12-18 16:57:00
Getting up to mischief is what LBH calls it when I have done something in the house while he is at work. This also translates to mean that he's doesn't necessarily like what I've done but he won't make a fuss about it. If he hates something he simply looks at the 'thing', looks at me and then looks back at the 'thing' - with absolutely no expression. It's amazing how so little expression can convey so much, eh?!?! This exchange in glances usually makes me burst out laughing, thats if I don't mind un-installing the 'thing' I have done/put up/created/fashioned. If I do like the 'thing' and have no intention of removing the installation I stare back, just as expressionless and then declare that I like it and it's going nowhere. I then leave the room. This act is not an act of compromise, as it should be, but merely one of cowardice on my part. I'm not proud of it but the house looks pretty good. I jest. Since LBH and I have been living together we have undoubted...

You Stop, For Just A Moment, And It Hits You
2007-12-16 16:35:00
I discovered this week how pain makes me terribly weepy. LBH comes home slightly early from work and brings a box of Thai food for two with him, I burst into tears at the emotion of it all. I sit on the sofa with the fire going and my hip throbbing away and Boo comes meowing down the stairs with a sock in her mouth and presents it to me on the living room rug as a kill. I sob into her fur how much I love her and how there will never be anybody who loves her as much as I. LBH clears out the kitchen cupboards while I direct operations from a seat in the kitchen and then he vacuum's the house, goes out and picks up the Christmas booze stash and waters the two trees and again I can feel my eyeballs welling up. I have decided that I am not going to dismiss this soppy time as simply something that will pass when the pain of my dislocated hip does. I am going to remember EXACTLY what it was that made me feel these indescribable moments of tenderness. They are as follows.........LBH, ...
More About: Moment , Stop , Hits

My Current View
2007-12-12 20:15:00
I'd like to start this post by thanking you all for all of your wonderful, encouraging comments with regards to the magazine article that came out featuring our house last week. It shouldn't, but it always bowls me over when so many people take time out of their days simply to say "well done" to somebody they haven't even met! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I shall be re-reading all of them over the next few days as I won't be moving form the position you see me residing in in the above picture. I shall explain. Here, as in most places at the moment, it is Christmastime. In my world that means that throughout the month of December there are more parties to go to than usual. I went to a party last night in fact. At said party I was having a wonderful time, flinging myself around the dance-floor with abandon and generally exorcising a whole bunch of stress and business to the sounds of classic WHAM! I'm not sure exactly what was playing when it all came to an abrupt halt f...
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The Morning Cuppa & The Magazine
2007-12-07 08:56:00
I'm not going to come over all bashful about this and pretend that it isn't one heck of a way to spend the first few moments of the day. A complimentary issue of 25 Beautiful Homes landed on my mat and I'm in it!!! That's me! We have been given a six page spread which is an enormous amount of coverage in one magazine. This project was tremendous fun and working with both Annabelle (the writer of the piece) and Colin (the photographer) was a delight. LBH and I worked like mad people to get the house in some sort of order and it seemed that we must have done an OK job as our little Victorian cottage made the final cut. Of course the odd thing is that the house has had two Christmases this year. The one you see in the magazine and the one it's having right now. Are they different? YES!!!! And therein lies the beauty of it. As someone who lives and breathes homemaking and all things of that ilk it's a tremendous privilege to have been able to experiment with differ...
More About: Magazine , Morning

The Sweet Simplicity Of Happiness : Part Five
2007-12-04 08:21:00
It's been ages since I did one of these. The sweet simplicity of happiness equals - getting downstairs before anybody else and turning the Christmas lights on. Sitting there for a few moments, gathering my thoughts, thinking about the day and then going off to boil the kettle. Poor Boo, she woke up especially early in the hope that she might beat me downstairs. She didn't stand a chance.
More About: Happiness , Sweet , Simplicity , Part

Tis' The Weekend To Be Jolly
2007-11-30 09:36:00
I'm very grateful for the fact that the first of December falls on a Saturday this year. It means we get to spend the WHOLE DAY doing Christmas 'stuff'. Of course I've been secretly (not so secretly) working away on little bits and pieces that I want to be ready and made for the grand decoration. My gingerbread house is one of the mini projects. Santa stands at the door ready to greet (or slap) anybody who tries to pick off a treat from it's exterior. They'll have a job with some of it as I've used my glue gun!!!! It has snowmen sentries standing straight against pear drop topiary. Toped with a delicate, snow like, dusting of icing sugar. The roof has been strengthened to take the weight of Rudolph et al...... ....but I heard Dancer, or was it Prancer, discussing the pain which would be experienced should any of them land on the dolly mixture roof trim. This particular gingerbread house is not edible as I have used, as I mentioned, my glue gun on parts of...
More About: Weekend , Olly

Beautiful Girls - Jo-Jo's Surprise Baby Shower in Pictures
2007-11-27 09:42:00
We all gathered at my parents house for Jodie's surprise baby shower this past weekend. She was arriving under the pretence of being taken out for some supper. The house was lit with candles and the fire was burning. The people that Jodie loved were there waiting for her, and her bump, to arrive. Jodie may be preggers but that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't enjoy a tipple.....as I would later learn to my peril! As the guests arrived they placed baked goods and nibbles onto the table for us all to enjoy...and soon enough we got the news that Jodie had arrived. "Oh my gooosshhh", were the three words that were uttered the most upon her arrival followed in quick succession by 'pregnant lady' tears. Which doesn't explain why the rest of us also began to well up! She was hugged and loved and made a fuss of. There was laughter and gifts and stories and frivolity. We recorded the night for our own memories sake and relished in the company of ...
More About: Pictures , Baby , Girls , Beautiful , Shower

RubyRubyRubyRuby!!!! - Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a Round - Up
2007-11-23 13:23:00
The round up of our latest Book Group book is taking place over here!
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Book Group Round - Up
2007-11-22 12:10:00
The round up of Behind the Scenes at the Museum takes place tomorrow over on the book group blog! See you there! Cherry
More About: Book , Round Up , Group , Round

Finally, It Arrives
2007-11-19 22:05:00
It's funny how things come to you. I have had little/no inspiration to 'make stuff'  to sell in my shop for months. I didn't know whether I should concentrate on one medium / design or make lots of different things to fill my on-line shop up once again. I think it had a lot to do with the house and getting it ready for all sorts of things but now that the seas are calmer over at Casa de Menlove I began thinking about what it was I wanted to do with my shop. I thought and I thought and I thought. Nothing, nada, zilch! Then I stuck my ipod on. It was a line from a Kate Bush song that clicked the light on over my head and got the juices flowing once more. This one line summed up what it was that I wanted to convey/portray with some of the items I make. I am paying homage to Kate over at L'Influence at the moment. She's somebody I would be terrified of meeting. I'd much prefer to meet Madonna or Mrs Thatcher than Kate Bush and I certainly wouldn't be as nervous meetin...
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Stockpiling
2007-11-16 10:15:00
Anybody who has been reading this blog for any amount of time will know that I like to be surrounded by books and that I more often than not find myself using them as accessories in my home. So, I was mightily heartened to see the thrift shops in my town putting their collections of Christmas books in the windows for me to easily spot, drop in and promptly purchase. I'm a broody girl at the moment, especially with my sister's twins on the way, so I have found myself buying books that I will enjoy reading to either my children or to my sister's. Whoever wants to pull their feet up onto the sofa first and sit by the fire with me. I'm not fussy! I love the illustrations in the Peggy Burton book. My mother and I were talking the other day about looking into worlds such as this and others like Rupert the Bear and of course Beatrix Potter's. We both said how we would often want to dive on in and live in the hollowed out tree with the characters depicted. I have a box of tea that I s...

Important News For Forum Users
2007-11-14 19:15:00
I have just posted an update for anybody who has had trouble logging into the forum. The update can be found here! Cx
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Behind the Scenes at the Museum - round-up date set
2007-11-12 10:08:00
Cherry has just set the date for the 'Scenes ' round-up over at her Book Club Blog.
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Cherry's Christmas Prep - Part 1
2007-11-09 11:48:00
I have just posted the first part of my Christmas Prep over at Cherry Menlove.com Have a great weekend Cx
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What They Don't Tell You
2007-11-07 15:33:00
I love watching the Biography channel. I loved it when it first started and my parents had SkyTV. I would watch for hours at a time until the loop of shows would finally begin again. I was at drama school at the time and considered it all research. The biography's that they would show would invariably tell the story of a young girl or guy who fought his or her way to the top of their chosen tree. An individual with immense talent that seemed to go unnoticed for a certain period of time before their personality exploded into the worlds eye view. The show lasts an hour and covers a persons entire life. From birth until, if they have already passed over, death. My good god, sometimes I WISH I could get my life into an hour long segment, you see then I wouldn't have to wait. Wait. What an innocuous word. It's short, like many other powerful words such as God, F**K, Go, Stay, Love. Wait. I'm waiting right now for various things to happen or not happen. Or perhaps I should say ...