Tales From Pixie Wood

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Solace In The Work
2007-05-07 10:27:00
I have been feeling very weepy lately. Walking around, going about my business with tears always ready to form behind my eyes and roll down my cheeks. I'm not sad but I feel sad. I'm not unorganised but I feel terribly unorganised. I'm not restless and yet I feel like I have ants in my pants. I'm achieving all that one person can with only 24 hours in a day and yet I feel like I'm getting nowhere. Trying to perform the butterfly stroke through treacle while dressed in a ball-gown. Does anybody else ever feel like this? Our bodies never lie and I realise that these weepy sessions, always followed shortly after by much giggling and hugs from LBH, are only because I'm a little tired. But it has got me thinking about counteracting this with an activity that, in times of prolonged busyness or some stress, I can simply 'get down' to. There is not time right now to join a new yoga class. I won't be attending it after we move. I can't cook up a storm in the kitchen as all o...
More About: Work , Solace , Lace

As We Try To Kill One Thing, So, We Resurrect Another
2007-05-02 20:15:00
  It was really great to hear your views on the Anya Hindmarch/Sainsburys shopper debacle. I believe that the intentions were perhaps right and true but then again the cynical side of my English nature doesn't. Jane over at Snapdragon posted about the issue as well and I found this story on the BBC website.  I then found myself leaping for joy when I heard about this! LBH loves Bill Bryson and his books and I love the fact that he, an American, says this about my country "You're extremely lucky to have such beautiful countryside in this country. One of the glories of Britain is the British landscape. Almost everybody who lives in this country loves to go out into the countryside and just be there and walk around in it and enjoy the views and enjoy all that greenery and fresh air, and it's really important that this generation does all it can to preserve that." So the debate rages on. Can I, after saying all of this, really have any plastic bags ...
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My Plan? Scuppered I Tell You, Scuppered!!
2007-04-30 20:51:00
DUKE ORSINO: If music be the food of love, play on;Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,The appetite may sicken, and so die.Twelfth Night, Act one, scene one. And so, her name is Olivia. Olivia. Ahhhhh, Olivia. But let me tell you how I got to that and how my plan was scuppered by a lack of equipment and an awful soundtrack.I awoke early in the morning knowing that the weather was fine and beautiful and the steps leading down to my neglected studio at Pixie Wood would be drenched in sunlight. The night before I had written down all of the names that had come in and cut them all up into individual pieces of paper. I placed them into an old cowboy  hat that was a fashion remnant of a summer gone by and waited for the morning to come.When I was on my steps, hat of names beside me, I began to set the camera up. I was going to film the draw and I did, I did film the draw. I went through several rehearsals and worked on the positioning and light. Eventually I knew what I had to do,...
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Variations On All Sorts Of Themes
2007-04-26 10:56:00
  OK, so I colour coordinate my books. Yep! I think they look GREAT when they are sitting on my shelves or in my bookcase and the spines all seem to match. We have picked out an oak bookcase for one of the alcoves in the living room of the new house. It will go floor to ceiling and is a nice chunky number with shelves that have 'depth'. We'll be putting novels and other odds and sods on this particular bookcase, colour coordinated of course. I'll put all of my cookbooks into the kitchen obviously and the crafting, decorating, thrifting books etc will all go into our new home office (i.e. spare bedroom that will one day be a nursery.....I hope.......eek!....going through a broody phase). It grieves me when I see a bunch of books that look good together but I know that they will not be able to reside in the same room. Take the picture above for instance. There we  have two craft books, two foodie books and a garden book. There is no way that they can all hang out toge...
More About: Themes , Vari , Aria , Theme , Them

By Way Of A Thank You......A Name
2007-04-23 16:48:00
I don't know what to say! Wow, thank you so much. It was so warming and wonderful to know that so many people were happy enough to stop what they doing and take time out of busy days in order to offer their congratulations on our impending move. I really can't wait for you guys to see the house. It's not big, it's not set in acres of sprawling countryside, but it's ours and please know that this blog will most probably become the QUEEN of before and after shots. I apologise in advance. I think that I have written to all of you to thank you or at least left a comment on your blogs. I have certainly tried to but I noticed that an inordinate number emails bounced back to me. Check your email addresses folks, I'm trying to drop you line here!! ;-) Anyway, as well as saying "thank you" I wanted to give you something as well. I have never done a competition or giveaway on this bloglette of mine so todays the day. In the pictures above you can see three new tote...
More About: Name , Thank You , Hank

It's Ours!
2007-04-18 16:30:00
You see these tiny branches? In exactly a month from today, 18th of May 2007, these tiny branches will belong to LBH and I. The house went through. It's ours and we move in 30 days time. Forgive the short post..........if anybody needs me I shall celebrating........glass in hand of course!   Love Cherry xx

Susan Speaks : An Interview With Susan Branch
2007-04-15 18:12:00
An interview with Susan Branch Questions : You lot Answers  & pictures: Unadulterated, unedited and entirely Susan Branch Before I start answering the questions, I just want to thank Cherry for this whole fantastic experience.  I love reading your questions and learning how much you love her.  As usual, I’m the last on my block to know all this has been going on --- I just found this magical blog world out here . . . Cherry’s was one of the first I visited and I was delighted by everything she was doing and saying, and all the colors and beautiful photos on her site. I had to write and tell her so.  That was only about 2 weeks ago . . . now I take forays out of Cherry’s site to all the others on her list, and then all the other’s on their lists!  I go to Paris, to Belgium, to England, from my chair! I’ve been to all of your sites, everyone who had one that asked questions . . . and I’m amazed at your WORLD of creative, hard-workin...
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Life Resides On The Lawn
2007-04-12 12:48:00
OK, who's the same as me when it comes to this?....... The first time that you get to lay out on a stretch of grass, under a warm (slighty breezy, I have to admit) blue sky, after a long winter, WITHOUT fear of getting a soggy bottom? I KNEW IT!!!You all are! I'm not sure if this annual event means so much to me because I am a summer baby (born in August) or whether it's true of everybody. I'm a big fan of Christmas, regular readers will know that, but there is nothing,nothing, like stepping out in the morning and beingsans winter coat for the first time that year. The pictures show me (LBH out of site) at Blenheim Palaceon Good Friday. The palace itself and the gardens were awash with tourists and day trippers alike, all soaking up the atmosphere that only a warm spring weekend can bring. Ahhhh! And the grass! The grass! To lay on the grass with the 'sheeps' in the distance and the tiny 'just been born'sheeps, "baaahhhhhing". I love that sound they make...
More About: Life , Sides , Side , The Law

I Didn't Expect To See These Again!
2007-04-09 08:26:00
  Back by, what appears to be, popular demand.......my hand printed t-shirts. Towards the end of last year I was wanting to move away from selling these fellas and was not going to be getting any more printed. But they seem to be experiencing a little bit of a renaissance.   This line of t-shirts and their slogans were the first thing I ever designed. I thought long and hard about what I wanted each one to say as I was working to a budget and had to make each one count.   I sourced the best t-shirt I could find, a great fitting, soft cotton number and spent ages deliberating over who I should use to print them. I stuck to my original premise of a simple white t-shirt with something colourful and meaningful to sit on the front. I had the slogan printed higher than usual as I didn't want the wearer to feel that their boobs were being stared at when somebody was reading what it said! The devil's in the details people, the devil is in the details!!!   The p...
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The Sweet Simplicity of Happiness Part Three : Doorstep Produce
2007-04-04 23:42:00
  I love this. This, to me, is what it's all about. Doorstep produce. It's like the poem that goes something along the lines of .....'When I'm an old lady I'm going to wear purple, and big hats and eat 10 pounds of sausages in a day'........actually it's more like this, but you get the idea. What I mean to say is that when I have my house I want to sell produce on the doorstep. I want to do what these folk have done.......... Broad bean plants for £1.20 a tub. They are waiting to be popped into fertile soil. To soak up the nutrients and spring forth with ripe, plumb, basket-shaped broad beans. And just look at those anemones. The way they have been picked and tossed into the little bucket. They look like bunches of young, beautiful girls who only have to roll out of bed in order to look beautiful. No primping or pampering for these anemones, oh no, just a spritz of water and they mange to keep their colour all day and long into the night. Although I have to say they...
More About: Happiness , Simp , Sweet , Simplicity , City

Yeh, It Happens Like This......IN THE MOVIES!
2007-04-01 13:49:00
Now, I want to start this post with an explanation of sorts. In the past, say, two months things around here have gotten busy. Not just busy but BUSY! Busy in a kind of Oh.My.Goodness way. Each day has been planned out lest something gets forgotten because it seems that EVERYTHING is time sensitive right now and I'm walking a fine line between getting it all done and the whole thing going a bit....well....wrong. One of the casualties during this period has been my ability to read and comment on the blogs I love. Namely those that run down the side of my own blog and many others that I have discovered and have simply not gotten around to adding yet. Posting on this blog itself has become more sporadic and as most of my kitchen has been packed up in anticipation of the move my poor food blog is languishing in not-updated hell. I know that you guys don't mind this and I know that you'll never give me a hard time about it. But I mind it. I have taken to bringing the laptop to bed l...
More About: Movies , Movie , This , Pens , The Movie

Oops, She's Gone A' Thrifting!
2007-03-29 09:58:00
Ahhhhhh, we needed to get away and so we went to West Dorset. And what does one do when one is in West Dorset and in the process of buying a house? One goes a' thrifting. That, my friends, is what one does. Here are my delicious finds from only one day spent in what can only be described as God's country! This white and powder blue plate was FIFTY PENCE! I felt so bad that I handed the woman selling it SIXTY! LBH and I got up early on Sunday and headed straight into West Bay. We pulled into a car park and lo and behold there was a boot sale in full swing. LBH stayed in the the car, with the heater blowing hot air straight into his face. "You go, let me know how you get on" was all I needed to hear and I was off. This plate will probably not actually spend much time indoors to be honest. I have a number of pieces this shape and I really like to sit small plant pots on them. There is nothing more luxurious than having china in your garden, sitting there like it was b...
More About: Gone

London Town With Yvestown
2007-03-26 19:29:00
Well howdy! British Telecom came up trumps and got us back online two days faster than they said they would, this means I can post about Saturday. I have been really fortunate with all of my blog meets. I told you about the wonderderful Violette last week and this past weekend I was fortunate enough to meet with Yvonne from the Yvestown blog. Yvonne summed it up over at her's when she said that a blog meet is like a blind date in a way and can be a little nerve wracking. You know them only from their blog and if they turn out to be vastly different from that what the heck are you going to do?!?!?! I needn't have worried, Yvonne was fabulous. There she was, right on time and with the green rucksack that she had told me about. This meant that I had no trouble finding her in the crowded ticket hall of Liverpool Street station. Yvonne has already mentioned that I'm talker and it was great to meet my match in her. We conversed like we had known each other for years and it was real...
More About: London , With , Ondo , Vest , Town

Out Of It!
2007-03-23 12:45:00
Well, this is novel. I'm not at my desk with Boo's head on the top left hand side of the keyboard and I don't have a bucket of tea to the right hand side of my keyboard. I have an alien radio station blasting in my ear-hole instead of my beloved Radio Four and I'm all trussed up in my coat, pashmina and my mum's Radley bag. In short I'm in an internet cafe writing this little post. Hence the lack of photos and relative lack of any length that this post will display. A cable belonging to British Telecom went down yesterday and will not be coming back up until next Wednesday. Almost a week! Mmmmmm......."WHATDOIDOWITHOUTTHEITE RNET?!?!?!?!?!?!!?"That was my initial thought anyway. Thanks to my blackberry my business can run as usual and I can still pick up any messages/emails, so all's well there but I have to say that after having a night to sleep on it I am rather looking forward to a little time away from the internet. Yesterday for instance I not only packed six mo...

The House of Violette & The Country Living Fair
2007-03-20 21:12:00
I adore meeting other bloggers and this past Friday I got to meet a very special one indeed! La Cabane de Violet te has been a favourite blog of mine for a long time. I can understand a small amount of what is written as it's composed mostly in french so I love it when Violette does an English translation, usually tapped onto the end. But her work, creations and detail are beautiful and if you go visit her blog you'll see what I mean. We had a splendid time walking around and perusing the stalls. I much preferred the fair this time around and I felt that there was a great deal more craft available than I had seen at Christmas, when to be honest it was all a bit 'imported'!! We wandered from stall to stall, chatting and discussing the things we love about blogging and the crafting community that surrounds it. We also spoke about the sorts of things that inspire us and about the tricky bits, such as managing our time and what sort of things you should and should not blog about. ...
More About: House , Living , Country , Fair

Tribute
2007-03-16 08:29:00
This is the person who carried me for nine months, while I booted the inside of her tummy with my tiny foot. This is the person who got up in the dead of night to feed me and laughed her head off when I puked  on my Dad's head. This is the person who made me the biggest packed lunch in the world ever on my first day of school and sewed name tags into my sweaters. This is the person who gave me funky red beads to wear when the school rules dictated that something red must be worn to school everyday (most people took that to mean a dress or a cardigan & to this day red beads are still one of my favourite accessories). This is the person who went over lines of Shakespeare with me, night after night, before my drama school auditions and didn't really mind when I fell asleep in the middle of a session. This is the person who went with me through my teens. Bleugh! I wouldn't wish that on anybody. This is the person who saw me through my twenties, even when she didn't recognis...
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Muted Craving
2007-03-14 07:28:00
  It often happens this way so I know to recognise the signs. First of all there's an itch like sensation that begins move inside my thoughts. A stirring is probably a better description. At this point I have no idea what will become of it but I have learnt to keep an eye on it as it grows. Then I usually see something in nature that inspires me. In this case it has been the pale pink of blossom. I subsequently go on to think about the feel and theme of a new piece I may, just may begin working on. What materials should I use? Canvas, pastels, oils, watercolours, thread, fabric, yarn, wood? How can this project/design make people sigh with contentment when they look at it? What will make others want one should they see one in the street or at the market? Will it calm or excite? How can it be used to save our environment, if at all? How long will it take me to make? Ah, now there's the rub. As a crafter working alone I sometimes have to figure in the length of time it w...
More About: Ving , Ravi , Mute , Ravin

And We All Went "Ahhhhhh!!"....
2007-03-11 21:49:00
  LBH and I left the city on Friday night. We jumped into our silly car and headed out of the congestion, making our way to Jodie & Garry's. My sister and her husband moved to a delightful chocolate box village out in Surrey last Summer and I've never seen them happier. They have settled into village life and are loving every minute of it. Early on Saturday morning I cut a deal with Jodie. LBH and I would take the dog out if she got breakfast ready. The deal was done and I pulled on my wellington boots while Jo-Jo headed for the kitchen. Our first stop was just up from the house where the road splits and turns into the mini green you see in the picture above. It's a typical English village stop off and has a noticeboard that people actually bother to use!!! LBH and I read about a night of magic that the Womens Institute were having later in the week and of a production of Charlotte's Web that was soon to be performed. I stared at the daffs for a while and thanked t...
More About: Went

Cutting Edge? Nah!!!!
2007-03-08 11:24:00
  It's a bit of a given that you won't come here, to my blogs or even my website, and find something 'cutting edge'. In my work and business life I am not particularly interested in minimalism but rather drawn to tradition. I really do not go out searching for the next big thing for my inspiration but instead I look to the past and try to update it. Folk will say, and have said, that looking back like this is unhealthy. They spout that one should always be looking forward and moving on, searching for new and wonderful ways of doing and being. "What's the point in looking back? " they say with a slight sneer and curling of the upper lip. "That'll get you nowhere" And it is on that final point that they are so very wrong.   Tradition is the heartbeat, the thread and the defining characteristic that runs through both blogs and the designs I feature on the website. Tradition, as a word and a concept, is also something that has gotten some very bad...
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My Life In Boxes
2007-03-05 08:22:00
On Saturday I began to pack. The action of packing is slightly, if not very, premature as we don't actually have a date for completion or even a date for exchange yet. But I want out of London, so my brain thinks that if I begin to pack the whole process will move along a lot faster than it would if I didn't. There is no logic to this and I may very well have to unpack if it all falls through, but I shall continue to move forward in faith. It makes me happy to see my life being packed away in boxes as I know that all the bits and pieces in said boxes will have a wonderful surprise when they see their new home. On Saturday I was packing away my magazines, the ones I intend to keep whole and take with me in one piece. I had separated out all of my Country Livings and specialist magazines and placed them in the big magazine box. I was left with only my copies of Vanity Fair as I had manged to file the rest. They sat there for a while on the carpet staring at me. Should they stay ...
More About: Life , My Life

The Sweet Simplicity of Happiness, Part Two : Early Baking
2007-03-02 12:24:00
Cherry's Vanilla Squishy Kisses are here! Thank you week for giving us Friday and thank you buttercream frosting for bringing me unquantifiable amounts of joy this sunny morning. Ahhhhhhhh!!!! My 'Release Yourself from Buttercream Addiction' program starts next week and I currently have 'Buttercream & Me : A journey through addiction' residing on my nightstand. Have a wonderful weekend fellow darlings. Cherry xxx
More About: Baking , Happiness , Simp , Sweet , Simplicity

A New Light
2007-02-28 15:00:00
  Lions & Tigers & Bears..........OH MY, IT'S BEEN BUSY AROUND THESE PARTS LATELY!!!! For the past few days my beribboned, ballet pump shod feet have been carrying me here there and everywhere. I have had meetings in Notting Hill, central London, Brighton and I have also been doing a lot of cooking, hence the ballet pumps. I could not have gotten through the week so far had I been in heels. Although I have to admit to being a MASSIVE fan of the odd pair of stilettos and there once was a time when a pair of flats did not exist in my wardrobe. That was also around the time that my days consumption consisted of buckets of coffee, Cosmopolitans and lots and lots of cigarettes. Ah those heady days of youth, how long we like to linger!!Now I'm all pure. I wear flats and bake cup cakes all day long! Mmmmmm......nothing if not extreme I suppose. ;-)   Anyway, I'm glad I have finally had a chance to sit down and begin typing away.   Remember when I told you ...
More About: Light

Choices, Choices, Choices
2007-02-23 10:11:00
This is the fun bit about moving house! Buying things. We HAVE to buy things for our new home, we have no choice, if we do not we will have nowhere to store our crockery, sleep, sit, prepare food etc...It's a tough job and I'm sure you are able to empathise with the awful predicament I find myself in ;-)   LBH and I have agreed on most things so far. We are almost decided on the type of bed we will probably go for (oak, shaker, king-size, as this leaves a little more room for me in between LBH and Boo. Never thought I would seriously write a sentence like that but hey ho!) and we know that we want a two seater sofa and a three seater sofa in the living room as hopefully we'll be doing Christmas this year and we need enough softness for folk to veg on after lunch.   We like the rugs that Laura Ashley are currently carrying. The floors are exposed right now apart from in the bedrooms so rugs are the way forward we think and they are pretty reasonably priced for Laura ...
More About: Choice , Choi , Choices

Following Your Bliss : Women Doing Just That
2007-02-21 09:19:00
Yesterday I was reading Juju Loves Polka Dots and Juju mentioned a video on YouTube that Lynn over at Molly Chicken had posted about. You can see it here. In the video Joseph Campbell talks about following your bliss. Staying true to what you want to do and be in your life and not deviating from it. I think that everyone will agree it can sometimes take a few years and a good many trips down other paths before we finally find our calling. But, I also believe that once we find it or, and this is true of lots of people, admit to it then the sense of peace can be overwhelming. It's like coming home. You are no longer on a dusty road to Nowheresville in the town of Unhappiness. You have left behind the folk in Timewasting, a small place on the outskirts of Whatareyoudoingwithyourlife. You know the place, it's right next door to Howmuchlongercanilietomyself. It took me so very long to become comfortable with the knowledge that all I really wanted was to be a homemaker, look after L...
More About: Women , Men , Just , Hat , Your

Sneak Peek Outside
2007-02-19 10:32:00
Should I be doing this? You know how it is. The move has almost gone through but it could falter at the last hurdle and come crashing down. *ponders for a moment* What the heck, if we lose it we lose it. We had fun along the way. So here are a few sneaky snapshots of our new house. LBH and I went over on Saturday to measure up. We wanted to see how big the kitchen area was and what sort of bed we would need to buy. As well as reminding ourselves of what the house actually looks like. We have only seen it twice and already we  have forgotten what this particular corner is like and what that corner can contain. The pictures don't show much to be honest as the current people still live there and I have focused on the outside areas in this post, but I'm so excited that I just had to share. Please indulge me for just a few moments while I point out the little things that make up the whole. We have crocuses! The garden needs some attention. When I look at the garden, like the ...
More About: Sneak Peek , Outside , Side , Peek