Hello and happy Halloween! Just to go completely against the grain (and because I haven't started carving my pumpkin yet, it is this evenings task!) today's blog post will not be about pumpkins!! Instead I want to show you a few snaps from Freeze Festival that I went to at Battersea Power Station yesterday... a massive ski slope and amazing bands, I've had the Best Weekend and want to do it all over again! x
...and onto the wallpapering! In the absence of the ivy wallpaper I mentioned earlier (which has been lost somewhere in the depths of the attic) we used leftover wallpaper from my room as a child, a lovely small buttercup-type print...
...and with a bit of a helping hand, my dad and I tackled the wallpapering of the trunk. We battled the plummeting temperatures this afternoon, as it quickly turned into evening, and we finished the job as the sun was going down...
...we quickly got the trunk inside to a warm house (before we lost even more feeling in our fingers and toes!), and sat down with a lovely hot drink to warm up.
Well, what a busy week! With trade orders still coming in for Christmas stock I've been making lots of pudding-related items, and painting lots and lots of gold spots. However I also managed to squeeze in making a new item, my wine glasses cotton shopper... the cupcakes cotton shopper has always been a customer favourite, and with my 'wine glasses' design going down so well on other items, I thought it was about time the design made its way onto a lovely natural cotton shopper! I'm really pleased with the results, and think they will make great Christmas pressies too.
The first frost is here! For those of us whipping our gloves out and defrosting cars in the Cotswolds that is... and I suspect in a lot of areas around the UK today. I awoke to bright skies and frosty grass, and it deserved capturing. Our new 'pet' pheasant was also in attendance, in his usual perch, munching his way along the top of the hedge :) so here are a few frosty snaps, to record our first frost and a definite sign that winter is on the way... and it was so warm and sunny last week! x
At the beginning of the week my mum saved an old trunk from near bonfire-related death. The trunk belonged to my next door neighbour, Mrs Baker, who sadly passed away at the end of July. Now the proud owner of the trunk I have set a few hours aside this week for my mission to revive the trunk to its former glory.
It arrived at our doorway after years of attic storage and was consequently a bit filthy, very dusty, and pretty unloved. It has original travel labels, and is decorated with Mrs Baker's initials, E.B. The labels I have glued to make sure they stay intact, as they are an integral part of the trunk and it's life so far. Mrs Baker lived to 95, so this trunk has been around for a good few years, and I can't believe how old it could be!
I think it'll make a brilliant fabric storage trunk, great for throwing all my linens into, and is exactly what I've been after. So much so that even in the freezing temperatures in the evenings this week I have been out in our garage, polishing and fixing :)
So far I have ripped all of the inside fabric out, fixed broken wooden edges, cleaned, polished, and 'dubbin-ed' all the leather, the corners, and the seam along the back of the trunk. It's not super-shiny yet, but it's getting there. I'm planning to wallpaper the inside with lovely vintage green ivy wallpaper, so hopefully I'll have a 'trunk-update' for you a little later on!
This weekend has so far involved mass tag drawing, card illustration, and a wee bit of X Factor. I began the day with robins galore, followed by cupcakes, 'to & from' cake tags, and finished with 30 or so festive puddings cards. Phew!! For the time being my 'drawing hand' is now pleased to get back to some sewing ;) (my hand-illustrated tags are now available in my Christmas Shop!)
And here are just a couple of snaps I wanted to share with you, taken of my work by my friend Jacquie, she is now stocking a selection of my products in her little 'Galerie et Atelier' in Morzine, France. To see all the snaps pop to my facebook page! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, and keep up with all the studio 'happenings' during the week with me on twitter!
All day the wind has been gusting, and bringing with it sheets of rain. But here in the Cotswolds we wrapped up warm and headed out in search of the delights of the French Market, held in Tetbury, and in the streets outside the chocolate shop I used to work in...
This time last year I was working in the chocolate shop and all the French stallholders (who had arrived en masse for the day) were drinking mug upon mug of Charbonnel & Walker hot chocolate. Today was both exciting and liberating, as I got to sample the true French flavour of the market, breathe in the wonderful French smells, and linger at my leisure at each of the stalls... unlike a year ago!
...from wonderful-smelling French lavender, to Reblochon and Raclette cheeses, traditional French soaps, and a freshly baked 'pain' for lunch (the Tartiflette was unfortunately sold out!). After moseying around in the rain we returned laden-down with French goodies, and are eagerly awaiting their return in May! x
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