See You In June!

Hello! How are you?

I'm Just popping in with a little update on our move.

We have driven back and forth for the last week with all our belongings we have collected over the years and oh my! you just do not realize what you have until you start moving it all do you?

The journey has been lovely with blossom trees everywhere and green hedgerows,some sunny days too,Radio turned up as we traveled along,singing along and sharing chocolate life has been a lot of fun together.

 Meanwhile Shingle Cottage looks shocking! boxes everywhere piled high waiting to be emptied,furniture to be arranged,lamps waiting for a cozy corner,oh so much to do and i just love home making so this next few weeks i will be in heaven feathering our little nest by the sea. 

Well i have to go now we are to be back on the road in half an hour and we still have boxes to load.....We have ordered our broadband but there is a delay with all the recent storms so our connection dates is the 11th June which is a long time to not be able to blog and especially when i have so much to share with you now that we are moving in.

I will take plenty of pictures and then you can see how everything has come together and hopefully by the time you visit again those lamps will be lit and the kettle will be on.

Enjoy the rest of May and take good care and we thank you all for your good wishes on our last post,we really appreciate them xxx

One more sleep and i'll be calling Shingle Cottage home.....I can't wait can you?

Join me next time for more tales and goings on from Shingle Cottage xxx

We Are Moving!

 Just popping in to say hello and to let you know we are moving in the morning :)

We have a van hired which we are picking up first thing and then were off...We plan on driving back and forth over Saturday,Sunday and Monday, rushing and getting stressed are not on the menu so we are taking it steady and were going to have fun together.

I spent most of this week unscrewing legs and doors of furniture to make everything a little easier for us  to carry and books and lamps and everything else you can think of have been wrapped and packed.

I  also made another 'Memories Purse' all in white with lots of beautiful details and antique lace..

Vintage linens all the way from France and mother of pearl buttons...

Both now in my friends hands and ready to go on sale soon...

Over at Shingle Cottage we  had some lovely sunny weekends and we carried the butchers blocks i painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint out into the garden for two protective coats of clear wax...

Steve stopped in at the garden center and picked up some more perennials for our cottage garden that we started last year that will be filled with colour....

Lupins,Delphiniums,Lavenders,Helenium to name a few.....

Roses too...I chose this one called 'Cottage Rose'....

We even picked up a lovely new spade with an old fashioned handle..

As Steve raked the shingle pebbles away to create another flower border a little someone decided to explore her new surroundings...She has stayed with my Mum on weekends so we could get on and work..

She sniffed the dew from ladies mantle...

She has had a lot of changes lately with our boy leaving home and taking his dog with him she misses them both and now visiting a new home and making new friends had left her a little clingy and unsure of what is happening but this last weekend she seemed to have settled down and was enjoying all the goings on.

Together we white washed the picket fence,gate and arch and Steve planted up his flower border so we should fingers crossed have a lovely colourful border either side of garden path in a few months time..

The Shingulls ;) are back too building a nest on our chimney and we have another visitor who has come to stay with us...

A pretty little mallard duck has made a nest of feathers under the blackberry bushes outside our bedroom window...

Sweetpea had discovered her last week and phoned with the good news,We are both anxiously awaiting the chicks hatching,I will keep my camera handy so i can show you too :)

Inside there has been lots of painting of furniture...

All in old white...

On Sunday when i opened my eyes i looked up at the bare chandelier and then the dressed matching wall lights and i had had enough so in my pj's i went to the cupboard and grabbed the bag of pink bobeche dishes and crystals and climbed on the bed being careful not to step on Steve who has hard and fast asleep..

Then i got back in bed and smiled at my handy work :) 

Thank you for stopping by and catching up on what we have been up to and i'll be popping back in soon with pictures and news about our move.

We have to get connected up to the internet so if you don't hear from me that will be why ;)

Join me next time for more tales and goings on from Shingle Cottage...

XxX

Oh,to be in England

Come on  jump in the car it's time to go for a drive around the English countryside at dusk....

Seat belts on we don't have long before the sun begins to set...It's magic hour.

Beautiful views are everywhere and none of us have a care,This is our time to just be......

Lets stop at the old priory with heavenly light shining through it's door and imagine how it might have looked....

Gaze at its stone arches and then up at the sky and that beautiful window...

With it's views across lush green fields....

We walk past lime green hedgerows on our way back to the car...Spring has sprung!

Driving on past fields of Spring babies....

Stopping  a while and saying 'Hello'

  

The peacock and the hare? 

You never know what you will see at dusk in the countryside by the sea with Steve and me :)

But it wouldn't be Spring without bundles of snowy white cotton wool bleeting here and there now would it?

They were singing a song as the sun began to set....Press play and hear them and see the little one skipping.... 

The sun is dropping and the air is turning cold,Time to get back in the car and head for Shingle Cottage...

Home Thoughts From Abroad

Oh,to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

See's,Some morning,unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm tree bole are tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England.....Now

And after April,when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds.and all the swallows

Hark,where my blossom'd pear tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops-at the bent spray's edge-

That's the wise thrush;he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And thought the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups,the children's dower

-Far brighter than this gaudy melon flower!

Robert Browning

I hope you enjoyed joining us on our dusk drive :)

Join me next time for more tales and goings on from Shingle Cottage...

XxX

'Memories Purse'

I love to sew and paint furniture as you know,in fact i am at my happiest when creating and i am going to work this into my new life by the sea....

A friend of mine is opening a shop and we were talking last week and she said she would like me to send some of my bits and bobs to her and we decided they would be in blue and white to keep with her fresh coastal theme.

All a bit exciting and setting up a cottage business has all happened a little quicker than i thought it would....But that's ok with me what a great opportunity.

Thank you lovely lady you know who you are ;) xxx 

I am going to be making along with a lot of other bits and bobs that will be for sale a sweet little thing i call a 'Memories Purse' 

They have a lace loop at the top for you to slip over your wrist or hang on a door or a bedstead and they are made with old laces and trims and some times new but all with a time worn feel.

I love to add pretty little details that make you want to look a little closer and pretty embroidered linens from days gone by that make you want to touch.

Inside there are pockets and ties to hold your own bits and bobs that you may find while out and about,Sea shells and feathers or you may have something sentimental you want to carry with you,a photograph? or a special Poem? a love note from your sweet heart? Pictures of your children and their children? or maybe a picture of a beloved furry friend?

Fill it up over time and take it home and you have a purse full of memories!

That you can untie and day dream about later on....

This beach inspired 'memories Purse' and a few others are  heading for my friends lovely white beachy shop that is opening soon and fingers crossed she may want more ....

What would you hold in your 'Memories Purse'  ?

See you soon,i'll be at my sewing machine :)

XxX


Linking to   frenchcountrycottage feathered nest friday

Pretty In The Kitchen

 I had a lovely time by the sea at the weekend with my stash of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and the new colours i tried this time... Empire Red & Old English Yellow...

I mixed Antoinette with Empire Red and it made a lovely rose pink :) 

That's how i mix mine below in an old butter tub so i have plenty of room to blend the colours together and i always add just a drop of water to help...I will be getting an Annie Sloan paint brush  soon as my friends tell me they are amazing to work with.

What was i going to paint with this new rose pink i had created???

Oh look the butchers block is shouting 'Me,Me!'..............Oh ok it didn't but it doesn't seem to mind does it? ;)

I left it drying so a light sand and a wax to come this weekend.....Won't it look lovely once the floor is painted white? 

I had a little left so i started my salt and pepper mill,I think i might paint the bottoms Old English Yellow or maybe Old white....

Saturday morning i was outside in the garden blasting down the butchers block below that we had been given with an electric sander to clean it up and then i mixed Old White,Old Ochre & Old English Yellow which came out a lovely lemon yellow......All to be waxed this weekend.

Spring has arrived and daffodils are everywhere and what a joy to see them,So cheery and bright!

Talking of flowers it is time to start emptying all your used tea bags and mulching around your hydrangea shrubs...It's amazing how much you can get out of a few tea bags and they make your hydrangea flower like crazy!

Last year i emptied them while out in the garden and my hands were covered in tea leaves and so was the door handle so i do it in the sink now and then take a cup out....It's much easier to clean up after.

You just sprinkle them on top and water them in...See the black pot in the top right hand corner?

It  keeps the bunnies from nibbling our delphiniums,Just an up turned plant pot with the bottom  out.. 

The view from the kitchen door...Everything we planted last year has come back apart from one delphinium plant so that's not bad is it especially after such a long Winter.

The concrete path ran right across the garden when we came and i broke up a lot of it last Summer and started to dig over the soil and make some flower borders this year i need to do the rest of the path...The picket fence will be getting a lick of paint soon and then when Summer arrives i will be out here pottering about and making more flower borders .

My mum packed us  a battenburg which i just love,the cake and the colours....

And our neighbor brought us a homemade banana and date loaf which was so,so nice! We brought half home and our boy enjoyed it with hot custard..

In between emptying tea bags,eating cake and painting butchers blocks in the kitchen we also finally put cut glass knobs on out kitchen cupboards..

I painted these in Old White and Antoinette over the top and then sanded back,they look so lovely and time worn.....Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is wonderful to work and as you know i use it a lot.

While on the subject of cut glass.....what do you think to this little cut glass decanter that my friend Niki of Nostalgia At The Stone House   sent me for a house  cottage  warming present?

Oh no that isn't red wine girls...

It's washing up liquid ;)

I had seen one that Niki had in her shop and asked after it but it had been decorated in  beautiful lace and flowers which i told Niki was a shame as it would get ruined,i wanted to decant my washing up liquid,So while out on a shopping trip she found this pretty one and sent it to me as a house  cottage warming gift,How nice was that?

Thank you again Niki i  love it and as you can see it fits perfectly on my sink :)

Then Steve had been working in a ladies house last week who was seventy four  and she has very bad arthritis in her hands,She told him she knits to stop her fingers seizing up and it eases the pain and would his girl like some hand knitted dish cloths?

Well bless her heart she sent me two and they are so soft and pretty i'm not sure i can use them to wash dishes.

It makes doing the dishes a whole lot prettier and i love cottage pretty!

Thank you all for your kind comments on my lamp shades in my last post by the way,I am sewing again today for a friend who is opening a shop and if she likes what she see's she may be stocking my bits and bobs,Keep your fingers crossed i would love to have a little cottage industry going on at Shingle Cottage....

I hope your week has been a good one and that Spring is arriving in your corner of the world x

Join me next time for more tales and goings on from you know where.....

XxX