Wow! things im loving this week..

Evening all, athough im completely and utterly exhausted i thought id finish off this post and get it out to you all(blogging is cathartic in streesful times isnt it?). I think i need to sslllooowww down somewhat as every weekend seems to be more stressful than enjoyable of late, im definately doing waayy too much. Anywho i just had to share this with you after reading a magazing article at work, im sure ive missed the boat on this one and most of you have probably seen/heard of this new craze but for those who havnt, read on.....

Yarnbombing

YARN BOMBING/YARNBOMBING n. The surreptitious or unauthorized placement of knittedobjects on statues, posts, and other public structures." -- (Word Spy)
Hundreds of knitters around the world have begun wrapping their huge woolly creations around public property like trees, street signs and lampposts.''Yarn Bombing" is an amusing form of artful anarchism. It's a bit of cockammamie crocheting and granny grafitti all rolled into one....

How fab does this bus look?!!!....apparently it didnt even take long to do!...

Dont you just love these images?? Lucy if i see any colourful hookiness adorning the harbour railings in west bay when i go on holiday i'll know who to blame!.....
(knitters,you may also find this little story interesting, not to mention heartwarming.)

I also wanted to share these vintagesque beauties with you, arent they charming, theyre from traffic people store, not cheap but quirky and inspiring i think!
This week im ESPECIALLY loving the new channel 4 series Kirsties Homemade Home with Kirstie Allsop from Location location, following her journey to refurbish her Devon cottage Meadow Gate. Kirstie is on a mission to transform her dilapidated house, into the ultimate “homemade” home, with everything either made in the UK, or made by her.

Each week, Kirstie renovates a room, starting with the room that’s going to be at the heart of it all, the kitchen. For inspiration, Kirstie noses around Lanhydrock House, (with one of the finest Victorian kitchens in the country), and gets queen of vintage nostalgia Cath Kidston’s advice on quirky table design. She also visits her parents’ home and reveals the inspiration that has shaped her take on interiors. From the moment the first episode started i was in LOVE with those knitted letters, how beautiful?!

Although Kirstie and i share a name and a passion for our homes, i dont agree with all of her homestyle choices... but the programme is immensely enjoyable. For example i wasnt keen on her 'posh'bathroom, but the blind she had made for the window~was heavenly~And thats the point of the programme, we dont all have to like the same things, we should just furnish and decorate our home in the way which makes US happy. I did have to laugh at the bits where Kirsty is trundling along in her trusty land rover looking in skips-now in that respect we could be twins! Lol......Yesterday when i went ploughing with Mr P on a old farm i noticed they had loads of barns with odd bits and pieces and furniture and stuff in, i was like a kid in a sweet shop insisting that i could 'rescue' lots of treasure(tat). I was informed they do furniture upholstery there!!!(breathe, try not to hyperventilate!!) but Mr P was insistent that it wasnt the done thing to snoop around someonelses yard looking through their stuff! I did manage to take a stroll over to the bonfire pile of bits though but i dont think even i could've salvidged much (to my etertnal dismay, though i probably could have rescued one small wooden chest but there would have been the small matter of getting it home on the tractor, hhmm, i shall have to go back there when 'smudge' the boss is about!!).

For alternative opinions on the show click HERE! or HERE!

The excitement is building!

Hi all, thought id share a little bit of excitement with you which is slowly building....
To me, villages are quintessentially english, and i think im so lucky to live in the beautiful county of Hampshire which has so many to swoon over. Yesterday afternoon/evening was spent ploughing with Mr P in the the gorgeous little village of Michlemersh near Romsey. It has many pretty houses, old wooden signposts and a huge hill(not easy for a tractor with a giant plough on which isnt weighted down enough attached!) dotted with perfectly manicured gardens.

I love how each house is different, each has its own little bit of character, maybe with a beautiful thatched roof, beautifully painted in pastel colours or perhaps a garden overflowing with old school cottage garden plants such as foxgloves primroses and forget me not and a vintage car in the drive, yet they all nestle together to form a beautiful haven of tranquility.

I love the summer with Mr P when i go to work with him harvesting or bailing and he manages to squeeze his giant Claas forrager through the narrowest lanes in the tiniest and prettiest villages ive ever seen(he's sooo skilled at it!). Sometimes go for little drives to places ive never ventured before and am amazed how many little places there are tucked away, so pretty and well cared for by the inhabitants, it gives me immense pleasure just to look at them all and get that creative buzz.

Be ts a lovely dovecote on the front lawn or a beautiful wysteria draped over a porch, the pleasure of the images stays with me and i find myself dreaming of what my ideal home would be-incorporating all these little snippets.

The main highlight of my year is held in a village which is local to me, a little place called Downton.

Downton is a large ancient Wiltshire village with a population of approximately 3,000, situated around 6 miles south of Salisbury. It straddles the River Avon just outside the New Forest National Park and is surrounded by water meadows and chalk downland.

Every year an estimated 20,000 visitors decend on this little place for an event called the Cockoo Fair(the website isnt very inspiring i will warn you!!), the whole village street is closed off to cars, and stalls are set up. A field up the road is set up as the park and ride bas,e and a couple of buses drive people to and from the village all day.

There are craft stalls and tents, a fair, plant sales, livery shows fresh baked food on sale, so much going on its a wonderful pleasure to stroll round for the day. There are always morris dancers and a brilliant live band and singers on a huge stage set up outside the main pub.

Lots of local people set up little stalls on their front lawns, selling boot sale type things, or handcrafted items(hearts!!!), or furniture. Lots of people bakes cakes and other fattening goodies to sell too. There are some charity stalls, such as st johns ambulance and cat and dog charities so i always try and buy something from them.

One of my fave stalls is run by a couple who sell garden items-not just run of the mill pots and statues, oh no, im talking old galvanised milk churns and cast iron baths planted up with lavender and the like... Old enamel bowls and funnels begging to be snapped up and displayed in my garden and lots of quirky things like old butter paddles, its heaven for girls like us! (seriously im daydreaming about it all day long, very distracting!)

I really cant tell you how excited i am to be going again this year, now that ive shared this little gem of a secret(?!) with you, hopefully i'll see some of you there! I shall of course have lots of scrummy photos to share next weekend so keep your eyes peeled!

Enjoy your weekends xxx

reality bites...

Hey ladies, some of you may have noted my abscence over the past week or so, i thought id leave a quick post to explain my tardiness!
Well,easter was fab, a great time was had by all, although i think i now have about thirty chocolate bars, eggs, bunnies etc cluttering up my home, honestly, how much chocolate do people think id let two little girls eat?! Does that sound ungrateful? i hope not, we just have such a huge amount im at a loss what to do with it all, im not a huge choccy eater myself, cake is more my thing, although im tempted by a cadburys flake (or two) around 'that time' of the month....any ideas would be much appreciated. I may add a few easter photos if i get round to it....however, cant to that right now as im catching up on about a million jobs at home which i didnt get done over this past week.....and why's that, you ask??.....we've not been home for a week-not far away though, infact just a couple of miles down the road to be precise, at Mr P's parents farm. We had a phone call last sunday night from the nearest neighbours of the house in scotland (which i posted about a short while ago), they were calling to say that the drunken duck(the boat they use up there), had SUNK!!!! One minute it was bobbing about quite happily looking lovely in the sunshine, and the next it was on the bottom of the lagoon!!! So far we dont know why it sank, needless to say Mr and Mrs P decided to get up there asap to see if it could be salvedged, leaving us to take charge of three dogs six chickens two ducks one ferret and two hundred and fifty cows...oh and granny. So my lovely peaceful week off with the kids off was mainly spent cleaning the farmhouse and feeding animals. It was nice to have the huge aga to cook on everyday but i never realised how much work the farm would be on a daily basis, i felt hugely guilty that i couldnt spend as much time with my girls as id have liked to but they were mostly happy to collect chicken/duck eggs, play in the garden and watch daddy in the workshop, i have a whole newfound respect for Mrs P senior, keeping on top of everything is no mean feat!!!! I must say im glad to be home, my pussy cats are glad we're back too!!!....
Ive missed checking up on all of you so i shall endeavour to get round to leaving a few comments asap,
Lots of love...K xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Easter inspiration!!!

Hello my lovlies, its official, easters on its way!!!
Easter is really special to me i absolutely love it, firstly because my baby girl- Ruby was born on good friday four years ago, so we were given lots of beautiful bunnies as gifts when she was born, it was such a special time. Secondly, easter was one celebration that my mum really made an exciting experience for us, when my brother and i were little mum would put a little wooden table in the lounge and on it she'd put any rabbit/chick soft toy on it that we owned as well as lots of those tiny fluffy yellow chicks you can buy and all of our easter eggs so it was like a whole easter table, we'd be so excited to run downstairs in the morning to see if the easter bunny had 'been'. Then arguments would ensue over who'd been given the most eggs and some swappage of eggs-he'd have my kit-kat one and id have his aero usually.

Ive tried to make easter special for my girls too, last year was the first year we really celebrated it-they were too young before that. I start by picking up the free mags from each supermarket i visit. The girls use the magazines to cut out any seasonal pictures which we then sit down at the table to glue onto a large piece of coloured card, i like to hang them up by ribbon so we can enjoy them for a few weeks. Its a nice thing to do as a family-easter can so easily be completely taken over by chocolate!

This year im not buying the girls any proper easter eggs as they have such a huge family who spoil them rotten that most of it just gets wasted, i picked up some lovely yellow gingham boxes in paperchase for 50p each -bargains!at christmas time, i knew exactly what id use them for so i stashed them away and have flled them with all sorts of easter bits n' bobs.

We also have a mini easter egg hunt indoors(i buy those tiny mixed eggs in foil) usually otherwise the badgers/foxes/dog/rats etc would have a field day munching all the treats. The girls don their ears/masks and go hunting, just need to find some suitable baskets for them to gather with.This was easter 2007...

Once we've completed the easter pictures its time to decorate the easter tree, when we moved house i seemed to loose all the easter tree decs we had, so this year ive bought a few new things-wilh the help of littlest lady. Ive been nagging Mr P to look out for good pussy willow/ish bushes when he's out working and says he's spotted the perfect one on the farm so we'll pop in tomorrow and do some pruning!

I also treated myself to a few easter(et al) goodies when i went shopping with mum the other day, i was a bit disappointed as most of the stuff id seen in John Lewis and loved they'd sold out of, i had no money when i first saw them so i couldnt keep to the old addage of 'buy it when you see it!', darn it!

Love this Birchcraft heart which ive been admiring for ages...

A sweet little purse from accessorize

And this beautiful teacup necklace from there too!

An easter garland from JL...
And this gorgeous ruffle cardigan from Primark which i LOVE! Also got another cardigan, a navy one from new look which is sooo soft and perfect for the 'nautical' look, worn with my white linen trousers and a red top.

This sunday we're having a family easter lunch, Roast lamb from the local butcher(although Mr P's friend now informs me he's got loads of lamb he's butchered himself-always the way!!!).We're having a 'credit crunch' feast, everyone makes a course each, fairygodmother is doing dessert and stepmum is doing starter. Now all i need to to is play around with how i want to decorate the table and make some pretty place settings and we'll be sorted, i find myself lying awake in bed dreaming of that pretty easter table-sad, me?

I took some time to make some special mosaics for you all to ooh and aah over, hope you like them, happy easter...

Good evening.

Hi girls, hope you are all well, i feel a bit out of touch with the bloggy world presently, i think its just been a busy couple of weeks so i havnt had time to catch up properly, i shall endeavour to get round you all and leave a few comments, i can feel the easter buzz starting so it'll be nice to see what you've all been up to and hearing how you celebrate easter.
Mr P returned from his trip(working holiday/jolly) to the cottage in the far west of scotland(Ayror/Knoydart) last night, he had a great time but appreciated a hot shower back home as they could only have a bath up there, inside the cottage but in brown stream water as thats where their water supply comes from! I thought you might like to share a few of the photos he took, it looks like an amazing place. This first one is of the boat they use up there, the drunken duck, Mr P had to get into the north sea a couple of times trying to sort it out i believe-rather him than me!
Thee handsome chaps were everywhere...

The cottage actually used to be the village church.

Oh girls, just think what we could do to the inside of this place with a farrow and ball paint chart in one hand and a CK catalogue in the other! I know some people would say it has an old school charm but no, id love to give it a makeover-can you see the old parapet in the corner of the room?

If you step out of the cottage and walk 10 feet...This is where you end up.....

....Jealous, moi? Pah!

Overall i think a very productive week was had by all, and of course the week couldnt pass without just a little mishap(Mel your hubby will love this).....(thats Jim pointing, or 'big dog' as i believe he's affectionately known). The lads were towing this land rover to the cottage after a few pints in the local pub when the rope got caught over a wheel and oops, into the ditch Mr P senior was tipped, i believe he shouted a few unrepeatable words to which Mr P junior replied 'what? its alright dad, i didnt even spill my pint'! Boys!!!!!

I think dog dog was sad to leave the peacefull wilderness behind..

As always, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, before i go, i must say a happy birthday to my beautiful granny Thea, who is no longer us-she would have been 79 on friday the 3rd April, she was truely wonderful, she smoked and swore and told you exactly what she thought of you but she loved us all very much and shes my hero. My mum thinks i have lots of her qualities, mainly the stubborn ones!

love you Granny xx