Emerging

Oh, what a week it's been. One nasty, vicious virus has been working it's way around our household and we've all succumbed in one way all another. John is in a bad way tonight, shivering away on the sofa with a suspected sinus infection. He's off to the doctor's tomorrow. I feel better today than I did yesterday, and the day before that, but still a long way off normal. Halfhearted decorating attempts have been made, but none of us have the energy. I can't find my decorating clothes so I wore some good-ish jeans and, what do you know, got paint all over them. Oh, and I've broken out in spots which always happens when I'm ill. 

Anyway, this afternoon we met my sister and her family at the beach and walked a favourite walk. It was so good to be by the sea in the fresh air. The sun was warm and there was virtually no wind. We found a dead crab, played football, collected shells, jumped in the sand dunes and just enjoyed being outside. It was gorgeous. 

I have so much to share with you - a cake recipe, a just-finished crochet string shopping bag, an almost-finished shawl in the most beautifully soft Blue Faced Leicester yarn, paint charts...this week, I promise.

Also, I received an email from the production company behind The Great Interior Design Challenge and they are looking for amateur interior designers. How exciting! I really enjoyed the last series. So if any of you fancy getting involved the details are below:

THE GREAT INTERIOR DESIGN CHALLENGE IS BACK AND ON THE HUNT FOR BRITAIN’S BEST AMATEUR INTERIOR DESIGNERS! 

"Are you passionate about interior design? Do you have a natural flair and creativity and think you have what it takes to improve the interiors of other people’s homes? In this warm-hearted television series contestants will compete to be named the UK’s best amateur interior designer. If you think you have what it takes please call 020 3040 6853 or email designers@studiolambert.com in order to receive an application."

Seven Days

:: It's still winter out there despite the lack of snow and the arrival of daffodils everywhere.

:: An amazing, delicious Cornish pasty for lunch on a bitterly cold day. 

:: Testing tester pots. (And yes, the lounge roof does slope, it's not your eyes. Another quirky sixties design feature...)

:: They can't believe they're allowed to scoot indoors.

:: Bye bye Mickey - Bella has plans for this room.

:: Acrylic felt was a bad idea. I'm making another fox in wool felt.

:: Early morning light at Mum's.

:: Trying something new - crocheting with parcel string, to make a shopping bag.

:: Portchester village, full of charm and quirky, pretty properties.

:: A walk around Portchester Castle.

:: One up, one down.

:: Angus wishes he'd worn his wellies.

:: Bird watching.

:: Flat calm.

:: My love.

And that is what the memory card in my camera held from the last seven days. Different houses, inside, outside, exploring the local area. A bit of everything. The stuff of life. 

Home Is The Nicest Word There Is

So, famously, said Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie books, and it's a saying I'm rather fond of. I began making this wall hanging last summer and spent some time researching (ok, googling) different quotations about home and what makes home so special. There are loads.

These were considered:

Home Sweet Home.

Family gathers here.

Home is where the heart is.

This is our happy place/space.

There's no place like home.

But they were discounted for being not quite right, too Wizard of Oz, too sweet. (Taste is a funny thing - one persons cliche is another's mantra.) I very much liked this quotation, by Jane Austen, "There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort." but it was too long. Too much sewing to do there. And so I finally fell upon the one you see above and it works - for me - because, simply, the words ring true. That's the thing about cliches, they're usually right. 

Once I'd chosen my words I traced the letters from Word onto Bondaweb (fusible interfacing) then arranged them on a piece of grey linen which I bought very cheaply in IKEA some time ago. I played around with colours and chose some nice wool/acrylic mix felt which I thought looked good against the grey.

Then I carefully cut and arranged my felt letters before ironing them in place, using a ruler and a fading ink pen to try and get the lines as straight as possible.

I chose threads to match the felt...

...and secured them using a straight stitch around each letter. I wont lie, this took a while, but I love hand sewing and found this work very therapeutic.

I'd decided to edge the words with lots of coloured triangles. I don't really know why, I think I'd just finished my Cornwall Holiday Embroidery and wanted something clean and geometric looking after all that detailed embroidery. Then I spent some time faffing around with the arrangement before putting it away for months and focusing on other things.

I got it out when we knew we definitely had the house. Suddenly, I had to finish it and after more faffing with the felt triangles, I decided on this.

Three clusters of three pointing up, and three pointing down. And yes, I know it's not perfectly straight, but it's homemade so it's allowed to be wonky, and that linen was slippery to work with!

The ones at the bottom (don't laugh) sort of represent the sea and the South Downs, which now form my local landscape.

While the ones at the top are a bit like snow-capped mountains, which is my own little joke because John and I say our house looks like a ski-chalet, with it's crazy sixties angles and slopes. Also, I am a bit obsessed with all things mountainous and Alpine lately.  Honestly, I'm dying to see what our house looks like in the snow!

It's my own way of personalising this well-known quote and making it my own, for our home. 

Finally, I hemmed the length of fabric and left gaps top and bottom to insert two lengths of wooden dowel to weigh down the linen so that it hung nicely. I wanted the wood to be visible but I recently saw this clever way of hiding the dowel at Jooles' blog Sew Sweet Violet and will bear it in mind for the future. John drilled little holes at either end through which I threaded and knotted some thin cord to hang it from.

Currently it's with us in my parents' spare room but eventually I think it will have to go in our new lounge, preferably above a wood burning stove, with a light snow falling outside and a mug of gluhwein or hot chocolate to hand.

Winter Survival Guide

Thank you so much for all your kind words and good wishes for our new house. It's really generous and lovely of you and I do appreciate it. So far, progress on the house has mainly consisted of standing around in the house talking to each other, to electricians, to plumbers and to builders, all while wearing our thickest coats. We've yet to actually take our coats off in the house but today the boiler was switched on and we have heat! Yes, heat! From the radiators! A miracle. It feels wrong to be so cold inside a house. Outside, yes. But indoors? Wrong.

*

Anyway. I was going to call this post "January Survival Guide" but I thought that seemed pretty pointless, given that we're now in February. So a winter survival guide it is, which as you can guess is basically a chance for me to show you my last three photos from my January challenge as it would really annoy me if I showed you only twenty eight and not the full thirty one. I am tidy like that. And thank you for being so nice before and saying you weren't bored. I wasn't fishing for compliments, honest.

Here are the last three days, three photos of good things about January: 

29/31: Winter maths: a glass of red + fire = cosy.

30/31: Bringing some seasonal greenery from the garden (ok, Mum's garden) into the house.

31/31: There was an hour more daylight on this day than there was a month ago. And that is worth celebrating. 

And I do declare that the secret to getting through - no, enjoying - winter are the following ingredients:

Nice food. (January is so not the month for punitive health kicks, I've decided.)

Beautiful skies - notice the colour and light whenever you see it.

Comfort and cosiness indoors.

Fresh air and exercise outdoors.

And colour.

Truly, for the first time, I am learning to love these slow winter months. Usually, about now, I'm buying daffodils and tulips and sniffing the air for the signs of spring. But it's a long way off yet and I'm enjoying the extra minutes of daylight each day, the time to read and craft (there's been a lot of that lately - I've got a lot to show you!) and bake and think. And look at paint charts.

A House

We have a house! Oh yes! It's not a home (yet) but it's a start and we are over the moon.

It all happened very quickly in the end because we were "proceedable" (a word I loathe but estate agents like to use very much - everything is all about how proceedable you are or are not.) I remember saying before that I didn't find moving house stressful. Well, selling our house was not stressful. It was tiring, hectic and at times emotional, but buying a house...oh, yes that is different, because when you're buying a house you want it. There's a lot at stake. You imagine yourself and your family living in that house and you start to make emotional links to it even though you know you mustn't, because it could all fall through. 

Our house (and I love that we can now refer to it as that, rather than starting all sentences with "If we get the house...") has been vacant for the last six months. The vendors, an asset management company, refused to take it off the market even after they accepted our offer and insisted we exchange and complete on the same day, two weeks later. I was terrified we'd be outbid at the last moment but thankfully we were not, and with the help of our (brilliant) solicitor we were able to move quickly. It worked to our benefit that we had no chain. Of course, although it was all quite stressful, we'd never have been able to afford to this house under other circumstances. 

We picked up the keys last week and are at the stage now of having the electrics, boiler and plumbing checked and making lists of things we'd like to do before we move in. The house is currently furnished with camping chairs and a kettle. I've got a whole new notebook (with a Liberty print pattern on the cover) just dedicated to lists for this house. You know I love a list. 

The house was built in 1968. I always liked a period house, but I didn't expect to live in one from this era. It has a ski chalet look about and and lots of quirky original features which - luckily - we absolutely love. And big rooms and huge windows (the tape measure was too short to measure the lounge window to our surprise and amusement) and a good size garden and it's on a really nice, quiet street.... We live in the suburbs now and I like it.

Work so far has been limited to this:

Thank you for letting me waffle on about it here. It's so good to be able to share it all with you! It will be some weeks before we actually move in, but I will be wittering on about paint colours and what-not here for some time. 

It's so exciting!!!