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  • A Confession

    I have a little habit. It might be an addiction, and perhaps it is not so little. Magazines. I love them. I think it is the images, the styling, the way things are arranged. Now, reading blogs and viewing wonderful flickr photos has helped with this. But there is nothing like lying in bed or a favourite armchair and a cup of coffee and just opening those fresh pages of a new magazine.

    I can remember vividly that I was 16 and had a blissful weekend at my aunt’s house. Against her chest of draws in the spare room was an enormous tower of ‘Country Living Magazine’, and that is when the love started. Now over 20 years on I don’t think I have missed many issues. Although growing up in the glorious English countryside, I have spent the majority of my adult life a city dweller. The content and the pictures still lure me in, cheer and inspire me. I think the magazine must be quite a happy family or a indeed a delightful job because editors seem to stay for ages.

    This month is fab, and there are so many really good features/photos. An indulgence perhaps, but a really beautiful one.

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  • Presents with Presence – Part 2

    Back in at the beginning of December I blogged about how some of my favourite gifts were things which people had made for me. Well, luckily for me, my birthday falls just after Christmas (if I let sarcasm slip through there, it was completely unintentional), this makes me a nightmare to buy birthday presents for. My sister phoned me at the start of the month to ask what I might like. I immediately said ‘Oh, please make me something, anything’. You can imagine how this wide and unspecific brief might irk in the busy run up to Christmas. But, Ta Dah……She made me this gorgeous little doorstop, which goes wonderfully well with the cushion she gave me two years ago. I love it!

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  • Busy little fingers

    I don’t know how you kept busy over the Christmas period. I hope you got lots of knitting/crocheting/sewing/relaxing/sleeping done. I usually like to keep my little fingers busy with a couple of needles and some yarn. However, I did quite a lot of this kind of fiddly work instead. To be very fair, this shot would be a rare moment of Mummy helping out. Shockingly I was told I had put something in the wrong place. But those who know Little B would not be shocked to know that indeed he was right. Mummy proved more of a hinderance than a help. But oh, how I enjoyed myself.

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  • Wavy Waiting Blanket

    The blog sites of Alicia Paulson and Lucy of Attic 24 have really encouraged me to jump in to the crochet blanket world. It seems like such a daunting prospect, but one you have mastered the technique and got past the breathtaking foundation row, a crochet blanket is a wonderful slow burn project which you pull in and out of your knitting basket. Having completed a few rows they also provide a wonderful knee warmer on wintry evenings (we have had a lot). Big B has been quite cross when I have had to turn the blanket round to start the next row, whipping the snug little covering off his legs.

    This little blanket began as a stash buster and then I realised would be the perfect gift for a friend of mine who is expecting a little one quite soon. It will go very well with her décor. However we have the same sofa cushions, so it would go very well in my living room…’Be a good girl Emma, and find a better home for your blanket’.

    I have enjoyed it so much that I am planning my next one, a different colour scheme, and perhaps a bit larger. We will see.

    The photo above was taken by the very talented photographer Lucy West, who recently took some promotional photos for me. She is a wonderful lady and very talented. Happy New Year Lucy!

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