Cotswolds Birthday Treat

It was my Birthday on Sunday. Alan and Miss P had a surprise lined up for me. A much needed break! A trip to Bibury in the Cotswolds. Home to the Arlington Row cottages owned by the National Trust. Bibury has a watermill, a couple of tea rooms, an antique shop, post office, a couple of gift shops, a trout farm and more...




















The Swan Hotel - Bibury


Alan capturing the next photo



Although Miss P did appreciate the beauty of this village,
the highlight for her had to be the wildlife.

It was lovely watching the young coots being fed




As coincidence would have it, one of my birthday cards looked like this:

My parents chose this card as they thought it was very "me"
and could picture me sitting in the garden. Neither they or
me knew that I would be going there on my birthday and
see the same house!


This cottage looked just perfect!

Filled with pretty flowers and...

...a vegetable plot




Another lovely house! You can't beat the Cotswold honey coloured stone and the stone roofs, the perfect combination.

I had a fantastic day! I love the Cotswold, I am always inspired by the stone walls, cottages & their beautiful gardens and how well kept the villages are.

Monday came around all too quickly, back to work. Speaking of work....

MY ABSENCE:
You may have noticed that I have been absent for a while. I have had a lot on lately as I am working on several projects at the same time including my website. It is all taking longer than planned.

I would like to be able to concentrate on one project at a time (the best way of doing things) but with the nature of it, I am having to deal with all of it at once. When you have an old property, some repairs and work just can't wait. With summer here, it is the time when they have to be done now rather than in the winter months. The garden is still giving us a lot of work too, we have recently discovered that our sewage pipes etc. need to be completely rerouted via our back garden. We have an underground well there which we need to take into consideration. Sadly, some of the work we have done over the past couple of years has been for nothing....a stone wall and steps that Alan built will have to be dismantled as the pipes will have to go through there.

One of the reasons that you have not heard from me much lately, is that I been having migraines...being on the computer for long periods of time is a trigger. It is also why I had to cut down on how much time I spent working on my website and blog. I really wanted it launched by now but at what cost? Looking back, I have been doing and expecting too much of myself over the past few months.

Over the past couple of weeks I have decided to postpone the launch of the website until the Autumn. July & August are not the best months to launch a website. I will however sell a few things on my Suzy Gaby and Maud blog until my website is ready to be launched.

That's it for now. I hope that you are looking forward to the holiday season whether you are staying at home or going away.

I'll try not to leave it as long until my next blog post :-)


A bientôt!

Isabelle X

Life is a game of "Snakes & Ladders"

Do you sometimes feel like your life is like a game of "snakes and ladders"?



Last weekend I did a post saying that I would be painting a dresser in my new workroom (unit). Well, that didn't happen as Miss P has been poorly and only returned to school today. Not Miss P's fault but now I am behind schedule on quite a few things.



The dresser is going to have to wait a bit longer whilst I devote some time to my new website. I have several more photos to take and am working on the wording of various categories, menus, products. As the website progresses, it raises new issues, ideas or obstacles I had not thought of. As I am a perfectionist, I want it to look just right so don't want to rush through it and at a later date regret not having been more thorough .

I have to prioritise but sometimes am divided between doing some sewing, preparing for "The Vintage Bazaar Fair" in Frome on 30Th April where I shall have a stall, working on my new website, continue unpacking at the unit, getting stock in, finding quiet time to just come up with new ideas and design them, keep up with blogging and so on....

I find it interesting to hear how other women manage to keep a happy balance between running their own business, keeping up with housework, making home cooked meals and spending enough quality time with their children (without relying on someone else to look after their child/children)

I admit to having sometimes recently felt like this:


However, I feel that once my new shop is finally up and running I will have a new regular & organised routine in place. This should help strike a right balance between my work and looking after my family.

I am going to work on the website tomorrow but on Sunday Alan and I have decided NO WORK!
We are going to enjoy some of that beautiful weather out there. I fancy going for a walk around the country lanes and hills nearby.

I will leave you with one of Miss P's omelette's. She absolutely loves making them and is very good at making them! Freshly made a couple of minutes ago.



I wish you all a really good weekend!

A bientôt!

Isabelle X
P.S: Don't forget to enter my Spring Book Giveaway if you have not already done so!

House decorating update & Retail therapy

I came across this tray in a charity shop in Frome and had to have it. Why? Because it reminded me of my childhood and how my sister I loved these little characters. We had writing paper, stickers etc.. We named them 'Les Boubous' as we didn't know what they were called. We lived in France then. To this day my sister and I still don't know what they are called. If anyone knows I'd love to know please, thank you.

ON THE HOME FRONT

The house is still having a lot work done to it. Every single room needs redecorating and re-arranging. We are doing most of the work ourselves.

Here is a taster of some of the curtains we will have:

This fabric will be made in to curtains for our bedroom. Our bedroom walls have not had the old wallpaper stripped yet. This will be changed to an Ivory cream colour. Have not decided on the exact brand or colour of the paint yet.

I love these curtains, they will be in our kitchen on 2 sets of windows and the kitchen door there will be a different curtain to break it up a bit. The kitchen walls have been painted in 'Honey' by Laura Ashley.

These 1960's/70's curtains are on the downstairs window as you go up the stairs, these starts the blue & green theme which runs up to the landing. Not the style I usually go for but I found them fresh. They work well with some of the 1950's things that I have around them. The walls are painted in an of white called Pointing by Farrow and Ball.

We still have boxes and piles of books everywhere. As the house is small, we cannot empty the contents of a room in to another to get the job done. We have do work with all the contents still in! This, we find frustrating and time consuming!

The weather has been so unreliable of late that we have not even been able to take furniture out in to the garden whilst we strip wallpaper, move things around etc. I certainly would not want to have anyone around at the house in it's current state....this in between stage, is never a good look!

I look forward to having the house completely redecorated and furnished to our taste, everything in it's right place, lighter and brighter looking and TIDY! It will finally feel like HOME.

RETAIL THERAPY

In between all the work, I have enjoyed looking through the Cath Kidston catalogue making my WISH list (Not all will be ordered in one go..) before the Easy Living discount offer expires. I have not placed my order yet but here are some of the things to be found on my list so far..

The set


I like the colourful glasses





I am in need of a new ironing board cover and this one will be just right!

I love this design. The tablecloth will look right with the curtains

For our bedroom


For our bedroom. This will look perfect with the fabric which I am going to turn in to curtains

Hope you are having a great weekend!

A bientôt!

Isabelle x