A little break

Well a little holiday is all we need to refresh ourselves ready for the autumn.  Our little break was taking in the lovely English countryside and what could be more English than Sussex and Kent.  Our first stop was in the lovely town of Lewis it was a glorious hot day (25 degrees is this Autumn!!!)

Lewis is built on a hill and has many lovely buildings so camera in hand I was prepared totake lots of photos but it was not to be nearly every building had scaffolding on it so it was so difficult to get a shot without the scaffolding, Lewis is also full of antique shops – and antique halls with so much to see and buy!!!

Lovely Lewis Castle

Good place for lunch Bills

 But I did resist because the main reason we stopped in Lewis was to go to Monks House which is the house of Virginia Woolf

 (and also now Caroline Zoob who is the custodian) It was so lovely – the epitome of shabby chic and painted furniture and her bedroom I would happily have now! 

The backs of the chairs were hand embroidered

 The garden was beautiful and looked after and tended by Caroline Zoob and her husband which I think would be a labour of love!!

Some of the photos I have taken are a little dark because you can’t use flash, but I hope you are able to see the rooms!! Well that’s all for now but I will return to tell you all about the lovely B & B and more about Kent. Today has been a lazy day always takes me a little time to get motivated after being away do you feel like that? or is it just me. All I would like to do is curl in front of the fire with a good book, I think tomorrow will be different and I will be back sewing and thinking of new ideas.

I would like to say thank you for all the lovely things you say on my comments I do love them and especially Maureen from daydreamliving.blogspot.com for giving me a mention in her blog it is so sweet of her. It is lovely being part of you lovely bloggers it is like having lots of lovely friends! 

Busy Busy and Holiday Snaps

Well it has been a very busy week, I seem to be attached to the sewing machine, but all orders were packed up on Friday and it is so great today to receive lovely feedback it makes it all worthwhile. Here is a little snap shot of what I have been doing.

I know that there are alot of these about now but I think I have added a little something to make them a bit more special what do you think?

But I did have time for a lovely walk, not far from us is a lovely bay on the edge of the North Cornwall Coast it is very dramatic and beautiful, we parked near this house

Well I don’t know if you have guessed but this is the well known Meadow Gate from Kirsty’s Homemade Home a very popular television programme here in the UK. It is in a beautiful place and she chose well!


The bay is called Welcome Bay and is looked after by the National Trust although if you take your car down there you certainly do so at your own risk, so we decided to walk it is a lovely place full of woods and streams and then suddenly after a small climb you come across this amazing place. Hope the photos do it justice.

We are going away for a little break which I will tell you all about next week, but I haven’t forgotten my Tuesday Holiday photo, I love Paris, and we try and go as much as possible so this is just a little photo that I found of myself in Paris (a while ago!!)

I love everything about it – the buildings, galleries, the shops and walking and discovering quite little places away from the crowds, I always love it if you pass someone who is opening one of those big gates to their homes and you discover behind them such a beautiful courtyard, and I love how families live in the middle of the city, I love the smells and the whole romance of the place! Can’t wait to go again. So here are a few images of Paris, including the lovely macaroons from Laduree a lovely café for Sunday afternoon.

Courtyard with bicycles - don't think I would fancy riding my bike around Paris though!

I love these cafe tables.

and Cafe Marly lovely place to lunch.

A little touristy but lovely all the same.

Montmartre

What delicious colours!

Well I am off on a little break - not abroad but here in England visiting a few places that I have promised myself to visit, see you soon with no doubt lots of photos of where we went!!



Tuesday Holiday Snap (whoops bit late!)

When we had our house in France we often went off for short breaks and there was one time when we decided to visit the Auvergne.  I have this wonderful book called - Chambre d’hotes secretes : Pres de 300 maisons et petits hotels en France - (a must if you love visiting beautiful houses) so while we were driving down I phoned my chosen B & B but unfortunately it was full but she recommended a friend who had just started doing B & B, and weren’t we lucky.  It was near a town called Montlucon on the outskirts of the village Neris Les Bains. Chateau de Perassier was a lovely find and Sophie the owner was delightful. What do you think!

Fabulous room!

Love the table!

Sumptious silk curtains

Breakfast on the terrace

A lovely find

!

Eventually we made it to the Auvergne - stunning scenery! and we also found another lovely b & b but I will save that for another time!

Catching Last Rays of Summer

Today we went on a lovely afternoon bike ride, I know I should have been doing other things, I have shelves to paint, cushions to make but some days you just want to enjoy the outside.

 Autumn is creeping up on us  and the hedgerows are full of delightful things.

Lovely red hips

Honeysuckle

Elderberries, now I am sure there is something alcholic I can make with these!

Even Michaelmas Daisies

Beautiful views

It was a lovely slow …………..bike ride except for the one time when I thought the cows were coming along the lane to be milked, TOH said he has never seen me move so fast, and it was a wonderful sight from behind I don’t know what he is talking about, No I haven’t got any photos of this.


But I haven’t been all lazy I have been trying out some new designs for my lavender bags, what do you think, I have so many tiny pieces of fabric so I patched them together, used some lovely linen twine that I had picked up in a flea market in Uzes, France and any old vintage button.

spot my favourite perfume and body cream!!! I know expensive taste oh well life has to have a few luxuries.

Talking of patchwork, if any of you have the Country Living magazine, (October issue arrived today!) then there is a lovely article about the cowslip workshop in Launceston Cornwall, Jo is a lovely lady and if any of you are interested in patchwork, it is a must to go, the café is lovely too. This is one of her beautiful quilts

Very Autumnal

I would like to thank everyone that has visited my blog I have so loved reading all your lovely comments and also reading all of your inspirational blogs!.

Proud Daughters

This is just a very short blog, but I wanted to post this picture today. Today is a special day for my mother and father they are attending a service in St Pauls Cathedral London to commerate the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. This photo is of our Father who was in the RAF by a Lancaster aeroplane (he is the one of the left of the picture with a cigarette in his hand (as I think they all did then, can you blame them) My mother was a nurse in London during the war and I think they met at a dance in London. I am so pleased that they have been able to attend this service and my sister and I are immensely proud of both of them.

 

A little room in my House!

I am going to have to getter better at this title thing, I spend hours trying to think of witty titles but known of them seem to relate to what I want to say.

Well beginning of this week was Bank holiday as you know, so I decided to paint one of the smallest rooms in the house, but this room set the whole of our house in chaos, as it was our larder! We had so much stuff stored in there and it all had to come out, and except for one room (I needed some sanctuary) it spread itself all over the house, try looking for the marmalade first thing in the morning that was a 10 minute job!
Here are some photos of before and then after:

Before Photos

After Photos!

This was a lovely pink colour so I thought I would leave it shabby chic!!

 I know there is not a lot of difference but I painted every shelf – a lovely grey linen colour and the walls were brilliant white, at the end of the larder is my tumble dryer and microwave so I used some old Laura Ashley fabric and covered it up! What do you think a bit tidier, I don’t have a bad view from the larder either!

Then I had lots of cushions to wrap up and send,

 I am always so surprised at how far my cushions go, I send lots to a French Island of Australia call New Caledonia, Canada, America and Australia. and Finally with the good weather we spent some time on a lovely beach nearby called Crackington Haven – it was so lovely to see everyone having such a good time

On our drive to the beach I also spotted this house with all the lovely bunting outside,

it certainly cheers everything up! Well that was my week and I am now starting on another project but I think that could take a time!!!!