Thursday 26 February 2015

March


I can't believe it's only the beginning of March and I'm blogging on time, albeit a short blog..

Well February has been a strange month, mild weather followed by Siberian style winds & and a prediction for a warm sunny Easter? We'll see!?

We are still working on finishing the house, I have been advised that this could take up to 20 years?!  Perhaps accepting that it will be a lifetime's work may help ... I'm not sure. 

In every room there is something, some job that needs finishing. All the rooms function and this in itself is perhaps a problem as we are less inclined to do those tedious finishing off jobs.
I think perhaps a snagging list for each room is in order?

I find that this is a frustrating time of year.  On a beautiful sunny day we work outside with much enthusiasm, tackling hedgerows, lawns, tidying up generally - trying to make Spring actually happen and then the weather changes and we find ourselves grounded indoors for days & days on end.
A gloomy feeling descends and it feels as though Spring will never return, however if we look around us carefully the birds are nesting and the daffodils are out in sheltered places along with snowdrops and crocuses and other loveliness! I can't wait to get out & create in the garden this year!!

Plans for our external works i.e. patios, retaining walls, driveway etc fences are in hand but we can't start this work until the weather improves. 

So we are spending time getting to know our area:  We have been out and about recently & visited local Artisan Bakers Jane & Craig at 'Knead it' in Stratford upon Avon. They open twice a week and create the most stunning array of breads - look on the website www.kneadit.co.uk
They also do baking days - I am currently trying to organise one for a group of friends in the spring.



Overall, we couldn’t be happier with the house. It’s been even lower maintenance than we had hoped, and there really aren’t any significant aspects of it we’d change. When building a house, you are always extremely worried that anything which isn’t perfect is going to end up bugging you for years. Counterintuitively, I would say that the opposite has been true for us so far. We tried to get as many things perfect as possible during the build process, but there are always going to be little things and possibly something we'd do differently as time goes on.

Our advice would be: Try to get everything as right as you can, but realise that nothing is ever going to be perfect and that the enjoyment of living in your house will make you forget anything that isn’t.

Now for a textiles update; I'm continuing to make - I'm currently working on bags and cushions (and trying to make clothes inbetween!) here is a tote bag with leather straps in block printed fabric mixed with commercial fabric and had dyed lining 




I'm still at the planning stage with workshop but have lots of interest. We also need to be able to access the studio safely and at the moment this isn't possible with the current landscaping!

I'm working on a range of printed and stitched cushions. All will be one off designs but I am going to offer this printed, stitched cushion as a workshop:





I'll be back soon with more progress and news so please continue to enjoy and share with friends!

Wendi x





Friday 6 February 2015

January/February

Happy New Year! A bit late I know but January came and went at such a speed I hardly had chance to breathe! So we are into Feb and work on Maple Barn continues at a slow weekend only pace...

Each room is now complete to a degree, there's always something that needs finishing though & we are ticking things off the list at quite a rate.

The dining room finally got it's floor tiles over the Christmas/New Year holiday & the piano came out of storage - it was a lovely moment seeing Richard finally able to sit and play. 
The rest of the room will take some planning as we need to add storage and somewhere to sit.  
It does also have to double as an office/study at one end - I'm looking for a 9ft table to use as a desk so we can work along side each other!

The grand unveiling!
The first play....
How about this for cool storage - I hope we can achieve something like this...


Our heating system has proved its worth over the last few chilly months; we have a constantly comfortable temperature which feels warm under foot. 
There is no heating as such upstairs apart from heated towel rails in the bathrooms. We took advice on this and were told that it wouldn't be necessary due to the excellent insulation properties of the building, however we are finding it cold upstairs - it's probably healthier and once we're tucked up in bed it's fine!!

I'm still unpacking boxes; now though its ornaments and pictures - what's amazing is how odd some of our old stuff looks in this environment? So I've only hung 3 pictures so far! Gradually putting our 'things' out and around is making it feel like a home and not a house. 

I collected two very large mirrors recently with the help of my friend David. They measure 1.75m x 1.25m. One is now in the hall and one in the bedroom - they are much too heavy to hang on our stud walls so they are in permanent leaning mode

I've been busying myself in the studio this last month. I'm trying to work to a deadline which will be to open my studio in late spring. 
It does depend on getting the outside finished & we have a lot of work to do out there but we hope to start very soon. 
It will be such a relief as we constantly have muddy floors brought in regularly by visitors and the dog Sooty!!

Here's a selection of work I'm currently working on. Hand printed fabric made into cushions: 



I'm planning to do workshops, teaching printing, dyeing, embroidered cushions, bags or even creating your own piece of fabric to make into whatever you desire! Contact me for more details: themaplebarncompany@gmail.com 

Our 3 chickens are settled in nicely. They love being out in the garden & hate being cooped up! 
Daisy Belle, left (so called as that's her breed) has laid virtually since we've had her at 18-20 weeks. We also have a Buff Orpington (at the back) and a Copper Maran. The Buff is not yet named but has laid her first egg this week (the smallest and palest in the photo) The Copper Maran who is called 'Claudia Winklechicken' will lay a very dark brown egg like in the photo but this ones from Tesco!!! Hopefully she will lay very soon.


We have spent this last weekend working hard in the garden - I wish I'd taken more before photos but here's today's pic. We are attacking brambles that are so thick they have rings like tree trunks and have grown up into the trees and hang back down to the ground where they root again! Nightmare!!
But the hard work is paying off as the view is opened up and as you can see we have a stunning outlook especially from our bedroom...

The photo shows a white arrow which is what it looked like before clearing the brambles and the red arrow shows what it looks like now! Very hard work but what a difference?!
I also bought a couple of bird boxes and painted them! Now to see if any of the garden birds fancy a new des res!!

Anyway, I will sign off now and get to work and I will endeavour to be back on track with my blog in March...

Wendi x