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?!