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