Remember, remember...

Remember, remember the fifth of November; gunpowder treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder season should ever be forgot.

Happy Bonfire Night!

B x

Morning Glory!

Hello my lovely friends. How the heck are you?
I am good, although I have to admit to 'over doing it' a bit lately,
hence my new attempts at clean living.
I use the word attempts as I am really quite well known for some flaky, faddish
ideas which usually last until about lunchtime!

Oh well, this is one of my favourite morning tipples, whether I'm being good...or not.



2 apples, sliced and cored, a few carrots and a nugget of fresh ginger

Pop it in the juicer

Catch all the good stuff!

Your morning glass of goodness awaits!

What's your favourite morning tipple?

Hugs, B  x
p.s what d'ya think of my new kitchen counter tops? Fancy, eh?!

Missing you...but having fun!

I know, its been an awfully long time. I hope you have had a lovely couple of months. I have been enjoying the summer; painting furniture, sorting the barn out and celebrating my sisters' 30th birthday with a night in London and a trip with 'The Girls' to Marbella, Spain. Just wanted you to know that all is well and that now the kids are back at school, I will be back to some kind of 'normal"! See you soon.
Hugs,
B x

Shabby Chic comes home at last!

Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt.

Be still my beating heart!

I realise I may be late in the day to have heard this little nugget of joy, but for those of you who are unaware; I have fabulous shabby news...

Rachel Ashwell has collaborated with House of Fraser and will be releasing a new Shabby Chic interiors collection this August here in the UK. The collection is set to include furniture, dining, home accessories and bed linen.

Say it with me..."yippeeeee!"

I simply don't know how I'm going to stand the wait. But until such a time as we can ogle and touch the pretties in the flesh, let me leave you with these gorgeous pictures of what is to come....enjoy!

Roll on August!

Hugs, B x

Vivian Maier - A Life Uncovered

Last week I went to a lecture at the National Portrait Gallery. It was part of a bigger exhibition, about Street Photography. It was incredibly interesting and I thought I would share what I learned with you.

This is Vivian Maier. Born in 1926, Vivian was of French-Hungarian heritage. She was employed as a nanny for many years but was rather reclusive and didn't have any family or friends. All through Vivian's adult life she took photos. Photos that captured American life from the 40's to the 90's. She also travelled extensively and always took her camera, recording what she saw.Vivian didn't share her photography with anyone. She died alone and penniless in 2007 and her boxes and boxes of (some undeveloped) work was put up for auction in a Chicago auction house. On that day a young historian, John Maloof, put in a bid for a box of photographs by an unknown photographer and left the auction house. He later found out he won the bid and after leaving the box in a closet for several months he decided to take a look at what he had bought...

Maloof discovered that there were more boxes out there that had been sold at auction and set about tracking them all down. He now has all but one of the boxes which amounts to hundreds of thousands of shots. Only about 10% of which have been developed so far. It's sad that Vivian had to die before we got to see the beautiful work she created. However, John Maloof is compiling a book about Vivian's life and work, which will be out in November and a film will follow next year. I find Vivian's work fascinating and I hope she knows how much joy her photography has brought to so many people.

Hugs,

B x

All images are from http://www.vivianmaier.com/

Barn update

I have a sore throat. One of those itchy, scratchy, irritating sore throats. It's very aggravating. On the brightside, it does mean that at 3 o'clock in the morning I am up and sitting at my computer and there couldn't be a better time for me to give you a little update on my barn project.

When we first moved in to Pear Tree Cottage one of the things I was most taken with, was the lovely barn/out building that came with it...


(Excuse the photo quality, they were taken with my phone and are now the only photos of the barn as it was.)

                         This fabulous stove is in full working order and staying in the reno'd barn

                                      It really was just a dumping ground after we moved in.

                                                 very 'rustic', but not very stable....

                                             The barn in relation to the house

           I'm hoping to keep one of the old windows and turn it into a mirror...I'll let you know how that goes!

                                The vegetation was really making itself at home!

                  Who needs velux windows when you already have natural  light streaming through your rafters!

Well, clearly you can see there's much to be done. My aim was to restore rather than get rid of all of the barn's charm. However, as any of you who have taken on a project like this will know, it's a bit like dominoes and once you touch one thing, it tends to have a knock-on effect elsewhere. I hope I have done the barn justice. You can let me know, I will be posting new pictures very soon.

Now, one more mug of hot lemon and honey and I'm off to try and get some sleep.

Night, night.

B x

Simple pleasures...

My favourite arrangement...

Pure beauty.

Enjoy your weekend!
B x



p.s I' ve been without a computer for 2 weeks...grrrr...but just wanted to thank you guys for your lovely words of encouragement  re my last post- it means so very much. Also, big things happening with the 'barn' ! Will update (with pictures) next week. x