catching up

 

We entertained some of my dear school friends and their partners over Easter weekend at our house. We'd only had the windows completed three days before the first guests arrived, so there was some frantic tidying and dusting beforehand. Somehow we managed to get it all ready and had a lovely, relaxed few days with lots of good food and some windy walks. We climbed the hill opposite our house to pick wild garlic for a risotto I had planned to cook. The view from there was pretty amazing, especially in the changeable weather that was sweeping overhead that day. The fact that our own house made up part of the view is kind of beside the point, but it was good to see how it sits in the landscape, with the hills of the Clwydian Range marching off into the murky distance.

On Easter Sunday, despite some pretty unpromising weather forecasts, we decided to be brave and took an indulgent picnic for eight people to one of my favourite places  - Llanddwyn Island, which I've written about before. The weather turned out to be just fine, if a little windy, and the four miles of beach and shoreline walking was perfect. There is something very British, but very magical, about picnicking on a beach with clouds scudding overhead and the threat of rain in the air. I loved every minute of that weekend and feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends who were willing to travel so far to come and see us.

The following weekend, we went to see an acquaintance of mine who sells industrial vintage stuff in Manchester. He's just set up shop in a new warehouse and wanted to show me some of his latest goods. I'll write about this in a separate post, as he very generously donated some bits to me to have a play with in the house. I've been too busy with work and stuff lately to have done anything yet, but I'm really excited about dreaming up some ways of displaying and using his vintage finds.

Last week we attended our first antiques auction in over a year. This one is in Froncysyllte, near Llangollen, and was pretty quiet so there were bargains to be had. We got a 1920s oak desk for the husband's office for the princely sum of £35.40 which, once it's been tidied up, will look just spiffing. There were lots of items that we had no interest in at all: the usual parade of Staffordshire dogs etc., but it was a fun day out. Plus, like our old auction haunt at Willingham, they do a splendid bacon sarnie. What's not to like?

What else, what else? Drawing? Nope. Sorry. Lost my mojo there, I'm afraid. I think there's not enough room in my body for both a baby and a brain. I'll see what I can do to remedy this in the coming weeks. I hope to finish work within the next week and a half, to start properly on nursery and other baby stuff I've been procrastinating about and maybe to do some creative stuff too.

Meanwhile, I hope you are all well. Only seven weeks til I'm meant to pop now, so not too long at all. Eep!

The weekend – Amlwch

It was freezing on Saturday morning, but I had been going a bit stir crazy at home all week, so the husband and I ventured out to Anglesey for a gentle coastal walk near Amlwch. Needless to say, it was stunningly beautiful out there, helped along by some magnificent sunshine. Because of the unseasonally warm weather we've been having, the gorse was in full bloom, creating a spring­­­­-like cheeriness amid the frost. Snacks were gobbled down on a rocky headland overlooking Porth Eilian, and we stopped by the little church at Llaneilian, which had some gorgeous oak carvings and other details dating back to the 12th century. It's well worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

 

We lunched in Beaumaris and had a wander around the castle there, before heading off to the cinema to watch 'The Iron Lady', followed by a rather enormous dinner at The Austrian Restaurant in Dwgyfylchi. It was a lovely, memorable day with the husband, like a super-date or a glorious excursion on holiday.

On Monday I started a ten week course in printmaking at the Regional Print Centre in Wrexham as an introduction to its facilities so that I can go and use it during open access hours later on. I produced nothing of note. This first day was like a blast from my university past: monoprinting and messing it up. Now we have to think of a theme for the rest of the course and I'm stuck as usual. Some things never change.

this morning

We were visited by this gentleman (who's been eating all of the Hungarian rye seeds that I've sown for green manure). Didn't have the heart to chase him off.

Sorry things have been quiet on the drawing front. I've recently been collared into working again - this time for Nationwide - and there's quite a lot to do. Maybe I'll be a good girl and draw something fun next week. Have a good weekend, kids.

Oh, and yes, the rug smells.

the house today

Progress on the house has been slow, with weekends being taken up lately by Helfa Gelf rather than DIY. The changes have been small but significant, and mostly effected by the husband. The change that has brought the warmest glow of pride to his face has been putting new (old) doors on some of the rooms upstairs. The ledge and brace doors that we had felt too 'cottagey' for a house like this. Now we have some freshly hung Victorian four-panel doors instead and they look pretty marvellous compared to what came before. I'm sure no-one else will notice the alteration, but to us it seems dramatic.

These are pictures of our bedroom today. Remember it? We moved into this room nearly four months ago but it remains rather bare and semi-finished. There are a lot of things still wrong with it (crimson velvet hand-me-down curtains anyone?) and that rug I bought reeks rather horribly, but it is at least starting to feel more comfortable. The pictures show a reproduction vintage geological map of the UK (get it here), grey ticking stripe bed linen from The White Company, vintage Welsh blanket, bed from here, our new pair of bedside tables and a chest of drawers that were £40 from a local antiques shop. Slowly but surely, things are getting better.

In other news, I bought this antique Persian Tabriz rug from eBay for £66 yesterday. Doubtless it will smell pretty dubious too, but I am still happy. Whoop! 

the weekend

It was a glorious weekend here in the UK, even in rainy Wales, with temperatures in the upper twenties and sunshine to bask in. It was kind of sad in a way: like watching the death throes of summer, knowing that autumn - nay winter! - is just around the corner. Today it is bright and windy here, with the unnatural heat and humidity starting to dissipate.

Wherever you are, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Ours was one to savour - my first free weekend since August. We started off at the new David Nash exhibition at Oriel Mostyn in Llandudno, which was pretty interesting. I'm not a big fan of sculpture, but I like Nash's processes and how his works continue to evolve even after they have been 'completed'.

Photo from Oriel Mostyn's website.

Next stop was Penmaenmawr, from where we hiked up a hill for a lovely walk amidst neolithic standing stones and stunning views of the coast and mountains. We had a picnic lunch overlooking a bay sprinkled with sailing boats, before completing the walk and returning to the village. 

On the main street through Penmaenmawr is an antiques shop called Perry Higgins (the website doesn't seem to be working right now!). Now, I'd heard about this place from some friends, and we passed by it in the car back in May, but nothing prepared me for how incredible it is. It is a warren of a building, with three stories and a warehouse crammed to the rafters with antique furniture, domestic ware and bygones. Everything was beautiful and there was just so much of it that we will have to make a return trip to have a proper rummage through it all. I didn't take any photos, I was so completely overwhelmed, but here are a few photos which I believe are from the website (via here).

We came away with two towel rails, a painted mid-century cabinet which we will use to store linen for now, a pair of bedside tables and a beautiful French bookcase/display cabinet that was a steal for its quality. I may take photos of these things at some point, but you know I'm not very good at that. On top of all this, the owner drove our purchases to our house on the same day! It was all very satisfying.

There. Enough of my jibber jabber for now!

Trust Toast

Ah, Toast. You never fail to make me feel better that it's the end of summer. If only I could afford your clothes. Even so, bring on autumn!

On the other hand, this article in the Telegraph about 'catalogue lifestyle anxiety' made me laugh.

All images from Toast.

the weekend

Did you have a good weekend? I worked all of Saturday and a little of Sunday, so it wasn't amazing, but at least the good weather is back after what has felt like weeks of sodden greyness. The husband worked like a trooper, cleaning, moving stuff, starting on our skirting boards, mowing the neglected lawn and generally trying to make the house feel more like a home. We have seven guests and a baby landing on our doorstep from Thursday onwards, so it will be a hectic weekend. They are friends from when the husband and I were students at Cambridge and I love them all to bits - we are very excited to be hosting our first weekend party at our new house. We are hoping that they won't mind slumming it a bit here although if the weather continues fine, I think we will spend a lot of time outdoors. In other news, we put up a bookcase and unpacked some of our boxes. It felt like a really big step forward. OK, there's no other furniture yet, but we're working on that.

a manifesto for life

Moving house and making a fresh start in a home that we hope to live in for many years (or certainly more than five :-)) gives us the opportunity to furnish, decorate and live in a way that I have been aspiring to for some years now. In our last house, we were a little restricted by space and we always knew that we would move away from it after a couple of years, so there were things that we didn't or couldn't do.

I thought I would set out here some principles and ideas by which I wish to make our home - ideas not only about how I want it to look and feel, but also about how I want to live.

I want to:
Live simply, without too many material possessions
Not be so sad that we have no money to buy expensive furniture (!)
Buy used or recycled where possible
Only buy things that I love or need, preferably both at the same time.
Make more of my own clothes and soft furnishings
Learn how to make pickles
Be better at admin
Keep up with the maintenance of the house
Recycle and compost everything that I can
Get a wormery
Keep chickens
Use fewer nasty chemicals (our septic tank will thank us)
Speak to the neighbours more
Grow more of my own food
Learn how to make sourdough bread
Not be a slave to fashion and trends (says she, talking about sourdough and wormeries...)

I believe that we could all do without mountains of gadgets and big televisions. We have too many cheap clothes, too many unwanted gifts (for the love of god, people, stop giving me idiotic, cheapo crap gifts - I just give them to charity or sell them at the car boot). I feel like I need to spend more time working with my hands, being outdoors, looking at things that aren't on my computer screen. This return to a more traditional way of life - a thrifty, humble life - is what I yearn for, even though I will still want the things that make my life better (uh... dishwasher, car, computer, books). I hope to keep these things to a minimum. I don't own an iPod, iPad, iPhone or any similar time-wasting gizmos - nor do I want one. Austere self-denial is probably a fitting description for the state I wish to live in. Sounds kinda rubbish now I've put it down, but that's just how I am.

It's a bit like this manifesto from The Idler, only less poetic and strident:


Or perhaps it's something like the Pedlars manifesto:

Hey, maybe I'll even edit mine and lay it out as a poster or something. One of these days when I get some time...

I hope you are all well. I will start drawing again soon, I promise.

exciting news

Remember this and this post, in which I said we had fallen a little bit in love?

And you know how I've been banging on for months about not having a house to play with? Well, on Monday, after nearly a year of wrangling, begging for mortgages, and a lot of harrowing near-collapses (hence my emotional meltdown last week), we finally completed our purchase of a new home - a beautiful, slightly dilapidated country Georgian farmhouse. Here is a picture of the front door key, and no, that's not a freakishly small banana:


We will be very busy doing things to the house over the next few weeks (despite its pretty appearance it needs a lot of work!), but I will be back here every now and then with updates and new pictures, so please keep on popping by to see how we are doing.

Right now, I am deliriously happy and SO excited to finally have a place that we can make into a proper home.

the weekend

A rain-lashed trip to Barmouth and Dolgoch Falls.

A New Year

Last year was pretty crazy. The husband decided to make a career change. We sold our house, moved to Wales, and are still trying to find somewhere to settle. It was a year of upheavals and uncertainty. Our hope for this year is that we find a new place to call home. That's all I want. A proper home.

These two photographs have been taken from some properties for sale in South and West Wales (nowhere near where we are looking to buy!). Isn't the first one in a perfect state of dilapidation? Call me crazy, but I think it's gorgeous.

the weekend

We went for a drive in the snow yesterday. It hasn't come down too heavily here, but it's enough to turn the landscape into something completely different. Even things that are familiar to our eyes have become somehow new and magical. I love how the snow reveals the shape of the landscape more than the usual covering of grass does. The photo above is of Ruthin.


Moel Famau (photo by the husband).


On the road to Corwen (photo by the husband).


Llangollen.


The railway station at Llangollen.


The view from the Horseshoe Pass coming home.

beautiful Friday

Our view this afternoon. Have a lovely weekend!

Friday...

Yesterday in London was a long day. The interview went OK - you know how it is when you have so much to say, and so many ideas but there just isn't time (or you end up sounding like some rambling madwoman...)? I feel like I said most of what I wanted, but maybe I didn't get across how much I care about it all. It turns out that there are twenty-five animators going for just three films, to be made next year, so it will be tough to win the job. We will just have to wait and see.

To top it off, when I got back to Flint, which is twenty-five minutes drive away from home, it was blowing a gale, which was scary enough on the big roads, but when I was just three minutes from home, we were stopped on the road by the police telling us that a tree had fallen down ahead and was blocking the road. So I had to turn round and feel my way home in the driving wind and the dark, via some tiny country lanes littered with other, rather large remnants of tree. I was glad to get through the door safely, I tell you. But then the power cut out just after I'd washed my hair - so I went to bed cold, wet-haired and unable to sleep because a) the wind was too noisy, b) I'd just had a cup of tea and c) I'd eaten too much sugar.

the weekend

In a moment of madness on Saturday morning we decided to climb Snowdon. It was meant to brighten up in the afternoon. It did not. Through hail and icy rain we toiled up the Pyg track from Pen-y-Pass, reaching the summit in roughly two and a half hours. We couldn't see a damn thing from the top: not a sausage. I was in danger of getting frostbite in my fingers because of my damp gloves, I couldn't feel the front of my thighs for the cold... but it was GOOD. It felt great just getting to the top, and the descent via the Miners' path was relatively easy. We will try it again in spring on a day when the weather has been forecast to be crystal clear.


The view from the Pyg track going up - you can see the walkers on the steep descent of the Miners' track from here.


Somewhere up on the top right of this picture, hidden behind that cloud, is the summit of Snowdon, with Y Lliwedd on the left. We are standing at the bottom of the descent on the Miners' track looking back at the mountain.

Needless to say, we took it easy on Sunday :-) Hope you had a good weekend too!

the weekend

I simply cannot believe that I can walk out of my front door and be in countryside like this. Yesterday was like the last day of summer, with a blissfully warm sun but a sharp autumnal bite in the air. It was cold up on the hill but the view was spectacular, with the Clywdian Hills marching southward into Wales.