Nonnie

I love new books!

I've been picking this book up in Waterstones for weeks now trying to decide whether I really needed it. How silly! Of course I need it and anyway, does it really matter if I need it. I wanted it! It is full of really great inspiration. Lots of lovely fresh pictures and clear instructions as well as templates and patterns at the back of the book. It's the kind of book where I'm not going to sit and faithfully follow the instructions of each, but take some of the ideas and adapt them to my own style. I've already got lots of new ideas buzzing in my head.

Just look at this gorgeous scarf. I really am going to have to find some time to learn to crochet. Actually there are instructions in the back of the book so perhaps I'll give it a go.

And I love this cuttlery roll. Ideal for summer picknicks or eating in the garden.

After my experience at the fair last week I definitely feel more inspired than ever and have started to re-vamp my etsy shop this week. I opened my etsy shop last year, way before I discovered blogs, and I have to be honest that I didn't have any success with it. I'm not sure whether it was my pricing that was wrong, or my photographs that weren't right, or perhaps just what I was selling. But I've decided that now I feel so much more experienced in what I'm doing, it's time to give it another go. I've only got a few things in there at the moment but I'm off work on Tuesday and Wednesday next week so hope to have time to upload more items.

We're off sailing again this evening but not on our little boat. Don't tell George the Bear but we're abandoning 'Merit' for a 43 foot long yacht complete with 3 sleeping cabins, 2 toilets, proper kitchen, a saloon and decent headroom. No, we haven't won the lottery, we're lucky enough to have been invited by a friend of Georges who belongs the same yacht club. George is used to sailing on this type of yacht as well as our dear little Merit, but he is concerned that after this weekend I will get used to the life of comfort when sailing and will refuse to go on Merit again! He might be right!

I hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend wherever you are and whatever you're doing. x

Favourite Books

The little girl in this little book was one of my favourite people when I was growing up. If I could have jumped inside the pages to be her best friend I would have done. But she already had a best friend called Susan, otherwise known as 'little friend Susan'.

Her other friend was Billy Blunt who's Father was the village Blacksmith and who she had lots of great adventures with like the time they went fishing together

One of my favourite parts of the Milly Molly Mandy books was the map of the village at the beginning of the book. I believe it's because of this map that I now am totally facinated by maps and can spend hours looking at them when we're going on a trip and even when we get back from a trip to see where we've been. I would look endlessly at MMM's village map, tracing routes with my fingers and remembering the various stories and where on the map they took place.

I should point out that this is a vintage copy that Mum bought me a couple of years ago and it seems the previous owner decided to do a spot of colouring on the map!

I think the reason I loved my Milly Molly Mandy books so much was because they depicted a lovely innocent English Country Life. She lived in the kind of pretty English village that I still long to live in. I like to imagine that somewhere out there there's still a little girl in a red and white stripey frock living in a little cottage with a thatched roof, camping in a home made tent in the field, fishing for tadpoles in the brook and having dolls tea parties on the lawn with her little friend Susan.

x

Lazy Sunday

We should have spent Saturday night and Sunday on a very nice yacht sailing around the Solent but on Thursday George came down with the flu so we had to turn down the invitation and were confined to the flat for the weekend. Much as it was disappointing not to get to go on such a lovely boat, we did have a lovely relaxing weekend and I managed to do some of the things I've been dreaming of for the last few weeks. The first is pictured above. I've been seeing pictures of cupcakes all over the place and I've had a huge urge to get baking myself.

I made a mixture of chocolate cupcakes iced with coffee butter cream and plain vanilla cakes iced with pink vanilla butter cream. I really enjoyed playing, but having seen Cherry's Post on Friday, I'm now thinking I need an icing bag to really get creative with my cakes. We ate about half of them over the weekend but I suspect they may all be gone by the end of today as I've left George at home, still suffering and I think he may need them for flu fighting purposes!

As yesterday was such a horrid, grey and miserable day here in London we decided it was a day of PJs and not leaving the house. I spent the entire day on the sitting room floor getting on with a little project I've been wanting to do for ages.

I love my magazines, but I can't bear for them to build up too much and I like to have all the inspirational items close at hand. So I've always kept files of images, articles and ideas. But I decided I wanted to arrange them differently. At the moment they're all in pockets in clear files from Muji and that's fine when it's a whole article I've cut and where I like all the images. But I realised I had a lot of articles where there was perhaps just a number of pictures I liked.

This not only seemed like a waste of storage space, but it also didn't seem like the best way to see those pictures.

So I decided to stick those images into scap books where the inspiration can be better appreciated. At the same time, I thought it was a good opportunity to re-organise the inspiration as it was all muddled up. So now there will be four different categories ~ home and furniture, seasonal inspiration, projects and food.

Here are a couple of my pages.

Up to a couple of years ago I used to cut up every magazine I bought as I didn't really have the space to keep them. But since then I've got rather precious about my Country Living magazines. I just can't bring myself to cut them but yet I feel I don't really make the best of them while they're still whole. After all, most of what is sitting there is pages of advertising and some articles I wouldn't read again, and I don't look at them as often as I look at my inspiration files. But I think for now they're going to be staying whole as I really don't think I can bring myself to cut. Plus I think I have enough cuttings to organise without them.

Well, another week is ahead of us and it's bright and sunny here so I'm full of energy. Tomorrow I will be introducing the first of my Easter products with four more to come over the next couple of weeks. I hope you're going to like them.

I've got lots to do but I think I may need another cupcake to help me along.
See you tomorrow. x

Spring is in the air!

Despite the fact that I was running very late this morning I had to stop on my way to the bus stop to get a photo of these gorgeous daffodils and crocus. They're a smaller variety of daffodil and they make me smile every time I see them because they remind me of lots of little faces smiling up at me!

It's beautifully sunny here today so I'm definitely feeling in the mood for Spring. I couldn't help but buy the latest copy of 'Country Homes and Interiors' yesterday as I was tempted by the notes on the front talking of Easter inspiration. As I mentioned yesterday, I am rather fond of Easter. I know that it's not such a big thing as Christmas but then I think that's a lot of why I like it. I love the fact that everything associated with Easter is pretty and fresh and quite 'girly' really. While Christmas is at a time for snuggling down and getting cosy, Easter is a time for getting out and about, for feeling the sun for the first time and for renewal. I love it. I thought I'd share with you a few of the lovely images from the Easter inspiration pages.

I think this cake looks delicious!

What could be cuter than pink hyacinths and the sweetest little fluffy sheep!

I had the loveliest evening last night. I sat working away on the first of my Easter creations, sipping a glass of limoncello and watching Grand Designs that featured the most amazing restoration of a beautiful castle in North Yorkshire. Blissful. I have the first design finished and may start work on the next this evening. For now I'll leave you with a sneaky peek of 'Easter by Nonnie' which I'm hoping to put in the shop towards the end of next week. Have a lovely sunny March day. X

Addicted to Ebay and another new mag.

I've been getting a little bit addicted to ebay lately. Actually, I think both George and I have. Only difference is that he's been buying things for the boat and I've been buying buttons and lovely little bits to put in my little shop. Above are some little lovelies that came in a mixed bag I purchased. It was one of those gamble bags really. You can see it's a mixed bag but you don't really know what's in it until it arrives. Needless to say, quite a sizeable bag will be going back for re-sale on ebay, but I did find plenty of goodies amongst the dull ones that more than justified what I paid.

I'm particularly keen on these three little cuties. I'm not entirely sure what I will do with them but I just think they're sort of sweet.

I also got another selection of pretty, new buttons in pastel shades. They're not terribly exciting but they're the sort of thing I use a lot when I'm making cards. The price was excellent as well which was the best bit.

I had another exciting parcel in the post yesterday.

I just couldn't help myself! Being a very big admirer of Alicia, when I saw she was featured in Romantic Homes Magazine, I knew I just had to have a copy. As far as I know, it's not available to buy here in the UK, so I went on their website to see if I could order a copy. I discovered that not only can you order the current issue, but you can order back issues too! Very dangerous for the old Bank account. Anyway, I showed restraint and just ordered the March issue. I have to tell you that it doesn't disappoint. It's a pretty long article with lots of gorgeous pictures of her lovely house. There are some other lovely things in the magazine too, although I have to say that it is perhaps the thinnest magazine I've ever purchased. But definitely worth it.

Well we have another reasonably busy weekend ahead of us. Off to Salisbury again tomorrow (I'm sure we should just go and live there, the amount of time we are starting to spend there recently!) then sailing on Sunday. When I say sailing, I really mean sailing. We are hoping to get the sails up for the first time and really see whether we can sail her. I think George the Bear will be pleased to see us as it's been a couple of weeks.

Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you all on Monday. X

P.S ~ Gemma asked me how to order the single issues off Romantic Homes website. I'm always happy to help other people spend money so here's how you do it. Go to the site, www.romantichomes.com, click on Subscribe from the menu at the top. Then, from the menu on the left hand side click on single issues and it takes you to an order page for all the back issues as well as the current issue which is at the top of the list. Simple

Exciting packages

My postman has been very busy this week bringing me quite a few exciting packages. Unfortunately I can't show you everything he brought me because they're mostly all presents, mainly for my Mum and Sister and I don't want them having a sneaky look. Two of the parcels were from Rebecca and Lucy and I have to say a very big thank you to both of them. The items I ordered from both are absolutely gorgeous. I'm sure Mum and Catherine are going to like them a lot. I also ordered some gorgeous things from Decorative Country Living. I've mentioned this shop before and they really do have some beautiful things to buy.

But I can share my final parcel with you. This is something I've been anticipating for over a week, but Fedex have had a few problems delivering it.

A few weeks ago I discovered Jen's lovely blog. As I usually do when I discover a lovely new blog, I started reading back over previous posts, and I came across one she wrote about a gorgeous Christmas magazine written by Matthew Mead. She had never heard of Matthew Mead, and I have to say I hadn't either. Unfortunately in the UK we are deprived of his wonderful creativity! So I looked up his website and sent a quick email asking if the magazine was available over here or if I could order it. About 10 minutes later a reply came back from the man himself. He was sorry to tell me that it wasn't available in the UK but promised to send me a copy. What a lovely man!

I have to say it has been well worth the wait. It is packed full of wonderful inspiration for Christmas and I am looking forward to spending some time this weekend having a really good look at it. It's perhaps a little bit late for this year but I can tell you I'll be starting to plan for Christmas 2007 some time in the middle of January! Here's a little peep inside.

Now please don't all go emailing him asking to be sent a copy as he might be really fed up with me! But he has just emailed me to say that it is available to see in digital format on line so go check it out.

I'm off to the Cotswolds this evening for a weekend of fun, laughter and delicious food in the company of my lovely family. I'll definitely be taking some pictures of how my Sister and I decorate the Dining Room for the special Birthday dinner. Maybe also some 'Cotswolds in the Winter' pics.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Nonnie x