Dream Kitchens...

Plain English's Spitalfields Kitchen

We are nearly the proud owners of our new house..hopefully in a couple more weeks it will be ours! This has prompted me to start seriously fantasizing about my dream kitchen. At the moment, i'm thinking white shaker style units, wooden worktops, Belfast sink & some gorgeous Fired Earth tiles.

Plain English Spitalfields Kitchen

Unfortunately, I can't afford the £40,000-£50,000 required for a Plain English kitchen, and for some reason none of the high-street kitchen retailers seem to offer the classic Shaker style i'm looking for, without adding hideous paint colours and 'grain-effect' finishes. So, for the time being I have been merrily 'pinning' away to my Kitchen moodboard on Pinterest!

We bought a house...!

Sooo...despite the fact that i told my husband i wasn't ready to house-hunt yet, he found a good 'un! It had an open day as the vendors wanted a quick sale, so we went to see it (along with A LOT of other people) and we were lucky enough to have our offer accepted! I still havent quite got my head around it yet...its definitely a project house, so there's a lot to think about.
It was built around 1860, although i think a lot of the original features have been removed over the years (*sob*) - and the decor currently stands somewhere between the 1950's and the 1970's, depending on the room in question.
I think we will need to be prepared to spend our money on boring things like new windows, electrics and heating etc - but that hasn't stopped me from excitedly pinning some ideas on Pinterest!

It's the one on the right...with the ugly trees

: : Louisa : :

Patchwork hot water bottle cover made with Liberty print fabrics

Recently i made a patchwork-quilted hot water bottle for my brother's lovely girlfriend Louisa.  She always uses a hottie so i thought it would make a nice, functional present!

It has an envelope back to access the hot water bottle

I made it without a pattern so i struggled a bit with whether it was too big or too small - but luckily it just fits! I used fabrics from my stash of Liberty prints and followed instructions on how to make the patchwork triangles from Purl Soho which i first used when i made a cot quilt for the beautiful George Christie:

The quilt-top in progress

August 14th 2010

My husband & I got married on August 14th 2010 at a beautiful, hidden away cottage in the Peak District. Our day was filled with love, cake, bunting & lots of cups of tea!

Swiss Lake, Chatsworth Estate