Why I love what I do......

As most of you who follow me on Facebook will have seen, I recently recovered these rather bleurgh cushions in Harris Tweed for a friend.

The chair looks absolutely stunning back home, I love this house so much, it has the most gorgeous light, views and homely feel.

The owners were delighted with the chair and I got a lovely message saying that his wife had been stood admiring the chair and just smiling away for the last half an hour.  
I can't tell you what an absolute luxury it is for me, in this day and age when people are so busy being stressed and rushing about, to be able to make someone stop for a few minutes and just take pleasure in a simple thing.
I love what I do.
I think that when you take pleasure in what you're making, some of that must pass into whatever you are creating. 
I know that some people (family and friends included) don't think that what I do is a "real" job. Probably because to most people "work" is by it's nature laborious, tiresome and something only done to pay the bills.  Now I know I'm not likely to become financially rich, but I don't long for shiny new cars, a big house or a boat (sorry Ian!) for me making and creating is a way of being, and a quality of life that comes from job satisfaction and the pleasure in making people stop and smile. 
Of course, job satisfaction doesn't pay bills. We have three daughters and I don't want them to feel like they're ever missing out on anything. It is this that motivates me at midnight when I'm still out in the cabin, or when I'm up at the crack of dawn sewing while everyone else is tucked up in bed.  It keeps me going on the gloriously sunny days, when I'd love to be out for a walk but instead I'm sweltering in my wee cabin to get orders finished.
I feel I am very , very lucky to be able to work around my family, and to be one of the few who loves what they do....real job or not ;)

Playing with paint

 I've been busy working on some wholesale orders, getting the B&B rooms ready as it's that time again already and also trying to build stock for online. It's hard to not get caught up in a restrictive mind set that because time is so limited, it must be used sensibly and that everything we make must have a "value". After a good talking to from a really good friend I've decided to have one day (or at least evening!) a week to just play at anything creative. I'm desperate to try fabric designing and we have fun and exciting plans for over the summer :) until then, I've had a wee play with some printing blocks we picked up on our honeymoon in Dubai (4years ago!!) xx

The Painted House Patterned Rollers

Oh my goodness..... Have you tried these patterned paint rollers from The Painted House? They are amazing! You can use them on walls, paper, fabric (which I can't wait to try out).
Originally, I had planned to paint our back hallway with the Tussock roller, but with all of the "real life" that the area undergoes.....wet children in dirty waterproofs, husband in welly boots, 2 year old with dirty hands etc I'd be constantly worrying about if I could clean without the pattern wiping off.
I opted for 3 square panels of pattern instead, which gave me the perfect opportunity to have a play with my latest obsession for Annie Sloan paints ;)

After having a wee play mixing Provence with Old white, and Empires Silk with Old White to get the colours I needed (I wanted them to tie in with the colours in our kitchen as the hall leads into the kitchen).
I masked off 3 squares with Frog Tape (amazing stuff that stops your paint bleeding under the edges like normal masking tape).

And the finished hallway....

First play with Annie Sloan paint

My husband and I have very different taste....I used to think that he would like to furnish an entire room in one hit by opening the Next catalogue and buying the entire range (plus co ordinating soft furnishings!) Whereas I'm a lot more eclectic and love old preloved items which look like they have history.
Well....it's taken 4 years of marriage....but I've finally worn him down to the point that not only is he coming around to my way of thinking but he's willingly helping me make them over :)
I've seen so many fab makeovers on Pinterest with Annie Sloan Chalk paint so was desperate to give it a try and see what all the hype was was about.  I was lucky to get a gorgeous chest of drawers from our local Facebook free ads, it's a fantastic size and really solid. My husband is super practical and great at wood work, so he fixed the bases on a couple of the drawers and removed the hardware which we kept and reused as it was.
I didn't get a proper before pic...

but as you can see it was pretty old school, and although there was nothing majorly wrong with it, it definitely would not have suited our house.....
A couple of quick coats of Annie Sloan Old White and I absolutely love it!!!

The paint really was as easy and lovely to use as people rave on.  My husband sanded back the top and pedestal - the wood isn't perfect but it has a warm homely worn look to it. I didn't want to go to mad with the distressing as this was my first attempt and I didn't want to over do it so just rubbed over all the edges and natural "wear areas" with some fine grade steel wool.
Now we just have to manoeuvre it upstairs to our bedroom!

Feedback

Ok...I don't normally big myself up too much but I was feeling very sorry for myself after a trip to the dentist :( and that evening when i checked into facebook I had all of this lovely feedback!  Cheered me up so much - all of my customers this year have been so great!

 

Alana Clark: Received my parcel from you yesterday, thank you so much, they are all lovely. Big decision now of what one to keep for myself. Thank you so much and have a lovely xmas x

Kim Thomas: Received my items today and I love them. Thank you very much :) x

Kelly Harland: Just to let you know I received my purses yesterday! WOW!! They are amazing! Thankyou so much. X

Nicola McAllister: Oh my...I just got my tweed purse with bird on it and pink dog coin purse and WOW I am amazed at the quality and beauty of these items!!! THANK YOU so much Jennifer

Suz Clark: Received my purse yesterday, absolutely love it. Thank you!

Shaleena Patel: hi, just wanted to say thank you for the purse which arrived today and which was a fab surprise when i got home from work. and this time i'm keeping this one for myself. thank you so much again - it's gorgeous. x x x x

Catriona MacKenzie: Hi, Jen - love my decorations (& the cute wee bag they're in). Will post a pic when they finally make it to the tree. Getting laminate laid next week so it's going to be cutting it fine for getting in Christmas mode!

Marina Slater: Love the purse, I waited till my birthday to open it, thank you it's beautiful x

Vintage and Retro purchases

Gorgeous J and G Meakin coffee set

Chinese Rose storage pot

Palissy ware pin dish

Oooooh pretty!

Very girly!

Ian and I went for a rummage around our local antiques market.  It's a combination of antiques, bric a brac, salvage and "stuff"...... you could spend hours hunting through everything and I kept saying to Ian ...... "ooooh we could paint that" and "how cool would that be done like..." but he is much more sensible and practical than me!  He pointed out that we don't have endless amounts of space.... and suggested most of my purchases might be suitable for my cabin lol. These little delights will find their right place in our home very soon!

Studio.....

We now have carpet...... just need furniture (and a kettle) and I might never leave the studio!

2 years (cotton anniversary)

Yummy cupcakes with cotton flags

Paper heart garland

West Coast Sunshine

I don't know about everyone else but over here, near the Isle of Skye, we had the most amazing weather yesterday (unfortunately not today!).  We took a walk around to my sisters to feed the animals and to see her latest addition to the menagerie..... cute wee piggies!

 

In the sewing world I have been really busy, working on a commission but it's a pressie so no pics yet!

Taking photos

It's not looking the best of days for getting pictures of my recent makes so it might be a job for tomorrow :o( until then, here's a gorgeous sunset photo my husband took last week looking down towards the Skye Bridge....

I'd love to be good at photography but I get too confused by ISO's and f-stops so I'm afraid I'm just a point and shoot camera girl!

Colour...colour...everywhere

I LOOOOOOOVE colour and texture.  I suspect that my poor long suffering husband dreams of a plain, calm interior.  To me, the bold mix and match of colour and textures are evocative of  busy, happy family life.  To balance this we try to keep rooms (relatively!) clutter free so that the emphasis is on particular pieces and it doesn't look to busy.

This is a quick snap of some of our scatter cushions...

There are so many inspiring images out on the net.... I LOVE these floor cushions by littlemissloolies on etsy

 

I wonder what the chances are of me being able to sneak them into the house unnoticed....

A couple of Pip Studio tea towels did find their way into our kitchen (wonder how that happened) 

I think that if my bedroom could look like this I would be a very, very happy girl!