A winters tale.....

How pretty does snow make your garden. I couldn't resist nipping out and taking a few pictures of the garden on a wonderful snowy morning. All the snow drops are growing in the shadow of the copper beech. It will be nice to post a summer comparison even more so once the building work has started and big changes are happening!

Drive through the lakes to bag a bargain!

A little trip through the lakes today, Wow I just love where I live. Fabulous early morning winter sunrise over the fells. A gorgeous crisp frosty Autumn morning, I couldn't resist a quick stop at Thirlmere to snap a few pics of the lake and the fresh dust of snow on the fell behind me. So much space and room to breath, clears the cobwebs and refreshes the brain. I made the trip to Ambleside to call into a hotel there that was closing down and selling up their world. I felt like a bit of a vulture prowling through every room adding my name to various items. All tallied up, car fully loaded and away back home. Just a quick morning round trip, but what an enjoyable one an a day like today.

 What a sight in front of me, fabulous autumn colour on the lakeside at Thirlmere.

 The lake was so calm like glass as the early morning sun crept over.

 Helvellyn behind me dusted in snow.

My Haul, one hotels misfortune to close down, an opportunity for the next one. #circle of life

Finally the exterior decoration is complete!

This is the house finally decorated on the outside, all the render has been taken off, redone and then  exterior decorated, a minor tweak still on going to one badly damaged window sill, which is still being rebuilt. But all of the stucco moldings to the front portico have been repaired or replaced. Massive achievement, still an immense amount of work to be done inside though. We are waiting the progress of planning permission application in order to progress much further, mean time we are carrying on with as much landscaping as possible out side.

Just a reminder, before shot with all the scaffold around and work in progress.

Slow Progress, but the plans are coming together!

Things are moving much slower than we expected, probably because it is difficult working full time and still having the energy to work late every evening and all week ends. We have had a very good run of dry weather recently though, which has enabled us to make a good start out doors with hard landscaping. Progress made on the exterior includes all of the windows now changed and we have new front doors. We have changed the entrance from one single very wide and large front door into two slimmer doors. It looks good and quite fitting, like it was always meant to be this way. We carried that change on into the hall and made the vestibule entrance door also into a pair of slimmer doors. We started on the front entrance steps, taking off three layers of tiles! Shocking they were, including the top layer being indoor bathroom tiles! Finally reaching the original stone steps underneath, but think they would look much smarter with new bull nose capping. We’ve passed a cutting pattern for all the steps to a local stone mason to create these caps in local sandstone, waiting to see what he suggests. Meanwhile indoors we are fighting with years and years of paint, the only way to get through the layers on the woodwork is either hot gun stripping or scrapping. It a very dirty job, requires all windows and doors wide as the fumes are horrible. Planning permission shouldn't be too far away now, plans are drafted and a pre-meeting has been held with the local planning authority to discuss the adventure!

A rather difficult old fire place proved messy to remove. The main body of it was baby brick, but the back of it was filled solid with brick and cement, this made it very difficult to get out. It wasn't long before the hand tools were abandoned and the big boy toys came out. We had to use the large electric breaker to get it out. Clearly one reason being the use of old tradition Whitehaven brick, made locally for many years 1800 - 1900's and renowned for it's strength!

A great shame the original Georgian fireplaces have all been removed.

Things are changing...

New Location for Lakeland Calligraphy!

Can't believe it's been 12 months, it's been a busy old year, but now there is lots of change about to happen.! All exciting stuff. Lakeland Calligraphy is moving, new home, new adventures.
Moving from the coast to the edge of the Lake District National Park. A beautiful venue for all things Arty. I will be running Calligraphy courses and Art courses from this beautiful lakes home. But the best of all, they will be residential!! Not just B&B but beautiful Boutique accommodation. Should you choose to enjoy the lakes while you're here we will be only 4 miles from Loweswater and 6 from Ennerdale.
It won't be over night though, it will be a major renovation project, I have decided to blog the adventure right here. You can follow the progress and watch it all unfold before your eyes. First six months will no doubt be hard and messy pulling the place apart, then the fun bit decorating and bringing to fruition all the fabulous design inside my head! Here we go......wish us luck!!

New trends and seasonal planning.

Nice to see Graph it alcohol markers are coming out with pastel shades, lovely sugar almond colours for crafters, I would like to give them a try. They will certainly go with everyone's enjoyment of Shabby chic look cards and crafts. Woodware are also planning workshops popping up in retailers with Christmas related stamps and designs and demonstrations. These would be fun to attend. In keeping with the vintage shabby chic theme, Fantastic Ribbons have brought out a lovely rang of burlap ribbons natural and colored with lace too, scrumptious card trims!

Design detail.

Having had a request for greater detail on how the vintage invites were assembled, I will put something together. I don't do normally do tutorials (not videos) but I will put up a few photos and show assembly steps to help. I will put this together and post this week.