I'm not dead!

No I am very much alive and glad to be back here in my little corner of blogland. I can't really say where I've been or why I didn't choose to post, I suppose I just needed a break. Sometime's you simply cannot 'do it all.'

I hope I am not too late to wish you all a very Happy New Year, filled with good things. At the end of last year I was very busy with all my 'crafty makings and doings', here are a few pictures to show you what I got up to.

Flower arranging, and drinking a little gin (well I needed the bottle). Furniture painting, and more furniture painting. Christmas decoration making, bag and brooch making, doll making, hat and scarf making, fabric designing, one-off orders and designs. Can you see my problem......too much variety. I like variety, it is the spice of life, but really come on. No wonder when it gets to Christmas I am worn out.

This year I mean to simplify.....everything, my work, my home, myself. How about you, what are your thoughts on 'doing it all', do you try to, or have you learned your lesson? I would love to know your thoughts on it.
So glad to be back among the living, wishing you all a very calm and simple weekend, love Linda x.

vintage linens

Hello again, 2 posts in one day I can't believe it! I have been very busy lately and neglected my blog, so I am making up for it. I am overcome with Spring Fever, and have been frantically cleaning, sifting, sorting and painting. Whilst going through the linens I came across these tea-towels which had belonged to my mum. They were made by women during the war using flour sacks. My mum loved them and used them everyday. I was going to frame them, but have decided that I am going to use them everyday too. I do believe in using your beautiful things and not keeping them in a cupboard for a "special occasion".I am also going to try to do the things they say, for example, wash on a monday, clean on a friday. I have never been a "creature of habit" I prefer to do things on a whim, when I feel like it, but that makes for a rather disorganized household sometimes. So, as my New Year's resolution was to simplify I am going to give it a shot. I don't have the tea-towel for saturday and I don't know what it says on it, but as there has been no mention of baking, I think that I will bake on a saturday.Let's just see how I get on.

simplify

sitting room and hall

plate rack in the kitchen

larder cupboard in the kitchen

my bedroom

table & bench in the kitchen

fireplace in the sitting room

My New Year's resolution this year was to .....SIMPLIFY..... There are lots of areas of my life that could benefit from this philosophy, but I aim to start with my HOME. I have discovered over recent weeks by reading what you fellow bloggers have to say that a lot of you feel as I do about home....it is most definitely where the heart is. On most days there is nowhere else I would rather be and when I have been away I love to come back home.

We live on the edge of a small town, but I long to live in the country, so my home is full of country things. I have also inherited a lot of furniture from my mother which I sometimes hold on to even though its not really my style. I have spent over 25 years painting furniture for others and advising on colour and I find sometimes when I come to my own home it's not so easy! I have always loved colour and can look at colour charts for hours on end, but I find that I am now changing, I now want serenity and order and am drawn to white and grey and black! So, I plan over this year to start narrowing my choice of colours and decluttering my "stuff". Of course this time next year I could be saying that I need colour back in my life! We will see.