Jules

West Country Cool

Jules — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:34:10 +0000

Well, I think it’s fair to say that I was waaaay ahead of this particular curve. This post is dedicated to the very cool, and very West Country, love in my life. Alright my loverrrrr?

My secret is out

Jules — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:25:12 +0000

Get your own from Egg-A-Go-Go on Etsy

New Beginnings

Jules — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:51:29 +0000

It’s been a week of new beginnings. After months of talking and planning, followed by months of waiting, our extension build has finally started. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. I don’t think I’d realised how heavy it had been weighing on my mind in recent weeks. It felt as though our lives were on hold because we knew the build would be starting at some point soon but without a confirmed start date we didn’t have anything fixed to work towards. But now it’s all systems go and our builder Richard and his team haven’t wasted any time getting stuck in. It’s so exciting getting home from work each day to discover what’s changed, arrived, disappeared, been revealed, ended up in the skip.

Now, anyone who knows me will tell you that I am somewhat fond of things being neat, tidy and ORGANISED. And that’s putting it politely. So, imagine my delight at discovering that Richard is a man after my own heart. Honestly, you’ve never seen such a neat and tidy building site. He even puts stuff in the skip neatly. He did this.

Ok so the build got started but that’s not the only new beginning for me this week. I attended a course about Emotional Intelligence and it included an hour’s one to one personal coaching. OMG what an experience. The coach was incredibly inspiring and through a few simple exercises she was able to help me see with amazing clarity what’s important to me and what I need to be truly happy and fulfilled. In work, in life, in everything. It’s filled my head with ideas and has given me a new determination to strive towards what I really want. Have you ever had life coaching or anything like this that has been really life changing? If so I would love to hear about it.

Gin and tonic anyone?

Jules — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:42:05 +0000

I’m feeling very Betty Draper with todays charity shop find. Gin and tonic anyone?

It’s the little things

Jules — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:32:32 +0000

It’s the little things in life that make me happy. Like the builder’s gear showing up on our driveway. Extension building officially starts on Monday. Woo hoo!

Ceramic Commemoration

Jules — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 19:15:57 +0000

The Parochial Hall in Kenilworth is where we held our wedding reception. Although we live in Kenilworth, before we started wedding planning we never even knew it existed. Its hard to explain but even though it’s a huge hall with a rather grand frontage it’s one of those places that just seems to be invisible unless you’re actually looking for it. Anyway, apart from the practicalities (huge space, walking distance from the castle) the real reason we chose it was because we fell in love with it’s old world charm as soon as we walked in. It is an old village hall in true British style. It has scrubbed wooden floors, a proper stage, a little kitchen and notice boards for the Brownies and the Scouts. Leighton said it instantly transported him back to his childhood days. I think just about everyone has a place like this tucked away in their own childhood memories. As you can probably tell, we love the place. Trouble is, over the years, it has become very well loved. Like an old favourite teddy bear, the hall is a bit worn around the edges, and that’s putting it politely. Happy news though - the Restoration Appeal that has been running for months and months has raised lots of money and work has finally started on a major face lift.

Today we took part in a tile decorating workshop, run by the wonderfully helpful Sarah Ellis of Dragon Ceramics. The finished tiles are for the hall’s brand new kitchen so once they’re in place they will be there for decades and generations of people will see them. What a great idea!

Here’s our little ceramic commemoration of a day and a place that have a very special place in our hearts.

The finished article will look even better. Sarah will go over the lettering for us in black and the green dots we used as guides to get it all nice and neat will be burned off in the kiln. Also, the colours will look much brighter once the tile has been fired and glazed. Can’t wait to see it!

Here’s the Parochial Hall all dressed up for our big day, photography by ashmorevisuals

Belated Birthday Bag

Jules — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:22:21 +0000

My friend Ruth’s birthday was a few weeks back but I only just got to see her this weekend. It was the perfect excuse to finally make something with this Japanese Alice in Wonderland print fabric that I’ve had squirrelled away for too long. A kooky clutch bag for a kooky kinda girl.

Based on this (free!) pattern from BurdaStyle member stacey6907.

Busy Buying Furniture

Jules — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:53:29 +0000

I’ve been a terrible lazy blogger recently! My excuse for the lack of posts is that I’ve been far too preoccupied with buying retro furniture. It just seems like everything I’ve been on the look out for has suddenly started popping up on eBay. Well, what’s a girl to do? Wait for the extension to be built? Ha ha ha! No. That would be far too sensible. Buy, buy, buy!

It all started with the Ercol dining table. We already had the chairs, they’re Ikea Stockholm (although they don’t appear on the website these days so maybe they don’t sell them anymore?). Pretty good match with the table eh?

and we got these too-cute-for-words – and we’ve since found out, pretty rare - Ercol ‘button’ chairs from the same seller. They’re called that because of the little wooden plugs at the back. Yep, cute. I had planned to paint them but they’re in such beautiful condition it really would be a crying shame to cover up that lovely wood.

Next, my friend Ann (another vintage fan) text me on a Saturday morning to tip me off about a house clearance sale that was in progress. No time to waste! We jumped in the car and went straight there and I think this two tone tall boy was just sitting there waiting for me, don’t you?

Last but not least, here’s my favourite. This is another eBay find. I am looking forward to filling it with lots of lovely retro crockery *sigh*. As you can see, I’ve already started in earnest.

I love charity shops

Jules — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:33:28 +0000

On a Saturday afternoon you can generally find me at the back of a charity shop looking for… well I never really know what I’m looking for to be honest but that’s half the fun. My favourite weekend hobby has been paying dividends lately. A few weeks ago I came home with armfuls of vintage tablecloths in lovely summery prints. The plan was to use them in sewing projects but seriously, I just can’t bring myself to take the scissors to them!

On another occasion the shop wasn’t even open when I spotted this set of blue and white pasta bowls in the window. So I went in at lunchtime the next day and made them mine har har har.

But wait! It gets better! This week we’ve had a lovely sunny break in Cornwall and it was made even better for me by the charity shops of Camelford. How kitsch is this bambi? More than a little inspired by this post from one of my favourite bloggers I think hmm. Oh yeh, and I also bagged these super funky pots for my new kitchen (yep, the one that hasn’t actually been built yet *sigh*).

Sunshine Yellow Yearnings

Jules — Sat, 29 May 2010 11:28:18 +0000

Just lately I’ve started to feel the need for more yellow in my life. I don’t know if it’s to do with all the spring sunshine we’ve been having recently but it seems as though golden hued inspiration is everywhere at the moment.

Vintage Ercol child’s chair given a new lease of life in yellow by Winter’s Moon

This retro desk lamp was an Etsy find last week

This object of desire popped up on one of my (many) eBay searches for Danish mid 20th century furniture (yes, I’m a little bit obsessed with all those clean lines in teak)