✴ wintry tones :: golden brown

{vintage finds::dewy mornings::mince pies with the mamas::baking gingerbread::sleeping pusscats::

displaying treasures::nightlight hooking::richmond park::dead leaf bundles}

This post should probably be called silence is golden because after a traumatic tearaway toddler  afternoon, the little lady of the house finally relented to a long overdue nap...phew...

I'm packing for a little Cornish getaway. I'm hoping that todays bright blue sky and golden afternoon colours continue into next week. I'm imagining blustery beach combing days, afternoon teas and cosy, toasty evenings spent curled up hooking by a log burner...bliss.

I've packed all the unfinished projects, I wonder how many will still be unfinished on our return...?

Have a wonderful wintry weekend. Wrap up warm. x

✴ my creative space

My creative space is below par today. With me and the little lady both coughing and sniffling ourselves through this beautifully sunny day there is little energy to get on with any of the numerous unfinished projects and ideas in the making....

As we are meeting to discuss our extension plans tomorrow it seems like a good idea for more sketching and measuring and thinking of what will go where and how...

In true 'me' style though I seem to have leapt straight from work in progress plans and scribblings to picking out colour schemes, fabrics, furniture and all that is pretty...

I'm sipping hot lemon and honey with;

The World of Interiors

Homes and Gardens

Country Living

&

 Shabby Chic Interiors

Recycled Home

Flea Market Style

Bazaar Style

My Creative Space 

✴ sleepy dreaming...

I want to sleep, a deep satisfying 'during the day' kind of sleep. I want to sink back under the duvet and forget about crayon monitoring, tumble gym and picking crushed raisins from the carpet.

I don't want to get back into my bed....I want to sleepy dream away on a freshly laundered bed of crispy clean and adorably patterned bedding, such as the new organic range from Amy Butler. 

Oh yes, can always rely on Amy to lift ones spirits out of the gloomy blues and into majestic majenta, tangerine, lemon and emerald green.... and how lovely an idea is that yoyo cushion cover....yum!

I also want to lie in bed and sip an undisturbed cup of hot tea, peruse pristine magazines with pages intact and I want to watch something on telly which doesn't involve a super agent bear or talking trains....

Is that too much to ask...??

Love from Grumpy Mama. x

{ All images from Amy Butler }

✴ enchanted palace

I've just read of a new temporary exhibition at Kensington Palace. It looks so positively entrancing and delectable I can almost not breathe!! (Drama Queen...)
In association with Wildworks and featuring installation pieces by Vivienne Westwood, Stephen Jones, William Tempest, Boudicca, Aminaka Wilmont and Echo Morgan. 

Telling the stories and mysteries of the seven princesses who once lived there...
Opens today!
Quick grab your coat let's go......

{ All images via The Independant }

More information here 

✴ my creative space

I seem to be running about ten hours behind everyone else....Can't think why...??!

My creative space is a bit of a tipped up house, half emptied packing boxes, toys scattered abandoned on the floor, unopened letters and catalogues (so many catalogues...), sleeping cats and crawling, standing children (actually just the one..) and laundry, lots of laundry.....

I've managed to establish a creative space, my little temporary corner of the dining room at the old bureau, which I've decided after a long contemplation, may well be painted in the new year, possibly a chinese blue or slate grey. It needs a lot of love and care to make it look beautiful and brighten it up from it's current Dickensian state. Although at the moment I quite like feeling like I am a character in a Dickens novel, stitching away at my old oak writing desk wearing fingerless gloves and with only candlelight for warmth. Actually the last two bits of that description are complete imagination but Dickens never really mentioned jeans or iphones so there you have it.

My usual workshop in the garage is not really working for three reasons, 1. it's way too cold, nay freezing, in there 2. it has over the last year become a dumping ground for all things with no home and so I can't actually see my desk 3. the baby, and needing to be within arms reach of said crawling, standing child. Cbeebies only goes so far in it's ability to captivate and babysit!

I've washed a stash of fabric which is ready for things on the to do list, tote bags, softies, lavender hearts, quilts...Sorted the felt for christmas decorations, softie gnomes etc...

Found my lost ball of twine and tied up the belated advent tags onto the wall...

Started to make the embroidery hoop wall baubles...

And most importantly, strung some lights, so pretty!

Still so much more to get done.....

For more creative spaces, head along to Kootoyoo , it's the last peek before Christmas!

✴ Through the front door...

Another week of My Place and Yours from Meet Me At Mikes. This week the theme is Through The Front Door chosen by Femme de Montmartre.

Pop along to Pip's for more doorways...

This week I've decided to focus on back home. The door to this apartment is decidedly uninspiring and well, apartment like, so after 3 months here, I am looking forward (2 weeks today!) to returning to my 1930's semi in the suburbs of Surrey. Aahhhh....

The photo above was taken just after moving in 2 years ago. It's had a lick of paint since then and a few extra bits and bobs, usually a plant or two on the window sill (probably now dead) and a small pile of letters and junk mail (probably now a mountain) waiting to be sorted and sent to the recycling.

Outside there are brick red steps leading up to the front door and a spotty front door mat from Laura Ashley. Either side of the door sits a bay tree planted in a great big pale green plant pot which is festooned with tiny fairy lights at Christmas time.

But you'll have to imagine that.

Also imagine the Arts & Crafts oak sideboard to the left of the door as you walk in, an Ebay find and the large 1930's oak oval mirror on the wall opposite also from Ebay and which arrived with a large crack in it (eek!) and was only replaced just before we came out to Australia.

On a bright day the sun streams through the stained glass, projecting distorted rose shapes onto the pale walls.

On the wall leading up the stairs is a small assortment of framed family snaps, old and new. This is the beginnings of what I hope will become a striking feature wall, full of happy images and visions of times gone by, but I've only just begun and there are still a lot of photographs to go through...

I love arriving home and walking through my stained glass door. I love that the sound of the key turning in the lock wakes Tabitha and Olive sleeping on the stairs who come running to greet me with a soft miaow and an affectionate head butt against my legs. A gentle reminder that I should probably feed them  first before kicking off my shoes and making myself a cup of tea and slouching in front of the telly!

❄ Winter in Ascog

Birthday celebrations, from a time before Ella. Close friends and family, gathering at Ascog House on the Isle of Bute to don Wellington boots and pop Champagne corks.

Exploring the seventeenth-century lairds house, stone spiral staircases, a secret bedroom in a turret, swinging brass chandeliers, blackened fireplaces and creaking oak floorboards....

A short walk down to the bay on a damp and slightly misty morning. All around us are grey shiny smooth rocks which, with a closer look, are quite clearly a pod of seals, dozing the day away.

Longer treks through muddy frosty fields, catching our breath in the biting cold air. A bull with a long copper fringe watches us, probably wondering why we have ventured out on such a cold day when a cup of hot tea and large slice of cake in front of a warm fire is so much more inviting...

When the evening draws in and the peacocks nesting in the nearby trees have ceased their eerie call, we light up the dark house with an abundance of tea lights.

Dressing for dinner, because it seems an appropriate thing to do in such stately surroundings.

Gathering around the long wooden table and with name tags on our foreheads from a game of celebrity Blind Mans Buff, we tuck into a hearty meal and clink glasses, laughing and chatting into the wee small hours.......

A golden diadem, catching the morning light through the warped glass of the Edwardian sash windows in the turret.

{9ct gold, pearl and crystal 'Willow' tiara by Sarah Hemsley}

Ascog House  Landmark Trust