Time flies!

Eh? Where did that week go? One minute I was chatting about mugs and the next almost a week has disappeared without a trace...

My great news is that I have been able to get into work everyday this week and although I have had to come home early and crawl back into bed to prevent further damage to the semi-dysfunctional spine, mostly I have had completely painfree days (yipee!). I don't think that I will be back to lugging chests of drawers or kitchen dressers around for a while, but it's great to be able to at least do my share of the packaging.

We are now on a countdown to the show at the NEC; by this time in two weeks, we will have completed our visit and be on our way home. Now I realise that I am probably becoming a show bore, but I am so excited. As the time grows nearer and everything we are taking with us gathers in the warehouse, my vision is turning into reality ~ it's more than a little satisfying.

Each evening this week, Dave and I have been doing the final editing to our catalogue which will be available on disk to start with and then it's off to the printers for a printed copy (or two) to be done. I can't believe how long it's taken to put together, then edit, re-edit, check, recheck, re-edit, and so it goes on and on... our catalogue has been so long in the making that I can't quite believe we have finally got there. We have been joking that as soon as this one goes to print then we can make a start on the next one... sadly I don't think that either of us are really joking.

On the domestic front, Cecily has been back for a few days and it's been lovely to have her home again. There's something a bit magical about having my girlie home once more, even if she does leave washing up all over the place and fleece Dave and I for every penny we have in our pockets!

We remembered to change our clocks this morning and I took Cecily to Hereford train station at lunchtime so that she could get a train back to Bath and somehow my car just drove itself to Oakchurch Farmshop on the way home. Oh what a shame! Well, there was no point in wasting the journey to the farm shop, so I quickly accomplished the task of selecting some wonderful cheeses and pate, fresh seeded bread and condiments, a whole array of sausages and some rather tasty fudge. Guess what Dave and I have had for lunch and dinner today?

Dave has just appeared with a cuppa and more pages for me to check through... chat soon, Liz

Image thanks to Roger Lascelles and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Mugshot Challenge

In my last blog entry I talked about my favourite cup and saucer and it got me thinking about how lucky I am to have access to so many lovely things that most of the time I take for granted. My kitchen dresser is covered in spongeware and hand decorated china that I have picked up over the years. Some pieces are for decoration only, jugs that I've dropped, broken and glued back together (useless for water or gravy, but they still look pretty) and other things that Dave and I use daily. So here's a quick tour of my other much loved and favourite bits of china.

This is the mug design that I was saddest to have chipped, it had been a faithful friend to me for many years, we had spent many hours in the garden together, it had come to work with me and was with me the moment that Dave proposed to me. I keep it on my dresser as a reminder of all those good times.

Luckily we now stock these in our shop, so I have been able to replace it, but the new one will need time to gather new memories with me.

Hearts mug

This little hearts mug could earn a place on my favourites list very quickly, it's very cute.

Vintage Laura Ashley cup and saucer
For a while, I wanted to collect a full dinner service of this Chintzware design china because I love the intensity of the blue on it, but then decided to complete the collection of china that I started many years ago. My mother had the Petite Fleur design when I was a teenager and she gave some pieces to me when I left home and my dresser now proudly holds a complete dinner service and some spare pieces too.

Strawberries mug and red enamel tealight holders

A few years ago I treated myself to half a dozen mugs in a sale at Laura Ashley, one in the Strawberries design, one Lemons, a couple yellow and pumpkin colour check and a couple of floral designs. These we use every day and I get pleasure from using them every single time.

For readers from outside UK, this obsession with tea drinking may seem a bit bizarre. My sister in law, who is American came to live here for three or four years before moving back to USA (with my brother) and while she was here she became a tea convert... we still send regular parcels of Tetley teabags so that she can have her early morning cuppa!

Dave has just walked in and is now looking incredulous that I can write a whole blog on the merits of various mugs... perhaps it's just a girl thing, or perhaps it's just a Liz thing.

Do you have a favourite mug or tea cup and saucer? And does your tea or coffee taste better in a mug or a cup and saucer, bone china or pottery? Post a pic of your favourite cup or mug and let me know and I'll add a link here, so that others can see what a great variety of china and pottery we all have.

Chat again soon, Liz

Jayne at Country Cottage Chic has just posted some lovely pictures of her favourite cups and mugs.

All images owned by copyright holders and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Lots to say about nothing

View of our shop 2007

Hooray ~ I have been into work today; okay so not everyone's idea of a reason to celebrate, but after so long lying around, I was overjoyed to head to my office, sort out a few bits and pieces and remind myself just how much I love my shop and my work.

I spent a couple of very pleasant hours, amongst paperwork and boxes (okay, so now I know I am starting to sound a little weird) and did a little gentle tidying. I was incapacitated when our last delivery arrived, so I enjoyed opening some boxes to check the new arrivals.

Regular visitors will know that I watch very little television, but do watch lots of DVD's of old TV series and I have managed to completely confuse myself this week. I have been watching (loads) of Buffy, 'cos I don't really need to pay attention to it, but I have watched the different seasons out of order and the episodes out of order too. It's very funny that in the mornings one character is being mourned and in the afternoon they are busy fighting monsters! Not helped by drifting in and out of sleep on a regular basis, half an episode can disappear in the blink of an eye (and a few snores). Note to self: next time I am bedbound, find something else to watch.

The following pic was sent to me by a friend, it came on an email entitled 'what our pets do when we are at work' and is pretty much how I have looked for the last couple of weeks (without the beer bottle)

With thanks to the copyright owner
If we come back a second time around, I would like to be a cat please, in particular this cat!

Cecily is coming home again on Wednesday for a few days visit ~ yippee! One of the ongoing themes of my blog is how much I miss my children now that they have both left home. I wonder if it gets any easier as time goes on... I'm not convinced it will; my mother and I talk daily (most days we speak at least 3 times!). I hope Cecily will still ring me and chat about nothing much in particular when I am almost 80.

Emma Bridgewater Polka Dot tea cup and saucer

Well, my favourite tea cup is empty once more, I'm off to persuade Dave that it must be time for a refill, chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

Happy Easter

with best wishes from Liz & Dave

French beds, french furniture

I love French beds, the elegant shapes, the carved detailing on the head board and often the foot board too. I think that the bedroom is the one place that we can let opulance reign supreme and go completely overboard with the romantic look, if that's what we want.

Having spent quite so much time in by bedroom for the last few days, it has really got me thinking about it and about how it's time for a change in here. I love our wall decor and curtains and our bed will stay (it's an enormous thing that takes up half the space in the sizable room). I've decided that I am going to make a padded cover for the headboard, so that it coordinates with our curtains and invest in some new storage furniture.

At the moment, our bed doesn't have a footboard, so I'm going to ask Dave to construct a footboard from mdf and wood to attach to the base of the bed. Then I can make a padded cover for the foot board too and we will have created our own corbiere style bed. When it's time to replace this monster size bed (and we all know that a new bed is required at least once every ten years or less), I think we will downsize a little and have a superking size bed with cream carved detailing (oh dear, I am already planning the changes after next!).

My love of quilts, patchwork, plain, feather or fibre means that I have a lovely (unreasonably big) collection of them here at home and I have now ordered a beautiful armoire in which to store them and I'm going to put fabric panels behind the wire doors. They will then be stored away safely, out of the light that could fade them where I can find them each time I fancy a change on our bed. Each of our quilts gets used on a regular basis, depending on the season, my mood, the bedlinen we are using etc. and I can't bear the thought of parting with any of them (oh no, Dave mumbles over my shoulder), but I do keep finding new ones that I just have to add to my stash.
Well it's time for a cuppa and to get on some paperwork.... chat soon, Liz

All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

Pretty Practicals Spring Sale

Photograph copyright of it's owners.

Pretty Practicals Spring Sale starts today with up to 20% off our usual website prices, including French furniture, shabby chic and country style furniture and accessories.

In praise of....

In a world where things are so often instant, automated and 'asap', I am always delighted to find that there are still so many people who are thoughtful, kind and generous enough to take a little time. Today's post is in praise of...

A Parcelforce employee

Still bedbound for most of my day, I trundled down to our unit this morning to do a little bit of gentle packing and collect the things that I thought I might need to use whilst working from my unconventional office. Thank goodness that we have an enormous bed as I have managed to cover it with files, folders, laptop, books, disks, product samples etc etc!

Shortly after lunchtime, the door bell rang and I hobbled downstairs to find a Parcelforce driver 'just calling to see if you have anything that needed collecting today' because he knew that I am unable to be at the unit all day. Wow, how kind was that? As it was, I didn't have any parcels to go out with Parcelforce today, but he promised to call again tomorrow and if we weren't at the unit, he would pop by the house again to double check there were no deliveries to go out. Amazing ~ what wonderful service!

My husband

Dave has been doing almost twice as much as usual, whilst I am still completely capable of doing all my usual administration tasks, I have not been able to do my share of the sorting, checking and packing of orders, so it has fallen upon him to pick up where I cannot help. He has also been keeping me supplied with endless cups of tea, hugs and encouragement (and more than the occasional chocolate bar). All this, of course, whilst also trying to complete our new catalogue and the other extra work involved in getting ready for our trip to NEC. What would I do without him?

A long distance friend

Lynda lives on the other side of the country and I have never met her as we became friends through work (the wonders of internet working) and ring each other on a regular basis. She has been an absolute inspiration to me over the last week or so, keeping my spirits lifted, laughing with me at the silliness of my situation and coming up with all sorts of brilliant ideas to try once I am back on my feet.

Blogging

It's been lovely to have received so many get well messages from new friends in Blogland, what a clever system that allows like-minded people to share their thoughts, ideas and friendship. Thank you to everyone who has put up with my grizzling for the last week or so.

Taking time out

My enforced bed rest has done more than help to heal my poorly back; it has given me time to recoup so much of the energy that I have used over the last few months. It has given me time to focus on and think about Pretty Practicals and work constructively on our business plan for the next couple of years. Hooray, I probably wouldn't have done this for another six months or so without having taken the time away from the office.

It has also given me the opportunity to watch loads of films that I have promised myself I would watch when I got the time. So even though I would rather have not hurt my back in the first place, it has turned out to have had an upside too!

Chat soon, Liz

All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

Still horizontal

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, as you can imagine, we are really busy at the moment and unfortunately I am still bed bound!

I can use my laptop for short spells, but sitting up for more than about 15 minutes is impossible, so those few minutes at a time are being dedicated to work. As soon as I am up and about once again, I will get back to regular chatting.
Luckily Dave is continuing to supply tea and sympathy, chat soon, Liz

Tea and Sympathy

That superstar husband of mine, who works side by side with me has excelled himself today. He has started printing the fronts of our catalogue on disk and has brought me several designs to look at for my opinion. I am so excited that we have finally managed to get to this point that I really can't choose which design I like the most, no doubt we will come to a decision in the next few days.

On the domestic front, things are not being so kind to me... I have an old and recurring back problem which has decided to rear its ugly head again this week. Under normal circumstances, I have learnt to live with it and work around it, but over the last 10 days or so, my back has been niggling and warning me that it is uncomfortable. On Wednesday, the pain got to the stage that a visit to the doctor was required and so today, I am writing my blog from my makeshift office ~ my large and comfortable bed! I have been here for the last 2 and half days and am so pleased that Dave and I went for a walk on Sunday. If I am to be confined to my bedroom for a few more days, at least I have the pleasure of knowing that we enjoyed some open spaces last weekend.

The upside to my confinment is that I can work steadily on our catalogue and other bits of administration that I would probably have put off doing until a later date. I can't really do much at a time, 15 minutes of being propped up on a huge pile of pillows and I have to lay down again, but I am managing to get on with quite a lot and of course, it doesn't stop me making telephone calls!

The other really great thing about it is that I can now watch a whole day of 6 nations rugby tomorrow without feeling that I ought to be at the shop instead. Dave (what a sweetie) will be holding the reigns at the shop.

I feel incredibly blessed that Dave is such a patient man, he has been running up and down the stairs bringing me tea, toast, meals, letters and other bits and pieces that I have requested, whilst also doing his work too. (Sometimes I remember just how lucky I am to have him as my husband and work partner!).

Much of the furniture that we are taking to the show at NEC arrived this week, but to my frustation, I have been unable to unwrap it and play as no sooner had it arrived than I was ordered to rest my back as much as possible and I am pretty sure that heaving huge armoires around does not count as resting it! Grrr! Once I am up and about again, I will take some pics to share with you.

Today is a bit of a special day in my family; so I just want to wish my mother a Happy Anniversary and hope that you like the flowers and a Happy Birthday to Alec.

As always, a cup of tea is on its way to me, so chat soon, Liz

All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

My beautiful world

This afternoon Dave and I took a very short drive to the Elan Valley, which starts about 2 and half miles from our home and strolled along a river side, climbed up the side of the hill by Pen y Gareg dam and meandered back down along the lane to return to our car. As we had taken our cameras with us, I thought I would share our afternoon with you.

We parked the car and wandered along the riverside path to 'Pooh Stick Bridge', obviously not the proper name for this little wooden bridge across the river, but guess what we do when we're there?

Sadly the current was so strong that our little sticks got dragged under the almost icy water and were carried away before we could take the 4 steps to the other side of the bridge and watch them on their journey downstream.


The air here is so clean (and damp) that mosses and lichens grow on every surface, including all around the trees (usually you only find them on one side of trees). These woods are full of Holm Oaks, planted in former times when there was a tannery in Rhayader (it can now be seen at St Fagans musuem in south Wales). The bark of the tree was used in the tanning process (making leather).

Pen y Gareg dam
Pen y Gareg dam was built during Queen Victoria's reign. One of a series of 5 dams built to capture the rainwater that falls (oh so much and so often) over our small part of Wales. This water then flows downhill all the way to Birmingham. I understand that our corner of the world not only provides us will all the water we need, but also most of Birmingham's water consumption too. I told you it rained a lot here!
We climbed the steep hillside to the top of the dam, stopping as we went, to catch our breath and to enjoy the view and to take a few more pics before we turned around and (rather than go back the way we had come) took the road downhill completing the circle back to our car.


The late winter sunshine on the hill was spectacular, turning the trees red and gold and making a lovely contrast to the shaded trees on the lower part of the hill.
The long road home!
As you can see, spring is very late arriving with us here. Only 15 miles away, a little further down the hills, the daffodils are showing their glorious displays; here we have only just had snowdrops and crocus blooming and it will be a month or so before the daffodils are brave enough to open.

However, today I don't feel the need for sunny yellow daffs; the amazing beauty of the golds, red and browns of bare trees, the purple hues of the slate mountains and the green and silver moss and lichens have enrich our senses and reinvigorated our minds.
Well it wouldn't be a proper tour of any part of rural Wales without a sheep or two. There is a sign not so far from Rhayader that reads 'Mountains lambs are Sweeter'. Every time I saw this sign I used to say 'Aaaah... isn't that cute?' I had lived here for over 5 years before I realised what it really meant!

Anyway we returned home for a lovely cup of tea and slices of warm brown toast; what a great way to spend our afternoon off!
Chat soon, Liz

All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

FREE TICKETS

For anyone who would like to come to The Homebuilding and Renovating Show at NEC in April, I have now added a link on the left so that you can get free tickets - hooray!

Work or play?

What a lovely way to spend an afternoon! I have been styling part of our shop (again) in preparation for more photographs. If, like me, you love interiors, then this is a dream job to be doing and I feel lucky to have so many beautiful accessories with which to work. I realised today that the hardest part of the task is knowing what to leave out!

This pic was taken at the half way stage, when I was still moving accessories around and deciding what to include and what would have to wait until next time.

The photos I have been doing today are for a future project, but need to be done now as printing etc takes a bit of time.

It has been nice to include some of my favourite pieces; the bust of Venus is so effective, she had to be included. The rose print was a great find, it's double mounted with a lovely rich creamy coloured frame and of course features a rose, so that won a place in my photo, as did the vase of faux roses.

Those two big candlesticks are new arrivals, I don't usually like dark candlesticks, but the sheer size and boldness of these bowled me over and they make a great contrast to the pale creamy colours around them.

I'm off to rearrange a bit more, chat soon, Liz

Busy bee

This week things are really hotting up at Pretty Practicals and we've had lots of enquiries about items our new site New Country Quilts. Dave and I have been working hard for days on end to ensure that we are ready for the show in April and to keep things running smoothly and as normal.
The picture above shows how I have been all day... yes running around!

There have been lots of new arrivals at work this week, too many to include pics of all of them, but here's a few that I love and am trying to work out how on earth I can fit them into my home (I never thought I would say this but, I don't have enough bedrooms in our house!).
Red ditzy rose patchwork cushions

Red toile de Jouy cushions


Red Posey quilt at New Country Quilts

One of the things I like about being really busy at work (and even though it means that we have to work quite long hours in the evenings too) is that Dave and I always make sure that we have a bit of time to ourselves and together. This evening Dave cooked dinner and we spent a bit of time chatting about, well, nothing in particular, but it's nice to take a little time out together.

Ooh family news... my mother has a new kitten. It's a little tricolour girlie kitten about 4 months old and came from the Cats Protection people near her home. Mum spent the first 24 hours ringing me at regular intervals to tell me that the kitten was hiding under her freezer and wouldn't come out. The next day, she rang again, this time I could hardly hear what she was saying because Little Miss 'hiding under the freezer and won't come out' was sitting on her lap and purring so loudly. Mum has now named her Bella.

Regular readers will know that I highly approve of this name as our little ginger long-hair cat is also called Bella. After much discussion, Mum and I decided that the two cats wouldn't mind having the same name as they live in different countries (yes, I know, no logic to this discussion, but that's how it often is with Mum and I and it's one of the things I love about Mum so much).

Well, it's kettle duty time, chat soon, Liz

Teddy and me

A couple of weeks ago Jayne at Country Cottage Chic issued a teddy bear challenge and although it has taken me a fortnight to find the picture, I am now pleased to introduce Jane, my much beloved bear. She was my birthday present from my parents and can be seen in the background of this photo behind that somewhat embarrassed looking five year old who was made to stand on her chair while everyone else at the party sang Happy Birthday.

This somewhat cruel tradition of birthday chair standing has continued in my family and I still inflict it in any family member (or friend) who will oblige me.

Jane, my teddy still resides at home, somewhat worse for wear. She had become mostly bald, a truely threadbare bear and was being displayed under my dressing table with several other treasured childhood toys. For some unfathomable reason, Freud (my cat with mental health issues who loves to shred loo rolls) decided one day to give Jane a frontal lobotomy and ate her forehead and then proceeded to strew her stuffing all over the bedroom.

Sadly, I did not discover his surgical trickery until it was too late and he had created a hole in the front of her head about 4 inches in diameter... and now Jane lays on a high shelf, foam brains occasionally spilling out onto the floor.

Chat soon, Liz