Special Ops

I've had some news, sort of not good news, followed by very good news indeed...

My sister (my inspiration, my mentor, my friend) was taken poorly yesterday and was rushed off to hospital to discover that, without any warning, she had developed appendicitis overnight! The doctors took her off to the operating theatre and in the small hours of the morning (last night) they removed the offending object. This morning, my amazing sister has got up and showered, feels fine and all being well, she will be back at home tomorrow. She is hopeful that she will be allowed to go on her planned rather special holiday to Corfu on Monday!

Now if this had been me taken into hospital yesterday and had an invasive proceedure during the night, I would still be lying in the hospital bed moaning and crying. Would I be up and about, showering and thinking about coming home? I don't think so! Would I be contemplating going on holiday next week? Absolutely not! She is just incredible, she's so fit and healthy, so active and full of life that I guess she has just bounced right back. She has yet again proved to be a complete inspiration to me. I wish a full and speedy recovery and send her all my love.

Dave and I have been working flat out over the bank holiday weekend and since, my fault really. I casually mentioned a while ago that I would like to revamp the website, so that our new ranges of furniture, spongeware etc are easy to find. As a temporary measure, Dave changed some of the catagories on the existing site, but unbeknown to me, he started to write a whole new look site for Pretty Practicals and he presented the bare bones to me late last week. Since then we have been working together to build on the skeleton site and create something that we are both happy with. It seems ages since we did this task, we both really like this process of sitting side by side working on different aspects of the same project.

I don't have a very good sense of spatial awareness, at least not when I am just looking at a page full of programming code (remember The Matrix?) and sometimes I accidentally delete a vital piece of coding thinking that I am changing one part of a page, only to discover that I have just wiped out two whole days worth of work. It's a good job that Dave knows that I am prone to doing this and very carefully makes copies of every stage of his work.

Well, it's still going to be a while yet before I can show you the new look site, but I'll keep you up to date with our progress.

Chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Romsey country chic furniture

I have sourced some furniture that ticks all my boxes for the
perfect country chic look. Not only that, but it is made from reclaimed pine, so it is also that litle bit more environmentally friendly, hooray!

Our new Romsey range has a very lightly distressed paint finish with natural wood tops and comes in white, soft cream, soft sage green or powder blue.

The Romsey bedroom range has a single, double and kingsize bed and lots of different size wardrobes, chests of drawers and dressing table.

Romsey double wardrobe with drawers


The dining room furniture has a wide choice of dining tables, dressers and sideboards.



I love the Romsey freestanding kitchen furniture, regular readers will know that I yearn to replace my outdated and battered kitchen (and these pieces would be wonderful in it).



The living room furniture in this range includes some clever coffee tables with drawers for extra storage, bookcases, television and video units and console tables.

I love the look and feel of this range and I think you can tell that I am very excited to be stocking it!
Well as always, it's time for the kettle to go on, chat soon, Liz

All images in this post copyright of the supplier and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Poppies, peonies and visitors

Summer is definitely on it's way in our corner of the world, the garden is full of flowers (amongst the weeds), their little jewel colours twinkling away all over the place.

Yesterday I listened to the weather forecast for the rest of the weekend, wet and windy and just the kind of elemental assault that would destroy the delicate petals of some of my favourite blooms. So in an attempt to ensure that summer stills gets to shine in our home over the weekend, I picked a handful of flowers and brought them inside.

Because I wanted to show you how gorgeous these flowers are, I took a few pictures and then realised that I might just get a couple of them printed onto canvas to use as wall art.

On Friday evening, I was sitting out on our back steps and a spotted one our regular garden visitors. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing...


7.30pm, it was still light and Philomena (yes, we name the hedgehogs!) came trundling up the path and headed straight for the cat food bowl. We see our spikey friends from early spring to early winter on a nightly basis, at least 5 of them that come each night (there may be more, but the most we have seen together is 5), but they do at least usually wait for the cover of darkness before they devour the contents of the cat's bowls.

They are amazingly good at clearing up the back yard, we often put out a chicken carcass for the cat's to pick the last of the meat from and guaranteed that by the morning, not a bone is left in the yard. The hedgehogs will wander off with half a carcass if they can. Some nights it is too dark to see the brown hedgehog, but we can see the white chicken bones moving off down the garden path (it's almost a ghostly vision of the bones seemingly floating above the ground!). Dave realised that somewhere in our garden there must my a great pile of bits of bone, I wonder what the archeologists will make of it in years to come.

Well, the weather forecasters were right, today it is pouring with rain and very blustery out there, I had hoped to spend a couple of hours in the garden today, but that's looks unlikely. So I have settled down on the sofa with laptop to hand and will enjoy my garden via my photos instead.

Chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Country Summer Looks

Every season brings a new look, new variations on a theme; so here are our thoughts for interiors for summer 2008...

Gingham Lamp

Colourful ginghams, spots and stripes
Accent items in fresh red and white, blue and white and bold lollipop brights. Lampshades, cushions, tablecloths and even cutlery and tableware can add a splash of summery cheerfulness to your home and garden.

Rosebud duvet cover set at New Country Quilts our specialist soft furnishing website.

Little floral prints
From dresses to accessories, bags to bedding, ditzy little flowers in abundance provide a light and feminine note to our homes.

Chichester painted furniture Farmhouse Table

Good Wood
Painted furniture with natural wood tops and handles, the warm colour of pine, beautiful oak and rich mahogany. Mix and match painted pieces with furniture that displays the natural beauty of the wood grain for a traditional country look.

French style dressing table

All things French
Our love affair with chic French interiors continues with fresh blue toile de Jouy fabrics, vintage signs and lots of beautiful reproduction French furniture (and a little of the sunshine from the French Riviera would be nice!).

Whatever your favourite style... let's hope this summer is a glorious one.
Chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Back in Blogland!

Cherub bust
Hooray, hooray, hooray! My blog is working once again... a technical gremlin got into my blog system about 10 days ago and it got progressively more difficult to upload pictures and finally it just ground to a halt a few days ago. Dave has finally managed to sort it out, but I now have to do something hideously complex to put images onto my blog. Do I care at about the added complexities? ... no siree, it is great to be back in the world of chatter once again.

Thanks to Jayne over at Country Cottage Chic for letting people know that I was having difficulties and if you haven't discovered Jayne's blog yet, it is well worth a read. She is jolly creative and has loads of energy so is regularly out and about doing things.

Today has been an endless task of uploading images to the website and creating adverts for items (this is not the most interesting, fun or stimulating part of my job, but it is an essential one, so I won't moan too much) and after almost 10 hours of it, I finished for the day and am delighted to be able to blog for a little bit.

Parisienne house tidy
Last week was totally different to my usual routine, I spent two days doing local deliveries, well actually not so local, two of them were over 100 miles away, but that's almost local when you consider that the 'local' Sainsburys is 50 miles from home! Unfortunately, one was 100 miles north and the other 100 miles south, but I did get to rent a huge van to drive, which was good fun!
One of our suppliers usually delivers to us on a Thursday or Friday, but last week they arrived on Monday afternoon (which was great because we were able to get people's orders out to them earlier than usual).
A friend has hurt her back, so I helped out in her shop a little towards the tail end of last week, it was nice to be able to help her out a bit as she has always been so supportive to me.
We had friends to stay with us over the weekend and although I couldn't spend very much time with them, it was lovely to see them. But all in all, my usual gentle routine was sent to ruin, so this week I am looking forward to getting back into my usual work rhythm and domestic routine.
Country chic spongeware mug

And as usual, my tea mug is empty, so it must be time to put the kettle on, chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.

Hampton Oak

Hmm... there is something up with my blogger system at the moment and I am unable to publish blog entries, so here I am writing a blog that I know no one will be able to read for a little while. But here goes...
Hampton solid oak sleigh bed
I have been having great fun over the last week or so sourcing a couple of new ranges of furniture that will give you even more choice. These lovely new ranges have a distinctively country feel, but I think I will introduce them one at a time.

The Hampton collection is made from solid oak with a dark oak finish. The bedroom collection includes a sleigh bed, a choice of 4 wardrobe sizes, chests of drawers, dressing table set and bedside tables.

I have started listing this collection on the website and have completed the bedroom furniture and over the next few days will finish adding all the dining room furniture.

Hampton solid oak extending dining table

Well, I'm off to do a bit more listing, chat soon, Liz

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

Are you sitting comfortably?

Black velour chesterfield chair.

When I was little (really little) my mother would listen to The Archers and I would accompany her, not listening to the series at all, but simply waiting for 'my programme' to begin. Listen with Mother was a highlight of my day. Despite our family being fortunate enough to have a telly set well before televisions were commonplace, I don't remember watching it much before I was 7 years old, but Listen with Mother was my (almost) daily friend. I remember my mum lifting me up so that I could sit on the kitchen worksurface to listen intently to the voice that filled our kitchen.

In our drawing room we had splendid 1960's 3 piece suite, grey nylon, course short hairy fabric and everso firm, it was filled I think with horsehair as I remember the prickly feeling of it on the back of my legs. I am sure my parents would have had something that was very a la mode, I have always admired their sense of style and their ability to put items together to create an up to the minute look or forward thinking style.

In the very early seventies, we spent quite a bit of time in Scandinavia and when my parents had an extension built onto their house in Gloucestershire, they asked the architect to create a Swedish style room. They created an open plan, high ceiling room with vast pine beams and windows set into the wall near the ceiling (about 12 feet up the wall). A huge window seat ran along the whole length of one wall with a big picture window to look out of. Two enormous sofas covered in William Morris's Golden Lily (in brown) graced the space and a chrome and glass coffee table sat between them. They used accessories that we had bought in an amazing furnishing store in Sweden, my friends were in awe at the newness, the unusual style and the chicness of these things. I guess in 1974 IKEA was unheard of in the UK!

Without realising it, Mum and Dad influenced my future business by subtly instilling in me an appreciation of my surroundings and sense of what goes together, what works and what doesn't. I realise more and more that nowadays I may not share someones love of a particular look or style, but I can really appreciate the concept behind it or the care with which things have been selected or placed together.

Red toile de Jouy cushion with feather inner.
This is one of the reasons why I stock such a variety of ranges of furniture, not because I can't make up my mind, but because I realise that one person's grey, itchy coarse hairy sofa is another persons dream piece of furniture.
Chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

Family, friends and food

Just arrived, 2 angels figurine at Pretty Practicals

It's been a busy few days, but full of fun and laughter.
On Tuesday evening I went out for a meal with my mum and my sister, her partner and a couple of friends. We went to the Rattlebone Inn in Sherston on the Wiltshire Gloucestershire border. The food was superb and we had a lovely evening. My sister was celebrating one of those significant birthdays that I won't reach for a little while longer yet and I just want to say for the record, that if I look as good as she does when I reach her age, I will be delighted. I certainly didn't look too lovely when I got into the car at ten past six the next morning to make the two and a half hour journey home, so that I could be back in the office before 9.

Dave and I have continued to make in-roads into the garden and I can see that it won't take too long to get it back into shape. I am already starting to look at some lovely ironwork for the garden, I would like a gazebo or summerhouse out there but haven't decided on which one yet. The wonderful weather of the last few days has really spurred us on to make it a beautiful place for us to relax and enjoy this summer.

Work has been really busy. I love it when things are buzzing at work, the day just flies by and I get a real sense of acheivement from seeing people's orders leaving us with the couriers. I have been selecting a range of summer garden items for Pretty Practicals and am looking forward to leisurely picnics by the lakes with the Green Rose Picnic Blanket and the Deluxe Picnic Basket Set.

I've added new items to the website and new stocks of some old favourites and Dave is still busying himself in the background creating a project I have asked him to work on... I will reveal all soon. The response to our postcard on the front of Period Living magazine has been amazing and I am methodically working my way through the hundreds (and hundreds!) of requests for more information about Pretty Practicals. So if you have requested more info, please bear with us, your catalogue on disk (for the computer) will be with you very soon.

Well, it's time for a fresh cuppa, chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

CATALOGUE AMENDMENT

Please note the following amendment to our catalogue Summer 2008.

3 MIRROR STARS, order number ECR035, price should read £89.00

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

Vivid imagination

Just outside our back door is a large pathed area that is covered by a huge carport creating a super place for us to sit or dine when the weather is suitably warm. Obviously as it is covered we can sit outside in the warm even when it is raining (yippee) and enjoy the fresh air and this afternoon I gave our white wire table and chairs a wash down in preparation for many meals I hope to have al fresco. In the height of the summer I usually take a day bed out there too, so that I can lie in the early evening warmth and read a book. I wish it looked as lovely as the picture below; this is the same dining set as ours, but our garden has a bit more 'character' (if weeds, chaos and overgrown wilderness creates character!).

(Suppliers photograph)
Garden Progress... Today the weather has been sunny and dry but windy too, and now the light is starting to fade due to the thick rain clouds that hovver above us. I spent a little time in the garden, snipping (hacking) away some overgrown branches and discovering that one of the forsythia plants has grown long branches that have now rooted themselves in the soil, so I now have about 6 plants. I have no idea what I can do with them and guess that they will end up in one of the compost heaps.

I also discovered that one of my favourite trees has a disease. I was given a cutting of a twisted willow tree about 15 years ago and have nurtured it and bought it with me from our last house, but sadly large parts of it have turned black and died off. This started some time last year and I thought that it had just suffered in the awful weather of last summer, but on close inspection, it looks like I am going to lose it completely this year.

I can't wait to get the garden back to it's former glory, I created an absolutely lovely garden when we moved here, full of large bloomed peonies and blousey roses, clipped box hedges and masses of colourful groundcovering plants. As Pretty Practicals has got busier, I have had less and less time to spend in the garden and last year I was unable to do anything out there, it was either raining or I was unable to get to the garden. So this year, there is so much to do, but in my imagination I will be able to cut a vase of beautiful blooms for our dining table on a regular basis, just like I did in previous years.(Supplier's photograph)

So in the meantime, I will be cheering dining table with this lovely bunch of faux flowers in a small round vase.

Time for another cup of tea, chat soon, Liz

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

Taming the wilderness

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few years ago we had an enormous cedar removed from our garden. Planted as it was only 18 feet away from the back door, it must have looked very pretty when it was younger; when we moved to our home in late 1999 it had grown higher than the chimney pots on top of our four storey house! It had to go, the shadow it cast kept the rear of the house in almost darkness for much of the day and I dread to think where the roots of the beast had spread to. So John (an amazingly brave tree surgeon) did his magic and during the course of a single day, not only took the evergreen down to ground level but also used the chipping machine to produce a mamoth size pile of fir tree chippings for us to use in the garden. The wood has been stacked around the garden and is slowly being used on our open fire in the dining room ~ I suspect we will still be using it by the time we retire!

All down one side of the garden there is a flower bed which is about 5 feet wide (from front to back) and about 90 feet long. The day after the tree came down I weeded the flower bed, laid down a weedproof membrane and laid a 8 - 10 inch layer of the wood chippings over it. ' Job done!' I thought to myself, 'it will never need to be tackled again.' Now call me naive or optimistic (or both), but I truely imagined that I would never have to deal with an onslaught of bindweed again in that flower border ~ wrong!

Today I wandered out into the garden and thought I would tidy up the long flower bed a bit. Having been laid up in my bed for most of last summer (with this stupid recurring back injury), nothing was touched in the garden and it now resembles a truely wild place.

The local wildlife can't believe their luck and I know that the garden is home to at least 5 hedgehogs, too many frogs for it to be polite, at least one stoat (there may be more but we've only seen one) and today we think that a mole has moved in too. The local birds have feasted on seeds on the plants all winter, used dried seed heads and dried weeds to line their nests and now the summer visiting house martins have arrived too ~ at least they live under the eaves of the house for the summer, but they love all the midges and flying insects that also reside here. No doubt the bats are out and about, but I haven't spotted them yet this year.

My cats on the other hand have requested that I clear a space amongst the weeds so that they can dig a hole or two when they need to 'go'. Doing the necessary on tufty grass and stinging nettles can't be very nice, so I have listened to their pleas and will be tackling a small space at a time this year (being mindful of the aforementioned back issues).

Anyway, back to the long flower bed... clearing the few annual weeds that are starting to pop up all over the place, I pulled gently on a teeny weeny piece of bindweed that had managed to settle in the chippings. To my horror this teeny weeny stem was attached to a massive network of horrible white roots that resembled a plate full of spaghetti. How did that happen so quickly? The entire bed is covered in bindweed ~ above my weed suppressing membrane in the 'easy to push your roots through' chippings. Oh blow, I am back to square one!

So tomorrow, weather permitting, I will tackle a little more of the spaghetti problem and clear a few weeds. Once the garden is in a fit state to be seen I will post a few pictures.

Chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2007 and 2008 except where stated.

CATALOGUE NEWS

We have now sent our the first batch of our catalogue on disk, please note that this disk is designed for use in a computer and may not be able to be read if used in a DVD player.

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