Reclaimed pine furniture

Some days it feels like the sun is shining on my corner of the world and everything goes right.

Yesterday was one of those days. Well yes, I realise that the sun was actually shining yesterday, but there was an extra bright glow in the office because after much searching, we have found some seriously gorgeous furniture made from reclaimed pine.

The beauty of reclaimed wood is that it has that lovely mellow patina that only comes with age (or so my Mum tells me!) and has the added bonus of being environmentally kind too.

This new range will be available to order from our new look website, which (fingers crossed) should be ready for you to have a look at by the end of this week ~ hooray!

Well, the only way that the new site will be ready is if I go and get on with working on it and as Dave has already made me a cuppa to accompany the work, I had better go and get on.
Chat soon, Liz

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

Fabulous feedback

Painted florist buckets

I love to get feedback from our customers (even if it's to tell us that we didn't get something quite right) and today's feedback has been a delight. Two customers have just sent me messages to let me know that their orders have arrived safely and here's what they had to say.

Dear Elizabeth and all at Pretty Practicals,

I just wanted to give a big thank you for the items I ordered from you. I saw the metal pitcher in 'Period Living' and fell in love with it. It was exactly what I'd been looking for and had so far had no luck. When browsing your website I also saw the 3 florists' buckets and loved them too, so ordered them as well. Often when one orders online, the goods are never quite as good as the photos but in this case, they were far, far better. They arrived in perfect condition and beautifully packaged so thanks to whoever was responsible. Just thought you'd like to know how pleased I am and that I will be ordering more of your lovely things when funds allow!

Hi Liz, I just wanted to say thank you so much for rushing the 3 tissue box covers to me yesterday they arrived this morning just in time and will really make a special gift to our mum's at our wedding. Well, I'm off to get my beauty sleep... big day tomorrow! Thanks once again I will use your website in the future. Kind Regards Melanie Abrams (Soon to be Mrs Twinley!)

How can not be happy after two such lovely comments?

I hope Melanie (and her fiance) have a wonderful wedding day tomorrow and wish them every happiness in their future married life.

Painted floral jug

I hope you all have a good weekend, chat soon, Liz

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

Two years on

I am a great believer in planning, experimenting and adapting to respond to changes. I don't necessarily do all these things as well as I would like to, but I do them all the same.

In early spring three years ago, I completed a new business plan outlining my vision for Pretty Practicals for the next few years. I carefully set about putting my plans into action and 15 months later (by late June 06) I was ready to present my business to the world. Although I had undertaken some serious market testing beforehand, Pretty Practicals was to be officially launched on 23 July 2006.

My parents have always been amazingly supportive of me and have followed, encouraged, supported, laughed with me and celebrated along the way.

I can hardly believe how quickly the last two years have flown past and this week is especially memorable for me because as I start to celebrate my business's 2nd birthday, there is also a tinge of sadness thrown into the mix.

On 17th July 2006, just 6 days before I officially launched Pretty Practicals, my father passed away. In true Dad-style, a stiff upper lip will be shown by our family tomorrow, a thought or two (and more) will stay in our minds of how much we miss him and then we will celebrate as best we can, all the good things that he gave to us and to everyone who's life he touched.

At Dad's funeral, his closest friend Peter Baskett (who sadly also passed away earlier this year) paid tribute to him, these wonderful words sum him up to a tea. To read this beautifully composed obituary click here.

A new year for Pretty Practicals is just about to begin and I am planning a little party to celebrate, so watch this space and I will tell you all about it shortly.

As always, it's time to put the kettle on,
Chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated. Image on this blog entry is property of Mrs Zorab.

Mirror tissue box cover

This pretty dressing table piece must be one of the most popular accessories with our customers. Almost as soon as we get them back in stock, they are snapped up and sell out again very quickly.

Our delivery this week was double the number of the previous one and guess what? They are selling like hot cakes again!

Well, it's Saturday evening on a typically wet summer's day, Dave and I have feasted on stew and new potatoes (and are now feeling slightly overfed) and are back to our computers. Not as sad as it sounds, we are so close to being able to launch our new look website that I want to just push ahead and get it finished. One or two of my friends have had a sneak preview and tell me that it is looking good and is easy to use... which is the result we have been aiming for ~ hooray!

So here I am, on the sofa surrounded by my cats (well it's wet outside) with early evening entertainment on the telly and I am being entertained, but somewhat cruelly at other peoples' expense. It's some bizarre kareoke thing.

I have never understood the appeal of standing in front of strangers and singing one's little heart out... no hang on, that's exactly what I was doing only two weeks ago in Hyde Park. The difference being that I wasn't on the stage, I was in the crowd with 30 thousand other people also singing their little hearts out.

Mama Mia has come to our local cinema this weekend, but Dave doesn't want to take me in case I start singing and dancing in the aisle, so I will have to wait and take Cecily later in the week (I'll report back on whether we manage to sit still and silently through it).

Well, I have finished my cuppa so it must be time to start a bit more data imputting,

chat soon, Liz

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

Pretty Practicals at The Lounge

At the end of a hectic day at work I took a lovely telephone call...

Last year we supplied lots of mirrors, shelves, trays and a pink chandelier or two to a lovely lady called Michelle who was opening her first hairdressing salon in Brentwood in Essex called The Lounge. We chatted quite a bit on the phone last summer and I have often wondered how her new business has developed. Well, today she rang me to let me know some exciting news.

It is now almost a year since she opened her salon and things have been great and she is loving running her own business (hooray!).

Image courtesy of The Lounge, Brentwood.
She rang to let me know that the interior of her salon will be featured in The Hairdressers Journal magazine that is out tomorrow (11th July) and that Pretty Practicals gets a mention as supplier of the mirrors etc.

I have been to visit her website which has lots of pictures on it and I also spotted a discount voucher for first time visitors to her salon. Michelle and her team are at 41 Kings Road, Brentwood and can be contacted on 01277 232737.

Images courtesy of The Lounge, Brentwood.
I am delighted for Michelle that she is enjoying her work so much (and still with bucket loads of enthusiasm) and I think The Lounge looks just fabulous!

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

Congratulations Nadal

Oh my goodness! What an incredible tennis match. I settled down this afternoon to watch a the final and over the course of the match was joined by both Dave and Cecily. Gripped by the entertainment unfolding in front of us, no-one wanted to head into the kitchen to create supper. So this evening, we finally sat down to eat fresh brocoli and cauliflower soup at 10.30pm. Nevermind, it was the most fun final I have watched for some time.

Just in case you missed the final moments of the match and Nadal's reaction, here's a clip courtesy of BBC Sport. Click here to view.

Chat soon, Liz

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

A weekend in Hyde Park

My good friend Michelle has wants a full report of my weekend in London...so here goes!

I took Cecily to London last weekend to two days of music in Hyde Park at the Hard Rock Calling concerts. We took a train to central London and having booked a hotel close to the train station, we wandered to our hotel and booked in. Early Saturday afternoon we took the 10 minute stroll to Hyde Park and found a great spot to settle down for the rest of the day.

Despite it meaning we were going to have to carry even more stuff, I sensibly took a waterproof backed picnic blanket, which we lay on for most of the weekend. The weather in Wales on Saturday wasn't very nice, but London was experiencing a proper English summer's day ~ it was hot! Liberal amounts of sunblock applied, we were then entertained for 7 hours by a variety of artists (some of whom I like more than others) including Eric Clapton, but actually I spent the day chilling out and relaxing. A lot of the music was a little more country style than I would have chosen to listen to, but I really enjoyed Jason Miraz and John Mayer

Sunday was a better music day for me, every artist that played entertained me more and more and by the early evening when KT Tunstall took the stage I was up on my feet and dancing. The Police ended the evening with their last UK performance (ever!?!) and I was catapulted back 27 years to my college days (I'm not going to share those with you as I wasn't necessarily the best behaved young lady back then!).

The Police gave us 90 minutes of superb entertainment, I sang my little heart out and bopped til it was time to go back to the hotel. Despite the band sporting a few (or more) grey hairs, they had as much energy as I remember from 1981 and I was just as enthralled by their performance. Here's a youtube video that I found whilst looking today So Lonely filmed by JacoStoned

It was a lovely weekend and a great way to celebrate my birthday (I bought these tickets much earlier in the year as a birthday present to myself).

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

Painted furniture Summer Sale

We are delighted to see that the sunshine has finally arrived in Mid Wales and to celebrate summer, we are offering 10% off all painted furniture items ordered before 1st August 2008.

Browse through our painted furniture ranges which include French furniture, country furniture and painted items that are ideal for shabby chic homes.

Many of the pieces in the painted furniture ranges are made to order and can take up to 10 weeks for delivery, but as with so many of the finer things in life, they are worth the short wait.

This offer excludes the Versailles and gilt ranges. To take advantage of Pretty Practicals summer painted furniture sale, orders must be placed and any required deposit must be paid before 1st August 2008.

For further details visit the website at http://www.prettypracticals.co.uk/ or telephone on 01597 811321.



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

Quiet moments

Cecily and I had a wonderful weekend in London and came home on Monday full of energy and completely exhausted at the same time.

Now back at work I have been doing one of my favourite tasks of taking photos of some of our goodies, including this bistro carver chair and gorgeous knitted throw.

Whilst I was busy creating a rather nice 'arty' shot, I discovered that there is a lovely place to sit just outside our unit, in the shade of a tree and surrounded by wild flowers and grasses that are growing there.

Part of me knows that I ought to cut this little patch of grass and make it very neat and tidy, but it is teeming with wildlife who are enjoying the variety of vetches and clovers growing amonst the tall grass. Perhaps I will leave it a little while longer before I cut it all down and give the wildflowers a chance to seed themselves for next year.

Dave and I are still working on the new version of our website; it seems to be taking forever, but I know that a little extra work now will make it even easier for everyone to use and I am really pleased with how it looks so far. I will keep you posted and will announce a launch date in due course.

As always, my tea cup needs a refill, chat soon, Liz
All images and text copyright Pretty Practicals 2006 - 2008 except where stated.