Sofas, cushions and crockery

It’s been quite a while since our new sofas arrived. June in fact. Remember they were chosen and bought in record time, on the last day of the Habitat sale, which is actually a good time to go sofa shopping as we did get a good deal and extra discount for buying in store, rather than online. And when we let on to the salesmen we wanted two sofas, not just the one, they really couldn’t do enough for us. In most cases I’m sure people want the sofas they’ve just bought pronto, and so did we, but we weren’t so keen on having them in the house while the work took place in the conservatory, so that was something we

But this is the first time they’ve appeared here - and looking objectively at the picture below we need to sort out our power arrangements - but they’re just what we were after, and now we have the final cushions, the ones we bought recently by Carola Van Dyke I’m really pleased with how it’s all worked out. Originally the cushions behind the stag and hare cushions were supposed to be the colourful ones, but as soon as we saw the collage cushions, they were instantly demoted - it’s easy to see why, isn’t it?

our new sofa bedecked with cushions

Not only is the design of these cushions very us - we have a thing for hares and this is our second stag cushion, so it could be said we have a thing for stags too, but I’m also in awe of the textured collage, and you know how much I like a bit of colour. What’s even better is how well they go with the throw that’s been deployed over the arm of MOH’s end of the sofa, to save it wearing out and discolouring. I couldn’t have planned these to go better together if I tried.

A hare cushion for MOH
A stag cushion for me

Over Christmas in one of the craft groups I’m in on Facebook, someone posted a picture of a cow that takes a similar approach and many of the exceptional craft brains have suggested ways to reproduce that. I’m very tempted, but on a much smaller scale, perhaps on a card, one day. But back to the cushions, I never thought of myself as a tweed kind of person, but these cushions are just my thing, and if it’s possible to be in love with cushions, I’m in love with these.

You might be wondering what crockery has to do with my new sofas and cushions, and the photo below starts to explain that. They’re also my Christmas present from MOH, which I’m doubly grateful for as he doesn’t see why I need more plates, as surely we’ve got enough… Ah, but when they’re as pretty as this, and match our cushions, I think that changes things.

crockery to match the cushions

Now boiled eggs are on the breakfast menu more often than before - and they really are rather good. I’m on the lookout for the matching espresso set, which still seems to be out of stock everywhere - I’ve a suspicion that I may even make my own cow collage, before I find that set online to buy!

double sofas and twice as many cushions

So one last shot of our living room, which is the view that greets us as we walk down the stairs. I’ve gone for different cushions on the smaller sofa, as the whole matchy-matchy thing really isn’t me. I’ve still a cushion cover to make, and when that’s ready I’ll share more on the velvet cushions (with pom poms - I told you they’d be big in interiors) it’ll sit alongside.

But with ten new cushions in 2018 - there’s three more on the grey sofa in the conservatory, you’ve already seen the orange stag cushion and a sneak peek at the cushion mum made, also with pom poms - I think I’m almost at my cushion fill, well for a little while at least!

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Looking towards 2019 with tenacity

Sitting down to write this post I looked back at my similar post from this time last year where I pledged to be kind to myself. As I read through it I realised that many of the things I set out to achieve didn’t materialise and I was a bit downhearted.  Although I knew that often they didn’t happen for good reason rather than just life’s busyness, although at times I think that and the lethargy that had been building over the year played its part too it was still a disheartening read.  But it was only as I remembered I was meant to be being kind to myself that I realised that I had been after all.  Had I been driven by achieving everything, quite honestly I think something would have had to give.

So while I didn’t achieve everything I set out to, and while sometimes it’s been quieter here than I’d have hoped, and I haven’t been as on top of things everywhere, that’s ok as 2018 has been a tricky year for us.  But it’s been one full of family time with commitments reevaluated and with plenty of highs to counterbalance some of the lows.  We lost my FIL relatively quickly to cancer, but we’ve also celebrated eightieth birthdays for both mums with afternoon tea and a surprise weekend in Birmingham and that impromptu trip the ballet.  There’s been holidays, but not the big trip to the US as we thought, as it was more important to be able to get home quickly if we needed to.

There was some big work on the house with our conservatory revamp, and smaller jobs too with some new wallpaper, which you’ll already know I’m very pleased with.  Our garden - and time working in our garden - suffered though as there wasn’t much time to spare and we reluctantly also gave up our plot, as that was one thing too far, even for us. 

Overall though, I was kinder to myself, despite my first reaction when reading last year’s post.  I was still busy, and it was a busy year at work as well and as ever there was still lots to do (and most of it got done), and there was a promotion for me at work too.  However, the biggest act of kindness was finally taking myself to the doctors towards the end of the year and giving myself permission to slow down.

It’s clear that in 2019 I need to continue the kindness - and build on it - so the word I’ve chosen for this year is tenacity.  I’ve a feeling that I’ll need to approach this year with determination, patience and persistence and it’s a word that works in many ways, whether that’s related to pursuing my health to make sure I get the right answers, crafting and learning new skills and of course, booking that big holiday which is back on again, and this year we’re determined to make it happen.

We’ve a family wedding to look forward to as well and a milestone birthday for my dad, and who knows what other celebrations the year will bring.  No doubt there’ll be the usual house jobs to do, many left over from last year and we’re hoping to really make progress with the garden again, making sure we schedule in plenty of time to enjoy it too.

It’s not just our garden that we’re planning to enjoy, MOH has already started a list of restaurants and pubs we should visit, and more ambitiously I’ve places for weekends and short-trips.  I’ve some photo books to put together for the past three years, and I’ve some plans for my blog too, which include sharing many of the older photos which for whatever reason haven’t made it here yet. 

I knew I had a few posts that I wanted to write and photos to share, but seeing just how many means I won’t run out of content any time soon, and that’s without even doing anything new!  But even so, 2019 already feels like it’s got potential to be a busy year, and I’m sure that we’ll do our best to influence how it plays out as best we can, as much as any of us can.

What’s on your radar for this year?

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

My year in gardens

In this post I’m taking a wander back through my own garden and the gardens I’ve visited to share some highlights of my gardening year. Not surprisingly May and June were busy gardening months, what with visits to the Chelsea Flower Show and Gardeners’ World Live, so once again there’s one or two more photos than I set out to include.

As you’d expect my year in gardens got off to a slow start, and in January I pondered the changes in my succulent in a tin. Over the winter months it had gotten much smaller and much greener than it had been, which is something I’d not noticed before.

By February though I’d remembered that the glasshouses at Wisley were warm, and so we headed off for a visit and saw the butterflies again. i didn’t capture as many of the butterflies as I had before, but our visit was no less enjoyable, and the orchids caught my attention too.

There still wasn’t much actual garden activity in March and instead I looked back to our visit to Compton Acres the year before. It’s a small independent garden in Poole, Dorset - and actually it’s probably not that small, it’s a great place to visit and I’ve still some more to share from there. The Memory Garden had a poignant story, and I snapped a favourite photo there too.

We’d visited Devon earlier in the year, but our weekend was cut short as the snow came in, but not before we’d spent some time exploring the gardens at Cannington and Hestercombe, which will feature later in this post. And I remembered that glasshouses are warm mantra and we spent some time in the tropical zone.

By April I was out in my own garden for a proper look around, the first one of the year - and despite the snow the month before, the cherry blossom was already out. We should have known back then that it would be a crazy weather year.

I also shared some photos from our visit to Hestercombe, and the symmetry and elegance of the Edwardian formal garden shows that with good structure gardens can look good at any time of the year. Hestercombe is another independent garden which is well worth a visit, and along with Cannington and my desire to visit both formed the plans for our route to Devon on this trip. Seriously. And it was worth it.

May is a busy gardening time, but I found some time to potter in the greenhouse and take care of my succulent babies - just look how many they were. Succulents are a favourite, as you probably know, but I also like them as they’re pretty self-sufficient too, which this year has been a very good thing.

MAY: SOME TIME FOR A TOUCH OF GARDENING

MAY: SOME TIME FOR A TOUCH OF GARDENING

May also saw me head to the Chelsea Flower Show on Press Day, and I couldn’t not include one of those posts in my year in gardens. As I’ve already included part one of the highlights in my year in photos, it felt only right to include the second part here which focuses on the Grand Pavilion and its two football pitches of loveliness - and yes, I think I walked almost every part of it. The displays throughout the show, are as you’d expect, simply stunning.

In June we were off out and about again, this time at Gardeners’ World Live - my first time at the show. It was another day of much walking trying to cover as much of the exhibits as possible. There were plenty of favourites, but I think my overall favourite was the Made in Birmingham garden, which I’ve realised this is the only photo I’ve shared of it - I’ll have to put that right this year.

In July we had a week in Yorkshire and clocked up a number of garden visits there, some of which I’ve already shared as part of my year in photos, so for this post I’m heading back to Chelsea again and sharing this amazing structure by Tom Raffield, which I impressed myself with by recognising his work. It is quite distinctive though, and beautiful too.

The warm summer months meant there wasn’t much gardening taking place in our garden even when we had time even if we didn’t have the energy or inclination, but we were able to spend some time enjoying the weather and our garden’s fragrance. It was our best year for honeysuckle, and the jasmine came into its own in the warm summer evenings too - I can smell it now, heaven.

My gardening bug started to return by September, and I finally got around to planting some of the herbs I’d bought into the triangular spaces between our gabion seating. I’d hit on an ingenious idea to line the spaces with an old compost sack, which seems to have worked a treat.

As the weather cooled slightly we started to garden more, we needed to tame some of our plants which hadn’t seemed to slow their growth that much despite the heat. With MOH around less, and me being a wobbly wreck when up a ladder meant that the pruning and trimming higher up just wasn’t happening, as I was loathed to wobble up a ladder when he wasn’t around. Normally he’ll hold the ladder still for me, occasionally I’ll persuade him up there instead of me directing where he should cut from the ground, but either way I wasn’t keen on toppling off and having to pick myself up.

And to partly combat that we bought ourselves a new ladder, and one that we’d been contemplating for a while. Back in May MOH had tested one out at Grand Designs Live and I’d ogled them at Chelsea too. In October our ladder got its first try out, and not a wobble in sight, phew.

Then November saw a series of weekends away, we were only home for one weekend and that’s because I refused to go anywhere. One of our trips was to our fourth RHS garden of the year, and so the clear contender for this month’s photo was the autumny orangeness (and other colours) of pumpkins at RHS Rosemoor.

Which neatly brings us to December, and another reflection in water. Not quite such pretty surroundings as the photo from March, but a stunning reflection under our cherry tree with one of the stunningly blue - and for December, warm - skies. 2018 certainly delivered all kinds of weather, and not always in the season we expected.

So despite much less gardening for us this year, there was some and there were plenty of garden visits too. If anything there was possibly less garden related posts here on the blog, but the good news is there’s plenty more to come.