Blimey, where does time go?
When Gav and i decided to give up our respective jobs and move here to Montgomery and set up our own businesses, i really thought it would be more relaxing, that our lives would move at a slower pace, much slower. Was i just naive in thinking that? Because i've never worked so hard in all my life as i do here! Granted i'm my own boss and no doubt that has it's advantages, but i think it also makes for harder, more intense work because it's for yourself rather than someone else.
It's not a whinge about my lifestyle at all, just an observation and despite all the hard work involved i much prefer it.
Lots of things going on here at both the Armoury and Indigo Moon, our feet don't seem to touch the ground. Except for about an hour after the shop closes and we sit in the garden with a glass of chilled wine!
Firstly, this is a piece i've been working on recently, it seems to be taking ages, it's no where near finished and it's all i've done recently too, the shop and the house are taking up all my time at the moment.
I'm almost ashamed to show you this! My art room/studio (or as my daughter calls it "that magical room of wonders" - usually when she wants something art related)
It's a complete mess at the moment, so bad in fact that i can hardly get in it. Nicci has stolen my olde worlde table and i've got an ikea one (which i have to admit is a little more useful).
This is what it will look like one day!
I found these photos on Pinterest (although i'm sure even this art studio doesn't look like this all the time!)
perfect storage, i think i'll look out for one of these
A lovely surprise in the post last week (or possibly the week before) from my mother (in-law) - a thank you for a lovely week they had with us and for looking after them. I've never had flowers in a card before, they were beautiful.
They also did the window boxes outside for us whilst they were here, which i'm very grateful for.
Saturday afternoon saw us heading across to Bracebridge Heath in Lincoln to Tony's annual garden party
Lincoln Cathedral in the distance
Malcolm Morley playing
What a fantastic evening, Tony and Monica are perfect hosts and it's such a pleasure to spend time with them and other friends. We managed to meet up with Jas and Helen whom we haven't seen since the wedding, so it was really nice for us.
We got back late on Sunday, having already planned to open the shop at 1.30pm (instead of 12) and had put a note on the door. Unfortunately, we were later than expected and didn't get back till 2.30pm to find people waiting at the door wanting to buy some things they'd seen the day before. As we were rushing out of the car to open up for them we discovered we were locked out! Nicci had lost her own key for the front door and slid the bolt across and then used the shop key to go out of the shop door to work, thus leaving us completely locked out with customers waiting to get in the shop. However they very kindly and patiently waited whilst gav found his way around the back to retrieve the ladders to climb in through the bathroom window. Turned out to be the best sale of the day!
Monday we decided to take a trip over to Ironbridge and then later on to ikea (just to get me some small tables for my art room). Ironbridge was lovely as usual, Nicci came with us, we had a lovely lunch and a walk around in glorious sunshine.
My gorgeous girl
camera shy
Now this i'm really excited about!
We're doing some more work on the kitchen and this is part of some very old shelving we found in a junk shop in Oswestry a few weeks ago. We thought it would look amazing in our kitchen, and it does! We removed the horrible ikea wall cabinets and replaced them with this!
This is what it looked like painted
I love these little "shelf sitters" (don't say it too quickly), i found them in a charity shop in Newtown, they look so serious!
This is the dresser we brought in from the shop to make room for something else, it looks great filled with the T G Green stuff.
This is my next project to paint
And gav's next project is to fit the new sink we bought from ikea (like the one in this photo below). We didn't intend too get a sink, but when we saw this one it was perfect. We need new worktops but it's such a time consuming job. Unfortunately the kitchen was a disaster when we moved in, the sink is far too low down and wasn't fitted at an angle so the water could drain out. Also there was no draining area and water soon rotted the top of the wood away behind the tap (due to a leaky tap), it was a mess, and this is a good way to deal with the problem with the least amount of work.
When that's done i'm going to remove all the doors off the horrible ikea base units and fit skirts (or curtains) like below. I've seen some gorgeous fabric and i have a lot of vintage pieces in my art room so am toying with the ide of making up my own from scraps - but that's just an idea at the moment.
I love this one
I have tons of photos of Indigo Moon, it's changed a lot, but i'll have to do it in another post - maybe tomorrow. Bye for now.
