Bleak House

I have been following loads of your blogs and you are all thinking of how you are going to decorate your houses and projects this christmas, well I am having a bleak time here.

Somerset house is set in 1810-1820, thus before the christmas tree was place in the home, and The Georgians had very little decorations.

My toy shop has no room for a tree and decorations, I have tried in previous years.

My childhood kitchen, my mum would never allow decorations in here.

So I'm stumped, I think decorations here will have to be on just the big scale, unless I come up with a plan for another project, or should I just ignore the period of my house and put a tree in there anyway, I did have a tree the first christmas, but realised it was Victorian not Georgian and I have always checked the timeline of items to ensure everything is right.

Day and Night

Last weekend the clocks went back, so it now gets dark here an hour early.
I love this time of year, you get home to a bright warm house.

This includes my office, I love to light my projects,
I often sit in my office whilst on my computer with the main office light off
and just the mini lights on.

Below I have all the lights on but with my remote control lights
I can choose what to have on at any time, click on this link to see how I managed to create this.

This photo below does not show how good the house looks in the dark.

I am going to add bricks to the side of Somerset house today, a job which should have been finished along time ago.

I also want to move my shelves down so my rooms boxes are eye level, at this time they are a bit high, I will have to search for another place to keep my Xyron cutter which I use for my card making.

A mini day at last....

Yesterday I was feeling really good, 1st time for a while.

So I spent the afternoon inside Somerset house, I was able to plug in all my lamps, in each room I have placed a socket in each corner, this enable me to change lamps and to add things without having to go to the lighting controls at the back of the house, since I brought this system I have found this very use full. The rooms are all tidy since the house move, I have not changed anything around, just took out a few summer things. I am also pleased since the move I have resisted using this area to dump things and it's staying tidy.
One job I have to finish is putting the card bricks up the side of the house, I did get them out yesterday but did not start them, but I'm not going to pack them away, I have a plumber in tomorrow and will have a go whilst he is working in the sitting and dining rooms attaching our new radiators to our system.

Internation Swap

I am taking part in the International swap arranged by Caterina

The rules are very simple, our names are put into a random list,
you post 3 items to the next name on the list
and the person before you sends you three items.

The items are,
1 Christmas
1 Toy
1 Autumn

What a great way to meet new friends.
I am sending my three items to Gonda, from the Netherlands
I should receive a parcel from Flora, from Italy

Blogging is such great fun, I am unable to go out much, yet here I travel the world and see the most wonderful things made by the most talented ladies in our hobby.

I am not able to stand for any time, so I have done nothing to my house, I have been making Christmas ornaments for a swap. My daughter Fliss has had her baby a week early and I have been visiting her, which tires me out, you can see a photo of Samuel here on my other blog, everyone is doing well and hopefully mum and baby will be home later today.

A parcel arrives

On Saturday my parcel from Peggy arrived, I was feeling unwell, due to the side effects of the chemo, so it was very nice timing. I love everything purple so the box was wonderful, another nice storage box. Peggy thank you so much for your kind gift.

The contents are a delight, I have a place for everything, the flowers in the pot have been place in my terrace garden, and nice splash of colour, the bird house I have in front of my beach house, I have loads of birds in this project, so it fits well. The crown, I am not so sure, maybe if I think abit, I might be able to make a scene for it!

As for the chair and the picture, in Somerset house I have the grown up daughter's yellow unfinished bedroom, I have been unsure what details to use, but now I have added these items, the scene is set. The daughter of the house has been to France and has fallen in love with every thing french, her father made his money in shipping, so she is able to bring things back, I will have to study this style, it's not one I have thought about before, but it gives me food for thought, watch this space.

I still am unable to find the dresser for my basement, I think I am going to have to pull all my stuff out from my under stair cupboard, a good reason to give it all a sort, but not this week.

Kev wants to take me away to Exeter later this week for two days, if I am well enough, just to rest, our small hotel has a swimming pools so we could have a lazy couple of days. So fingers crossed I will be up to it.

Swap time

How wonderful all the Chilean miners are now rescued,
it's so good to hear a good news story.
I spent yesterday watching them coming out one by one.

I think this is the 3rd international swap, initiated by Caterina. This year I have decided to join.

This time the requirement will be to make 1 Christmas item, 1 toy and 1 item that reminds me of autumn.

If you want to join in, you have until October 23rd to leave a comment on Caterina's blog.


I have brought these precut flowers for my terrace garden, I hope they will save me a bit of time, and I love the colours on there, Thursday is my mini day, but I am going to visit my daughter today, so mini's tomorrow, I will post the results good or bad later.

Just a Quicky

Just a quick note to thank Peggy, I have won her giveaway, 1st time for me to win, so I am very excited, can't wait for the tiny package to arrive.

It's such fun to see giveawys, I only enter when the item is something I can use in my projects, it's such a good way of bringing every one together, once my followers have reached 150, I have some nice kits ( well I like them) to have as a giveawy.