Devon

We have been back form our holiday in Devon for a few days now, but with Hesper being ill all week and beyond, its taken me a few days to get back into blogging or anything really. Despite the weather taken a dramatic turn for the worse and an ambulance being called out for H. in the early hours of the morning we were due to go away...we still had a lovely time. We stayed in a timber lodge set within woodland by a fishing lake near Bideford, very private and scenic. Weather was sunny and rainy spells, and H. was well enough to enjoy herself. 

our holiday lodge (in the middle)

the woodland behind our lodge...gruffalo den?

Hesper on steam train ride at Woody Bay

the beautifully nostalgic Woody Bay train station

a miserable post-rain Hesper trying to avoid the seagulls

view of Lynmouth from Lynton above

Clovelly Donkey ride- her finest moment!

Clovelly harbour

Clovelly

Woolacombe beach

Woolacombe sand dunes

the lodge

feeding the duck outside our lodge one sunny morning

the AMAZING Tunnels Beaches at Ilfracombe

Tunnels Beaches, Ilfracombe

Tunnels Beaches, Ilfracombe

"Verity" by Damien Hirst, Ilfracombe

Best bits:
☞ Steam train ride from Woody Bay, with nostalgic station and carriages
(H was thrilled with this, especially when she got her old-fashioned ticket punched, Polar Express style).
☞ Getting transported from Lynmouth up a steep hill to Lynton, via a Victorian water-powered lift.
☞ The gorgeous Clovelly, Hesper's donkey ride and sitting in the sun with a cold pint by Clovelly harbour!
☞ Woolacombe beach, paddling in the warm sea and sliding down the sand dunes.
☞ Tunnels Beaches at Ilfracombe - Victorians carved tunnels through the caves which lead you to a black beach with natural swimming lidos, rock pools and a backdrop of rocks to explore which all make you feel like you are in another country (until a seagull stole my sarnie!)
☞ Feeding the ducks (and fish) outside our lodge in the sunny mornings and going for evening walks around the lakes and woodland.

I think we will be back to Devon again!

thou shall not take shit

I have left my day job!!!

Last Monday was my last working day. I have dreamt so long about being able to leave, the job has made me feel so frustrated and unhappy and I was starting to believe that I was truly stuck there. After being particularly stressed, we worked out our finances to see if leaving is do-able...and well, I've left now so it will have to be! It also means that my Mum is now freed of her child-minding duties, which was never supposed to be a long term arrangement anyway. I am so excited that I will be able to spend every day with Hesper until she starts school next year. I thought that the only way I would be able to leave was if I won the lottery, but I feel as if I have won it! I get to be with Hesper, I don't have the stress and anxiety that work caused me and now that Hesper is doing two mornings a week at Pe-school, I will get this time to devote to my Etsy shop. The decision really came about by Chris and I deciding once and for all that we need to make ourselves happy now and make the things happen that we really want, otherwise we will end up in (x) years time still unhappy and in the same place. There are many quotes I could choose to illustrate how I feel, so thanks to Pinterest here are a few...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!

Today is my birthday and I just spent a lovely day at home with Chris and Hesper. I had a birthday breakfast of croissants and bucks fizz then basically spent the day opening presents, watching films and lazing around in front of the fire. Might not sound that exciting but after a week of illness and taking the dog backwards and forwards to the vet, it was bliss!

Jon Klassen

// All images via Pinterest //

goodbye Gizmo

Our sweet girl passed away last night after slowly deteriorating for some time. This photo was taken a few years ago when she looked her brightest. We re-homed her when she was about 8 years old and she had about another 8 years with us. She will be missed. RIP Gizzy. x

birthday eve

morning

playing peekbo (not crying!)

opening an early present - her first baking set!

if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!

I have been thinking a lot about interior design lately. This has always been a passion of mine since I was little when I would re-arrange my bedroom furniture constantly, or create miniature room-sets out of cardboard, complete with co-ordinated wallpaper and fabrics! That said, it was not a direction I chose to go in when I was at an age to make these choices, thinking that photography would suit me better. And, although I have had some small successes with photography, it certainly has not worked out as I had hoped. It wasn't until buying my first house with my partner a few years ago that my passion for interior design was fully realised as I became a woman possessed with scrapbooks, magazine cuttings, paint samples... perhaps this was why the photography path had never really worked out for me -  my heart wasn't really in it. So, when I found myself between jobs (one of many spells) I enrolled on an open learning interior design course with KLC, so that I could learn at my own pace. And, I'm ashamed to say that nearly 5 years on I have not even started it properly (despite many abandoned attempts). I just have not been able to undertake it properly whilst working full time and being generally distracted by life. My daughter is nearly 2 now and I hope that I will find it easier to start again as she gets older.

I started screen printing on my maternity leave last year, as a way to keep myself creative and to combine my photographic designs with textiles. I started out with baby clothes, but the intention was always to progress to home wares, which I hope at some point in the future will slot in nicely with my interior design studies (is a design consultancy with my own line in home wares too much to ask for?!)

The relevance of all this is that I started this blog when I began screen printing, as a way to post my designs in progress, new work etc. Fine, but this is not enough to keep me or anyone else interested.  How would anybody know that I am passionate about interior design if I only blog about my latest shop listing?

I need to re-think the way I blog and more importantly WHY I blog.

This blog should be a passion to write and a reflection of all the notes, cuttings and photos I collect of the things that catch my eye and inspire me, whether from interior design, fashion, nature, art....or just the everyday. I know its early days yet, but I hope to make this a blog that I enjoy writing ...and hopefully others will enjoy reading.