Norfolk

My special place...
One day we will move there, I dream of daily walks on the beach, cloud watching, countryside walks, lovely country pubs after a long stroll and our favourite quaint tea shops. Oh and reading a book in the beautiful gardens at one of my favourite national trust properties, Blickling hall.

Yes, I have decided that Norfolk will be my home one day. But for now, we visit it as often as possible to visit my parents and take a step back from the fast pace of life.

It's good to have a focus, a goal to aim for. But this is one plan which will have to be a long term goal for now. It's good to dream though, don't you think?

Maileg Collection 2014

Well this past week has been exceptionally busy. We have had lots and lots and LOTS of stock delivered, it's going to take me longer than expected to get through this amount as we are currently in the middle of our annual stock check, oh and call me crazy but I decided the stock room needed a Spring clean too.... Oh why does a job that you think will take a few days take so much longer. Needles to say we have lots of new stock to add to the website and a stock room that is only half organised, erm never a good plan.

However I jumped for joy the other day when we received the first instalment of our new Maileg collection. If you have read my blog before you will be aware that Maileg is one of my favourite companies and the collections they produce are simply stunning. Heirloom toys that a child or adult will keep forever. It is also a range that appeals to any age. We had a lovely lady purchase a Princess and the pea set the other day as a gift for her seventy year old mother, how lovely is that. Many of the items are limited edition too, so it's always best to buy it when you see it as we are never sure when a design will be discontinued. One of our best sellers was the Maileg Mouse House... It was loved by all, but sadly was discontinued. I fortunately kept one which my daughter still plays with. It toys like these that will never date or loose their charm.

Well on to some good news, all of the pictures below are of all of the new Maileg items that we have in stock. We will be added these items to the website during the next few weeks. My favourite is the metal bed, metal crib and the pumkin carriage, oh how I wish I was a child again.

Fayex

Maileg Floppy Eared Rabbit

Maileg Lilac Pram

Maileg Crib

Maileg Metal Bed

Maileg Clothes Rail

Maileg Clothes Dryer

Maileg Little Sister Mouse

Maileg Pumpkin Carriage

Maileg Wooden Crib

Maileg Bunny and the Pea Set In Gift Box

Little Rabbit Outfit

Maileg Princess and the Pea in Gift Box

Maileg Little Suitcase

100 HAPPY DAYS CHALLENGE

I discovered the 100 Happy Days Challenge the other day, and with a tag line of...

CAN YOU BE HAPPY FOR 100 DAYS IN A ROW?

I'm intrigued, so much so that I'm going to give it a go.

I have picked a date, 1st of April to be precise and then I'm going to see how it goes. What with a constant lack of sleep and a to do list that's verging on ridiculous I thought this could help, a bit of positivity and all that. Hey I've always been a glass half full kind of girl but since having my little boy, I have just not been my usual upbeat self, sleep deprivation is hard, you start to loose who you are at times. My current mantra... chocolate is the answer, blame in on the sugar fix and the happy feeling it gives you, but this is not the answer or route I should be going down. So as I like a challenge and think this could be one I could achieve I'm ready to give it a go.

You can find my happy days here (erm stil trying to sort it) via my new Instagram profile. I've been wanting to use Instagram for ages so this has given me the push that I needed to get started.

If your intrigued pop on over to their website HERE and sign up, I think it could be fun.

Let me know if you think it could be fun too?

Fayex

WELCOME SPRING

Fayex

Allotment Planning

I have not yet managed to make it down to our allotment this year. What with illness, rain and general cold weather whenever we had planned to go it. The last few months have just passed by. But it was lovely to be informed today by my husband that our plot is still looking ok and pretty much how we left it prior to Christmas. I had wondered if the shed could of blown down when we had all that bad weather a while back but thankfully it's still standing.

Some serious digging is in need but this job is going to be left to my husband this year. I did that back breaking yet very rewarding job last year but after some chats about getting on with this important job we have decided it's better if he goes on his own and concentrates. This year we will be planting the same things as last but since we have invested in some black matting to cover any sections that are dug over. Hopefully it will eliminate all that duplicate digging I had to do last year.

In Autumn last year I pre planned this years crop planting list which at first you would think would be easy but once you take crop rotation and companion planting into consideration it throws a whole to meaning to your basic planting schedule. The only problem is I can't remember which book I planned all this in and as someone who has a ridiculous amount of note books on the go it really could be any of them. Wish me luck finding it as I can't face trying to work it all out again.

On a positive note though, I entered a little competition on one of my new favourite blogs a few weeks back and was delighted to discover that I had won. A lovely packet of pumpkin seeds dropped through the post box this morning. And as pumpkins were one of our favourite things we grew last year. It will be lovely to have a go at growing some gigantic pumpkins... my daughter will be delighted. Thank you Emma. Please pop over to her wonderful blog... Bradshaw and sons, it's packed full of gorgeous adventures and things they have baked. She also a very inspiring blogger too.

I've also decided to plant even more herbs to use for my cutting garden. Now I'm just trying to focus on what flowers I want to grow too. They must be easy to grow, require little maintenance and like an open sunny plot. Any ideas?

I've already potted up some peas with my little boy as these are one of his favourite vegetables. And today I moved the strawberries from one planter to another to allow more space for growing flowers. My next job will be cleaning and planting up some more seeds. It's amazing how having a little one in tow gets you out in the garden more. In fact I can't wait for some warmer days to be here. I'm going to have a go at making these plant labels for the garden this year. Fingers crossed my husband will help as I'm not much use with anything sharp.

Fayex

Spring Cleaning

Oops, sorry for such a delay since my last post. I'm currently knee deep in spring cleaning. Only the website sort of Spring cleaning which unfortunately takes twice as long to do now that I have a toddler in tow, especially since he has been ill. If only I could duplicate myself, hmmm now there's a thought that every mother must have. There has been a long list of things that I have constantly added to since autumn, but with the manic pre Christmas organisation and the huge amount of order packing that goes on during the busy Christmas period that 'TO DO'  list has had to wait.

Now that we have had some wonderful new stock delivered, I've had to stay focused and get on with 'that' list and boy is it long. Fingers crossed the new 'Spring cleaned' website will be ready by the end of this week, though I do have two birthdays this week to plan and sort, so it could stretch out a little longer than that.

Call me crazy but some good old Spring cleaning in the home is what I love to do, especially when the sun shines and you get that wonderful feeling that Spring is in the air at last!

One of my favourite books that I go back to time and time again is Cabbages and Roses A Guide To Natural Cleaning, pictured above and below. I just love the images and it's full of lots of wonderful tips and advice.

I've even created a Spring Cleaning board on Pinterest, so do take a peek if you want to see some inspiring pictures and a few helpful tips.


Is it just me or does it feel like Spring has arrived?

Fayex

Crafting and Creating

Since the whether is so horrid at the moment I thought I may as well get started on an idea I got a few weeks back. So in anticipation of some wonderful whether and adventures to be had outdoors, I thought now was probably the best time to start my project, oh and the fact that it is half term too helps. I decided in the new year to make a satchel, then fill it with simple things for exploring and having fun. My aim is to have a bag that is always ready to be grabbed. One that will encourage exploring and enjoying nature.

Now as I am managing to juggle a toddler, that should be cuddle a toddler whilst trying to do everything nowadays (he loves being with me and helping). Things do take twice as much time to do now, but his enthusiasm and interest in all that I do are a good thing, ahem though not so helpful when doing some things. So it's very likely that this project may take twice as much time to do as it should, hence starting it now.

I thought the children's half term break was a good a time as any to start with the first faze of this creative project. That way my daughter can help too with cutting the pattern out and then assembling the bag. We are going to use the template and instructions from one of my favourite craft books Belle and Boo Book Of Craft, available here:

Belle and Boo Book of Crafts

This book is utterly gorgeous and has so many projects that I want to make. Well worth a look if you have children in your life and are creative. Now, we could always just buy a satchel but to be honest it's the fun of planning and making this bag that really appeals. That way my daughter will get to see how things are created and we will have a bag that is totally unique and one we can remember doing together for years to come. I'm going to up cycle as many bits as I can from some old handbags, then raid my fabric store for a suitable material. I'm also thinking of letting my daughter create the lining fabric. We have some Dylon fabric pens, so I thought they could work well. My daughter loves to draw, huskies/wolves are her current favourite.... Perfect for the bag and as I have lots of vintage white cotton fabric that she can use to draw on, all we will need to do is cut out the pattern first. It's either that or block printing which I fancy having a go at too, but this could prove too time consuming. I found a fantastic tutorial here....

Poppy Talk

So if we don't do block printing for this project I'm determined to do it for another, maybe a scarf for summer, hmmm.

Well this project we be ongoing so I'm planning on taking pictures during every stage, I just wish the sun would shine so I could get some good quality images. I will keep updating either this post or write a new one with our progress. It could take us some time.

Warm wishes
Faye