Home IS where the heart is....

Well my dears...here we have it....my first proper and decent blog post in I don't know how long. Excuse the type and dash post of yesterday, I just had to write something, even just a little thing just to say I was still here and around.

I am afraid you will have to excuse this rather self indulgent post!! Even though we have now been in the new house for almost 3 weeks I am still smitten you see. What a difference a 'homely' home makes and there is still so much to do. The move of course was inevitably a wee bit stressful but that has all been forgotten so quickly now that we are here and settled in. Can I give you a guided tour?? I would love to if that is Okay.

(I do have to apologise for my appalling photography skills - a property photographer - or indeed any other kind of photographer I am not and it is beyond me how an artist who loves composing paintings, can have such a distinct lack of compositional skills when it comes to photographs - I have in no way managed to show the true beauty of our new home!!)

Our living space is just divine, compact and cosy with an original fireplace - I think these properties were built in 1901 so we are lucky to have the original features. The evenings are wonderful in this warm room and I cannot wait to be lighting log fires in the winter! Would it be too much for me too point out little things as we go around?? Perhaps one or two? Well the bright cushion on the sofa was made by me many years ago when I went through a real phase of tapestry and I still love it - a hobbie I shall have to get back to at some stage (before retirement possibly!). The poster above the sofa is a polish opera poster bought in edinburgh years ago and I have never been able to find anything similar since then. The framed piece above the fireplace is an original of mine which I cannot bear to part with. But I do have to mention that the print is available here (I am always slightly suprised that no copies of this piece have sold as i really is one of my favorites!) I am currently trying to decide on a few pieces of etsy art prints to add to this room but funds are low and there are too many to choose from!! I do need to get back to my artists features as I am desiring so many things at the moment to enable me to fill our home with a wee portion of the talent that can be found on etsy.

So we move to the dining room! Mmm this room is proving a difficult one. The only place to house our rather bulky and modern computer desk which just takes over the room. We only have a small IKEA dining table and I am looking to get a larger antique one just to balance the room out and define the 'dining room' aspect  more clearly. When  we moved in I was so upset that my antique chest of drawers just would not go up the steep, low ceiling'ed and tight cornered stairs any which way we tried but there is always a silver lining!!! My dad and step mum visited from Scotland last week bringing with them what is now my most precious belonging.

The Victory - a large ship my great grandfather made (one of very, very many ships) by hand. It took him 3 years of painstaking work and is the largest of the ships in the family. My very first memory was of him saying that someday this ship would come sailing to me and my dad thought this was the time for it to do just that. It is the first time in my life I have really had space for it. I am so grateful to have this substantial piece of furniture on which to display it. It just fills me with pride at what this remarkable man achieved everytime I look at it. He died when I was young although I do have some memories of him - most of all just how humble he was and that his huge hands could create such minute detail in these beautiful objects.

Oh dear, so much writing and more rooms to go!! Perhaps just the lower floor today and then more in the next post? Yes that is the way we shall do it I think!! The kitchen - one of my very favourite rooms even though it is incredibly tiny!! So compact and yet everything we need. I am just going mad for those touches of red agains the serene green of the walls. The heart shaped Le Creuset pot on the cooker was a wonderful engagement gift from my dad and step mum. If you haven't heard of Le Creuset look out for pieces - this does everything - you can use it in the oven or on the hob and in cast iron will last a lifetime - I know I sound like an advertisement but really - don't pass one by if you see it!!! Can you see the olive wood pestle and mortar - this too is a new addition - my birthday gift to Mark. Everything just fits so neatly in this room and I do adore it - can I say that enough??! I adore this house!!!

A place for everything and everything in it's place. The organic veggies (yes I am still raving about those!!) on the rack, the freezer is in the cellar, extra cupboard staples such as tins and packets on the shelves going down to the cellar. Just wonderful.

It is amazing as, as nice as our previous apartment was, it never felt anywhere near as home to me as this house does. Yes we have so much more space, but it is more than that. It just 'fits' - you know that feeling? I only wish we weren't just renting it but I am really hoping to be here for a while yet.

So now we come to my little corner of paradise!!! Okay so it really is little but I love it dearly all the same. It may be the smallest garden I have ever seen but just to have somewhere to have my cuppa tea on my afternoon break from working is just bliss indeed. But I do need all the hints and tips I can get as I have never had to do any gardening before!!! I am just making it all up as I go along at the moment.

The plan is to gradually each month buy more pots and boxes to go along the wall which will give us more privacy and more colour. I had no idea gardening was so relaxing and rewarding!! Okay so I have just been watering and pruning up till now but every spare moment (and there are only a few) is spent out here - mostly just gazing and enjoying quiet moments and dreaming. We even have a tiny, tiny pond in the corner!

I do love our path outside the back door, with a new collection of herb pots (more gifts from my folks) and even the ornate bars on the window (I think previous owners were very security conscious).

So there we have it - the mini tour of part of the new house. So there is artwork to buy, rugs to purchase, and still more boxes to unpack. But for now I really have to get down to the studio - I am busy working on new artwork which is part of an exciting new project which I will hopefully be able to reveal to you soon. Amongst wedding dresses, medieval dresses and other projects I have been finding it hard to manage my time in the last few weeks with the move but still having the studio to escape to has been wonderful. I just hope I can afford to keep it and be able to seperate my costume work exclusively to the loft space and my painting exclusively to the studio. Here is hoping!! Whatever happens I know how lucky I am to be in the position to have either one, infact I am blessed in so many ways right now, it almost doesn't seem real.

Gosh how I have missed this, blogging and blog reading, reaching out, visiting friends and ordering my thoughts. I  can honestly say it is the one thing I have missed during my time of being internet-less. I have been worried you see. Silly I know, but I am suprised at how much I have come to love reading your life tales, seeing and being inspired by your creations and goings on and also that feeling of knowing that in so many places there are people like me - just enjoying the connection that this world enables me to have. I am so grateful for it - and for you!! So please do re-visit and say hello - I do love to read your comments and know that you are there, wherever 'there' happens to be....

Comments

[Karen Beth]

I LOVED the tour of your new house! The living room is especially warm and inviting. How nice it is that you have this new place to enjoy!

I don't know anything about gardening either or I would offer some tips. Good luck with it all!

xo,

Karen Beth :)

[A Fanciful Twist]

Oh, I love your new space!! And I love to garden.. But I have to swoon over your dads ship.. I wish I had one like it! How special!! I am so glad you have it... And that you have memories of him making it... I think you guys are going to be very very happy in your space!! xxoxoxo

[stilettoheights (Jenn)]

I love your new place, I feel the same way about our soon to be new place (2.5 more days) even though the place is in shambles it already feels like home, a real home.

I am so happy for you gillian!!

[Jungle Dream Pagoda]

What a lovely home....AND I don't even have to wait for part 2 of the tour! That ship!!! Those are the perfect objects that make a house a home,the history and love behind it is soooo wonderful,and what a happy accident to display it on that lovely chest!

[PG]

Fantastic, I adore your new house too, I can feel homely and cosy vibes oozing from it. It's the kind of house I could enter and feel immediately at home. I love that you have your GGP's ship, and it looks splendid where it is. (I know the feeling of 'just renting' - so far we have managed five years where we are...)