Summer Catch Up

What a summer it has been! It has certainly kept me busy and sadly, away from here. But as we approach the end of summer I can feel a shift to the rhythm of our days. But let's have a little catch up and let me tell you what we have been up to.
 

In 2025 we sold our house and moved back to the country. My husband retired from the hotel industry. The plan was to open a coffee shop, a long held dream of my husbands. The hotel industry was slowly killing off the joy of living and we knew that it was time for him to leave. The time seemed right.

After months of searching for the right shop and with a false start on one space which led to finally acquiring the shop we have now, we picked up the keys to the shop in April.

With the help of my husbands industry connections, we set to gutting the shop and refitting it with my husband doing a lot of the internal prep. It has been a labour of love from the start and he spent almost every day working on the shop from the moment we got the keys.

We have named our coffee shop Roots. This name was settled on by the whole family because it reflected how, after years of traveling the world for my husband's work, we finally had put roots down here. It is the first place that felt like home, like we belonged. We are also rooted in supporting food artisans and of course our entire lives, including our business is rooted in Christ Jesus. 

So many reasons why Roots was the right choice.

We have been trading for a little over 6 weeks now and I am so thankful and happy to see my husband love his work again. He hardly needs that morning alarm, he is excited to go to work each day. 

What a blessing it is for him to be working regular hours, something the hotel industry has never really allowed him to do. 

An added blessing is that our daughters are working with us. Our youngest picks up a shift every second weekend as she just loves working in the shop, and our eldest, who has always wanted to work full time with us running the shop, moved home this week as she takes on the management of the shop alongside her dad.

The Summer Garden

Oh this has been a mixed bag this year! We have had a number of heatwaves and just this past week we have had a hosepipe ban put in place for the whole of Wales.

Many of my little seedlings did not make it and those that have seem to have been a bit of a disappointment.

The tomatos and the potatoes are really the only vegetables that have yielded anything remotely useful. The lettuce and rocket bolted in the heat, the courgettes produced an abundance of leaves and flowers which then amounted to absolutely nothing as did the peas and beans. Such a shame!

I'm going to have to do a bit of research over the autumn and winter months and see what changes I can make.

The pond, poppies and roses have all been incredible...

But with the lack of rain and the hosepipe ban, the lawn is looking dreadful...

Thankfully, we have had a bit of rain over he past two days so I am hoping that it will make a difference.

Knitting and Reading

As usual, I have a couple of books on the go but my main go-to this summer is The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane.

I love travel, nature, history and writing and this book combines the lot! The author walks along the tracks, byways and paths of British landscape, both ancient and modern by comparison. He walks in all types of weather and links the reader to the landscape and to the stories of generations long since past. It is a book of time and place.

The opening chapter sets the scene, the author is sitting at his desk one evening, trying to work but is distracted by the snow falling softly outside his window. He cannot resist the call to get outside and he prepares a flask of something to keep himself warm and ventures out into the moonlight snowy landscape. The houses of his neighbourhood soon thin and are left behind as he ventures over fields and along a path he has walked many a time before, encountering a fox and observing tracks of birds and animals left in the snow.

You are immediately awash with the peace and beauty of nature as you read his poetic words, and so he takes the reader on the journey with him on various other paths, tracks and byways

If you are a nature lover as I am, you will be inspired to get out and explore your own surrounds. It has certainly inspired me to so so.

I am knitting the Truly Tasha's Shawl by Nancy Bush. She was inspired to design this shawl after visiting the illustrator and writer of children's books, Tasha Tudor's home in Vermont.

I've just about finished the body and am about to start the lace edging. What I loved about this pattern is the plain garter body and the size of it. It simple enough to embrace the need I have for more simplicity in my life and big enough to keep my walm in the cooler winter and autumn months around my home.

As you can see, I have made a little note of all this in my project notebook, along with the ball band and sample of the yarn I chose which was Cascade 220 100% Peruvian wool in the colour 'Birch Heather'. The whole project is a tribute to autumn. I can't wait to wrap myself up in it and curl up in the conservatory on a rainy day with a book!

That's about it for this post, I shall see you back here very soon!

Curating a Creative Space

I spent a delightful morning rearranging my office/studio space. I am blessed to have a lovely outside space set away from the house overlooking the pond garden. 

The sound of running water and birdsong fill my studio. Birds regularly come for a drink and a bath and I have a regular visiting baby squirrel coming to my door to gather the nuts that I lay out on the deck. it is simply sublime and my little creative, peaceful oasis.

When we first moved into this home, I had set the space up with the shelving running along the wall where the shawls are now hanging. However, this took up a lot of space leaving the space behind my desk redundant. I really wanted to have my sewing machine out permanently because it is much easier to be spontaneously creative and crafty when all your tools are at hand.

The space has a dual purpose. A space for my desk and computer for my writing and running my creative events business, and the need to be a place of creativity and inspiration.

One morning about two weeks ago, I was catching up on some admin when the idea for a new layout suddenly took hold. My husband was about to start cutting the lawn but I needed his help with moving the shelves and bringing in another table for the sewing machine. 

He is used to my 'sudden ideas' so very kindly helped me sort out the studio before cutting the lawn - such a kind and patient husband!

He even took the time to hang up some of my shawls. I want this space to be a place that inspires creativity and nurtures a slow, creative life.

I brought a comfortable chair into the studio. The studio is such a lovely garden room and is insulated and has heating which keeps it warm in the winter. A place to sit and work on my knitting or stitching, perhaps while watching a favourite vlog, is just what is needed.

The little quilt on the back of the chair is waiting to be hung on the wall. I made the embroidered tote bag and cushion when we still lived in South Africa so bringing them out of the linen cupboard  to use and enjoy on a daily basis brought in a little nostalgic memories of when my girls were small.

I cleaned all the cubby shelves and enjoyed sorting out my fabrics ...

and books...

I dug out some of the pretty letter writing supplies that I have and popped them on display. I want to send more snail mail this year.

While sorting through my stash, I found a couple of gorgeous kits I bought a few years ago but which I have not got round to doing. 

I want to work on these projects and have them done before the year is out. I don't want to keep putting my making on the backburner.

So, I have picked out 3 projects and set them up in various places around my home. Having them close by and ready means that I am finally spending time working on each project. 

I have a copy of the "A Needlework Enthusiast's Book of Days" planner by Needlework Press arriving any day now and I plan on using this to plan out and document the projects I want to work through in 2026.

I have to say that I am loving feeling so productive and I find that getting back into my hobbies with purpose has been inspiring my creativity. 

I have been very purposeful in setting aside social media and stepping back in a big way from 'hustle culture'. Instead, I am embracing a more 'analogue' traditional lifestyle which is far more familiar to me. 

I am finding the gentle rhythms of keeping my home, creating and trusting God in each moment, is helping me recover from the burnout that realised I was suffering from after too many years of pursuing something that was not meant for me.

One of my  little projects that I want to do is to take these little jumpers and make them into a garland for my studio. I think that it would look so sweet.

When I was dyeing yarn, I knitted up a whole lot of mini jumpers to showcase my colourways. These were always such a hit on my stand with people wanting to buy them. They are so quick and easy to knit up. 

I think I shall put together a little pattern for any knitters amongst my readers...another project to make a note of in my 'Book of Days' calendar!

My studio is very small. Much smaller than the sewing room I had in our previous house. One day I would love a lovely roomy room where I can have a cutting table and both my sewing machine and overlocker out at any one time, and lots of lovely wood and glass storage cabinets. I would love to be able to host workshops with lovely fellow creatives. 

But for now, I am just really enjoying quietly reconnecting with my creativity in my little studio overlooking the garden.