| April 2008 |
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Ooops! How did THAT happen? Four of the new Caroline Zoob china cups seem to have followed me home from the shop! I just love the shape of these big, wide cups, they're so huggable and because they're bone china, they're lovely to drink from. I seem to have two ivory and two rose patterned and they look lovely on my shelf! I'm hoping more from this gorgeous range will follow! | ||||
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How could these adorable little roses fail to lift your spirits? Even though it's Monday morning and I've gots LOADS of work to do, I've just spent five minutes gazing at them! Right, must get on....... | ||||
There was much excitement in the office when our new Bags for Life arrived this week! In France, they are way ahead of us on this one and everyone there uses shopping bags instead of carrier bags. I keep mine folded in my handbag and use it for trips to the local shop or farm shop.
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February 2008
Having eaten lunch outside in the sunshine last week in Norfolk, this weeks freeze has been a bit of a shock. It's SO beautiful though. The girls and I went for a walk after school today and I took these pictures - everything looked as though it had been dipped in icing sugar - so magical. Home to snuggle under an eiderdown and eat homemade chicken soup! |
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Kitty's been modelling for us again. These lovely hand-knitted hat and scarf sets are so perfect on her. She has the sweetest old-fashioned look and those beautiful, clear blue eyes. |
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I had to share this with you. This original antique quilt is my Christmas present to myself! It's Welsh, late 19th Century; duck egg blue on one side and creamy pink on the other with the most beautiful design of roses and delicate flowers. It cost more money than I care to admit, but it's in mint condition - absolutely perfect and I ADORE it! I have it thrown over the sofa and it makes me happy everytime I look at it! |
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We had a last fling in Norfolk this weekend, before the children went back to school. We stopped on the way and went ice-skating in Sandringham Park, which was so beautiful. We had tea and cakes there afterwards and I managed to successfully convince the children that the Queen had made the cakes herself! I rather like the image of dear old Queenie busy in the kitchens with a pinny and crown! The beach was stunning this weekend. Flipping freezing, but stunning!We did lots of brisk, bracing walking! The house was lovely and warm though - just what we all needed to beat the end of holiday blues! |
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Happy New Year! Well, we're back after the Christmas break and thanks to all our lovely customers we had our best year ever at Decorative Country Living! So a HUGE thank you to all of you who have supported us and for all the lovely, encouraging emails we get. Now we're back, I'm brimming with new ideas and will be off buying lots of lovely new stock over the next month; vintage and antique items from France, as well as new items - home made or sourced from all over the world. So do keep dropping by!.......
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We have a house guest this weekend. She's called Lily, she's 12 weeks old and when she's not tiddling on the floor and chewing the childrens toys, she's scooting round the garden in frenzied circles with legs and ears flying, before collapsing on the sofa fo a well earned sleep!
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I love it when, at this time of year, you find a single rose blooming bravely on a bush that you thought had long gone to sleep. I found this lovely the other day - I picked it and put it in a little jug on the mantle-piece and it really lifted my spirits! | ||||
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New opening times. Our new opening times for the shop are 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday. We are also open every Sunday up to Christmas (10am to 4pm). |
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We've done it! We've been sourcing and ordering Christmas stock since July and now I'm just home from the shop, having put the finishing touches to all the displays and decorations. I'm so pleased with everything - it looks like a perfect, festive winter wonderland! We hope you like the on-line selection. We think we've got something for everyone, from tradiional red, white and gold, to shimmering silvers and whites. Coming home with me this Christmas will be... The zinc lanterns with cutouts of birds; they cast the loveliest shadows when a candle is lit inside... The gorgeous, hand-painted glass tree decorations... And one of the frosted birch wreaths! We're particularly pleased with the Christmas home page this year. We wanted to bring you snow and a tinkling music box, so if they're missing on your browser, have a look at our "browser help" page. |
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October 2007 |
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I've been so busy since I got back from France, buying and preparing for Christmas. I'm really pleased with everything we've found - so this Christmas promises to be a special one! Quite a few of you have been emailing to ask when you can start buying for Christmas, and if you are on our post mailing list, you will be receiving a card through your door any day now (postmen willing!) Our special Christmas preview weekend will be Friday 2nd November - Sunday 4th November. We're open until 7pm on the Friday, so do come along if you can, it's a wonderful festive, social evening and we have lovely home-made mulled wine and mince-pies. All the Christmas stock will be available to buy on-line on that Friday (2nd), for those who can't make it in person. |
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September 2007 |
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We're back from France. We had such a lovely summer bowling around the country roads in the old 2CV, much to the bewilderment of the locals! Monsieur Didier who lives opposite and wears faded blue overalls, an ancient black beret and a permanent roll-up on his bottom lip, just looked on with a benign smile as we rattled out of our gates with the children squealing and laughing on the back seat - anyone who's ever ridden in a 2CV will know that the slightest bump causes the passengers to bounce up and down so much that their head hits the roof! The children thought it was hilarious! Naturally I found the time to pick up a few lovelies for this website! It's all being shipped and should be here in a few weeks. The house there is being featured in October's Ideal Home magazine - and here's a link to the website! Back to work now, and we're gearing up for Christmas! Don't forget, if you haven't already added your name to our on-line mailing list to do so, so that we can email you a sneak preview of the gorgeous new Christmas stock in a few weeks time.... |
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July 2007 |
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As promised, a link to our house in Norfolk. |
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I came over all "arty" on the beach in Norfolk this weekend I just love the colours and textures of the sea, sand sun-bleached wood and stone. There's something incredibly beautiful about the light in Norfolk too....
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We just LOVE these pretty floral cushions. We've all taken some home here! They're so great to sit for picnics, cricket matches and summer concerts or they make great chair seat cushions. The print is SO pretty - just the right soft, faded colours and rosey gorgeous design. It's sports day next week - I think I'll take some to sit on....or hide behind when it's the Mother's race....Felix still hasn't forgiven me for embarrassing him last year!
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Household shopping tip!: Tesco Rose Petal fabric softener - makes your clothes smell of roses! GORGEOUS!
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June 2007 Things we like about June........ Frothy Cow Parsley and poppies Summer dresses and cardies New Pirates of The Caribbean Roses and peonies in the garden Darcy Bussell on tv. She's beautiful, super-stylish, smart and talented - a national treasure - Dame Darcy please!
Kitty and her Mummy came into the shop today and fell in love with this little vintage 1950's dress. She looked so heart-meltingly gorgeous in it that her Mummy had to buy it! She looks exactly like a Mabel Lucie Attwell drawing! |
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I LOVE Atlanta Bartlett's new book, At Home With White. It's really inspired me. I want to paint my whole house different shades of white now. We did just that in the house in Norfolk (link to the house for rent coming soon...I promise!) and it's just so soft and restful. I can't stop buying lovely, simple white china too. If no-one buys this oversized vintage dairy jug soon, it's coming home with me! UPDATE: The morning after posting this picture of the jug, I arrived at work to find the phone ringing. On the line was one of our really lovely, regular customers saying she was so sorry, but she HAD to have that jug and she'd been awake all night thinking about it! I LOVE our customers! They're all as mad as ME! |
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May 2007 Things we like about May.... Everything's green again! The birds are in full song. Fresh, English-grown Asparagus. GORGEOUS lilac. |
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Just had to take this picture. Three year old Freya came into the shop on Saturday with her mummy and tried on one of the lovely childrens' vintage straw hats. She looked so perfect in it with her little French bob. She's so adorable! As is her big sister Milly and their friend Kitty. Three of the best dessed little girls you could ever wish to meet! |
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We're SO please with our new Jewellery and Vintage Clothing section on the website! My favourite things are the amazing little baby bonnets from Provençe (beautifully modelled by gorgeous baby Phoebe!) and the blue spotty "Doris Day" dress...oh, and I wish someone I know would get married so I could wear the the dreamy blue forget-me-not cocktail hat! |
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Just back from gorgeous France. Spent a week searching out special things for the shop and site.....ok, so some of the time I drank wine and ate lots of really nice food! This is my favourite shop, in our little local town, owned by Therese. She's so lovely and wonderfully French and sings like a bird! |
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| This is my haul from Therese's shop...coming soon! |  |
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| I picked these in the garden this morning...Aquilegia "Nora Barlow". Not quite the glamorous name it deserves, but I can't resist that lime and pink colour combination! |
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Now, I'll be honest. When I ordered this Alyssa body lotion, I did so because I liked the pretty box and it smelled nice! So I felt it my duty, once it had arrived and was in the shop looking pretty, to take some home and try it. It's completely fantastic! I tried the Intensive body lotion, which has an all important sun-screen in it. The lovely warm, comforting smell lasts all day and is wonderfully moisturising without being greasy. I can now bare my post-winter legs with a little more confidence - especially now my new season's Havaiana flip flops have come from www.flipflopflo.com. Off to France next week on a buying trip - yipee! Can't wait to trawl those Brocante markets to find more gorgeous things for this website!
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April 2007 |
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Things we like about April... The choc-fest that is Easter! |
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More fun in Norfolk over the Easter Holidays! |
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| Baby's kittens....Four little bundles of heart-melting gorgeous-ness! Candida, (creator of lavender bags and all things lovely at Decorative Country Living) says they were a sod to photograph as they wouldn't stay still for more than a nano-second! All together now...Sweeeeeeeet! |
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Now, no one could call me a domestic goddess, but I do LOVE the new cleaning products we've just brought in from Denmark. The children's bath time in our house can leave the bath looking like a hippo's watering hole, but armed with my Maison Belle Bath Cleaner, I soon have it sparkling! The best thing is the smell though - all these products are scented with essential oils. I've never been a big fan of those synthetic, bleachy smelling cleaning sprays so the gorgeous scent of lavender and mint essential oils is a real treat! Annie took home the cucumber scented All Purpose Spring Clean spray from the same range and she loves it too! I'm thinking of getting one of those aprons with the frills over the shoulders....... |
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| We've just had a lovely new postcard printed. It has all our contact details, opening times etc on the back but can also be sent as a postcard - do email us if you would like us to send you one for free! |
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| Just back from a lovely weekend of prodding things in rock pools, catching crabs and general sea-side fun in Norfolk! Link to the house there coming soon! |
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March 2007 |
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I just had to share these with you...Pink suede shoes, purchased on a recent buying trip to Copenhagen. (It was work...honest!). The heavenly colour of the lining makes them even more gorgeous and as if they weren't gorgeous enough - they have those divine marcasite buckles! I might just put them on a shelf and adore them. Actually, they got their first outing last week on the Decorative Country Living outing to see Dolly Parton in Newcastle! What an amazingly little pint-sized songster she is! We clapped along to "Nine to Five", warbled along to "Jolene", and swayed, teary eyed, to "I Will Always Love You". Pure cheese - but we loved it! | ||||
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Annie and I both took home a heart bird feeder. I hung mine in the fig tree outside the sitting room window. It took a while; at first my flock of little wild birds seemed to prefer the old nut and seed feeders, but finally, after a few days they plucked up the courage to have a go at the apple on the hanging heart, and now they are all fighting to have a go - swinging on it and pecking the apple. I'll try a fat-ball on it next I think.... | ||||
