Pink Green

Exciting Times!

The reason for my blog silence recently is that I have been very busy working on my new branding and a new website, and it is now finally up and running!!! It has been a huge learning curve for me as I am not the most technically minded, but with the help of family, friends and forums I now have something I am really pleased with and can use as a base to build upon.

The website, should you wish to have gander, is called pinkgreenshop.com.

So, as from today I won't be using typepad any more. My blog will be part of my website, so please add me to Bloglovin' and any other ways you have of following me. I am currently planning a proper blog overhaul and I am hoping to bring in regular monthly features and items as well as just my current waffle! Please let me know if there is anything you would like to read about, and I will add it to my list.

Hope to see you over there....

 

Blogger's Block

Does anyone else suffer from it? I love reading other blogs, and I find so many of them really inspiring, but also at the same time I find it hard to write about me and what I'm up to. My business is going really well and I am looking to boost it even more, but I feel a bit self-conscious promoting it here, especially as my blog never started out like that - it was just a so-called 'lifestyle' blog - a bit of all sorts.  My Instagram account has almost taken over from this blog - I love the fact it is instant and quick - unlike blogging, which takes time to edit photos, write and plan.

I feel I have lost my way a little bit with this blog, so I am going to try to get it back to how I want it to be - a diary of sorts of the things we are doing, the things I am making, the places we are going to, and occasionally the things I am selling. One big part of my blog has always been my house. It may not be the biggest house, or the most well finished, or (certainly not) the tidiest, but it reflects who we are and I love it.

This is my favourite room in the house - the kitchen. I love the jelly mould lights, the creaky bench and the car boot table. I don't love the dog bed, cleaning the floor or the twigs the pigeons keep dropping on the roof.

Some of my collection of jugs (I currently have 67 apparently, but who's counting?!)

Aprons and tins...and a bin.

And the view from the kitchen door - even pretty in the rain.

Normal service should (hopefully) resume soon.

A quick 'Hello'

Hello!

I'm just popping by to say hi in between taking copious amounts of photos for my jewellery range on Etsy. I wasn't at all happy with the old ones soI have been on a steep learning curve and am beginning to really crack my camera I think (not literally!). I thought I'd just share a few photos while I have a quick cuppa.

Sorry for the totally shameless plug, but I thought you wouldn't mind! All these and many more are available in my Etsy shop.

Catherine XX

Holidays

Well, the Easter holidays went with a swing and were over so quickly. We headed north to a cottage in North Yorkshire - somewhere I'd never been, but somewhere I will be going back to. We had a cottage on a farm near Staithes, and it was the most idyllic setting imaginable. Lambs frolicking in the fields all around, rivers, woods, beaches, family and dogs. No wifi. Bliss.

Our home for the week (not the whole house, sadly)

Pretty Robin Hood's Bay...

...with it's cobbles and hills

Staithes - popular with artists. And us.

Interesting beaches...

...particularly appreciated by Bodie and Sophie.

Pretty vintage shops, particularly appreciated by me.

It seems no shop is complete without patchwork of some sort. Not that I'm complaining!

Whitby...too many steps, but nice fish and chips and scampi.

Then back home to Cheltenham to our new Banksy - a stone's throw from our house.

And now back to work.

Yep, Spring is here!

I have been really making the most of the warm sunny days we have been getting recently, and I am feeling much more energised and motivated. It is amazing what a bit of sunshine can do to perk us up. I tend to hibernate and become more inward thinking during the Winter, but now I feel I am waking up and am full of beans!

Spring means flowers...

...even better when they can go in the garden after they've worked hard inside.

I've finally finished my crochet blanket...

...which isn't as big as I'd like, but I got a bit bored, so it is a lap blanket...

...with a plain and simple edging.

Burford Garden Company is the perfect place for Spring inspiration, and a lovely lunch with a friend.

The Forest of Dean is great for a picnic (with or without children - we escaped for a romantic walk and picnic on a school day!)

And finally, a gratuitous Labrador shot - just because.

Spring is second only to Autumn for me - and it is only just beginning!!!!

 

It's beginning to feel a lot like...Spring!!!!

It's been a busy few weeks again - half term has floated by in a waft of family, meals, wine, walks, crochet, baking and the subtle hints that Spring is on its way...

Bringing the sunshine in with 50p daffs...

...catching some rays...

...wishing it wasn't wrong to pick other people's flowers...

...but looking forward to my own blooming...

...getting close to finishing this, but running out of wool...

...designing a new range of jewellery for my Etsy shop...

...feeding the hungry hoards with Blueberry and Vanilla Cake...

...and enjoying the fact that candles are still sometimes required.

I hope Spring is springing up where you are XX

My Etsy Shop...

Link is in my sidebar ;-)

Cathy XX

Shop Update

 

Just a few of the new items added to my Etsy shop today. 

 

Cheery things...

I'm finding January a bit depressing. I'm sure that most people out there feel the same - the post-Christmas lull, the weather, the greyness, the cold, the no money because you spent it all on Christmas, the diet, etc etc. So I've been trying to inject a bit of colour and life into my days.

I've done 77 squares so far and had a little break from this in favour of knitting various projects, however I am now cracking on and enjoying the brightness and ease of this. I can do a square in about 5 minutes and watch TV at the same time (or I would if there was anything good on worth watching!)

I love how the squares look all tucked into the basket too.

The tulips on my kitchen table are nice and cheery,

as are the daffs on my mantelpiece.

These two are making me get out and about, whatever the weather. The dinky dog on the right is Sophie, who is on her holidays with us for a week or so. The other great bruiser is my gorgeous boy, Bodie, of course.

Sometimes when I'm on the hill at 8 in the morning it looks a bit like this:

...but the times it looks like this make it worth getting up for.

I hope you can make the sun shine, metaphorically if not physically, and chase away the January blues (or greys!)

Bye Bye 2013, Hello 2014!

Happy New Year! I love the change of year - it always feels like a fresh start, full of promise and hope for things to come. Despite always sobbing at midnight (regardless of how much alcohol has been consumed!) I always look forward to a new year, and enjoy looking back at the old one.

So, 2013 was a happy year on the whole for us. We saw lots of changes - Andy stopped working shifts, which has had plus and minus sides (the biggest plus being that he didn't have to work over Christmas!), Ruth started Secondary school, meaning I don't have children at Primary school any more, and I finished working as a TA and went self employed.

We had nice holidays, fun family events, good times with friends, cosy times just the five of us (I'm including the dog here - he loves cosy times), hectic times, stressy times, happy times, sad times. The same as most people I guess.

Well 2014, what do you have in store? I'm really looking forward to taking my business further - it's been good so far, and I have definitely made the right decision, but there are so many more things I need and want to do with it. We have GCSE option choices to help Grace with, holidays to plan, family events to organise, and life to get on with. I can't wait!

I hope yours is a happy and fulfilling year.