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Happy Weekend!

25 Mar in Brush Cottage, Flowers | Comments (2)

Hasn’t the weather been fabulous? I feel like I don’t know myself, blue skies, bulbs galore and sunshine… bliss!

I am off to the Country Living Fair this weekend – I’m taking my daughter, who has never been before – a bit of girl time.

Aren’t these wild violets pretty? I had to leopard crawl for this photo …. it was worth it.

I have sold the last of the Shell Pearl Earrings and have taken them off of the site – why, oh why did I not buy more Shell Pearls…..!

Valentine’s Day

14 Feb in Brush Cottage | Comments (0)

So, how is Valentine’s day working out for you?

My friend Jo, received a Philips Personal Groomer – with the £39.50 price tag still attached….. I don’t know what her husband was thinking as Jo is always spectacularly well groomed…He’s in a spot of bother.

David appears to have given up buying flowers, which suits me because I can buy them myself and don’t have to put up with Dahlias anymore:

He did buy chocolates though!

I hope that those who received Twinkleberry jewellery for Valentine’s Day are delighted with what they got!

The Canine Version of Man Flu

25 Jan in Brush Cottage | Comments (0)

So, the conversation this morning went something like this:

Vet: What seems to be the matter with Poppy today?

J.B: Well, she wasn’t herself at all last night, lay curled up in her bed, looking miserable. Would only eat her dinner if I fed it to her by hand. This morning she wouldn’t eat and wasn’t interested in going out for a walk, which she usually loves. I think she might be coming down with a bout of tonsillitis again?

Vet: She doesn’t have a temperature. Her glands aren’t swollen. Her tonsils look okay. Has she been sneezing a lot lately?

J.B: Sneezing?… um, no I don’t think so……

Vet: She does have a very runny nose, and there is a virus going around – I think that’s probably what she has.

J.B: A virus? What? You mean like a cold?

Vet: Yes, pretty much. Lets give her some anti-inflammatories and some antibiotics and see how she is in a couple of days

J.B: Oh right…

Vet: That will be £40.00 please

So we came home – where we seem to have made a remarkable recovery already……

Hyacinth Bulbs

16 Jan in Brush Cottage, Flowers | Comments (4)

My first hyacinth bulbs have just started flowering.

I plant hyacinths every year, I love that they are the first little bit of colour you can expect after packing away all the Christmas twinklery.

This year I have some which I haven’t seen before – berry, not quite plum, but darker than one expects from pink. I bought them because I thought that they might match my new cushion covers – and they do!

I had pinned this post of Lilac & Lily’s on my Pinterest board and fiddled around this morning with my basket. Not quite as artfully arranged as hers, but I’m happy with it. Bright green moss and peacock feathers finish it off nicely.

I do like a bit of left over Christmas Cake

30 Dec in Brush Cottage, Christmas Decorations | Comments (4)

My Christmas cake is almost finished. A sad moment – we do like a bit of fruit cake. As you may know, I am not much of a baker – things like fairy cakes (or anything that needs to be light and fluffy) normally sends a shiver down my spine. This year, I chickened out and used the Waitrose/Delia Christmas Cake in a bag – at the time I thought it seemed like a good idea….

Rachel Drewer – Milliner Extraordinaire (who I know from Twitter) said it was cheating, but I did it anyway. The cake did come out well, but I have to admit, that having everything measured out and packed into neat little packages for you did take all the fun out of it – apart from seeming terribly spoiled.

I used ready rolled icing and marzipan and had my heart set on some hellebore sugar flowers for the decorations. For the life of me, I could not find anyone who could make me some hellebore sugar flowers….. Is this a dying craft?

I went off to a store in Hedge End in a last ditch attempt to find something – The Cake and Sugarcraft Centre is a veritable treasure trove of baking and decorating paraphernalia and I came away with some delightful Christmas roses as well as the ubiquitous holly and poinsettia.

They had stuff I had never even heard of …. I did get a little bit carried away with the champagne coloured edible glitter…..

Fattoria La Vialla

27 Dec in Brush Cottage | Comments (4)

Have you heard about the organic farm in Tuscany? Fattoria La Vialla is a treasure trove of delectable things to eat and drink, run by a family of Italians. I first came across one of their brochures a number of years ago and ordered some pasta, just out of curiosity. The box duly arrived and we were hooked, since then I have also bought cheese and pasta sauces – which are sublime and a hamper as a Thank You gift for a friend – who was delighted with the contents.

The farm looks idyllic, with happy, smiling workers and family members all working side by side, doing what they love. It could all be a clever marketing campaign, run by a savvy PR firm……who knows…. all I can say is that I like the idea of it and the produce has been great.

I decided to get a selection of things this christmas, mostly as gifts for some of my foody friends and some wine for us. I was unusually organised and placed my order just before the end of November, requesting delivery to take place within the first week of December. I ordered another box of wine seperately – anticipating the amount of partying we were going to be getting up to. The first week of December came and went. My order of the box of wine arrived. The second week of December passed and I started to get a tad concerned, so sent an email, asking for confirmation of delivery. I heard nothing back. Some more time passed and I sent another email – again with no reply. I tweeted them… nothing.

Eventually I gave up and phoned the farm. The lady who took my call was helpful and confirmed that my order had been despatched in November and assured me that it would be delivered before Christmas. The courier had told her that they had tried to deliver to us, but that they couldn’t find us and that no one was home on the second time they tried to deliver – strange since we both work from home and it’s exceptionally unusual for both of us to be out at any one time during the week, we also never received a notification that anyone had attempted a delivery.

I waited patiently – but again after a week phoned, to get the same story. Eventually after 4 phone calls to Italy and with 3 days to go to Christmas I was told that the courier would contact me to confirm delivery – no phone call. I phoned again on Christmas eve – to be told that I was not going to receive my order in time and it would only be delivered on the 29th.

So at the very last minute, with no time to speak of, I was left in the lurch on a number of gifts, a hamper and a box of wine. I was not happy. My experience is this – Fattoria la Vialla have amazing produce for sale – I can’t fault them on quality, but in terms of customer service when something goes wrong with an order – I have found them to be lacking. “Not wanting to bother the courier” to chase up a delivery is simply unacceptable in my opinion.

P.s. – Wednesday 29th, Thursday 30th and Friday 31st came and went, with no delivery.

Twinkleberry Blog Giveaway winner

27 Oct in Brush Cottage, News | Comments (0)

Last night Ingrid come over to choose the name for her new blog – I’m delighted that it is going to be called “A Million Miles” ! Congratulations Sara on giving us a great name! Thank you also to everyone who took the time to leave their thoughts.

I will be sure to let you know when “A Million Miles” is up and running!

Twinkleberry Blog Giveaway!

14 Oct in Brush Cottage, News | Comments (18)

My friend Ingrid is moving to Doha, Qatar at the end of the month, Stefan, her husband, is already there. Our group of friends will miss them both enormously. There is just a small little upside for me in this situation and that is that Ingrid has decided to write a blog about her experiences in Qatar. We need a name for this new venture and we would like you to help us! Please leave a comment on this post – giving us your suggestion. Whoever gives us the suggestion that Ingrid chooses as the name for her new blog will win a Twinkleberry product of your choice – to the value of £20.00 – and postage to anywhere in the world!

To help you a little bit – Ingrid has written a little bit about herself:
“Well then, where do I start…?

They say that a journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step….

Our journey started in March 2002 (2 weeks after we got married!), when Stefan was offered a job in Winchester and we made the big move from Cape Town, South Africa. Neither of us had ever been to Winchester before, Stefan hadn’t even beento the UK – I had visited twice for short holidays!!! We arrived on a cold winter’smorning, it was a freezing, a bitterly cold day and every thing looked dull and grey. We both had thoughts of what on earth have we done, we have left a great life and our family and friends behind for this???!!!…but we were too scared to voice our thoughts to each other.

Now 8 ½ years later we find ourselves in a similar position again. Stefan has been offered a job in Doha, Qatar and once again we are leaving a great life and all our amazing friends and family behind. This time Stefan has been to Doha, I have never been to the Middle East before (does a one night stop over in Dubai count?) Stefan has already started his job in Doha and I will be joining him in a few weeks time. I have stayed to sort out renting out our flat, the shipping of our belongings, selling the car and everything else required for a move to another country. To say that this has been a stressful experience is an understatement. Thoughts of warmer weather and seeing Stefan after 6 weeks is keeping me sane.

I have no idea what to expect when I arrive, what it is going to be like as a blonde blue-eyed women living in an Arab country , are the shopping malls going to be as amazing as I have been led to believe ? , how can a person run in 40 degrees weather? , how easy is it to get a licence to buy wine? How am I going to cope with having to get my husbands permission to do anything? … these are just a few of the thoughts going around in my head…..

The next step of our journey is about to begin …….”

A Surprising Inheritance

07 Oct in Brush Cottage | Comments (5)

I received a surprising letter in today’s post. An envelope posted in the UK – stamped by smartstamp.co.uk. Inside the envelope was a letter – claiming to be from a solicitor in South Africa – Christian Nyengeri Solicitors – Pretoria, SA.

The long and short of the (lengthy) letter is that a certain Mr Arieo Bell (what a coincidence! That’s my surname!) passed away some time ago. This honourable and trustworthy solicitor has been trawling the internet, embassies and “other means” to locate dear, departed Mr Bell’s next of kin – as, would you believe, there is some inheritance that he is honour bound to pass on……

Goodness me – I was the “Bell” that popped up in his extensive search and he would now like me to contact him so that he can set up a “legitimate arrangement to protect both of us from any breach of the law”.

Now, I’m pretty sure that I get as much spam as anyone else – clever phishing emails, designed to con you into logging into false banking sites, tempting offers to “enhance your male-ness”, Russian ladies who would like me to look at their pictures…. I’m pretty sure I have seen them all. Someone must fall for these things – or whoever is sending them out wouldn’t bother surely…. But this person paid .41p to post this letter to me – in a windowed envelope, which made me think that there must be a return on his investment somehow and somewhere. It’s worrying isn’t it ?

I am going past a Police Station this afternoon, I’m going to drop my “letter” in to them – I wonder if they will do anything about it – they might just laugh at me…..

Conkers and Candles

29 Sep in Brush Cottage | Comments (4)

You know those conkers you are driving over and squashing all over the road? Well dont…… stop and pick them up, you will love their rich, chocolatey, shiny’ness.

Fill up an old silver bowl with them, tuck in a candle or three and light them……

Autumn is here.

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