Happiness is.....

Fresh, hot, coffee.   Pink roses.  New skeins of embroidery thread.  Old, slubby, linen.  Little bowls of pastel coloured sweets.  Long chats with friends on the telephone.  Giant jammy biscuits.  Taboo on the telly.  Long walks in the winter sunshine.  A niece with glittering eyes and rosy cheeks; happy after her first day at a new school.  Catching up with family over fish, chips and mushy peas.  Thick watercolour paper and little tubes of paint.  Art class.  Bath salts and lavender oil.  Heirloom quilts.  Homemade banana bread, pots of tea and stitching with friends.  Beautiful hand-dyed yarn.  Tiny clay hearts.  Old tins filled with art supplies.  Kindle library books.  Miniature zinc buckets for collecting threads.  

*******

We are a bit out of sorts here.  Andrew has ruptured his achilles tendon which means he is in plaster and on crutches.  Minimum of 8 weeks to recover and months of physio for him.  I am responding every five minutes to requests of "could I have a glass of apple juice" and "would you mind fetching my book for me".  The poor chap can't do anything; he is thoroughly miserable and I feel so sorry for him.  Hope he heals quickly, for both our sakes! 

Love 

Nicki xOx

Find me on YouTube!

I am really pleased to have finally started my YouTube channel.  I would love for you to have a little look and let me know what you think.  I have been meaning to start a channel for months as I love watching podcasts when I work from home and I thought it would be a nice way to connect with my online friends.  Share what I'm up to, and chat a while.  I work from home on my own every day and have no one to talk to.  I try to involve Lizzie but there's only so much knitting natter she can cope with before she flops to the floor in a bored heap!  

My first video is just a quickie, showcasing the little zinc tags that we have in stock.  I'm going to be doing lots of little videos in future to show the goodies that I'm selling but I'll also be doing some chatty vlogs where I tell you allll about my crafty adventures as well as books I've read, films I've watched and recipes I've tried.  I am going to really bend your ear.  Haha. 

You can find my youtube channel by searching for Nicki Franklin on the YouTube site but there is also a tab here on my website that will direct you straight to it.  It's just in the navigation bar under the website header.

Thanks for being such a kind and lovely bunch, supporting me on my journey as you always do.  Couldn't do it without you.

See you soon 

Nicki 

x0x

Slow Weekend

On Friday evening I cleared the ironing pile, decluttered our bedroom and changed the sheets from brushed cotton floral to my favourite floppy white linen.  I moved my essential oil diffuser into the bedroom and added lavender oil to the water.  I had a long, hot, shower, plastered myself in my favourite thick body cream and got an early night.  It felt so good to properly declutter after Christmas; get everything bright and white again.

I think it set me up for a productive, but slow, weekend.  As I sit here now and reflect, I feel calm, relaxed and happy.  I've slept well.  I think that having a diffuser in the bedroom has helped the dry cough that sometimes wakes me in the night.  The linen sheets are cooler and fresher than the brushed cotton.  

We have been at home for most of the weekend, only going out for walks with Lizzie.  The weather yesterday was beautiful.  It was cold but bright and sunny.  No wind at all. We walked and walked.  I made use of the light and took lots of lovely photographs for the shop.  Worked on my latest embroidery project (an embroidered heart) and sat in the conservatory watching the birds.  Today we had a lazy brunch and I gave the shop a little reshuffle, ready for the spring.  There is definitely a calmness to be gained from having a sort out.  

The conservatory is full of spring flowers.  Rustic pots of tete a tete and muscari, old marmalade jars filled with snowdrops and zinc tubs of hyacinths.  Supermarket flowers are still going strong from last weekend and I cut a few stems shorter to put in my new bud vases and dot around the house.  A little posy of roses sits by the bed.

We are rested and ready for a busy week ahead.

Nicki oXo