Pinterest - Life in Pictures

Growing up as an only child, my closest and dearest ally and friend was my cousin, who when my parents chose to move from the South of England, sadly then lived hundreds of miles away, along with the rest of my family.

(not a good hairstyle in those days, regardless of the natural blonde colouring!)

Despite the distance, our close relationship remained strong and when I wasn't spending holidays with her, I thrived on our (protracted and somewhat costly) phone-calls, but most of all we communicated frequently with reams of lengthy letters, cards and postcards documenting all our teenage thoughts and latest activities.

A practice of ours was to collect pictures that appealed to us. They were then put up around dressing table mirrors for inspiration for make-up and hair-styles. 

Part of our letters were made up of some of these pictures, to which we would put captions. As our focus in those days was on fashion, make-up and beauty, these pictures were usually  from fashion mags, and the pictures with our captions portrayed us in various guises as we would wish to be, posed by beautiful models.

I recently discovered this picture in an old box file - separated from the letter it was attached to, I believe this was supposed to represent how either my cousin or I looked in the morning. Wishful thinking of course - we usually resembled disheveled scarecrows as we were hauled unwillingly from our beds.

As the years went on, although some of our common interests remained, such as sewing and books, our lives took different paths. Laura's interest in beauty developed and she is now a successful make-up artist.

I on the other hand began to become more interested in creating beautiful things around me. Hence a passion for gardening grew. Instead of Vogue, now my magazine subscription is for Country Living.

Lately Blogging has become a substitute outlet for capturing my thoughts and latest activities. However, just as Laura and I collected and gathered the pictures from magazines, I have now also discovered a wonderful way of gathering images for ideas, inspiration and what I like most. PINTEREST! Now I am hooked!

It started with a few pictures of gorgeous gardens that inspired me. Then I found other pictures that fell into other categories; before I knew it, several hours had passed as I jumped from pinboard to pinboard, pinning and re-pinning as I went.

Currently I have put together ten boards, mainly influenced as you will see by my love of roses, gardening, creating, France and vintage; 

Gorgeous Gardens

Inspiration for my new garden

Garden Retreats

Instead of replacing the garage we recently demolished, I intend to have an alternative garden retreat, perhaps I will have a gypsy caravan like the one above?

Dining Alfresco

Will we ever get the weather to enjoy eating outside again, if I set up my table and chairs? 

Allotment Love

I do so love spending time at the allotment and the other allotments and potagers on this pinboard look amazing with some fabulous ideas that I just know I will have to try and incorporate into my plot.

Plants For My Garden

This one's self-explanatory!

Creative Space

Beautiful items for creating, but my current creative space is higgeldy piggeldy. Some of these pictures will influence my new creative space at La Petite Maison.

Home Inspirations

I can try!

Gardening In Style

My gardening gear is generally dictated by comfort - jogging bottoms and a fleece / tee-shirt (weather dependent), and I usually tend to end up awfully muddy, but I do have very good intentions of making a bit more of an effort. This board certainly inspires me to do so.

Creations

When I get time......

Vintage

So desirable!

As with the blog, my pinterest boards represent what I like. I confess I am quite choosey as to what I pin, and would rather pin a picture that really appeals to me than just pinning for the sake of having lots of pictures on my boards. There are so many lovely pinboards to view that it is very easy to lose track of time - so be warned!

xxx

A "Little Bit of This" and a "Lot of Bits of That"

Oh what a rather stressful few weeks have been had in the world of Soaps and Roses since I last posted. So many things on the go at once - all up in the air and not yet at fruition.

I have been spinning around from one thing to another;

 (sadly not quite as glamorously as the dancer in this poster) 

unable to complete one task before another has started. Hence blogging has had to take a back seat whilst I try to regain some sort of control over this ensuing mania of rushing from one thing to another. A recent horrible computer glitch, as well as a recurrence of the winter flu lurgy has only served to compound my tardiness in updating the blog.

At La Petite Maison, Phase 2 has begun and everywhere there is mud, glorious (or should I say - not so glorious) mud! Of course you would think that I am used to mud, through all the digging at the allotment, but in fact this mud is more like glue mixed with treacle, and losing a boot in this gooey quagmire is not fun.

Yes, the extension is finally underway - ; 

the foundations have been excavated;

concrete poured and the first blocks laid.

I cannot lie to you and say there is anything glamorous or pretty at this stage, as I am sure that those of you who have experienced any building work in your home will no doubt verify. I am taking comfort in putting together some photos of gorgeous gardens to inspire me, (and keep me from gloom), so that soon (very soon I hope), when the outside of the extension is completed and this bitterly cold weather gone, I can get to work on the lovely task of eradicating this mud and creating the garden.

Before that, I shall keep going; doing my best to -

keep my much-appreciated men-folk motivated, despite the cold and the mud;

carry and fetch for them;

bail out waterlogged holes;

clean mud-encrusted tools and boots;

locate missing items;

wash the mud from floors in the existing house;

prime and undercoat the new windows;

remain positive and cheery at all times;

and of course

ensure that there is a plentiful supply of tea and biscuits, 

(shop bought unfortunately, but I will get round to baking a cake, honestly I will!)

xxx