Looking ahead to the New Year .......

Can't believe how the days have whizzed by since the last blog, and before we knew it, - as happens most years, - Christmas Day has come and gone!  such a pity there were no guests in the cottage for Christmas, it would have been so cosy for them, - but I think most people had their Christmas's planned before we were able to advertise things....  hopefully next year there will be more of a reason for me to deck the halls with boughs of holly! :-)

The lack of guests however didn't stop us from walking down into town and calling in on Crafty Cottage every once in a while during the festive season!  ... even  my door wreath managed to stay "put" thankfully despite the heavy gusts of wind which have been whirling around the Cotswolds during the past few weeks, and we also placed a small Christmas Tree inside, on our new bookcase - (shabby chic style again thanks to Rob of course!).

My handmade wreath

Before - in garden

After ! - in situ

    Our new Private Parking signs have gone up, and looking good!  Specially made by Sue & Robin of Camgraphic in the Arts & Crafts font.  Very little left to get now for the inside of the cottage, - and looking forward to the spring when we can work more in the garden.

 

One of the highlights of our Christmas has been that my sister in law and her husband, - Rosanna and Maurice from Adelaide Australia have visited us.  Of course we had to introduce them to Crafty Cottage in person as they have been following its build  (& blog!) from the beginning:

 

And so we leave Christmas behind, and look forward to the New Year.

Guests due to arrive at the Cottage today ... and fingers crossed 2014 will be a good year for us all....

"Happy New Year from Crafty Cottage, Chipping Campden " !

-S-

   

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

At last ....  something to Blog about!   ... yes December's here and most people in Chipping Campden are starting to talk about Christmas.  It's great to see the wreaths appearing on the High Street, - whether for sale in the florists and greengrocers, - or decorating the doors of the beautiful cotswold houses and cottages in town.

There was an obvious "nip" in the air as I parked up at the cottage recently and walked up the High Street.  I couldn't help but get my trusty camera out,  it was reasonably quiet and I felt as though I was the only tourist in town !!

The Bay Tree Florist

My task for the day is to gain inspiration and to choose what kind of wreath to decorate the door of Crafty Cottage.  -  I love the heart wreath at the Bay Tree, although not particularly "Christmassy" as it is adorned with dried geraniums -  it's heart shape would fit in perfectly at the cottage.  Infact there are so many hearts decorating Crafty Cottage - it could be described as "Hearts and Crafts"  !

Drinkwaters on the High Street,

a great place for fresh fruit and veg, (note the lovely sprouts!)

pickles & jams 

Fresh flowers from Drinkwaters

their wreaths look great too !!

(Drinkwaters is literally a 2 minute walk away from Crafty Cottage)

One of the door decorations on the High Street today.

   

The Cotswold House Hotel

Whilst walking through town it was nice to see the Market Hall being used for what it was made for!,....  

a guy seems to appear regularly these days filling the Hall with wicker baskets, mats and rugs etc...  

Behind the Market Hall, I noticed that our favourite restaurant Michaels (Mediterranean Cuisine) have changed their window display from a recent Halloween theme, to this year's Christmas White and very "glittery" Festive display which looks lovely, - but I can't help but think it would look a lot nicer from the inside, with a nice portion of  Meze for company!

Eat @ Michaels !

.... and so the hunt continues for wreath inspiration!

Snapdragon Florist

The Christmas Wreath situation seems to have suddenly arrived in Chipping Campden BIG TIME! and I am surrounded!  -  all look lovely it is so difficult to decide on a style for the cottage,  ... infact I am beginning to wonder whether a "sprout wreath" might look quite good ?!

In the end I decided to opt for a quick visit back to Drinkwaters for a jar of Lemon Curd which is always very popular with my B&B guests!  .... and hot foot it back to the car.  Once at home, I started to design my own wreath for Crafty Cottage.  After all,  I am promoting the local Arts and Crafts of the town - what's stopping me having a go!

.......with the Crafty Cottage wreath imminent,

and the "Chipping Campden Enchanted Christmas" event due next weekend,

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I will of course ....

be keeping you posted in time for Christmas!

-S-

Don't forget to visit our Facebook page !

Shutter up and drink coffee !

After a long wait, the shutters were finally delivered this week and the "make do" Venetian blinds were unceremoniously taken down to make way for perhaps one of the last things on our list to do before we can look back at Crafty Cottage - sigh and whisper - "OK - finished now!"

 

Loving the end result!

 

Once the table and chairs were back in place, the room looked complete again, 

.....

That was Tuesday, - and today was Campden Market day in the Town Hall,

Judith (soap woman extraordinaire) met me for coffee afterwards - it was pouring with rain - a very miserable day infact - but this didn't deter us in our mission for sourcing good strong coffee & cake :-) ... well, what else can you do on a day like today ?!

 Campden Coffee Company in the Old Silk Mill hit the spot! 

With two huge buckets of lovely (award winning!) coffee 

a slice of "chocolate fridge cake" and an extra large portion of carrot cake!  ....  yum yum :-)

 

The view from the coffee shop window was actually the back of Crafty Cottage !

With guests staying there at the moment,  - Judith had to be content with the promise of an inside tour of the cottage next week (bookings permitting of course!)  in the meantime we discussed soap again and as we said goodbye to one another beside her lavender smelling car on the High Street, - I had acquired lovely Almond, orange and Calendula soaps, and Rose soap medallions  -  it just has to be done :-)

With life returning to normal (relatively!) and Crafty Cottage settling into a routine of enquiries & general interest - autumn/winter definitely appears to have arrived in Chipping Campden over the past few days.

Hoping to add a little more to the garden despite the time of year ......

......  will of course be keeping you posted

-S-

Crafty Cottage Facebook page

Daisy's chairs ....

The last few days spent at Crafty Cottage pre-guests I was confidently hammering tacks into fabric, foam and chair seat panels thinking, - is there anything I can't do :-)..!

....It didn't take me very long to realize I am absolutely rubbish at upholstery !  Our 4 beautiful oak dining chairs for the cottage, which were inherited earlier this year from Paul's lovely mum, deserved much better than my feeble attempt, and last week I plucked up the courage to visit Robin to show him what I had tried to do! (thought he might like a laugh !!)  - I passed over some Strawberry Thief for him to do a proper job !

Robin's Rest

and "Hey Presto ...."

Yesterday afternoon I got the call I was waiting for, and hot footed it over to Blackminster Business Park this morning, to collect the finished item.

We will be taking them over to the cottage later, - (weather permitting as it's pouring with rain at the moment) and looking forward to getting my kitchen chairs back which have been on holiday at Crafty Cottage for the past 3 weeks as a temporary measure!

Absolutely thrilled with the chairs,  - we had them stripped, sealed, and now the seats finish them off to what are perfect additions to Crafty Cottage.

I'm sure Daisy would have loved them

X

Introducing ....

Today,  - and by my complete surprise my great friend Judith appeared!  -  a few knocks on the door, - and hey presto lots of hugs and  compliments to one another!

Judith,  -( if you have been following the blog?) - is my magical wonderful soap making friend extraordinaire ! and today she called into me at home purely by chance (excuse the pun again) to announce that she would be becoming a weekly feature at the Campden Market every Friday, - based in the Town Hall untill 11am.

A bar of her wonderful soap for every guest at Crafty Cottage complimentary, - and of course if your stay coincides with a Friday Market day - then you can stock up and probably meet the good lady herself !!

I was able to pick up the lovely little bar of soap from her today for the next guests, - but there is a strong possibility it may be used beforehand as it smells so delicious !!

Today marked another occasion too,  -  the Crafty Cottage pencil !  A quick visit to the wonderful world of Sue & Robin locally, and the deed was done!

http://www.camgraphic.co.uk/

http://www.camdeco.co.uk/

Such a great place with lots of personalised stuff on offer!  it was so tempting to just "go for it" and order everything available with "crafty cottage" written on it !!!

Things seem very quiet on the Blog now!  -  guest are comfortably settled in the Cottage and dare I say it Paul and I are starting to lead a "normal life" !!!  -  but the soap and pencils are a very import part of the Cottage and its success!

Will be keeping you posted!

-S-

Not exactly twiddling my thumbs .....

I suppose things have never been so quiet on my blog !!  -  for over a week now we have had our first guests staying in the cottage and alongside that being wonderful of course - it's weird as both Paul and I miss spending most evenings with either a screwdriver or a broom in our hands!

However,  we're not exactly twiddling our thumbs and a few days ago I was able to take the very first picture of Crafty Cottage from across the road - the finished thing - without a car or a van on the drive - as things were so busy there right up to the last minute it had been an impossible thing to do !

Despite the weather forecast, - the past couple of days have been quite sunny and I took advantage of this to get as many outside photos as possible, - particularly for the website etc...

    

We're now registered on TripAdvisor and looking at the Blog stats this morning only need another 9 viewings of the blog to reach 3,000 since it all began :-)

With it being October now and things starting to quieten down at home, the B&B is just ticking over nicely - at last i'm able to sit down and get on with all the 'admin' stuff for the cottage.  Finally i've started on the Guest Information Folder - which will probably be ready just as our first guests are about to leave !!!  .....  we have caught up with them a couple of times and feedback is good, - they are enjoying their stay and have already booked to return next year !!!

It may not be quite as often as in the past,  but will be keeping you posted!

(3,000 viewings of blog now passed!)

Please "Like" us on Facebook

-S-

Our first guests arrive!

Phew ..... writing this at the end of the day, - and what a day :-) !! our very first guests at Crafty Cottage due to arrive at 2.30pm.

We left the cottage at 11pm last night,  - both totally knackered, - cleaning this and that, - moving around furniture, - .... not necessary "tweaking" things,  - just making major changes at the last minute!   tweaking to follow :-)  ...  and today - we "tweaked" !  all very very last minute and a mad panic before our very first guests arrived (on the understanding that it may not be necessarily perfect :-) !

1pm found me yet again at Barn Antiques looking for furniture !  - (not forgetting guests due 2.30!), - came back to a much cleaner and organised space - garden looking good, - all appliances suitably installed & just figuring out now how to set the clocks on all of them :)

At last I was able to take some photos for our website, & marketing etc...

"The Bedroom"

6ft super king bed

The ensuite

(Sink, WC, Shower)

The kitchen

The Lounge

The Loo !

"Crafty Cottage"

The very first guests arriving at Crafty Cottage !

x we hope you enjoy your stay x

-S-