A Walk Round Blacketyside

Since Google Street Views have been rolled out across the UK in the last couple of days, I thought I would do our own version for Blacketyside Farm. After all, I can't see Google reaching our neck of the woods for a long time yet! We start at the bottom of the farm road, just as you turn off the main road (A915). There in front of us is Blacketyside Farm Shop, a beautiful wooden chalet type building opened a year ago.

Bursting with fresh goodies - from homegrown fruit and vegetables to chutneys and jams, and local beef, not to mention cakes, biscuits, sweeties........

Some of the Farm Shop Cuties.

Another look at the interior, and yes, those are our cards on display.

The beautiful pine interior, looking through to the Tearoom - choice of coffee and luscious cakes or home cooked lunch with fresh local produce on the menu.

Well stocked little Garden Centre adjacent to the farm Shop - just too tempting for me.

We leave the Farm Shop and take the quiet farm road all of 150 yards to the Embroidery Workshop nestling behind our cottage, just glimpsed in the photo. Woods to the left with snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells.

Looking across our garden and down the road from whence we came. I love the open space and greenery here.

Farming for the 21st century - the view from the back of our cottage overlooking the workshop to the field sloping up the hill towards the farm itself. This was recently planted with not sure what, but protected from the elements by perfect rows of polythene drills.

And the walk leads us into the Embroidery Workshop - more cards and crafts to see, mostly handmade locally, and well worth a visit, although I say so myself! It's just a gentle stroll up the road from the Farm Shop, after all.

And hopefully you haven't spent all your money in the Farm Shop already - although we do take plastic.

Busy days...and nights

Here we are nearly at the end of January..where did it go? I managed to leave all the designing of new cards to TWO DAYS before the Trade Fair, which made for one very elastic sort of day. It started about 8am, and continued through till almost the same time the next day. But I managed to create, from the pile of "stuff" in the pic above, and the many bits and pieces in the pics below, a reasonable selection of new card designs .

You need a mess to be creative, I say, and it's funny that the amount of mess I make is gradually distilled into a card measuring 6" x 4".

Anyway, I think I managed to make up 15 -20 new designs that day, discarded one or two on the way, and ended by photographing them for the trade brochure, which had to be compiled, printed and stapled the next day. Still, as always, we did it.

A quick tour around the shop part of the workshop in the next few pics.

It can be quite colourful, with Barbara's patchwork cushions on display .

Just a tiny glimpse of the view across the fields. We get deer coming right up to the fence sometimes.

There are still some Christmas textiles, decorations and cards in the sale, but not for much longer. A lot has already gone, and hopefully there will be a last minute rush to clear the shelves to make room for all the fresh new ideas I have (!)

A glimpse behind the shop part to the workshop and you see the "creative mess" again.

Finally, order out of chaos. What it was all for - the Trade Fair. What can I say - it was well worth it. We had a good three days meeting our trade customers from all over Scotland, the US, Canada, Australia and now Japan!

There was a good buzz about the show, and a lot of business was done, flying in the face of the doom and gloom merchants in the media.

The new designs went down well, and all will go into production. So that means more days and nights ahead making up the orders, but I'm certainly not complaining - it's what it's all about.

Once I get properly unpacked from the Show, the new cards will go on our website, I promise.

Christmas at the Embroidery Workshop

This is the "little shop" part of the Embroidery Workshop. The photos will get better, I promise.