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My English Country Cottage
  • Blog Posts
    • Our Home
    • Interior Design projects
    • How To Create A Cutting Garden
    • Pantry Recipes
    • What Makes an English Country Cottage?
    • Home County Candle Company
    • Their English Country Cottages
    • Country Cottage Creatives Interviews
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  • Christmas Table Garland

    If you are hosting Christmas you may be thinking of creating a garland for your Christmas table so for this week’s blog I thought I would talk you through how I created mine. There are a couple of ways you can create your garland and for this blog I’m going to be showing you how I created mine using a fake garland and adding fresh foliage to it. I find…

    December 17, 2020
    How To Create A Cutting Garden

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Nobody move! We have this room up to bearable temperature! Do not open the curtain, do not create draughts by moving. We shall remain here until Thursday. I have resorted to draught excluder- 7 years we have lived here, 7 years we have accepted that this is an old house and wind gets through the timbers and shivers us. “No! No! Absolutely no point sealing windows and doors. POINTLESS! It gets through beams and we can’t draught excluder those (we have seriously considered adopting 17th century solutions and hanging large tapestries during the winter months), nope! We just have to accept it’s a little fresh in the winter”! Curiously when faced with a very cold spell and no discernible heating (the poor boiler has fallen in a total declining demise, it switches on, phutters and then fades away like a genteely coughing Victorian heroine ) I have been forced to take drastic action. I bought clever clear sticky roll stuff and went crazy, it’s a miracle that the children weren’t draught excludered. Erm, it actually works, you can’t see daylight through the front door anymore and candles remain lit next to windows and there was no 1980’s pop video look to my hair during my Pilates zoom yesterday. This was the only downside to my spirited draught attack (and the fact that I bought it for the kitchen doors but used it all up before I left the sitting room). Ha! Take that draughts. I win...slightly...as long as we remain in this room and the wind doesn’t change direction. Happy triumphant Tuesday! X #shabbystyle #myhometoinspire #snuggly #myvintageabode #cosy #cornerofmyhome #interiorescapism #livingroomdesign #livingroominspiration  #sittingroom #sofa #myhyggehome  #interiorlovers #styleithappy #softfurnishings #curtainsdesign #cosycottage #cosylivingroom #oilpaintings #colorlovedecor #passionforinterior #cosyroom #livingroominterior


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NOT TODAY THANK YOU. No, this was yesterday: blue skies, eye searing sunshine (not quite searing but like little moles we blinked our way outside, unsure of what this glorious light might be and sensing that it is warmer on the outside than inside our still heating free burrow). The children looked around in awe- “Mummy! It’s light! Why does my face feel warm?” “It’s the sunshine my loves, it is a heat source, this feeling is heat”...”Mummy! I can feel my nose! And my toes! And my fingers!”. Thank goodness for the sunshine, having relied heavily upon our log burner for the past few heating free weeks, we have suddenly hit critical low on logs, just one stack remains until Thursday’s delivery (which is also the day ear marked for the heating engineer). Thursday could be a day of great joy and WARMTH, until then we shall shiver like small Dickensian urchins, pressing our bodies as close to the one log per hour in the fireplace. Happy mole like Monday x #stayhome #cottagegarden #englishcottage #countryliving #englishhome #periodhome #oldhouselove #oldhousecharm #listedbuilding #bhghome #cottage #cottagecharm #photosofbritain #countrycottagestyle  #charminghomes #englishcountrygarden #countrycottage #englishcountryside #englishcountryliving #thatchedcottage #mycountryhome #oldhouse #countryhome #countrygarden


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Please look away if you have sensitive eyes!!! This post may make you snowblind, I am so sorry, just so. much. snow. We have just been inundated with the stuff, fields of white and skies of grey, erm...lanes of yellow and roads of brown. Ok, my romantic soul gave out, there was the merest sprinkling and now we are left with...well a bit of mush really. Ha! I’m actually really grateful, really, really desperately grateful, I have decided not to drink red wine any more (it’s my version of dry January just with more of a colour theme...ok, I am fiercely allergic to red wine - yes- possibly in great quantity is problematic- but also even a teensy glass turns me into an angry Bruce Banner and then a maudlin Morrisey so I have sensibly stocked up on emergency white wine which in snowy conditions I imagine could be less enjoyable than sipping a cold glass on a hot summer’s day as the pheasants squawk their twilight good nights and the barn owls take up the evening refrain. I can only thank the snow for staying away and allowing me to enjoy a cold glass of wine without snow pain. If you actually need snow satisfaction then please head over to my website (link in bio) to give the glad eye to a truly beautiful cottage who claims that the star of their Instagram account is their beautiful Dalmatian Dexter but I suspect their gorgeous church cottage is what has attracted so many followers to this stunning @ourlittlechurchcottage . Happy snow free and snuggly Sunday. X #happyplace #kitchenwindow #kitchenwindowview #simplethingsmadebeautiful #countryliving #periodhome #oldhouselove #oldhousecharm #cottage #cottagecharm #cottagefarmhouse #countrydecor #freshflowers #countrycottage #interiordetails #englishcottage #oldhouse #loveofcountryhouses #countryfeatures #windowview #realhomes #instawindow #windowview


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He came. He saw. He left. Noooooooooo!!!!! Timothy!!!!!! Come back!!!!!!! Why do you hate us? Why would you leave us with almost no heating? How will we survive? You can’t do this to ussssssssss..........Timotheeeeeeeeeee. Van door closes gently and we are left alone in the vortex of cold and disappointment. Well at least it barely snowed. Ok, he didn’t quite leave without speaking but he can’t mend it, we need someone else who has the kit to freeze the entire boiler (but Timothy why would we NEED to freeze our boiler??? This is the problem in the first place!!! We want it to be hot!!!!) and then replace the pump and possibly wash out or....actually I don’t know what else..he lost me at “I can’t do this”. In my head I began to consider pleading tears (term 2 Lamda), bribery (brownies works with the children), simple kidnapping (delivery drivers have gone missing from this address and frankly I am a woman without heating, I suspect I have superpowers as yet untapped) but eventually settled upon a relaxed shrug (as relaxed as shoulders that have been ear level with shivering for weeks can be). Que sera sera, manana, wevs. Everything in perspective. I may not feel like this when I recover from my white wine will warm me up and make everything better haze. Happy thank goodness for almost no show snow Saturday x #cottagehome #cottage #cottagelife #cottagelove #englishcottage #englishcountryliving #englishcountrygarden #winterfeels #gardenliving #loveyourhomeandgarden #hearthome #lovewhereyoulive #lovemyhome #cottagedreams #cottagechic #cottagecharm #listedbuilding #oldhome #winterishere❄️ #rosehips


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Look at all that snow!!!!!! Woohooo!!! Snow day! Snow day!!!! Hm? Sorry? You can’t see it??? Well it’s there!!! There were AT LEAST 8 flakes recorded yesterday. The excitement was almost too much to bear yet somehow we bore it bravely, along with the disappointment at the scarcity of joy giving sparkles. It’s fine, today is T-Dog day - yup old master Timothy will be with us by 9am to mend our boiler and fill our home with glorious heat again. “Well it has been a while since I was there, I expect the boiler will need a service “. “Oh Timothy, it wasn’t THAT long ago, possibly a year I suppose, but it’s really not very long since you brought your little grandson to play in the garden with our son”. “My Grandson is 11” “Oh how funny, I had forgotten that they were the same age... but they were very little...” “Yes, my Grandson was 8 when we were last here”...”So...so...so what you are telling me Timothy is that it was THREE YEARS since you were last here?? “ (Ha! we’ll be using that in my daughter’s worded maths problems - in your faces other kids!!! This is a real life doozy). “That’s right, three years ago so I expect the boiler will need a service “. Deep chastened breath “Yes Mr Timothy, I suspect it will, and also whatever else you recommend, I will shut up now and let you get on with your excellent work”. 3 years???? How did this happen??? Happy please no more freezing Friday x PS Head over to my website to ogle @flowersandlifestylebymargot tour of her garden and pick up some handy tips on sewing sweetpeas and garden jobs to begin if -like ours- your garden is entirely snow free. Grrrr. #thegreatindoors #loveofcountryhouses #countrycottageinteriors #mycountryhome #myhomesanctuary #myhouseandhome #englishdecor #englishcottage #shabbystyle #countryhome #charminghomes #cosyhome #countryliving #countryhome #oldhousecharm #windowview #cozyhome #englishcountryhome #cozyliving #cozycottage #countrycottage #sittingroom #cottagelifestyle


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Hi snow! Me again! Sorry! Yes, this is another frost shot but it still counts as ‘snowcouragement’. Are you mad????? You have almost no central heating??? Why would you encourage it to snow???? I have completed maths problems that should never have seen the light of my day, I have performed TS Eliot’s ‘Cats’ poem (ok I quite enjoyed doing this and it actually wasn’t part of the set work, I just really like the poem and we were working on another cat poem for school), I have discussed audio interpretation versus reading for oneself, I have flown fairies on wires, played school with dolls, cafes as owner and customer, discussed pshe and worked out that one whole is nine nineths and added it to three nineths - this is truly a victory....so a little snow that may distract my children and encourage them outside without me bribing them would be very, very extremely welcome. I am ready to suffer the cold and shivering of outrageous snowflakes for just one minute of snow silence. Thank you snow, see you at lunchtime (or I will set my increasingly furious “stop reading poetry Mummy” 9 year old daughter on you). Happy I will be very thankful Thursday. X #seekthesimplicity #hoarfrost #ofquietmoments #cottagelife #countrycottage #englishcottage #cottagegarden #thatch #prettylittleengland #englishhouse #countryliving #englishhome #whitetrees #oldhouselove #mygardentoday #cottagestyle #cottage #cottagecharm #cottagechic #countrycottagestyle  #countrystyle #charminghomes #englishcountrygarden #englishcountryliving #thatchedcottage #mycountryhome #thisprettyengland #calmversation


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Gasp! Shock! Sunshine!!! This was a must take shot, not only because the sun was shining which made it the warmest room in the house, not because I had spent all morning cowering before my nine year old daughter’s wrath (“you make maths so annoying, you actually make me feel ill, I am ill now”) but also because @emma.perring will be coming to reclaim her super kindly lent paintings that she allowed me to borrow 85 years ago for the magazine shoot. I thought that I better get some snaps to remember how the room could look (perfectly completed with these beauties) before it reverts to dull, sad, lonely, empty wall room again. I shall still seek solace in this place of refuge away from the very angry 9 year old fury (“you will let me make chocolate brownies or I will turn you into a brownie and actually eat you”), frankly the sonic boom that sent the villages a flutter this afternoon was genuinely less frightening than my daughter’s current mood. Yes! Actually a real life sonic boom! The entire cottage shook, I assumed my son had simply rocked back one too many times on his chair in his room above us but then clocked my husband staring at the sky outside in open mouthed (slightly mad villager looking) wonder. Gloriously my son typed in “sorry sir, a sonic boom just rocked our house” on his remote learning lesson to which all his friends joined in “yes! Our houses did too!” A wonderful crazy moment of distanced buddies being linked by something wonderful (apparently the RAF had to go sonic to catch up with a communicationless private jet). Well! What a thrill, we shall be discussing this for as long as I mourn my Emma Perring paintings (A VERY LONG TIME). Happy warp speed Wednesday. X #hyggehome #makingahouseahome #shabbychicstyle #countrybedroom #cabbagesandroses #mybeautifulhome #chandelier #bedroomstyling #floorboards #countryinteriors #charming-homes #romantichome #mycountryhome #bedroominspo #nesttoimpress #nestandthrive #bedroomsofinsta #cottagestyle #cottagedecor #shabbylove #interiordetails Bedding previously gifted by @bedfolkhq flowers from @flowersandlifestylebymargot



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