Happy Mothers' Day

To every mum up and down the land.. and across the seas..

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

... and to my own darling mother.. wherever you may be.. Love you xx

Something to write home about...

A beautiful Spring day.. if not a little cold.. and I took time out... only about half an hour or so..but just enough.
Walking down the hill into town .. no traffic? Most unusual for the streets of Bath especially at lunch time..

Helicopter hovering overhead.... what's going on?

It wasn't long before I hit the crowds and the sea of Union Jack Flags..and just in the nick of time I found my spot along the main street to jostle into position with my camera..
Armed with tissues and smiles..to welcome..
Our local hero..

Amy Williams.. Winter Olympics Skeleton Gold Medallist 2010 ..

Lots of cheering.. lots of smiles.. and a big lump in my throat..call it National Pride..



This is probably the closest I will ever get to a gold medal..

Today has certainly been something to write home about !

P.s It wasn't only Amy that has got such a warm welcome. I was so pleased by all your friendly 'welcome back' comments on my last post. It had been a long time in blogland between posts and one could almost hear the tumbleweeds and the vultures cry. Thank you for being so faithful and returning to this wayward blogger!

By a Whisker ...

Cat got your tongue? Well I think this little puddy tat has had my tongue for the last month or so...
I seemed to have mislaid my blogging voice of late..I am certainly not short of mental fodder to write about .. much on my mind... but have found it hard to form sentences.
With the days growing longer by degrees.. I feel as though I am emerging from a very long winter hibernation. Judging by the layers of winter fat that have accumulated around my middle and derriere, I certainly feel an affinity with my local badger and fox community.
The bird song has shifted a gear and the light seems to stretch just that bit longer each day... seemingly overnight. One day I was staggering to the post box in the dark at 5.00 p.m and the next day I was watching the sun sink behind the hills of Bath. So.. Spring is just around the corner and with it a whole lot of good intentions and happy ventures..and much goings on behind the scenes.
Now where shall I start...?
After weeks of staring out of the window and wringing my hands at the state of our garden, I finally set foot outside and confronted the aftermath of the wintry weather. With secateurs in hand and a brand new pair of gardening gloves.. I took no prisoners.. by cutting and pruning back the delinquent shrubs and shrivelled plants. Can't say it looks a huge improvement..tidy yes..attractive.. no. Very hard to believe that it will ever look green and lush again.. but in three months time.. I will be fighting my way through the vegetation again and cursing the weeds.
I will spare you the photographic evidence..You will just have to use your imagination ..Death Valley meets urban wasteland.. Get the picture? Here's one I took earlier.. on a good day!I am sure the blogging world is abuzz with the latest flurry of vintage style fairs (see side-bar for more details) that are springing up hither and dither.. Lizzie & Clare's, Jane & Christine's, Sue's, to name but a few..hats off to you girls for being enterprising and biting the bullet.
Jayne and I are busy making plans for our first Textile Fair to be held in Chipping Sodbury on Saturday July 3rd..It will be an opportunity for the many textile orientated artists and merchants to showcase their work...We are starting small but if it proves as successful as the Vintage & Handmade Fairs.. then who knows where it will be held next... Olympia? Ha ha!!!That was a joke folk!!
There is also a May fair to think about.. only weeks.. which equate to days... away.. gulp!!!Milly and I have a daily date with the brown paper and sellotape dept. and should soon be experts in the art of origami and how 'not to' wrap a parcel.. Why oh why does the end of the sellotape always make itself unavailable? and why do I turn around, after spending half an hour wrapping a particularly tricky item.. to find that the packing slip is sitting behind me. Grrrrr!
Despite these small gripes.. we are having such a good time sharing our enterprise which is now 6 months old and thriving.. thanks to some charming and most obliging customers! Mentions in Homes & Antiques glossy pages has certainly provided us with a wide range of visitors.. from Tasmania to Belgium.

If I had thought two and a half years ago.. what would I be doing now.. it certainly wouldn't have involved me being an event organiser or Emporium partner.. both ventures have brought me so much enjoyment and a multitude of new friends and acquaintances.. so.. 'expect the unexpected' and you never know.. it might just happen!!

I hope you are all tickety boo and surviving the wrath of this winter.. It sure feels like a long haul.. but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.. it's called Easter.. when the clocks forward.

Love in a cold climate ..

Please forgive me if I have been a bit quiet of late... Thinking I could ease myself gently in to the new year..I realised.. in my usual..' last minute' style, that there was much to be done in the world of greeting cards designs.. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter.. follow each other in quick succession and there is no time afforded for chewing my pencil and wondering what to do...
It is certainly the weather for snuggling up to a loved one.. and will soon be the season for blue-birds, doves, hearts and roses..
Cowboys & Custard productions has been beavering away at the old kitchen table.. and would like to present to you the latest Valentine cards...
Ta da!

On the wings of a Dove.. original love poem from a Victorian album.. printed dove on linen badge...Kiss me quick.. with a kitschy comic book kiss ..embellished with rhinestone heart..Don't beat about the bush... say it how it is...with I Love You, Crazy About You, Whole Lotta Love
Heart printed on linen badge....And finally... this one's for the boys..All of these cards can be found at my web shop at Not on the High Street....
Milly and I have also been rather preoccupied in the stockroom and new department at Milly & Dottie's Emporium..
The Dovecote is our latest collection of floral finds, love tokens and all things close to our hearts.. a little romance..Please drop in for a visit when you are passing..you never know what you may find!

On the Piste..

My mother taught me never to laugh at other's misfortune..
I am sorry... I just can't help myself... this is hilarious
If you are fed up with all this white stuff underfoot.. just watch this film clip and thank your lucky stars you are not on the piste...in true Kevin style.

The Twelve Doors of Christmas

Today is Twelfth Night "The evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking". Tomorrow, I for one will be busy packing away the glass baubles in to their tissue paper clothes, for the next twelve months..along with the multitude of reindeer and forest of trees..I am sure a certain amount of procreation went on whilst my back was turned. There seem to be far more reindeer on the mantelpiece than I remember...

I could well be considered a bit humbuggy, as I itch to start dismantling the festive fripperies as soon as Boxing Day is upon us.. and have been known to fill the recycling bin with Christmas cards on this day. I do love Christmas and we have spent the most relaxing and stress free Christmas that I can remember for many a year ..BUT.. I long to turn the page to a new year, a new beginning .. a chance to put things right that went awry, askew.. just didn't happen ... during the last 365 days.

Whilst the people of Bath were tucking in to turkey and wearing silly hats, we were walking around our local neighbourhood, enjoying the unusual peace on the streets and the crisp bright day. Bathonians love to deck their front doors with a fine display of wreaths and I couldn't resist snapping just twelve of my favourites .. Each one representing the twelve days of Christmas....Which is your favourite?

New Year's Day was spent striding out along the Cotswold Way.. changing the rather stale scenery of television and the inside of my eyelids (lots of siestas) .. to the beauty of our local landscape. The "ground hard as iron, water like a stone."

The mercury has dropped even further today and I kicked myself for not taking the camera with me on a quick jaunt in to town.. with the delicate confetti of snow and a hoar frost all around.. the skyline looked stunning. I snapped these on my return home, as soon as the freezing fog started to lift and the sun made a brief appearance.

I have made a sumptuous meal of sesame seeds, chopped apple, peanuts, mixed flower seeds and breadcrumbs. Not part of my new year diet plan ( what new year diet plan?) but a meal for all the shivering birds out there. How they must struggle to find food in these Siberian conditions. Hearing the forecast for tonight.. 10 inches of snow for the south..Time to dig out those tennis rackets again!
Thank you for all your lovely Christmas wishes and cards. I do hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and managed to safely complete your journeys, to families and loved ones.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous year ahead!

Compliments of the Season..

Entering in to the festive spirit, a suitably pink sky dawned over Bath on the eve of Christmas...

It was not long before we discovered that our boiler had clocked off for it's winter hols and had left us in the cold.. with no forwarding address..

So it's a cold Custard household here today.. but that has not dampened our jollity. I can highly recommend the merits of hugging a cat when the heating system goes A.W.O.L.. if only the one available cat would desist in sabotaging my wrapping exercise..

The merry festive pot of chilli is stewing away in the oven to spice up our Christmas Eve.. all the presents are wrapped now, with the help of Pickles, and are under the tree waiting for the ever so restrained (cough !!!) gift unwrapping ceremony tomorrow..

All that needs to be done now is to wish you all.. my dear visitors, friends and lurkers.. a truly Happy and Peaceful Christmas.. and I wish you all a year of good health, wealth and happiness in the year to come..Much love from
Michele and the rest of the Custard household xx

Happy Kitschmas

For those of you living in the east of England, you will have been blessed with a blanket of snow today.. and there is plenty more on the way .. but not for us in the balmy west ..alas.
What is it about snow that brings out the romance in the soul? I LOVE the stuff.. the fluffy flakes, the muffled world it creates.. and the clean white-washed world it leaves behind.
This was our hill last year.. more of a ski slope..

I have had to content myself with making my own winter wonderland, and this one won't thaw out until Twelfth night, when the kitschy collection will be packed away in tissue paper for another year..I can't help but think of our favourite Christmas film, the totally kitschy film.. The Grinch..there is a certain influence..methinks with the plastic reindeer and forest of trees..

So much nicer without Jim Carrey appearing amongst the collection .. don't you think ! ?
Well.. we are not exactly ready for the Christmas kick off next week..slowly but surely.. we are getting there. The marauding Master & Mr Custard, have yet to discover my secret cache of Christmas chocolate reindeer, snowmen and gold coins. Presents have been ferreted away in various corners of the house, even I will have problems finding them due to a defective memory.
Christmas cards have been made (since July) and almost all posted. Tree has been decorated, with the help of Santa's little helper..who was in serious jeopardy of being packed and posted to the first buyer, after sabotaging the lower rung of decs on the tree.

The Christmas day menu has been planned with military precision.. and whilst I am getting ding dong merrily on high...with a glass of fizz.. Mr Custard will be preparing a boeuf en croute for our din dins..The obligatory turkey and brussel sprouts will put in an appearance on Boxing Day when we visit family.
We might well be joined by our new visitor who turned up for breakfast the other day.. much to my utter delight and surprise..

He was too busy snuffling some fallen apples in the garden to notice me standing on tiptoes with my camera precariously perched on the bathroom window frame, snapping as many photos as I could take without scaring him away.. or dropping the camera on the terrace below.

Such a handsome beast and one I hope will return another day for more scrumping..
I must away now.. still ploughing through my Christmas card list.. and time is rapidly running out..
Hope you are all keeping warm and toasty.. and not getting too frazzled by the run up to the festive season...
A bientot x