Good things come...

There have been a few more additions to the cottage lately ; the culmination of a couple of plans that have taken their time to bear fruit!
From before we bought our cottage, I had three large dark brown woollen cushions on our sofa which for a while I have felt were just too dark. Plus I already knew that due to my penchant for cushions, there were probably a few too many on the sofa already so I wanted to replace the three brown ones with just one pair. After months of watching and waiting, I saw these two lovely mossy green cushions made of vintage velvet at Caroline Zoob's it seemed much too serendipitous to pass up!

So now there is also one less cushion on the sofa; giving guests a place to sit! I am also always on the lookout for kitchen storage (I have a lot of flour!) And I just happened to spot a lovely old canister curiously labelled "Orge" at the Christmas Country Living Fair. After a bit of Googling "Orge" turns out to be French for barley. But as I don't use a huge amount of this ingredient in my cooking it will make a perfect flour tin especially as it is just the right size to hold a large bag.

Another of my slow-boilers was kitchen clock, ever since our old one mysteriously stopped working a year or so ago. I really like the old French tin bistro clocks and after looking at a few reproductions I decided that I would really much prefer the real thing. After searching on eBay and eBay.fr (and seriously testing my high school French!) I finally found one that I really liked and was within my price range. We probably need to raise the nail it is hanging on so that the bottom of the clock doesn't overhang the kitchen knives but I'm really pleased with the overall overall. My husband was a bit surprised at its size (it is 32cm in diameter) but I think it adds a bit of character to our kitchen!

Blog readers who have had a look at my favourite blogs in my sidebar will no doubt have had a perusal of May All Seasons Be Sweet To Thee. I've been an admirer of Dawn's blog for a while which has recently been recording her and her little family's wholesome life in the Austrian countryside. Dawn's latest post which mentions how competitive and sometimes artificial blogging can be really stuck a cord with me. I made a decision when starting this blog that it was going to be a haven from the real world with my cottage, garden and interests at it's centre and practically no reference to the outside world what-so-ever! So, that is my disclaimer that I would like to attach to pretty much everything I post here. Nothing is ever as perfect as it seems which is also something that I need to keep foremost in my own mind when viewing other blogs as well! (And just to prove my point in the above kitchen photo I forgot to remove a plastic container from my little french herb rack before I took the shot!)