cozy – Page 7 – Jennifer Michie

July 14, 2009 / 0 Comments

Yes, Virginia, There is Christmas in July!

I LOVE Christmas! I always said that when I had my own house I would have a Christmas room. A little place that would always be eternally Christmassy. When you opened the door there could be a crackling fire, a cozy Christmas tree decorated with glowing twinkle lights, Christmas music playing and a warm chair to curl up in with a book and a cup of hot chocolate. A girl can dream, can’t she?

I have yet to find the true Dicken’s Christmas experience in England, but I suppose a lot of it has to do with where we live and since working schedules somehow get crazier around the Holidays you never seem to have enough time to do everything you want. I have yet to go ice-skating at Somserset House, but I plan to!

Every year we always arrange for one day that we go into Centeral London to just window-shop and look at all the Christmas lights. We watch the entertainers in Covent Garden and take a stroll down Carnaby Street where there are always interesting street displays. This past year there were giant puffy air-filled snowmen floating above your head, while the year before shiny metallic “paper” chains, draped the street. Fortnum & Masons does the most extraordinary windows and most recently in conjunction with the Royal Ballet. This past year, “The Snow Queen” came to life in all her icy glory.

I love our house at Christmas, its cozy tininess works all the more in its favour during the season. Our cottage is so small that the Christmas tree can only fit in our bedroom, so we have a romantic sparkle of lights as we slip off to the land of nod. The downstairs mantle and banister are swathed in pine garlands with fairy lights threaded through and Danish ornaments hung in amongst the boughs. When we can’t sleep we usually come downstairs at some ungodly hour to make a cup of tea, turn on the Christmas lights and a little music and just chat till we are tired again.

Being in England this time of year I always miss the stores at home that do fabulous “Christmas in July” sales, if I had my own store here, I would! Even the Family channel would do Christmas in July TV specials, showing “Frosty” and “Rudolph”. It just makes for a little fun in the summertime haze.

June 26, 2009 / 0 Comments

Boxes & Bows & Bags

I don’t think it matters how old you are, the receiving of a package or letter from home is a treasure that brightens your day. It is almost the equivalent of receiving an Oscar when you are in College. After collecting your package from the school post office you carried it proudly all eyes looking at you, coveting it as you headed back to your dorm. Because, inside that box held much needed love from home. I received a birthday package from my sister yesterday and what magnificent bits and pieces it held.

In such a modern society there is nothing still more important to me than to not lose the art of letter writing and gift packaging. Everything inside my box was laid out so beautifully when I opened it. All carefully wrapped and purchased with thought. What is a better gift, no matter how big or how small that is bought with thought? W.H. Auden said,”none will hear the postman’s knock, without a quickening of the heart.” How true that is, an unopened package holds secrets yet to be told.

In some small way I can imagine the joy a letter brought to the pioneer families, they were brave souls. They were adventurers! What a welcome feeling a letter or package brings, it envelops you like a hug. It is these sometimes seemingly ordinary connections to home that make you feel so near to the people you are so very far away from.

June 9, 2009 / 0 Comments

4 Days and Counting…

The Fair is almost here. Friday is D-Day! Today I have been busy washing and ironing the tablecloths that I will bring with me. Double checking to make sure I have the baskets and items I want to use for display to set the “mood” and just coming up with layout ideas for my table.

A small gang is gathering on Thursday and we will all pitch in to put up tents and hang bunting from every available space. Now, if the weather just holds out we will be doing fine. The forecast is sunny, but this is England and by Friday the weather report could change to snow. Only here can you have all 4 seasons in one day.

Tonight I will be finish up packaging, pricing and labeling. I am in the home stretch, and raring to go!

Please Note: Illustration by Margaret Tempest from “The Little Grey Rabbit” series.

May 27, 2009 / 0 Comments

Yo-Yos

The days seem to be ticking by faster than I want them to, as I still feel like I have so much left to do for the Fair. This year is going to be very exciting, it sounds like there will be a very good crowd of people coming and an even more diverse range of stalls.

One of the projects I have been busy working away on involves making yo-yos. I was never a fan of them before but after seeing them in a magazine, they somehow began to grow on me. Now, I seem to notice them everywhere. The possibilities of what you can make with them are endless.

My mind has been buzzing non-stop with ideas which led to the creation of one of my main Fair projects; a collaborative concept formulated by my Mom and I. I had so many notions, some of which have come into being however some will just have to wait until the Christmas Fair.

Knowing that November seems forever away until the Christmas Fair, when we will all be together again, but this time, in the coziness of an inviting house, with a crackling fire, Christmas trees adorning every free space and a coming together of friends old and new to have fun and raise money for a worthwhile charity along the way.

Like the March girls we gather, shaking the snow off our boots and heading for the kitchen, where a kettle is always boiling on top of the Aga. We gather to share ideas, celebrate each others company, love and cozy warmth.

May 7, 2009 / 0 Comments

Summertime is Calling Me

As summer finally begins to wave her hand over this quaint part of the world, fetes begin to appear all over the countryside. They bring the young and old together to enjoy the festivities. Often outside, they take in the best that the English summer has to offer. Whatever the weather may be the fete soldiers on, oblivious to any thing that will put a damper on the day.

A local friend of mine puts on a fair twice a year to support a nearby charity. The summer fair is soon approaching at the beginning of June and I have been working away at the moment making all kinds of handmade items for my table.

There is a large selection for guests coming to the fair to choose from. Tables spill over with the sellers’ wares. Adorned in pretty tablecloths and vintage quilts, decorated with homemade bunting and tents, the fair is a chance for artists of all genres to come together and sell their goods. Some stalls feature established shop keepers with their tables overflowing with vintage treasures and baked goods; others feature those of us who use this an opportunity to sell items we have worked hard making over the past few months.

I usually have a bake sale table, but this year I am trying my hand at something different. I’m making a variety of items with a mixture of vintage and new materials. It will be a wonderful opportunity for me to see how well my items sell and I am hoping to make a more permanent business of this, selling on Etsy in the future. But, for now I will just have to be content with what opportunities the fair holds for me.

May 5, 2009 / 0 Comments

Home is Where the Heart Is

Embrace where you are right now is a concept I try to live up to everyday. I am an American living in the London suburbs and married to an adorable redheaded Brit. I am surprised by how many Americans I know living here who only associate with other Americans. You are somewhere out of your comfort zone and that is the best time to search out a new experience. I live in a very sweet cottage behind a “racing green” colored door. The only yard I have is what I can grow in my flower pots in front of the house, as we live on a side street. But it is just right for us.

Living here I feel like a pioneer woman, the “Laura Ingalls Wilder” of London and her family in their first little sod home on the prairie. Not everything is as convenient as it is at home and so you learn to adapt. You adapt in many ways, your way of life, how you cook something. It is easy to make certain recipes at home with the ease in which you can gather your ingredients, usually half-way done on their journey to finish your dish, yet here, I find that I will have to often start from scratch and even though the process takes longer the finished product is something I have pride in, my hands have touched every step along the way.

I love to travel, especially to Paris, we don’t get to go to France as often as I would like but as the French novelist Marguerite Yourcenar said, “To stay in one place and watch the seasons come and go is tantamount to constant travel: one is travelling with the earth,” and that is what I am being, a gypsy in my newfound hometown.