Thought for the day...

I took this photo on a trip to my favourite National Trust property Snowshill Manor near Broadway in Gloucestershire.

The C16th house was bought by Charles Wade just after the first world war. He saw the property advertised in Country Life while he was at the front and promised himself that, if he survived, he would buy it.

But he never intended it to be his home, in fact he converted a tiny building in the grounds, the Priest's House, to live in. It's said to be haunted by a monk and a young woman who was forced to marry in one of the upstairs rooms in 1604.

Wade kept the beautiful country manor simply as a repository for his amazing collection of STUFF.

I can't describe it any better than that because the variety is staggering: Samurai armour (26 suits), a collection of scrimshaw, toys, musical instruments, Oriental carving and furniture, bicycles, looms…the list goes on and on. He was an inveterate collector and almost every item came from large houses in the UK at a time when many old family properties were selling treasures because they were struggling with death duties and the lack of labour after the war (very Downton Abbey).

Thank goodness he saved so many wonderful things for us to enjoy now. You can see why it's a place I enjoy so much, It speaks to my wish to save and care for old things and enjoy them today and in the future. His motto was "let nothing perish" and so his quote below is my Thought for the Day:

Have a wonderful day and keep saving and enjoying wonderful things x

Life in my new Home!

I Love My Home has settled in to its new home at Brackley Antique Cellar. The first couple of weeks have been really good for sales and I've already had to restock so I'm a happy little camper!

The staff are all lovely and so helpful, I worried that moving from a  lovely intimate place to a much larger one might mean it was a bit clinical but not at all. Of course, it may have helped that I took a large box of chocolate biscuits for them when I went in this weekend!!

Here are a couple of photos to give you a slight idea of how HUGE the place is:

Even these don't really do it justice as it's impossible to capture the whole building and there are other areas which are separate from the main one, it just goes on and on...

Here are a few items in my humble little unit (I can see I might be upgrading to a larger one sooner rather than later)

Some of my larger items have already been sent off to new homes so I added a few more this weekend...

I think my favourites were firstly this lovely vintage double desk and bench, can you imagine the kids doing their homework at this while you cook dinner? and secondly, the gorgeous vintage Imperial typewriter. Don't they look great together?

I showed this to the lovely Alison from Stylish Shutters of Tring who's helping me with some new window treatments at home, and we were off down memory lane with our experiences of manual typewriters, telex machines etc, God I feel old!! 

Just for the record, I don't remember machines as old as this one!

Pretty chair makeover

I found another pretty old chair recently, but in a very sorry state as you can see...

her bones were lovely but she'd seen better days and was exposing her foundation wear - not a good look for any lady … except maybe Madonna?

I couldn't resist bringing her home and treating her to a makeover…

and her true beauty was revealed, including some lovely gilded carving

she even looks good from the back, the mark of a true lady!

She'll be off to star at my new retail space in Brackley Antique Cellar very soon x

Moving Home!

Fanfare please!

Well, I Love My Home has grown even larger and has had to look for a new home - meaning more space and even more fabulous unique items.

Yesterday we moved into Brackley Antique Cellar in the beautiful and historic Northamptonshire town of Brackley.

The Antique Cellar has 30,000 square feet of space with over 180 dealers, it is VAST and if you can't find something to buy there, then you haven't looked properly!

Plenty of parking, good accessibility and a tea room - what else could you want?

As if this wasn't enough, in 2013 it was voted 'Homes and Antiques' magazine's Best Antique Centre in Great Britain and is frequently featured on TV in programmes such as Antiques Road Trip.

Come and visit I Love My Home at Unit 88

Search for Brackley Antique Cellar online and you'll see lots more information including reviews and how to get there.

See you soon I hope x