Converting the Potting Sheds into an Office

The Man Shack

For the past ten years my husband has been working from offices in town.  I practically threw him out of the house ten years ago just before our daughter was born when he mentioned that I might have to shush a crying baby if he was on a call. It's amusing to think that pre children we thought that a baby might be shushed! 

Things have changed and three children later we realized that our time with them is so short. They are growing up at such a pace we decided that they should have as much childhood as possible.  We both wanted them to climb trees, run, laugh and play outside and have the chance to have an old fashioned way of growing up.  With a postage stamp of a garden that we had it just wasn’t possible. We needed a bigger house and garden. 

The sink unit was given to me by my fabulous hairdresser John Billington

 When worked out our budget we realised quite quickly that the rent and travel costs Alastair paid would go a long way to paying towards making it happen, so when the opportunity came up to buy a house I had always wanted to live in came up we went for it, especially when we saw that the potting sheds were tucked away quietly by what would become my kitchen garden at the side of the house and could be renovated. We couldn’t have afforded the house had it been done up, although most of our family and friends thought we’d taken on a mad project and looked on in utter horror at our purchase!

So for the past six months we have been project managing a renovation. Its so good for Al to have his own space to work in, he moved in last week and it's as though he's always been there. The house is full of my cookery things and the children's toys and books.. this is his space and now his commute is a stumble via the laundry door into the kitchen garden and he's at work.  It's already making a big difference to family life, he works very long hours and he saved enough time to take a half day last Friday and came out to Oxford for the afternoon to picnic in the park. It was the first time he's ever taken an afternoon off work to enjoy some family time. It was magical. 

Painting with Farrow and Ball paints. 

It has been a good six months to get the sheds converted and I really recommend if you are going to undertake a project to write down the quotes from builders, plumbers, decorators, plasterers and carpenters.  Do NOT get estimates .. get written quotes.  It might sound obvious reading this now, but trust me;  if forget what was agreed months later you can refer back to it. 

The outside light I rescued from being chucked in the skip!

I'd also say to use the best paint to finish. There is no point skimping on the bit you will see day in day out and I love Farrow and Ball paint, not only because of the luscious finish but because I care about the ingredients that are used and Farrow and Ball paint is made in a really positive way using natural pigments. It's the right thing to use if you care about the impact you have on the world.  I once used a cheaper copy and had a long time to regret it. 

I used three colours.  Castle Grey on the doors, All White on the windows and ceiling, which gave it a fresh clean vibrancy and then inside calming, almost serene Cornforth White, and it looks beautiful 

Enjoying the space. 

 I don't ugh like buying new things.  I tend to rescue, recycle, renovate and reuse. Partially because my budget doesn't allow me to just splurge, but mainly because I love the imperfect. I like things to look as though they have always been that way.  I think though that with a new space it is good to invest in some key pieces and the room will come together.  I’m a huge fan of Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture and adding  the Warrington Console and a large squishy chair the whole room just came together as though it had always been there.  Pascale, from the London Rachel Ashwell Shop came over and helped me put it all tougher right from the start.  It seems a bit surreal now remembering standing in a shell with no roof deciding what paint colour to use. 

The stable doors are painted Castle Grey by Farrow and Ball

You can imagine the looks we got from friends and family as we showed them around.

Rose Blossom Bakery

In February I took my three children to The V & A Museum.  As we got to the shop I gave them each £10. The speed at which they spent their money was impressive. If it were down to my children we certainly wouldn’t be in a recession.   The persistent request for more money for the rest of the day drove me mad.  The big eyes.  Oh Pleeeease mummy. No I said. No.  I felt mean .. despite being anything but.

They have no idea of the value of money.  Not a clue.  It means so little to my children, and they see me as a permanent source of pocket money.  It’s not right I thought.  I have to teach them the value of a pound.

It was an article by Rose Prince in the Telegraph that grabbed me a few days later, about how her teenagers made their pocket money by running a small bakery.  It was a though a light bulb went off. This .. this is the answer.  It is the way to teach my children the value of money, and as I'd worked out the price of a sourdough loaf to be 35p this seemed like a great way to make some dough !

We sat at the kitchen table for a family conference and agreed that we should have a go ourselves.  I’ll give you three weeks, said my husband, ever the optimist.  The children were ecstatic and decided that the bakery should have the name Rose in it ..  as an acknowledgment to Rose Prince's children’s bakery, and so our bakery is called The Rose Blossom Bakery.

Of course my eldest daughter, who is just nine ( you can see her here in one of the Rachel Ashwell aprons that  I bought the other week) has been making sourdough almost every weekend since we went on a sourdough making course with the lovely Dan Lepard.  Although I did managed to kill the original starter Dan gave to us luckily Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters sent me some more to get going again !

The children designed leaflets, printed them and them posted them through all the neighbours doors, we had our first order  and we were in business! Despite a great start, our first couple of weeks we couldn’t quite get the dough right.  The crumb was too tight and the loaf, although lovely, was just too heavy.


Luckily between a phone call to Dan and a serious adjustment in the water quantities and a lesson & calculation from the lovely Lucas Hollweg (author of Good Things to Eat) we now have the absolute perfect sourdough loaf, and we make 12 loaves at a time. 

The first week we sold 4 loaves, one to a neighbour, one to grandparents and the other two were ordered by aunties.  The second week we added a batch of scones and sold 7 loaves and now we are baking 12 loaves to order and sell out each week.

It is such a wonderful thing to teach my children - the joy of baking, the pride of producing such beautiful bread.  The real life math’s as they count out the change to their customers, who smile and correct them.  They are learning the basics of running a small business and watching as the three of them have decided which jobs they like to do and work it out as a team is wonderful. 

Of course we have had to register the kitchen, I already have my hygiene certificates and a five star rating for my kitchen, (and I am insured through my work by the NFU  .. which incidentally are great at doing this kind of insurance because they often have to help farmers who diversify on to the farmers markets.)

Of course we had to prove my husband wrong .. we are way past three weeks now, and as for teaching my children the value of a pound. ..  when I mentioned how hard to was to earn money last week my children looked bemused, and shrugged off this suggestion with childlike honesty  .. saying they just thought it was just great fun to earn money -  so I'm not entirely sure I got the point I wanted to make over !


The thing that I love the most about our Saturday mornings though, is that our bakery has a sense of community. We have no shop in our village, and the post office was closed several years ago.  There, as we stand at the bottom of the driveway with our beautiful hand made sourdough bread we have met and chatted to more of our neighbors in the last few weeks than we have in the ten years we have lived here.  People stop by and gossip together, neighbours laugh, reminisce and tell stories of the people that lived in our house long ago.  They smile and chat then take home their warm bread, and we become part of the story ourselves.

Mothers Deserve More!

I was actualy going to ignore Mothering Sunday. I am up to my ears writing at the moment,  however, something really got my goat  .. and so I must write something !

I’ve read three press releases this week that are busy telling people that all mothers really want is a lie in, a bath, a home made card and a cup of tea.

Absolute tosh!  

I am standing up for mothers who deserve more than this!  

A lie in is a given,  I bath several times a week already! I do love hand made cards .. I really genuinely hate bought cards.  But just a cup of tea and a hot bath and a lie in?   I think not!  I want spoiling! I want to be appreciated! 

On Mothering Sunday what I’d really love is beautiful scented flowers that make me smile, with some handmade artisan pure butter fudge to eat with my cup of tea, and a fabulous aromatic, cotton candle wick, wildflower scented candle to light in my bathroom for a truly romantic bubble bath!

For this is the moment when you can show your mother just how much she means to you.  That you really appreciate all the things she does.  Picking up dirty socks, washing, cleaning, shopping, ironing,  flushing the loo after you ( my children are 5,7 & 9) driving you from A to B and back again. Running the things you have forgotten about to you - wherever you are , despite reminding you not to forget them in the first place! 

Picture courtesy of www.realflowers.co.uk

Last week I came across a poem when I was at Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture and as I stood there reading it I had to take a deep breath and willed my eyes not to well up.   So instead I took a photo and shall share it here (with her kind permission.)

I really do believe that a gift is a visual representation of the love that you feel  - so I suppose for me this is not the moment to be anything other then generous with your mother.  This is the time to give her something the show her how you feel about her.  A gift that says soft kisses, gentle hands, perfumed moments of warmth, laughter, trust, love, a beautiful smile, kind words, and unconditional acceptance. Mother. 


  ..... and a home made card!