Play.Eat.Laugh.Sleep..Pickwell: Its Christmas!

Monday 26 December 2011

Its Christmas!

We love Christmas here at Pickwell!

It is a really creative area here, so at various times through the year the village hall has a craft fair.

One of our recommended suppliers for weddings Juicy Lucy cup cakes has extended her repertoire and started making 'cake pops'. What a wonderful wedding cake idea!

A good idea is to bulk buy Christmas cards, put them together in small packs, seal them in clear bags and sell them!

Our friend has recently taken up painting. Despite having 4 kids and being chair of the parent committee at school, she keeps producing these wonderful and colourful canvas creations.

The Sweatpea vintage co are two dynamic grandmothers with an amazing eye for all things vintage. Their blend of creativity and fun and eye for detail makes everything they make feel like a must-buy.

Another good idea is to rescue little chairs from the skip, paint them, make cushions for them and sell them!

Two of our Pickwellians, Zac and Liza made their own driftwood trees and put them up for sale. They sold four! The deal was that they could keep half the money and spend the other half on someone else.

Great idea no.4 buy tiles and some clothes pegs and decorate them beautifully to make unique coasters and pegs for hanging cards/shopping list on fridge/children's artwork..thanks to Pickwell Holly and Shelly for all the fab creative ideas.

We were so inspired by all this creativity that Tracey and I signed up for a soap and candle-making course! Here is the result of our special Pickwell lavender and oats hand-made creation..we are hoping to give each 2012 guest a little soap as a gift. Watch this space!

Our local garden centre (Trelawny) has gone to town on their decorations. Every nook and cranny held a new scene or theme to its wares.

We really enjoyed going round it and our eyes couldn't really take it all in. At various points there were 'photo opportunities' that they had set up.

The Wizard of Oz scene....

can you spot the legs hanging out the bottom of the house?!

I found an old book my Mum gave me about Victorian Christmas decorations, complete with a push-out kit to make your own. The Pickwell girls and I embarked upon it after school. It was great fun.

No Christmas is complete without a nativity.

This year our Millie-Grace was a beautiful angel

and Liza was Mary!

The Christingle service at our local church had us fully feeling the Christmas vibe.

Merry Christmas to you all, with love from Pickwell x

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Our Story

Many people have asked what the story is, how did the Bakers and Elliotts come to be at Pickwell?

Are you sitting comfortably?

Tracey and Susannah became friends at 6th form college. Steve and Tracey lived in the same village in Sussex. Steve's dad was the vicar and Tracey's dad was Steve's scout leader. Even more wierd, Susannah's dad (also a church minister) and Steve's dad were friends, but Steve and Sus never met.

One summer Tracey took Susannah along to a youth summer camp. Steve was one of the leaders (read : heightened attraction) and a little later Steve and Sus got together. During their 6 on/off years they met Richard, a blue eyed boy from Guildford.

At a club night run by Steve, somehow through the dark and crowded room, Tracey and Richard bumped into eachother (if you have seen the shapes they pull on the dancefloor you would know how easily this happened)..

In the year 2000 they all got married. Tracey and Susannah were eachother's bridesmaids. They have remained firm friends ever since.

When Steve and Susannah came across Pickwell Manor, they knew they couldn't manage such a project on their own. They asked the Elliotts if they would give up their house, their jobs and their community to come and live and work with them and own the project together. They knew there weren't many people they could ask to do such a thing knowing they would still love each other by the end. So they all left everything in Sussex and came to Devon.

They moved on the same day in August 2008. It has been a crazy, wonderful, scary, emotional and beautiful experience so far. All of them would say they feel very ALIVE!

Since they moved they have run 51 successful and wonderful weddings (with more to come), many, many holidays, built or totally refurbished 6 apartments from scratch, updated carpets, painted white throughout, put in quite a few kitchens and bathrooms (including 2 baths on concrete plinths), changed much of the furniture, converted a laundry and have started to convert the chapel. Every year they also have a bonfire gathering in October, an Easter Eggstravaganza fundraising event, and anything else that is not-for-profit that they can fit in. Tracey has completed a dissertation and gone back to nursing for 2 days a week, Steve has started up a new company in London, Richard has mastered a lot of the running of the house as well as training as a coach, specialising in stress management, Sus has taken on the interiors and Tracey and Susannah have learnt weddings in at the deep end! All with 4 young Pickwellians by their sides.

"Our passion is for making life count. Our values lie in
friendship, celebration, valuing others, and social justice. We see Pickwell as a reflection of these things but also a place for rest, recouperation, laughter and conversation. We want to support charities and social enterprises to fufil their dreams and make a difference."

"We love Devon, we love the community here, we love seeing our children grow with nature and discovering the great outdoors. We have to pinch ourselves sometimes when we think about our life here, it is amazing".