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By Jayne, 17th April 2011,

I would love to meet all the pets that come to stay at our holiday cottage in Bellingham. But alas this is not possible. One of my favourites so far though has to be the cat, “Benson”. He was so good and so well-travelled. His “parents” have always had him in the car with them on trips and he loves it. He was run over as a youngster and our guests basically taught him to walk again by putting him on a leash and taking him out every day a few steps at a time. Now he’s going great guns and his owners told me that they had a great time with him in the cottage and that Bellingham was “the friendliest village in the UK”!

p.s. the photo isn’t Benson – just a nice photo of a cat harness.

I don’t use a harness for my cat but they can be a safe way of letting your feline friend roam outside if, for example, there is a danger of traffic or other predators in the vicinity.

If you want try a harness make sure that you introduce it very slowly day by day with treats and fuss. Only slip it on when your cat is in a calm and happy state and then only for a few seconds. Repeat many times with treats and fuss and build up the time that she wears the harness. Eventually she will associate the harness with nice things and then you can let her wear it around the house before you attach the leash. Let her get used to the leash by leaving it always in a slack position. Do not try and force the cat into the direction you want her to go – she will not appreciate this. Instead try and coax her with a gentle pull in the right direction and as soon as she is going that way loosen the leash. Once outside let her roams for herself and just follow along holding the leash loosely. A gentle pull in the right direction with treats should get your cats walking nicely but they are not “walkers” like dogs.

In time she will learn to love the harness and enjoy her outside time as much as Benson.

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By Jayne, 11th July 2010,

I love updating the décor of the Bowery. It makes me happy and I know our customers appreciate it. This week we have new curtain poles and curtains to put up. I will be able to put the poles up tomorrow and pin the new curtains to length but I’ll have to take them back home to sew and make the matching cushions with the surplus fabric. I know I have the ability to make a basic cover with a zip no problem but one with Oxford type edges? Zip free? Hmmm. I’ll obviously Google for guidance.

Photos to follow.

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By Jayne, 11th July 2010,

Our settee and lounge chairs were looking decidedly shabby. W didn’t want to throw them out as the carcasses are in perfect order. Buying a quality new suite is also expensive. Welcome to the world of settee covers. We realised quite quickly that there isn’t much competition in this market so we phoned Plumbs, booked an appointment for a home visit and waited for the hard sell.

Dave came round to measure up had us in fits of laughter from the start and it couldn’t have been a better experience. I was totally suprised at how casual it all was and it was no problem for him to help us choose for our taste and budget.

We waited about eight weeks for them to be made and delivered. Dave came back to fit them for us. We went for piped decoration in a luxury cotton blend. Dave threw in all the scatter cushion covers too and it came to about £750 which we thought was a great deal. It sounds a lot but another company who offered a copy service with no piping or extra cushions were quoting around £1000 – no fittng just postal delivery.

Plumbs is simply massive – they buy all their fabric in bulk and everything is automated in a gigantic factory so the costs of materials is kept very low. The service is great and I would recommend them to anyone thinking of updating their sofa with new covers as opposed to new settees. They look amazing and it keeps your old settees out of landfill for a few more years!