Hi, I’m Kim. Welcome to my website and my home.

I’ve created this website to show you my home, the magical cottage I created over the last few years, with the help of my husband Mark. I would say that I express myself through the rooms in my home rather like some people paint pictures, write songs or make pottery. A lot of my childhood was spent either with adults or on my own, so I had to use my imagination. I spent the majority of my working life in finance and then healthcare and then went back into education studying history. I never followed my passion for art, so I’m making up for it now in my own way.

Our cottage is over 400 years old with a thatched roof, lovely old oak beams, low ceilings, a cosy fireplace, a quirky kitchen, a fantasy themed bathroom and, as I used to sell antiques and curios, it’s filled to the brim with all sorts of treasures that I’ve accumulated over the years. There’s no denying that mine is a maximalist home!

We’re still working on the upstairs, so there’s plenty to show you coming soon up there. We only have two bedrooms and a landing area but we’ve got some unusual ideas…

Over the last two years we’ve been working on the garden bringing my dream to life of growing vegetables with flowers and encouraging wildlife to deal with the pests instead of chemicals. It’s such a learning curve and there’s still so much to learn, but each season is bringing new ideas and possibilities for future projects.

We love cooking and baking and using our produce to try to live as self sustaining as possible and we try to cut down on processed foods, waste and chemicals. It’s such a learning curve and its hard to work out what to do so we’re always trying new ideas.

The bottom of the garden is perhaps my favourite spot. Here is my study where I write, research, craft and come up with ideas and theories about all sorts of stuff. For instance, the things I spend my time pondering and researching would be something like:

• What is magic and is it real?
• Where did my ancestors come from and what do I call my roots?
• Can herbs treat illness as well as drugs do?
• Is it worth storing all my dried food items in old glass jars?
• How do I get more birds and animals to visit the garden?
• What are the healthiest foods?
• What did people do in the evenings before there was TV, phones and the internet?
• How do I grow, store and use tomatoes?
• Why do nice people say and do nasty things?
• How can I get fit without going to the gym or doing exercises?
• Is Suffolk as magical as counties like Cornwall, Somerset or Yorkshire?
• Are UFO’s real, and if so what do they want?
• How can I lose weight without going on a diet?
• Is the ‘Cat Distribution Service’ real and if so, how and why does it keep bringing me cats?
• Can crystals really heal and protect you?
• How does divination work?
• How am I going to find the £23,000 to rethatch of the roof in three years?

This and all the other things I think about is surely enough to fill a website!

Just to the side of the study is the little space we created from a waste ground. This is one of my favourite magical places and every day it fills me with joy, come rain or shine. It’s where wildlife comes to visit and we’ve had all sorts: birds – flying and ground dwelling, butterflies and moths, dragonflies, frogs, squirrels, hedgehogs, a fox, shrews, mice, a mole, rats, a hare, a chicken, a dog, and cats (other people’s as well as my own – I think it’s the catnip).

Anyway, I’d love to share my beautiful home in all its quirkiness, with you. And also my ponderings, if you’re interested. Perhaps I can inspire you to experiment with your own creativity, be a little bit daring and push your own boundaries.

For me, the path to living a more authentic life is just being curious… what, where, how, and why?

Welcome to my magical home. I’m so pleased to have you here. x