Congratulations to Shedblog

Congratulations to Uncle Wilco and his marvellous Shedblog which is celebrating its 1,000th post today with the fine shed pictured above. Well done young man! We're looking forward to the next 1,000 already.

Anne Francis-Fisher

A nice piece in the Daily Telegraph looks at various homeworking businesses including Anne Frances-Fisher's who has a rather lovely garden office at her home in Bearsted, Kent, from where she runs her Damask and Lace fine soft furnishings and interiors business. She closed her shop (thus saving on rent) and seems very happy with her new shedlike atmosphere. Here's what she says:

"Customers now visit the studio and I'm looking forward to growing the business with overheads I can more easily manage. I'm very ambitious for this business. I have every intention of creating a one-woman interiors empire."

Shedworking saves you up to 111 hours a year

According to new research by communications provider Aastra, people who commute by train to the UK’s largest cities outside London could save 55 hours a year if they worked from home just one day a week - and based on commuters with 50-mile round trips, the average transit time in London is 111 hours. Michael Calvert, UK General Manager of Aastra, said:

“Commuting to work everyday can be a major strain on people’s finances and increase their stress levels. Given that many of the UK’s commuters – if equipped with the right, readily-available technology – could do their job equally well, if not better, from home, it’s a wonder why more firms are not enabling flexible working practices.”

Home Business Awards 2008 announced

Enterprise Nation has just announced the winners of its 2008 Home Business Awards. Click here for a full rundown of winners and more details. Particular congratulations to MamaBabyBliss for winning Home Office of the Year. Sadly, it's not a garden office, but it does sound impressive. Here's what owner Justina Perry says about it:

"I run my business from my home, which we have adapted to incorporate a home studio/treatment room. It is a beautiful, calming space that was specially created for MamaBabyBliss. By running my business from home, it allows me to be more flexible, working around my children and cutting out a commute. When you’re a working mum, every minute counts so by getting clients to come to me, I can fit more in. It also means that I can work in the evenings if I need to but still be in close proximity to my family. It can be hard trying to fit everything in, but running my business from home gives me the freedom to be with my children and husband when they need me.

Finally, my ‘home office’ is my sanctuary. Not many people are as lucky to have a built in chill-out zone as part of their place of work. I do yoga and meditation in the studio in the mornings so that I have time to clear my mind and focus on what I need to do in the day ahead."

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Our Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office
specialists.
Click here for more details.

Historic Shepherds Huts - on the move

A quick note to say that the excellent site dedicated to shepherds' huts - Historic Shepherds Hut ("a web based archive dedicated to record survivors and the forgotten part they once played in our country's rich agricultural past") - is heading to a new location at www.shepherdhuts.co.uk because of hosting problems. They're still in the process of moving everything across but it's worth changing your bookmarks now as they are also planning to expand the site to deal with lots of new huts which have come their way as a result of recent media coverage.

Incidentally, if you have a shepherd's hut for sale, please do contact Shedworking - there were many, many disappointed readers who were very interested in the last one we advertised (including the editor of a wellknown national magazine) that I'm sure you'd find a buyer quickly.

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Our Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office
specialists.
Click here for more details.

Railway carriage restoration

We've mentioned Elspeth Thompson's lovely shedlike building project before (transforming two Victorian railway carriages into an eco-house which is detailed at her Off The Rails blog) but it's time for an update. While the windows aren't in yet, the woodburning stove has arrived and she's also been busy at the salvage yards for some delightful bits and bobs. Work continues too on her kitchen cupboards which are being made by hand to a design copied from their old 1940s dresser. There is lots more detail and dozens of excellent photos at her blog so it's well worth a browse if you haven't been for a while.
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Our Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office
specialists.
Click here for more details.

Joan Backes' paper shed and cardboard shed

Another entry for the shed art folder, above is Joan Backes' Paper House mixed media installation, while below is her Cardboard House. Marvellous.Thanks to Emma Stone for the alert.

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Our Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office
specialists.
Click here for more details.