Scandinavian Pink

Scandinavian Pink.... hi everyone, I've been across to Sweden for many reasons and shall reveal the story over the coming month. This weeks blog is brought to you by the colours pink and grey. 

Wherever I went, different shades and hues of the colour pink were popping out at me, usually alongside grey. It is no wonder that the paint maker Annie Sloan has a colour in her range called Scandinavian Pink, whilst Annies colour is darker than seen on some of these images, I can see why she associates pink with Scandinavia.

One of our first outings was into Stockholm for a trip to buy Swedish clogs, en route we passed this building, all shuttered up, with beautiful detail. 

The area is called Soder, we found a lovely cafe which is featured in Rachels blog this week with my photos. It was called cafe Tjarlek on Tjarhovsgatan.

Swedish style wooden shoes seem to be hot right now. Even in Sweden the brand "swedish hasbeens" has a big following. They are an online store with pop up shops around the world. 

From there we walked to where we could take a boat over to the area where the museums and amusement parks are, (Djurgardsvagen). As the boat was docking I spied this pretty ride, decorated with a lovely colour combination where the pinks are sitting with yellow. We were heading to the Nordic Museum for research into folk art and Swedish traditions.

Day three and Rachel had arranged to go to a hotel called Gorvalns Slott, just outside Stockholm in Jarfalla. The castle hotel is decorated throughout with Van Asch cushions, ornate furniture, feather lamps, interesting wall treatments and colour themes. We were taking photos for the next catalogue and were allowed free run of the place. 

There is a room to suit everyone, whether its strong green, pale pink or calming gold. 

bathroom tiles

this wall is a mixture of old plaster, paints and stone, rough and textured,
hints of pink and grey show through the layers.

 Day four and we all packed our stuff into the car and headed off to the family home in the countryside. Tjulsta here we come for the Midsummer Festival. In Sweden the eve of Midsummer is as important and Christmas Eve. My hosts informed me that most of the country is intoxicated on this day, the weather was perfect, we picked wild flowers, made our head garlands  and headed off to the nearby village of Veckholm. Here the large village hall was hosting the event, a maypole had been erected and on our arrival it was in full flow, with the traditional dance in progress. 

The nearby church had this annexe ....

Back at the 200 year old house in Tjulsta, I spied yet more of this wonderful colour on this little cupboard. 

Heres a shot of all the girls with myself, and a special thanks to Gunilla for giving me the full Midsummer feast later that day.

Special mentions and links this week go to Swedish Hasbeens, Cafe Tjarlek,Nordic Museum Stockholm,Gorvalns Slott hotel, Rachel Van Asch 

beauty secrets

Lately I have pampered myself with many beauty goodies, especially from the brand Benefit. This Mascara was a huge discovery. I Looove it, best mascara of my life, and believe me I tried many. 

It has a special brush so you can add mascara on the corners of your eyes, use the same tip to prolongate your lashes and then you apply the mascara the normal way and voila, the most pretty lashes ever. So if you are looking for a good mascara, this one is it!

I also use the Posietint, the lovely pink color, on my lips and cheecks. Lately I get many compliments on the way I look, I think these two are a perfect combination, as I like to look natural.

I also noticed some heads turning...maybe it´s the pregnancy, it makes me glow.

This above products was advised by a make up artist, I am heading to the pharmacy to get it today and will let you know. She uses it as a base for before applying make up. It leaves the skin thight, smooth and closed pores. It has collagen and aloe vera.

Ok need to go go ( get the above product and a pedicure ;)

back and healthy!

Sorry for my absence, these last days were like a roller coaster, sick, better, sick, better....
I needed to take a break from my computer and rest.
Now I am getting back to be my old self again. I made a few beauty appointments, take good care of what I eat and try to have our house organized, a few ingredients to my happiness.
It´s amazing how eating effects your mood and body. I am more energetic & happy.
In the mornings I make fruit and vegetable juices, I eat less meat, started to add chia seeds in my drinks. Just a few of the changes I have been doing lately.

Mr Beau was out for a week, on a boys only surfing trip in the Maldives. Surfing and snorkeling with the Dolphins, Manta rays and turtles...he had such a huge smile on his face when he came back, and was crazy to see his little Matteo again. Both of them took me out for dinner!
Happy to be back, love u guys!

Camden Market

Down memory lane, across the cobbles and near the Canal. That would be Camden Market then. I had a stall at Camden Market for many years, during the time when the indoor market was for makers and designers selling their own handmade goods. This changed over time which is a shame. I was reminded of this period recently when a writer called Caitlin called me to ask about the market and its people. Caitlin has written this book spanning several decades, showing how at one point, the market launched the careers of people like Wayne Hemingway, who I love.

There I am in the index, yes, my surname does not lend itself to coming first, this became apparent to me from the tender age of 5 when school registers were read out surname first.


So, well lets have a look at the kind of thing I made and sold at Camden, here is the corner of a mirror I still have in my bathroom which incorporates flowers pressed between layers of glass.

I used this technique to make frames, clocks, pendants - all sorts.

I learnt to make stained glass, with Lynette Wrigley who taught me both the techniques of leaded (like church windows), and copper foiled and soldered, which is less messy and easier to manage at home. I did sometimes make coloured glass and heres something I designed and made for my parents.

Next week I shall be in Sweden, many wonderful things are planned, all revolving around photo shoots. Luckily I also get to see my God-daughters who are frequently my models on such trips.
The designer (and bessie mate), Van Asch has got Swedens top newspaper coming round to photograph her at home, so she is going through the same turmoil as myself. we have both found ourselves  scrutinizing every detail of our homes before they get photographed. Mine will be for Homes & Antiques in the UK.  

I hope to be doing some research on Swedish knitting and antiques, lets see if we can fit that in our schedule.

left is a Mora clock, I will be doing a piece on these soon. 

we shall be celebrating Midsummer Festival while in Sweden

Swedish Midsummer parties will be happening during my trip, thats partly why Im going, it's very Pagan, garlands of flowers in hair, folk costumes, dancing round an effergy while drunk on some sort of home brewed alcohol and full to the brim with raw fish.
What more could a girl want? My camera hopes to be capturing the season in its full glory, and yet again, I will be thanking auto focus. Somewhere along the drunken path, I shall have to learn a song about a frog while dancing round a Maypole, the song is  called Sma Grodorna. There will be an extra long, double strength, all guns blazing, blog on my return .....

did I mention that my hosts are excellent cooks this was one of last years creations.

As usual, all photos are my own and so are the typos. 
Since writing this I have thought a lot about my surname, and if its good enough for Will.i.am then I shall from now on, be 

Jan.is.IT  - why not make it work for me, who else could do that with their real name. Might as well !

Spoonflower

I came across this company a while ago, but as I am searching for wallpaper for the nursery, Spoonflower sells beautiful fabrics and wallpapers, and if you are a creative bee, you van upload your own design as well.

for a girl (fretwork in pink)

or for a boy (gold lattice)

for a girl (zebra print by Danika Herricks)

or for a boy (quatrefoil lattice)

Boy o boy arent these nice? I am not sure yet what the gender might be, as soon as I know more I will tell.

Moving around.....again....

Dear readers,
                     The last few weeks we had such bad weather here in Belgium . Spring seemed to take  for ever to arrive and working in the garden was not an option... So we made ​​a virtue of necessity and took the opportunity to chance the upstairs private rooms ...again.... Since quiet some time we felt the need to extend our dining area and as you can see, we moved a little bit around with our furniture....We moved our dining room to the former sitting area and made our sitting area back in front of the fireplace(where it once was...)The former dining room became a working area. We now feel as if we have more space and feel quiet happy with the results.We also painted the inside of our dutch cabinet in a green-blue lime paint.
                    At the bay window we installed our antique chaise-longue. It's a perfect place to read a book, as we have a lot of natural light coming in there. As you can see, we also put a lot of green objects around to add an extra color touch and it works ! See for yourself in the next pictures and let me know what you think about it.

I wish you all a wonderful and very sunny weekend !

XXX

Sabine

detail in the dutch cabinet in the dining room

dutch cabinet inside 

detail in the cabinet

our new dining room

objects in the dining room

objects in the dining room

our new working area

antique desk in the working area

sitting room

objects in the sitting area

sitting area : fauteuil and stools

chaise longue in the bay window area

detail on the antique vigneron table

Colour

Colour love is still high on the agenda in Janice world this week. Yes, I'm still decorating the house, and trying furniture in different places, like some installation piece of art or something, to me it's never finished. Well I suppose it keeps me off the streets. 

coffee table painted with a mixture of Florence and Paris Grey.

Judith Devlin, who you can see in this months Homes & Antiques, was one of the sellers I met at Village Vintage last week. I bought several pieces from her like the pink enamel coffee pot. I also bought a French Lavabo, ok I didn't know that name until after, but its a hand washing device, fixed to the wall, and if you read about it on Wikipedia, it has religious connections. It also has amazing pink enamel tank and basin but the wooden stand needed some shuzzing,so I delved into my Annie Sloan paint library.

It is a proven fact that colour effects mood, and I think for creative types its more than that, it touches something deep down that cannot be described. Green is relaxing, red increases your heart rate and blue, apparently, actually makes your body produce calming chemicals.

Just recently I have been buying Kantha quilts and Suzanis. Kantha is the name of the stitch used to patchwork vintage saris together to make quilts and blankets in India. The two I have on the floor above are very old and faded, they bridge a gap between ethnic and country perfectly.  Suzanis are embroidered pieces from Afghanistan, I have been using them as throws and also recovered some seat cushions. 






Since hearing of the death of Jocasta Innes, I thought back to her amazing paint transformations with stencils.
Chalk paints work quite well with stencils as they are thick and don't bleed. 






I found that Homebase had a little stand of stencils and just to get my hand in I tried this one on my dresser.  I chose it because it matched with my Swedish jars, and the dresser houses my Dala horses and Swedish bits. I will tell you the gorgeous story about Dala horses later in the year. 

My dining area is Sweden while my lounge is India. My two favourite countries. So in "Sweden" its Paris Grey and Old White, a very classy combination. 

The knitting is no exception to the vibrant colour combinations as I've now knitted my third piece for a book on bright fairisle by Nicki Trench.  Its a jumper knitted in the round with a yoke. 
The wool above is Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Aran and comes in some gorgeous brights. 

The cushions above are, not surprisingly, Van Asch, a few more shots for her catalogue before I go to Sweden for the big shoot.
The blue decorated coffee pot just peeking into shot on the dresser was another find last week from Faded Rose vintage
Kantha Quilts and cushions are from The Bohemian Beach Company
and the Suzani throws are from e-bay. For stockists of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint look at her website, I am so lucky to have the wonderful Patricia at Making The Best near where I live.

If you spend more time on facebook than twitter, here is another way to find out when blogs are being posted etc. Go here and please like the page. 

lovely walk in closet

How pretty is this walk in closet, it was designed by Shelley Cahan of Shelley and company. Love the greek key on the shade and look at that huge tassel hanging from the lamp.

Could this be a DIY project?

images via

Love the doggie with a gold ball necklace