New Year Ruminations and Resolutions

The New Year is upon us and during this time after Christmas and before we all start the next year there is time for both reflection and planning.

The cold months renew my interest in knitting, every year I try to learn a new style or pattern, usually spurred on by my desire to wear the item.  From the start I always wanted to learn fairisle, and wear it, so one of the very first things I taught myself was to work with several colours and follow the graph pattern.

I learnt to knit about six years ago by watching You Tube videos, every time I didn't understand an instruction I would just look up a tutorial.  

While in Sweden this year I hunted down some local wool with the plan to make traditional Scandinavian mittens.  There are lots of patterns on Ravelry but as usual, I find that the free patterns from Drops/Garnstudio are both the easiest to follow and the best illustrated.  Often with Fairisle I make my own design by taking parts of several different patterns. This wool is quite rough and thin, ideal for this project as gloves need to be hard wearing, and it has a type of water repellence to it.

Another job to do at this hiatus between events is to take the decorations down and have a clear and tidy.  Maybe even contemplate some decorating and garden faffing.  

As a photographer I try to see the beauty in everything, perhaps taking longer than is normal to look at the everyday details.  The art of slow living is perhaps one way to describe this. Having moved away from the fast pace of London and going into semi-retirement from work gives me the ability to practise this discipline without any real effort. 

Photography definitely makes you look at the world differently and the inspiration I get from other photographers on Instagram is hugely fulfilling.  It's like meditation, and a way to appreciate the miniscule, finding beauty in every drop of dew, dried twig and petal.

poster calendar from The Future Kept

Even if you only take photos with your phone, why not take a break every day with a cuppa and play with making a cute photo. Learn as much as you can about how to work in different light and mood and if you start to really enjoy it then try an online tutorial. 

Perhaps this should be your new year's resolution ... take photos every day, make it a part of your routine, a few moments to yourself to focus on just a small detail of your everyday.  It's a beautiful thing to awake your inner creativity and a very nurturing thing to do. 

I wish you all a very happy new year, may it bring you all you wish for.  I'm preparing my home to feature on a rather fabulous blog soon and I seriously need to clean and tidy my studio for a fresh start.

Lots of love to readers of this blog, thank you very much for your support during 2015, I wouldn't be doing this without you. Janice.

Styling The Seasons December

Styling the seasons for December couldn't be easier really, it's something we all do, although some of us tend to continue the idea for the rest of the year in some form or another!  Set up by Katy and Charlotte it's been such a great community to be involved with and another thing that I have Instagram to thank for bringing us together. 

Luckily for me as I live in the countryside there is enough greenery in my garden and around where I live to supply me with some seasonal essentials - holly with berries and pine cones. 

So here's what Ive done to decorate the house this Christmas.

I like to group the mercury glass on this old over mantle. The mirror back is great at throwing the candle light back around the room for a soft mood.

I treated myself to some beeswax candles.  I have become a bit candle obsessed and along with a real fire, I like to have some nice smelling ones burning during the day. My absolute favourites this year came from Amalia who writes the blog "these small finds" and can be found on instagram as _apothecary_ .  Amalia found some beautiful blue bell jars from the USA and filled them with soy wax candles, she finds the most lovely containers including the little cake tin ones on my mantlepiece. 

These cookie hearts came from a supermarket in Sweden.  I added a bit of icing to them.  They are called Pepparkakkor and have a lovely gingerbread smell. I included them into my banister arrangement.  Im so happy to finally have a house with open wooden banisters on the staircase, for no other reason than to decorate it in December.

Some of my Swedish lights for the front window combined with the paper stars, bringing a bit of that beautiful place back home with me.

I didn't decorate this gingerbread heart myself, it was already iced with Kurbits decoration from the Swedish supermarket and luckily made it home in one piece.  The top garland is from an online dried flower company and made from cotton pods, I've never seen one before but I absolutely love it.

The design motif called Kurbits is traditional in Sweden and can be found on many things. It is a style of painting normally, based on vegetables and floral organic shapes, it was originally a fertility symbol.  You can find it on the little wooden Dala Horses, embroidered onto clothing and painted onto furniture.

In a nearby village there is a Christmas barn which opens at weekends in December, it is the most stunning Tythe barn you have ever seen and is full to bursting with decorations and presents.  I topped up on a few new pieces like the string of bells and the metal birds.  They also have candles from the candle makers St Eval which are great quality.  The Tythe barn in Haddenham is the perfect place to get you in the spirit and mood for a time of cozy evenings with friends and family, a sparkly and fairy like grotto which can be recreated at home. 

I wish you all a healthy happy holiday with good food and warm drinks to help you relax and have a few days of nesting in your very own grotto. Sending you love and peace from my little village in Buckinghamshire. 

Christmas colours of Sweden

Sweden is such a beautiful country, yes sure it has it's industrial areas and shopping malls like everywhere but the houses are such a multitude of traditional and unusual colour combinations and at this time of year, when everyone has lights in the windows and on the porches, it is picture book perfect. 

Maybe because the houses are mostly wooden cladded this has led to the whole house needing paint but the array of different colours used makes for the most beautiful look.  There is of course, the traditional red houses with white and yellow windows but look at the details and you will see that there are other things coming into play here. Usually choosing two tones but sometimes with another added for highlighting details like the window frames.

Not only are all the windows decorated with lights and Yul objects, but there is also the tradition of having a candle lit outside our door to welcome guests.  All the shop owners do this and it makes for the most magical look.  

We visited our favourite Christmas market in Sigtuna, this is such a gorgeous place, set on a lake and one of the oldest towns in Sweden. The market is a mixture of handicrafts and food.

If you are wondering what this is above, well meet Tomte a Swedish house gnome which also replaces Santa in some houses, the cute little fellow has been given a new twist here, depicting him in greenery. This Tomten lives in the forest and likes to be fed porridge!

My bag came home full, with a mixture of old and new. I found lovely knitwear in my favourite shop called Indiska. Lovely quality fairisle style cardigans and some cups from their new range. I also managed to pick up some Swedish made wool while we were in Sigtuna and intend to knit some Nordic mittens in black and white. 

No trip would be complete without a good rummage in second hand shops and a large haul of old cake tins and some mini candlesticks ticked off more on my wish list. These will all feature over on my Instagram feed over the course of this month. 

I do of course bring home many of ideas and inspiration for lights and candles, my home will feature the classic candleabra lights in the front window, stars and wreaths and decorations made from Pepparkakor (gingerbread) and folliage.   I hope these photos will help to get you in the mood too.  

A child's Christmas in Wales

When Dorian invited me to stay at his cottages in Wales I couldn't wait.  In my life as an international promotions manager I visited countries around the world, continually on the road traveling with artists, in all those years I was hardly ever home in my London flat, I was in Japan, South America, Hungary, Mexico ... you name it, I went there. 

Two things happened as a result, when it finally stopped I wanted to be at home as much as possible and the thought of getting on an airplane was about as exciting as getting on a hopper bus. The second thing was a longing to explore the UK more. Also now bored to death of hotel rooms, I find myself a rather curmudgeonly guest if the service isn't brilliant and the decor is drab.

For me now the absolute ideal is to have a beautifully decorated, tastefully and sensitively adorned, home from home, why would I want to stay somewhere that wasn't as nice as my own house? Well, at times it's necessity so cost and surroundings reach a compromise, but then that is just a place to sleep. What I really yearn for is an experience. I want to be impressed, I want to be romanced by my surroundings. I want the possibility to explore a new area, to take photographs and be educated by the history, this to me is the only sort of 'holiday' that makes sense.  Hell for me would be to be on a sunbed in a resort full of English people. 

I knew, I just knew, that the Welsh House would be perfect, I could see that it ticked all the boxes and I wasn't wrong. I had the idea to do some Christmas styling so packed up a few decorations and off we trotted.  

I don't know a great deal about Dylan Thomas and this is something I intend to rectify, so when Dorian produced the most beautiful edition of "A child's Christmas in Wales" the last piece of the puzzle fell into place.  Influenced by that idea I bring you these photos and some quotes from Dylan Thomas 

I found some beautiful music to accompany this post ...

"One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six ..."

one of my hand knitted socks, my favourite thing is to knit socks

"All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find"

don't forget to leave out mince pies and milk for Father Christmas

then off to bed you go and try to sleep

"Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending smoke-colored snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steadily falling night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept."

“I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.” 

And I rose
In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days...”

outside the fairies live, dancing in the moss and lichen, vibrant greens and leaf strewn paths invite you to a magical world

There is magic inside this place, it feels other worldly. It is a place where your mind can be free to dream, like a child waiting for Santa.

I'm not going to write here about Dorian's work here because you should go for yourself, sit and read the cuttings from papers in his folders of information.  Photos from a re-enactment where dressed in traditional Welsh costume, Dorian and surrounding neighbours built a traditional house in one day.  It is a work of brilliance and no words or photos can do it full justice. 


Quotes by Dylan Thomas. Photos by Janice Issitt. Location - The Welsh House, blankets from Holy Cow Home 

Emma Bridgewater VQ digital radio

This week an early Christmas treat has arrived in the post in the form of a DAB Radio. I'm not a great technology gadget fan, usually slow to get the latest phone and I still don't own an i-pod, but put a flowery design on the outside and a bit of retro styling and I'm all ears.

I'm a huge fan of audio books, not having time to read hard copies I do find that long car or train journeys and even visits to the dentist can be made more enjoyable while listening to a good book.

My latest is a Bill Bryson, which I mentioned before, and it's totally brilliant.  This VQ mini radio also has blue tooth connectivity and so now I can forget those uncomfortable ear-phones and listen through this really cute radio.  They come in many different colours and patterns including this rose design by Emma Bridgewater.

The Retro Mini DAB+ has an alarm clock so the design lends itself to a few different places around the house or even your camper or caravan as the vintage look and pastel colours blend in with decor so much nicer than a boring black box. It can work in a bedroom setting without looking intrusive. 

This one has a section for batteries at the back so it's totally transportable for when you are out and about or you can plug it in when you are near a socket. The size and handle make it really easy to carry along with you on your travels and I think I'm going to take it on car journeys and save my poor ears the discomfort of inner ear phones. 

On day one I've already listened to my book and found some local radio stations I didn't know about before.  So this Christmas there's no reason to be disappointed with the t.v. scheduling.  Our recent trip to The Welsh House taught us to go a few days without t.v, however, I would have liked to take this little cutie with us and we could have listened to my latest Bill Bryson together.

I think this would be a great gift for a Mum or Grandma and with the bluetooth function you can play as much music of your own as you want too.  

To get yourself one then you need to go to their website : MY VQ where you can also see the other choices for colour and design. Alternatively vote for my blog and photos above and you can win one, watch out for notifications from my Facebook page or on twitter either from me or MY VQ Twitter of how to go about voting.

Good Luck, I know you will love it as much as me. 

Sisterhood and Mavens

There seems to be a spiritual consciousness in the ether this year, which for me comes at a really good time.  Never has it been easier to meet new people via social media and network with those sharing the same passions and interests.

I believe that women are really coming into their own in this regard, good at socialising and empathising there has never been a better time to find support from other women. Or so I thought.  

Perhaps it's because the changing times find us able to work on our own from home, using the web to connect, and creatives now have more platforms than ever to show their work, that a new generation and style of networking has begun.

Thanks to a few risk taking individuals, those not afraid to say 'hey lets get together", some of us are finding the support that we seriously need. At a time we really need it too.

I was going to talk about a bad experience I had on twitter, but I'm not giving that air time, they can sweat and wait to hear from my solicitor. But it does just go to show that social media is a double-edged sword and it's sharp so use it wisely.

Through this media I have met an enormous amount of great great women, all making a way in their businesses and looking to create opportunities and introductions to others, as together we are stronger.

The two saving graces for me most recently are called Conversational and Sisterhood, both of which have organised face to face events, on different scales, but just as fruitful in their outcomes.

Last weekend I attended one of the Sisterhood events - the winter supper which can be found on instagram with the hashtag #sisterhoodsupperwithtoast.

The event was visually stunning and with workshops which provided me with the chance to try modern calligraphy with Quill London. The venue has just opened and it's called The Forge Bristol. 

After the supper I drove on into Wales to The Welsh House group of cottages for a few days break without wifi or phone signals.  

I think we all need reminding of how life used to be, and how great it feels to try some slow living, simple pleasures.

This house has made me look at a few things differently, a great lesson in dealing with low light which is much needed as the days get darker and I only like to use natural light in photos.

The cottages have a weight, a gravitas to them, visually stunning inside and out, they must be the most beautiful places to stay in the whole of the UK, and trust me I've stayed in a lot of places.

The attention to authentic detail by owner Dorian is second to none, I am usually highly critical about other people's decorations but here I couldn't fault a single thing. In fact, I would happily buy the cottages with all the furniture in them as it was just perfect.

I have so many beautiful shots, I fell in love with the window ledges, is it possible to have a love affair with a window ledge? Perhaps because mine at home are so wimpy and rubbish in comparison. I want to knock the windows out and start again!

I will be talking about this trip quite a bit in the coming weeks and have put together Christmas styling ideas for a visual story illustrating A Child's Christmas In Wales.

The area in Carmarthenshire has stunning hills and valleys and very interesting historical sights, including woolen mills and cheese making. One trip which has been on my hit list for some years was to visit Jane Beck Welsh Blankets, an adorable shop in the middle of nowhere with the largest selection of vintage and new Welsh wool tapestry blankets. 

Jane Beck Welsh Blankets 

If I have enticed you to think about booking The Welsh House go to http://www.thewelshhouse.co.uk/ and see the choice of three cottages along with the history of how Dorian made a dream become reality by building and renovating.

I'm sure by the time you have seen all my photos you will be rushing to book a long weekend for yourself, they can also be found on Air bnb here.  You have a choice of three different style cottages and I will be featuring the two which are next to each other, Bryn Eglur and Ty Unnos.  I didn't get many outside shots of the house as the weather took a turn for the worse, however, I'm sure you will agree that these cottages are so cozy it hardly matters.

The word Maven came about from a meeting with Hayley who sells her own range of clothing and organised Conversational it means : A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from Hebrew, meaning "one who understands", based on an accumulation of knowledge.

Be a MAVEN and not a TROLL ...