Homemade London hosts Styling Spring At Mine

WARNING; this blog post contains a lot of gushing, love and daftness.


Yesterday I actually left the shire! Like a hobbit on a quest I got on a train to the big smoke, how exciting.

And what was my quest? well to find the ring of course! I have heard tell of the perfect Spring wreath, although until now the sight of one has escaped me, I do believe it looks something like this ...

This quest was brought to me via Instagram, a magical covern of special ladies had come up with the idea to run a competition where you take a photo of a styled area within your house that is reflective of the season.

The circle of special ladies then chose their own favourite photo and invited that lucky person to join them at a very stylish location.

And so the journey began.

The location was in a beautiful part of town, Portman Village. Opposite a house of glorious food (Gails) on 21 Seymour Place is Homemade London who host craft parties of all kinds.

The head wizards who had this concept and brought it all together can be found in their virtual worlds called Apartment Apothecary  and Lotts & Lots, their names being Katy and Charlotte. They then went about casting their magical spells to bring along other great and wise creatures.  Providing the expert tuition in how to make a wreath was Caroline Grimble of Wild Rubus and she used the flowers supplied by Bloom & Wild who have a very special concept to their company.

Bloom & Wild deliver flowers in a box! What is this kind of magick I hear you ask, yes they put beautiful blooms in a box and send it flying through the atmosphere and right through your letterbox. You don't even have to be at home to receive it!

And so, chief wizards Katy and Charlotte began to pull their team together, and along came 'At Mine'a new concept in how to view interior design. If you love to decorate your hobbit-hole then this is an online community of other like minded people, posting photos of their real homes and crediting the clever designers and shops from whence they purchased said items.

Emily Quinton
 author of Maker Spaces a book about creative hobbits and their workshops

Charlotte from Lotts & Lots who can also be found making glorious jewels

To see the judges names and who they chose pop to http://www.apartmentapothecary.com/photo/the-winners-2/

The spell had been set, the forces of the universe were in play through the portal Instagram, and so, reaching amazing creative photograph takers far and wide the quest began. 

This is Xanthe who is very akin to Lady Galadriel, one of the greatest in middle earth, surpassing others in beauty knowledge and power 

The incredibly beautiful Tamsyn who weaves pastel dreams at
  The Villa On Mount Pleasant

Really could anyone concentrate, I was too excited to be in the same room as all these fabulous people

my special mentor who chose me, and we bear the same inked marks upon ourselves
 also,Jeska who is is also known as Lobster and Swan

       And so armed with their iphones the creating began. 

There was also cake, and coffee, and pastries. Yes I had died and gone to heaven

It was a glorious day, the rain and cold did not deter us, I cannot thank all the above enough for doing such a wonderful sharing thing. When working in isolation, taking photos at home, creating collages and scenes that please the eye, how great to meet up with people who 'get it'.  My door in Buckinghamshire is open to all of you and I sincerely hope that we have a chance to do this again.

Instagram photography and floral styling.

I've become such a mahoosive fan of Instagram of late, I guess because its more about pictures than words. My brain is clearly one which responds to visual stimulation, being obsessed with how my house looks, and by that I don't mean neat and tidy, quite the opposite.  I love colour, detail, interesting objects from every era, creating a visual story.  Taking photos and mood shots for myself and others gives me the excuse to hoard, what I call 'props' and have even managed to convince the other half that I need all these 'props' for photos.  Even shoes become props! Darling I need them for a photo idea ...

So maybe its time to talk about photography. My history with a camera goes back to 1978, so you could say that Ive been married to one most of my life, just upgrading now and then.  My first SLR was a Pentax Spotmatic F, fully manual.  I shot on film and printed in a darkroom, oh, how things have changed. 

Without going too far down memory lane, lets jump to now. My latest love is my Canon 5D Mkii. I have two lenses, one zoom and one fixed. This camera is great at shooting in low light and chosen because I hate studio lights and artificial lighting.  Using just a folding reflector to bounce and direct light at times. 

My most recent purchase was a 100mm fixed macro lens which I bought second hand on e-bay.  It is a bit risky buying on ebay, I did once buy a camera body for my step-daughter which totally didn't work, luckily e-bay refunded but it did spoil her birthday surprise. 

Its a shame that camera shops have disappeared, my nearest one is quite some distance.

One thing about Instagram is its format for square photos, having always arranged and shot for old school oblong format either portrait or landscape. Its taken me a few weeks but now Im finding that I arrange and set up for the square format as it works better on social media. 

My drive for taking photos almost daily has been set with Instagram challenges which I have talked about before. And sometimes when I think the subject is out of my comfort zone, I surprise myself. It really keeps you on your toes, plus there are so many brilliant photographers there to aspire too.  I have won some challenges and competitions recently and it is such a thrill to be featured by great taste makers and style setters. 

Next week Im off for a flower styling course I won, so will be bursting to tell you about that. 

  

Making mood boards is a great way to try colour and texture combinations. Flowers usually feature as the colours of nature are the most inspiring and often the most vivid. Move in closer to see the detail and you will see things you never noticed before, I never really liked Ranunculas until I started photographing them.

This Graphite chalk paint background is the perfect muse for pinks and purples.

A lot of my background colours are using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, some of them are left over pieces from my Painters In Residence project.  

Mobile phone cameras are now remarkably good and I believe that its this that has encouraged a lot of women to take up photography.  I would encourage anyone who finds themselves taking more photos on their phone to think about moving onto a basic DSLR like the Nikon D60 or D90.  

My other tip is don't be lazy, don't just snap from where you stand or sit, get up, bend down, move the right distance away.  Think about the angle and how it changes the perspective.  A table wont look like a table if you shoot it from a standing position, get it at eye level so the legs don't warp. The beauty about digital photography is that you can take hundreds of pics and then go through them on the computer to see which works, a good learning curve.  

Ive met a few interior photographers who say that when they go to shoot homes, whilst the homes look beautiful to the naked eye, they don't always look so great on camera.  Hence why every part of my house looks like its been set up for a photo or a shop display, I just can't help myself. What this has taught me as an interior designer is that you don't need an impressive mansion, my home is very modest small roomed house with no period features but you wouldn't notice that if you came round, with your eyes distracted every which way with crazy colours and objects.

To join in on challenges and competitions just look out for the hashtag # followed by subjects like - my still sunday - capturing colour - gathered style - by arrangement - floral friday - my monday moodboard - this joyful moment - styling the seasons.

I actually have my own one #farfromthemaddingcrowd  where you post a photo and tag me @janiceissitt_life_style with a pic that shows your interpretation of "Far From The Madding Crowd". Please do find me and join in, theres a paperback copy of the book for the winner. I should also mention what a wonderful community it is on Instagram.  If you follow the right people you will not be bombarded with pouting selfies, but lovely insights into creative souls who support each other. Find your likeminded doppelganger who is residing on the other side of the world, the girl in Amsterdam who shares your love of tattoos and clogs, the mum in America who also collects Dala Horses and Swedish folky stuff, they are all out there through this portal called an App.  Modern life eh, its not so bad.

See you next week after Ive been to London for my prize of Syling Spring At Mine.

Styling Spring At Mine and Styling The Seasons

Hello and welcome April. I've so enjoyed the blossoming garden particularly photographing flowers and have treated myself to a new lens for my camera, a 100mm macro for super close-up work.  Joining with Apartment Apothecary and Lobster and Swan on their challenge to show how you style your home for the seasons.

Heres some that Ive done recently and I shall add more to the post as the days pass and new blooms appear.

Against my Aubusson chalk paint wall and with this Bitossi vase.

Using my latest car boot treasures, watering can as vase against Graphite chalk paint wall.

I bought a few of the outdoor pots inside for a while.  Books are a great way to get height in your displays

this is a collage made inside a copper bottomed box from Holy Cow Home

a small pleasing arrangement of green themed items to make a pleasing collage

my latest little collection of Observer books are not only interesting but look good. 

gardening has begun