Dark Walls and Styling The Seasons

I simply couldn't resist painting more walls, well it's been a few weeks after all!  You may remember that I painted my upper hall landing white which lasted less than one day, I then painted half of it in graphite chalk paint, which is very matt and black.  I loved it so much I have now continued the colour around the sides, and despite protests from him indoors, that it will make the area seem dark and gloomy, I don't get that vibe at all.

The upper hall landing doesn't get much natural light but it is an area that gets walked through a lot and so I think this is a great place to display pictures and art, as you come up the stairs you can view the walls from the bottom up and it's the perfect area to play with dramatic looks.  

I'm collecting works of art connected to tattoos.  Either by tattooists like Amy Williams and Angelique Houtkamp, or of tattooed women.  The frames are all old ones from ebay.

I find that the drama of the dark walls showcases everything you put in front of it, either pictures, furniture or flowers.

Metallics work well with black, as it can tone down the gaudiness.  My favourite kinds of frames are old gilt gesso ones and Im always looking out for them as they work very well grouped together on picture walls. The continuation of deep rich colour holds the smaller objects together so that it doesn't look bitty.

So far I'm not feeling that the dark walls are making this small area feel smaller, but instead I'm noticing the light and how it falls.  I particularly like it with my new seagrass flooring.

I have been making posies for May Day, an old tradition is to hang them on your neighbors front door but I will probably be selfish and keep them for myself this year as the fragrance from the sweet peas and blue bells is intoxicating.

May holiday was originally a Roman festival for Floralia, the goddess of flowers so it would only be appropriate to have little floral arrangements around the home. 

Happy May Day.

Chalk paint by Annie Sloan, woven basket by Southwood Stores, limited edition prints by Angelique Houtkamp from Salon Serpent Tattoo Parlour.

Take me outdoors

This year I have decided is the year of me.  Feeling thankful to only have minor health niggles, I am pushing myself to do as much as I can in terms of personal development, fulfillment and improvement, both inside and out. 

So thank you to everyone who follows my discoveries here, and as I try to pack it all in, with just the odd afternoon nap, I will be posting more frequently about all the things that make me smile and affect this woman of a certain age, (don't mention the menopause).

As a blogger I have access to try out many different things and I promise that on this blog I only feature items that I have personally approved and photographed.  Luckily for me I tend to be approached by the coolest companies, but whatever the product I hope to put my personal twist to it, and maybe my enthusiasm will encourage you to try it too. 

Last week was all about the outdoors, so this home body, put on her boots and left the comfort zone of home for a few days in the fresh air, something that usually only happens in small doses when I'm doing a wildlife rescue.

A visit to an instagram meet in East Sussex for WWIM13  and a ramble in the bluebell woods got me thinking about exploring the UK more and particularly finding interesting places to stay.

When I worked in the music business I travelled extensively with recording artists, literally to every corner of the globe, we were on the road for years doing promotion. I would fly back only to plan the next schedule of travel and interviews and then off again.  Fortunately we were entitled to business class and first rate hotels, and whilst I was terribly spoilt there is always a down side to everything.  Hotels all begin to look the same and nowadays I find that Im quite picky about what I am paying for. 

So for me hotels can be a double edged sword. Whilst I should be enjoying the change of surroundings, often the accommodation is somewhat lacking in imagination and pizazz, which got me thinking that really, a hotel needs to be more than just a place to sleep. And it's not all about expense either, as we realised when we visited The Welsh House, it's about so much more.

I was never a fan of camping or caravans, due to the fact that back in the annals of history, camping involved a flimsy piece of tarp, a narrow straight jacket of a sleeping bag, on hard, damp and bumpy ground.  The one time I stayed in a caravan in the 1980's I awoke to discover the walls and windows running with condensation and let's not mention being kept awake all night by the other campers. But all that has changed.

So what has happened to peak my interest in this area now - one word - glamping.

What a brilliant idea. The internet has made is possible for individuals to rent out a space, whether it's a room in their house for b and b or something really cool on their grounds like a yurt or an airstream. Breaking away from a chain is very rewarding.

Some of my favourite bloggers are part of a collective for Canopy And Stars, an online collection of unusual places to stay, specializing in outdoor accommodation with a luxurious twist. From tree houses, camper vans, boats, shepherds huts to yurts, geo-domes and safari tents, they have curated a site with the best of these in the UK and parts of Europe.

I'm so happy that through instagram I have found so many cool new things and I've already booked my first Yurt which is situated in a part of Norfolk that I've been meaning to explore for some time.  A new skill for me will be to learn to cook outside, and I shall be consulting with the Beach Hut Cook for tips and ideas on that.  

I got quite hooked looking on the Canopy And Stars website, oohing and ahhhing over all the places that I simply must try out, my bucket list is endless. As I travel either solo or with my other half, we have a fantastic selection to choose from and for me I'm particularly interested if there are photo opportunities. I'm not the most hardy of people but I often surprise myself with my flexibility and optimism in any given situation. Be sure that you will see it on here as I tick it off the list, reporting back to the readers who, maybe like myself, get more adventurous with age and not less. 

Urban Jungle Bloggers - Plants and Glass

A fun extra post this week with a few photos for Urban Jungle Bloggers.  This month our lovely hosts, Igor and Judith have asked us to show some glass with our plants and cuttings.  

Here's a little selection.

When Igor and Judith started this community I hardly had any house plants and now Im quite a jungle here.  However, Im not being very successful with all and I don't quite know why, so I really should study up a bit more about their needs.

A personal thank you too as I recently won a competition organized by the Urban Jungle Bloggers and a plant shop called Evrgreen.  I have won some air plants which Im sure to find fun making a new home for as Ive never had air plants before. 

To see all the other things that Evrgreen have to offer go to http://www.evrgreen.de

Gardening with Rose & Grey

As a style ambassador for Rose & Grey I have been sent a great little wire shelf this month, so versatile it could have gone anywhere inside or out, but I chose to use it in the garden.  

There is something a bit special about potting sheds, childhood memories of dads and grandads, their version of a man cave with all the tools sorted nicely, old tins full of nails, magical cans of oil, fusty smells and cobwebs, they can be very nostalgic.

With a vintage industrial look, the Locker Room Shelf fits many different types of decor and I could see this working in the utility area, office, the bathroom or the hallway.

I recently assembled this shed just outside my photo studio to house the oversized props which had accumulated (and simply took up too much space).  Putting the wire shelf on the outside gives me a great place to put my gardening bits while I potter around weeding, tying back and trimming. I expect that during the summer it will also be a cool place for my radio and coffee.

I'm forever loosing my hand trowels but this way there is no reason not to find them straight away, using butchers hooks on the side of the shelf I can hang them up in full view.

As I can see my blue shed from the lounge I need for it to look attractive and I really think this Locker Shelf will help. Im going to pot up some cute pansies and find some more little terracotta pots. Before long there will be fairy lights and maybe candles too which can sit on the shelf to light the patio area on summer evenings. I hope you like my way of styling the shelf, maybe it will give you some ideas for getting organized wherever you use it. 

Dottie Angel Dress Making

I can't remember where I first spotted the pattern for the Dottie Angel dress, but it stuck in my mind, and last week I just fancied keeping my hand in with a bit of dress making. 

I bought the pattern for the dress from the Simplicity website, it is pattern number 1080.  I could see from the style that it would be easy to make, although I was clearly more rusty than I thought as I did make a few mistakes along the way.  These were totally down to the fact that I was over confident and didn't read the instructions carefully!  

I also made a bit of a mistake by using this needle cord as its thickness made it react differently to normal cotton, by this I mean that it went a bit poofly and stuck out rather than draping, but I really wanted to use it as I have been longing to have something made in this beautiful fabric.  

I think its harking back to the 1970's when corduroy was king of the trendy fabrics, it's a great weight fabric for chilly days and I wanted to layer this dress over t-shirt and leggings for this in-between weather. 

Did you know that the lines in corduroy are called wales, so the thickness of the lines of tufts are counted by the inch, thick cord being lower number of wales, and thin fine cord like this is a higher number of wales.  This fabric is from a patchwork shop and is Japanese, I chose the designs because they also look a bit 70's to me. 

Since I took these photos I have started to make some alterations to the shape, I think that this is the beauty of making your own clothes, to personalise the pattern.  

I usually start with the pattern and follow it closely, but I do find that often pattern made clothes come up a bit big so on hindsight I should have cut this a size smaller, also perhaps my seams are not as thick as they should be.  So I've unpicked the sides to shape the arm hole a bit more and reduce the width of the dress around the bust area.  

My vintage mannequin is considerable smaller than myself, I don't use it for size but to help with placement.  It's useful when making or altering clothes to see them on a mannequin and pin things in place.

The dress is still a work in progress but I wanted to put this post out for Friday Faceless Portrait, a hashtag started by Sarah Lou of Lapin Blu.

The dress is designed by Tif, an Engish lady living in North Carolina, who has created the Dottie Angel brand.  She has done a few designs for Simplicity patterns and this dress is also available for children. Her blog is full of craft and granny chic although Tif has hung up her blogging hat, but it's still worth checking out for ideas of things to make.

I didn't have any bias binding so as the ribbon ties were made in a thinner fabric (the cord would have been too thick), I used it to edge the pockets as well.  I have skipped a few things that you are supposed to do because I tend to cut corners when making for myself.

The first time making a pattern is always a bit hit and miss, but once you have figured out what you want different it will be quicker to repeat. So I'm just about to see how it looks with minor adjustments and maybe finish it or do some more tweaking.  The Great British Sewing Bee is coming soon, early May, just to put us all to shame.  

Matt Chappell who won last year has got a great blog and has also created a fun project for making a "Sew A Saurus" dinosaur tail for children.  You can find Matt and Gemma Chappell over at Sew What's New.

Next week will be time for some Urban Jungle Blogging, hope you have a lovely week, see you over on Instagram.

Styling the Seasons April Blooms and Wilds

Well, I hope your Easter holiday break has been fun, the showers of April are in full force here in the UK, I think of it as rainbow weather.  Sunshine often appearing moments after the rain creates magical coloured arcs in the sky, and I always try to work out where it ends ... It's also the time for baby wildlife to be born, something Im very close to.

One of my favourite discoveries over the last year are the candles of The Botanical Candle company.  A one woman operation, with the added twist being the lovely vintage containers that Amalia finds to pour her fragranced soy wax into.  From tins, to jelly moulds, it is hard to choose. Amalia Apothecary lives in Shaftesbury and often sells at the Frome market, which Im hoping to check out as I really want to have a look around that town.  

The vase above is from a small collection of Chippendale Art Deco glass that we have at home, recognisable by the weight and the trophy style handles. 

April brings more light, longer days and, of course, more blooms in the garden, little vases are all over the house with snippets of forsythia, grape hyacinth, daffodils and forget-me-nots.   It will soon be time to visit the bluebell woods near my home, always such a feast for the senses.
  

My two personal favourite candle containers are the old blue glass Ball jars and the ceramic marmalade containers.  

Ive started collecting the last scraps of soy wax candles and I then melt them down in an attempt to make a whole new one. I bought some wicks and, inspired by Amalias inventiveness with containers, made a candle in a victorian jelly mould.

For the last three months I have been receiving flowers from Bloom & Wild, a postal delivery service.  While waiting for my own garden to supply me with blooms this has been lovely. I've been stuck in the house quite a bit as currently I have some foster baby squirrels to look after so having flowers around the house has kept me happy.

Some of you may know that Im a volunteer for a wildlife hospital called St. Tiggywinkles.  One of my areas of voluntary work involves feeding orphaned baby animals who require care every few hours.  The hospital have trained me so that I can bring the orphans home where I have set up a room where my cats can't go.  Here I have a cage with heat pads inside as it is vitally important to keep small baby animals warm.  I mix up a warm milk and feed it to them from a pipette, not always very easily I must say, some take to it better than others. So right now I have four little squirrels a few weeks old, still with their eyes closed but cheeky as you would expect.
Tiggywinkles has started to fill up with orphaned rabbits, foxes and such, and before we know it the hedgehog season will be upon us. 

Styling The Seasons is a concept from Katy at Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte at Lotts and Lots.  Many bloggers join with the theme and so to search for it use the hashtag StylingTheSeasons and hopefully you can find some inspirational ideas. 

Similary if you go to At Mine, you can also search for Styling The Seasons and perhaps while you are there look at the blog post I wrote for them about how to gold leaf items around the home. You can find it http://blog.atmine.com/  

Spring with Katie Alice

This week I have been playing around with some very beautifully designed china and table ware from Katie Alice. I picked my favourite pieces from her collection to play with as props, so I thought I would show you the results here. Working on colour combinations is my thing, I love to see how things work together, either clashing or complimentary. Sometimes it can be quite surprising how vibrant nature can be. 

Yellow is most definitely the first colour of spring, the first colour to appear around us.  I wanted a pop of yellow that wasn't just daffodils so what better way than to put the butter dish and lemon squeezer together ...

It was purely coincidental that I spotted these ragged tulips which have exactly the same tonal range as the china, they are so unusual in their colour combination of deep rusty pink with green and white in the flower head. The highland fling collection is a feminine take on tartan which I think can work through many seasons of table decorating, particularly at Christmas when this would be a lovely theme to have on your table, a subtle twist on the classic red and green.

Above is a lovely French style range called "the collection" and the rustic lace design is a great classy combination of country and elegant. The small espresso cups are a really cute set of four, some with a little pattern inside. 

The website for all the Katie Alice ranges is at : www.katie-alice.co.uk 

Keep a watch out on instagram when I will be including a new collection from her of blue and white.  

The pretty napkins have a tiny touch of orange which just lifts the whole design, and so I couldn't resist a few of these roses. The florist tells me they are the "miss piggy' variety !

Next week I hope to bring you some more new discoveries including the products I have recently purchased from The Botanical Candle company. Introducing a range of fresh scents and perfumes to the home while looking in keeping with my antique collections.  

I wanted to include some poetry about Spring, however, a lot of it is quite bleak, warning of unguarded jubilation. TS Elliot warning in The Waste Land that April is the cruelest month, and I suppose that the quick and rapid changing of climate, the sun encouraging the growth and birth, suddenly followed by frost and rain, can be cruel.  So I'm putting on my positive optimists hat and choosing this :

Spring

BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –        

When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;        

Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush 

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring 

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing; 

The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush 

The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush 

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.         

What is all this juice and all this joy? 

A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy, 

Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning, 

Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy, 

Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.