Urban Jungle Bloggers Plants and Blooms

Im so happy to be part of this community of Urban Jungle Bloggers, Igor and Judith are very generous in sharing posts and photos and their appeal is worldwide so it's very interesting to see people from other countries following the same challenges.

This month its Plants and Blooms, very appealing to me as there is usually some floral element in my photos, it's the finishing touch, a way to capture forever the beauty of something transient and fragile.  Below are some of my home grown roses, the bushes were planted this year and still giving me lots of fragrant blooms.

My background colour in these two shots is using Annie Sloan Wall Paint in Duck Egg Blue, but as I painted over a green colour this may have effected its hue. Always consider this when painting, colours will change from that on the tin if you are painting over another strong colour. 

I shall be reviewing this new wall paint soon, with full details of how it differs from Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

Above is a new play thing, a notice board from Rose & Grey. It comes with clips and a finish that looks like old wooden pallets. 

I should also mention that a couple of these small planters are hand made. Above the little pale green one is from Katie Robbins (Ceramic Magpie) and below the mug top left is from the online store The Future Kept.

This large round vase is a vintage one by the company Bitossi, a highly collectable retro range.  I really want one of their lions, and am always on the look out for one.

More vintage goodies in this photo, I attended a truly fab event The Bloggers Vintage Jumble and instagram meet. Fellow bloggers from far and wide congregated on a sunny Sunday afternoon for tea cake and shopping in a village hall in Lindfield. It was lovely to see the faces of social media friends, a too rare occurrence in my opinion.

Jessica Trent sold me the embroidered table cloth and this was one of many great items I came home with, I was unable to show any restraint. Heather Young very generously let me snaffle the hydrangeas.  I'm currently growing a lot of the plants but as it's their first year the blooms are still a bit young and floppy to hold any shape when cut. From what I can work out, the hydrangea heads only look like this when they are quite old flowers which almost dry on the bush before picking. So thank's Heather you have saved me doing a midnight raid on a neighbours garden .... :)

My next blogger meet is in Bristol for the Sisterhood Supper with Toast, not toast to eat, silly, but Toast the great label. The food is being cooked by a well known chef and we will be learning calligraphy and wreath making. 

I hope you are all enjoying the Autumn colours, in the UK we have been blessed with such great weather the last few months making this time of year even more special. 

Styling The Seasons - August

Funny old month eh? usual weird weather, hot then cold then rain then sunsets.  Still it doesn't stop us Brits getting out and about, we are made of stronger stuff.  Nothing is going to scupper our holiday plans.

As per usual, I try to make my birthday celebrations last as long as possible, every year I use it as an excuse to spend loads on trips away and presents for me and home. 

Since loosing my parents I've taken it upon myself to take control and mostly I do stuff as a distraction to the fact that they aren't around to spoil me anymore. I'm very spontaneous these days so our trip to the coast was rather last minute. Having now also been reminded how quick and easy it is to fly to Amsterdam, this too is something I need to do more often.

My styling the seasons this month is to feature all my new purchases from the UK and Amsterdam, combining the finds from The Firle Vintage Fair, various shops around Hastings like Butlers Emporium and the enormous flea market in Amsterdam.

My photos are a reflection of the different moods that this August has provided us with, dark and light.

Almost autumnal in parts.  Above is a lovely vintage picture from the East Sussex Firle Vintage Fair held in the grounds of Firle place. I thought it had overtones of being Chinese and put me in the mind set of things from the Orient, Im definitely on a trip with Japan and China at the  moment, this was to come to a head in Amsterdam, when my host showed me her Japanese textile collection.

The cone of wool was from the flea market in Amsterdam and I will use it in weaving, I couldn't help popping those feathers in the top. They are from Eagle Owls and Hawks. Im going to hang them from the wall hanging I think. 

Above here, in a more pastel mood are two more purchases from Firle, the blue glass 'milk of magnesia' bottle and the green glass dish with lid.  The tray was also from there and has mother of pearl set in with bright reds and greens.  Look out for that tray again in photos as I haven't featured its full glory yet. The flask was from the Amsterdam flea and was only 5 euros. I photographed these against my work area cupboards which Ive painted in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, mixing up green and white and grey.

The book above is clearly from Holland, its about house plants and the pictures inside I think are cards stuck in from tea or cigarette packets maybe. This again is sure to feature in future so that I can show you the inside. I may need help with translation but Im sure that my Urban Jungle Blogger friends will help if need be. The wooden spoon is the best priced hand carved spoon Ive yet to find and this was from Butlers in Hastings.

The highlight of my trip to the coast was to meet up with Jeska and Dean from the online store The Future Kept. I'd arranged to collect my little hand thrown ceramic mug from them (above). They sell out of these super fast so you may need to message them.  

And my  last picture is the fruits from my trees. The apple and plum trees were already in the garden at our house when we bought it. We struggle to make use of the fruit, Ive tried cider, chutney, jam .. you name it. But this year we are on our Nutribullet diet so this lot will end up in the juicer.  I photographed them on the dark wall with rust and galvanised iron because I thought the colours of the fruits shone out more this way. Its a good example of how to work with a dark wall, using natural bright pops like apple green. The colours in the plums are so beautiful a perfect example of how to mix shades of pink and green.

Lots of my friends, along with myself, have been nominated in different categories in the Amara Interior Blog Awards so please do look out for Lobster & Swan, A Quiet Style, Capture by Lucy, The Cabinet Makers Lovetale, At Mine, Apartment Apothecary, Breath Happiness, Make, Joelix, Happy Interior, Lotts & Lots,  oh and so many other great ones, Ive mentioned just a few of the 589 blogs nominated just to help you maybe find some new ones. 

If you have a look on the right hand side of this blog you can click on the Amara IBA15 badge and it will take you straight to the voting page for me.  I would love to be shortlisted. 

Thanks for reading as usual, see you next week. 

Elderflower Cocktails with Rose & Grey

It's a bit of a joke, me doing anything related to food or drink, if you know me then you already realise that my favourite place is not the kitchen.  Probably the only person worse than me in the food making department is my Other Half, or OH as I call him. He actually believes ketchup to be a culinary necessity, on everything, yes everything.  Me, Im a Waitrose, M&S ready meal kinda girl, heck, they've gone to all that trouble preparing a meal for me it would be rude not to.

But every few years I venture into the "I really should have a go at that" frame of mind.  So far chutney, jam and cider have all been tackled. The chutney was ok but the fumes from the boiling vinegar rendered me and all the cats blinking for hours. 

There is an elderberry bush growing next to my house in the alleyway. Every year I see it flower and think I should do something with them, so when Emma at "A Quiet Style" put up her recipe I was galvanized into action.

The recipe requires: About 25 flower heads, two unwaxed lemons, 450g sugar, 500ml water

Step One: Cut the heads off the bush, trying not to get stung by nettles, bitten by insects or run-over by traffic. If you did it without incident - well done. 

Step Two: Read the recipe again. Chanel your inner Emma. 

Step Three: remove the flowers from the stalks, Emma recommended to kinda rub them between your fingers, this seemed to work. Success.

Step Four : Get the scales down from the top shelf and dust off the cobwebs.  Then weigh some sugar. I doubled the amount of all the ingredients. 

Step Five: Find a big metal pan to boil up the sugar and water, being careful to pick off the encrusted chutney that was stuck to the bottom from the last time you used it about four years ago.

Bizarely, whilst I don't cook, I do have lots of gadgets knocking about, all bought with good intentions, like this lemon zester, my OH doesn't even know what it is, sometimes I wave shaped objects at him and get him to guess what they are used for.

Step Six: once finished taunting the OH let the boiled water and sugar cool down, the sugar should be all dissolved. Once cool, add sliced lemons and the elder flowers, some recipes also say add a bit of zest.  I did this because I wanted to use the zester tool thing.

Step Seven : try to find a place in the fridge to put the infusing mixture, leave it for a few days. 

Step Eight : go and have a cocktail.

I think the last time I wrote about making a comsumable, it was trying to use all our apples to make Cider.  I don't know what I did wrong but it was horrible.  Oh, yes I also made Sloe Gin and Vodka, that is all still sitting in the utility area waiting for some unsuspecting person to try it. The photographer from Homes & Antiques spotted it and I sent her home with a mini bottle, I haven't heard from her since. 

These lovely stylish glasses with all the trimmings are from Rose & Grey, the set is a kit, two glasses with straws, umbrellas, place mats and a pink flamingo swizzle stick.

So it was actually a sweet little joke that I put cloudy lemonade in these glasses, but made them look like cocktails with a bit of salt round the rim (purely for decoration).  I have read that you can use the Elderflower syrup in cocktails, add it to vodka or sparking wines. 

When the mixture has had a good old soak your last step is to strain off the flowers and lemons, through muslin or a clean tea towel and then what comes out the other side should be a lovely elderflower syrup.  

If you want to make your everyday drinks seem more exciting then have a look over at Rose and Grey, they have sets with different shaped glasses, for Champagne and Daiquiri too. All come in a cute retro style box which would be a great present for someone, or a couple starting home.  

Rose and Grey do a lot of very beautiful homewares but Im particularly taken with their vintage leather collection and their metal chairs. 

For the Swedish readers, wishing you a Glad Midsommer, hope you all have a lovely time this weekend, drink a cocktail for me. 

Burleigh at Middleport Pottery

On my return from Heswall this week we managed to get to Stoke-On-Trent half an hour before the shop at Burleigh closed.  Phew, just in time for some photos and purchases.

If you haven't heard of Burleigh, or Burgess and Leigh, then I bet you have seen their famous range of china ware called Asiatic Pheasant.

We were too late to take the factory tour but the shop selling 'seconds' was the destination this time.  Set in its original building in Burslem its like stepping back in time. This area is currently receiving some regeneration and the back to back houses surrounding Burleigh are waiting renovation so there are lots of abandoned buildings and factories around here. 

The buildings here are totally authentic and the same as they were 150 years ago.

In the 'seconds' shop the wares are slightly imperfect and thus reflected in the price. To the untrained eye you wouldn't know there was anything wrong. 

I can't recommend that there is anything much to do around this area so my best advice is to pop there while on route to somewhere else, its very close to the motorway so not too much of a diversion.

I hope to go back for the factory tour next time I go up to Heswall and will take lots of photos then Im sure.

The china comes in a variety of pretty colours and Asiatic Pheasant is not only in pale blue but also pink, purple and green.  It looks really good mixed and matched.

To see their website click here where you can read more about the history of such a great British company. 

Holy Cow !!! is H.O.M.E.

Recently I've been following my passion for Antique eastern furniture and sourcing with my friends for a new shop opening soon in Aylesbury Bucks. The shop will sell everything that is beautiful for your home, its fair trade, recycled and re-purposed with a super cool colonial scandi shabby edge. Its fusion man !

Hope you like my photos and styling and if you find Holy Cow Home on facebook you can arrange to purchase some of these items for yourself.  I shall be inviting you all to the shop opening as well.

Loppis Love

Loppis Love.

There is nothing more exciting for me than to go shopping for vintage and antiques, it doesn't matter where, I love fine Antique shops like Sally Turner in Wendover Bucks, I love vintage markets like the ones in Milton Keynes and Winslow and I love car boot fairs all equally as much. But there's one type that beats them all, it's over in Sweden and it's call a Loppis.

A Loppis is, generally speaking, a garage sale, on a slightly more professional level.  When driving around the countryside never pass a little handmade sign saying "Loppis" with an arrow pointing up a lane or dirt track. For, at the end of the path will be a world of goodies just waiting to be discovered.

The Loppis can sell anything, new, old, vintage, antique and the downright bonkers. 

My latest jaunt over to Sweden naturally included a day of Loppis shopping, luckily for me, my friend Rachel does occasionally find something to her taste, like the mad steampunk 1930s coffee pot we used in these photos of the "babes in the woods".

A Loppis can be found in a barn, a garage, or even A WINDMILL!!

The above two Loppis are in Grillby, the Windmill still has all its working parts, amongst the bric-a-brac, all except its sails. The owner gives you a lovely talk about its history.

I bought a traditional Swedish rag rug from here, and some mounted deer horns from the other Loppis. Keep an open mind as to what you will find. 

Generally speaking the prices in these places are very good, the owners know the worth to the "Towny" interior decorators, but they are still sensible, a bargain can always be found. One mans junk is another mans treasure.

If you google up a translation of the word Loppis it says flea market, and its a general term that can cover car boot and flea markets too.  I think the Swedish perhaps have one word for their old junk, whereas in the UK we like to narrow it down and categorize the types of junk we are selling ha ha !

The Windmill owners also have a studio for ceramic making and run courses there. The other Loppis has a facebook page, they are called Mormors Lupbod.

Grillby can be found just off the E18 out of Stockholm, just over an hours drive. Its just before Enkoping.