Styling the seasons

Afternoon peeps, just a quick post as I have decided with much trepidation to join in with the #stylingtheseasons project on instagram which was started by @lottsandlots and @aptapothecary.   Silly I know but I'm dead nervous about joining in as it means lots of people are likely to see my feeble attempts at styling a surface to reflect how I feel about each month but it's just such a lovely little project I couldn't resist having a go. And I'm hoping it will help me to improve my photography skills and to switch things up a little in my home from month to month as I'm actually terribly sentimental and tend to keep things just as they are because I get so attached to things! Last month I was terribly obvious and used autumn leaves, books and pumpkins.

 This month I've gone for something more simple...here's my reasoning behind the items I chose to represent this month.  I chose to use cooler colours this month as I've felt a definite shift toward winter these past couple of weeks, whereas last month it was still decidedly autumnal and everywhere seemed to have a golden glow to me.  I have used dried lavender as a focal point. Lavender is my absolute fave plant, the smell reminds me of my late grandmother whose garden and home was always filled with the stuff, and at the end of every summer I would go and strip her lavender bushes bare to hang and dry in bunches in my room. I like to make little lavender pillows to pop into draws and on top of radiators over winter as a little reminder of the summer. And of course, lavender has such calming and relaxing properties so I keep this little pot from the picture next to my bed to help me sleep. It just evokes such a lovely cozy feeling to me. I used the pebble candle because all winter long I light candles every night, I  just love the soft warm glow of a candle when it's cold and rainy outside. My candle is sitting on a piece of slate shaped like a heart, a found item that my hubby gave to me (he's such an old romantic). I use slate everywhere in my home and there are lots of lovely pieces to be found on the pembrokeshire beaches as it's a very slate rich area.  The candle snuffer is precious to me because it was a gift from my youngest brother when he was very little and I think one of the first spontaneous gifts he chose for me because he knew I would love it. Being the hopeless romantic that I am I like to use it to snuff my candles out at night rather than just blowing them out as I can imagine I'm in a Jane Austen novel ha ha! Finally the little glazed green bowl contains dried petals from a summer rose. At this time of year all the flowers I collected and dried over the summer come into their own as a home just isn't the same to me without a little bit of the outdoors brought indoors and it's lovely to fill the spaces that were occupied by fresh bouquets from the garden with delicate papery blooms I have dried and kept. So that's my styling the seasons post for December....I am looking forward to getting stuck in again come January!

Can't wait to see what everyone else uses.  

Stephanie xx

Hello! Ok, so I'm actually finding at the moment that I have so much going on in my head I can't seem to crystallise my thoughts enough to make a lot of sense in my blog, so as a result I keep putting off writing it.  I do have news I would like to share though, especially as I am mostly blogging about home making, as my news concerns my home. Currently we rent a big beautiful stone house in a pretty pembrokeshire village, and I would say it pretty much fulfils every criteria I have for my perfect home. We have 4 enormous bedrooms, a massive vaulted loft space, an ENORMOUS sitting room with windows making up one whole wall, a dining room with fireplace, a big kitchen diner with a range cooker and utility room, a pantry and two bathrooms. Add to that lots of period features like deep skirting boards, picture rails, original sash windows and panelled oak doors, a cast iron bath  and original fireplace in the bedroom, and a beautiful orchard and walled garden at the back and you have what I have always considered would be my perfect home. The cherry on top is that when we moved in the place was freshly renovated and actually belongs to friends who allowed us to have a lot of input into the choice of fitted kitchen, flooring etc and who gave us a very long lease. So, all things considered, I hoped to be here a long long time.  But recently, the hubby has been quite unwell and I've been worrying that he is struggling with his workload. This is an expensive home to run and I hate that he has to work so much in order for us to be here. He has also recently started his own business treating lawns for weeds etc and because he is in the throes of building that up he has had to keep on his old job in construction to pay the bills, basically working 2 jobs. To me, this is madness. I'm just not prepared to sacrifice our time with hubby in order to have pretty sash windows and an orchard.  So we have reached the difficult decision as a family to move on. At first we looked at other private rentals, but the idea is to slash our expenses as low as possible and exchange a luxury home for time together...private rental just wouldn't achieve that goal being so expensive. So instead we opted to join the list for a council house. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we would do this; I hold my hands up and admit to being a total snob when it comes to social housing. But in actual fact, when I started to look I realised it's actually a pretty sweet option, the rent is super low, the houses well planned and built and energy efficient, and there is a level of security you can't get renting elsewhere. I have gradually begun to view this as an exciting challenge for our family, to make a warm welcoming home from something most would consider to be a sub standard house. But I truly believe a house is just a shell in which you live your life, and any place can feel wonderful if there is happiness and contentment among the ones living there.  So.... watch this space! I am super excited to blog about our new home once we find it, and share how we transform whatever we are given into something beautiful and appealing.  Any ideas about space efficient living and home makeovers are gratefully received!  With love
 Stephanie x