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