Styling the seasons, August

Well yes, I realise I'm absolutely pants at this blogging lark.....I have been silent for a good couple of months without even noticing. I've just been busy as always with schooling the girls and my many and varied hobbies! But I suddenly came over all creative this week and felt the need to write everything down, so here I am.


August is a special month to me so I wanted to reflect that in my 'Styling the Seasons' post. First, it is special because it is the month I got married. Next Friday the 14th is our wedding anniversary, it will be 11 years since we tied the knot. We always try to make an effort to do something lovely as a family and as a couple to remember that day, because at the risk of sounding cheesy, it truly was the best day of my life. Joe has been the best friend anyone could ask for and it's been the happiest 11 years. I included a little wooden heart he carved for me in my styled surface to represent our special day.

 Incidentally, the surface I chose to style is a little kitchen cart that the clever chap made for me out of scraps of wood he had in the garage (to me it's thoughtful acts of kindness like this that are the most romantic thing), and it has proved invaluable in my new, very tiny, kitchen as an extra work surface and storage space. Kitchen carts are a great idea if you are short of space, I added castors to mine so it could be moved out of the way when not needed. Anyway, I digress. ...


The second reason August will always be a memorable month for me is a sad one. On Tuesday, my lovely nan passed away quite suddenly. It was a shock as she was so full of life and I just imagined her going on forever. She died peacefully in her sleep. I feel overwhelming sadness, but at the same time I just feel so blessed that I was lucky enough to have a really close relationship with her and with my grandad, and as I get older I realise more and more how my grandparents played a real part in shaping who I am. I just felt that this month's post should be about my grandparents and what amazing people they all were. The tablecloth in the picture is particularly precious to me now as my nan embroidered half of it and then gave it to me to finish.

She is the one who taught me to sew and I used to love going to her little bungalow and sewing and knitting and crafting together. Everything in her and my grandad's bungalow was handmade by the two of them, from the furniture to the ornaments to the tools in grandad's shed. I try to take the same approach to my own home and fill it with things that have meaning because of the love and effort that went into them, or for the memories that are attached to them. The painting that you see in the corner of the photograph is actually one that grandad painted, it's a painting of the road to the Garth mountain in South Wales where I grew up, and I have many happy memories of walking to the top and flying my kite with my grandparents and my mum and dad and brothers as a child.

Grandad's ashes were scattered there and nan's will be too.

I added the little red teapot as it belonged to my other grandmother and she absolutely loved it. She got it in when living in Germany as a young woman and it was always a focal point in her kitchen. She and I had very similar taste and it's from her I get my love of nature and all things floral. The posy of flowers in the teapot are all from my garden, and i'm so thrilled that after only six months of work out there I have so many flowers for cutting already. None of my grandparents got to see this garden but I know if they had they would have loved it and been proud of my hard work. My knowledge of plants comes from my grandmother too, she loved her garden and a frothy, cottagey style of planting, which is what I always gravitate to.


So that's it. I hope my post this month has not seemed depressing to you but rather, as I intended, full of happy memories. I will be posting some pics of my new living room on Monday so be sure to come back then for a nose.


Stephanie xx

Our new bedroom

Hello! I've been wanting to show you around our new home for a while now so I thought I would start with our bedroom as it's really the only room that's 100% finished. Moving to this house has been such an experience for us and has actually really taught us a lot about what we actually need for our family happiness. I thought moving here that I would 'tolerate' it and make the best of it until things improved, but the biggest surprise for me has been how much I really love it. The house is very small, and storage could be a problem, but I'm actually really enjoying finding ways to make the space work for us. And I have come to realise that a room is just a room;whether it has sash windows or deep skirting or real wood floors, or whether it has artex ceilings, cheap hollow doors and plasticky windows, it feels like a lovely home if it's filled with the people you love and treasures that have meaning to you. So....I do have some 'before' pictures of the house, but the pictures of our bedroom are pretty pointless to show you as you can't see much in them except me looking despondent ;-) . I expect you know the sort of room it was; just a featureless box, with dirty board floors that appeared to have been carpet less for the time the previous occupant lived here, and grubby magnolia walls covered in stains from goodness knows what.  There was also a strong aroma of cat accompanied by large quantities of cat hair stuck to the radiators and floors.  But on a plus side, the room has really great light from two decent sized windows and looks out at a beautiful cherry tree at the front of the house, and distant views of the mountains. And there was a largish built in wardrobe which was brilliant as it's a small room so it was great not to have to find a space for wardrobes. When we moved in we decided to paint the whole place white as it makes it look lovely and clean and fresh and makes every room look bigger and brighter. I also love the way white can look completely different depending on the time of day and the light in the room,or the accent colours that you choose.

A good tip if you have a very small room to try and fit lots of stuff into is to plot the room to scale  on graph paper and do the same with your furniture, then cut out the furniture and try different arrangements on paper....yes I know it's totally nerdy and over the top but it really helps you to decide what to keep and what to get rid of, and how to make the best use of the space. I wanted our bedroom to be calm and serene, so we stuck with white bedding and mostly white furniture, which also helps to add to the feeling of space.

I added a yellow bedspread to our bed which just makes the whole room glow when the evening light streams in. I got it from a friend who was throwing it out....I feel really strongly about up cycling and recycling whenever possible.  Not only do pre loved items have more character in my opinion but it minimises your carbon footprint as a consumer when you do not subscribe to the throwaway attitude people have today. Plus it's easier on your bank account which can't be bad!!!  Here are a few of my favourite items in our bedroom: all are either pre loved or have special significance to me.

This mirror is one of the first items I ever upcycled.  I found it in the back room of a small fabric shop and haggled with the owner to buy it for £3.  It lived in my bathroom in my first ever flat when I left home.  I painted it off white (it was long before chalk paint became popular and my boyfriend, who is now my husband, thought I was nuts 'ruining' a perfectly good mirror!).  I love the shabby chic style and it sort of helped define my taste for the future.

I decorate everywhere with memories of my children and these little shoes belonged to my youngest daughter, I couldn't bring myself to give these away so I keep them in my room and every night and see them and smile thinking of the tiny toes that once filled them.  I love to fill the corners of our home with things that evoke happy memories...I've never been one to go out and buy an ornament just because it matches my room, and to me it's the memories that make it feel like home. 

I absolutely LOVE my dressing table. A lovely friend gave it to me years ago; she bought it at auction for £3.00 as nobody wanted it so they had to get rid, and she painted it.  It's chipped and battered and the mirror is foxed but I love to imagine who might have sat at it in times past when it was new and looked at their reflection in the mirror.  It's also a great bit of extra storage!  Auctions are a great place to pick up a bargain, and seeing the potential in something nobody else wants is so exciting.

I hang this little walnut baby on one of the barley twists, it was a gift from my uncle to my nan when he was a child in Germany and she kept it always. My girls are fascinated by it.  

I use an old chipped teacup and a glass cake plate to store my jewelry, I like to use things for a purpose other than their intended one, I think it's much more interesting and beautiful than an ordinary jewelry box.

And finally, my beloved camphor wood chest.  My grandmother brought it back from Hong Kong where my grandad was stationed in the army and the receipt is still inside. Nan used to keep all her ballgowns in it from her time as a forces wife, and I loved rifling through and trying them on as a child. It still smells of camphor inside.  Above it hangs two prints that belonged to my great grandmother which she got from Germany.  I just love the style of them.  I like to own something that was valued by a loved one in the past, it makes me feel connected to my history. I have loads of precious things that were loved by my my nan and I love to be reminded of her. I'm very fortunate in that.

So that's our bedroom.  It's a real haven and I love it. Hope you like it too! Will post another room soon xxx

So today I took the kids swimming for the afternoon which I must admit I really didn't feel like doing today. It's getting decidedly autumnal outside, and while I adore this time of year I do believe it is best enjoyed kicking through the fallen leaves bundled up to the eyeballs in a big wooly jumper and hat,or indoors by a roaring fire with a mug of hot spiced apple juice. Most definitely not in a skimpy cozzie in a lukewarm swimming pool. But my girls disagreed, they couldn't think of anything more exciting for a Wednesday afternoon, so in the interests of earning mummy brownie points I stuffed our kit in a bag and off we went. Boy am I glad I did. Ella, my eldest, has been gradually becoming more comfortable in the water each week, and today for the first time she dunked herself under the water and swam quite a way on her own. Her little face was so overjoyed that she finally swam unaided I felt like I was going to burst with pride. Honestly if she had won an Olympic gold medal I could not have been more proud. And I taught her that. Such a wonderful feeling. 

Anyway, I wanted to share with you my boot sale finds from the weekend. It's been sooo long since I went to a boot sale, I've always been too exhausted after broken sleep with babies to drag myself out of bed early enough to get the really good stuff. So this weekend marked another little step towards being able to enjoy 'grown up' stuff again. Which did make me feel a little sad, because it brings home how quickly our baby girls are becoming big girls and I do miss having a baby around. Still, it was nice to feel that familiar thrill of rummaging amongst all the junk to find your one little piece of treasure. I do believe my enthusiasm rubbed off on my girls, they came home with a pink unicorn and a pair of mickey mouse roller skates,  items I do not know how we have lived without thus far. Although I only found a couple of treasures of my own I was chuffed with what I did get: a wonderful sanders teapot with a beautiful shabby chic design, and 2 Cecily Barker flower fairies books. I adore her illustrations. And I must admit I'm a bit of a magpie when it comes to vintage China.  There's nothing quite like the thrill of haggling for your desired item;

my heart skipped a beat when the lady apologetically asked me for £2.00 for my teapot. I do love a bargain. And I love the idea that I have rescued something that was once treasured by another person from ending up on the rubbish heap, instead to be treasured by me. I think there will definitely be a lot more boot sale trips coming up this winter! 

Off to my parents' tomorrow with the girls so will share what we've been up to when we return. Xx