Living Room tour

Check me out, another blog post already! I wanted to show you my new living room which has been almost done for a while but now is pretty much finished. I do have plans to paint one wall in a very pale, blue grey wash, but who knows how long it will take me to get around to that so I am showing you the room as it is and will post an update when I get round to painting.

I would describe my decorating style as cozy, and very 'country'. I have always put a lot of thought into colours and furniture placement, and the styling of surfaces. But somehow moving into this place for such 'grown up' reasons made those things seem somehow a little silly and insignificant. At the time my main consideration was simply to fit all the truly 'necessary' items into this tiny space. But gradually as I have relaxed and begun to enjoy this place as our home, I have just naturally begun to enjoy putting those little touches to the place that fill the house with your personality and make it feel like an extension of yourself, a place of comfort and happiness...'home'.

William Morris said that we should have nothing in our home "that we do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful", and I always try to follow that rule. I like to sit in a room and as I look around, be met with happy memories. The starting point for this living room was , as with the rest of the house, simple white walls, as the room was covered in grubby smears and marks so I just wanted it to feel clean. We chose to put oak effect laminate throughout our downstairs mainly for practicality (with two little girls being schooled at home and our little dog in and out of the garden our floors are in need of very regular mopping! ). Our sofa is actually a sofa - bed so the room doubles as a guest room. As it's bright red that more or less dictated the colours we would be using!

On the back of the sofa you can see a memory quilt I made out of the girls pram blankets they used as babies.  I did actually write a post about this quilt a while back. I love it because every time we snuggle up on the sofa together all those happy memories come flooding back. A memory quilt or blanket is such a great way to save those little baby things and use then rather than just keeping them in a bag in the attic. In this picture you can also see the wire chandelier I made and covered with fairy lights in the corner. In my opinion you can never have too many fairy lights! 

I had to get rid of a lot of my books when we moved, along with the actual bookcases. To make a home for my remaining books without intruding on the room too much we added a shelf that runs the whole length of the room above the sofa, which actually gives the illusion of extra length to the room. Being extremely nerdy I had to arrange the books according to colour which again just makes it look a lot more 'fluid' and gentle on the eye. I added a few of my favourite prints at eye level, I chose prints with a similar theme, all featuring roses as I wanted to tie them in with the prints on the soft furnishings and the colours on the sofa. 

I also used a couple of large mirrors in this room to try and bring in as much light as possible and that old trick of mirrors to try and make the illusion of size. 

In a small house storage is of paramount importance, so we have 2 good pieces of furniture from Laura Ashley which we intend to keep forever and which both provide lots of extra storage. One is a coffee table but we placed it against the wall under the tv as we wanted to keep the floorspace free. The lid lifts at the back with tons of storage inside and it has lots of tiny drawers at the front as well. The second is a large sideboard which I love as it also provides a lovely surface for styling with my precious nik naks....

I love to sit on the sofa and look at my treasures in this little corner. The square frame propped on top was found at a tip by my youngest brother,  who appreciates items because of their story, as I do. It contained a rather hideous painting which I immediately loved because at the back was the artists name and address dated 1954, along with a paper ticket from an exhibition the painting had been part of, and you could also see another painting that the artist had covered with the new hideous offering. I like to rescue things that were once loved and precious to someone but now they are gone or getting old are no longer of worth to anyone. It makes me happy that it is of value to another person again. Inside the frame I have hung some vintage lace and used little craft pegs to hang my own memories...pictures of grandparents, my children's first shoes, a rose from my husbands wedding buttonhole, a card from my mother and a label from a gift a close friend gave me after I threw her a 25th anniversary dinner. Such lovely memories. A memory frame like this is easy to make and a lovely way to decorate with things that otherwise might be tucked in a drawer somewhere. I also like the fact that you can ring in the changes and switch out the items depending on how you feel at the time.

The foxgloves painting above the sideboard is one of my own. I wanted to bring some colour to this corner as with all white walls you are sometimes in danger of it looking a little bland. But bright warm colours against a white backdrop really pop and can have more impact than colour used on the walls themselves. You can also see in this picture a beautiful Tiffany lamp made from scratch by my grandad. He was a clever chap and taught himself to lead glass and I just will treasure this lamp forever until it's time to pass it to my kids. Such a special thing to have in my home. 

You will notice in the corner of the picture a largish glass box on top of the sideboard. This houses 2 fire toads which are pets given to my daughters by one of my brothers. It does niggle me that I have to have this messing up my little vignette but this is a lived in home and I have to always remind myself that it can't look like a page from a magazine...its little things like this that make it ours and make it unique. 

I managed to squeeze my little electric 'log burner' in the corner, it's honestly the most realistic looking electric fire and an open fire is something I really miss so at least this gives us that cozy feeling in winter. I picked it up for £50 on ebay. Most of my furniture is second hand, I figure it's silly to pay more when you can pick up things that have so much life left in them for so cheap or for free. In fact the white armchair you just see the arm of in the previous picture is part of a set of two that I picked up for free on www.freecycle.org and they are in immaculate condition! Much less wasteful. You would not believe the stuff people throw away.  The print in this picture is Soul of the Rose by John William Waterhouse who is my absolute favourite artist. I love the pre Raphaelite brotherhood (not that he was a member but he was closely associated with it) and the arts and crafts movement and I love what they stood for, everything handmade and beautifully crafted with utmost care. I really try to emulate that in my home.

This ornament on the windowsill was made by me, it's rather 'rustic' ahem......but it represents our little family and I love it. It's made from air dry clay which is just the best thing ever and a great little activity with the kids.

So that's it, my tiny living room. I totally love it. I can't believe I found quite so much to say about it! Hope you enjoyed having a nose and I will post another room soon.  I hope it shows that no matter what your actual house is like, with a little thought you can make a home.

Stephanie xx

New Beginnings

Hello lovelies, so much has happened since I last blogged I hardly know where to begin. Shortly after my last blog post we found a small house in the nearby town that seemed to fit our criteria. When I say small, I mean SMALL. It has two ok sized bedrooms, but every other room is so tiny I had to wonder if I would be able to keep any of my existing furniture, and if schooling the children at home would turn into a hideous nightmare with us all in such close quarters. But our goal in moving has always been to minimise our expenses sufficiently that the hubby could reduce the amount he has to work and we could have more time as a family, so keeping that goal in mind we decided the positives still outweighed the negatives, and decided to go for it. As it is a housing association property, it is somewhat lacking in 'character' and for me that presented a big challenge as I feel at home in places with history and a little quirkiness; I really struggle to warm to a place that is built with only ease of maintenance and economy in mind. So all round I was feeling pretty underwhelmed by our new home. Before we could move in there was a LOT of work to be done.  The previous tenant was elderly and although a very lovely chap he appeared to have struggled with any sort of cleaning in the time he had lived there, and additionally it seems that the house was a meeting place for every cat in a ten mile radius, so you can imagine the state the place was in. I won't give you the grim details but suffice it to say that cleaning the bathroom was a low point for me. So far I realise I am painting it all rather black....but here is where the positives begin. We did not have to struggle on alone to get the place in shape (we had a deadline to move in on 1st Feb), we were completely overwhelmed by offers of help from friends, some that we hadn't seen or spoken to in a good while. We didn't have to ask, they just came and worked their socks off. This in itself made the whole process feel so worthwhile, we suddenly felt so wrapped up in love it just turned the whole thing into a really positive experience. As the walls gradually emerged clean and white, and the new wood floors went down, I began to see a potentially lovely cozy little house with a surprisingly 'cottagey' feel that I love.  I had gotten rid of 80% of my furniture and nik naks on freecycle ( which is a resource I adore....more about that another time) keeping only things truly meaningful to me, and just styling the surfaces in our new home with these precious items made it feel like ours. On Feb 1st we moved in, and guess what...I LOVE IT! It feels like home. And I have had so much fun making it pretty. I think over the coming weeks I will share with you a room at a time; look out for lots of tutorials for easy craft projects to make your house a home!

I can't say I don't miss our beautiful orchard and walled garden, and our massive vaulted loft, and all the space at our old home, but I don't miss the endless cleaning, the drafty sash windows, the damp and the sky high heating bills. I will always have fond memories of the old place, but I'm looking forward to making lots of happy memories here. And we are finding that having a clear purpose for each area of each room in the home means the space can be used efficiently and it doesn't feel cramped at all. Here are a couple of pics for you of my new home.

This place has been a blessing in another respect: a couple of weeks after we moved in my lovely hubby collapsed and was hospitalised. I won't go into details but he has an easily fixed health issue and has been on a waiting list for so long that it became life threatening. I was so angry with the nhs that this has happened. Anyway, finally things are moving ahead and he is scheduled for an op next week. It's a relief that being here means he doesn't have to worry about getting back to work but can take time to relax and recover. In the meantime I have put him on a super healthy veg based diet and I myself took the opportunity to go back to being vegan, and I feel so much better for it.

So I told you lots has changed! New home, new work situation, new diet! There are such good times just ahead of us. I'm looking forward to sharing my ideas with you, as there is still a lot to be done, and would welcome your ideas for maximising a small space. This month i'm going to focus on planning my garden, with an emphasis on making it productive in terms of healthy eating. Can't wait to show you what we have done.  For now, here is my favourite recipe for vegan chocolate and beetroot cake...its delicious and fairly healthy! Enjoy xxx

Vegan chocolate and beetroot cake.

Preheat oven to 170°

Use a measuring jug to measure your dry ingredients:

375 ml Self raising flour.
1 tsp  Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp mixed spice
3 Tablespoons Green and Blacks Organic cocoa powder.
125 ml raw grated beetroot.
1 Tbsp Soft brown sugar.

Wet ingredients:
85 ml melted coconut oil.
85 ml Black strap molasses.
170 ml Water.
1 Tbsp vanilla extract.

Combine your dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients separately. Fold the two together. Pour into a lined 20 cm cake tin and bake for approx 35 mins till risen and a skewer comes out clean from the centre.

Make your frosting: put a can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight, the cream will separate off to the top of the can. Skim this off to leave the watery milk in the bottom of the can. Add approx. 4 Tbsp of Green and Blacks Organic cocoa powder or as much as suits your taste. I usually add icing sugar gradually until I get the consistency I desire, usually around 250 ml will do. Refrigerate while your cake cools and when it's completely cold spread your frosting over the cake.

I usually find this cake tastes better after a day in an airtight tin...lovely and moist!  Enjoy xxx

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

Hi all, had such a busy day today so I'm just flaking out on the sofa with my candles lit and the fire going...Bliss!  Made a super delicious steak and ale pie for tea; at this time of year stews, pies and casseroles are the order of the day, hearty comfort food is just the ticket when it's so cold outside.  If you fancy making your own here is my mum's tried and tested recipe: 1 1/2 lbs lean diced steak, three handfuls of mushrooms roughly chopped (any will do but porcini are particularly delicious),plain flour, salt and pepper,1 bottle of 'old speckled hen' ale or similar, 2 or 3 beef stock cubes according to taste,2 strong white onions and 2 cloves of garlic, dash of worcester sauce,1 dessertspoon english mustard. Dessertspoon of cornflour.
For the pastry: 8 oz plain flour, 6 oz butter, 150ml cold water.
Method:  season the flour and toss the steak in it. Brown off the steak in a little oil in a heavy casserole pan. Add the onions, garlic and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until golden and softened. Add your ale and stock cubes. Bring to a steady simmer...not a boil...and cover. This can simmer for a minimum of 2 hours on the hob. While the filling cooks, make your pastry. This is an easy puff pastry so not too much mixing or kneading required. Cube your butter and add to your flour, mix with a knife till the butter is covered. Gradually add your cold water and mix with the knife to form a soft but not sticky dough. Roll dough out on work surface till you have a rectangle that is twice as long as it is wide. Fold the two shortest sides into the centre, turn and roll again. Repeat the process a minimum of three times. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge until needed. When your pie filling has stewed nicely for a couple of hours, mix your cornflour with a little cold water and add to the mix gradually, stirring constantly. Finally add your mustard and transfer to a deep pie dish. Roll out your pastry and drape over your pie dish. Pierce the top several times and place in the oven at 200 °c until the top of your pie is golden brown. I would love to show you a picture of the pie but unfortunately it did not last long enough to get the camera out! You will have to make do with the one remaining slice...

There is just something about the autumn that I absolutely adore, the crispness of the days, the golden quality of the light, the beautiful rusty colours in the trees and the feeling that there is no place like home.  It really does warm the old cockles to set up camp next to the fire with a glass of mulled wine by candlelight and curl up in an enormous comfy chair with a good book and a favourite blanket. My favourite snuggly quilt that I like to snuggle up with of an evening is homemade and holds many memories for me on account of it being made out of my children's old pram blankets and cot quilt. I just couldn't bring myself to give away these precious items that my babies were once wrapped in for nighttime feeding, sofa snuggling and wintery walks, so I decided that a patchwork made from all these things would be a lovely keepsake and a way to feel close to my girls as they grow up and become more independent from mum. I have never done a patchwork before so mine is really the most basic bit of sewing you could possibly come across, but the finished article is still very lovely. I basically cut out the blankets into equal sized squares. I then laid them out on the floor to decide on a pattern I liked. I decided the simplest way to make the quilt would be to have a large rectangle in the centre and use the patches as a sort of border around the edge. I started to piece the quilt together by sewing all the patches in a long row wrong sides together that would fit along the long edges of the rectangle. I then did the same for the short edges. When I had four lengths of patchwork to fit around the rectangle, I pinned them in place around it and sewed them on wrong sides together. I now had an extra large rectangle with patchwork edges. I then did the same again, creating long lengths of patchwork to fit around the edges of the rectangle and sewing them in place. I finished with an applique heart in the corner of the patchwork. I had a small cot quilt which obviously was too small to be of any use in a normal sized bed, so I used this as the centre padding for my quilt. I also had an old cream coloured heavy cotton throw that had a couple of stains in the corner, so I cut out the clean part and used this as the back of my quilt. I sewed the throw to the patchwork piece wrong sides together leaving part of the short edge open. I turned the resulting 'envelope' right side out and stuffed it with the cot quilt. I hand stitched the opening closed. To hold the quilt in place inside the cover I sewed around the whole thing about an inch in from the edge.  I am so thrilled with the result and I definitely intend to try doing a bit more patchwork as it just looks so pretty and is a really great way to upcycle any pretty fabrics of sentimental value. You could even use precious items of clothing. I'm certainly not the only one in the family who loves the quilt! Have a great evening everyone xxx

Snow globe tutorial

Hello everyone,
I can't believe it's almost officially wintertime already, but I actually rather enjoy getting snug indoors and feathering our nest ready to hibernate on the sofa with my girls. I like to change things round a little indoors when it begins to cool down to make home feel more cozy and inviting to reflect the season. This means piles of pretty blankets and handmade quilts (I shall be writing another post about quilts shortly so look out for that one), copious candles and fairy lights for softer lighting, stacks of favourite old books and pretty biscuits and snacks in kilner jars or on beautiful china plates, because, let's face it, we all like to put on a bit of extra winter insulation at this time of year :-) . The extra time spent indoors also means lots more crafting in this house, and today I wanted to share with you a simple little craft idea which adds to that magical feeling winter brings and also makes a fabulous handmade gift if you are stuck for something personal and a bit special to give. It's also a craft that the children absolutely love so that's a bonus! I have lots of little trinkets about the place that belonged to my lovely nan who passed away last year, and being of such sentimental value I wanted to make a feature of one or two of them, so after a short mooch through ideas on pinterest I decided to make a snow globe.  Snow globes always held a special intrigue for me as a child, ever since I watched Shirley Temple in Heidi receive a snow globe containing a miniature of her grandfather's house. I found it fascinating that there was this tiny little world in a flurry of snow that you held in the palm of your hand. So this was a perfect craft for me. I chose a small plastic deer for this project, which can be found everywhere in the shops around Christmas and are just deliciously kitsch. I remember being allowed to play with this one as a child and I thought it was completely gorgeous. I don't know why my nan kept it but she was a bit of a magpie and just loved animals and anything a bit cute. Anyway, to make your snow globe you will need an old jam jar and lid, perhaps a more globular shaped one would be best, some boiled cooled water and a bottle of glycerine which you can buy over the counter at Boots, some glitter and fake snow, and ribbon or any other little embellishment you may fancy. I used faux gemstones and some cute little toadstools I found at Wilkinson. You will also need a hot glue gun. You may need to begin by gluing your chosen figurine to a bottle top so that it's slightly raised up on the jar lid. You can then glue the figurine and bottle top to the inside of the jar lid. Fill your jar 3/4 full with the cooled water and a couple of tablespoons of glycerine. Add your glitter and faux snow and check that the liquid is viscous enough that the glitter etc takes a while to settle. If need be add a tad more glycerine. When you are happy with the liquid, screw the lid to the jar and hot glue around the edge. You can then add your embellishment.  I'm sure you will agree the effect is rather charming! I shall be making more of these so will post pictures of the results. Have a good evening all xx

Hi everyone, just a quick post today as I have to get on with the very important task of watching Bambi with my girls.  Love that movie.

Anyway in the interests of cozying up for our movie afternoon I've lit the candles, put the fire on and made a pot of tea.  I got some cheap fairy lights in Wilkinson this morning ( I get so many fantastic bargains in that place, only £3.50 for a string of led's) and decided to use them to finish off a little chandelier I made out of galvanised garden wire last year. I have made quite a number of these now, the design is fairly simple although you do end up with hands covered in blisters by the end of it, but I do think it's worth the pain to have something beautiful and handmade in your home. I'm not sure I could write a tutorial for one of these but I will see what I can come up with.  I used mine to glam up a lacklustre corner of my living room and I'm thrilled with the result now I've added a bit of sparkle with the lights.  You may notice a little cobweb in the picture... I'm afraid I didn't have the heart to evict it's tiny inhabitant so it will just have to stay for the time being!
Well I'm off for a lovely sofa afternoon now, Lidl is now stocking those gorgeous iced German ginger biscuits now in time for Xmas so I shall be tucking into one or two of those with my cuppa! Have a lovely afternoon x