August Styling the Seasons - Bring back summer......

  August seems to have gone in the blink of an eye this year and while it isn't my favourite month          ( July is! ) I still have a sense of sadness when it is gone. You see I absolutely love the summer - the sun, the time with the kids, holidays, wearing flip flops and faffing around without a care in the world. Now if you live in England and are reading this you will be thinking, but Katie, August was full of rain this year what are you talking about?? Well I still think of it as Summer and the minute we get into September people start talking about Autumn and god forbid Christmas!!! I'm really not an Autumnal kind of person, I hate Halloween, I loath brown and orange together and as for Christmas - well thats another blog!! Just call me Scrooge.

I apologise for my rant! I will get back to the point of my Styling the Seasons post. I am really pleased with my new little reading corner and I wanted to style it up to make the summer stay a bit longer!! When I purchased my cute little blue churn last weekend I knew this would play a part in my post as the blue is just lovely and reminds me of summer. Putting the blue and white together and bringing in the faded roses in my favourite french jug just made me want to go back on holiday and wear flip flops forever!! Lavender just makes me think of France so when I bought the french enamel bucket yesterday I knew I had to plant some up for the house. After a conversation with someone on Instagram about keeping old catalogues I decided to find out all of my old Cath Kidston ones and they are still lovely even though they are 10 years old, proof that good styling never ages. 

I suppose I'm just in denial and I suppose I will be there for a while. So while I look through all of your lovely pictures of open fires and fallen leaves spare a thought for me sat here dreaming of summer days, probably still wearing my shorts, looking at my faded tan! 

Happy Autumn everyone! x

Don't forget you can join in with #stylingtheseasons on your blog or Instagram with the lovely @lottsandlots and @aptapothecary 

Show us what that month means to you.

Pastel French Chic......

Ok, so if you follow me on Instagram or Pinterest you probably know that I have this thing for France. I have always loved it even before I actually went! Our first trip was to Banon in Provence. This was an amazing area but not to everyones taste as quite isolated, I on the other hand fell in love with all that was around me, the colours, the buildings, the people and I have never lost the appreciation for this wonderful country.

Going to France for a family holiday is great and we have done it quite a few times now, we do try to visit somewhere different each time just so we can get a different perspective on the place and see new things. The decision to visit Perpignan and the surrounding areas was purely down to weather! Being close to the border of Spain we hoped that the sun would be in abundance and we weren't disappointed.

The town we stayed at was Argeles Sur Mer, a beautiful big beach, funfairs and cycle tracks meant that we could explore easily. Whilst the Central Plage was lovely it was a little bit tacky. Not my idea of shabby chic french style - I needed shutters!!!! The village at Argeles was much more like it and not so busy, this is where we spent most evenings and we were lucky enough to find a wonderful restaurant La Gamate. I would highly recommend this for excellent fresh food and great prices. The scallops were divine.

I have to admit most of our days were spent around the pool soaking up the sun but we did a trip to the next town of Collioure, a Catalan port. Oh my goodness it was absolutely amazing. The minute the bus pulled up I was out taking photographs of the beautiful buildings. After a little bit more exploring we discovered the castle, the beach and the prettiest winding streets in all the colours of the rainbow and balconies and shutters to die for!!! I was in French amour. The town was a haunt for painters such as Mattise, Picasso and various others who all used Collioure as a source of inspiration for their paintings, its easy to see why.

My only disappointment of the whole holiday was that I didn't buy anything! Not a single thing, I was desperate for a brocante or flea market but to no avail. It seems I will have to return and ensure this time that our accommodation is better placed for spending money!!

I

Au Revoir 

jusqu'à ce que nous nous reverrons