Garden days........

I have been feeling sorry for the garden for ages now, because of our wedding last year it didn't even get a look in and every morning whilst brushing my teeth I would look out and feel sad that while the house was getting all the love the garden was neglected!!

The bottom end of the garden was an unused space, there was a step down with gravel which not only became full of weeds but also was a pretty nasty space to sit in. I had the idea to deck the whole area and I really liked the idea of having some kind of a pergola for the wisteria to wind its way around.

My lovely husband and brother in law made all of this vision possible and I love the results.

Now then the colour of said decking and pergola was a big source of confusion and brain ache. I knew I didn't want a traditional colour that many of the decking paint comes in and my new found love of grey had me thinking. I did a lot of Pinteresting which you can see on my Garden Days board and I was convinced that 2 colours of grey would be the way to go. So we went with Cuprinol Urban Slate for the fences and Cuprinol decking paint in Silver birch for deck and pergola. I love it.

After all the hard work was done ( and there was a lot of painting ) it was my favourite part - styling the decking with all my best garden bits and bobs. The step ladder was bought last year for the wedding and makes a great feature for planters. The Belfast sink has amazingly been sitting in my 

in -laws garden for years!! Can't believe I didn't steal it sooner. The crates were bought from an antiques fair last year, again they were part of my wedding styling. 

The piste de resistance I think is my new lovely potting bench from Homebase http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/timber-potting-bench-872214

A bargain and after a lick of paint, gorgeous blue, I flippin love it!!! Not sure I will actually pot on it but nevermind....

OH and my other little treat to myself for my birthday was the beautiful COX and COX outdoor lampshade. http://www.coxandcox.co.uk/battery-powered-lacy-lampshade-rose-border

I have other lights to put up but the weather has stopped play for a while. 

You have probably noticed that I will plant in anything so I like the eclectic look! 

SUNSHINE we need you!! Can't wait to get out there with a cocktail in my hand and some friends around. Hope you like it xx

Tire of London tire of life....

I have had a ridiculous love affair with London since my first trip back when I was 9. Since then I have visited countless times to visit my lovely friend Zoe.  Zoe has lived in various places from New Cross Gate to Muswell Hill to Highbury to Battersea so we have done a bit of exploring over the years and had many an adventure. She now lives in Crystal Palace.

When she text me before this trip and said what do you fancy doing I said "a bit of flea market/vintage hunting please" and we have certainly done that but little did I know that the entire weekend would have a retro vintage vibe. 

We have been to some amazing venues and I wanted to share them with you. 

On Saturday morning we headed to Kings Cross. They are really spending a lot of money rejuvenating the area and a really nice spot is Granary Square. Large old factory buildings being used for various ventures. We went to the Mac Conner illustration exhibition which was lovely to see. Amazing illustrations from the 50s, a very talented man. There are also some really nice places to eat and sit ( if it is sunny ) 

We then headed to Stoke Newington where we went to a vintage fair and then had lunch. Stokey is a lovely London village with lots of little independent shops and cafes. We took a walk up to Dalston  got a little thirsty and needed a refreshment stop! This is where we discovered Farr's School of Dancing which I have since learnt used to be a dance school in the late 30s and now has been transformed into a fab bar. Gorgeous old fixtures, theatre seats, original dance pictures and amazing wallpaper in the toilet...

Our friend Emma said we should go to Forest Hill next to go into Sylvan Post. This is another cool place which used to be the local post office. This is where you can sit in the vaults and have a drink, grab some food and look at all of the old Post Office fixtures which adorn the walls. We stayed in here for ages because it was just so chilled and friendly. Sorry I didn't take more pictures. 

Next stop over the road in Forest Hill was The Dartmouth Arms. Cosy and full of more retro finds

So after quite a heavy night and not to mention an even heavier night on Friday we needed a good breakfast inside us and no better than The Crystal Palace Market. Beautifully styled, great food and tea. What more could you want? Highly recommended. 

Oh and trip to London wouldn't be complete without the obigatory house shot. If this is your house opposite the indoor flea market in Crystal Palace then you are very lucky and I love your house! 

Did I say that I LOVE LONDON?

April Styling the Seasons = Birthdays & Blossom....

April is a really important month for me, not only is it my birthday but it's the birthday month of many of my closest friends too. They say birds of a feather flock together well we certainly have. I have been dying to do this post for days now since #stylingtheseasons announced  the #stylingspringatmine competition. The Theme is 'what does April mean to you' and in my case thats easy - Birthdays and Blossom. 

You see on my 1st birthday my lovely mum and dad decided to buy me a cherry blossom tree and plant it in the garden. That beautiful cherry blossom has now been flowering for 38 years this month and it always waits just until the 27th to completely bloom. This is why my post had to wait as long as possible because I wanted to be able to have some of my special tree in my styled surface. I stole some but its still not happy to blossom fully just yet! I also grabbed some other pink flowers from the garden too. I mean if you can't have frothy pinks and pastels at your birthday when can you?

The other thing is - my mum decided that I would have to pose for a photograph every year next to my tree, believe me this brings back some memories of standing next to a tree in the rain, in the wind and with no blossom on it at all because the sun hadn't shone enough. I went up my mum's today and routed through the attic to find some of these photographs, not easy when there are around 7000 photographs not in albums!!!! I did find some and I have included these on the wall. I do still do this every year by the way, now with my own children in the picture. 

So thank you #stylingspringatmine for making me reminisce and having a lovely afternoon gathering together my favourite April things. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

Oh and Happy Birthday to all you April beauties out there xxx

Age 4 & Age 7

Age 10

xxx

De-cluttering Good for the Soul....

The dining room has always been a bit of a nemesis of mine, its been used as a dumping ground, shoe room, bike shed and every now and again we eat in there! Although I love my little house there are times when I look around in despair and wish we could move and wish I could get rid of some of my stuff. There was essentially nothing wrong with the room but I realised yesterday that some of it has been the same for years and it was time for a change. 

I can't believe I have just put this picture on here! I hate mess but I kept thinking it has to get worse before it can get better.... If you keep telling yourself something it must be right yes? So I de cluttered and pretty much everything you can see on the table has now gone to the charity shop, so I did good for others as well as my sanity. 

The other big frustration for me in the room is the amount of brown. As you may have seen on my previous posts I have painted most of my floors in the house white but I left this one because a. its original and b. it matches the dark wood floor in the living room. So the other option was to paint the table and my lovely friend suggested I dip paint it. I had pinned some of these and thought I would give it a go. Here are the results of my hard work on Easter Sunday and not a bunny in sight! 

Pretty chuffed to be honest! 

Thrifty buys and steals....

I love a bargain, I mean who doesn't? and because I do I have managed to fill our home with many cheap and salvaged items. Its a good job that I like things slightly battered and worn because when something comes out of a skip it generally is. Not everything has been free though and I thought I would share with you some of my lucky finds. 

When we moved to this cottage we didn't have a dining table and chairs so this was one of the first buys. I was lucky enough to get the table for £15 and then the four chairs for the amazing total of £7.50! It was in our local junk shop and I have had many things from there now. The chairs have now been painted and every now and again I contemplate painting the table - but I just can't bring myself to do it. 

When the school that I worked in was being knocked down ready for a brand new building I made sure that I got first dibs on any of the old school furniture. I was delighted to get my wall display cabinet which was used to keep wool in and also a beautiful old filing cabinet. Both make great additions to the room but are also practical. After collecting all of the vintage china for our wedding last year I really couldn't part with most of it so the cabinet was perfect and FREE!

We have a small house and so everything has to fit and has to be useful, after seeing this brilliant idea on holiday for storage crates fitted to the wall I went on the hunt for some. 

If we ever end up with enough wall space I would love to recreate this look from Santorini but I love the way crates can be used for loads of other things and I'm looking forward to using my other crates in the garden this year too. My apple crates were £3 each and this one just £5. 

Now finally, we lasted about 8 years without side tables in out bedroom. Well to be honest I didn't like any of them out there and would rather go without than have boring! Then one day at an antique fair Martin spotted this for his side! £8 and I agreed.

A few months later it was my turn and I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted this beauty. No price on it and when I asked.... Is £5 ok she said? Er yes that would be great thanks!! 

So for the grand total of £46.50 I have all of this. Not bad eh? I have shoes that cost more. There are many other items in the house that were either lifted from a skip (people throw away ottomans all the time) or found for a few pounds and I would pick these over high end pieces any-day. xxx

March Styling the Seasons french spring styling.....

During the last few months Instagram has become an amazing source of inspiration for me and one the most exciting things for me to do is #stylingtheseasons 

During my recent holiday I actually lay on my sunbed thinking about what I could do for March and what part of my home could do with a little makeover. The shoe cupboard area has pretty much been the same for ages and part of what March means to me is white and fresh so this is where I started today. 

Once I started to put together all of the green and white objects I realised that It was reminding me of France so I added the canvas that I made after a trip to Paris. To my complete surprise it was 10 years ago when me and a great friend visited for a day. Yes I know it was only a day but believe me we made the most of it! The city was beautiful and I think a return trip is on the cards really soon. 

I then found out one of my most favourite books. I purchased this book about 20 years ago when I started out on my Illustration degree. Sara Midda is a brilliant illustrator and she brought out this book with beautiful watercolours of the South of France. At that point I had never been but every time we go now I think of this book. 

I replaced my wire heart that I have been collecting pretty things on with my lovely white wooden star, I think it creates a much calmer space and really works with the other objects. After picking the only snowdrops in the garden which perfectly matched my favourite cup and saucer my shoe cupboard was complete. TA-DA!  Oh and the white tulips were a Mothers Day gift to myself - perfect! Happy spring everyone, just wish the weather would hurry up and join the season. 

I love it. Hope you do too. xx