weekend reading

A couple of months ago i had the pleasure of being featured in period living in a beautiful article styled by the very talented selina lake ,anyway i think selinas style is so lovely that i had to do a weekend reading piece on her.

 She styles for magazines all over the world and has written several books  (including one of my favourites 'bazaar style), she has got a great eye and certainly made my products shine in the period living shoot.
lots of people think that being a stylist is a lovely easy fun job, but the amount of work that goes in to creating/propping and styling one shot is unbelievable , and it is quite stressful! so hats off to selina because she makes every shot look natural and beautiful. here is a selection of her work, but you can see more on her website and follow her blog here

 FAB use of colour.

and she can make products from the most ordinary of supermarkets (in this case tesco) look fab!

and selinas etsy shop selina lake living is here.
enjoy and have a good weekend x

Any one for Tea?

On our workshops one of Sarah's mantras is "Less is more" and last weekend we went to a wedding that epitomised this. A selection of huge galvanised and earthenware jugs were filled with masses of cow parsley and other wild flowers. Trestle tables were laid out on the street (which later became the dance floor) and bunting was in abundance. For the ceremony itself we sat on the long grass in their slopping garden (surrounded by bottles of prosecco) as the happy couple sat on a couple of old chairs under an apple tree and said their bit. Then we were told to help our selves to tea and scones.

Many of us along the road had been up baking dozens of scones that morning (they have to be served fresh of course) to supply the 170 odd guests. I decided that with my batch of 50 scones some jam was needed, so I took a jar of Bonne Maman and created a personalised label. It was so easy to do and would be easy to produce en masse for a huge wedding tea.

wedding madness

I've talked before about how my grandmother used to make paper mache dolls and with all the recent hype and celebrations for Wills and Kate I've been up in the attic to sort them out. According to some fusty newspaper cuttings I've found from 1980 she started making miniature dolls with her grandmother's hair pins at the age of six. She was then inspired to make a Royal display for the Queen Mother's 80th birthday celebrations.
However a couple of years later she created Prince Charles and Lady Diana and their wedding party, followed by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, there are a lot of bridesmaids in this collection. Along with Royalty my grandmother's leanings towards the eccentric and kitsch can be seen in her models of Danny La Rue, Marilyn Monroe, Liberache, oh, and Margaret Thatcher!


I love the way the faces are heavily made up because Grandma herself used to spend hours perfecting her make up each morning. When she came to stay I remember sitting on the loo in the bathroom, watching her, fascinated as she went through her daily routine which included lots of rouge, bright red lipstick (to match her infamous collection of patented red shoes) and heavy green eyeshadow. And with all that make up there was a very distinctive powdery smell.

I think I've also mentioned before how I have strong memories of sitting with my grandmother making dolls clothes so I was intrigued to observe, and probably for the first time really appreciate, the attention to detail and the amount of painstaking work that went into making these. All the costumes have been completely hand stitched and lots of the embellishments have been added by Grandma - endless sequins and tiny shiny beads.

So now that they are out of the attic I need to decide where they should go next.

Give me Merci

The extended Easter Break has come to an end and I am shattered. Not least because we had an exhausting Easter weekend in Paris, with the children. In glorious sunshine we explored the kitsch world of Euro Disney before spending a couple of days in Paris itself. Of course we admired the Eiffel Tower and wandered up and down the streets of Mont Matre but with weary children in tow it was hard to indulge ourselves too much.

However we did manage to visit Merci. A while ago it had a pop up shop in Liberty and ever since I've been desperate to visit. It was set up by the same people that owned Bon Point (one of my aspirational shops - if only I had the money to dress my children so beautifully) so I knew it had to be something that I would admire.

With the children shattered and all of us gasping for water we made a special detour to Boulevard Beaumarchais to see the shop that I have been coveting so. Before looking around we went to their Used Book Cafe. We sat at a low coffee table in a muddle of old comfy chairs under an understated chandelier and next to endless shelves of old french books, and sat envying the young chic couples enjoying their boiled eggs and toast in peace and quiet. While I had an Iced Tea to die for, hubby restored himself (a bit) on a stonkingly good cafe au lait, as our children fought over who had the most ice cubes and decided to see who could slurp their drink the loudest!

Thus partially revitalised I was let loose in the shop (while hubby entertained the children outside by the signature Fiat 500). It was a huge space full of beautiful white linens and cottons and fantastic baskets. I can best describe it as a cross between Baileys and Anthropologie everything seemed to be either natural or 'upcycled', either way it was beautiful. Unfortunately, conscious of the limits of my purse and my children's patience I came away empty handed.

However, if in Paris I would highly recommend scheduling a trip to Merci, allow yourself time to enjoy food and drink and don't take the children.

egg-stremely fascinating

Phew, we have reached the Easter Holidays. As always the final week of term was chaos with our normal hectic lifestyle being exacerbated by the need to create Easter Gardens, Easter Cakes, Easter jars filled with sweets and, of course, Easter Bonnets.

I'm afraid I tend to err away from the traditional bonnet covered with tissue paper flowers and eggs. I have to blame my mother for this. I remember the 'bonnets' she created for us as children. The Easter Bonnet parade at school was a big thing. It happened in the Town Hall and we had to walk down a cat walk one by one, like supermodels! Mum's ideas were extraordinary. There was scrambled egg on toast made out of an enormous piece of sponge painted brown, with smaller chunks of foam piled on top and painted yellow. As you walked along the toast boinged up and down. There was Humpty-Dumpty-sat-on-his-wall, that kept sliding off the head, wall and all! The enormous boiled egg, made the year my sister was born. Mum gave the job of bonnet making to our Nanny who had never used paper mache before. She covered the balloon so thickly in newspaper and floury glue that mum confesses she was rather worried I wouldn't survive as my head wobbled under the weight. And the infamous (in our family) fried egg - akin to Little Miss Splendid's hat in white and yellow. Despite Mum's originality she complained we never won, apparently it was always the Bank Manager's daughter with the traditional bonnet.


I've convinced my children it's not the winning that matters, but the taking part and they are happy to sport their own variations. Inspired by the fried egg of yesteryear our Little Girl made a dainty Fried Egg Fascinator on a paper plate (using an old fruit bag as some chic netting) and Boy took a leaf out of Mr McGregor's garden and had Peter Rabbit on a cabbage on the top of his head. They may not have won, but they were certainly easy to pick out during the Parade.

heirloom treasures

i don't know why I find embroidery a guilty pleasure, i think it is because of its time consuming nature and possibly because i was teased mercilessly by  my then boyfriend (now husband) at university for doing a degree in it! Anyway these days I rarely have time for starting a large piece, however when i think about it huge statement pieces were never really my thing, I have always loved little fragments and funny shaped things. One of my all time favourite things i have made was this luggage label piece commissioned by Jo's husband for her birthday, it has the words from one of the readings at their wedding from 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin'. Anyway I thought I would show it to you as someone was asking me the other day what we do in our Heirloom Treasures workshop, and this is the kind of thing we do. We are running a weekday one and a saturday one this time round because we had lots of requests for a weekend workshop this time, and there are a few places left on both - thursday 16th June and saturday 18th June, each day costs £50 from 10-4 and includes all materials, lovely lunch and lots of tea, coffee and homemade cakes! You will learn hand and machine techniques and take away your own heirloom treasure at the end of the day. An heirloom treasure makes a fabulous gift for a special occasion such as a wedding or a  birth, so if you have a special event coming up which you would like to mark, book a place and Jo and I will help you create something beautiful.
if you would like to see the labels close up they are on flickr here.

row, row, row your boat

Like many men my brother is impossible to buy presents for. I've generally given up opting to give him 'experiences' rather than gifts. Thus as his latest present I have organised hiring a little wooden boat (like Ratty's) for him to row along the River Avon from Bath, with his girlfriend, until he reaches a particular point, at which I shall have a traditional picnic hamper stuffed with goodies waiting for him.
But for me it is not enough just to organise these things. If you are receiving a present I think it is always nice to have something to open, and hopefully something a bit more than just an envelope with a voucher in it. Thanks to Martha Stewart and a slight bit of artistic license I came up with this paper boat. I know its a sailing boat and doesn't have oars that's the artistic license bit!


It was squished into an envelope made of the sea part of an old map and when it was VERY GENTLY (as I bossed my brother) pulled out of the envelope it popped open and in the hull lay a bottle with a message in it. My message, which was an adaptation of Row, Row, Row your Boat, explaining what the gift actually was.

pretty things

this week i have achieved a technological advance! due in no small part to a piece i read on Selina lakes blog about how to create photo collages in flickr, well you use a thing called bighugelabs and you can create lovely collages from your own images or your flickr favourites......i am sure it will be yet another thing to occupy my non existent spare time! unfortunately i seem to have lost the links back to the pages they came from! however most were from acreativemint on flickr and here is leslies lovely blog too!

lovely press

we were thrilled to find this month that we were featured in Period Living April issue. A while ago the very talented and much blogged stylist Selina Lake asked for a few bits on press loan for a feature she was working on, and here are the results. The piece is all about how favouriet/treasured possessions can inspire decorating schemes.

Its a really lovely article with delicious colours, i love the splashes of fuchsia with all of the spring greens and yellows - takes it up a level from the pedestrian 'spring greens and primrose' which seems to be in every magazine! Selina's website is here and she blogs here. she has also written two lovely books called Romantic Style and Bazaar Style, both of which are fantastic. Pop back in at the weekend for a cup of tea and see Selina featured for Weekend reading!

air your dirty laundry

Like birds on a telegraph wire I find something rather satisfying about cloths hung on a washing line. I don't mean grubby string vests on a rotary stand but linen sheets on a line between two apple trees or rustic Italian balconies laden with geraniums and laundry swaying gently in the breeze.

I also love the smell of washing dried on the line so I've been making the most of the good weather and using it as an opportunity to get on top of all my laundry. But the girls have wanted their own washing line for dolls clothes. We dug out all the tiny dolls clothes, but decided we didn't have enough so I had to make some more.



So here our little Maileg Mouse has crawled out of her match box and is wearing her new homemade-best-dress to air her dirty laundry!

All in a days work

A while ago I was given an old piece of embroidery. I love the bright, bold flowers but wasn't sure what to do with the fabric. I had in mind to make it into a cushion but wasn't really sure where it would fit into the house. That was until the sun started shining and I realised that the best place for my cushion was outdoors on a garden chair. My next problem was a lack of garden chairs. I knew exactly what I wanted to create and outdoorsy, shabby chic look so started looking for old Lloyd Loom chairs on the internet. I soon realised I wasn't going to find what I wanted as cheaply and easily as I originally thought.

However everything came together today. Following a morning stroll with a friend, dogs and our baby girls we went for a coffee in a pub garden, where I spied 2 old wicker chairs waiting to be chucked. Ok the bottoms are going but they will last this summer so, after a quick word with the landlord, we loaded them into the back of the car and took one each. The other chair was nicer but too big for the spot of garden sun I wanted it for. I took the smaller chair promptly gave it a white wash with some watered down paint, despite expecting friends to turn up for lunch in the next 10 mins. As soon as the friends had gone I rushed to rummage through my fabric cupboard for the embroidery. A few whizzes of the sewing machine, the cushion was made and my vision was realised.

Now I just need that idyllic moment, lazing in the summer sun with a cup of tea or a glass of wine, just 5 minutes will do, please.

book of thank yous

Having had a glorious day of sunshine it may seem a bit odd that my mind has gone back to Christmas. It's just that eventually I have sent off the last of our Christmas 'Thank yous'. I don't mean to sound ungrateful but from Boy's birthday thank yous from the end of November, then all the Christmas cards, the endless Christmas thank yous, swiftly followed by Baby's birthday thank yous, and 3 children who get bored of writing their name after 2 letters I have to confess that I find all the thank you letters become a bit of a chore. However I'm a true advocate of proper letters.


These days there is nothing better than a personal, hand written envelope dropping through the letter box and thank yous are always welcome (and, given the postal chaos this Christmas, one way of knowing for certain that a gift has been received!).


To alleviate the boredom I decided on a new approach. We created a little book, or rather a zine. One of my gifts had been How to Make Books by Esther K Smith where I learnt this nifty trick to make a book using one sheet of paper.*

Instead of writing 5 separate letters to family members we made one Book of Thanks Yous. Each of us having a page where we created something relevant to the gift we had received. It probably took longer than writing all the letters, but the children enjoyed it more so there was a lot less whinging involved. And hopefully the result is a thoughtful gift in return for all our Christmas goodies. Can you guess what the gifts were?



*These are the best on-line directions I can find. It may not look it but it is really simple and can provide hours of fun.