Awesome August #IBA16

Yay, I'm nominated again this year for an Amara Interior Blog award in the colour inspiration category, the link to vote for this blog is http://www.interiorblogawards.com/vote/janice-issitt-life-style/

Apologies for the sporadic posting on here, I'm doing a lot of gardening this week and at the same time decorating my bedroom and crocheting blankets, all areas of Be Home Free being explored!

As it's my birthday on the 13th (lucky for some), I will be going away on my first Canopy and Stars glamping trip, plus some beach exploration on the Norfolk coastline and a visit to the Arthur Swallow Fair in Lincoln. So I thought a mid month round up to show a little love to the entries for Be Home Free as the colours are so lush.

I will announce the overall winners on my return from swanning around, don't forget that the prizes for August are the stunning gold sequin basket from Southwood Stores and the lovely little glass vase from One World Trading.

Colour inspiration by the bucket loads with these cool blues ...

@_susandrea_    @hannie65     @bymeeni      @tesslovesflowers 

wide open spaces ... free

@gatheredthreads   @lapetitpeach  @_scarlett.I   @peggyjobbins

delight in the moment of denim and coral tones ...

@themintgardener @niki.at.the.cottage @grainandfeather @lewesmap

 Nordic and stylish, the white rooms with small pops of colour 

  @thesefourwallsblog @vanillalemoncake  
@ceramicmagpie @erikaappelstrom

There is still time to join with your photos for #Behomefree.  This is turning into a really rich gallery of atmospheric shots, giving both colour inspiration and home styling ideas, a visual treat to be sure created by you wonderful people.

See you over on instagram for daily updates and visuals from me. 

Amara Interior Blog Awards #IBA15

I can't quite believe that Ive got through to the next round of voting for an #IBA15 in the colour inspiration category. This journey of blogging came quite by accident and at a time when I really didn't think it would lead to anything.

Initially I started blogging as a place to put my photos both of my home improvements and places discovered around where I had just moved to.

It seems that whilst all around are favouring the black and white, or all white minimal home styling (which I do love and admire), I simply can't do it myself. I love collecting, family heirlooms, bits of memorabilia, just lovely stuff. I find it comforting and inspiring, my brain just seems to respond to colour and maximalism. 

So this is me asking please, that if you like any part of what I do, to vote for me in the Amara Interior Blog Awards. Im pleased that this company are sponsoring such a thing as I often purchase from them.  While I like old, there are some things that just have to be new like bedding, kitchen stuff etc.  Also its good to support clever new designers like Pip Studio and the more established companies who respond to current trends and styles (Im so pleased the fashion for white 'white goods' is over, all hail the retro styles and colours of kitchen appliances. 

Voting in the Awards starts on Monday 10th August at http://www.interiorblogawards.com/ 

This weekend Im travelling along the coast, my previous post just got me in the mood, so I told the other half, I want to see the coast and I want to see it now. 

We are fitting in some cultural stuff too, like Virginia Woolfs house, (Monks House) which I will talk more about soon. But to my surprise the lounge had walls the same colour as Ive just been painting in my kitchen. I was told that Farrow & Ball had mixed this colour especially, it is called Monks House or something similar, I will look into it more. 

Also the seaside heralded some great colours and atmosphere, the sky was so blue, it was a really hot day, the first for ages, so it made the rather horrendous car journey all worthwhile. 

All the best for now, love Janice. 

Colour Inspiration in Nature

I was wandering around the garden snipping at some flowers for vases when I had the thought that often the word 'natural' is used to describe an off white, pale beige sort of colour.  Actually, when you look at natural plant life every colour is there and in such vibrancy, particularly in countries like India where the Bouganvillea is the most dazzling pink you have ever seen.

Colour combinations are my passion, I try to find clashing colours to see how they make me feel, I constantly push the limit of experimentation to experience the emotions in colours. Does that sound a bit hippy drippy, sorry. 

Sorry about the deceased bird, and without launching into the dead parrot sketch from Monty Python, let me explain. I have four cats and live in the countryside so mice and birds are sadly par for the course. We do try to re-dress the balance by rescuing wildlife for a hospital and do our best to liberate them if they still have life.

This bird was so beautiful I just wanted to photograph it. 

The colour of these yellow and pink roses is almost sherbet like. 

This colour combination makes my mouth water, the pink rose, blue delphinium, offset by the pale turquoise/aqua of the plate. Looking at this I could see it working on a wall, the main colour being the dreamy plate colour with a stencil or wash containing the darker blue, violet, green and pinks.

All the background colours here are using Annie Sloan chalk paint which I have mixed myself and worked several colours together with water.                                                  

I would love to hear about your favourite colour combinations, I have a pinterest board called Paint Passion where I've invited some guest pinners to join me and we are picking interesting textures and moods created with paint. 

Individuality is about stepping to one side of what everyone else is doing, not playing it safe and definitely not playing by the rules, do that and you will look and become one of the sheep.  Me I'd rather be a Lion, one that wears a big purple hat. 

Great artists the world over have contributed many theories about paint, colour and nature affecting the human soul. Jeff Koons said that his father taught him to think - how do turquoise and gold make you feel, now think of how black and red make you feel. It's different right?  Hundertwasser actually believed that "The straight line leads to the downfall of humanity", that there are no straight lines in nature, only those created by man, therefore the straight line is ungodly.

So heres my advice, colour outside the lines, be a Lion not a sheep.   

Warning - by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

Blogtacular 2015

Blogtacular at The Royal Institution

It would be weird not to blog about a blogging conference, although Im not sure how interesting it is except to other bloggers. However there is always inspiration in colour and style to be found, especially when the hosts - Blogtacular - find such beautiful venues and sponsors.

Despite having worked on both Bond Street and Berkeley Square back in the 1980s for Polygram Records, I'd never set foot in the Royal Institution of Science. They have done wonders with the interior and surprised that is had such contemporary aspects.

it wasn't lost on me that it was Worldwide Knit In Public Day

A room full of blogging women (mostly) there was a lot of love. I actually wasn't surprised that there was so much support for each other in this community.  I find that women cut to the chase, it made it easy to network. So I found out lots of technical stuff about the layout of this thing and boring stuff like that. It was very useful to me and once its all instigated I hope it will make this blog more enjoyable to you the reader.

It was so comforting for me that one of the sponsors was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint as it gave me the chance to tell some of my fellow bloggers about it, we talked about paint quite a lot as a result and so Im starting my own hashtag photo community called #paintpassion.

Join me if you like, its anything thats painted - thats it, whatever has been changed due to the application of paint qualifies, from masterpieces in oils to old shed doors, pin it on pinterest (let me know if you want to join the board) tag it on instagram and maybe in the future lets do some blogs about it.

I was thrilled to meet many people, not least of all people behind Urban Jungle Bloggers.  Expect to see some posts and talk about plants, paint and colour.

And then we rounded off the day at West Elm on Tottenham Court Road, Ive bought some cute things to feature in my photos as well as some lovely cutlery. 

Prior to the conference we had a meal at a lovely restaurant called The Cha Cha Moon, just of Carnaby Street and behind Liberty. Another old hunting ground of mine and fond memories of lots of times spent with Metallica, whaaat, did you read that correctly, yes, I was their press officer and helped to break the band in Europe. If I did my job right then you might have heard of them.

My photos from Liberty London will be going on a blog I do for Love Stitch Heswall. A fabric shop with a cafe and studio, a place for my craft connections to collaborate. 

This part of London was a great trip down memory lane and looking back at those times from my new life, where I re-use my old skills but with different tools. The list of inspiring people at Blogtacular are too numerous to mention but I shall give them more time and proper links in forthcoming posts. 

Fellow Blogtaculars, please keep in touch.  Im hoping to move this blog onto its next level now that Im armed with all the info. 

Blogging its the future .... and the future is now. 

photo by Piers MacDonald for Blogtacular and Mollie Makes

Amara Interior Blog Awards

Im going to be terribly cheeky now, I don't ask for much, but Ive never ever been voted for anything and I would sincerely love to get in the running for a blog award.  

If you like the bright and colourful stuff here, then perhaps you could nominate me in the Colour Inspirations category over at Amara here   (interiorblogawards.com) 

You may have found my blog during my residency as a Painter for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  During this time I tried to push my limits of colour combinations, painting on every surface - furniture and walls to create striking looks and atmospheres. 

My home is continually morphing from one look to another depending on the season and my mood, or, if I get a new piece of furniture to play with. Styling it up seasonally with my large range of props and foraged finds from nature and different countries. Integral to this is always the colour combinations, I respond on such an emotional level to the colours around me that I can't do monochrome. So while I love to look at the clean lines and classic design shapes in a minimalist home, its not for me. When I change my walls I feel soothed, relaxed, envigorated, cheerful, because every colour sparks an emotion. 

So if you like what I do,  then pop over to the Amara nominations page at www.interiorblogawards.com and choose the category for Colour Inspiration as I feel thats my particular thing.

Many many thanks Janice