September Sponsors #behomefree

Already the gallery for BeHomeFree is filling up for September over on instagram and I'm pleased to announce that this month there will again be a prize for the chosen photo.  Annie Sloan has donated a one litre tin of decorative Chalk Paint in the colour of your choice.

Colour inspiration comes from all around us which can be seen so perfectly in these inspiring photos.  As August drew to an end there was a flurry of last minute travel, myself included, before the Autumn sets in.  Right now we can see a mixture of summer and autumn hues as the season creeps up on us. 

I love to mix my own colours with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, they are perfect for this, my palette at the moment features whites with tones of bleached driftwood, pops of pale pink and vibrant cranberry with some hints of cool aqua and french linen.  You can see mood boards over on my Pinterest page which also often leads you to the places where the pieces are sold.

Here are some of my photos from this last few weeks, and some from the #behomefree gallery to show how colours can sit together. If it works in nature it can work in your home.

I love the exuberance of these ladies, out there soaking up the last bit of summer ..

@_marzie @_scarlett.l @kayleighawright @_susandrea_

@_mandydearest @niki.at.the.cottage @rebecca.kathryn @frontfortyfarm

@melissacondotta @aplayfulday

Be Home Free definitely meant outdoors this last month but I feel we will probably soon turn to the cozy nooks, firesides and candlelit evenings.  Whatever it means to you please keep tagging and joining with the growing community of colour captures. If you get the chance please also let me know what colour you would choose from the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint range and what you would paint with it.

Winner will be announced at the end of the month.
Happy snapping.

August Be Home Free Winners

As every week goes by the BeHomeFree gallery fills up with more and more incredible images. The task of whittling it down becomes harder with the passing days and that is a good thing.  Thank you to everyone who uses the hashtag, it is growing into a really lovely gallery.  

These four remind me of the my outdoor adventures this month, the natural colours and sense of fresh air and sunshine. 

@melindajk @sigridsminde @niki.at.the.cottage @christinagreve

Our sponsors for this month have been One World Trading who are gifting a vase, and the winner for this prize is @justjane17 whose washing blowing on the line says all there is about summer days.

Southwood Stores have also offered to be a sponsor with their glitzy sequined basket. And the winner of this will be Dorte of @lewesmap for this quiet and still image in a church, with lovely soft light and a sense of calm.  I really love exploring inside churches and around the graveyards, this photo speaks of the cool air and special smells of old churches. Perhaps it is also a reminder that children don't always need plastic entertainment.

Can Jane and Dorte please message me through instagram to arrange delivery of your gift from Be Home Free, One World Trading and Southwood Stores. 

Next month's sponsors will be announced at the beginning of September when I will also be unveiling the work I've been doing to change my bedroom around, which during this mini heatwave has been quite a task as the paint is drying really fast.

Please continue to join with the hashtag with a chance to win. Many thanks to each and everyone who has contributed so far. 

Love and peas ... Janice

canopy and shooting stars

My first ever experience of camping, or should we say, glamping, has got me hooked. I said to the Other Half as we left, 'let's do this every weekend', and before we knew it, I have booked us to stay in a Shepherds Hut in a couple of weeks time.   

It was my birthday recently and I always book for us to go somewhere for a little explore.  I haven't been along the Norfolk coastline before and I yearn for the seaside all summer long, as we are so far inland in Bucks. Just recently my blogging pals have been going away with Canopy And Stars, their photos are always fabulous and atmospheric so I decided to check it out for myself. This company hand picks special places, with an Eco ethos and only certain kinds of accommodation.  If you look at the website you will be spoilt for choice, and if, like me, you have never really loved the idea of conventional camping, this could be for you.

Our Yurt at Burlingham was super cute, a proper bed, carpet,sofa, a wood burner inside, and all the cutlery and crockery you would need. They even supplied his and hers crocs for wandering around outside. The Yurt is solar powered and has lights and a chandelier. At night we lit it up with tea lights and listened to the radio. We lit fires in the pit, cooked on the little barbecue and made tea with an old fashioned whistling kettle.  We did cheat a little and bought some ready made salad bits from M&S to go with our grilled haloumi and sausages.

Situated at the bottom of a long garden, in woods where you could forage for your own fuel, we even had some visitors like squirrels and pheasants. It is also quite common for deer to come and have a nosey around. The loo/shower is in a little red shepherds hut, with hot water and a composting toilet, although we were encouraged to pee outside (as these composting loos don't like too much liquid) which we embraced whole heartedly!

My birthday always falls at the time of the Perseides meteor shower, and I desperately wanted to go somewhere with no light pollution to watch it ever night. When we went to bed on the first night there was cloud cover but something woke me at 3am so I went outside and the sky was clear and full of stars, after a few minutes I saw a shooting star so I woke up the OH (who wasn't too pleased) and we sat and watched the sky counting all the shooting stars we saw. It was truly magical. 

Our host Chris has left us a map of how to find a beach where there is a seal colony. Horsey was incredible, dunes and empty sands stretched for miles and as we walked along the dune path we could see the seals heads bobbing in the surf. 

As wildlife rescuers we are always most interested in seeing different animals in their natural habitat. I had never seen Seals before and didn't even realise we had them in the UK (other than in zoos).  I believe that sometimes they come to the shoreline but we were happy watching them play on a sand bank not far away. The year of wild was truly notching up some beautiful memories. 

Keen to get back to our yurt with some food for the bbq we did pop along to Hemsby and Great Yarmouth just to see what it was like. Not for me I'm afraid with it's amusement arcades and fun fair rides.

We relaxed during the evenings by the fireside, I took my crochet so I could make more blankets for the '60 Million Trebles' charity project. I styled our table with some of the lovely things I had bought the day before at Lincoln Antiques Fair. My new linen smock, Ian's jumper and the loaned crocs were pulled into my Yurt outfit for camp fire and foraging.

I can't wait to do this again, I took to it like a duck to water, or should I say a seal to water. Now looking forward to the Shepherds Hut in Sussex later this month.  Variety is the spice of life, so unless you live in a Yurt I would say to give it a go, it is quite romantic.  If you find it hard to sit still for too long then maybe take some knitting or other activity.  My OH wished he had taken his drum sticks and practice pad as he was missing having something to do with his hands.  Such a shame he forgot them ...

The link for this yurt is 

http://www.canopyandstars.co.uk/britain/england/norfolk/burlingham-hall/burlingham-yurt 

Lincoln Antiques Fair

Nothing could prepare us for the enormity of the Arthur Swallow Fair at Lincoln Show Ground.  Having visited the small and intimate one at Loseley, I imagined something similar, and actually went to see some of the same sellers as I wanted more fabulous French finds.

This show is humungous.  We got caught in traffic so arrived a few hours later than planned, which meant the pressure was on to get all around the fair.  Upon arrival we were utterly gobsmacked, I think myself and Tamsyn must have said "oh my God" about fifty times before we decided to sit and have a bacon butty to calm us down.  

So prepare yourself if you visit, make a day of it and expect to do a lot of walking. One could easily make it a two day visit.  

Whatever you are looking for there will not just be one or two of that unusual thing, but tens and twenties of them.  Some sellers having travelled from France and Germany just had a van full of one type of antique.  It was simply overwhelming.

Take a friend and lots of spare bags to carry all your goodies, the prices are so good you won't be able to resist. It's good to have in your mind the price you would normally pay for vintage items so that you recognise a bargain, but just expect that the sellers here are very reasonable as they sell to trade.  

While I would suggest having a list of what you are trying to find, so that you can stay focused, I will also contradict myself by saying, 'keep an open mind' as you simply cannot predict what you will come across.  And then, just when you think that you have covered the enormous field, you find another one at the end! I nearly collapsed!

My photos here are a bit random, and taken last minute as I was totally distracted but I hope will at least give you a taste of the size and quality of this fair. 

This weekend I was staying in a Canopy & Stars Yurt in Norfolk, near to where Tamsyn Morgans lives, so she hopped on board for the trip. I was so pleased she could make it, sometimes you need a girlfriend to help you decide.  Having said that, my Other Half found a vintage piece of musical equipment which he bought for under 15 and is worth 250, so he was a bit smug there.

The next Lincoln show is in October, and we decided to treat this as a preliminary reccy, so we could save up and return with a plan. 

My reason for going was to track down the wonderful Gaelle of GZ Badboys (thats her dogs), and pick up some more french linens.  I will be doing a totally separate post about these and the other decorative items I found.  I'm sure Tamsyn will also be posting her pics of the lovely glass kilner jars, galvanized dolly tub and victorian tile, styled to perfection I expect.  

For more fairs like this simply check the Arthur Swallow website, they seem to have built a very good list of dealers from all over Europe.  Happy hunting.  

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. 

August Sponsors

If you have signed up to my newsletter then you will already had an advance preview of this months prizes, thank you for joining up.  

The #BeHomeFree tag is picking up some stunning photos, Im so happy to have found so many new accounts with beautiful feeds to inspire me. 

As I've been writing about baskets everywhere, here, on Pinterest and on At Mine, I thought it would be great to be able to give one away this month.  So I cheekily asked Hayley at Southwood Stores if I could have one of her best sellers, the big basket with gold sequins.

Also this month I have been styling some looks for a vase that was sent to me from One World Trading, so it seemed good timing to gift a vase as there are so many flowers to be snipped from the garden and even growing wild. Most of my photos will have flowers in them somewhere, their colours and styles setting the tone and mood.

Both of these pieces are perfect for summer home styling, the basket is very versatile, either for plants or as a tidy place for blankets.

I like the shape of this vase as it is wide at the neck but just the right size opening to hold a posy in place, it is quite a classic shape, working with both vintage and traditional.

Please join me again this month for #BeHomeFree showing me your summer photos of home, away and moments. 

If you simply can't wait to get hold of one of these then please check out Southwood Stores and One World Trading where you can find them.  Good luck, have a lovely summer holiday.

This blog has been shortlisted for an #IBA16 award, please vote for me by clicking on this link 

http://www.interiorblogawards.com/vote/janice-issitt-life-style/

July Top Twenty

wow, I am humbled by the amount of entries in # Be Home Free this month, only the second month and already over 1,000 posts on Instagram. I truly am thankful to everyone who entered.

we had the botanicals ...

@melindajk @lemon_house_life @ttsbie @niki.at.the.cottage

the moody interiors 

@belovelivephotography @vanasch_designs @nina_nixon @fleaandbear

fresh and floral 

@joestpierre @birdsforme @bumpkinbroke @fromsalzburgwithlove

the atmospheric

 @ helena.moore   @hildemork78   @stylonylon     @theforagedlife

and the adventurous

@geoffreyandgrace @oldfashionedsus @withjustine    @mafyno

and if I could come round with a cup of coffee for everyone of you I would happily do it, but I could only choose two winners.

The winner of the copper tray from Mia Fleur Home is .... Taking A Moment In Time ... this picture of upturned milk churns just makes me smile, for no other reason, it's like a symbol of liberty and freedom for the holidays and I just love it 

and the winner of the glass goblets by Katie Alice is this photo by @featherandwild which just has such beautiful soft light, I just kept going back to it over and over again. 

The prizes for next month will be announced in a few days, there are two good ones, so keep your eyes peeled on instagram and here.

Can Taking A Moment In Time (Natasha) and Feather and Wild (Victoria) please get in contact with me to arrange delivery of your prizes. 

This blog has been shortlisted for an #IBA16 award, please vote for me by clicking on this link 

http://www.interiorblogawards.com/vote/janice-issitt-life-style/

Be Home Free Community

Thank you all so much for taking the time to join my hashtag community - Be Home Free. 

If you are still wondering what it is well - it's all about showing a comfortable corner, a relaxing nook, an area in the home which you have styled and decorated to your own specific taste. Somewhere that calms and comforts, eases away the stress and feeds our soul.  

So what are my reasons for forming this (other than to have a nosey around your homes)? 

I'm not sure if it's because I'm a Leo, but I have always had the desire and need for beautiful surroundings. Even when that was difficult to achieve, due to circumstances, I would get a small bunch of flowers, scented candle, some favourite pictures and books, a throw or blanket and try to set up 'my place'.  

My earliest memory of loving interior/home stores was when a cool hippy shop opened in my home town, it was called something like Annikas, and had all the latest 1970's trends which were Swedish inspired. I talked my Dad into buying a mirror with an Alphonse Mucha lady on the surface of the glass, it hung in the hallway until he passed away.  I still have it. 

It was the early 70's and I didn't have a home of my own, I had a bedroom in my parents house which I most certainly was not allowed to decorate (seriously, most kids did not choose their own decor or clothes back then).  But by hook or by crook I got a cane shelf which I added nick-nacks to and I styled up my melamine dressing table.  

The thought process behind my hashtag #BeHomeFree is to nurture that instinct and for anyone else with a similar ethos, to share and be part of a bigger community. 

Then I got to thinking more about community, I for one, sit alone most days doing my photos and editing so this year I'm making a big effort to get out and do stuff. 

So does it matter what the community is about or is it just the sense of belonging and sharing an interest? Sometimes it doesn't matter, it is simply a break from the daily grind, a few minutes to stop and say hi to some other people. How many people have joined book clubs just to sit and have coffee and cake with other humans?, a lot of people I reckon.

My choice for a 'home decorating' related hashtag was because that's what makes my brain the happiest. Although studies and common sense tell us that objects are not the key to a fulfilled life I would like to balance that with the thought that for some people aesthetics are very important. Whether you are a minimalist or a maximalist, there is an aesthetic to your surroundings and homes. Therefore, visually the things around us are important to our well being. To surround yourself with beauty is to love yourself.

We all look at things differently depending on our areas of interest and expertise, I recently had a consultation with a cosmetic surgeon who explained that faces are his thing, he can spot a dodgy face lift on even the most famous celebrities because that is what his eye is trained to do.  He then said to me, "I expect you notice the way places are decorated before anything else" and I said "yes, the wallpaper in here is bloody atrocious" (that actually really happened by the way, so more about the face lift another time).

So my point is, that for me beautiful surroundings are very important (and not forgetting that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course). We can't dismiss that how things look affects our moods and emotions.  

I take interior design pretty seriously but I don't think you need a mansion with original features to create an amazing space, or that you are required to produce something that's straight out of a catalogue. You only need to please yourself as it's part of the jigsaw of who you are. 

My home would drive some people completely round the twist!

It would be great if you could take a few minutes to join in when you can, and even better if you enjoy it as much as I do. And if you like to look at how real homes are decorated then you could also have a look at 'At Mine'. This month they have launched Style Stories where some of us early members are curating collections of photos on topics of our choosing. It's a brilliant place to get ideas and it's full of personality.

The prizes for July have been chosen with a view to dining and making an outdoor area on the warm days (still praying for some of those). The copper tray is from Mia Fleur Home and the chunky glass goblets from Katie Alice, big thanks to these lovely businesses for the sponsorship. I will be sharing my favourites here and on Instagram.

Do you set up a little area outside your back door?, I often do when the weather permits, well, if we get a chance to do that this month I would love to see it. Let's hope we don't have to resort to photos of blankets and fires, unless they are on the beach.