Coastal Art and Colours - Lewes to Rye

I thought I'd just do a little round up of my  latest trip to the coast with some recommendations of lovely grownup things to do if you are interested in art and interiors particularly.

We drove to Lewes as our first stop, which unfortunately didn't give us a very pleasant hotel experience, having left it a bit late to book we chose what seemed to be ok location wise but was a very run down and overpriced place. In fact the worst hotel on our trip and the most expensive, I won't name it but its a pub/inn on the high street.

The best part about this location was its proximity to three things we went to, firstly the Vintage Fair in Firle, then Monks House the former home of Virginia Woolf and then Charleston House, the home of Virginia's sister Vanessa Bell, an artist. Have you been watching the tv series about them "Life In Squares" - love in triangles. Its worth catching on iplayer to get the general feel of the stories behind this set of bohemians and is also filmed at these locations.

Monks House

The best part about Monks House for me is that you can take photos inside and their welcome to visitors is very warm. The green colour in the lounge was mixed for them by Farrow and Ball and is truly stunning. 

Monks House is not as decorative as Charleston but the garden is just as stunning and the collections inside are also lovely. 

Firle House vintage fair was glorious, mostly because we had a really sunny hot day.  I knew the traders would have great stock as lots of the vintage sellers from the south coast go across to France buying. Disaster number two came when my other half got stung by a wasp on the lip! we are calling it wasp gate. The traders there were so kind, they found him some medicine and remedies. Naturally I picked up a few cute things as souvenirs and then we headed down to the coast to Eastbourne. 

This stretch of the coast is classic British and really quite smart and clean. We booked a comfortable hotel on the beach front, one of the old Victorian buildings. Laying in bed listening to the sea and seagulls was so lovely. What else should you do there? well buy some fish and chips and eat them on the pier of course.

We didn't do so much in Eastbourne, just sat on the beach and collected shells, soaking up the sun and fresh air.

From there we tried to stick to a coast road and in my search for a nice cappuccino we stumbled across the De La Warr Pavillion which is showing an exhibition of Bridget Riley paintings. I have wanted to see her work up close for so many years, I couldn't believe it! The exhibition runs to the 6th September with information here http://www.dlwp.com/event/bridget-riley-the-curve-paintings the cafe was also very nice so that was a totally unexpected bonus. 

Style guru Jeska at Lobster and Swan gave me some recommendations for shops she thought I would like in Hastings and thank goodness she did as I don't think we would have found them. Theres an amazing selection of vintage shops in lovely old buildings in the old town near George Street. The High Street and Post Office Passage will keep you amused all day exploring if you like a rummage. Butlers Emporium was recommended to me and it is really beautifully curated. I bought a few lovely things which will be featuring in my photos soon. We ate in Nazar a Turkish restaurant with very good food, its on Robertson Passage. We love lots of 'picky bits' so a Meze is perfect for us, me who grazes and the other half who eats like a horse. 

It was quite sad to say goodbye to Hastings, I could have done with another day there but Dungeness was calling. Since I worked at Mute Records with musicians who put music to Derek Jarman's films, I have wanted to visit his cottage and garden. It is so lucky for us that it is still possible to just drive up to the cottage and wander round, but please respect the occupiers. The cottage is called Prospect Cottage and you can see its location on google maps.

I read that Derek Jarman chose the yellow of the windows to reflect the yellow in the plants which grow there. Please do some research before you go so that you can better understand about the planting and how the garden grew into an art work organically.

We lost the good weather but somehow grey and dreary does really suit the area of Dungeness, a truly strange place.  Theres a toy train which the school children still catch, but we didn't actually ride on it ourselves. 

Our hotel in Rye was such a joy after a windy drizzly day. Perfectly located and with lovely decoration, the Hope Anchor was great value for money with very good breakfasts. Just round the corner from great shops and beautiful old winding cobbled streets. Mermaid Street has been used in so many films, transporting you back with buildings from the 1400's.  The Mermaid Inn is on my bucket list of places to stay, maybe next time, its one of Englands oldest Inns having been rebuilt in 1420.  

The George and The Standard are great places to eat, but you need to book. A lovely combination of interior design shops and antiques. It is good for mens clothes which is unusual. Rye is definitely another place to go back to and quite magical.

Tomorrow I pop over to Amsterdam to visit an old friend. Rosey is a very stylish girl and Im sure I will have some lovely photos of her cool house to share.  Have a lovely weekend everyone, and please don't forget to vote for me in the Amara Awards the link is here :
http://www.interiorblogawards.com/vote/janice-issitt-life-style/

Your support is really appreciated. 

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 

Styling The Seasons June part one

Another month and the challenge moves on to see how to represent the change in seasons. It's only the beginning of June so I feel I may have another Styling The Seasons photo or two in me for later in the month.  For now though, I have a few looks which seem to represent how I feel at the beginning of this month. June.

Every season I have a favourite flower, one that I think, yes, this is my favourite of them all. So when I saw this gigantic foxglove in the hedgerow, I simply had to bring it home. I have always loved foxgloves, there's something fairy like about them, very unconventional in their blossoms.

Very close by were some giant poppies, so they came home too.

For some reason we expect that as soon as June starts the weather should be good. In the UK we never learn. So far, we have had some good days, and we have also had some freakishly bad days too, without any rhyme or reason.

Ive done a bit of decorating and changing things around, so decided to do away with the dark red walls which I painted for Christmas and go back to some neutrals again, using Annie Sloan Chalk Paints of course. 

Styling The Seasons this month of June also has a sponsor, that being the incredibly stylish furniture company Loaf  so a big thank you to them for spurring us on to create some images that represent the month.  As we have actually had a hail storm at the end of May, terrible gail force winds and bright clear hot sun shiney days, all in short succession, I decided to keep the ice skates hanging on their hook next to my sun hat as a joke.  (I actually bought these in a Swedish charity shop just because they are cute despite being a bit heavy to bring back.

This time next week I will have just returned from Blogtacular and Ive also got some fun photos to do featuring cushions and cocktail glasses #lovemyjob !

At Mine

This is likely to the the first of many posts about a new on-line community called "at(mine)" because Im really quite excited about it.

Previously the At Mine website was an invite only place where members post snapshots of their own homes and tag the sources of their style. It gives an insight into people and the brands they use to style their own homes.

The idea is great for people like me who seek inspiration for ideas and also style to inspire other people with how their homes look.
My profile is http://www.atmine.com/janice_issitt if you click on this you may be asked to sign up first. 

my lounge sofa with skulls from Brocant Antique and other globally collected items

Ive photographed a few homes of friends and always felt they should be sharing their style as each is different and unique, with some areas of common interests, but the finished look is vastly different.


I took these photos at my friend Shehla's house, she cleverly mixes antique Indian pieces with French and Swedish styles. Shehla has a lovely collection of different china, like Pip Studio and Burleigh.

Shehla has several old Indian doors which have been fitted into her home in the UK

A lovely French vintage feel to Shehla's utility area. Moroccan earthenware sits completely comfortably
with French enamelware. 

Shehla's coffee table is an old Indian cart. The candle stand is from Holy Cow Home 

The thing thats ties us together, as enthusiasts for how our homes look, is finding unique and unusual pieces, and because we take such pride in putting the look together, this site will be the perfect showcase for our talents.

The site launched to the public a few days ago so please go and check it out, there are also categories for Styling The Seasons and Urban Jungle Bloggers. If you want to snoop into other peoples homes then this is the place for you. 

Also find me and At Mine on Instagram. 

Holy Cow !!! is H.O.M.E.

Recently I've been following my passion for Antique eastern furniture and sourcing with my friends for a new shop opening soon in Aylesbury Bucks. The shop will sell everything that is beautiful for your home, its fair trade, recycled and re-purposed with a super cool colonial scandi shabby edge. Its fusion man !

Hope you like my photos and styling and if you find Holy Cow Home on facebook you can arrange to purchase some of these items for yourself.  I shall be inviting you all to the shop opening as well.

Vintage Circus Costumes and Clowns

The best thing about my life is that no two days are the same, despite my best efforts to just hibernate in the warm and take photos in my home studio, the unusual offer seems to haunt me like a shadow... and here's just one such instance.

I met the wonderful Ruth from Admiral Costumes on a photo shoot which I helped to style, Ruth had just taken over an established costume hire company not far from me up the country roads.

Ruth had come across a fabulous selection of genuine vintage circus costumes, and thought I might like to have fun with them. When finally we found a young lady small enough to fit into them, I set about building a little set and rummaging around for props. The final part of the jigsaw was finding that our student model Charlotte was best friends with another young lady who is training to be a makeup artist, the girls were fabulous, they really entered into the spirit of it. 

Ruth has been looking into the different types of clowns and we took some ideas from these.

There are four types of clown, there's Auguste who is the fool or joker, he falls over with his big shoes on and has makeup with white round the mouth and eyes which is outlined in black.

Hobo clown is a happy go lucky fellow who is always looking for work, typically he wears a bowler hat and tramp clothing, he has a dirty face due to his constant travelling.

Harlequin clown originated in France and wears an outfit made from triangles of coloured fabric with a ruff at the neck. Harlequin is nimble and performs stunts and acrobatics.

The Pierrot clown wears distinctive black and white and is known for mime.  He is a melancholy dreamer and hides his pain from his audience but reveals only a single tear drop on his cheek, under his eye.

We combined some of these clown ideas to style the showgirl outfits, the sort a bear-back rider would wear and another like a Jeanie.

With the addition of a few feminine touches like ballet shoes and veils, we twisted the idea from a male image to a female performer, albeit a rather sinister one, but I can't help but feel that clowns are a bit scary anyway. 

You can hire any of these items or some just like it from Admiral Costumes. Kerri Victoria Pocknell our MUA can be found through facebook or myself.  Big thanks to Charlotte our model too. 

Send in the clowns, don't worry, they're here...