Styling The Season for July

At the beginning of the month I was taking the inside out, but mostly I've been bringing the outside in.  Partly due to the fact that I love weathered patina on metal and wood, the rust and peeling paint being an attractive quality to me.  Also flowers, my word, I have so many in the home at the moment, either picked from the garden or simply ones that Ive fallen in love with at the florist. A friend came round yesterday with her daughter who described my home as like a fairy house, full of little vases of flowers. They couldn't believe the giant alliums were real.

The wrapping paper above is printed from my own photos by Wrap Me.

My enormous bag from The Future Kept comes in very handy for picnics as you can fit so much in it and I do like my home comforts. For me summer styling always has to has hints of Morocco and India too.

This table was bought with the french metal chairs and despite being re-painted by myself a few times in rust proof enamel paint, the layers have chipped and lifted. I will probably have to rub it down to protect it from the rust, another garden related job to add to the every growing list.  It's so hard keeping up with the gardening, I wish we were as successful with plants as we are with weeds.

The other piece of furniture that has lived outside but is now inside again is my coffee table. We found this in a skip with its legs broken and so fixed it up and painted it. However the paint peeled off after being outside and I love it even more now. 

As someone who can't cook Im most happy in warm weather as I enjoy raw food so much more.

If you like some of the lovely things in these photos you can find them as follows : Big bag on hook - The Future Kept. Antique suzani embroidered throw is from Holy Cow Home, together with the distressed blue hook rack, Moroccan light shade, Umbrella, candlestick and photo frames. The green plate is Anthropologie and the brass handled knife from West Elm. Flowers from my local florist Wild Orchid in Leighton Buzzard. 

Im looking forward to August as it's my birthday and also because Im visiting Amsterdam to see my old friend Rosey, but I would say that July has been a strange and beautiful month for many reasons. I have taken part in a fun present swap organised by Capture By Lucy and we all open our Summer Time Surprise gifts on the 26th, the contents of which are sure to be shared here and instagram. See you next week.  

Inside Out

Yay, we have some summer here in the UK, at least a whole weeks worth so far! It takes a lot to get me out of the house, so when I venture forth I like to take a few luxuries with me, even if its only into my own garden.  I have a lot of old furniture thats been used as props for photos, or projects and such. Some of it ends up in the garden shed as we can't bear to part with it, one such item being a single wooden bed that I bought on e-bay.

This was such a good purchase as it's assembled in minutes, just slotting pieces of wood together and laying the slats down, when it's taken apart it hardly takes up any space. And so, we set it up in a cool spot in the garden.

cushions and scarves are from Van Asch

We had some old foam in the shed as well so used that as the mattress and then took a lovely Kantha quilt and cushions out from the house.

Another old prop was the screen which I use as backdrops in photos, painting it different colours, this one has some stencilling on that I did a while back. 

I also made a wig-wam for myself, to keep the sun off and for my blind cat Coco to get cool in. I started off by pegging Kantha quilts to the washing line and then giving structure with bamboo poles and bits of wood we had lying around.  We keep a couple of old rugs in the shed as well for a ground covering.

By the evening we had got quite into the spirit of things, and took some chairs out to the paddock at the end of the garden.  To add to the fun my other half took some light shades out and hung them in the trees.

There are alpacas at the bottom of the garden, I think you can just see them, they are very curious creatures. We sat and watched them from our garden palace.

Another favourite spot for us is the lavender farm at Hitchin. We took half the house with us and bought food from their cafe as they do such nice platters.

All these items are from Holy Cow Home 

enormous bag from The Future Kept

All items from Holy Cow Home

cushions from Van Asch, quilt mug and plates from Holy Cow Home

At Hitchen Lavender you pay 4.50 each to go into the lavender fields and pick your own, the sound of buzzing bees is hypnotic. 

There are open air film showings in August so we shall hopefully return, maybe for my birthday.

Have a lovely time wherever you are. 

Urban Jungle Bloggers and Woven Wall Hangings

Im really quite excited at the moment by two elements of interior styling and the use of colour. One of these elements is the re-discovery of house plants through the network of Urban Jungle Bloggers and the other is woven wall hangings.

If you are wondering what Urban Jungle Bloggers is all about then let me give you an idea here.  Set up by two lovely souls, Igor and Judith, they have brought an online community together of people who love house plants.  At first I thought it was for people living in the city but now I've met Igor and Judith I realise its for everyone who likes plants in their home and who like to style with them. 

As I've mentioned before, I attended a blogging conference a few weeks ago, primarily to meet in person the people behind some of the most inspiring things on the internet.  Bloggers are people who often are working in complete isolation and this can become far too inward looking if you're not careful. So when you meet the creators of a cool online community and they are really nice with a great philosophy and attitude, its a bonus for sure.

Having travelled extensively when I was in the music business, to over 42 countries around the globe, you find that some nations have very cool attitudes to life and I think that this is exuded by Igor and Judith in bucket loads. Their 'no rules' approach and philosophy is so rare these days, the idea to facilitate the meeting (virtually) of like minded people for no financial reason is a Karma which will return to them Im sure. This is also something I would love to emulate in my #paintpassion community.

Setting a theme monthly to their house plant stylings Im delighted to say that in my first month they have chosen my area - colour - to be the topic, giving it the hashtag #plantcolorpop (and don't forget its the American spelling of color not the English spelling - Colour.

Since working with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint(tm)for Painters In Residence, Ive continued to explore this paints properties and abilities. Becoming more and more free with my approach I've been developing a technique of working with a wet brush and just dipping the same brush into different colours, then working it with water and so on, to blend and wash.  Ive chosen to do this on some back boards as a way to practice but Im intending to expand onto canvases too.

The backboards give me the possibilities to try out colour combinations and see how they work with different objects on and around them.  So to my third element here, the woven wall hanging.

I studied textile and embroidery for A level in the late 1970's, so the revival of the this type of wall hanging has amused me enormously. Its been a right trip (in the hippy sense of the word) to pick it up again and be able to play around with it for interior styling. 

Last weekend I went to Yarnspiration2015, a day of workshops and socialising for people who love their yarns, like alcoholics anonymous for wool hoarders - where do you keep your hidden stash?, did you secretly spend the housekeeping on cashmere and silk yarn, oh the confessions.  Hello my name is Janice and Im a yarnoholic.

It's Fibre East at the end of July, a big yarn related show which I shall be popping along to and reporting back on.  Its my nearest big wool show, in Ampthill. 

Anyway, back to the wall hangings, Ive tried two on the small basic hand loom and one utilising a tapestry frame.  I don't want to give a tutorial here yet until I feel Ive tried out a few things and can tell you the do's and don't from first hand experience. Like anything, practice makes perfect so I shall practice a bit more and let you know.  

You can find Urban Jungle Bloggers here and I'd put money on it that after looking you will be rushing off to the garden centre.

Im back off to do some more weaving and paint sploshing now, please tag me and #paintpassion so I can see what you have been up to. 

Styling The Seasons for June part 2

It's been a beautiful but very sad month.  The world lost a great musician and personal friend, a great father and and inspirational spirit.

I don't often get too personal, try to keep it light hearted, but I noticed a melancholy tone to my work this month and lots of my styling has been influenced by this event. 

We will be saying goodbye in early July at a funeral in the woods, a no black party to celebrate a life well lived. 

Roses from my garden and some pieces I made myself.

I went to Yarnspiration2015, a beautifully organised event, and an extremely generous host, the goody bag was superb.

I took two classes, the morning was weaving and the afternoon was mixed media collage.

I will be doing a photo tutorial about the weaving because I really want to do more and explore its possibilities.

Here are my two pieces of work together, the mixed media collage featuring music score, old letters, dried flowers, fabric and keys.
Our teacher was Sarah Notes who you really should go and follow on Instagram as her work is very unique and she has a style of her own.

Over on the At Mine site they have categories for Styling The Seasons and for Urban Jungle Bloggers, great places to see more styling ideas.  

I've decided to create a community for paint lovers, or colour lovers I guess, whatever has been transformed by paint can be tagged with #paintpassion

If you have photos of something you have done with paint then please add that hashtag so I can find it. 

Elderflower Cocktails with Rose & Grey

It's a bit of a joke, me doing anything related to food or drink, if you know me then you already realise that my favourite place is not the kitchen.  Probably the only person worse than me in the food making department is my Other Half, or OH as I call him. He actually believes ketchup to be a culinary necessity, on everything, yes everything.  Me, Im a Waitrose, M&S ready meal kinda girl, heck, they've gone to all that trouble preparing a meal for me it would be rude not to.

But every few years I venture into the "I really should have a go at that" frame of mind.  So far chutney, jam and cider have all been tackled. The chutney was ok but the fumes from the boiling vinegar rendered me and all the cats blinking for hours. 

There is an elderberry bush growing next to my house in the alleyway. Every year I see it flower and think I should do something with them, so when Emma at "A Quiet Style" put up her recipe I was galvanized into action.

The recipe requires: About 25 flower heads, two unwaxed lemons, 450g sugar, 500ml water

Step One: Cut the heads off the bush, trying not to get stung by nettles, bitten by insects or run-over by traffic. If you did it without incident - well done. 

Step Two: Read the recipe again. Chanel your inner Emma. 

Step Three: remove the flowers from the stalks, Emma recommended to kinda rub them between your fingers, this seemed to work. Success.

Step Four : Get the scales down from the top shelf and dust off the cobwebs.  Then weigh some sugar. I doubled the amount of all the ingredients. 

Step Five: Find a big metal pan to boil up the sugar and water, being careful to pick off the encrusted chutney that was stuck to the bottom from the last time you used it about four years ago.

Bizarely, whilst I don't cook, I do have lots of gadgets knocking about, all bought with good intentions, like this lemon zester, my OH doesn't even know what it is, sometimes I wave shaped objects at him and get him to guess what they are used for.

Step Six: once finished taunting the OH let the boiled water and sugar cool down, the sugar should be all dissolved. Once cool, add sliced lemons and the elder flowers, some recipes also say add a bit of zest.  I did this because I wanted to use the zester tool thing.

Step Seven : try to find a place in the fridge to put the infusing mixture, leave it for a few days. 

Step Eight : go and have a cocktail.

I think the last time I wrote about making a comsumable, it was trying to use all our apples to make Cider.  I don't know what I did wrong but it was horrible.  Oh, yes I also made Sloe Gin and Vodka, that is all still sitting in the utility area waiting for some unsuspecting person to try it. The photographer from Homes & Antiques spotted it and I sent her home with a mini bottle, I haven't heard from her since. 

These lovely stylish glasses with all the trimmings are from Rose & Grey, the set is a kit, two glasses with straws, umbrellas, place mats and a pink flamingo swizzle stick.

So it was actually a sweet little joke that I put cloudy lemonade in these glasses, but made them look like cocktails with a bit of salt round the rim (purely for decoration).  I have read that you can use the Elderflower syrup in cocktails, add it to vodka or sparking wines. 

When the mixture has had a good old soak your last step is to strain off the flowers and lemons, through muslin or a clean tea towel and then what comes out the other side should be a lovely elderflower syrup.  

If you want to make your everyday drinks seem more exciting then have a look over at Rose and Grey, they have sets with different shaped glasses, for Champagne and Daiquiri too. All come in a cute retro style box which would be a great present for someone, or a couple starting home.  

Rose and Grey do a lot of very beautiful homewares but Im particularly taken with their vintage leather collection and their metal chairs. 

For the Swedish readers, wishing you a Glad Midsommer, hope you all have a lovely time this weekend, drink a cocktail for me. 

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. 

Tattoo Skulls and Wrap.me

If you have been nice enough to look at my blog before, you will have seen me talking about Tattoo Style.  It's my own concept for interior design which fits perfectly with the styling that we do for Van Asch who has made her name with skulls and roses on cushions and fabric.

Add to that now another fabulous lady designer and artist, Hannah Getley.  I do believe that lady luck or serendipity plays a part in who you meet in the world and it was a chance meeting at a party that drew my attention to Hannahs work, living locally to me in nearby Berkhamsted. 

These Sea Skulls are slip cast in high grade porcelain before Hannah decorates each one individually. The designs applied are influenced by sailors and their tattoos, anchors, swallows, feathers, stars, moths and tall ships.

 As each piece is individually hand decorated, Hannah can take commissions and believes the skulls are good luck talismans to those who buy them. 

You can find Hannah's website here where you can ready about her early training at art college and how she now works in film, making props.

Expect to see more of Hannahs work appearing here on my blog as well as some new cushion designs from Van Asch.  This month I am also collaborating with an interiors shop and a haberdashery so keep checking in for information and photos of some lovely new products. 

Also this week I tried out the https://wrap.me/ idea of using your own photos to make gift wrapping paper. 

make a collage from your own photos and they send you a sheet of wrapping for 4.99 uk sterling, free postage. Just the thing to wrap up your Hannah Getley Sea Skull.