Christmas Candles and Choral music.

Christmas decorating just wouldn't be the same without candles, whether you are a user all year round or just for the darker season, candles are an absolute must for every home to create ambience, coziness and fragrance. Just be sure not to leave them unattended. 

I don't know about you, but over the years I have bought a lot of fragranced candles and most of the time Im bitterly disappointed. They either smell like toilet cleaner or have no smell at all. Finally Ive come across two types which I can thorough and whole heartedly recommend. 

To get you in the spirit why not play this video I made for the Choral group The Mediaeval Baebes who I photographed at their recent London show before they headed off Stateside for a tour. Ive never posted a video on my blog before and for some reason it works fine on the computer but not on the phone, sorry about that.

I discovered DPM Fragrance/Capri Blue  candles through Anthropologie in the UK.  Since smelling Aloha Orchid when I first walked in store, I have become a serial user of these candles.  Firstly their fragrances are amazing and secondly the packaging is fabulous, so beautiful you will reuse it long after the candle has burnt down, often in chunky frosted glass jars and mercury glass containers with lids. With seductive names like "Velvet Moss and Jasmine" they smell every bit as good as it sounds. Below the top candle is from DPM, I love to display candles on glass cake stands as a table centerpiece. 

At DPM/Capri Blue they use the top quality food grade soy which absorbs the fragrance much better than any other type of wax. Its so soft its like perfumed cream and smells so exquisite I would actually wear it as a perfume.  

Soy candles are hand poured using traditional methods and I was interested in the process after reading about it on the DPM website. 

These gorgeous containers can be recycled in many ways. This design is part of their Muse collection.

DPM/Capri Blue are based in Mississippi in the USA and use sustainable and recycled materials where available. 

If these inspire you to have a go at making your own, why not get a kit containing all the essentials you need, these are available at Making The Best a shop in Leighton Buzzard. 

The kit contains, soy candle wax, wax dye, scent, 4 tin containers, thermometer, wick, sustainers and wick pins and instructions.

To melt the wax without a double boiler you need to put one saucepan inside another, its probably best to use old pans for this. The under pan contains water which heats the wax in the smaller pan until it melts, use the thermometer to get the strategic temperature.  The wicks need to be coated in melted wax and the instructions tell you how to do this with the sustainers and greaseproof paper. The wick is fixed in the bottom of the tin container and held straight with wick pins. 

Now melt the candle wax, add colour and scent and pour into your tin or whatever container you choose to present the candle in. 

Leave to set for 24 hours. 

Ive simplified it all here so make sure to read your instructions thoroughly.

And while we are here, I thought Id show you what Ive done with my kitchen cabinets to make them look festive, using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and stencils I changed the colour of the wooden doors in time for Christmas. 

Scented candles are also available to buy ready made from Making The Best and my favourite from them is Nag Champa, like the traditional Indian incense but without the smoke, the smell is strong even when unlit. Because every single candle is hand poured, even the tea-lights, Patricia ensures that they are thoroughly tested before sale to give the best quality product. If they don't make the grade they don't go out for sale. 

Personally I think whether its a ready-made candle or a kit to make your own these are a perfect gift, many of my girlfriends say they appreciate the luxury of expensive bubble bath, soap or candles as they aren't always the first thing you buy for yourself. Hope this suggestion helps. Im off to Sweden for a week, see you all on my return with lots of snowy scenes from Lapland I hope!

Room Recipes For Style and Colour

Chances are, that if you read this blog or follow me on my Facebook page, you are probably already interested in interior decorating and home styling. However, whether you like to make your home a special place or you lack confidence to try new things, this book is for you.  

I know you probably think Im biased, but luckily for me, my home being one of the featured properties in Room Recipes For Style and Colour, I can feel proud that it is in such esteemed company. I read and look at a lot of interiors books and some seem like just a compilation of photos you could already find on Pinterest. This book is different, its not just the photos its the really clever and insightful descriptions by Annie Sloan of how to achieve a look or what the elements of that look are. 

What makes anything really special? Well I always think its the attention to detail. Its the hand embroidery, the multi-layered paint effect, the clever up cycling, you get my drift. Here in this book the attention to detail and the intelligently written descriptions are its key factors. 

Annie Sloan has dedicated her life to analysing style and colour, so its more than your usual interiors book, it breaks down the visuals and puts a smart interpretation on what for most of us is just intuitive. 

In these photos you see that I have used vases for my floral touches (left and right) but mostly I plonk flowers in coffee pots, tea  pots, cups, anything that is proportionally ok or the right colour. 

in my bathroom here I wanted to kick against the Seaside theme, the curtain pole is literally a branch of a tree. This came about because I decided to makeover the bathroom the day before it was photographed and didn't have time to buy a curtain pole!

This must have book is now on sale through all Annie Sloan paint stockists, a great present.  Why not get this with a couple of tester pots and a brush for the budding interior decorator in your life. It will become an invaluable reference book for many years Im sure.

For me, well my house already looks different again, as it says in the book, my home is a moving target, but if you want to see how its evolving then get a copy of Homes & Antiques magazine January issue and you will see how Ive changed things and what Im doing for Christmas styling. 

The book is published by CICO, my favourite publishers as Ive now contributed to a few of their books including "Fairisle and Nordic Knits" where I worked with Nicki Trench as a knitter of a few of the projects in that. 

Hey you guys at CICO, Ive got a great idea of a book of my own, and it might have something to do with body art! 

Watch out for me in Homes & Antiques, Im off to Sweden and Lapland to get some fab photos for Van Asch which will be posted here on my return to bring you snow for Christmas. 

As soon as I grab myself a copy of H&A I will be posting all about that with a listing of credits to my favourite shops and suppliers. 

Happy Christmas shopping, keep it local, keep it small shops and support artisan makers.  See you all soon. 

Style and Colour using Chalk Paint

Heres the latest project of mine to be launched in the Painters In Residence series, currently running on Annie Sloans blog. This victorian door and frame were found in a local thrift shop and it just spoke to me. I find that anything with carving on it can really lend itself well to coloured paints and to my mind it shows off the detail more than when its just dark brown wood. 

I love highly decorated furniture so I cut slimline stencils which gave me the opportunity to get more than one colour on every inch.

I did the same with this chair and love the way the colours show off the carving. 

For this project I mixed lots of colours and kept my left overs in jam jars.  I continued to use these adding other colours as I went along and ended up with a great palette of similar hues.

In this second photo I had extended the stenciling to the wall which gives the illusion of widening the feature. 

I love the purple colour I achieved mixing Napoleonic blue with Emperors Silk (chalk paint ™). The bright green is called Antibes and one of my favorite Annie Sloan colours, it got mixed into Napoleonic Blue and Florence for some of the other colours.

For more photos of my colour combinations keep a look out on Annie Sloans blog and also her new book called "Room Recipes for Style and Colour", I mostly feature in the Bohemian section where Annie describes in great detail how to achieve the looks and what ties them together.  When my copy arrives I will be blogging more about that too. 

If you can get yourself along on November 21st to Making The Best in Leighton Buzzard then please pop by and say hello as I will be part of the event there.  One of the raffle prizes is a free photo session with me so it could be worth it !

follow me on instagram too: http://instagram.com/janiceissitt_life_style

Art Deco gets a chalk paint makeover

This is one of my projects for Painters In Residence, a commission I had from Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to use the paints, varnishes, and other products from her range.  This cupboard and chair were bought on ebay, the chair was missing its seat and the cupboard had seen better days but the shape and detailing was lovely and typical of the Art Deco style with big cog like shapes on the legs.

The photos above show my progress.

I chose the colours Florence and Graphite with leafing in brass and copper.  The copper under the brass gives it an extra depth and ties in nicely with the skull fabric on the chair seat.  The fabric came from Van Asch who, as you probably know, I work with regularly on ideas and looks. To achieve this finish paint the area required with Gold Size, wait until it becomes clear and then lay the leaf over the area, brushing away the loose bits to leave the metallic layer stuck to the gold size. Very easy to use and highly recommended. 

I painted over the Florence chalk paint with a crackle finish that is also an Annie Sloan product. It comes in two pots called Craqueleur, paint on the first layer and let it dry, then paint on the second layer, in a warm place, and it will dry with fine cracks in the surface.  It changes the colour in a different way to the wax.  Over this I applied both clear and dark wax, purposely leaving it dark in places to give depth and age to the surface. 

Graphite on the cupboard was also dark waxed to make it more black. 

I styled this all together with a graphite wall and cut a deco style stencil for the wall above. To this I also applied brass leafing.  

If you have lovely shaped furniture but don't like different wood colours or too much brown this is a perfect way to give a cohesive look in the room, keep the colours in the same tone range and take some onto the walls as well.  A carefully chosen  palette is a brilliant way to tie a look together. To continue the look choose frames to add leafing to, gold stands out so well on black, its timeless. The prints in the frames were original book pages bought on ebay by Erte, the father of Art Deco, a Russian born artist living in France. His images are the antithesis of that period. 

Decorative Living

This week I finally made it along to the Decorative Living Fair at Chelsea Town Hall, I say finally because I've been meaning to go for some time. The fair is organized by Caroline Zoob and is a beautiful collective of stallholders, chosen for their high quality in the decorative living arena.  

Every stall has combinations of antique and handmade items, clothing and craft supplies. The venue is gorgeous, it makes such a big difference to the shopping experience to be in beautiful surroundings. I was so impressed with how much attention to detail had gone into making the stands, especially considering this is a one day event, hats off to all the hard work that went into it by everyone.

Three French Hens

Beyond France

The Old Haberdashery.  The owner has recently been to China and brought back some great pieces. 

Belle Epoque

Lisa Brown Vintage Flower Paintings

part of the Homes & Antiques stand.

  

There was also the extra surprise of bumping into Alice and Sam from Homes & Antiques magazine.  Alice was the first person from H&A that I ran into some years ago and drew my attention to how great the mag is now. I also love love love the fact that they get out and meet their readers and this must surely be the reason for why the magazine is so appealing, as they listen to their public.  The November issue has a gorgeous feature on Annie Sloans latest book and photographs of some of the homes featured in it. Apart from my little cottage is the home of Alex Russell Flint, an artist with a home to die for, an amazing place in France with the wow factor for sure. 

It was lovely to see so many familiar faces. Some of these businesses will be at Petworth House in November. Under the banner of Winter Brocant, the Petworth House fair is organised by Love Lane Vintage and sounds like a very glamorous affair. 

If Ive missed out a credit please let me know, I seem to have mislaid all the business cards I collected. 

Petworth House Winter Brocant is now firmly in the diary for November, hope to see you there if not before at the great MK Handmade and Vintage Fair in October.  

Enigma, Colossus, codes and Bletchley Park

It was my great fortune to be taken on a guided tour of Bletchley Park by the author of a book based there.  Andy Mellett-Brown has just published his first book called The Shelter, using his extensive knowledge of the place to set part of his story there during the war.  My tour was personalised to show me the places where, the main character - Harry Stammers - worked and operated as a BP employee and amateur sleuth.

Vintage fans, particularly for WWII will love BP as much of it is set up as it would have been back in the day of the code breakers. If you are unaware of the history then please have a thorough google, basically, here during the war, code breakers de-cyphered the codes of the enemy, a breakthrough which helped us win the war eventually.  Inventions in code breaking lead to  the first computer and on the site of Bletchley Park is a computer museum which houses the most famous of all machines, The Colossus. So if you are motivated to go then please don't forget to find Colossus which is round the corner. 

an Enigma machine, one of many portable code generators

The American Bombe - on of the many code breaking machines developed at the park

Lorenz Cipher machine, a large non portable code generating machine 

Andy Mellett-Brown the author of The Shelter

most of the staff at BP were women and its great to see the huts furnished with clothes and handbags

not authentic war time food, more like school dinners.

the whole place became derelict, as some of it still is, but with the perseverance of dedicated volunteers, the park was saved, although there is still plenty more to do and they need your help

sculpture of Alan Turing soon to be played by Benedict Cumberbatch in a new film about his life called
The Imitation Game 

Colossus

If you like a good detective story then get yourself over to Amazon and order a copy of The Shelter