Urban Jungle Bloggers - Plants and Glass

A fun extra post this week with a few photos for Urban Jungle Bloggers.  This month our lovely hosts, Igor and Judith have asked us to show some glass with our plants and cuttings.  

Here's a little selection.

When Igor and Judith started this community I hardly had any house plants and now Im quite a jungle here.  However, Im not being very successful with all and I don't quite know why, so I really should study up a bit more about their needs.

A personal thank you too as I recently won a competition organized by the Urban Jungle Bloggers and a plant shop called Evrgreen.  I have won some air plants which Im sure to find fun making a new home for as Ive never had air plants before. 

To see all the other things that Evrgreen have to offer go to http://www.evrgreen.de

Gardening with Rose & Grey

As a style ambassador for Rose & Grey I have been sent a great little wire shelf this month, so versatile it could have gone anywhere inside or out, but I chose to use it in the garden.  

There is something a bit special about potting sheds, childhood memories of dads and grandads, their version of a man cave with all the tools sorted nicely, old tins full of nails, magical cans of oil, fusty smells and cobwebs, they can be very nostalgic.

With a vintage industrial look, the Locker Room Shelf fits many different types of decor and I could see this working in the utility area, office, the bathroom or the hallway.

I recently assembled this shed just outside my photo studio to house the oversized props which had accumulated (and simply took up too much space).  Putting the wire shelf on the outside gives me a great place to put my gardening bits while I potter around weeding, tying back and trimming. I expect that during the summer it will also be a cool place for my radio and coffee.

I'm forever loosing my hand trowels but this way there is no reason not to find them straight away, using butchers hooks on the side of the shelf I can hang them up in full view.

As I can see my blue shed from the lounge I need for it to look attractive and I really think this Locker Shelf will help. Im going to pot up some cute pansies and find some more little terracotta pots. Before long there will be fairy lights and maybe candles too which can sit on the shelf to light the patio area on summer evenings. I hope you like my way of styling the shelf, maybe it will give you some ideas for getting organized wherever you use it. 

Dottie Angel Dress Making

I can't remember where I first spotted the pattern for the Dottie Angel dress, but it stuck in my mind, and last week I just fancied keeping my hand in with a bit of dress making. 

I bought the pattern for the dress from the Simplicity website, it is pattern number 1080.  I could see from the style that it would be easy to make, although I was clearly more rusty than I thought as I did make a few mistakes along the way.  These were totally down to the fact that I was over confident and didn't read the instructions carefully!  

I also made a bit of a mistake by using this needle cord as its thickness made it react differently to normal cotton, by this I mean that it went a bit poofly and stuck out rather than draping, but I really wanted to use it as I have been longing to have something made in this beautiful fabric.  

I think its harking back to the 1970's when corduroy was king of the trendy fabrics, it's a great weight fabric for chilly days and I wanted to layer this dress over t-shirt and leggings for this in-between weather. 

Did you know that the lines in corduroy are called wales, so the thickness of the lines of tufts are counted by the inch, thick cord being lower number of wales, and thin fine cord like this is a higher number of wales.  This fabric is from a patchwork shop and is Japanese, I chose the designs because they also look a bit 70's to me. 

Since I took these photos I have started to make some alterations to the shape, I think that this is the beauty of making your own clothes, to personalise the pattern.  

I usually start with the pattern and follow it closely, but I do find that often pattern made clothes come up a bit big so on hindsight I should have cut this a size smaller, also perhaps my seams are not as thick as they should be.  So I've unpicked the sides to shape the arm hole a bit more and reduce the width of the dress around the bust area.  

My vintage mannequin is considerable smaller than myself, I don't use it for size but to help with placement.  It's useful when making or altering clothes to see them on a mannequin and pin things in place.

The dress is still a work in progress but I wanted to put this post out for Friday Faceless Portrait, a hashtag started by Sarah Lou of Lapin Blu.

The dress is designed by Tif, an Engish lady living in North Carolina, who has created the Dottie Angel brand.  She has done a few designs for Simplicity patterns and this dress is also available for children. Her blog is full of craft and granny chic although Tif has hung up her blogging hat, but it's still worth checking out for ideas of things to make.

I didn't have any bias binding so as the ribbon ties were made in a thinner fabric (the cord would have been too thick), I used it to edge the pockets as well.  I have skipped a few things that you are supposed to do because I tend to cut corners when making for myself.

The first time making a pattern is always a bit hit and miss, but once you have figured out what you want different it will be quicker to repeat. So I'm just about to see how it looks with minor adjustments and maybe finish it or do some more tweaking.  The Great British Sewing Bee is coming soon, early May, just to put us all to shame.  

Matt Chappell who won last year has got a great blog and has also created a fun project for making a "Sew A Saurus" dinosaur tail for children.  You can find Matt and Gemma Chappell over at Sew What's New.

Next week will be time for some Urban Jungle Blogging, hope you have a lovely week, see you over on Instagram.

Styling the Seasons April Blooms and Wilds

Well, I hope your Easter holiday break has been fun, the showers of April are in full force here in the UK, I think of it as rainbow weather.  Sunshine often appearing moments after the rain creates magical coloured arcs in the sky, and I always try to work out where it ends ... It's also the time for baby wildlife to be born, something Im very close to.

One of my favourite discoveries over the last year are the candles of The Botanical Candle company.  A one woman operation, with the added twist being the lovely vintage containers that Amalia finds to pour her fragranced soy wax into.  From tins, to jelly moulds, it is hard to choose. Amalia Apothecary lives in Shaftesbury and often sells at the Frome market, which Im hoping to check out as I really want to have a look around that town.  

The vase above is from a small collection of Chippendale Art Deco glass that we have at home, recognisable by the weight and the trophy style handles. 

April brings more light, longer days and, of course, more blooms in the garden, little vases are all over the house with snippets of forsythia, grape hyacinth, daffodils and forget-me-nots.   It will soon be time to visit the bluebell woods near my home, always such a feast for the senses.
  

My two personal favourite candle containers are the old blue glass Ball jars and the ceramic marmalade containers.  

Ive started collecting the last scraps of soy wax candles and I then melt them down in an attempt to make a whole new one. I bought some wicks and, inspired by Amalias inventiveness with containers, made a candle in a victorian jelly mould.

For the last three months I have been receiving flowers from Bloom & Wild, a postal delivery service.  While waiting for my own garden to supply me with blooms this has been lovely. I've been stuck in the house quite a bit as currently I have some foster baby squirrels to look after so having flowers around the house has kept me happy.

Some of you may know that Im a volunteer for a wildlife hospital called St. Tiggywinkles.  One of my areas of voluntary work involves feeding orphaned baby animals who require care every few hours.  The hospital have trained me so that I can bring the orphans home where I have set up a room where my cats can't go.  Here I have a cage with heat pads inside as it is vitally important to keep small baby animals warm.  I mix up a warm milk and feed it to them from a pipette, not always very easily I must say, some take to it better than others. So right now I have four little squirrels a few weeks old, still with their eyes closed but cheeky as you would expect.
Tiggywinkles has started to fill up with orphaned rabbits, foxes and such, and before we know it the hedgehog season will be upon us. 

Styling The Seasons is a concept from Katy at Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte at Lotts and Lots.  Many bloggers join with the theme and so to search for it use the hashtag StylingTheSeasons and hopefully you can find some inspirational ideas. 

Similary if you go to At Mine, you can also search for Styling The Seasons and perhaps while you are there look at the blog post I wrote for them about how to gold leaf items around the home. You can find it http://blog.atmine.com/  

Spring with Katie Alice

This week I have been playing around with some very beautifully designed china and table ware from Katie Alice. I picked my favourite pieces from her collection to play with as props, so I thought I would show you the results here. Working on colour combinations is my thing, I love to see how things work together, either clashing or complimentary. Sometimes it can be quite surprising how vibrant nature can be. 

Yellow is most definitely the first colour of spring, the first colour to appear around us.  I wanted a pop of yellow that wasn't just daffodils so what better way than to put the butter dish and lemon squeezer together ...

It was purely coincidental that I spotted these ragged tulips which have exactly the same tonal range as the china, they are so unusual in their colour combination of deep rusty pink with green and white in the flower head. The highland fling collection is a feminine take on tartan which I think can work through many seasons of table decorating, particularly at Christmas when this would be a lovely theme to have on your table, a subtle twist on the classic red and green.

Above is a lovely French style range called "the collection" and the rustic lace design is a great classy combination of country and elegant. The small espresso cups are a really cute set of four, some with a little pattern inside. 

The website for all the Katie Alice ranges is at : www.katie-alice.co.uk 

Keep a watch out on instagram when I will be including a new collection from her of blue and white.  

The pretty napkins have a tiny touch of orange which just lifts the whole design, and so I couldn't resist a few of these roses. The florist tells me they are the "miss piggy' variety !

Next week I hope to bring you some more new discoveries including the products I have recently purchased from The Botanical Candle company. Introducing a range of fresh scents and perfumes to the home while looking in keeping with my antique collections.  

I wanted to include some poetry about Spring, however, a lot of it is quite bleak, warning of unguarded jubilation. TS Elliot warning in The Waste Land that April is the cruelest month, and I suppose that the quick and rapid changing of climate, the sun encouraging the growth and birth, suddenly followed by frost and rain, can be cruel.  So I'm putting on my positive optimists hat and choosing this :

Spring

BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –        

When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;        

Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush 

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring 

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing; 

The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush 

The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush 

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.         

What is all this juice and all this joy? 

A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy, 

Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning, 

Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy, 

Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.         

Easter Styling The Seasons

Wishing all the readers of this blog a very lovely Easter holiday. It's a funny old holiday really, a nice long weekend which in the UK usually results in rain half the time, the clocks change by springing forward to British Summer time on Easter Sunday, March 27th this year.  This usually results in me being confused for at least a week, while half the clocks in the house are still on 'old time' as is my stomach clock. 

Also I don't have children which again makes it an awkward kind of festival, as we are all trying to give up sugar it seems inappropriate to give chocolate to other adults, and I'm praying that no-one gives me any as it's a hard struggle to say no.  

JORD WOOD WATCHES  http://www.woodwatches.com/#janiceissittlifestyle 

JORD WOOD WATCHES  http://www.woodwatches.com/#janiceissittlifestyle 

But despite the mixed weather, there are signs of spring, daffodils and grape hyacinths in the garden, and little green sprigs and blossom popping out daily. Growth, development and new life. 

While one minute its bright sunshine and the next pouring with rain, let's not forget that we don't get the new greenery without it, so let us embrace the weather with layers, my favourite way of dressing. And if sometimes being wrapped up seems a bit dull, then I find accessories play an essential way to brighten and style any outfit.  This year I'm having a love affair with linen.  My bedding was the first, the soft crumpled allure and feel got me hunting down t-shirts and tunics.  I also love a good scarf, large and wrap like, this is a great way to warm up and cover the bumpy bits you want to hide. 

 The zeitgeist for crystals and dreamcatchers has made a welcome return, the yearning for spiritual tones and vibrations in our lives. Natural fibres and stones, watches made from wood, jewellery that promotes healing, and old traditional hand sewn garments made from cotton and linen.  

So I've treated myself to some duck eggs instead of chocky ones and been knitting, crocheting and dress making.  I shall feature the dress making soon, I have a simple pattern and am just hunting down some fabric that will work as a transitional warmth between spring and summer. 

If you like my styling choices the stockists are as follows:

Steer Skull t-shirt by Van Asch, welsh wool cushion by Jane Beck, Linen tunic under the watch in picture 1 is by WindramDesign on Etsy, Linen bedding is mixture from : Soak and Sleep, West Elm, and Loaf. Cactus planter from Rose & Grey.

And here's my Easter present to you; $20 off any wood watch from Jord  if you click on this link :

https://www.woodwatches.com/g/janiceissittlifestyle 

A lovely new watch to help you remember the time change.  

Amsterdam (Part II ) for Urban Jungle Bloggers

Our theme this month for Urban Jungle Bloggers is 'botanical zoom' looking at the details in our house plants, and so, as I bought many new plants in Amsterdam, I thought I would continue to talk about shopping in that city and show you what I came home with.

Something I haven't talked about so far is my latest tattoo, I have waited for some time to be able to book with the legendary Angelique Houtkamp of Salon Serpent and finally I managed to see her.  I will be revealing the tattoo when it's healed over on Instagram, alongside my new wood watch.

Angelique sells her artwork, limited edition prints like this below of wolf girl.  I bought these two plants in Wildernis which is just along the road from Salon Serpent.  I find the spotted one really fascinating, it looks like someone has painted the spots on!

We can't talk about plants without talking about planters and pots, this for me is all part of the fun, finding the right pot for the plant, allowing enough space for it to grow and allowing it fit with the decor.  This year's story for plant pots is natural baskets, seagrass, wicker and woven.  The above two came from a man on a street market (Lindengracht on saturdays).    

this is the orange tree blossom from a mini tree I have in my house, the smell is absolutely amazing

Jeska Hearne who blogs at Lobster & Swan has recently got hold of a lovely and delicate plant called sophora prostrata.  I was lucky enough to find some sitting outside a wonderful florist shop called Fleur Monde on Haarlemerdijk, an enormous shop full to the brim of wonderful specimens. That was the first time I had ever seen one other than in Jeska's photos, it had quite a journey home in my hand luggage, Im still hoping it can get established nicely.

The good people at Urban Jungle Bloggers have also found some great colouring illustrations for us this month, I only had a small set of coloured pencils which came out of a Christmas cracker, so my palette was somewhat limited!  Still it was pretty relaxing to do even so. Also in the photo above you can see one of the little mother of pearl spoons I bought in Zenza. 

These two hands came from de Weldaad which I featured in the last post.  The victorian tile is actually English, I intended to buy some antique Delft Tiles, even beaten or battered ones just as a souvenir, but boy were they expensive!!  The tile above came from a man specialising in tiles, mostly Delft, on Noordmarkt and his prices were much better than in any shops.  It seems that the cheapest you can find old Delft tiles for is around 20 Euros, but frequently they are up to 60 Euros and more, so you would need to be a pretty serious collector to buy these.  I stuck with the English one because it has the same colour tones as those set into my new cupboard.

This is the old Indigo scarf with tassles I bought on Noordmarkt from Stern Africa. It feels like a light denim and the tassles are a status symbol for men in certain parts of Africa. Birgit really knows her stuff and can give you so much information about the things you buy from her. This type of cloth is from the Mossi people of Berkina Fasso, it is thin strips of fabric sewn together to form a whole cloth and then Indigo dyed. The prices from Birgit are about a third of what you will pay elsewhere, so well worth finding her.

My yoga teacher was talking to us this week about being 'present' in all things you do, she had been away and while everyone was madly dashing down the Ski slopes she was stopping and appreciating the weather and nature.  I can honestly say that this approach of slow living, is well worth practising.  I have visited Amsterdam many times, but all too frequently when on business dashing from one place to another. This time I took it slow, appreciated the details, walked instead of dashing and enjoyed the city so much more for it. 

Have a lovely week everyone while we are getting ready for some time off over Easter. J x

Cool Amsterdam for Interior Design lovers

I have just returned from the most amazing time in Amsterdam and it didn't involve any alcohol or funny cigarettes, quite the opposite, I decided to walk it and hunt down the healthiest food and the most beautiful shops.  So get yourself a nice cup of tea and sit down with me now to walk around one of Europes most beautiful and stylish cities.

I was super blessed with the weather, although I came prepared as the wind can be biting here.  Don't even think about wearing heels, get your most comfortable trainers or boots and prepare to be impressed.  The architecture is totally unique, the classic tall thin houses set alongside the canals, and bicycles everywhere due to the fact that public transport can only get you near the destination but not outside the door.  First thing to conquer as well is the trams, find a tram map and buy a card which you use like an oyster card, touch in and out. The stops are clearly announced and indicated on the tram itself so you won't have to worry about not recognising when to get off. 

I started my treck on day one with the Nine Streets area, this is easy to see on maps if you google.  Here are the most stylish shops in my opinion, the one off boutiques and cool cafes.  I tried two cafes on Reestraat, Ree 7 and Pluk, both serving very healthy clean food in simply and sleek surroundings.  Also on Reestraat at Number 1 is the boutique small shop of what was to be my most favourite discovery of all - de Weldaad.  The shop on Reestraat on the corner, is full of more small decorative home and gift items, to describe it I would say take a mix of Victorian weirdy, Scandi chic and natural history museum, then perhaps you would be somewhere near to imagining. Fossils, shells and bones, under glass domes, beautiful containers and vases, feathers, mercury glass, wooden birds, and so on.  It's larger mother store is up in Noordermarkt and that has all this and much larger pieces, leaning more towards the architectural salvage. Here's some photos of the larger shop..

old painted tin ceiling tiles can be found here, my current latest crush.

De Weldaad is beautifully laid out and curated, grouping objects in colour sections and mixing old and new seamlessly.

Also to be found in Nine Streets which I thought was quite unique is a bedhouin and tribal jewellery shop called Parwan on Herengracht. 
For interesting smells and quality bath products have a sniff around Marie Stella Maris, their liquid hand soap is something quite different to your usual supermarket brand, leaving your hands feeling soft and smooth instead of dried out, I chose the Cedre Intime as it has Patchouli notes, but they even have a smell like the falling autumn leaves in Amsterdam!

All the plant and florists shops are outstanding and I managed to get hold of some great plants which are hard to find in the UK. There are two plant shops on Bilderdijkstraat quite close to each other, one of which is Wildernis.  But wherever you go you will pass a lovely florist and spot some great house plants.

We popped up to Noordermarkt on Saturday when the market is on. On the outside of the market square is de Weldaad's larger store and on the market itself the most wonderful lady who imports from Africa. This stall has a wonderful selection of Shibori and indigo dyed fabrics and scarves, some new and some old, plus lovely tribal jewellery. Birgit's company name is SternAfrica and she personally travels and chooses very good pieces. Food wise, we ate at Finch on the corner and it was excellent, I had a great avocado on toast that Nigella would be jealous of.

From Noordermarkt we walked to Haarlemmerdijk, further North.  Here you will find a bathroom shop full of antique baths and all things bath related.  The Shop is called Affaire D'eau at number 148-150. The collection of antique reclamation is superb.

We walked there via a street market on Lindengracht and there I found a man selling African baskets at very reasonable prices, you will see these a lot in the shops this year particularly when used for plants. I will feature these in some future posts.

If you are restoring a period bathroom you will find the perfect authentic pieces here in Affaire D'Eau.  It might be worth considering driving over to the Netherlands so that you can bring the larger items back home.

Further down the road, as if you are heading back towards Grand Central station, Haarlemmerdijk turns into Haarlemmerstraat, and here you can find one of the Zenza stores.  This store to me, sums up perfectly one of the looks that I personally champion, the fusion between ethnic design and craftsmanship with the colour tones of Scandinavian chic.  Zenza have primarily a large stock of lighting, which is made in their own factory in Egypt.  Both the silver and copper light shades are stunning but there is so much more to this store as well, lovely carved side tables in a pale coloured wood, plant hangers and unusual accessories, I bought some spoons made from shells with silver stems. 

To visit the Nine Streets area I got off the tram at Spui and walked through the floating flower market, for Noordmarkt we started at the Dam Square stop and took the back streets heading North.  There was a marked difference between the weekday and weekend for numbers of people, and the weekend tourists can make it very busy, so if you can try and go out on a wednesday or thursday so that you can mooch for several days with the streets to yourself.  Mind out for those cyclists too, they are ruthless!  There are defined cycle lanes and they are strictly not for walking on unless you want to get mown down.  I bought a number of plants and to bring them back in my luggage I took them out of the plastic pots, removed some of the dirt and put them in shoe boxes with some tissue paper.  One of them is looking a bit sad but the others seem to have survived ok.  I will be featuring these in both my Urban Jungle Bloggers posts and for Lobster and Swans new hashtag #botanicalpickmeup

I don't have any photos but there's a really good antique furniture shop on Prinsengracht at 579, set in a lovely old building vof Prinsheerlijk Antiek has very traditional grand old pieces, do have a look if you are passing.

In all my years of visiting this city, since the 1980's, I have never been to the red light district once, so my advice is to see the city like a local would and not like a tourist, it will be so much more rewarding and I hope this blog helps you to do that. Happy Days. J x