Bright New Bedroom part One

Before I talk about changing rooms around I thought I would just pop the link to voting for this blog in the #IBA16 awards.  It only takes a few seconds http://www.interiorblogawards.com/vote/janice-issitt-life-style/  thank you.

I don't know what it is that triggers me to change rooms, but generally it happens when I have been somewhere inspirational with a great vibe, I get home and see my rooms with new eyes and I just do it, straight away, no pontificating, I just crack on while the momentum is hot.

You just know when a room is looking tired and after seeing the home of Tamsyn Morgans, with the cool, pale and relaxing mood, I just had to tackle my bedroom and give it a complete makeover. I share a lot of the same loves as Tamsyn in our choices of vintage items, and it's probably what drew me to go and see her home for myself.  One thing that I noticed particularly is that while Tamsyn has collections of objects, she gives them space to breath and let's them be noticed.  I haven't changed around the treasures I have on display for some time and decided to pack away many things and rotate some beautiful items that had ended up at the back of cupboards.

My bedroom isn't just the place where I sleep, it is my den, my workroom and my chill-out zone, it is my centre of operations, my HQ.  For some reason it is my room of choice for working on the laptop, editing photos and social media interaction.  My bed is more comfortable than the sofa and all the cats can fit onto it with me. Also, as my partner is working with musicians they are often in and out of the lounge and kitchen during all hours, so I like to hide away, not worry about what I'm wearing (yes that means I don't get out of my pj's) and I also have a television and Sky box, so I can have films on in the background.  Occasionally I need complete silence when writing but more often than not, I have a tv on as background noise. I don't seem to be able to sit and watch a film or series and do nothing else, so if Im not working then I will be knitting or crocheting. There is no start and finish time to 'work' for me, the lines are so blurred that I start the second I wake up and continue through the night.

a couple of items influenced the colour pops, mint green, pink and aqua, this oil painting from the 50's has these tones

My point here is that rooms can morph in their use and then it's time to admit that the name you call the room isn't truthfully what you use it for.  We have an office, no-one ever uses it, the computer rarely gets switched on unless we have to print something and it's most common use is for the foster wild animals, so right now the 'office' is actually a squirrel nursery.  See what I mean? The conservatory is my prop and craft storage area which also doubles as a place to build room sets and make a dark area for moody shots.  The lounge, is a backdrop for photos, the guest bedroom is my other half's den and the sheds in the garden are recording studios and vocal booths.  The kitchen, well occasionally things get burnt here, and I make a lot of coffee and toast, but the cats eat in there more than we do.

OK we are very unconventional people, self-employed artist and musician but as more and more people now work from home then it's worth re-assessing the spaces you have and what they are used for.
Hence, the rooms that I spend the most time in need to change probably more than is normal, changing the displays of collections, changing for the seasons and changing for the current purpose too.

The Office! 

my father used to buy me antique cigarette cases for birthday and christmas, this is one of the most gorgeous ones

For me the more places in my house where I can photograph the better and a photographers eyes are trained to see things differently. They see the background mess and clutter, they see the light and the way it changes through the day and bounces off different colours. Constantly looking at images makes you hyper critical to how things look, you become extremely concerned with aesthetics and everything becomes a still life. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly untidy at times (in the areas where I don't have to sit and look at it for too long!). 

My bedroom needed taking down a notch, I just fancied pale, whites and tones of French Linen. Less clutter and a cleaner feel. I had in my mind a mix of old and new, Scandinavian in parts with a French influence and this had to work with some English antiques. I knew the elements I wanted but, honestly, had no idea how it would turn out until the very last minute.  One thing I did know - the colours would bind it all together.

Chances are that if you read my blog, you are quite interested in interior style, so over the course of the next few weeks I will be looking at different elements of the how and why's of my room transformation.  Hopefully some of my instructions and ideas will help anyone who is ready to do this too.

To get the look : Paints Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, new furniture One World Trading, Linens from - Loaf, Soak and Sleep, GZ Badboys.

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Chinese Money Plant Babies

My Pilea Peperomiodes has had babies! thank you, thank you, congratulations are in order for the miracle that this plant has thrived in my very incapable hands.  Also know as The Chinese Money Plant she has sprouted loads of little babies and so I took the gamble and snipped them off, dunked them in hormone rooting powder and planted them up.

I scoured the kitchen and cupboards for small individual pots for the baby plants and suddenly I spied this art deco coffee set. I bought this coffee set in Sweden because it is so adorable, however, it will never get used for coffee as the cups are so ridiculously tiny, they would never satiate our gallon sized appetites today.

Finally though, Ive found a use for the cups and milk jug and I think they look so dinky. Serendipitously, this week one of my sponsors - Rose & Grey, set us a styling challenge and this mini glass greenhouse arrived in the post.

Such perfect timing as these cups are seriously delicate and get knocked over so easily.  The mini glass greenhouse will keep them all in one place, away from the swinging tails of cats, and help to propagate my little money plants.

I like to make little nature tables all over the house, I can see this greenhouse being quite handy for all sorts of things. It's good to group display items together and I think it would look great full of shells and air plants too.

To get your own Mini Glass Greenhouse, pop over to Rose & Grey, it is brand new stock and perhaps you can also put an old coffee set to use with plant cuttings. 

There's nothing else to do now but cross my not-so green fingers and see if the baby Pilea's get roots!  

As a side note I also have baby hedgehogs which I am trying to hand rear, I volunteer for a wildlife animal hospital and this time of year they had hundreds of baby hedgehogs coming in for care, found by the public in many different circumstances, but all needing our help. They are so hard to hand rear, but it is really worth the effort to try and save this endangered species. Wish me luck. 

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/

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.