Urban Jungle Bloggers - Desert

Ha, those brilliant people at the Urban Jungle HQ have come up with another tricky theme this month, and it clearly calls for 'photos of your cacti', but as I also have some lovely skulls, I thought they would work perfectly with this theme.

Creating the vibe of a desert in Arizona doesn't exactly come easy to person living in a village in rural England, but my mini cacti collection came to the rescue.

And while I'm here, it's essential that I also tell you about their latest book, so let's get our Hygge going, as this weekend I start to talk about some ways we can do that, feet up, cozy socks, hot drink, wicked sounds, and a real fire ... oh yes and our favourite plants of course.  

Join me this weekend and next for more in depth ideas about Hygge, that danish practise of giving ourselves a warm hug. Love Janice.

Three looks for one plant - Urban Jungle Bloggers

The folk at Urban Jungle HQ have set us a great task this month, take one plant and give it three different looks, oh, this is so up my street.

But which plant, I looked at the Mother-in-laws Tongue and she was just too 1970's, maybe then a fern, but no somehow they were just too Victorian.  Then from the back of the class someone put their hand up and there she was, a tropical beauty just crying out to wear some new outfits ... Medinilla

This beautiful girl certainly has done some travelling, I found her in Sweden and didn't want to risk not finding another back in the UK, (although I saw some great ones recently in a garden centre in Woburn and nearly bought another).  She normally resides in this beaten copper planter from Miafleur as I do love pink and copper together, but let's see what else we can do.

So what to try first with this tropical belle, and then she whispered to me, "I want to be French".... Oh la la

Here the little sexy one really pops, in the mean and moody chic French setting of chipped paint shutters, wrought iron chairs and fancy clocks.  A grande metal urn with curly handles raises our Belle Medinilla to just the right height for her flowers not to drag, and in this dimly lit area the light falls just perfectly on her blooms.

The french urn worked out so well that I was tempted to leave her there, but our Medinilla wasn't having any of it ... there were still two more looks to try on.

Look number two just had to be Boho, and so, against my trademark colour wall, our pretty pink plant hangs out in a gang of plants with lots of other colours to compliment her tropical look.

Bohemian looks are never complete without plants, an eclectic collection of textiles, textures and global collectables. Clashing colours within the same hue, rich and opulent and a place you can just relax into.

The basket came from Amsterdam but was made in Africa, it fits well with our tropical girl.  The textiles are from India, Wales and England, the table is Moroccan and the jewellery adorning the skulls is Egyptian.  Boho equals global eclectisism.  Essential boho plants, well it has to be the Swiss Cheese Plant and some cacti. Essential colours, bright, vibrant, some turquoise, mustard, pinks and oranges ... this is bohemian.

And then for our third look, well I'm a hoarder of vintage so I went for Retro ...

For a true mid-century retro look you need hanging plants, so this time our pink belle squeezed herself into a macrame hanger.

Retro or vintage includes yellows and browns, a spider plant and some sounds on the record player. Furniture with atomic legs, teak sideboards and coffee tables against white. 

I hope you enjoyed this fun post as much as I did and maybe got some tips on how to include plants with your look, whatever that may be.

Our Medinilla belle, she can't decide between the French urn and the copper pot, particularly because next month I will be giving away a lovely beaten copper item from Miafleur (they have a really good selection of copper). So maybe you will get to see this little star again in yet another incarnation.

The great new interiors place to hang out is the website At Mine and they have featured me on there, check me out ... http://atmine.com/insiders/20-janice-issitt

Flower power love to you all.

Jungle on the table

This month's topic for the Urban Jungle Bloggers is showing plants as a table centerpiece or decoration, what a good idea so long as it's your shorter plants, after all, we want to see our guests through the jungle don't we?

 I don't think I would have thought of doing this as an actual thing if Igor and Judith hadn't chosen it as a styling prompt. Flowers are pretty and obvious, but considering I usually keep a few of my plant gang on the dining table anyway, it wasn't too much of a stretch to the imagination. 

I don't really find myself entertaining too much,  so the table setting is purely for me, with my planty friends of course and a few cats at my ankles. As I'm not much of a cook, and I work from home, If Im meeting with friends I like to go out for a change of scene.  However, one really should make an effort as much as possible, and so even when it's just a simple salad or breakfast eggs, it's more inviting to eat at the table when its decorated with flowers or plants.

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

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

Urban Jungles and Resolutions

Feeling slightly deflated as the start of this week leaves us with the loss of a very important part of our lives.  Goodbye to Mr. Bowie, the world feels strange without you.

And if the loss of someone, although not close but an important part of musical history, were to teach us nothing else, than to leave a mark on the world and not to fade into the background. David Bowie was a man who created the soundtrack to the youth who grew up, like me, during the 1970's.  So it is poignant that at the time of year when we are making our resolutions, that his leaving should be a reminder to do it now and pontificate no longer about how your life should be.

There's no easy segue from that to my post about plants in the kitchen, so I won't even try. 

I have had a rush of energy during these first few weeks of January to get the house, clean, tidy and refreshed. Although I constantly change the way it looks and paint walls often, I did feel a little de-clutter and re-organisation was a good idea. So I set about to find a new colour paint for the kitchen and lounge.

The poster calendar has been fixed to the kitchen door as a reminder to not waste time.  

 I don't have great light in my kitchen and the size also makes it tricky to photograph so these photos don't really do justice to the subtlety of the colour I chose from Benjamin Moore's range of high gloss paint. Influenced by the Pantone colours of the year, pale pink and blue I decided to try these, plumping for the blue in the kitchen and mixing my own shade of pink using Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan, for the lounge. 

I feel you have to be quite careful with pink, usually considered 'girly' and quite a bedroom sort of colour, it does act as a great balance to masculine items such as the leather chairs. 

While sorting and re-assessing what I had and what I didn't need any more I realised that some of my father's finds from the Souk of Cairo were deserving of more space and prominence. I took a collection of Zar Amulets (above) and framed them for the chimney breast wall.  

Many of you will not have heard about the Zar Cult religion before, it is practised along the Nile delta but more prominently in Ethiopia. Mostly by women, the Zar Cult deals with spirit possession and a ceremony which involves dancing and drumming, the high priest will make an amulet for the inflicted person to wear at all times to protect them from the spirit.  As this is in conflict with the Islam religion the reverse side of the amulet has a verse from the Koran and this faces outwards. You can't see it in this photo but the engraving on the discs is of figures, animals and plants.  I plan to do a blog specifically about these and some other jewellery I have from that area of the world.

Our topic this month for Urban Jangle Bloggers is to show the plants we have in our kitchens.  The great kitchen window sill has long been considered the place to raise cuttings and grow herbs.  Mine is no exception, the Swiss Cheese plant grew after I cut leaves from one that was straggly, I put them in a vase as it seemed a shame to throw it away and a few of the leaves grew roots.  I popped them in a planter and it is continuing to shoot and thrive.  

January is also the time for bulbs, in our hurry to rush towards Spring, which mother nature has taken upon herself to do for us this year, I love indoor hyacinths and there are pots of them everywhere. Their smell in intoxicating and a great way to make the house smell fresh while it wears it's new coats of paint. 

More of my home improvements will feature soon on Abigail Ahern's Blog, I will keep you up to date with when that will run.  Until then, strap on your apron and get a move on, time waits for no man.

Urban Jungle Bloggers Plants and Blooms

Im so happy to be part of this community of Urban Jungle Bloggers, Igor and Judith are very generous in sharing posts and photos and their appeal is worldwide so it's very interesting to see people from other countries following the same challenges.

This month its Plants and Blooms, very appealing to me as there is usually some floral element in my photos, it's the finishing touch, a way to capture forever the beauty of something transient and fragile.  Below are some of my home grown roses, the bushes were planted this year and still giving me lots of fragrant blooms.

My background colour in these two shots is using Annie Sloan Wall Paint in Duck Egg Blue, but as I painted over a green colour this may have effected its hue. Always consider this when painting, colours will change from that on the tin if you are painting over another strong colour. 

I shall be reviewing this new wall paint soon, with full details of how it differs from Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

Above is a new play thing, a notice board from Rose & Grey. It comes with clips and a finish that looks like old wooden pallets. 

I should also mention that a couple of these small planters are hand made. Above the little pale green one is from Katie Robbins (Ceramic Magpie) and below the mug top left is from the online store The Future Kept.

This large round vase is a vintage one by the company Bitossi, a highly collectable retro range.  I really want one of their lions, and am always on the look out for one.

More vintage goodies in this photo, I attended a truly fab event The Bloggers Vintage Jumble and instagram meet. Fellow bloggers from far and wide congregated on a sunny Sunday afternoon for tea cake and shopping in a village hall in Lindfield. It was lovely to see the faces of social media friends, a too rare occurrence in my opinion.

Jessica Trent sold me the embroidered table cloth and this was one of many great items I came home with, I was unable to show any restraint. Heather Young very generously let me snaffle the hydrangeas.  I'm currently growing a lot of the plants but as it's their first year the blooms are still a bit young and floppy to hold any shape when cut. From what I can work out, the hydrangea heads only look like this when they are quite old flowers which almost dry on the bush before picking. So thank's Heather you have saved me doing a midnight raid on a neighbours garden .... :)

My next blogger meet is in Bristol for the Sisterhood Supper with Toast, not toast to eat, silly, but Toast the great label. The food is being cooked by a well known chef and we will be learning calligraphy and wreath making. 

I hope you are all enjoying the Autumn colours, in the UK we have been blessed with such great weather the last few months making this time of year even more special. 

Styling The Seasons - August

Funny old month eh? usual weird weather, hot then cold then rain then sunsets.  Still it doesn't stop us Brits getting out and about, we are made of stronger stuff.  Nothing is going to scupper our holiday plans.

As per usual, I try to make my birthday celebrations last as long as possible, every year I use it as an excuse to spend loads on trips away and presents for me and home. 

Since loosing my parents I've taken it upon myself to take control and mostly I do stuff as a distraction to the fact that they aren't around to spoil me anymore. I'm very spontaneous these days so our trip to the coast was rather last minute. Having now also been reminded how quick and easy it is to fly to Amsterdam, this too is something I need to do more often.

My styling the seasons this month is to feature all my new purchases from the UK and Amsterdam, combining the finds from The Firle Vintage Fair, various shops around Hastings like Butlers Emporium and the enormous flea market in Amsterdam.

My photos are a reflection of the different moods that this August has provided us with, dark and light.

Almost autumnal in parts.  Above is a lovely vintage picture from the East Sussex Firle Vintage Fair held in the grounds of Firle place. I thought it had overtones of being Chinese and put me in the mind set of things from the Orient, Im definitely on a trip with Japan and China at the  moment, this was to come to a head in Amsterdam, when my host showed me her Japanese textile collection.

The cone of wool was from the flea market in Amsterdam and I will use it in weaving, I couldn't help popping those feathers in the top. They are from Eagle Owls and Hawks. Im going to hang them from the wall hanging I think. 

Above here, in a more pastel mood are two more purchases from Firle, the blue glass 'milk of magnesia' bottle and the green glass dish with lid.  The tray was also from there and has mother of pearl set in with bright reds and greens.  Look out for that tray again in photos as I haven't featured its full glory yet. The flask was from the Amsterdam flea and was only 5 euros. I photographed these against my work area cupboards which Ive painted in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, mixing up green and white and grey.

The book above is clearly from Holland, its about house plants and the pictures inside I think are cards stuck in from tea or cigarette packets maybe. This again is sure to feature in future so that I can show you the inside. I may need help with translation but Im sure that my Urban Jungle Blogger friends will help if need be. The wooden spoon is the best priced hand carved spoon Ive yet to find and this was from Butlers in Hastings.

The highlight of my trip to the coast was to meet up with Jeska and Dean from the online store The Future Kept. I'd arranged to collect my little hand thrown ceramic mug from them (above). They sell out of these super fast so you may need to message them.  

And my  last picture is the fruits from my trees. The apple and plum trees were already in the garden at our house when we bought it. We struggle to make use of the fruit, Ive tried cider, chutney, jam .. you name it. But this year we are on our Nutribullet diet so this lot will end up in the juicer.  I photographed them on the dark wall with rust and galvanised iron because I thought the colours of the fruits shone out more this way. Its a good example of how to work with a dark wall, using natural bright pops like apple green. The colours in the plums are so beautiful a perfect example of how to mix shades of pink and green.

Lots of my friends, along with myself, have been nominated in different categories in the Amara Interior Blog Awards so please do look out for Lobster & Swan, A Quiet Style, Capture by Lucy, The Cabinet Makers Lovetale, At Mine, Apartment Apothecary, Breath Happiness, Make, Joelix, Happy Interior, Lotts & Lots,  oh and so many other great ones, Ive mentioned just a few of the 589 blogs nominated just to help you maybe find some new ones. 

If you have a look on the right hand side of this blog you can click on the Amara IBA15 badge and it will take you straight to the voting page for me.  I would love to be shortlisted. 

Thanks for reading as usual, see you next week. 

Turning Japanese in Amsterdam

This blog is being brought to you by the letter R and the colour Indigo.

Hi everyone, Ive just got back from Amsterdam after a flying visit to see my friend and to get a tattoo from Salon Serpent. These world famous tattooists, headed up by Angelique are in a cool area called Jacob Van Lennepstraat in Amsterdam Oud West. If you are in the area and looking for food head to De Hallen, an old factory with an enormous food hall housing a multitude of restaurants.

My friend Rosey has lived in Amsterdam for many years on and off, and although she is British she grew up in Japan because her father worked there. This lovely lady who works in fashion, is a leading expert on all things Denim but also has a hobby where she collects vintage Japanese textiles called Boro and has learnt to dye and create Shibori work.  After hearing all about it Im hoping to find a course to go on myself, although it won't be quite the same as the one Rosey went to in Japan for ten days with a world expert.

Rosey lives in a little house in Amsterdam in the old diamond quarter "Diamantbuurt" just of Van Woustraat. The old gem factory is surrounded by streets named after precious stones full of cute houses which were for the factory workers. Despite being an old building on the outside, Rosey has styled the inside with her passions for art, textiles and retro furniture.

We had a good look around a few areas outside of the centre, these being more interesting now they are gentrified. I noticed that theres a great love of house plants in this city and many cool house -plant shops and florists. 

I can see where Judith from Urban Jungle Bloggers got her passion for house plants when you see shops like these.

We also visited an enormous flea market (IJ-Hallen) which is once a month over on the island area called NDSM.NL where the famous Botel (boat hotel) is moored and the restaurants are in old shipping containers, like the one called Pllek.

If you don't drive under the water to get there then you can get the ferry from just behind grand central station. Its a free ferry that takes you to a post apocalyptic world of old abandoned boats and docks with innovative buildings and art/street culture.

And now onto all things Indigo ...

To start with lets me just say what Indigo is. Well, its a plant and a natural dye comes from it. Many countries grow it in abundance particularly Japan, India and Africa. 

When choosing your fabric for dyeing its best to go for natural fibre and boil wash it to remove any chemicals that may barrier against the dye.

The best results are achieved with a large vat, say 9 litres. Obviously natural indigo is the best but synthetic will be the most easily available. The water should be free of chemicals so try to collect rain water for it. Add lime (garden suppliers do this) and the water has to reach a ph of 11.5 so test it with litmus.

Dissolve the Indigo powder in hot water and add it to the vat.  Then add hydro sulphate to remove the oxygen (this goes off quickly so just get little bags). 

Now about adding your design or pattern to the fabric. The technique of Shibori is about sewing through pleated fabric, then the thread pulled tight to create areas of resistance where the dye can't reach. The stitch used is Sashiko, a running stitch.  You can find the patterns for this on the net or from books. 

Another way to create patterns is Katsomi - stencilling. Cut a stencil on special paper, then a muslin is glued over that.  Squeeze the mochi paste through the stencil holes, there are different techniques for this, and most definitely something you need to learn in the flesh.  Alternatively you can draw with the paste using something akin to a piping bag like you are icing a cake. 

Rosey can recommend a few good teachers, there is Bryan Whitehead a Canadian living in Japan, he runs ten day courses like the one Rosey went on. He works in the Fujino area outside Tokyo.  This course is considered very intensive. Bryan grows his own Indigo so you would get the real deal training from him.  

Also there is Clarissa Cochran in Saffron Walden who does simpler half day or weekend courses and Jane Calender whose company Callishibori do courses and supplies.

I really have over simplified here but hope it gives you a flavour for Shibori.

Also in Rosey's collection is something called Boro.  Literally meaning 'ragged', boro is patchworked indigo fabrics on old garments and blankets. Much like the idea of Kantha quilts, the Japanese do not waste anything, so repairing and patchworking holes was part of their ethos.

Below is a sample book of Indigo dyed fabrics, a very old book that was found in a Temple market.

 This is how the book looks from the outside, in the background is a piece of Boro fabric. Due to their age and fragility Boro folk art textiles sell for large sums of money, one well known dealer is called Kimonoboy who specialises in this area.

this is a little rice bag made of patchwork, worn round the waste when workers are in the rice fields

I hope you found this post informative and inspirational, perhaps you will get the bug to hop across to Amsterdam and go off the beaten track a bit too.