Finding your own style: part one, updated.

This post has been updated because I'm discovering new ways of Finding my own style, so I thought I would share them with you.

Do you struggle to find a style for your home that you are happy with? Have you bought something for the home, only to live with it for 6 months or so, then realise that you hate it, and it does not go with anything else in the room, or may be you are one of those people who are drawn to the pretty shinny, brightly coloured this or that at every corner, and end up with a whole host of missed matched things that no matter how many times you tell your self it falls into the eclectic bracket of interior style, you just cant make it work and look like the magazines shoots do.

Did you answer yes to any of the above? then join me in Finding your own style, over the the next few weeks/months we will do some simple exercise that I hope will help us, together find a style that we like, and are happy with, a style that works with our home and family. This is as much an exercise for me as I hope it will be for you. Do feel free to share any tips and comments along the way that you have found useful.

Start by looking at:

1. Magazines

There are dozens of Homes magazines on the market so there is bound to be one with a style that you feel comfortable with. As you read through them you can book mark pages that you like, (this works well for people who find it hard to tear up magazines, me being one of them) try colour coding them, pink for bedroom, blue for bathroom, red for kitchen, that way when you are looking for inspiration for a certain room, you know which colour to turn to.

2. Books

Buying books can be costly, so try out your local library especially if you are not sure what your style is as yet. Check out local book shops and brows through various homes books. Search through Amazon, if you open up an account they will also give you recommendations based on your search results.

3. Blogs

There are a huge amount of Homes bloggers out there, all eager to share their homes, ideas and inspiration with you, start following a few and also see who they follow too! Check out the books that they love, you will get a feel for the ones that are the sure favourites once you start following a few blogs. We bloggers know a good book when we see it. Afew that I like are;

http://www.decor8.com/

http://www.younghouselove.com/

http://www.theletteredcottage.net/

http://www.brightbazaar.blogspot.com/

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/

4. Flickr

Have you got your own flickr account? its a great way of saving images you come across and also collect your own pictures you take of your own home. Join a few groups there are so many of them you will be spoilt for choice!

5. Homes shows.

There are usually plenty of shows about Homes and interiors going on around the globe, a great place to source new ideas and products for the home, whether it be just a simple decor update, or plans of a new home extension. Do a google search for shows going on in your area.

6. On the High Street.

check out the Home furnishing stores, and take a note of the ones that you are drawn to, pick up a store catalogue, most of the big ones will have one. Check out their online stores as well, sometimes online you can find special offers that are not available in store.

Keeping it organised.

1. Start a filing system

If you don't mind tearing up your magazines, start a filing system, tear out pages and pop them into plastic folders and binder. I do this with older magazines before I can bring myself to throw them away, I also have them filed according to style, so I have beach style, country cottage style modern living etc etc. A good idea is to have a file for each room in the house that you want to decorate.

2. Online.

Make use of places online for storing images that catch your eye, get a Flickr account to add them to, and while your there join a few groups, ones that I like include Flea Market Style , a group inspired be the book Flea Market Style, off beat interiors, for off beat ideas, Young House love great for mood board ideas. More places to collect ideas include, http://www.houzz.com/ and http://www.decomyplace.com/.

3. Make an inspiration board

keep a pin board/notice board and collect things that inspire you. collect wall paper sample, and fabric samples, pin coloured items to the board that catch your eye, for example a sweet wrapper in a certain colour, or leaf collected on a walk. Note what colours and textures you are drawn to.

4. Get snappy

A great tool to have when out and about is a mobile phone with a camera, when you see something that inspires you whip out your phone and take a snap, it could be the colour of a flower, or a great looking building, or an item of furniture in a shop,this is great for if you spot something , but are not sure if it will match with everything else at home. When you get home, just add your photos to your flickr account, or where ever you choose to store your photos.

So armed with all this information, you are now ready to go start finding your own style, I hope this has helped you to find a system that works for you.

Happy collecting!

Watch and Marvel

Photo Made by Girl blog

We have all seen these lovely hand cut maps created by Famille Summerbelle, but do you know just how much work goes into creating one of these lovely maps, watch the link below and marvel.

avaiable to buy from:

Bodie and fou also a nice little interview here by Bodie and fou

Famille Summerbelle

Made by girl

Have a marvelous weekend!

Quick project, (not really a project at all)

OK, here is a really quick DIY project for you, not really a project, its SoOOo simple, I got the idea for this from all over the place, a bit from here, a bit from here and a bit from here.

you will need

1. A photo frame that fits a piece of A4 paper in it.
2. A4 printer paper.
3. A phrase or saying that is personal to you and your loved ones.
4. A printer, preferably with some ink in it (this is why this has taken me sooo long to do this)

Firstly type out your phrase, or saying, and fill the page, if its just a short phrase copy and paste it until it fills the whole page. For the on above I typed, I Love You over and over again. Adjust your colour to a slightly lighter colour of black, then print this page out, and then put it back into the printer. Next type another phrase but make this larger, and adjust the colour to dark black, move it around on your page until you are happy with where it is, (do a page preview to see how it looks) for the one above I simply typed 1,4,3, if you are fans of The Lettered Cottage, you may get this, its so cute. Now print this out over the top of your all ready printed page. (you may have to do a test run with another piece of paper to see which way up your printer prints out, if that makes sense)

Take this out of the printer and Pop it into a frame and hey presto! Its really that simple...

You can really play around with this, try different colours, different fonts, and sizes, highlight one of two words etc etc... do let me know if you have a go, would love to see what you come up with, its sooo easy to do.

To brighten up a winters day.

Have you heard of Pear & Earl? I came across them today and fell in love with these bright and cheerful lovelies, perfect to brighten up a dull grey winters day. Inspired by all thing with a nostalgic charm, Pearl & Earl launched in 2008, and have just won The best home product 2010

awarded by Top Drawer for their new art prints, these needlepoint kits will bring fun and vibrancy to any room, I love the 2nd one down, I think it had me with home made jam and scones.

Check out the two sites (granny knits) for all things nostalgic. VW Camper van lovers will also be very happy!

These needle point kits are also available from the sister site Granny Knits

Finding Your own style: So far.

One thing I want to do this year (amongst other things) is to find a style that fits my home and fits me! I don't know about you, but I find it really hard to narrow down a style that I truly feel is right for my home family and myself, when it comes to interiors, I'm like a child in a sweet shop, and want a bit of everything. So I'm doing this exercise to try and pinpoint what I like when it comes to interiors, decor and home furnishings. And so far this is what I have come up with, (click the picture to enlarge it) have you had a go yet, if you haven't, and your are finding it hard to find your style, I suggest you have a go, the results may not be those that you expect. My results so far are certainly a surprise, having a huge pile of home magazines, mostly with a more home and country feel about them, I was expecting to see a certain amount of pink flower and floral emerge, but actually that's not what I have been drawn to! The picture above is a mix of old but with a modern influence thrown in for good measure, not at all country.

Next week Finding your own style: Part two.

Three beautiful things

Today's post was inspired by the blog Three Beautiful Things which I came across the other day, and these paper creations seem to fit the bill.

My Mum use to say that when I was a little girl I had a thing about cutting up bits of paper, and there use to be a trail of random things cut up or glued around the house, well it seems that I have never really grown out of the cutting up bits of paper thing, I feel its always a shame to waste a pretty piece of paper or in the instance above, some wallpaper and a Greengate spring summer catalogue that where just far to nice to just throw away, so the pages of the catalogue have become these pretty little paper creations, and the wallpaper has become an origami box.

Very simple but most effective, I like to fill the boxes with chocolates and take them round to give to the host when invited for a meal to Friends homes. I have seen the little birds flying around on other blogs, but cant remember just where, when I spotted the pretty pages of the catalogue these just seems to fit so nicely. So there you have it, three Beautiful Things.

Crafters out in force!

Rinky dink Designs

Awaiting link

Home Bird Decor
Website coming soon but can be found on twitter

Theresa Robinson Pottery

Anna Le Sueur, only sells local at the moment.

I love going to craft fair events and this month there are markets taking place all over the Island. Local jersey crafters' are pulling out all the stops this year, and there is a growing entrepreneurial trend sweeping over the island, the talent is amazing, every time I visit a craft fair there is somebody new creating more lovely items for the home. I caught up with one of these events on Thursday which was actually being held in someones home! the whole house had been turned into mini crafters market, and the smell of lavender, cinnamon sticks and mulled wine was filling the air with an intoxicating aroma, lovely. In each room there where lovely hand made items to delight and tempt you from beach inspired home accessories, to lovely rustic pottery, and lavender filled hearts and pillows. There where the old favourites who I have bought from in the past and some new faces, who I will be watching and probably buying from in the future! If you are lucky enough to live local I can highly recommend visiting these events to hunt out these lovely hand made items for your home.

Take a pair of shutters

Before

Here's a quick before and after, I had intended to dispose of these shutters a while back, but a they have been sitting in the spare room and today I had a light bulb moment and a spare couple of hours to hand, and voila, its amazing what a lick of paint can do for an unused item. rested against the window in my kitchen I think they look rather nice. But I intend to have a bit of a play around with them during the rest of the week and see how they can be used decoratively around the house, tune in latter, as they say.

After.

The Upholstery Course So Far...

You may remember that in September I started a couple of short courses, one of them being upholstery, (find previous post about it here) well I thought I would treat you to a little update on how things are going, I did repaint the chair black as you can see from the photos above, and so far the the chair has undergone a new webbing base, added new springs, (the holes in the bottom where not gun shot holes as I had first suspected, but rather the old springs that had some how parted company leaving 3 great big holes, though I think the gun shot story had a better ring to it..see here) and the first cover of hessian. Now I know that that does not sound like a lot has gone on, but let me tell you, its actually quite a physical job to reupholster a chair, you would not believe how many tacks embedded into the wood you have to first remove, then there is the filling in of all the holes again, sanding painting etc etc. Things would of moved on a little quicker if I had been able to get my hand on the correct equipment and tools, living on an Island sometimes throws up the problem of nobody stocking what you need, so for now things have come to a halt, as I now need some pretty big needles, and stuffing, then some wadding and more hessian to finish it off.....I'm running out of steam with this and am seriously considering handing it to a proper upholster to finish it off....

Before

After

I did however finish off one piece of furniture, (well almost, I'm thinking of painting the legs so I need another trip to B&Q again) a footstool which had an orange cover to it, very 70s, which I thought would make a good practice piece before taking on the chair (I thought I was being ambitious with the chair until I saw what some of the other ladies where working on... a HUGE chaise lounge!) I gave it a new lease of life by adding a patch work cover, then i spotted the colourful edging at the Charity shop and added it to the edge and ... voila much better.

Have you done anything like this given a new lease of life to something? Are you learning new skills in these times to chiconomy?

Tuesday flower arrangement.

Last night was as usual my flower arranging night, and this has to be my favourite arrangement to date, ( a hand tied bouquet) in fact if I where going to use a flower arrangement to sum up me and my style, I think this would be it. I love these colours together with the use of the rustic twig balls, and then the unruly bits escaping over the edges. The brief for this weeks arrangement was to make a hand tied arrangement, and display it in a bag, most of the ladies bought in nice paper gift bags and boxes, me being me left it until the last minute to get organised and had to improvise with the bag, I used one of those log bags that you buy you winter fire logs in, and actually I think it worked rather well!

Next week is my last week of flower arranging, and I have to say that all in all, I did enjoy it, and have learnt to be more creative with my flowers, I love using flower around my home, and now I will be more creative with my use of flowers.

If you had to pick a flower arrangement to sum your self up what would it look like? something exotic, or modern or perhaps something very country.....

Flower arrangement.

Flower arrangement no. 4.

This is the creation made last night at my flower arranging class, and I am pleased with how it turned out over all, although it was meant to have a candle sticking up out of the middle, but I decided to take it out as the one I had just was not big enough, and was looking a little lost amidst the flowers. I'm loving having fresh flowers in the house every week, and most of the time the flowers come from small country side shops or from honesty stalls along the road side, I think the most I have spent on the flowers so far is £5.00, and I got two dispalys from this little lot!

Needle point meets pop culture.

Hello to you all, hope you had a fab weekend, did you sleep well? Good, but next time you find it difficult to nod off at night instead of counting sheep or reading a book, or what ever you like to do to help induce sleep, how about trying your hand at one of these great tapestry designs, made by stitch up designs

The six tapestry kits above have been created by Alex who recently started a tapestry kit company that specializes in modern designs inspired by pop cultural trends such as skulls, union Jacks and graffiti.

Having been unable to find designs that fitted her taste, Alex set about making her own designs, and after a great response from friends and family to the skull design, Alex wondered if she had accidentally stumbled on to a good idea for a new business and things have grown from there.

The range currently comprises of six designs that are quick and easy to complete, the canvas comes pre-printed with user friendly instructions included. Alex says she wants people who have never bought a kit before to be tempted to give it a go and discover the pleasure that comes with making something special with their own hands, and apparently it is a good way of relaxing and aiding a good night sleep as well!

Personaly I love the butterfly kit with the vivd pink back ground, what would be your choice, the skull maybe or the union Jack?

Currently available from Alex's Etsy shop here and also from Liberty, John Lewis, and rockettstgeorge.co.uk

Chair update. To paint or not to Paint.

If you are a regular reader you may remember that as of this Monday coming I will be starting an upholstery course, and the piece of furniture that I hope to breath new life into will be a chair that has spent the last 18 or so years in the attic, well here is a little up date for you, its been stripped of its tatty seating and padding, (by me!) sanded back and is now ready to be painted. Although if the men in my life had there way (and by men I mean my Dad and Brother) it would not be painted black! " its a lovely piece of wood" said my Dad, its just spent the best years of its life in the attic with no one bothered about it! So Yes I want to paint it black and add bright bold fabric to it to give it a fun lively young feel.

So one trip to B&Q later and here is the primer and paint to start the transformation, I have chosen a Matt black for wood so hope this does the trick, probably be starting this over the weekend.
What are your thoughts on painting furniture? love it or hate it....

Craft and Market day

Well I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, the sun was shinning yesterday and I popped down to the local Farmers and Craft market in St. Aubins, just to have a wonder around you understand, but the stall holders where out in force, music was playing, lovely food smells where wafting in the air, and some of my favourite stalls where there displaying all the type of things I love, hand crafted, hand painted, homemade, and needless to say my money did not stay in my purse very long! I spotted the stall of Anna Le Sueur, you may recall she featured earlier on in the year here ,and I just had to have one of the gorgeous little sewing tidy cats (below). Isn't it lovely?

I also spotted the stall of Nanette Regan of Area Thrifty One, who designs and makes lovely soft toys and dolls, and I have added one of these dolls to my wish list, you can just about make it out in the picture below with the pink arrow pointing at it; a sassy little rag doll with lost of character and charm, a doll for big girls like me I think! You can see more of these lovely creations here, here, and on flickr here.