Variation on a Theme

Flowers and Vintage Books...

Yesterday I went a bit mad with the camera and took 500

 shots of a few flowers from my neighbour's garden (none in mine at the moment sadly...).

 Rather than go mad and post them in one go,I'll split 

them into different themes and posts.

I gave myself 2 hours and based the shots on flowers with

a stack of vintage books and postcards.

The postcard on view in these shots is one of my 

favourites because of the beautiful script.

The other cards in the pile are gifts from 

Private Quine of Shepherd's Bush, London, to his

wife and daughters Win and Doll. 

They were all written from his his 7th London Regiment,

 no 15 camp, le Havre in 1916.

When I actually turned them over and read this, 

I found it very moving and touching. I wonder if he ever made it home to Win and Doll....

This little post is dedicated to the memory of them...

Before and After

Before and After Series...Part 1...The Living Room.

Part of Holly Becker's Blogging Your Way Ecourse course is

 to come up with two new feature ideas for your blog and post them this week.

 Although hardly an innovative idea, I find looking at other
peoples' homes and the whole renovating process fascinating,
so I thought I'd do a few shots on Trend Daily

 so that you may follow our little home adventure! 

Back in 2005 we moved from a very pretty 2 bed cottage into a

 relatively un-spectacular 1960s house in the next village. 

What we lost in charm we made up for with lots of light and space

 and the chance to make our stamp on our first real family home.

Fast forward to 2012 and even though the builders have long gone,
 the house and garden are still far from finished-
in my mind at least. My taste is so eclectic, that nothing seems to stay the same
 for more than 5 minutes, as I continually shuffle things around
 or come home with yet another charity shop find! 


I'm quite surprised at how the look is developing. 
I guess I never really had a particular look or style in mind-
it just keeps evolving. Unfortunately my tastes seem to change on a regular basis
 and even so early on in the decorating process,
 there are already some things I wouldn't mind changing again-eventually...!


So, here is our living room for part one of the series.
 Soft yellow walls and blue carpets-apologies to those of you who
 like this combination, but it was the first thing to go for us. 
Isn't there something nice about finding a house that has so much potential!

                                                                 Living Room before shots.

Shot 1. Ok, so they're not the prettiest of windows, but at least they're big!


Shot 2. A very traditional and cheap pine fire surround.


Shot 3. Looking out to the front and our very well worn Ikea sofa bed.


Shot 4. This room is the original extension. You can see here
where the first owners knocked through right next to the chimney.




The first thing I had to change was the layout downstairs. Space planning
is my real passion-I can spend hours and hours on it and I did ,
 amending my plans more times than I care to remember. I couldn't get my head 
around the fireplace hanging on the end of the wall, so 
we literally took the door away from the dining room next door and
put it in here with a new stud wall...
Now we have a completely separate room-much better!

Photograph by Graeme Ainscough


Graeme and I have worked together on many projects over the past 20 years.
He very kindly took some wide angle shots for me for a magazine feature.
 All other photos are by me, either with my Canon Eos 400D or Evie's I Pod Touch!

This wonderful 1960's sideboard was actually featured in Elle Decoration and I had the best luck finding it on ebay for the princely sum of £320!! The Dandelion Clocks wallpaper is by Sanderson.

Photograph by Graeme Ainscough


The wonderful dusky pink armchair in this shot was borrowed from
 a local shop for the magazine shot.
 Unfortunately I was unable to by it at the time, but it did look great!
 We also borrowed the mirror and decorative accessories.
The shelving system was from Ilva, a wonderful Danish furniture superstore
 that made a very brief appearance in the UK, but suffered terribly
 with the location for it's launch. Come back Ilva!

The 1970's Danish armchair and lobster pot stool were
 finds at the vintage fair at Farnham Maltings.

The felt throw and bobble cushion are both by En Gry & Sif.
 The large cushion is an original, 'Seaweed,' designed in 1954 for Arthur Sanderson.
The mustard trunk was made to transprort decorative accessories
 from India-cheap and cheerful and quite handy for hiding
 all our rubbish-of which there's plenty of!

I keep meaning to frame some photos, but I never quite get round to it,
 so this is our current wall display! The beautiful handmade pressed flower paper
 was a present from Jon. The oil painting was a charity shop find for £1
 and just a few photos of our little kiddies Evie and Gabriel!


A huge thank you to 2 of my oldest and dearest friends Gilly and Tish
for making my wonderful curtains for me. I
pretended to help, but I'm really not very good at that sort of thing! xx


I can't quite decide which room to feature next in the makeover series-
we'll just have to see-how exciting! Meanwhile, if you'd like
 a sneak peak at a few other rooms, take a look at a feature by one of my Blogging Your Way
 pals, the very talented Igor at his lovely Happy Interior blog.
 Igor very kindly featured me in
 his Happily Ever After Series-thank you-again-Igor! 


Happy Weekend all! x 

Styling Details

Vintage Mirror and Flowers...

I realized last week that my 'compact and bijou' study makes

 a fantastic (mini) studio! So now I work in the play room in the mornings, 

at the kitchen table over lunchtime and my little office once the kids 

are home from school-all to catch the best light!

After shooting the wild strawberries for my last post,

 I picked a few more flowers from the garden just before the rest got 

battered by the torrential rain and wind we've had this week. 

What happened to Summer?!

I have a vintage mirror which makes a great background for the photos, 

along with my Dad's old French book from school, my favourite vintage postcard 

and a palm sized piece of driftwood we found on the beach in France this Easter. 

I hope you like my latest practice shots! 

Styling Details

A Story In White...
                               After a fair few colourful features for my recent posts,

           I felt the need for some calm and simplicity.Today the sun came out!!

      So I decided to practice a little more with my camera:

       With focus, lighting, composition

     a play on scale...

I've taken inspiration from the wonderful Jeanette at

By Fryd and her inspiring teaching 

 on  Holly's Blogging Your Way ecourse.

Launch...Joules Home

Joules bedlinen range, brand new for 2012

For my final post in the Bedeck Bedlinen Launch series, I'm pleased to feature the first ever bedlinen range from Joules.

It's almost impossible to believe that Tom Joule started selling his own range of clothing under the Joules brand name just 12 years ago. That's not to say the company appeared like a bolt out of the blue, but as the result of 20 highly successful years selling branded goods and country wear at equestrian events. Working with his father, their highly effective retail merchandising and advice given to their customers gave him the boost he needed to branch out with his own line of clothing.

Fast forward to 2012 and Jules' first ever bed and bathware collection...

Behind the scenes press show shots at The Swiss Church:

Deckchair Stripe

Piggy Cat Farm

Coastal Birds

English Garden

Circus

Throws

                           

Joules stockist number: 0845 250 7160
www.joules.com

Bedeck stockist number: 0845 603 0861
www.bedeck.com

Launch...Designers Guild

Designers Guild Bedlinen...new for 2012


Part 4 of Bedeck's bedlinen launch at The Swiss Church London features just a few shots from the Designers Guild display.

 For the full range, take a look at the Designers Guild website and for your nearest stockist contact
0207 893 7400.


Next post and to round up the bedlinen launch feature, the first ever bedlinen range from Joules!

Launch...Sanderson

Sanderson 2012 Bedlinen Range


Part 3 The bedlinen launch series

A few more snaps from Bedeck's press show at the Swiss Church London, featuring the latest design's from iconic British brand Sanderson.

With a total of 13 bedlinen collections to their name, Sanderson showcased Adele Blue, Adele Raspberry, Tiger Stripe and Ottoline.

Pictures shown are a combination of  images from the press show and Sanderson's own photography.

Below I've highlighted 3 of my favourite shots from the collage for you to take a closer look!

For your nearest stockist check the Sanderson website or contact 0844 543 9500.

The next post will feature a few shots from the new Designers Guild Range, followed by the first ever bedlinen range from Jules!

Styling Details

A little more practice with my camera and of course, Instagram...

Happy Monday Dear Readers!
Today is the third day into our Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend, when I expect most of us in the UK will be too busy with festive activities to check in quite as regularly to the blogging world.
For those of you not in old Blightey who may happen to glance at my little blog, I thought I'd make the effort to post some more of my own pictures for the new week.

As lucky as I am to be invited to Press Launches and have the opportunity to share them with you here, it feels a little strange not to have posted some of my own shots for so long. Producing my own work for Trend Daily is primarily what I would like my new blog to be about (your thoughts and opinions greatly appreciated!), hence a few more practice shots with my DSLR! I'm hoping to take a short course in photography to give me the technical know-how to produce beautiful shots, but until then I will keep practicing as often as I can!

One of the practice shots from an earlier styling with vintage apple crates post here.

Our very kind neighbour James has lent me two of his lenses whilst I save up for my own! These flower close ups are from my first test with a macro lens.

A close-up detail playing with textures-a vintage mirror from the flea market.

More flower details and vintage postcards from my own collection.

I made this cheesecake for my friend's birthday last month and made a very last minute decision to photograph it before everyone came round for coffee! Needless to say it could have done with a little longer in the fridge, but priorities...!!

My favourite Spanish lavender has featured in previous posts and I picked up what I think must be a spinner's tool at a recent vintage fair at the wonderful Farnham Maltings-well worth a visit.

Flower details, vintage postcard and vintage serving fork which I found at the back of a drawer in my 1940's kitchen cabinet!

Vintage serving fork and oil on canvas-which I adore, but actually belongs to my lovely neighbour, who every so often lends me a few bits and bobs to photograph-thank you Rachael!

Fading Narcissi, but still very beautiful.

I hope you have enjoyed a few of my pictures. The remaining posts from Bedeck's bedlinen launch will go live this week, followed by a day on a photographic shoot for Living in Store. For some of my previous product styling for Living In Store with photographer Graeme Ainscough, please take a look at their site here.

Have a great start to the week everybody!