lately

• had a clear out at mum and dad's house
• found a nice egg in the charity shop
• been wrapping presents
• found a tape in the car
• pelargoniums keep on flowering indoors
• our monstera is getting huge

I really love magazines

Not the glossy gossip kind they sell in the newsagent but the type you have to hunt out: either through small independent bookstores, the Internet or somewhere unexpected. I love searching them out in bookstores: eagerly picking them up, peeking inside to sense if they appeal as much as the jacket might lead me to believe. On the Internet I'm more likely to search by subject then judge by the cover if this is a magazine for me.

In my mind magazines need to be beautiful. I want a magazine with good looks, well designed, exceptional photography or illustration. I want them to be styled and to be stylish. They need to feel good too: nice paper, pages you want to turn, they need to be interesting, to make sense, to be well written. It's hard to find a magazine that has it all, but there are some really goodies out there, you have to seek them out and once you do you'll be eagerly anticipating the next issue.

Some of my current favourites

The Plant

Apartamento

Neptún

Modern Design Review

Cos Stores Magazine

Brownbook

hoard or collect - christmas baubles

Some of these are from my childhood, others we've picked up here and there. I don't recall a year passing when we haven't added another bauble or decoration to the collection. I photographed these as I packed away after Christmas 2013, so this isn't quite everything that we have to adorn our tree this year. I'm not sure yet when we'll get the tree up, we're usually quite last minute in this house. But if you're keen to see how it'll look, I imagine it won't be too different from how it was here, just a little more on it!

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lately

• the best tray from IKEA and our streptocarpus seems to be doing well
• great shapes, from the train window
• a sweet little pot from the charity shop
• ready for guests in the spare room
• zig-zags in the car park
• wearing new melissa shoes, as I wait for the train
• plants in the bedroom
• another nice find in the charity shop

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lately

I'm a little obsessed with plants these days. You may well have noticed here on the blog! 

• Best way to pass time on the train, The Plant journal
• bluebells peeking through the lavender
• more plants in the studio
• a pretty auricula, named Argus
• a lonely plant on the tracks
• making moodboards
• it's not just me, Mouse loves the garden too
• taking over the spare room

found in the press

I photographed my March garden moodboard over the weekend, as I packed away I decided to press a few of the flowers. I unscrewed the press to find these, from August 2013, you'll see them with a little more life and colour here.

lately

Hello! Hope you are all well. It seems ages since my last post. Life has been busy, especially at work; a staff art show I entered, book deadlines, getting stuff ready for the fairs and then this past week various events to participate in. It's all been a lot of fun, a fair amount of pressure and I can tell you I'm glad things there will be a little calmer over the coming weeks, but mostly I'm just looking forward to this weekend. I plan to relax, get out and enjoy some fresh air. 

I really hope you all enjoyed my last post, I love the Creatives Series so much and hopefully I'll share a few more lovely and incredibly talented people with you soon.

If you follow me on Instagram, chances are you'll have seen some of these before, if that's the case I apologise!

• flowers from D, that lasted so well
• a box of delights and pide 
• a happy hanger from the car boot
• flowers on a rather nice Ikea tray
• looking out the train window

thoughts - mine and yours

I photographed these doilies earlier today. Isn't it frustrating the only time to take pictures, this time of year, is early in the day when the light is at it's best? It's annoying only having two days working from home a week when I can squeeze a little photography into my lunch break - and you see I didn't find time to press them! Of course there are weekends too but we're normally busy doing stuff that doesn't involve me faffing around with the likes of doilies and my camera! Sharing these few reminds me I must try and photograph some more of my collections of this and that, you'll find some I've shot in the past if you care to scroll through here. Part of the faffing around today was trying to photograph a small something I have to giveaway - a little autumnal thank you to those of you who keep popping back to this little space of mine, so do keep your eyes peeled for that coming up soon. 

This picture was an over from here, those two little berries - like eyes looking out remind me Christmas is coming and I'm not quite ready to think about that - are you? D's mum is forever asking what we are doing and I'm just not ready to commit! 

I had thought I might open a little online shop and sell a few cards and other things I've made, but after being on a payroll for a few years now the thought of getting involved with tax returns terrifies me. I always remember the thought of having to do it hanging over me like a cloud, for months on end. I'm sure if you make enough money it's worth paying someone else to do it for you, but I don't see that ever being the case here. Do you have any thoughts on that? Am I being silly? Is it really not a big deal, what do you think? Do you have any tips? Please do share.

some finds

We love to rummage through car boots, and bric a brac shops, though we've been restrained of late, instead taking hold of what we've got. Our spare room has now been decorated, the walls painted and floor lovingly repaired, all by my Dad. At last some of our treasures have a room to call their own. I can't remember where we found the mirror now, it's been hanging around for a long while waiting to find it's spot. The trolley, D found years ago dumped behind where he used to work - covered in rust, it cleaned it up pretty well. The rug came from a car boot earlier this year, the mosaic dish from a bric a brac shop near here and the stool we rescued from being thrown out, back at the block where we lived in London. All the room needs now is a bed then it will be complete - a little retreat for friends and family to stay. Plus I'm sure we've still a few more treasures tucked away!

happiness in the kitchen

Did you know happiness can lurk draws? It can for me, I'm not sure what it is exactly, a collection of things I like or just knowing I have everything I need. Whatever it is, for me these are a happy place. 

more nice finds

Isn't this yellow bowl wonderful, I love the zingy yellow and those little handles either side. You can tell this image was taken a few weeks ago by the hyacinths, I just love them and am slowly trying to fill the garden - well a little area (see here).

And I promised to share a few more of my favourites, have a look here, here and here.

some nice finds

Some nice little finds, I've a whole cabinet of vases - can you ever have too many? I don't think so. I like these with their dots and muted tones.

I've not been catching up with so many blogs lately - it's the weather it's been so good here in the UK that combined with the lighter evenings means I'm out in the garden at every opportunity. But I still find a few minutes to catch up with my favourite blogs,  there are some I look forward to immensely, and when I spot them in my reader I go straight to them this one and this one, I'll share some more another time ;-)

long time coming

I've wanted this tin a long time. I've seen a few of them over the years but always priced at more than I'd like to spend, till last Saturday when I bought this one. It's a little worn, but I just adore it and the man I bought it from at the car boot was so nice, one of those folk with a few stories to tell, that's what I like on a sunny Saturday morning.

garden treasure

Do you find things in the garden when you're digging? We do. Mostly bits of rubble and flint, worms too of course - Tit and Pie are straight in the hole after them. But sometimes we find treasure, well little things I keep, these things.

hanging out in margate 3

I mentioned back here that we visited Margate's Shell Grotto. The grotto was first discovered back in 1835 and has been an attraction ever since. It's all a big mystery, no one knows anymore than that, though there are of course plenty of theories as to how and when it came about and what the patterns depict. It's pretty amazing, I came away with a head full of ideas for a little shell cavern at the bottom of our garden [have I ever mentioned my shell collection]! 

If you're heading to Margate you might like this post too. 

spring has sprung

Today felt really spring-like here in the UK. I popped out briefly this morning and had to grab sunglasses as I left the house! I also enjoyed eating lunch in the garden with the warmth of the sun on my back as Tit and Pie quacked and pecked at my feet. 

We had a busy weekend spent entirely in the garden. We got a new shed (a mini dutch barn), a gift from my parents, they bought it for a good price in the sale at our local garden centre. The good price meant we had to dismantle it ourselves, hire a lorry to transport it home and then re-erect it in the garden. D and my Dad did most of the hard work, Mum and I just helped out when needed and carried on with other jobs; pruning the last of the apple trees - a job I finally finished, as well as moving our compost heap to its new home. We all ache a bit today! But the shed is up - it looks wonderful, feels like the garden is really taking shape. I'll show you another time.

• this cute old ted caught my eye, last weekend, when a friend and I went rummaging through the junk shops of Clare in Suffolk. 
• the metal sign was an 18th birthday gift from my parents (quite a while ago now, but I still love it)
• sunglasses and a pretty woodland vase

lately

• misty down the Lea Valley
• a wonderful story found lurking in the charity shop
• my perfect lunch
• making a necklace ready for spring and mending another
• a feast of cheese from an italian market
• coloured gems hidden in the garden (see here)
• crowded commuter trains
• our neighbour's ducks 
• oranges wrapped in glorious graphics

car boot bounty

We often start our Sunday with a visit to our local car boot sale. It's hit and miss, like they always are. I used to be disappointed when we didn't find something, now I feel a sense of relief when we come home empty handed. I don't want our home to become cluttered leaving us unable to see the treasures amongst the toot. I've become more picky over the years, and try to limit myself, sometimes I'll turn away from something that needs a bit of restoration knowing we don't really have the time for it, or if the colour or pattern doesn't make my heart skip a beat. Walking away can be hard especially when you know just a few hours work could make something really special. In those instances it's nice to think your leaving something good for someone else to find. 

A few recent treasures - that I couldn't resist:

• Big battered tin with a slightly batty design
• Quality Street tin
• Pyrex ramekins in pretty shades
• Nordic warrior [whose beard was in need of a good wash and blow dry]

You can see more tins here

hoard or collect - plates

Hoard or Collect is a little series, sharing the collections that fill our home. It crossed my mind to dedicate a day to this, "Hoard or Collect Wednesdays maybe? but I don't think I will, I've enough routine without adding more. So every once in a while I'll share a little more of the joys [joys to me, feel free to disagree] around our home.

Today a few of my mis-matched plates. I've collected them for years, some have been passed down to me and though perhaps they don't 'go', they'll stay. I've remembered more in the top of the cupboard - I'll save those for another time, along with the bowls, the cups, the pyrex, the storage jars and umpteen other collections of this and that.

So what do you collect?

mother nature - the artist

I mentioned here how much I love a pebble, a rock, a stone. I love to feel the surface, to hold them in my hands feeling the knobbles and bobbles, the dips and dents. I love to hold them against my face to press the cold stone against my cheek. I admire their colours, the muted tones that seep from their skin, I wonder what's inside, how they'd look to be smashed open revealing their core, might they sparkle and shine, I want to know, but I dare not smash that perfect exterior.

From this beach.