July Patio and Allotment Bringing so Much Joy

 

I love the idea of having an allotment and growing my own so when I was accepted three years ago, I was absolutely thrilled. I had to start everything from scratch as I had limited knowledge of how to do it and what to grow. Starting from the premise of growing what you eat, some of the produce that I make sure I have every year are beans, courgettes, cucumbers for pickling, some seasonal salads, and herbs. 

Sicilian Inspired Bedroom - Part I

One of the things recommended by psychologists to keep you sane in these strange times is to make plans for the future. From planning your next holiday to hosting a garden party for when this will be safe, nothing is too insignificant to make a significantly positive contribution to your overall wellbeing.

Recycle, Reuse, Re-purpose: Garden Planter in a Bathtub

When we moved into our new home, in the bathroom we had both a shower cabin and a bathtub. As we are shower people, we decided to take the bathtub out and make some more useful room for storage and re-purpose the bathtub as a planter in the garden. We cut it around the edges to make it shorter and we started filling it with soil, compost and grit. What we hope is to have flowers and plants all year round, meaning bulbs in spring and various summer flowers later on as well as decorative grasses for the winter months. I also added the painted rocks to have some colours for the in-between flowerings. 

Patio Decor on a Budget

When I think outdoor space, I have this image in my head from when I was a little girl in my home country and I used to play in the balcony in the summer when it was raining. It was something magical about the sound of the rain, the smell of the wet earth, the warmness outside despite the rain and the image of the clouds above the mountains in the distance and over the high hills just in front of our balcony. I was lucky enough to spend the first ten years of my childhood in a picturesque place in Romania, close to the mountains where spending the holidays hiking and foraging wild berries were a given.

Spices Cupboard Makeover

Take a grey-ish cupboard bought on Christmas sale, white primer and black chalkboard paint and you get a lovely spices cupboard that can be also used to write recipes on. Ta-da!

Greetings from My Studio

I know that artists have a reputation for being messy and untidy and while I am both, I also like to have an organized studio (as paradoxically as it may sound). Partly, because I like to get into a tidy studio when I start a project (it is like starting a painting with a blank canvas), partly because my working room is still a guest room as well. 

Decorate with Art

This is just a showcase of my art collection that includes art prints, original art, pottery, fused glass and hand painted ceramic, as well as some of my own pieces. 

Framed card by late Mary Sumner and original mini painting by Bijuterii Art.

New Home, New Kitchen

You know those signs that say 'The kitchen came with the house'? This is exactly how I feel for various reasons. I don't really enjoy cooking, so a kitchen is not my favourite room in a house. On the other hand, I like home cooked meals so cooking is something that I have to do as it is cheaper and healthier. On a side note, one of the reasons why I don't have a microwave is because I don't want to be tempted to buy ready meals so if I don't have one, I really have to cook. My husband does some cooking, but it is mainly me. The fact that the house came with a bigger kitchen than the one we had is fairly exciting, so is the fact that it came with a range cooker. And by 'fairly' I mean a kind of 'so and so'.

Cottage Style Dining Area

One of the features that we liked about the house when we first viewed it was this window between the kitchen and dining area, including the sage green paint that we decided to keep. Luckily we had everything for the dining area, the second-hand table and the mixed and matched chairs as well as this lovely display cabinet that I was honored to be featured with over at Handmade Monday. In the meantime, another cabinet appeared as storage for my husband and now the look is complete. It looks cosy and warm with a perfect view through the kitchen and all the way to the patio garden.

Yellow and Grey Bedroom

For someone who likes colour, this could be too much white, BUT all the accessories are rather colourful and I thought that a white background will make them stand out. I also quite like different shades of white and off-white as well as various textures from painted wood and ply to stripes and squares. Despite the colorful accessories I mentioned, I managed to implement a yellow and grey combination with splashes of blues, lime greens, and turquoise. The effect is a calming room that we absolutely love. 

Storage Solution for My Husband

You know how I can't resist a bargain in a charity shop. And this piece was only £20! As my OH needed something to store his gadgets, cables and other uselessful stuff he was also taken not just by the price but by the piece itself too. Luckily, I had some leftover furniture paint and wood paint and I used white wood paint for the main part of the piece and mustard yellow, turquoise and chalkboard paint for the accents. My OH loves it and we both like how it fits next to the cabinet in the dining area and it is amazing how many things he managed to hide away in it!  

New Home, New Studio

There is a reason why I have been so quiet in the last couple of months: we purchased our first house and besides enjoyment and planning the decoration, there were other not-so-enjoyable things to sort out. We got the keys on Friday and we started decorating straight away. There will be a few posts showing room by room photos as we complete decorating them, but I will start with my studio which was (nearly) completed in three days.