Country Living Spring Fair

My daffodils present themselves beautifuly in front of our house.

The Spring has finally arrived so did Country Living Spring Fair. By the entrance there was this lovely beautifuly scented garden. It reminded me of the Chelsea Flower Show. The garden was just perfect and very colourful. I was expecting the show to be very busy as it was Saturday and lots of people visit at the weekend; in places it was so busy that getting through was almost impossible. The main reason I booked the saturday was the seminars; Colour in the home Presented by Joe Studholme, Farrow and Ball paints and Laura Ashley Decorating Workshop, Seminar. I love both and would regret not being part of it. Joe was absolutely fantastic and talked about the colour schemes. For some all the shades of white (neutral colour) look very similar almost the same. We got a mood chart which shows 4 groups of tones; warm grey tones, warm reds, yellow tones, cool greys. All can be found on their website but having someone talking about the colour, styles of decorating, use of colour and wallpapers was great and very inspiring. I met lovely Gabriella aka Moobaacluck She creates gorgeous personalised wooden decorations; prints, canvases and stationery for special occasions, children's rooms, the home. Gabriella is also a very talented painter and has done book illustrations. I love all her paintings especially paintings of flowers; like this beautiful poppies

I treated myself to this lovely print of red tulips which can still be purchased from Gift Wrapped and Gorgeous

The next place I stopped by was Country Styled Homes and met lovely Larch.

Country Styled Homes is an online shop which sell a range of handmade simple, Shaker and New England-style gifts and decorative items for both home and garden.

Many of the products are handmade including hand-painted wooden items, hand-made homespun scented gifts, personalised embroidered hearts and other items as well as wreaths, garlands and hearts made from dried flowers and fruits. For crafters they stock a range of dried fruit, lavender, herbs and spices, wooden and tin shapes and shells and a range of homespun fat quarters.

On the stand I spotted egg cosie and notebook by Jane Lindsey aka Snapdragon, another great designer which I have been following for some time now.

Beauitful cards

I absolutely loved the hanging boats

Hearts - my favourite subject

more lovely cards, hearts and tea cosy

The sea side theme looked fantastic.

I really enjoyed my day at the Spring Fair and I will definitely be going for the Christmas one later on this year.

My Home....

While the paint is drying on couple of cupboards I thought I would introduce you to my home.

You will find all sorts in my house. I love all vintage, painted, handmade and cute. Most of my plates come from car boot sales which I visit very often in the summer. I just love rummaging through others stuff and find something interesting that screams "me"! I never look at how much something might be worth only how much I love it!

I have painted most of our reclaimed furniture in Farrow and Ball colours. I love the finish and how the colour changes in different light.

I have recently discovered Annie Sloan paint so there will be more pieces with the lovely French, worn look and a bit more colour :)

We have been living in our Victorian town house for a bit over a year. A lot has changed since we moved in and a lot will change in the next few years (months hopefully). The house is just perfect and big enough for 3 of us and our hobbies :)

We recently extended upwards to the loft and created a design/sewing/craft room. The room is very light and inspiring.

I covered a pine unit with different wallpapers from B&Q. I love the colours! The unit is just perfect for storing all my bits and bobs.

I have recently bought a lovely sewing machine......and made some pictures.......

My house feels very cosy and inviting. I love vintage cushions and crochet blankets.

Over the past couple of years I have collected lots of vintage plates and cups and tea pots. All of them I placed on a dresser in our living room> The dresser is painted in F&B colour and it looks just perfect!

.....and things I cannot live without at the moment :)

The beginning.......

I have had a very exciting week and decided to put my passions on "paper" in e-space.
I have been painting and making since I remember.
I was brought up in Poland and the only thing I remember doing on winter, cold evenings were cross stitch and knitting. I still have some of the pictures I made and will publish them very soon.

In the past week I have been busy painting furniture and trying new paint (to me) made by Annie Sloan. The paint is absolutely amazing and inspiring. http://www.anniesloan.com/

I used to use Farrow and Ball paints and loved every piece I painted but Annie's paint is so versatile.

I painted a desk that we had in my husband's studio
.... picture of before and after. I used Duck egg blue and Old white on the top with dark wax all over (I am still practising it)




I have also found an amazing shop run by Karen called Country Mouse http://www.countrymousehome.co.uk/ and she showed me all the paints and how to use them. She has been absolutely amazing! x

Now I just need to practise........I have also painted one of my pine corner units to display my vintage tins.....this is how it came out......not 100% happy but will be better next time.....




I have more great stuff coming so watch this space :) x