We are redecorating the kitchen now....

I want my home to look SIMPLE    SOOTHING    RELAXED    ORGANIC    FRESH    CLEAN    CALM    SANE    SENSUAL
That's not too much to ask, is it?

Though it took some doing from our starting point 11 years ago which was this : (see also 4 March)

We worked our socks off, got to the point where we had simply had enough (do you do this?) and having got it to an acceptable condition more or less abandoned any further DIY for a number of years. So we are now doing that 'second pass' going back to all the bits we didn't finish, and quite enjoying  going at a more considered and rational pace, and making good decisions.

..tomorrow, some inspirational websites and books....

You do hear it said that looks don't count, whether it be of people, or clothes, or homes....but I contend that how things look affects how we feel quite profoundly whether we are aware of it or not.
Something that recently made me much clearer about what my preferred home style is - and by that I mean what kind of look pleases me most, aesthetically and psychologically - was stripping the sitting room bare to do some long overdue redecorating.

I realised just what a lift bare white empty space gives me. I love it. The more we removed, the more I liked it. I know it feels Spartan to some - I can see that - but it makes me feel, I don't know, more alive somehow! My surroundings really do have a powerful impact on how I feel.

Do you feel this? What kind of environment gives you a lift? And can you recreate that in any way in your home?

Here is the room after we finished - it just lacks flowers on the table....

This is how it looked when we moved in. It's good to have some 'before' photographs to remind you, isn't it? It makes you feel all the hard work is worthwhile!

I've never been a fan of the 'previously worn' look..

reduced to £24.99 !!   (people were  looking, if I didn't laugh I'd cry)

I think I've spotted a new trend!

An ad for Filofax, the paper personal organisers, describes them as:

                                                  'stylishly old-fashioned'

Will old-fashioned be the next big thing I wonder?

 




I fell in love. With this hat. Waited (im)patiently, and sure enough they reduced the price, from £45 to £12! Hurrah! I am so often lucky in sales.

The brim was huge, and would have looked fabulous on someone 5 foot 10 inches tall, so I started to unpick it, thinking it would take an age - but it unravelled beautifully and I kept going until I felt the brim was more in proportion to my 5 feet 0 inches - looks like spaghetti!

                                          Am now all set for that wedding....

I've been enjoying Love, Loss and What I Wore  written and illustrated by New Yorker Irene Beckerman, a slight book which briefly tells the author's life story through the clothes she wore from the 1940's to the 1990's. Starting with her Brownie uniform and dancing school outfits, through home made skirts to party dresses ( 'I almost got into trouble at that party. I think it was the dress.' ) to bridesmaid dresses and the trouser suit she wore to her first job interview, and more. Her memory helped I assume by the fact that she kept so many of her clothes!

The fun of course, is in remembering your own nearest equivalents. Best read in little bits, and had me looking through old photographs and asking my daughters what clothes they remember - both mine and their own. It will be fun to check this out with my sisters too. A nostalgia trip kind of read....

..which clothes in your life so far stand out in your memory ?....


 

I was talking with a friend about what to do with those clothes which bring back memories of happy occasions.

If you have plenty of room in your wardrobe then of course it's fine to keep them there, but if you don't?

If you know you won't actually wear them again but still want to keep them, I think you treat them as memorabilia  rather than as clothes, and put them somewhere other than in the wardrobe.

They could go in a box or second wardrobe to be brought out and looked at occasionally. Or you could make a decorative feature of them - hung on the wall, or on a pretty hanger on the back of the bedroom door or the front of the wardrobe door, or, my own preferred option, they could be photographed - on you, or on a hanger - this certainly takes up less space!

If you like keeping things this way click here for Gretchen Rubin on organising keepsakes (it's just not for me - more boxes in the loft?!)

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2011/04/keep-a-file-box.htlm

                                                                                     Shoes, oh coloured shoes!

I do tend to keep old ones....What for? Well because I loved them of course. (Note the past tense.) I went out on my first date wearing lace up school shoes. My Mum promised me a new pair of gunmetal, pointy toed slingbacks with a kitten heel 'but not his week' she said, and my heart sank into my black lace-ups....(he did ask me out again though - a lesson there..?)

My favourites? Audrey elegant, coloured plimsolls, jellies with sparkles, soft leather sandals. I've photographed them for fun and will get rid, finally, of the old ones I know I'll never wear again.

I've just realised that great shoes and a good haircut are the two things that do it for me! What, fashion wise, does it for you?  do share....

Green grows the garden, O!

And as the rain waters the plants I moved yesterday, I'm off for a haircut and a little clothes shopping - (looking for a replacement for the tired and shabby dressing gown....)

The underwear drawer is where one must be ruthless! Is it grey? Baggy? Past it? Never worn? OUT! No hesitation. Same with tights and socks, and how many pairs do I need anyway?

Nightwear, dressing gowns - I'm so fond of that worn out old tartan one though....

Make note to have a nice shopping expedition. Line the drawer with scented paper. Fresh start here, pretend it's my birthday..


..I find it really hard  to be ruthless or extravagant!! is this some kind of personality disorder I wonder, and is there a cure?