Let's talk shutters...

There's something intriguing about shutters isn't there, especially the interior sort. I think generally, we have pretty standard pre-conceptions for what a room should look like, and often items can influence what we believe the feel, decor and accessories a room might have.  I'm not sure you really believe me though, do you - so let's try a small, unscientific experiment.

Take a look at the image below, now what did you think the interior decor was like?

Photo by Brigitta Schneiter on Unsplash

Did you imagine a sparsely furnished room? With wood clad walls and minimalist decor? 

Photo credit: Direct Blinds

Or perhaps you imagined a roaring log fire, maybe a Christmas tree in the corner? Lots of lush colours, perhaps some tartan thrown into the mix?  Was the room cold, or cosy?

Me? I imagined a snug, warm, cosy room and one I'd be happy to use and hibernate in.  And all that, from a simple picture of the window and its shutters. 

Fascinating isn't it?  Completely unscientific, of course.

Despite what you might think, shutters work in both modern and traditional houses - the Victorian houses opposite us have them on their ground floor in their bay windows, and I think they're practical.

Clearly they can shut the light out, but they also help keep the heat in and cold and noise out and provide privacy too. And better still for allergy sufferers they can provide a good alternative option to curtains, which if we're honest although we may give a shake every now and then, we rarely clean properly (and I don't think that's just me...)

But where to start if you want shutters of your own? Like anything there's still plenty of decisions to make once you've decided on shutters. One of the biggest decisions is likely to be full height or cafe style shutters as well as considering the finish to opt for. Over at Direct Blinds their cafe style shutters could be just the thing. All of their shutters are made to measure for your window and offer a range of options.

Shutters definitely give a clean line and bring an elegant look to a room.  In the apartment we stayed at in Porto there were full length shutters for the windows at the front of the property, which faced directly onto the street outside.  There was something grand about opening them each morning in a kind of chatelaine-like way, even though I only had two shutters to open!

Figuring out their folding combinations fascinated me and they're definitely something I'd consider - what do you think about shutters? Would you consider them for your house?  Leave a comment and let me know.

* This is a collaborative post but all views are my own.

A year in my garden

This year as well as sharing my year in photos I thought it'd be interesting to take a look back at a year in my garden. We've achieved quite a bit this year so that's one of the reasons for pulling everything together, but it's not just a "glory" post as I plan to do something similar next week for our year on the plot, and that will be far from that!  

But that's next week...

So starting in January I was waiting for my grass to grow, quite impatiently so I could make use of my new Stihl trimmer. But by the end of the month, there was little progress and in fact after a few days in Austria I returned home to a frosty garden, pretty but not much use otherwise.

JANUARY: WAITING FOR MY GRASS TO GROW

In February I found some bulbs I'd forgotten to plant and the hellebores signalled that Spring really was on its way, definitely something to celebrate.

FEBRUARY: SPRING IS ON ITS WAY

By March the dappled sunlight was tempting me out into the garden more and more, but more sunlight meant the start of the weeds, oh joy!

MARCH: DAPPLED SUN, LOTS OF WEEDS AND A PRODUCTIVE DAY

April saw me Spring Cleaning the greenhouse, and it looked much better for it too - from the reflections of me in the greenhouse show me in shorts, so it must have been warm!  It didn't take long to fill though, by the end of the month I was reporting it was already full.

APRIL: THE GREENHOUSE IS ALREADY FULL

In May's garden update we'd started work on adding the edging to the circles and with MOH a perfectionist, it was taking a while.  But it was worth it when we added the slate to our circles (and I'm sure you've seen at least one or two photos of these since then!)

MAY: ADDING EDGING TO OUR CIRCLES

May was a busy month for us in the garden, and our yucca wanted to get in on the act too and set about flowering, which we were very grateful for.  I also spoke to Katie Rushworth from ITV's Love Your Garden and got some advice and confidence to start tackling two of our garden's problem areas.

By the start of June I had a new favourite spot for a cuppa after a busy Bank Holiday weekend where I was sidelined temporarily by an insect bite and where we had lots of great help from my SIL and her husband, without them I'm not sure we'd have made the progress we did.

With my leg recovered it wasn't long before I was using my new secateurs to tame my patio trellis and I shared the start of our gabion basket journey, though in truth it had started earlier in May.

Our big party took place in June, and it was hot, hot, hot. So hot that we had to abandon plans to cook pizza, but were very grateful to have a new parasol to keep cool under.  There were gifts of plants, including the hibiscus and by the end of the month I was reacquainting myself with my greenhouse.

In July I was sharing how we filled our gabion baskets and of course it wasn't the conventional way.  And by the end of the month we were storing logs for the pizza oven in a further installation of gabion baskets, shortly followed by how I'd used some as planters.  I told you it wasn't conventional.

JULY: FILLING OUR GABION BASKETS

In August I noticed my succulents were flowering, as were the agapanthus and the giant fuchsias which I'd bought as tiny, tiny bedding plants what seemed a long time ago.  Our new sleeper bed had filled out too and was close to overflowing.

AUGUST: GIANT FUCHSIAS 

One thing's for sure and that's that my summer bedding plants had longevity this year. In September they were hanging on alongside the autumn colours, and that was to continue right up to the end of the year.

SEPTEMBER: AND THE SUMMER BEDDING CONTINUES

OCTOBER: YEAP - SUMMER BEDDING STILL

And much later than normal, it wasn't until November that we put our garden to bed.

NOVEMBER: PUTTING OUR GARDEN TO BED

The weather continued to be mild, but has since more than made up for it as demonstrated by my only December gardening post - what a difference a day makes. The Saturday saw us dash out into the garden to hastily cover up the pizza oven and logs with tarpaulin,  pick the last of the chillies (in December?!) before waking up to a dusting of snow. Not very much of course - this is London - but a dusting nonetheless. I've never been more proud of being a just-in-time-kinda-girl!

DECEMBER: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

I hope you enjoyed this look at my garden throughout the year as much as I have reliving it creating this post. It's still not finished, and even when I think I can tick that box, I know there'll still be plenty more to do, that's the life of a gardener, hey?

I'm looking forward to seeing how it changes over the coming year, and how many of the things from October's to do list we achieve...

My word for 2018: Kind

It was last year walking home from work one evening when it struck me that I hadn't quite got the balance right. Somehow, somewhere along the way I'd got sucked in and forgotten about me. I was busy, there was lots to do and I was doing much of it, but I felt pulled in so many directions. I'd left work late again to help me get through what needed to be done, but still I knew there would always be more to do.

As my evenings were getting shorter, my list of home- and life-related tasks weren't. No wonder I was tired, and felt like I was hardly achieving anything. In truth, I was achieving lots, but I was also putting pressure on myself to do everything and more, and to do it well. 

Like we do.

But how did this become so clear walking home? 

Walking to and from work is my space for thinking and pondering, and acts in the same way as many other commutes. But as I walked home a familiar cyclist headed past me, and heading in the wrong direction. I called after him - it was MOH - but intent on the road and pursuing his mile target he didn't hear me, and I thought perhaps I'd been mistaken. 

Soon though that familiar cyclist had turned around and was cycling alongside me. It was MOH, and in the dark it'd taken him a little while to realise it was me (we're a right pair aren't we?!)  He was full of tales of the extra loop he'd completed on the way home, adding miles to the target he'd set himself many months before, and how now his target for the evening was done he was off to complete his post-work errand to collect the parcels from the local post office, and how he'd see me at home. 

And then he was gone again, and I was back to my thoughts, and creating the mental list of the shopping I needed to pick up on the way home, and what needed to be done when I got in. And I marvelled at the inequality of it all, before realising it was in my gift to change. 

Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash
** I'm not entirely sure how this image relates to kind, but I liked it, so I'm using it! **

Arriving home though rather than seeing the lopsided-ness of life, I found myself admiring MOH's determination and realised that I also should set my priorities and be as just as determined with my goals. 

I can be a procrastinator, but I'm also a great do-er, I know that.

But I have to let - or make time for - myself to do that, and that's where my word for this year comes in.  This year I'm prioritising being kind to myself, so I can be as determined with my goals. Because while I don't feel much like a gander, we all know that saying, don't we?

I'm hoping that this year being kind to myself will show itself in all kinds of ways. Leaving work timely, eating healthily, exercising and sharing more of those evening chores with MOH, he's going to be so pleased when he learns this, are just the start.

I'm planning more crafts, I already have several crochet and scrappy quilts planned and want to start some new ones too. I've an idea that I can make some t-shirt wool from old t-shirts and crochet baskets with that. It sounds easy enough but I'm sure there'll be some lessons along the way. 

We were pretty poor at getting away last year and so I'm planning to be more on my game for that, and already I've started research for a trip to the States involving Chicago, Nashville, a train and San Francisco and more, but I just haven't worked out what yet.

We also plan to have some work done on our conservatory and in theory that will end the "first" round of decorating, but we all know that decorating is never truly done and I'm sure there'll be a few more projects along the way.  We need to finish adding slate around the circles in our garden and come up with a plan for the area in front of the pizza oven, and of course there's the allotment too.

So while I'm planning to be kind to myself, I'm not expecting to be any less busy, and I'm sure you didn't expect that from me either did you?