Oil and vinegar

Or as my new bottles say Olio and Acete, a recent purchase as a momento from our break in Italy along with a new butter dish. And not surprisingly I’m embracing the yellow, so where better to photograph them than on the dresser in a particularly yellow spot.   

We often bring something home from holiday to remind us of our trip, and quite often it’s something that catches our eye, rather than something that’s planned. But it’s always something we’ll use, or have a use for. 

On this trip it was very nearly a decorative plate that I fell for on our visits to the local town of Todi. In the maze of a town, or our circuitous route around it anyway, even I was surprised I managed to find the shop again on our second visit. But of course I managed to.  

After some longing and oohing over the ceramics, we asked the price and tried not to look too shocked. It was pricier than we expected, and I wasn’t sure if it would fit where I had in mind at home, let alone in our hand luggage. So with a last look we walked away, but even MOH was getting smitten and said to buy it if you want it.  

But I resisted, as I really wasn’t sure on the size. Although a new plan was forming, so back we headed to the shop again.  Only this time it was our final purchases that I had in mind.  

We’d seen many sets as we perused the shops in town, but none this colour and none squished like this so they nestled together. Clever, huh?

And then came the breakthrough.  We needed a new butter dish.  Yes, needed. (The glaze on ours has gone and butter seeps through the pottery and leaves a greasy mess on our kitchen worktop - so I mean needed).

But, I didn’t want to be without one. I’m a butter fan, and don’t like it fridge cold and so our butter is out and at room temperature year-round.  So when the butter dish hd been decided on too, and I’d agreed to get rid of the old one, MOH couldn’t quite believe his ears. He’d proffered replacement butter dishes over the years, but all had been rejected. Until now. 

And it was worth the wait. It’s quickly replaced the seeping dish in my affections, but sssh! don’t tell MOH, I think I’m only going to crock** half of the dish, as I realised the top half would make a great cover for cheese...

** and yes, to crock - that’s a verb, to break crockery to use as drainage “crocks” in plant pots. A great way to use old crockery as it’s satisfying to smash (as long as you look out for flying pieces) and when you next empty your pot, you never quite know what memory you will quite literally unearth! 

Homewares, Italian-style

When we were away recently in Italy we stayed on the outskirts of Todi, a relatively small hill top town in Umbria, with a population of almost 17,000. That might sound a lot, but in comparison even Greenwich has a population of quarter of a million (and that was in the 2011 census), so you can see why it felt small to us. But even so, my knack of stumbling across a fantastic homewares shop still managed to find its way, which really is quite something…

And so was the silver sequinned pumpkin. I’m not much of one for celebrating Halloween - I’m the type of person that pulls the curtains and doesn’t open the door, if the doorbell is rung by trick and treaters - but I could have made allowances for the sparkly pumpkin. The smaller plush fabric-ed pumpkins were also cute, but after seeing the sequinned one, there really wasn’t any comparison.

But the pumpkins were a bit of a distraction, once I saw these pots. By now MOH was looking concerned, as there was no way these would fit in our suitcase and I’m sure he was already planning his excuses for not having these in hand luggage either, and I have some sympathies.

My reason for giving these such a close look over was more than that. I was keen to know what they were made of - small wooden discs painted white - and how we could replicate them at home, and if we could use the small mountain of corks that seem to multiply at home.

I mean, I have no idea where they all come from…

But the real star of our visit was these exquisite bowls.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

They’re rustic wooden bowls with a smooth floral patterned interior. I don’t need any more bowls (but please don’t tell MOH) and I was very tempted, of course it helped that they were yellow, but I resisted. I didn’t even get as far as looking at the price, however I did take a picture of the label and the base and hope to be able to track down something similar online.

I’m pretty sure that the floral pattern, which I’m hesitating to call vintage, featured in my childhood wardrobe at some point!

The Italians are shy of using yellow as these zingy scalloped bowls show. They’ve a bit of a kitsch feel about them, but they’re fun too. And we’re getting in on the yellow scene here in the UK now too, although we’re most likely to see a pop of mustard in our homewares, and in our wardrobes, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

I think after all the browsing, and especially the pausing to inspect closer MOH was relieved to leave the shop empty-handed, but that’s partly because we’d already bought a ceramic momento, but more on that next week.

A look at some of HomeSense's summer ranges

I'm a recent convert to HomeSense, I think they've some great items and quite often it's the type of shop that you go into and leave with things you didn't even know you wanted. I picked up some garden pieces recently and I'll share those later in the week, but first I wanted to show you some of their summer ranges, which I got to take a look at in town one evening last week.

I met up with the HomeSense people and some blogging friends in the RSA building near to Charing Cross - it's a great building if you get the chance to go, we had a space in the basement which was a vaulted space so way better than it sounds!

Three of the alcoves had been styled with differing ranges, two were bright summery and tropical colours and the other a more relaxed, and perhaps dusky pink, lavender and metallic affair. I loved the latter, but unsurprisingly it was the brighter colours that caught my eye.

Let's take a look, first at the calmer summer.

This set showed me how to mix my metallics, something that I wouldn't usually do - it's great isn't it?  I often look at the bird cages in shops and think I should have one, but then again I don't think I could pull of this effortlessly cool look, and would probably end up with a brightly coloured (fake) parrot in it!

So let's look at some colour.

This chair has a retro feel to it doesn't it, and it's got my parrot on a cushion.  I like the brightness of the colours, and I loved the footstool in the cooler blue, I think it's the patterns and the shadows that had me mesmerised.

And hanging washing out this colourful you'd have to smile wouldn't you?

As well as a lesson in mixing my metallics, there was also a good example of mixing patterns. I mean how often do you see damask, chintz and geometrics together, and how often do they look as good as this?

And I would quite happily have left with this little fella, maybe one day.

Just what I need! So many lovely items at the @myhomesense evening last night, I could quite happily have left with this little fella 😂😂💛💛 #interiordetails #justwhatineed #yellow💛 #homegoods #HomeEtc #yellowflamingo

A post shared by Stephanie Robinson (@lifeat139a) on May 10, 2017 at 11:36am PDT

What do you think? Anything there you'd happily have at home?

* Thanks to HomeSense for a great evening.