Styling the seasons, August

Well yes, I realise I'm absolutely pants at this blogging lark.....I have been silent for a good couple of months without even noticing. I've just been busy as always with schooling the girls and my many and varied hobbies! But I suddenly came over all creative this week and felt the need to write everything down, so here I am.


August is a special month to me so I wanted to reflect that in my 'Styling the Seasons' post. First, it is special because it is the month I got married. Next Friday the 14th is our wedding anniversary, it will be 11 years since we tied the knot. We always try to make an effort to do something lovely as a family and as a couple to remember that day, because at the risk of sounding cheesy, it truly was the best day of my life. Joe has been the best friend anyone could ask for and it's been the happiest 11 years. I included a little wooden heart he carved for me in my styled surface to represent our special day.

 Incidentally, the surface I chose to style is a little kitchen cart that the clever chap made for me out of scraps of wood he had in the garage (to me it's thoughtful acts of kindness like this that are the most romantic thing), and it has proved invaluable in my new, very tiny, kitchen as an extra work surface and storage space. Kitchen carts are a great idea if you are short of space, I added castors to mine so it could be moved out of the way when not needed. Anyway, I digress. ...


The second reason August will always be a memorable month for me is a sad one. On Tuesday, my lovely nan passed away quite suddenly. It was a shock as she was so full of life and I just imagined her going on forever. She died peacefully in her sleep. I feel overwhelming sadness, but at the same time I just feel so blessed that I was lucky enough to have a really close relationship with her and with my grandad, and as I get older I realise more and more how my grandparents played a real part in shaping who I am. I just felt that this month's post should be about my grandparents and what amazing people they all were. The tablecloth in the picture is particularly precious to me now as my nan embroidered half of it and then gave it to me to finish.

She is the one who taught me to sew and I used to love going to her little bungalow and sewing and knitting and crafting together. Everything in her and my grandad's bungalow was handmade by the two of them, from the furniture to the ornaments to the tools in grandad's shed. I try to take the same approach to my own home and fill it with things that have meaning because of the love and effort that went into them, or for the memories that are attached to them. The painting that you see in the corner of the photograph is actually one that grandad painted, it's a painting of the road to the Garth mountain in South Wales where I grew up, and I have many happy memories of walking to the top and flying my kite with my grandparents and my mum and dad and brothers as a child.

Grandad's ashes were scattered there and nan's will be too.

I added the little red teapot as it belonged to my other grandmother and she absolutely loved it. She got it in when living in Germany as a young woman and it was always a focal point in her kitchen. She and I had very similar taste and it's from her I get my love of nature and all things floral. The posy of flowers in the teapot are all from my garden, and i'm so thrilled that after only six months of work out there I have so many flowers for cutting already. None of my grandparents got to see this garden but I know if they had they would have loved it and been proud of my hard work. My knowledge of plants comes from my grandmother too, she loved her garden and a frothy, cottagey style of planting, which is what I always gravitate to.


So that's it. I hope my post this month has not seemed depressing to you but rather, as I intended, full of happy memories. I will be posting some pics of my new living room on Monday so be sure to come back then for a nose.


Stephanie xx