The year I rented my first flat I also started my library of books about homemaking, housekeeping and interiors. For a long while this is what I spent my money on – books – and in the course of collection I have ended up with hundreds of beautiful coffee table odes to all that is lovely in the domestic arena. But prowling around my bookcases last night it struck me that at some point I stopped buying the kind of books that make my heart sing and that my collection of large picture books pays tribute to the interiors of  1995 to 2005 and then dwindles significantly… I cannot pinpoint a reason for this. Certainly my library use has increased since then and a little man called Finley seems to eat all my spare cash for breakfast. Or perhaps it is because the constant feed of images on the internet satisfies my urge for daily inspiration, not to mention the all-purveying lure of the now ubiqtuous e-reader and the one-click route to literary joy. But I miss big lovely books. I miss sitting with the evidence of true style in my hands. Sniffing the paper and pouring over images I would die to replicate in my own home. And so this morning as I opened my January Puttery Companion and decided it was time to make my book list for 2013, I resolved to buy one beautiful interiors book every month this year so that by the end of 2013 I will have an updated shelf full of interior pretty and will be able to take a little bit of inspiration to bed with my chamomile tea… Here’s my list of  longed for books: some not yet released and some I have been yearning for, for a while…
Create your own Brocante Life Book, plan Christmas, set up routines and rituals or live life the BrocanteHome way with my guided workbooks and planners.
She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee…
By Helen May. Anyone who knows me, knows that I just lurve my clothes. It’s a bit of an obsession and I have been known to get a little breathless before a splurge in Harvey Nicks. I have clothes in my wardrobe…
Well yes I think that just about sums up the reason I can be seen sporting many an irrational grin in the face of far too much adversity. Leave it to my gorgeous sister to give me a handful of pure cosy…
I cannot shake off this migraine. This morning as I lay there tapping away the pain in my forehead, Finley crawled into bed with me and said, Mum I want something but I do not know what it is… Oh how I…
On the Decision to Advertise. I didn’t wanna do it. I really didn’t wanna do it. I kinda hate myself for it. But here’s the thing: this site has changed my little life. I adore it. But oh my Lordy, it is…
Some days are made of nothing. They taste like nothing and they smell like nothing. Days like these aren’t meant to go down in the portals of your personal history. They are passing through days rich in teeny moments of nothingness we…
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Life of a Bowerbird is a fantastic title of a book about decorating. I love bowerbirds! Really, though, they are the OCD hoarders of the natural world.
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Life of a Bowerbird is a fantastic title of a book about decorating. I love bowerbirds! Really, though, they are the OCD hoarders of the natural world.
I just ordered The Vintage Tea Party Year and I can’t wait until it arrives!
It just so happens, that I received The Vintage Tea Party Year for Christmas twice….would you like one of my copies? xx