Puttery Treats For A Lovely New Day

* Use a vintage casserole or old lidded chamber pot as a counter top kitchen composter…
* Place a sprig of basil on the ledge of your front door to bring you good luck.
* Order a book from Persephone. If you are yet to discover this gorgeous publishing company, start with The HomeMaker and be careful to set aside an entire lovely day to devour it.
* Sew precious vintage buttons in rows upon a sumptuous piece of velvet and store rolled up in your sewing box so you never again have to go rooting for them. You can also do the same thing with earrings…
* Bake cherry scones for afternoon tea under a shady parasol.
* Sew worn out vintage tea-towels together back to back and extend their scrumptiously pretty lifetime…
* Revive the art of Elevenses. Take a break during a vigorous session of housework and sit down to a beautifully presented tray of mint tea and strawberries, or a pretty plate dripping with hot buttered toast and a happy little jar of marmite.
* Wrap toilet rolls in lengths of vintage wallpaper and pile into a basket for a visual bathroom treat.
* My friend Kath keeps thank-you cards and invitations permanently on display in her living room… a lovely visual reminder of friendship, family and social ties…
* Make french style cafe au lait for breakfast by laying two slices of buttered thick white bread into a bowl of sweetened milky coffee and baking until there is a mouth wateringly scrumptious crispy crust.
* String chandelier crystals onto pastel ribbon (tie a knot after each crystal so they are easily spaced) and loop them across your headboard…
* Tie a little posy of garden roses and leave them on your best friends doorstep.
* Lift up the cistern lid of your loo and sprinkle a little aromatherapy oil into the clean water there…
* Make a little wish tree. Write your dreams sentence by sentence onto lengths of fine ribbon and loop them around a branch or two of curly willow…
* Keep current magazines in a folder made of fabric covered card… Tie ribbon around the spine of the folder and hook the pages of your magazines through them to keep them together…(Fabulous for hiding The National Enquirer and keeping the weekly TV Guide close at hand)
* Poke a hole through the lid of a jam jar and use it to store a ball of string.
* Have a cook nothing day. Eat raw food all day and give your insides a spring clean and the oven a holiday.
* Wrap unused candles in greaseproof paper and store them in a pretty tin in the fridge.
* Cover every bed pillow in the house with at least two pillowcases (and preferably a pillow protector to boot)… Trust me: It feels strangely luxurious!
* Just before you put the kids to bed tonight, sneak upstairs, turn back their sheets and place a tiny little gift hotel style on their pillow.
* Decant lavender scented hand cream into a lidded crystal bonbon dish and put it on your bedside for a lovely hand smoothing ritual before you fall asleep…
* Banish flies by leaving saucers of strong sweetened green tea on window ledges.
* Sprinkle salt onto persistent path weeds for an eco-friendly alterative to weed-killer…
* Lay circles of flocked or textured wallpaper between vintage plates to prevent them damaging each other.
* Steep finely chopped sage leaves in distilled boiling water for one hour. Filter, decant into a pretty pressed glass bottle and voila… gently scented ironing water for laundry day.