A break, some sun and my talented friends

LoveBox 2013 

It's been a while since we settled down in front of the laptop with a steaming cup of tea surrounded by notepads and French design catalogues (rock and roll). During a Twitter chat a few weeks ago someone told me about the "5 month curse" and it rattled me a little. I was told that it takes approximately 5 months before your nerves/commitment/effort and enthusiasm start to quiver and you decide to stop blogging/writing/creating.

I was sure that I wouldn't be one of those to cave under the pressure despite what life was throwing our way or let myself drift but much to my disappointment, life threw us some curve balls  rocks and the blog took a hit at exactly 5 Months old.

It was a conversation with two good friends at my best friend's beautifully sunny Birthday BBQ this weekend that made me feel excited about blogging again. As I spoke to my talented teacher friend about her starting a blog I found myself describing all the reasons why it makes me smile. Never because I feel like anyone out there would want to hear what I have to say but simply that I love putting pen to paper and fingers to keys.

There are a lot of big changes happening soon and whilst those may not feature here amongst the photos of Danish furniture and heavily filtered photos of our cat (did we mention we have a cat?), they will be there grumbling away in the background reminding us that sometimes having people you love around you is far more important than lovely things.

When life throws you lemons...

And now for the exciting part of this post - to introduce one of the people who made me smile this weekend. I suggest you put the kettle on, settle yourself down with your laptop/phone/cat and enjoy the witty dialogue and hilarious prose in her very first blog post. After nearly 12 years of friendship she still makes me laugh so much I'm nearly sick. (The highest of compliments!)





Bebe Armitage - Teacher/Dieter/Singleton


My beautiful, talented, honest, brave and funny friend who enjoys a beer as much as a book - the perfect date!

This isn't her but it very nearly could be! Read her brand-spanking-new blog here

A day in the life: An unusually Sunny Bank Holiday Sunday

When I wake up early in the morning...
 coffee (in my fav Wills and Kate wedding mug), sunshine, kitten, garden

Our little princess doesn't even have to walk anywhere; she has her man-servant!

Outfit of the day: Excuse the squint, it was very sunny, hooray!!
New Look jumper, Urban Outfitters watch and handmade necklace

DIY: Topshop sunglasses, originally white.
Now a pretty pastel purple using Rimmels new collection - a few coats to go
Necklace: H&M

Lunch break @ Utopia in Southend for an Oreo milkshake
The book left on the table was "I am neurotic"; coincidence?

Little shopping: Naked Rescue Shampoo and conditioner from Boots (free of nasties)
L'Oreal Sublime Bronze tanning gel and Topshop cream blush in Head Over Heels

An impromptu afternoon floor picnic as Jim is studying for a Masters exam
There was no Applewood (disaster!!)  but we soldiered on!

Rained off: a window shopping kind of day

We had big plans for today including fabric shopping, party shopping and another visit to the Scandinavian home ware city (much to the horror of Jim whose tolerance for the store has finally run out).

Alas, as with all British Bank holiday weekends our early morning trip to shop and do the garden has been rained off and we're cuddled up indoors studying*.
*One of us is studying; the other one is pretending to study whilst really writing this post and spending our money virtually instead.

I have a love/hate relationship with online shopping. As a 5ft 2, pear shaped fuss pot I often find online clothes shopping to be a bit hit and miss usually down to size and cut. For home things I love to browse online partly due to how easy it is to check a number of stores in a short space of time but mainly because we're still in the "all decisions are made together" phase and what I consider to be a fairly reasonable length of time browsing in one shop (an hour), Jim feels is slightly excessive*.
*Read: begs for nourishment and plans his hasty escape

As today has proved to be a wash out I though I would write a little post about my go to home ware sites when looking for home buys and what has caught my eye today. They are certainly not the only site I love to visit but they are a mix of my "go to" brands for ideas.

Who do you consider to be the best online sites for home ware? Do you find it easy to buy things for your home without touching and feeling it first?


Butlers (Uk and Europe)

We first discovered Butlers in Dortmund in Germany last Christmas. We were staying with friends during the Christmas Market and were lured in by the bright colours and the Christmas Jazz album (which you should purchase from their website!).

It's very similar to the Scandi city in terms of prices and ranges but it's their quirky extras that I find the most appealing. They have recently opened their online Uk store so the prices are slightly higher now they are in GBP but still very reasonable. Annoyingly their photos can't be saved so you will have to browse the website but there are always great seasonal items and a rather lovely "Fifties Forever" kitchen clock which I have my eye on in Light Blue.

Photo: Butlers

Rockett St.George

Photo: Rockett St George - £59 (plug included)
Jim has a master plan for this light in our dining room although I feel the kitten may see this as a very tempting game above our dining room table!

Photo: Rockett St George - £29.95 A floating book shelf - get in my basket!!

Photo: Rockett St George - £12.50 - love this!

Scandivis

Photo: Scandivis - £39.99 -
 I don't know why but I love these glasses so much, I think I'd start drinking Bourbon so I could use them for their true purpose!

Photo: Scandivis - £170 - Pricey but I haven't seen anything similar to this, have you? I'd love to know!

Photo: Scandivis - £31.25 - standard wine rack but wooden which I love much more than chrome or stainless steel

I'm still online now having a browse so there may be an update soon once the deliveries arrive! Where is your "go to" online shop? Do you order internationally or try to stick to within the Uk (or wherever you are?)

Have a lovely weekend and to those in the Uk let's pray for a little Bank Holiday sunshine!

A Problem Shared: #1 How to dress a fireplace

Interior problems and "if money was no object" solutions

Disclaimer: *To most normal people (those who don't consider Elle Decoration an educational reference tool) the problems below may not seem real problems that require fixing. For the rest of us who live for design, colour, decorating (and shopping) read on and please comment as I would love your ideas!



Exhibit A Our beautiful but sadly naked gas burning fireplace. It's in desperate need for some love and attention and a way to disguise the ugly wires. The tiling is a moss green with deep mauve flowers and the metal work a dark bronze finish. It's my favourite thing in the whole house and feels awfully grand (too grand for us!). We've only used it once for dinner with our friends and it blasts out heat which nearly warms up the icy wooden floor.

Possible solutions/ dreamy inspirations//:

The last photo is my personal favourite as it screams 50's Denmark but I love how these photos show a mix of simplicity and beautiful clutter!

Contemporary Living Room by Amsterdam Home Staging HUISSTYLING

Eclectic Living Room by Other Metro Media And Blogs Dreamy Whites

Modern Living Room by New York Interior Designer Reynaldo Gonzalez Design

Contemporary Living Room by San Francisco Interior Designer Tucker & Marks

Modern Living Room by San Francisco Interior Designer EAG Studio

DIY: Our first mood board takes shape

Theme: Modern, minimally eclectic, Scandinavian

Colour Scheme: White walls, skirting and architrave, ice blue, grey, teal and very minimal use of yellow. Fittings and fixtures mostly stainless steel and furniture kept to their natural wood finish.

Inspiration: Below are a few photos we printed and stuck to the wall to begin our mood board but they have remained at the very centre of most of the choices we've made since.

Ferm Living catalogue 2012 - photo from Dustjacket

Silje Aune Eriksen photographed by trine thorsen via bodie & fou
Dustjacket

Contemporary Home Office by Other Metro Architect a+b kasha designs

Blog inspriations:

http://www.myscandinavianhome.blogspot.se/

http://www.lovevintagefurniture.com/

http://www.dustjacketattic.blogspot.co.uk/


Shopping: There were a few pieces we knew we wanted to get our hands on straight away including a light fixture from Ikea, an original Ercol chair (with cushion ideally), a faux sheepskin throw and a coffee table to go with our teal, dark wooden footed sofa.

Ottavia Lamp; Ikea £32 and is actually huge so perfect as a feature in a large room. We've purchased some vintage brown cable to add to the look and it's low hanging over our dining table (pics to follow when the boxes are finally gone!)

From: chairsmith.blogspot.com - Original Ercol chairs are on Ebay and Gumtree for approx £80 + but you really need to check the condition and request the matching cushion as they seem to be like gold-dust! 

Coffee table from the Stockholm collection; Ikea - we found a 1950's Danish coffee table at the Bluewater Vintage Fair for £30 which was an absolute steal!

We also purchased some white brick textured wallpaper from Ebay which was approx £13 per roll and is brilliant quality so hopefully will bring some interest to our attic rooms once we've decided on which is to be my home office and which will be the "Man room". 

What's in a name? The "name your blog" dilemma

What IS in a name? Take mine for example (Justine in case you didn't know). As a child I absolutely hated it. I hated that people called me "Justin" - this was pre-Timberlake so there was no excuse. I hate that when said with my surname it created a whole nother word which people delighted in pointing out to me! ("No, I haven't hear that one before because I never have to say my own name do I!?).

This post is simply to try to explain the rationale behind "Haus sweet Haus". It's so hard to be original, inventive and witty when all the obvious ideas have been taken (what do you mean we can't have "Home Sweet Home"?) so the next best thing was to look at what we need E.g something memorable and add what the blog is about.

Between the two of us there are so many nationalities, languages, favourite countries and design ideas that mashing them together seemed the best thing to do. Using a little German is not an attempt to be "show-offy" (and very much hope it doesn't come across that way) it's because we have influences coming at us from all directions and this blog is a chance to put them on paper and share ideas or at least contain the VERY silly ones.

Below I've created a very amateur equation that summarises how we got to our name and just where the hell these ideas are stemming from (our family trees a far more complicated; this was a doddle in comparison!).

This

My Dad was born in India; Kolkata to be exact. My family are Anglo-Indian.

+

Jim's family live in Sydney, Australia. He'd like to live there too one day.

+

Mon coeur est en France notamment en Paris et parle Français - I nearly moved there once and still would! 

+

James ist in Deutschland zu Hause und spricht ein wenig Deutsch. Meine Mama ist fließend und wir haben deutsche und österreichische Freunde.

X

The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge have consumed our lives and were the catalyst for our love for Scandinavian (and knitwear) design. Tag. 

+

Places we've been: France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, America, Mexico, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Australia, India, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain, Korea...

=

Haus Sweet Haus

x

A Vintage Fayre and an Italian lunch

Leigh on Sea.
Photo courtesy of C2Conline

On Saturday Jim and I took a leisurely trip to Leigh-on-Sea (that's South East Essex) with my Mum in search of Vintage treats at the Vintage and Handmade Fayre. I'd not been before and was really hoping to see some local artists and maybe find some jewellery. I wasn't dissapointed! It was an eclectic mix of vintage clothes and accessories as well as some great jewellery, designers, artists and best of all 3 lovely ladies selling enormous cupcakes.

The boyfriend was a good sport and ambled patiently behind my Mum and I as we hovered over the jewellery and vintage hats and ummed and ahhed over the most beautiful art deco tea set. He was one of only about 4 men there but I think the promise of cake at the finish line was keeping the majority of them going. Day trip with the future Mother in law (sans a ring) = 50 boyfriend points!

I picked out this lovely little piece from a local jewellery maker who's business card I lost on the way home, nightmare!

She makes silver plated jewellery (perfect for those with nickel allergies!), key rings and lockets which are really feminine and delicate and caught my eye mainly because of the flower in my favourite colour

We're still on the hunt for more prints and paintings for the house and at the fair (Fayre) discovered a local photographer, Clarissa Debenham of Film Free Photography who produces block photo art with pictures of Southend-on-Sea and Leigh-on-Sea that capture our favourite locals spots (in the sunshine which is a rare sight!)

The print in it's packaging - I thought it might be like wrapping paper or sleeping bags in that once I took it out it will never go back in again!

It won't mean much to those who don't know the area but for each square Jim and I have an amazing memory of good, bad, fun, drunk and teenage times which I really love and can't wait to frame and hang somewhere in the house.

It has given me inspiration to do one ourselves of our first year in the house. I wish I'd taken more photos when we moved in but naturally we were too busy living it to document it!

The boyfriend enjoying his double espresso from a polka dot tea cup! You can take the boy out of the city...
Note: the hot chocolate menu. When there are that many options it can only be a good thing! 

Our little seaside trip was topped off with a visit to a scrummy little Italian deli called "Milly's Deli" in Old Leigh. It's tiny inside and stacked to the ceiling with Italian goodies and freshly baked cakes. We grabbed seats in the conservatory and with the sunshine streaming in our our backs we had an injection of Vitamin D after all this miserable weather. I have to make reference to the lovely lady who served us because she was a s sunny as the conservatory. Hurrah for better weather; it's doing us all the world of good!

Roll on the next weekend!

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