Little Greene

It's the new year, so of course that means, with the arrival of spring, we all have another excuse to get the paint brushes out.
My favourite paint company, by far, has to be The Little Greene Paint Company. Their paints contain up to 40% more pigment which means a deeper, longer lasting result.
What I love most about this company is the extensive variation of colour that they offer. Their colour scale range is a soft palette of colours which offers subtle variations in hue. Making it extremely easy to co-ordinate woodwork with the walls.

I've included below a few of my favourite colours and pictures that they feature on their website.

Celestial Blue

James

Sage

Rolling Fog

French Grey

For further inspiration, they also have a their own flickr feed.

Ally

xxx

The Moors

I went out dog walking this morning. Usually I forget to take my camera with me but today I didn't. Living five minutes outside the Peak District National Park I'm never short of choices when it comes to walking.
I love getting out into the countryside, it gives me time to think and to be inspired by my surroundings.

Most days when I dog walk I start off at Redmires, a collection of reservoirs that feed Sheffield with water. The road up to Rerdmires is a gunmetal grey patchwork of tarmac, it winds around woodland, that becomes bleaker as you make the ascent.
Today I was greeted by the three reservoirs bursting full of water, a pleasant change from earlier this year.

Making a change from usual, I took a new walk up to a place called Stanedge Pole, which was once used as a navigational point for pack horses. For those of you that are familiar with the Pride and Prejudice remake will remember the scene where Keira Knightley famously stands on top of Stanedge Edge, consumed by thought.

As I broke through the shelter of the last of the trees I wasn't prepared for the bitterness of the landscape.  The ground was soft underfoot and the wind, not only cold, was howling .

The Moors can be a very eerie place, a desolate world of black and white, which burst into life in a glow of amber as the sun breaks through the cloud.

This is a walk that I will be doing again as soon as I can, and urge you to get out and explore somewhere new where you are.

Ally

xxx

New Year, New Start, New Business

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful break from the normal hectic routine.
I have to apologise for not posting any pictures of my home decorated but the lighting has been so dull recently that the pictures never came out right.

It may be the Twelfth Night, but the wreath I made will stay fresh for another couple of months, it would be such a waste to throw it away so it will stay firmly on the front door until it starts to wilt. I took a course on wreath making last year so I will upload a tutorial on how you can achieve this look yourself later in the year.

I have some really exciting developments in progress. Firstly I have registered my company name Bluebells and Bunting Limited and the ball has really started to roll with that.
Secondly, over Christmas I decided to apply to a couple of webshops, giftwrappedandgorgeous.co.uk and notonthehighstreet.com.  Both of these stores really promote small UK based businesses which mainly produce handmade gifts and homewares.
Considering notonthehighstreet decline 95% of their applicants I wasn't expecting much, however after only a couple of days after applying I was delighted to see an email in my inbox from both companies saying that I they would love to feature me as a seller!
I of course now have a lot of figures to work out and a lot of thinking to do, but a lot of doors have now begun to open and it's so satisfying to hear people in the industry appreciate my work.

2012 will see the Queens Diamond Jubilee and I have already started on designs for this, keeping in the theme of quintessentially British. Will any of you in the UK or further afield be celebrating?

Ally

xxx