Bloomin' Lovely: Why It's Been Quiet on Swoon Worthy

I have to apologise for the radio silence of late.  See, what I need to explain is that we've had a pretty rubbish Spring so far.

Aside from a single glorious week in March where temperatures hit the 20's, we've pretty much had nothing but cloud, rain and ridiculously cold weather.  To the point where the rain and the cold actually broke 100 year old records.  It's been that bad.  We actually had warmer weather in December.  Seriously.

So, when a week ago, the sun came out and actually STAYED out and not only that, brought with it temperatures at 25-26-27 degrees (around 80 degrees Fahrenheit), well, let me just say that you've never seen so much white pasty flesh reveal itself in Manchester before.

As I work full time, I blog in the evenings and weekends.  With the sun not even going down until nearly 10pm now, there was no way I was going to squander that lovely weather and those warm, sunny evenings sat indoors on my laptop (or working on projects!).

We've been sat outside in the evenings most every night, sometimes taking dinner on the deck and certainly enjoying a drink or two, just relaxing and enjoying our little garden.  At the weekend, we whiled away the hours with leisurely walks to a local beer garden and finally brought out the barbeque for the first time all year.

See that dappled sunlight?  That was at 7:30pm in the evening.  Sometimes it's nice living this far north.

It's been like the grand opening of Summer and I just couldn't miss it.

Coming soon... PEONIES.  I'm so friggin' excited!!

Can you spot the Jungle Kitty?

The cats certainly enjoyed being outside again as well, hiding amongst all the plant life that has grown like crazy.

Senna says, 'Leave me alone unless you are planning on feeding me.'

Or just chilling out on the walkway that's been warmed by the sun all day.

Pablo as Catloaf.

So I do apologise if you haven't seen me around much lately.  Sometimes life presents little opportunities to just relax and enjoy and you need to take those opportunities and run with them.  Especially when that opportunity is sunny warm weather in Manchester, England.

It's supposed to cool down again this week, unfortunately and get back to the normal temperatures for this time of year but at least I can say I took advantage to soak in every single ray I possibly could.  Can ya blame me?

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In other news, the rather fabulous Michele of Hello Lovely featured my living and dining room on her blog this week.   Not only is she brilliantly funny with self-deprecating humour and a warm, generous heart that overflows on her pages, but she's got an eye for finding some incredibly gorgeous things on her blog that she willingly shares with those that flock there daily (including myself).  Go over and show her some lovin', will you?


Oooh one more thing... she's also got an Etsy shop selling vintage finds which you really shouldn't miss either.  I have a few pieces from her shop and I always feel rather fancy responding with 'Ooooh it's vintage, darling' when someone asks where I got one of her pieces.  Ooooh aaand her mixed media pieces are fabulous.  I featured one of her pieces here, it's amazing.

Ok, I'll stop gushing now.  Just go and see for yourself.

Stuff Lust: Living Room Wish List & Opinions Needed!

As the living room is probably our 'most done' room in the house, what's left to do?  I thought I'd do a little list of things that I'm thinking about and maybe get some feedback from you folks to find out what you think I should prioritise, what you think of my choices or if I'm missing anything because I'll be honest, I'm a little at a stand still where I'm not entirely sure which direction to go on a few of the items.

So, as you probably recall, here's what my living room currently looks like...

I just added this lovely vintage glass lamp which will replace the current one I've had for years and years that's sat on the wallpapered chest of drawers.  I've combined it with the black lampshade for - what I'm hoping - is an elegant look. This pic is from the eBay listing but once the area is styled up, I'll share it!

I still need curtains - I'd been considering something patterned but now I'm starting to lean towards something that will stand the test of time, however I'm still not sure.  Almost two years of living in this house and I still have nothing on my curtain rods because I can't make a decision!

As the sofa is something I'm intending to keep for a very long time, I thought a soft olive green colour might work, perhaps in a shimmery Silk Dupioni as shown in the image below...  Not enamoured by the froo-froo gathering but I do like the colour and the drape of these.

But perhaps closer in style to these from Pottery Barn (we do not have Pottery Barn in the UK so I don't even know where to buy them) but not dragging on the floor because that does my head in.  I'm not 100% sure about it yet though and I'm not entirely sure where I would get them that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg.

Despite this entirely practical line of thought of having something to 'go' with the sofa that I can use for a long time, I can't help but be enamoured by something with a bit of pattern...

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But with the patterned wallpaper, I fear it might be too much... Decisions, decisions.  I just don't know what I prefer so welcome your opinion if you want to share!

I also need some artwork for the wallpapered wall and I'd like something else for the wall where the radiator is.  Not sure whether to go with something like a colourful painting...

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Or a strong monochromatic statement piece... 

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Or something completely different.

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I think a ceiling rose would look nice in here too (and if I do get a ceiling rose, then I may want to paint the ceiling as well although not this dark as gorgeous as it is)...

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As promised to W for compromising with the coffee table, a small stool...  I'm thinking one of these chinese garden stools I see around the blogosphere:

or maybe this one from An Angel At My Table...

I quite like this owl one from Graham and Greene as well.

However, what I would really love is an X-bench or two.  Problem? No idea where I would get these from for a reasonable price as I can't seem to find them in the UK.  If anyone knows where I can get a couple for not stupid amounts of money, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

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Additional seating is required as well but this would mean getting rid of the swivel chair which I've contemplated for a while but W still needs convincing...  I've got a bit of a love-hate relationship with that thing... it's so big and unwieldy and it takes up a lot of space but EVERYONE seems to love it when they come around.  I don't even think I like it.  What do you think? (You won't hurt my feelings, I promise.)

I would like to get an additional 2 chairs, smaller, perhaps tufted, maybe nail heads... The room at the moment seats 4 at a push (3 on the sofa and 1 in the swivel chair) and I need to rectify that.  So if I bring in an additional 2 chairs you are looking at seating 5 which isn't too bad.  And if I get the X-benches then that can always be utilised for extra seating and suddenly you have seating for 6-7 which would be ideal.

I'm dreaming of something like these...

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 Or maybe something all tufted, delicate and pretty...

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 Or even maybe something a bit crazy and edgy (and DIY?!) like classic Louis style with updated fabric...

And of course, I would absolutely LOVE to reinstate the fireplace... and if I'm totally dreaming, something with fantastic architectural details would be amazing...

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So those are all the things mulling around in my brain!  What do you think of my ideas?  What do you think I should prioritise?

I need to create some kind of mood board but I'm pretty shit at those if I'm honest because I don't have MAD SKILLZ INNIT on Photoshop and it always turns out a bit crap looking...  (If anyone wants to share their own mad skillz and do that for me, I wouldn't refuse ;)).  So yeah, I'm all kinds of up in the air with where to take the living room next but there ya go.

Hope you enjoyed the wander through my brain today and if you could assist in unravelling in the mess, that would be cool too.

Top Tips for Pretty On the Cheap at Florence Finds

Hello again - I know, I know, two posts in one day, it's pretty impressive for me.

Thing is, I just wanted to let you know that I'm guest posting over at Florence Finds today whilst Rebecca is galavanting around California on her holibobs!

Find out how I created this tablescape for free...

I'm sharing one of my biggest eBay secrets along with a few things that you can do right now to decorate your home on a small budget.  Because, as the Swoon Worthy tagline says, it's all about getting pretty on the cheap.

Come visit me there if you can and leave a comment to keep Rebecca's blog warm whilst she's away!

Sunburst Mirror: More Dining Room Updates

I made an impulse purchase last weekend.  It's not something I try to make a habit of but I reckon it's actually been festering in my mind for a lot longer.

hint, hint.

Looking through the new issue of Lonny, I couldn't help but notice that sunburst mirrors were still going strong in quite a few of the gorgeous rooms that were shown.  And I wasn't the only one to notice it.

And then, when I saw this image on an eBay listing, it pretty much sealed the deal for me.

A bit more eBay digging and I found one a bit cheaper than in the listing above.  Within a week, that baby was mine.

I know I just recently showed the dining room but this has made such a difference to the room that I couldn't help but share the update.  I knew I wanted to get rid of the black wrought iron mirror that was there before along with the wrought iron candle sconces but until then, I hadn't really figured out what it was I wanted there.  I knew as well that the wrought iron mirror was hung far too high but I couldn't be bothered lowering it when I knew I was just going to get rid of it eventually anyway.

Well hello there, sunshine.

Combined with my little Chinese plates and a couple of speckled gold glass chargers I've had for probably 6 months or so, it's given the mantle a proper shake up.

I think the plates hung on the sides of the sunburst mirror are probably a little too small and eventually I will probably replace them with something larger or perhaps add a couple more to each side.   I used these self-adhesive plate hangers which seem to work really well.  They haven't fallen off the wall yet anyway!

I used the Chiang Mai Dragon fabric as a tablecloth for some of these pics but it's just styling - truth is that I'd never in a million years actually EAT off the table with it there!  So, for the sake of full disclosure, I also threw on my leopard print tablecloth that I used at Christmas as this is probably closer to the every day look!

As an aside, I have to mention this... see that little dark mark above the hanging plate on the left?  I didn't actually notice that in real life but it seemed to really come up in the pictures.  It's a small burn mark from where I'd had the candles.  So I need to clean/paint a bit it seems - strange that it wasn't actually noticeable to the naked eye but I felt like I had to come clean and mention it because it's really bothering me now! Whew, now that that's off my chest, back to the post and a welcome distraction... 

Here's a close up of the chargers... they are really so pretty and sparkle fabulously in the light.

They look like leopard print from far away but close up, they are actually a lovely pattern that reminds me a little of honeycomb.  I had a set of 5 initially (the company had sent an extra by mistake - not that I was complaining) but this weekend, whilst taking them down from the open shelving in the kitchen, I broke one!  So I'm down to a set of 4.  Karma is a bitch.

Back to the mirror.... One thing I quite like is that from the hallway,  you can actually see both sunburst mirrors in my downstairs - the white one in the lounge and the gold one in the dining room.  Obviously, if I had a wide-angle lens, this would work better but you can kind of see what I mean here (I took the pic from the hallway so excuse the crappy light switch, we haven't really done much in there).

When I look back at pictures of this room from last year, I'm still quite amazed at how far it's come.

This is what it looked like back in April of last year.  Although perfectly 'nice' (and heck, I'm sure there will be some who will have preferred it like this), it looks so EMPTY to me.  So lacking in colour, in personality.

Now, just over a year later, it's filled with colour and contrast and lots of STUFF.  I'm a maximalist at heart, I guess.  I just like to see clutter and things and colour and LIFE all over.

It's amazing the progress and journey a single room can take in such a short space of time even though it's been actually done in very, very small steps.

I do wonder at times whether as a reader, you prefer to watch this journey unfold slowly?  Or would you rather wait until an entire room or space is completed until it's revealed?  I fear if I did that, I would have nothing to share with you because not one room in my home is actually finished yet!

I suppose what I'm showing here on Swoon Worthy is real life and real evolution in real time.  And it takes time to create a space that really reflects your taste, your style, your budget.  I couldn't have afforded to complete the entire room at once, it would have been too expensive.  But spreading the costs over months or years even with little changes as I go, just seems to work better for my bank balance.  Not only that, I think rooms work better when they evolve over time, they sort of find their own feet rather than look like they are purchased from the pages of a catalogue. 

Thinking back, I originally really wanted more of that industrial vibe in here but the nod to Chinoiserie/Hollywood Regency and a more glam look over all really appeals to me more now.  So that's where it seems to be going.

Who knows where it will be in a year's time though! What do you think of the change?  Do you reckon sunburst mirrors are here to stay considering they've been given the big thumbs up by Lonny?  Or are you sick of seeing them by now?

Y'all have been kinda quiet on the commenting front lately so I just wanted to encourage you guys to get involved with the conversation!  Honestly, like every other blogger out there, I LOVE getting them so please don't be shy - each and every comment is so appreciated, please know that. :)

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Ooooh just a little reminder... don't forget to email me if you tweet, blog or share Swoon Worthy Homewares with your friends and readers to get 25% off your next purchase of pretty geometric cushions!