Pantones Colour of the Year 2017 Greenery...

It's official! Pantone has announced the official colour of the year 2017 and it is called Greenery...

First impressions? ... Hospital waiting room... where they are trying to create a space that is both calming and clean yet upbeat somehow. It is not a colour that I warm to. Don't get me wrong, I love nature, peas, apples, fresh grass, spring shoots, all that jazz, but I like the colour when it's actually in nature, not trying to mimic it. As a green paint, it looks a bit artificial.

But it's all about nature apparently, so in the selectively edited words of Pantone....'Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew....flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors ... take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.'

Well that's nice, nicer than the colour is anyway. 

So can it work? I've done some digging around and found a few instances where I think the colour looks fab, so check out my Greenery gems...

It works beautifully here teamed up with the rough bricks and muted greys.

So what about something a bit more glam?

Here it is just a feature, not a whole wall or anything too invasive, just a nice colourful detail. Love it.

I also think it works well in darker rooms where you totally avoid the hospital waiting room vibe and go for something a bit more bohemian...

But if you are mad about the colour and want to paint a whole wall, then make sure your furniture and accessories have got some soul because this colour is a tricky beast...

The funny thing about this type of colour green is that the 'industry' tries to get us to love it about every 8 years or so...it never really happens... The shops fill up with oddly coloured items that receive a lukewarm reception, only to go on sale later in the year and then quietly withdraw into the stockrooms in shame...sitting there for 8 years until the industry has decided it is time to try it out again... No, I don't really think that happens, but I do know that weird greens come around every once in a  while and we all go...Um...No thanks...

I'd love to hear what you think about the colour! Love it or loathe it...

Blast from the Past. My Shop in Gamlastan Stockholm

I moved to Sweden 10 years ago and shortly after moving,  I opened a shop in Gamla Stan in Stockholm. Gamla Stan (for those that don't know) is one of the most viby kooky old fashioned and beautiful parts of Stockholm. Very touristy of course, but worth a visit none the less. Anyway, I found a premises and opened up my shop called Van Asch...

I called it 'an opulent alternative to the pale Scandinavian style'...

And  indeed it was. I may have used the phrasing like ...'dark and decadent' 'Burlesque and Bohemian' ... I've always been keen on alliteration 

It was aimed at women and the men who need to buy them things,. It was full of luxurious things, lotions and potions, candles, velvet, feathers, crystal, champagne flutes....

And of course there was the clothing. Sourced from lots of designers that I loved at the time...

And augmented with my own clothing designs and crazy hats... Her is the lovely Sabina modelling a few of my creations...

But it was too beautiful and weird to last so I closed up and started designing cushions and other stuff. I loved having a shop but it was also a rope around my neck. I had to be there all the time and I couldn't spend my time making things, which is what I really wanted to be doing.

I met lots of my friends there and I had such fun with it. It was my dream to have that store and I made it happen. Then it was my dream to design stuff to sell in stores all over the world so I moved on to doing that. No regrets... and all that remains are just  happy memories and these few pictures...

Here is a grumpy picture of me, pregnant, standing outside the shop in one of my hats.

As I get older I seem to be reflecting back more and more even getting a bit sentimental, dare I say it. It's weird for me as I have always had my eyes firmly on the horizon, moving ever forward. Now that I am more mindful of the moment, I have started to slow down and become more reflective and I rather enjoy reminiscing. Did you know that scientists have shown that old folks who are more nostalgic than there peers are also usually more happy... obvious really, but there you go. It's ok to stare out the window and think about what you were doing when you were 25... If you can remember that is! Thats' my challenge!! Anyway, I digress, I promise I won't blog about the past more than is strictly necessary.

Have a wonderful dreamy weekend...

Alternative Christmas Ideas

For many years I was very 'grr humbug' about Christmas. When I was a kid growing up in New Zealand we had these huge family christmases with a massive tree and piles of presents, fabulous gingerbread houses and all sorts of traditions that never changed, but then I moved to England away from the extended family and everything changed. I guess I resented the absence of continuity and I missed all the old traditions so I decided I hated Christmas and that pretty much went on for the next 20 years. And all the crazy last minute shopping, the plastic fakeness, the revolting consumerism... well, it all just reinforced my general mistrust and distaste for the Yuletide season. But that all changed when I had kids and our family started our own traditions. Now I am all about the hideous Christmas jumpers and wearing santa hats..I can't get enough!
Christmas is now on my terms, well, my families terms. We don't do last minute crazy shopping, the gifts are carefully chosen and few. Every year we hang the same silly ornaments on the tree, lots of them made by my kids and are charmingly rubbish.

Christmas is what you want it to be, you can customise it for your own pleasure and so I thought I would do a blog about alternative Christmas. Decorating in a seasonal way but with a twist...
So my first find are these amazing Christmas tree ornaments by Elizabeth Rosen Art.. They don't come cheap but they are just so gorgeous!

With the black and white trend in Scandi homes still going strong, here are a few lovely black and white inspirations...

Now what do we think of the upside down Christmas tree fad that was sweeping the world a few years ago??? I mean, I like alternative, don't get me wrong...but somehow I just feel 'no'.

I did like this idea though, putting fairy lights around hula hoops...

Well, my final words on the subject are 'don't be afraid to reinvent your Christmas & make it your own'.