A Bright New Year

I hope you had a great Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a wonderful time visiting family in the US. I tend to post everyday pictures regarding what I'm up to on Instagram, much more so than on my blog, so if you're interested in seeing more of our daily lives, feel free to browse my Instagram feed. I have some pictures from our recent trip to the US there. It's always hard to come home after the holidays. I think I'm fortunate in that I love my family and love being around them, and I miss them even if I've just seen them. So when I know I have to come home, living so far away, I always like to have a few things to look forward to. One of those things this time was finishing up our house re-arrange and buying some last pieces to complete our colorful sitting room downstairs. I've made some good progress since we returned home because I was able to bring home our new Lulie Wallace painting that I had shipped to my mom's (it's the floral painting on the right in these photos.)

We love our new painting! I was waiting until I was able to get it from my mom's before hanging other things because I wasn't quite sure how to place everything until I had it in person. I'm going for a much brighter, and a bit more modern, look than my usual style, which often mostly consists of earth tones. We have a turquoise tile surround above our stove, which I love, but it never looked quite right with our darker, earth toned things, so those things are now in the front green room. I've been looking at colorful inspiration photos for so long. Originally, I thought I'd choose one inspiration photo and start there, but the color scheme actually came first from a wool blanket that's now on the sofa, which has bright pinks and oranges. I love a bit of black and white with bright colors so I knew I'd incorporate black and white as well. I hung our Lulie with a few other things in similar colors--an old painting Lois did (below the Lulie), a "dolls" print by August Wren, a plate by Katy Leigh, and a color card from Colour Makes People Happy. I bought the "M" and the floral wall sconce at Graham and Green. I plan to fill in the wall more, but this is a start. I'd be happy if it ended up having this vibe. We need a few more things to complete the room, like a sideboard, a mirror to go over it, a few more lamps and new chairs, all of which we will likely have by the end of this month. But you can see how the downstairs area is taking shape. And the green room is looking more finished as well. I hung pictures on one wall that was blank and I had a painting framed, which is also now hung. I updated the green room post with those photos at the bottom of that post, for anyone who's interested.

In other news, I'm also looking forward to and super excited about a Cook's Tour in London that I'll be hosting with chef Alison Bell and Ace Camps. I LOVE Ace Camps, which are creative learning workshops with incredibly talented people in amazing cities all over the world. I would like to sign up for all the workshops myself, so I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to actually host one of their "explore" culinary camps. Just check out who Ace Camps has worked with in the past! I'm especially excited to work with Alison again who I met at the food styling workshop I helped host with Beatrice Peltre last summer.

(Still tinkering with the shelves and what I'd like on them. I think I change them around a little everyday and I have my eye out for more fun stuff to put on them.)

And I'm looking forward to taking a holiday this spring in Devon at this house with some of our friends who also have two small children. It will be the first time for us to take a holiday with another couple, and I think we'll have a ton of fun together. It will be a real treat for our girls to have playmates all week (and a real treat for the grown-up too, I hope!).

Soon, I also want to knit this hat and make this blouse (I have the pattern and just need to get started), and I want to take this cigarette pants class. And this cake, that's on my list too! Those are some of my aspirations for this year anyway. Happy New Year. Hope yours will be filled with fun, exciting plans too.