Alison May's Blog, page 23
October 13, 2015
The Twelve Deals of Christmas
The post The Twelve Deals of Christmas appeared first on Brocantehome.
How To Make Your Hand-made Vintage Story Go Viral
The post How To Make Your Hand-made Vintage Story Go Viral appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 12, 2015
Seminal Weekend
The post Seminal Weekend appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 11, 2015
Sunday Poetry
The post Sunday Poetry appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 9, 2015
White Space and New Ideas
The post White Space and New Ideas appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 8, 2015
Vittoria Cottage
The post Vittoria Cottage appeared first on Brocantehome.
Handmade at Amazon – A New Artisan Marketplace
The post Handmade at Amazon – A New Artisan Marketplace appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 7, 2015
Puttery Pins…
Was there ever, ever, ever ANYTHING quite so infinitely inspiring as Pinterest? No siree. I simply cannot think of anything which can set my domestic imagination in to perpetual motion quite so fast as a browse around my lovely boards (Hint: follow me pretty please?} and so today I am combining the charm of my very won puttery treats with all the irresistible ideas to be found on Pinterest and calling them Puttery Pins. Genius main non?
Created in the spirit of Diane Vreeland’s wonderful “Why Don’t You” articles, I hereby present this months collection without further ado…
Floral Pumpkin by Hunted Interior
Why don’t you… decoupage a pumpkin in something dark and glamorous?
MaskCara’s Office by VintageRevival.com
Why Don’t You… store nail varnish in a glass jar? So portable and pretty…
Bleached Pinecones by Handy and Homemade
Why Don’t You… bleach pinecones until they are pale and ethereal?
Homemade Vanilla by On Sutton Place
Why Don’t You… Make your own home-made vanilla?
Why Don’t You… Make a gorgeous tea-towel tote with this easy tutorial?
Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins by the Taylor House
And Finally Why Don’t You… Make a tin full of chocolate banana-bread muffins as a coming home from school treat for the kids?
Happy puttering Housekeepers!
The post Puttery Pins… appeared first on Brocantehome.
The Seasonal Scrub 2015
This is a Vintage Housekeeper's Circle Post - Member's Only
Good Afternoon Housekeeper’s, have you got your calendar ready? Because I have got dates for the Vintage Housekeeper’s Circle Seasonal Scrubs for both November (the big one!) and December (the little one!)…
The Seasonal Scrub is one of the mainstays of keeping house the Brocante way, and this year rather than doing my traditional September scrub I have moved it to the beginning of November because it struck me that after summer ends and our usual routines begin again, it can take a little way to get back in to the swing of ordinary housekeeping let alone the whole caboodle that is taking down curtains and banishing the dust bunnies lurking under the guest room bed.
The post The Seasonal Scrub 2015 appeared first on Brocantehome.
October 6, 2015
Life Audit
Good Morning lovely Housekeepers, won’t you join me in auditing your life today so that we can all get a grip on where we are at and of course where we are heading? As always please feel free to steal the graphic and do a life audit of your own…
Today I am…
Terribly cold. Autumn sneaks up upon a person and fools her in to thinking she does not yet need to wear slippers. Up to my eyes in the terribly dull business of SEO because it turns out that majority of Brocantehome isn’t being indexed by Google and this will of course be my fault because I am so terribly prone to fiddling. Keeping my fingers crossed for Ste. Worrying about why my lovely Alfie seems so sleepy today. Still doing yesterdays laundry. Making one of a long list of phone calls I desperately need to make but haven’t yet got around to. Taking Finn and his friend Freya to Starbucks on the way home from school because I have been promising them this little adventure for months. Going to yoga this evening. And about to whip up some cinnamon flapjacks.
Feeling…
Pleased with myself. Wide awake after an unusually good nights sleep despite the fact that my mattress takes a cricket bat and beats me around the back with it every single night. Happy with the way Finn has so easily settled in to high school life. Horrified that under severe pressure from my menfolk I have had to agree to a Sky Sports subscription which will no doubt mean that the kind of peace I live in hope of will now be severely compromised by the twin horrors that are football and WWE. Consider me an unhappy bunny…
Reading…
Nugget. The app I have been waiting for since apps were invented. Nugget takes books written to make you a better person and breaks them down in to summarys and cards with memorable one-liners. It is insanely useful and I am currently totally addicted to it and happily filling the space in my head usually reserved for Buzzfeed with all kinds of self-improving goodness.
Currently on my Kindle? Mrs Engels: A Novel. With a character so astonishingly real I cannot shake her off when I put the book down.
Eating…
Omelette Arnold Bennett made the Sophie Dahl way, with cheese. Of course with cheese. I would put cheese in my cup of tea if I could. Nibbling pistachios. Mainlining Berocca because I want to be me on a good day and not me on a just about alive day. And drifting off to sleep with a variety of Pukka and Clipper night-time teas, but currently favouring Clipper Snore and Peace. Because it works.
Planning…
A couple of days away glamping in a Hobbit Hut with our boys come half term in a couple of weeks. So stockpiling blankets because October in a wooden hut on the moors in Yorkshire does not conjure up scenes of cosy toes. A Christmas shopping #bloggerslodge staycation in November in my very own Liverpool home. Changing up Finn’s bedroom to accommodate nine-year old Stevie, Ste’s son, who comes to stay every other weekend. And planning and simultaneously worrying about my first Christmas without my Mum, and indeed the rest of the family, because Dad will be at my sisters for the holiday so I am going to have to get the party started here all by myself…
Dreaming of…
A new house. As my little family has suddenly expanded from me and Finn to me, Ste, Finn and Stevie, my lovely diddy little house suddenly feels exceptionally claustrophobic and when Ste finally moves lock, stock and barrel in to our midst it is quite possible we may all end up killing each other. But oh what to do? How to leave my very own little sanctuary? Where to move to? Finn blows a gasket at the very mention of it. Ste believes the house has too many ghosts of all my yesterdays and we will need a place we can truly call our own. And I would probably thrive in a bigger place because I do believe that goldfish bowl syndrome is a very real and self-limiting truth…
Coveting…
Warmth. The bloody boiler has died again! Enough willpower to switch off the internet after nine at night so that my brain can truly rest. And absolutely everything in Christina’s Room, because it all looks so deliciously refined and Autumnal.
Wishing…
I could tell my Mum how utterly lovely and silly Coronation Street was last night. Death is so very odd. I hate it that she isn’t seeing our lovely boys become little men and that she isn’t around to make a big pan of Scouse now the nights are drawing in, but equally, and utterly irrationally, I also hate it that she doesn’t know what is happening in her favourite soap. And that Coronation Street has the nerve to go on without her…
Working On…
So much! I am so very much in the rhythm of both Brocantehome and my lovely Vintage Housekeeper’s Circle right now and I am thoroughly enjoying writing again. One day I might write a post called How Alison got Her Groove Back and do my best to nail the reasons why some days it is impossible to work and on others your Muse is sitting right next to you cheering you on and giving you congratulatory hugs whenever you cross one more frog off your to-do list
Celebrating…
Feeling alive. Feeling determined. And focused.
Grateful For…
All of you. You know why. Let’s face it, it has been quite the most hairy of bloggy rides and yet you have stuck with me through the worst kinds of trauma. And you are still here. I love you. I love you all so much. So thank you for continuing to read me. For the emails you send me and of course your continuing investment in a life less ordinary.
And finally tomorrow I will be…
Aching from yoga. But peaceful in the head.
On my to-do list this month?
* My Dad’s birthday and the ongoing conundrum that is buying presents for the man who needs little.
* Getting this darn SEO sorted so dear little BrocanteHome isn’t forever in the blogging equivalent of No-Mans Land.
* Teaching Finley to make scrambled eggs because I do believe it is time he gave up being scared of cracking an egg.
* Shopping for a desk for him so he has got somewhere to do the piles of homework he now seems to have.
* Finally getting new living room carpet because this one has taken a chewing and a battering from the lethal combination that is Finn and Alfie.
* Inviting people around because it’s time I got back on to the social bandwagon!
Happy October Housekeepers!
The post Life Audit appeared first on Brocantehome.
