Lindsey, I echo what you say about the simple joy. I try to practice day by day the moment of being in present moment and think about what can bring me joy for moments. Sometimes, reading your article or other writer’s article can be quite inspiring and that is already a joy. We are all connected in different ways, and inspire each other, that’s another joy. 🥹
Oh I’m so with you on colour it’s so vital to me, I get such a lift when I glimpse some thing’s in my garden which colour’s ‘just go’ together as nature intended. I love making crochet blankets and patchwork quilts and my favourite part is choosing the colours that fit happily together, not jarring on the eye, I like to lay out my choices and when I walk past them I might make a slight adjustment till they look just right. I love your sketch of the beetroot, I roasted some the other day and the colours were amazing, and the rhubarb on the pale green chair is just a perfect pairing. My walls in my living room are a warm cream but everything else is a riot of colour 😊
I have always wanted to make a patchwork quilt, Liz but have never got round to it, I am not sure I would have the patience now if I'm honest (or the required eyesight!). Nature seems to have a way of putting colours together perfectly, sometimes I look at patches of 'weeds' and they look lovely together without all the fuss and planning. I hope you enjoyed your beetroot, I love roasted beetroot and don't eat it often enough, I'm getting lazy and buy the little balls in packets more often than not. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, thank you as always for commenting, Liz. x
I’m so glad you like it. There’s also a lovely update done, I think, for charity called Modern Delight. I love it too. It’s an anthology of different people in the public eye writing on their delights. To quote Nigella (not in the anthology): life is so much better if you can take pleasure in small things. I’m with you on colour, too. Can’t stand all that grey favoured by architects. Our rooms should be decorated to cope with the dullest northern skies.
It is wonderful Liz, I read a few more chapters today. I know some of it is dated but I really like his dry sense of humour. Thank you again for the recommendation, I love it when something all comes together! We need to take pleasure in anything we can at the moment so all those little things really do matter. x
I love, love colour Lindsey. My husband and I are busy painting our guest bedroom that had been ruined since Storm Fergus on New Year’s Eve. It’s taken a long time to sort things out - insurance and getting hold of a suitable builder - but we’re getting there. I adore Abigail Ahern’s colour drenching method:
everything in the same hue, including ceilings, covings, walls, door frames to skirting boards. So, our bedroom is totally F&B’s ‘Setting Plaster’ tonight which thankfully, 2 days in, I’m really pleased with. Thank you for sharing your glorious artwork and garden with us! 🙏❤️🩷💚🧡💙💜
I haven’t been brave enough yet Meryl to paint the ceiling the same colour. Our rooms are small and ceilings very low so I worry we would be a bit overwhelmed if it was all the same dark colour. I love Setting Plaster, I bet it looks fabulous, what a lovely colour to choose for a guest room. Perhaps next time I paint I will pluck up the courage!. Finding a builder here is a nightmare too. They are either busy for years in advance, or not very good but still charge a fortune. My dad used to do all our big stuff so appreciate now all the money he saved us over the years! Michael isn’t handy at all, in fact I panic when he says he’s getting the drill out!😂
I love your paintings; so beautiful. Have you done exhibitions? I just bought a painting from one of my daughter's friends in Reading, she had her first exhibition and I was her first client, and she was able to say "sold to an international collector in Switzerland" which is just wonderful! It's a colourful painting, yet soft too. I love colour and in my previous house, which dated from 1885 and was quite squiggly, I had so much colour! It was amazing, and went with the house. When we moved to our new house, which is a renovated old farmhouse (renovated before we bought it...actually, they tore the original mess down and rebuilt from scratch) there is a very Scandi atmosphere, so all the walls are white for now. When I'm feeling better again (constantly ill with IBD at the moment) I intend to add funky wallpapers in certain places. We no longer have dogs, just a white cat, so my sofas are called oatmeal...they're off white, but I've added colour with funky cushions from my friend's shop in Ibiza and a big soft aquablue rug. And fresh flowers in vibrant colours of course! My husband is far more neutral in his colour preferences than me, so I have to tread slowly and acclimatise him, after shocking the hell out of him with my mega colourful previous house! But that house sold in 24 hours when we put it on the market, because the Swiss are very prudish with colour, but everyone wanted to buy it because they thought the colours were so cool! Anyway, rambling again as usual! Lovely writing my dear, and I shall look up that book! xx
I think you have written a post here about your house, Francesca, it sounds wonderful and I am sure it must be very beautiful inside and out. I am so sorry you are suffering with your health, I hope it improves for you soon, that must be extremely difficult for you. I am not very confident with my paintings so I have never even tried to sell one, let alone exhibit, although I do hang them on my own walls as they make me happy (I am running out of space though in my little house!) He-he, I can imagine your daughter’s friend must have been delighted with her sale, I feel sorry for artists these days trying to get their names known, it must be a struggle. I hope you are having a good day today, and I love a ramble too, it’s nice to meet a fellow rambler!
Beautiful photos (especially the rhubarb!) and paintings (especially Seascape).
I love colour too! Having said that, we recently painted a couple of walls white to lighten our living room, the other walls are lilac, and the two contrasting walls look lovely together, we definitely wouldn't want all our walls to be white.
Thank you for your kind words, Juliet. Wall colour is such a minefield! Our house is quite dark inside so when I said I was going to paint the walls in a dark colour my husband thought I was mad but I really like it, it is cosy in the cooler months and in the summer it’s easy to add lighter cushions or throws, I usually pick them up from the bootsale. Horses for courses, Juliet, it’s a good job we are all so different. x
As ever, every single word you write resonates with me. I can also appreciate the tranquility of white and neutrals, the elegance of dressing in such calm colours but I just can't do it. I need the whole spectrum of colours in my life... on my walls, in my clothes and always in my paintings.
I think I might need to order that little book too!
Don’t buy it Gina, I’ll give it to you when I see you next, I will have finished it by then. I can imagine you are like me, walking around saying “Oh look at that blue, that red, that yellow!” How can anyone not love colour! Have a lovely day whatever you are doing. x
Thank you very much Lisa, the restack is very kind of you. x
Lindsey, I echo what you say about the simple joy. I try to practice day by day the moment of being in present moment and think about what can bring me joy for moments. Sometimes, reading your article or other writer’s article can be quite inspiring and that is already a joy. We are all connected in different ways, and inspire each other, that’s another joy. 🥹
Oh I’m so with you on colour it’s so vital to me, I get such a lift when I glimpse some thing’s in my garden which colour’s ‘just go’ together as nature intended. I love making crochet blankets and patchwork quilts and my favourite part is choosing the colours that fit happily together, not jarring on the eye, I like to lay out my choices and when I walk past them I might make a slight adjustment till they look just right. I love your sketch of the beetroot, I roasted some the other day and the colours were amazing, and the rhubarb on the pale green chair is just a perfect pairing. My walls in my living room are a warm cream but everything else is a riot of colour 😊
Liz xx
I have always wanted to make a patchwork quilt, Liz but have never got round to it, I am not sure I would have the patience now if I'm honest (or the required eyesight!). Nature seems to have a way of putting colours together perfectly, sometimes I look at patches of 'weeds' and they look lovely together without all the fuss and planning. I hope you enjoyed your beetroot, I love roasted beetroot and don't eat it often enough, I'm getting lazy and buy the little balls in packets more often than not. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, thank you as always for commenting, Liz. x
‘ I would either in a world without colour’ boy does that resonate with me!
I can’t imagine living in black and white, Sue. Aren’t we so incredibly lucky to have so much colour all around us. x
I’m so glad you like it. There’s also a lovely update done, I think, for charity called Modern Delight. I love it too. It’s an anthology of different people in the public eye writing on their delights. To quote Nigella (not in the anthology): life is so much better if you can take pleasure in small things. I’m with you on colour, too. Can’t stand all that grey favoured by architects. Our rooms should be decorated to cope with the dullest northern skies.
It is wonderful Liz, I read a few more chapters today. I know some of it is dated but I really like his dry sense of humour. Thank you again for the recommendation, I love it when something all comes together! We need to take pleasure in anything we can at the moment so all those little things really do matter. x
I love, love colour Lindsey. My husband and I are busy painting our guest bedroom that had been ruined since Storm Fergus on New Year’s Eve. It’s taken a long time to sort things out - insurance and getting hold of a suitable builder - but we’re getting there. I adore Abigail Ahern’s colour drenching method:
everything in the same hue, including ceilings, covings, walls, door frames to skirting boards. So, our bedroom is totally F&B’s ‘Setting Plaster’ tonight which thankfully, 2 days in, I’m really pleased with. Thank you for sharing your glorious artwork and garden with us! 🙏❤️🩷💚🧡💙💜
I haven’t been brave enough yet Meryl to paint the ceiling the same colour. Our rooms are small and ceilings very low so I worry we would be a bit overwhelmed if it was all the same dark colour. I love Setting Plaster, I bet it looks fabulous, what a lovely colour to choose for a guest room. Perhaps next time I paint I will pluck up the courage!. Finding a builder here is a nightmare too. They are either busy for years in advance, or not very good but still charge a fortune. My dad used to do all our big stuff so appreciate now all the money he saved us over the years! Michael isn’t handy at all, in fact I panic when he says he’s getting the drill out!😂
I love your paintings; so beautiful. Have you done exhibitions? I just bought a painting from one of my daughter's friends in Reading, she had her first exhibition and I was her first client, and she was able to say "sold to an international collector in Switzerland" which is just wonderful! It's a colourful painting, yet soft too. I love colour and in my previous house, which dated from 1885 and was quite squiggly, I had so much colour! It was amazing, and went with the house. When we moved to our new house, which is a renovated old farmhouse (renovated before we bought it...actually, they tore the original mess down and rebuilt from scratch) there is a very Scandi atmosphere, so all the walls are white for now. When I'm feeling better again (constantly ill with IBD at the moment) I intend to add funky wallpapers in certain places. We no longer have dogs, just a white cat, so my sofas are called oatmeal...they're off white, but I've added colour with funky cushions from my friend's shop in Ibiza and a big soft aquablue rug. And fresh flowers in vibrant colours of course! My husband is far more neutral in his colour preferences than me, so I have to tread slowly and acclimatise him, after shocking the hell out of him with my mega colourful previous house! But that house sold in 24 hours when we put it on the market, because the Swiss are very prudish with colour, but everyone wanted to buy it because they thought the colours were so cool! Anyway, rambling again as usual! Lovely writing my dear, and I shall look up that book! xx
I think you have written a post here about your house, Francesca, it sounds wonderful and I am sure it must be very beautiful inside and out. I am so sorry you are suffering with your health, I hope it improves for you soon, that must be extremely difficult for you. I am not very confident with my paintings so I have never even tried to sell one, let alone exhibit, although I do hang them on my own walls as they make me happy (I am running out of space though in my little house!) He-he, I can imagine your daughter’s friend must have been delighted with her sale, I feel sorry for artists these days trying to get their names known, it must be a struggle. I hope you are having a good day today, and I love a ramble too, it’s nice to meet a fellow rambler!
Beautiful photos (especially the rhubarb!) and paintings (especially Seascape).
I love colour too! Having said that, we recently painted a couple of walls white to lighten our living room, the other walls are lilac, and the two contrasting walls look lovely together, we definitely wouldn't want all our walls to be white.
Thank you for your kind words, Juliet. Wall colour is such a minefield! Our house is quite dark inside so when I said I was going to paint the walls in a dark colour my husband thought I was mad but I really like it, it is cosy in the cooler months and in the summer it’s easy to add lighter cushions or throws, I usually pick them up from the bootsale. Horses for courses, Juliet, it’s a good job we are all so different. x
I like dark walls in other people's rooms, I agree it's very cosy.
As ever, every single word you write resonates with me. I can also appreciate the tranquility of white and neutrals, the elegance of dressing in such calm colours but I just can't do it. I need the whole spectrum of colours in my life... on my walls, in my clothes and always in my paintings.
I think I might need to order that little book too!
Don’t buy it Gina, I’ll give it to you when I see you next, I will have finished it by then. I can imagine you are like me, walking around saying “Oh look at that blue, that red, that yellow!” How can anyone not love colour! Have a lovely day whatever you are doing. x
Thank you, that is so kind x