LOOKING FOR NEW IDEAS

At the moment I am looking for new country style ideas and I was going through all my old decoration magazines and found plenty different country style photos...so after cutting the images out, I glued them into my visual diaries...

MADONNA

These Picture of Madonna's are from the same catalogue than the pictures on the previous posting

COUNTRY LIFESTYLE

Yesterday afternoon on my way to meet two my old school friends, I went to this small shop next to the movie thither in Turku. I like the atmosphere of this shop, soft colours and nice country feeling... I would like to buy plenty things in that shop but my holiday house in Finland and our house in Andorra are both something else than country style. So I browsed through the shop and found this beautiful magazine at the counter and bought it without no hesitation. It is called lifestyle in a class of its own " Jeanne d'Arc Living" and there are more than 150 pages of lovely soft country style decoration tip and food recipes. I loved all the 150 pages of that magazine and here are some of the pictures I photographed to show you.

Since quite sometime I have had this feeling about one day owning a beautiful country home some where in south of Europe with my own vegetable garden... And I think one day this type of home will find me and it will give me the opportunity to do my best to give that house back of the old homely feeling that it has ones had, with some work and understanding the real history of that old house...

MAKE YOUR OWN DECO BOOKS

In This pile of magazines are most of my favorite decoration mags. This is one of my passion to buy these type of magazines, reading them but I do something more with them and it's fun.

Few times a year I take all my magazines, go them through and take everything out that interest me... It can an atmosphere, scenery, colour, image of the room, accessories, paint effects or even articles about DIY, etc...Sometimes it takes half of the day to do all these but it can be fun on the rainy day...

So to make your deco books you need a pair of scissors, plenty glue and visual diary books, the big ones are better than the A4 size, you can have a really nice collage on your pages...

Buy several visual diaries and make you books by theme, I have made for example a book for any kind of paint effects and colours, rustic chic, country style, then you can just assemble on one or two pages different bath rooms, bed rooms, kitchens etc and add different pictures of accessories that goes with these pictures.

This is really fun, creative and it is also relaxing...Collect your own dream house or houses...

CRAFT ROOM

At home in Andorra we have 4 bedrooms, the main bedroom has it's own story but all the 3 other ones are not too big. The main bedroom and the guest room are upstairs. Downstairs we have most of our living area and the 2 other bed rooms. I have taken over those two rooms for my activities. The smallest room has one door window opening to the back yard and the room is quite dark even on a sunny day. When we bought this house a year ago, all the walls and sealings in the whole house were the same beige colour. I made this small room for me as a craft room, where I can do my sewing and have all my papers, fabrics, books, tools, magazines etc... So first thing I did, I painted the whole room white; walls and the sealing. Then I wanted all the furniture to be white. I needed lot of storage space and a bed would be nice for extra guest. I wanted a white but bright room...

DECORATION & LIFESTYLE EXPO IN AIX-EN-PROVENCE, SOUTH OF FRANCE

A meeting in middle of June for all those in love with the decor of the south. Deco magazine Maison Cote Sud organizes an expo in Park Jourdan in town of Aix-en-Provence. The expo is open for public and you will find quality producers and manufactures of furniture, art, ceramic, all kind of deco items, local delicatessen, etc. I visited the expo for the first time this June, it was their 11th expo and since they started. You can find it on http://www.vivrecotesud.fr/ at the end of website page you can click for English version.

GET CREATIVE!

I read a lots of different decoration magazines. I follow UK, Finnish, French, Australian, South African and Spanish magazines. To keep all ideas from wall painting to accessories and all what comes to decoration, I cut pictures from the mags and keep them for a while. Then when I have piles of pictures, I will sort them out in some kind of order, bathrooms, kitchens, colours, accessories etc. Then I will glue the pictures on big visual diaries or sketch books with plastic covers. The blank white pages fills up fast with all kind of pictures that I want to keep, I don't write much on those pages, the image will tell more than words. I have made plenty these type of books; one for colours for painting ideas, country style, rustic style, modern African style, I even have one book for Christmas. I made even a special one, when I was looking for ideas for our chalet. You can have plenty stylish ideas for your home. When ever I am short of tricks for accessories, the best way is go back to my pages and I will always find something new on them.
Doing these books are one of my favorite pass time on a rainy day.