Looking back...

As is customary this time of the year, many of us take a moment to reflect on what the year has brought us, small and big, on the surface and deep within. This year, however, a new dimension can be added to my summary, this in-between public and private dimension that we call a blog. 

I have seen many fellow bloggers express a similar experience to mine, that of a warm and encouraging community in which inspiration, creativity and friendships are born and nurtured. Again, I would like to thank you all for contributing to making this "parallel universe" such a nice one to inhabit, and more in particular for taking the time to stop by at my Swenglish abode and leaving behind you gifts of kind words and encouragement.

Before I endeavour on this rather extensive journey through the rear view mirror, I would just like to welcome all my new readers, many of whom may have found your way here through two fellow bloggers who, by coincidence, both featured my blog on Dec 20th. Thank you dear Mari in Italy, with the blog CreaMariCrea, and dear Tara in the US, with Between You & Me - Living Authentically - I felt very honoured!

With the Christmas holidays packed with lovely family visits and therefore very limited time for blogging, I am very behind on replying to lovely comments, but I have read and hugely appreciated every single word - thank you!

To those of you who may wonder whether the photos below really represent reality, as some of the images may look a little "staged", you may be right. From having started this blog with no idea what direction or form it would take, it did develop into an arena for my uninhibited and "uncensured" creativity, sometimes leading to a playful and somewhat exaggerated styling of a corner of the garden, or a scarf "casually" thrown on a bench where it would not stay for long, as it would risk getting covered in pigeon "gifts". However, the core of every arrangement is genuine - and many in their entirety, as are all the decorations in the house, where the only "beasts" to worry about are the junior gentlemen in the family...

Trying to sum up my first blog year in only one image per month failed miserably, so hold on to your seats as we stroll down memory lane with the attitude that "More is More"...

February...: Blog birth!

My first stumbling steps, trying to "show off" my craft and decorating 

ideas without "showing off"... where is that fine line?

March

The month when spring really began to show its floral fireworks, 

and when I started playing more with the camera and the decorations...

April

With April came the first days when it was really possible to live more outside, 

and my passion for decorating indoors surprised me a little 

by continuing to grow equally excitedly in my exterior "rooms"...

Glorious inspiration at "The Naked Gardeners'", a k a, The Abbey Gardens in Malmesbury:

Eastern lullabies in the bedroom...

First meal in the garden...

Loving weed...!

May

Cherry blossom...

Rhubarb feasts...

Tea for two in the garden...

More Eastern tunes when fresh orchids were placed in a glass wrapped in a page from an old Turkish book...

Flower power and free love... 

Flowers picked by the side of the road meet recycled food tin...

June

After a trip to Sweden, a pelargonium entered the UK in a certain Swenglish suitcase...

Clover - not just for cows...

Summer vibes with a wreath dressed in leaves and ribbons from a torn sheet...

July

The garden kept showering us with gifts to harvest...

Purple by the pond...

Bringing the inside out and the outside in was a theme that saw no limits this year. Whether weed or "accepted" greenery, whether familiar or as in the case of the berries below, unknown, leaves and twigs were welcome to join in the fun...

LOVE playing with food...

With a summer so dry, SO dry, the lawn lost all its colour, and I, 

I tried to compensate with an explosion of red...

August

It was time for the Swenglish family to go on holiday, and the blog was unusually quiet for a few weeks...

...but only after I had played with my food once more...

September

With September came school start for our youngest, and with both boys at school, 

a familiar guest showed up on our door step... it was time to great Mr Autumn...

An apple a day keeps the doctor away...?

With the seasons changing, I felt the urge to surround me with warmer, 

more autumnal colours, accessorized sympathetically by a late harvest of orange tomatoes...

I must have overdosed on autumn vitamins in September, 

as the season-inspired blog entries kept coming...

... and coming...

... and coming...!

And then it was...

October

November

Perhaps more than any other time, autumn is the season when Mother Nature offers such an abundance of gifts to decorate with, inside and out... Flowers may not be in abundance like they are in spring and summer, but who can resist a fallen down birch branch, and isn't there just something irresistible about twigs and moss???

November was also the month when I whispered something secretive on the blog about "too much to do", disappeared from the scene for a few weeks and prepared for a big craft sale of my handmade items. Exhausting, admittedly, but heaps of fun too!

And before we knew it, it was...

December

And with this, dearest blog readers, 

I wish you a spectacular New Year and an equally stunning start to 2011!

Love, 

Helena

From all of me to all of you...

...a very, VERY Merry Christmas!

Goodbye yellow brick wall...

Going, going, gone...!

... is the yellow wall in the conservatory, and welcome 'Natural Hessian'! Some may find this colour a little bland and boring, and would perhaps even miss the sunny yellow that previously shouted out its loud message to the world here. I agree that the yellow was a happy and sunny colour, but it had somehow done its job for me.

Do you ever notice things in your own photos you were completely unaware of at the time of taking the photo? Like a long piece of wood on the ledge above, ready to be made into hearts, but certainly no added value to this photo...?!

And from that to something completely different...

Zinc and Norwegian loveliness

Even though I do find zinc a rather 'cold' material, like - in fact - all metals, for some time I have found myself hopelessly drawn to it. Looking around the house, I see evidence of this love story here, there and everywhere... The 'number plates' and the heart above (note the gorgeous "diamond" crown detail on the heart, half-hidden by the ribbon) increased the "love factor" in the Swenglish home massively, when they -together with a lovely mix of little decorative items - arrived yesterday in the post, all the way from Norway!

Anette, or Guttemamma as she is known, is a warm, bubbly, creative 'blog sister' with a lovely home and an equally lovely blog. The blog universe is an amazing place, and holds in its embrace so many friendly fellow bloggers and a wonderful virtual 'living room' in which friendships can grow. Thank you, dear Anette, what a wonderful surprise Christmas gift!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend! I wonder, will you be humming "Seven more sleeps to go, seven more sleeps to Santa..."? I can't seem to get it out of my head!

A modest accusation...

Dear blog readers,

Do you, like I, sometimes find yourselves panting a little faster, starting 37 projects at the same time and wonder why you can't finish them, pant yet a little faster and then find yourselves balancing a bottle of glue on your nose, as both your hands are full of craft material you can't put down, because you can't find an empty space on the table...?

Well, I am afraid I blame you! Yes, you. You who offer an endless stream of crafty ideas, a fountain of inspiring projects, stunning photos and decoration galore. How is a girl supposed to find the time to write her Christmas cards, or tidy up at least to create enough space for Father Christmas to find his way to the Christmas tree, when you can't seem to stop feeding me all this inspiration? Well, I suppose that was a bit rude. Thank you for all your inspiration, is a little more appropriate. So, thank you. But perhaps you could slow down just a little, just so that I can sweep the chimney? We wouldn't want a certain well-rounded man to get stuck, now would we?

Today, instead of attacking a long list of important things to achieve, I felt my hands reach for some small, old clay pots, some other bits and bobs and four hyacinth bulbs... oh yes, that was the idea, but as the Swenglish house experienced a severe lack of hyacinths today, four pine cones would have to do.

A few long cinnamon sticks, two bargain candle sticks from a car boot sale ( £1 each!) and the NOEL letters I cut last year from some left-over floor boards - and the little cone quartet can enjoy their new, sleek attire together with some appropriate company, and hopefully some seasonal spirit to go with it...

 

Wishing you all an inspiring week, and thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last blog entry - you make my day!

Mr Blackbird vs decorating Swede: 1-0

Last year I thought I had a brilliant idea about decorating the front of the house with Christmassy apples and, yes, just like so many years, moss balls...

There was just this one little glitch I had not considered. My plan did not include greedy, even if understandably hungry, blackbirds. Let's just say that there was a lot of 'topping up' needed on the apple heart for a few weeks leading up to Christmas! 

Well, perhaps it could be seen as my Christmas gift to some feathery fellow beings in need...

As for the wreath... well, a pine tree-hungry Swede not finding a single pine tree to maim in the name of wreath making, can easily turn into an unstoppable Swede on a mission. After driving around for some time, I ended up outside an industrial estate with the most pine-resembling trees around, galloped into the reception of the nearest company and begged to grab a few twigs, promising it would not show at all... The manager must have realised a 'no' might have resulted in tears or worse, so there we are, chop-chop-choppety-chop followed by a wreath and a happy Swede.  All in the name of Christmas decoration...

The entrance door is in a part of the house that was extended years before we bought the house, where whoever did the - I believe it is called - pointing (I call it grouting, but perhaps that is just with tiles?), must have been under the influence... please look away from that, if you can...

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

A postcard from the land of gingerbread cottages ...

I drove through our neighbour village Biddestone today...

I think Hansel and Gretchen would have a difficult time 

choosing the yummiest house to nibble on...:

Perhaps they would go for the slightly larger model...:

... or perhaps the white "biscuit" with the chocolate details below...?

 However, a smarter choice might be the one below, 

as it is for sale and they could move right in and kick the nasty witch flying through the snow!

As for me, any one of the above would do nicely, thank you...

Psst, Santa, did you hear that?

Ama-thrill-is...!

Despite having bought budding white amaryllis bulbs the other day, I simply could not resist the fresh, long stems of their red cousins in our local florist's. They stood there, seductively pouting their red lips, like a fifties actress, and I swear I heard one of them hum " I wanna be loved by you-oh-ooh-popopidoo"...

So here we are now, loving each other, my amaryllis and I, in a seasonal and platonic way. Below I let it take the throne in an attempted seasonal arrangement, which was quickly dismantled after the photo was taken. Perhaps it is the apple crate that does it, but this arrangement, like some I have made in the past, felt too much like the interior of a florist's shop, just a little bit too staged... 

I would like to thank so many of you for leaving such kind and encouraging comments about my craft sale the other day. I cannot tell you how much your words warm my heart. Thank you so much! I am still slowly catching up with visiting you all, but I will get there in the end!

Thank you also to sweet Dila from Made by Dila, who has kindly given me an award. I pass the award on to all of you lovely bloggers out there.

 Wishing you a thrilling day, hoping you too have an amaryllis singing to you...!

Nuts about moss...

It is no news that I am nuts about nuts...

... nor that I am a massive fan of moss...

So what better way to embrace the season and welcome the snow, than to let the brown sing with the green, a festive little tune of Nature and her wonders. And then, as I sit for a moment on the comfortably warm skin once having hugged a woolly friend, I say a little prayer to the weather Gods to remember to save some of this white fluffy loveliness to be scattered in around twenty days or so... I'm dreaming of a white (and green, brown and rust coloured) Christmas...

 Wishing you all a lovely weekend!