CARAVANNING: A GREAT BRITISH PASTIME

Just had to do one last post from the Chelsea Flower Show.

'A Celebration of Caravanning Garden' brought back the dreamy nostalgia and payed tribute to the most British of pastimes, caravanning. It was designed by Jo Thompson, and the idea came to Jo "... after seeing the fantastic collection of retro-style trailers on the Isle of Wight whilst on holiday last year."

The 'staycation'-inspired idea that Jo created offers a modern twist on a traditional country garden, plus it was the first time a caravan was brought to the show!

It also highlighted other examples of how a caravan can be used as part of your garden design; as guest accommodation, a home office, a relaxing summer house, or a playhouse for the kids.

I loved these curved benches on a steel post, available from Auspicious furniture and the way they floated above the channeled water feature!

A hammock tucked away behind a privacy screen brought in a patriotic touch by the feminised flag patchwork fabric.

{all images belong to Iced VoVos, please link back if you use them}

Summer colours such as fondant fancy pink, sherbet lemon yellows and pistachio ice cream greens were all present in the plants that you might see when walking through the countryside or through fields and woodland.

If you would like to see more photos from the Chelsea Flower Show, I have put them all on my
Marina Saclley Studio Facebook Page

xx

My side of the bed: Marnie Skillings

image via home life

What a great eclectic collection of items on this side of the bed belonging to fashion designer

Marnie Skillings.

I love the bright yellow lamp shade and those killer cowboy boots!

Photograph above bed was taken by her husband Emil 

If you've missed the previous posts on this series click here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

DON'T FORGET IF YOU WOULD LIKE THIS SERIES TO CONTINUE AND WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR PHOTOS!

  

DON'T BE SHY.

xx

The M&G Garden : Inspired by The Arts and Crafts Movement

Another favourite of mine was this beautiful garden designed by Andy Sturgeon, which had a strong asymmetric quality, characteristic of the Arts and Crafts style.

Formal linear paths and terraces, together with a mirrored water channel created a succession of garden rooms.

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The dramatic focal point of this garden was the 'energy wave' sculpture. Made of copper rings, it spilled across borders and pathways and emerges in the rectangular pool, enlivening the garden without challenging its formality.

The planting style had a woodland-edge quality with domed umbellifers and clipped holly, clumps of billowing perennials in a palette of soft pink, white, lilac and yellow, which softened the formal architectural edges of the garden. 

Three striking monolithic walls delineated the garden and a 'floating' oak bench, framed within a bold yew hedge at the opposite end was also balanced by the two Candyfloss trees, anchoring the garden to the site.

I love the way holes were drilled into the Purbeck stone to highlight the raw beauty and rustic texture.

There is also an animated tour walk through of this garden on the RHS Chelsea Flower Show website, which is interesting to watch.

What do you think of this garden?
I find sculptural garden features always make gardens that much more interesting!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend ...

xx

Homebase: Chelsea Flower Show

It wasn't only the warm colour tones of rust, orange and burgundy that made me fall in love with The Homebase Teenage Cancer Trust Garden, but also the nod to vintage television screens (consisting of the four cedar wooden frames) ... a very bold design device that draws the eye through the long views and divides the garden space up, casting strong shadows and also creating shadier areas.

Homebase was one of the gold medal winners at this years show and was designed by Joe Swift

A water feature really energised the design

Stone and wood were married together in stylised forms such as horizontally sliced feature boulders and wooden sculptures that played with scale and punctuated the space.

The sustainable 'dry' planting palette consisted of trees with interesting bark, textural foliage shrubs and perennials

{all images belong to Iced VoVos}

This garden was inspired by the power that plants and natural forms can have on an urban and suburban environment.

Joe Swift aimed to connect the garden owner and visitors with a combination of natural materials, water and plants in an energising and original way.

What do you think ... was he successful?

Tomorrow I will post another favourite

(there were so many!)

xx

Best Show Garden ... The Brewin Dolphin Garden By Cleve West

With over 200 photos (and that was controlling myself) and choosing a few from each category,

I thought I would start off with the Best in Show category at this years Chelsea Flower Show ...

Cleve West took out this honour for the second year running with his design of The Brewer Dolphin garden combing a contemporary feel with a celebration of the heritage of British gardening ... a resurgence of topiary art form in the 19th century.

The garden is intended to be formal and timeless, contemporary yet traditional ... with the use of yew topiary, beech hedging as well as a mix of perennials and annuals to contrast with the clipped forms.

The use of reclaimed limestone created an impressive grounding for the plants and will be reused after the show.

The colour palette included delicate whites, lime greens and yellows, with splashes of reds and purple for contrast.

{all images above belong to Iced VoVos}

via

The garden is meant to elegantly capture a sense of strength and size giving visitors a personal experience and interpretation of Cleve's design. For a full plant list click here.

This wasn't my favourite garden, but I have always been a lover of topiary and formality in the garden and this one ticked the timeless box for me, especially with the mixture of traditional and contemporary elements.

If you're into topiary, a great book I picked up at the show is Topiary for Everyone by Burgon & Ball (Sheffield England) available here or here.

 Tomorrow I'll show you my favourite garden(s).

We are having the most amazing weather in London at the moment

I hope you are too ...

xx

Chelsea Flower Show 2012 ...

{all images belong to Iced VoVos}

Hello lovely readers!

Yesterday was my first ever visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in the beautiful grounds of the

Royal Hospital Chelsea ... and it was amazing!

Not only that, but the weather was a beautiful 26C.

I will do a larger post in the coming days, but thought you might enjoy the mini in the mean time.

Another hot one today ... I'm in heaven!

xx

My side of the bed ... by Penny from Plaits and Paisley

It's Monday, and that means that we're having another sneaky peak into some ones bedroom!

I am so loving the old world charm of this bedroom,

It has a real nostalgic feel about it ... especially all the beautiful mirrors and that darling little figurine!

It belongs to a new blogging friend of mine, Penny from Plaits and Paisley who lives in Melboune, Australia

and she so kindly offered to share her side of the bed with us today ...

all images belong to Plaits and Paisley

What's on my side of the bed ...

"My bedroom is very subdued compared with the rest of my home. It's mainly white and grey with warmth added via timber furniture.
Taking these photos I realised how girly it looks. You would think with my mirror fascination that I liked looking at myself, but nothing could be further from the truth! 

I live in a relatively small apartment, so my old oak chest of drawers had to become my beside table. It means I can hide my glasses, reading material etc in the top drawer. 

It reflects my collecting obsession, as most things are from markets or op shops and it gets a bit cluttered!

On the drawers I like to have some flowers, a scented soy candle, my essential reading light and to store my jewellery in the crystal container and the miniature chest of drawers, given to me by my mum . 
The little figurine belonged to my grandmother. The black and white prints, from an old book, were great dollar finds which I had framed."

This goes to show you that you don't need to spend a fortune on decorating.  Penny enjoys collecting things from markets and op shops all over the world and I especially think black and white prints from old books look fabulous, like what Penny has done in her bedroom.

Penny's amazing blog recently featured her travels through India, which really caught my attention with her beautiful photography ... a country one day I hope to visit also! Take a look if you haven't already.

Thank you so much Penny for generously sharing your side of the bed with us.

If you've missed the previous posts on this series click here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

DON'T FORGET IF YOU WOULD LIKE THIS SERIES TO CONTINUE 

AND WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR PHOTOS!

DON'T BE SHY.

xx

It's all in the detail ...

... some beautiful details to take us into the weekend

1. Lapis blue detail of a window paneling from Marie Antoinette's apartment in Fontainbleau Chateau

2. Gorgeous blue entry door that makes a statement

3. Wall mirror with inlaid mother of pearl, ebony and bone with a shaped filigree floral pediment via

all images via my Pinterest boards


enjoy your weekend

xx

Pinterest favourites this week ...

I'm loving the textures, colours and scheme of this moodboard I created.

{ images from Pinterest 1, 2, 3, 4 }

xx

My Side of The Bed ... By Clare from Looking Glass

Hello,

How was your weekend? We finally got to see some sun here in London, which was lovely!

Today I'm featuring a gorgeous blogging friend from Sydney, Australia, Clare who writes the ever so lovely blog Looking Glass.

Not only beautiful (she was photographed for an advertisement for Qantas - click here), a true dreamer and a budding actress who adores the 1920's and 50's, Clare shares with us her side of the bed.

What's on my side of the bed ...

"My bedside tables were a great steal from ebay. I stupidly sold our bedsides along with our old bed when we were getting this new pretty one and had no idea it would be so difficult to find the style of bedside table I wanted with enough drawer space at a decent price in Sydney. Ugh! So for a little while we actually had none and the lamps were on the floor! Thankfully I eventually tracked these babies down on ebay.

The lamps were a gift from my Auntie a couple of years back who had a French Provincial Homeware store at the time.

Books - I always have books on my bedside table as well as on my dresser, the mantlepiece, our bookshelves... everywhere! I'm currently reading Memoirs of a Showgirl: From Brisvegas to Paris by Shay Stafford. The cover photograph was taken by the amazingly talented Carla Coulson. There's also a copy of "The Eve of St. Agnes" by John Keats, printed in 1928. I love Keats and I adore vintage books. The older the better. My Mother always told me I was born in the wrong era!

Beautiful candles are a must for me in the house. The little pink one you can see here is the Mirabelle Ceramic candle by Voluspa. It smells of Freesias - yum! Flowers in the bedroom and around the house are also a must for me. These Dahlias were given to me from this gorgeous old man that comes in to my work. He picks them from his garden every week for me when they're in season. I have them displayed in a vintage, white, milk glass vase that was my Grandmother's.

Our bed is from Domayne. We got to choose the fabric, the colour and even the style of studs around the frame. I love, love, love it! The bedding is all linen. I love the relaxed look of neutral coloured linens.

The vintage mirror in the background was another ebay find. For my Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party last year, I used it as decoration & wrote on it the quote "Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the greatest puzzle." I love the quote & the way it looks so I never scrubbed it off. 

~ Clare x"

Thank you so much Clare for sharing your bedroom with us.
I'm especially loving the vintage mirror with the script you still have written on it from your birthday party, the lovely linen bedding ... and how lucky are you to have a little old man bring you flowers every week ... a real admirer!
If you haven't visited Clare at her blog Looking Glass, please do, its a real treat.

If you've missed the previous posts on this series click here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

DON'T FORGET IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS FUN SERIES, PLEASE SEND ME YOUR PHOTOS!

DON'T BE SHY.

xx

A birds eye view ....

You get to see a whole different perspective of the world when you're flying above it ... and Jason Hawkes (a UK aerial photographer) sure knows how to capture it!

A friend of mine sent me a link with a whole lot of his aerial images of London and I was blown away .... strapped tightly to a harness, hanging out of a helicopter, shooting at night, with a lack of light, makes it all that much more fun!

 London images via here - to see more click the link

The following are more of Jason's images from around the world

... so inspiring!

All images Copyright © Jason Hawkes


To see more of Jason's amazing photography click here

Wishing you all an inspiring weekend.
xx