Favourite five wallpapers.

With our next interior project looming, its time to get back to the drawing board and begin some concepts for our new pad! Starting the search here's a five of my favourite wallpapers around at the moment...

Not-so mellow yellow.

The design trend 'Colour Blocking' is a striking, brave and fun way to style, this loud and proud attitude to colour involves combining different colors that support and compliment each other, think of your colour wheel, the primary and secondary colors and how these work together harmoniously. This Spring Summer I love the use of bright Yellow within fashion and interiors.

I've chosen to look at ways to use yellow in interiors using current fashion looks as an inspiration to take yellow from the catwalk to the living room.

To start decide on two or three areas to focus your colour block within your interior; a favorite piece of art, feature furniture and/or accessories.

You can mix bold brights with two options based on how brave you are feeling, complimentary brights in Royal Blue, coral orange and teal green, give a dynamic, confident look; While earthy tones, charcoals, smokey grey and rustic browns may interest those looking for a smaller yet vibrant splash of colour to fit in with an existing decor.

Wood and wicker textures will ground the yellow and add depth and contrast to your interior, preventing it from appearing too overpowering.

Help structure your yellow, make it appear clean cut and crisp by pairing it with white, for a chic, contemporary feel.

Create the illusion of space using colour, if you have a long room or perhaps a narrow corridor, putting a block of colour, say Yellow, on the far wall won't just make the space at the end of the room inviting, it will shorten the space to feel wider.

You can also add your block colour to the floor, be it refurbished floorboards or carpet, you can also get some really smart vinyls (yes, i said it) in bright colours.

If you aren't quite ready for putting yellow straight on the walls, adding block colour to textiles is a quick and easy way to transform a neutral space, this may be where you introduce different surfaces using gloss, matt, or semi transparent materials. 

Break up the space with bright accessories as you introduce texture and pattern as opposed to block brights. When it comes to accessorising you may use just one bold colour, in my case yellow or choose to mix elements of several brights using complimentary green, blue and orange. 

Adding bright textiles and accessories also provides the option to continuously update your interior colour palette whenever you wish; highly recommended for those like myself who like to update their interior based on their mood.

Artisan's Market.

When I began my blog you may have read 'Home on the Hill' a post about the Artisan's Sunday Market where we live on Catherine Hill. Well yesterday was Market day! So off we trotted to seek out and stock up on some of our local favorites; starting at the top of the hill and winding our way down through the various market stools; market sellers display everything from delicious local produce to crafts and accessories, perfectly set within the cobbled streets of Frome in Somerset.

​Bramble and Wild

Make your way down through the sunflowers.

​Favourite local sausages.

​Not so 'petite' pain

​Hats for all.

​Bath's finest.

One of our favourite stands at the Artisan Market is Absolutely Preserves which has just celebrated its first Birthday. The chutneys, jellies and jams are to die for, we are currently on our 4th jar and always try something different, from elderflower to rhubarb, grapefruit and meddlers jelly, spoilt for choice is an understatement. I would personally recommend a visit to St. Catherine's purely to swipe a jar of Absolutely Preserves, some black pepper sausages and a gourmet pie or two!

Go for Gold.

Amid the excitement of London 2012, it wont just be the world's finest Olympians going for gold this season. Fashion and interiors have their own ideas in store for this sought after shade of opulence  in a sport meets fashion frenzy!

Festival Fever.

Its that time of year when the endless hours spent hitting the refresh and redial buttons finally pay off as bags, tents and macs are packed ready for a weekend of live music paired with hours of overwhelming enjoyment and maybe some rain, that's right, It's festival time! Glastonbury may be absent from this year's festival calendar but that hasn't dampened the spirit of 2012 with so many more live events to choose from both in the UK and overseas. I was lucky enough to visit the FIB festival in Benicassim, an unforgettable weekend that fills me with bittersweet feeling every time I think of it. This year sees a huge variety of festivals from Cochella to Lovebox, Download to V Fest, Reading and Leeds; some have been and satisfied others are happening now, while some are yet to spread their infectious magic.

One UK based festival to mention just because it look so darn good and also happens to be the next in the line of fab live music events, is Hop Farm; during Benicassim we had the pleasure of meeting some rather lovely people, including Bev Burton. Bev is MD of her company Killer Bee she's the lady in charge when it comes to festival management with a tale for every tattoo she possesses. Known to many as Queen B, Bev mixes her passion for Music with her work, responsible for the overall organisation and programming at the Hop Farm event held at Paddock Wood in Kent.

The general ethos surrounding Hop farm and what sets it aside from other festivals is the desire to focus the festival purely on the music and it's audience, little to-no branding, sponsors or other commercial interference, just good real music! This year the intimately presented festival started by Vince Power in 1998 features artists such as Suede, Richard Ashcroft, Damien Rice, Bob Dylan, Billy Ocean, Athlete & Gomez... the list goes on...and on!

 Outside of the fantastic line up Hop Farm features late night comedy and an Indie Disco for those wishing to continue their festival fever into the night. All weekend camping and a huge headline act rounds off the whole event in true festival style. Find out more about the festival 29th June-1st July here.

Love Sicily.

So our chosen escape this summer was Sicily, a small island off mainland Italy, for those not so keen on geography Sicily can be found at the toe of the boot . We decided on Sicily rather spontaneously after watching a BBC documentary on the food and wine, as you do. We figured as these were two things we really love, what better a way than to travel to somewhere and spent a week enjoying just that!

I'm not going to warble too much about our holiday instead here is a visual diary of our stay in Cefalu, located along the north coast of Sicily. All I will say is if you haven't been before, you must. Sicily is bursting with vibrant culture, it is truly unspoilt, with something for everybody; from fine food and wine, to mountainous excursions, volcanoes and temples displaying the most wonderful architecture. Sicily is an island we intend to re-visit very soon.

Sicily we miss you already!​

Day at the Dog Show.

This weekend we decided to visit a local village show with family and took the Millie the Beagle along too. Amid the rain and music from the marching band, Millie and I took part in the Fun dog show, we decided against any form of obedience or agility category as this wouldn't have got us very far. It was a choice between Cutest Puppy and Waggiest Tail; turns out we aren't the only ones who think we have a sweet pooch as Millie managed to charm the judges and walk away with a new bone and 1st prize for cutest puppy.

​Well done naughty Mildred.