Thursday 6 January 2011

Splash of colour - January

I always think of January as a clean, white month.  I love the sense of a new start and empty pages in a fresh diary...everything plain, simple and clutter-free after the green, red and gold excesses of Christmas. 

I wasn't sure how much colour I would find when I went looking for it for Silverpebble's Splash of Colour project yesterday, but it is here.  The house may be refreshingly free of decorations and holiday clutter, but there is still plenty of colour too.


My beautiful new green satchel, a Christmas present from G.  Other delicious, vibrant shades, sizes and styles can be found on the Cambridge Satchel Company website.


Strawberry and vanilla buns in bright, cheery, red paper cases, waiting for their icing.


Another Christmas present - this magnificent book.  I picked up some good, bright shades of cashmerino and organic wool yarn in the John Lewis sale, and have started by making the sprig of lavender you can see lying on the book in the picture above. 

I am a little obsessed by lavender at the moment.  When I finally made it to Oxford over Christmas, Mum gave me some of the lavender she harvested from her garden in France last year, and which she dried out over the autumn.  She had so much of it that we lost perspective somewhat.  She gave me three carrier bags full of dried stalks, which when I got it back home to London, suddenly seemed like an enormous quantity.  I stripped the stalks from just one of the three bags and have ended up with a huge bowl of lavender - so full that I can submerge my hands in it up to my wrists.  The resulting smell of lavender throughout the whole house is astonishing.  This may be adding to the general, and very welcome, sense of January calm and simplicity which is enfolding us all at the moment.

12 comments:

  1. You made woolly lavender. That has cheered me up no end this morning (another virus has us in its grips).

    As for your satchel. I am swooning.

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  2. Hmm, punctuation's not my strong point this morning - sleep deprivation I'm afraid.

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  3. Like your lavender, are you planning to attach them to lavender sachets?

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  4. I am so pleased that the lavender has gone to a good home....and that the perfume is so powerful!

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  5. I have a big bowl too - when I stir it up the waft of scent is inctedible. Like your woolly version too!

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  6. wow-are you all walking around in a sleepy lavender induced fug?? I love the smell of it too(hence loving my soap!)and frequently sprinkle the essential oil on pillows. How fabulous your woolly version is! I have flicked through that book in Waterstones, so clever (but beyond my capabilities!)one bloggy lady was making woollen mistletoe brooches at Christmas for her Etsy shop which were selling as quickly as she could make them.
    Are you going to make lavender bags for your knicker drawers now?!

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  7. I love the image of you up to your wrists in lavender! I catch a whiff of it every time I take my jacket off its hanger from my lovely little sachet.

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  8. a whole bowl of lavender - wow!

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  9. The lavender sounds fantastic. We only have it in a bottle.

    I am all of an envy.

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  10. What a wonderful satchel! The lavender bowl sounds divine. And you can always use a bit for Hugh F-W's lavender shortbread! Love the wool version, too.

    K x

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  11. Love love love that satchel! I'm adding it to my 2011 Wants List!

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  12. I love your satchel and the special splash of colour image posted here is stunning. Volumes of lavender can be confusing! I ordered some on line, to fill four little bags I had knitted (I intend to blog the pictures one day) and ended up with a very large box. But as you say such a large quantity of lavender scents the whole house - so it's a bonus really.

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