This was so inspiring, especially as I‘ve shared the urge recently to step out if grey and into more COLOR. It’s been great fun, helped in no small measure by your gorgeous weekly dose of inspiration. Thank you once again.
And so agree about the joy of sewing- I am a very confident knitter and wobbly sewist, having let much more time lapse between attempts. Knitting is so forgiving! If only we could „rip out“ cut fabric back into an intact piece to start from again. 🤪
Ah, just wonderful! I've always credited Kaffe Fassett with launching my arty textile journey and something of his exuberance with colour must have rooted deep inside. So encouraging to read about your other Inspirations. I enjoy a really boring dress style - jeans and navy jumpers type of thing, but my artwork is richly coloured, so perhaps I subconsciously act as the contrast? Thanks for the piece, loved it...x
Ah, so many of my favorites here! Nicola Bauman does indeed have the best taste - last time I was in the Persephone shop my boyfriend asked where we should go for drinks in Bath and she pointed us towards Beckford Bottle Shop, which is now one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. What a lovely Sunday morning read this was!
Fab post. Been reading for a while and just had to reply. I am a great stealer of other people's taste. So I am glad to see I already love Nicola at Persephone and Sarah Raven. And you! So some more gems for me to explore.
Brilliant Sunday read as usual, I’ve been reading a few books on ‘style and have also come to the conclusion that I’m turning up the colour - bedroom walls are now a dusky yellow, a new rose coloured blusher and tinted lip balm and I’ve just knitted a glorious all over fair isle tank top in apple green, lipstick pink, orange, blue and mustard (gifted to my sister for her 50th birthday), am now planning a mustard top 64, some green eve trousers and finishing knitting a lilac tank top. These colours just make me happy!
I only know of Kaffe Fassett, Sarah Raven and Persephone Books out of this list. I was sorry to miss Kaffe Fassett's exhibition at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh earlier this year. Sarah Raven's colour combinations are an inspiration in the garden, and I'm slowly acquiring Persephone titles - and enjoy the newsletters and accounts of shop life very much. The garden is where I create, being both incapable of and totally averse to sewing and knitting. Very grateful to live in a time where a woman wasn't judged by her homemaking skills via her outputs in wool and thread!
I too have been lucky enough to meet Marilyn and visit her beach front house - memories and images that stay with me forever and inspire me still, thank you for this great post!
A wonderful post to brighten a Sunday morning ! Living in the US, I’m familiar with some of these folks but not others, so I’m looking forward to getting acquainted with them. My flat, though not my wardrobe, is full of color (painted most of the rooms myself), as well as childhood toys and trinkets that make me happy as I see them in the course of my day.
I love this so much! I discovered Persophone Books through you…a photo of all your books lined up on a shelf. And now I have a stack of them myself. Flowers, gardening, baking and especially knitting are worked into my daily life as much as possible. My husband has acquired a floor loom and is learning to weave and is now sharing the yarn stash (is that a good thing?). Many thanks for another lovely post.
Thank you for the comment. I had to go look and make a list of all the books I've collected over the years: Books by Dorothy Whipple: Greenbanks; High Wages; The Homemaker ( I enjoyed all of these) Heat Lightening by Helen Hull (a favorite). The World That Was Ours by Helen Bernstein (a good but hard book about fighting apartheid in South Africa). Flush by Virginia Woolf (charming book about a dog), A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair, A Few Eggs & No Oranges; The Diaries of Vere Hodgson 1940-45 (I read sections of this on and off) Good Evening Mrs. Craven-The Wartime stories of Mollie Panter-Downes. I own but have not read The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens and Someone At A Distance by Dorothy Whipple. They were on the bottom of the pile...but they've been moved to the "must read" pile which is getting a bit high. So many books, so little time!
That's a pretty good haul. I really enjoyed Good Evening Mrs. Craven; and A House in the Country (except for the ending, which felt facile - although one can sort of see why writing in the throes, as it were, it seemed the way to go. How did you find it - or is it too long since you read it?). Few Eggs and No Oranges was fascinating - although in retrospect, it would probably have been better to read it in chunks, the way you did. The World That Was Ours: brilliant (but as you say, tough).
Been dithering over High Wages (wasn't wild about The Priory, the only other Whipple I've read) - the subject's very enticing. You 're probably not looking to expand your "to read" pile just yet; but I really enjoyed (and think very good) two of the Persephone R. C. Sherriff's : The Fortnight in September (a family summer holiday) and Greengates (a couple move from an old to a new-build house on his retirement from the City). And thanks so much for subscribing! It's great to have you here
I’ve found as I’ve grown older I’ve also grown in confidence in my own ‘taste’ ie no need for anyone else to like or admire it, so long as it gives me pleasure. Which is particularly pleasing to someone who grew up believing I needed to hide myself in drab colours.
Returning the compliment, your ‘gentle art’ book transformed my life partly in itself and partly by introducing me to the whole vibrant colourful world of blogs and now Instagram. Used with care, I’ve found them to be a positive and inspiring place to be. Thank you!
This was so inspiring, especially as I‘ve shared the urge recently to step out if grey and into more COLOR. It’s been great fun, helped in no small measure by your gorgeous weekly dose of inspiration. Thank you once again.
And so agree about the joy of sewing- I am a very confident knitter and wobbly sewist, having let much more time lapse between attempts. Knitting is so forgiving! If only we could „rip out“ cut fabric back into an intact piece to start from again. 🤪
Ah, just wonderful! I've always credited Kaffe Fassett with launching my arty textile journey and something of his exuberance with colour must have rooted deep inside. So encouraging to read about your other Inspirations. I enjoy a really boring dress style - jeans and navy jumpers type of thing, but my artwork is richly coloured, so perhaps I subconsciously act as the contrast? Thanks for the piece, loved it...x
Ah, so many of my favorites here! Nicola Bauman does indeed have the best taste - last time I was in the Persephone shop my boyfriend asked where we should go for drinks in Bath and she pointed us towards Beckford Bottle Shop, which is now one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. What a lovely Sunday morning read this was!
Fab post. Been reading for a while and just had to reply. I am a great stealer of other people's taste. So I am glad to see I already love Nicola at Persephone and Sarah Raven. And you! So some more gems for me to explore.
Whoo-hoo! Practically a Persephone book club now...
Brilliant Sunday read as usual, I’ve been reading a few books on ‘style and have also come to the conclusion that I’m turning up the colour - bedroom walls are now a dusky yellow, a new rose coloured blusher and tinted lip balm and I’ve just knitted a glorious all over fair isle tank top in apple green, lipstick pink, orange, blue and mustard (gifted to my sister for her 50th birthday), am now planning a mustard top 64, some green eve trousers and finishing knitting a lilac tank top. These colours just make me happy!
I only know of Kaffe Fassett, Sarah Raven and Persephone Books out of this list. I was sorry to miss Kaffe Fassett's exhibition at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh earlier this year. Sarah Raven's colour combinations are an inspiration in the garden, and I'm slowly acquiring Persephone titles - and enjoy the newsletters and accounts of shop life very much. The garden is where I create, being both incapable of and totally averse to sewing and knitting. Very grateful to live in a time where a woman wasn't judged by her homemaking skills via her outputs in wool and thread!
Loved this - dropped by from the Persephone Newsletter and got a nice surprise
What a delight to read this rainy Monday morning. Thank you Jane!
I too have been lucky enough to meet Marilyn and visit her beach front house - memories and images that stay with me forever and inspire me still, thank you for this great post!
A wonderful post to brighten a Sunday morning ! Living in the US, I’m familiar with some of these folks but not others, so I’m looking forward to getting acquainted with them. My flat, though not my wardrobe, is full of color (painted most of the rooms myself), as well as childhood toys and trinkets that make me happy as I see them in the course of my day.
I love this so much! I discovered Persophone Books through you…a photo of all your books lined up on a shelf. And now I have a stack of them myself. Flowers, gardening, baking and especially knitting are worked into my daily life as much as possible. My husband has acquired a floor loom and is learning to weave and is now sharing the yarn stash (is that a good thing?). Many thanks for another lovely post.
Another Persephone fan! Which ones did you choose? (You sound very creative, btw)
Thank you for the comment. I had to go look and make a list of all the books I've collected over the years: Books by Dorothy Whipple: Greenbanks; High Wages; The Homemaker ( I enjoyed all of these) Heat Lightening by Helen Hull (a favorite). The World That Was Ours by Helen Bernstein (a good but hard book about fighting apartheid in South Africa). Flush by Virginia Woolf (charming book about a dog), A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair, A Few Eggs & No Oranges; The Diaries of Vere Hodgson 1940-45 (I read sections of this on and off) Good Evening Mrs. Craven-The Wartime stories of Mollie Panter-Downes. I own but have not read The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens and Someone At A Distance by Dorothy Whipple. They were on the bottom of the pile...but they've been moved to the "must read" pile which is getting a bit high. So many books, so little time!
That's a pretty good haul. I really enjoyed Good Evening Mrs. Craven; and A House in the Country (except for the ending, which felt facile - although one can sort of see why writing in the throes, as it were, it seemed the way to go. How did you find it - or is it too long since you read it?). Few Eggs and No Oranges was fascinating - although in retrospect, it would probably have been better to read it in chunks, the way you did. The World That Was Ours: brilliant (but as you say, tough).
Been dithering over High Wages (wasn't wild about The Priory, the only other Whipple I've read) - the subject's very enticing. You 're probably not looking to expand your "to read" pile just yet; but I really enjoyed (and think very good) two of the Persephone R. C. Sherriff's : The Fortnight in September (a family summer holiday) and Greengates (a couple move from an old to a new-build house on his retirement from the City). And thanks so much for subscribing! It's great to have you here
I’ve found as I’ve grown older I’ve also grown in confidence in my own ‘taste’ ie no need for anyone else to like or admire it, so long as it gives me pleasure. Which is particularly pleasing to someone who grew up believing I needed to hide myself in drab colours.
Returning the compliment, your ‘gentle art’ book transformed my life partly in itself and partly by introducing me to the whole vibrant colourful world of blogs and now Instagram. Used with care, I’ve found them to be a positive and inspiring place to be. Thank you!
Thanks Jane for another great start to my Sunday. Xxx
Such a fab Sunday read. I also love all these folk and companies! I still have some of the patterns in the tube!
Do folk still run these amazing craft weekends?
Wonderful