Pottery, Digital Divide + Interesting Videos

Two vases - one from 2019 and one from 1997

Thank you so much everyone for the support of my ceramics. On Thursday, I added 32 new pieces of pottery to my website and in a flash they were all sold. I was overwhelmed and definitely encouraged that folks wanted to support me and my work. I got quite a few notes from people saying they wanted to purchase but everything was sold. That is a good problem to have I admit. I wish I could make more and make faster but it's just not possible. I'm a one woman business and my time is split in many ways. My 100 Day Project has really helped to keep me focused on my ceramics. Although I haven't posted 100 Days in a row, I'm keeping it up even if I have to miss a day or two because of other commitments. 

All this said, this brings me to the digital divide in rural America. Ever since people have been working from home (March 24th in Massachusetts), our internet has gotten slower and slower. I can barely stand to write a blog post or newsletter nor look for interesting things to read and share. It makes it so difficult to compete economically and socially with those who live in cities and suburbs where there is fast internet. The phone lines that bring us our internet were installed in the 1940's. These lines bring us the connectivity to the outside world. 

The State of Massachusetts placed some kind of high speed 5G service at the Town Offices so I am back to sitting in my car to work again. In order to get my ceramics on-line (photos take forever to upload at our house) and to ship them via my shipping platform, I've had to go to the Town Offices. Not complaining (really) - just stating the facts. 

Julia, our college student daughter has been finding it very difficult to take on-line classes since her college has gone 100% online because of the Pandemic. She frequently gets bumped off her Zoom meetings due to the slow internet speed. Julia doesn't drive so she is confined to home unless I have the hours to sit with her in the car as there is no place to sit outside at the Town Office Building. Her personality and learning style is not one which melds with on-line learning so I really don't know what she is going to do this summer or fall. I know there are so many people in the same situation. We've just got to be patient and see how everything goes and the Pandemic goes on. 

I have recently enjoyed these two videos about two different designers' homes. 

Robert Kime from House and Garden UK

Johnson Hartig of Libertine's home on Quintessence

Here is one from the UK - cows going out to graze after a winter in the barn. Such joy in seeing them run. It's probably how a lot of folks are going to feel when they are able to start moving around in public again.  

How are you faring these days? What is motivating or frustrating you? I hope you all are well and safe and healthy. 

Thoughts on Perfection + My NEW Pom Pom Garland VIDEO Tutorial

I was talking with my friend Cheryl a while back. We are both about the same age and both had kids when we were a little older than most. We are both artists and authors and struggle with many of the same things. She mentioned something that really resonated with me and which I have thought about a whole bunch since then. And then the same subject came up in a different way the other day with another friend. I would love to hear your thoughts about it - whatever your age..... 

Cheryl was saying that people of our generation (we were both born at the end of the baby boomer generation) have trouble putting things out there on-line as compared to the younger 20's and 30's generation. She said that she worries too much about perfection and will not launch something until it is perfect. And she said she is trying to change that part of her personality. 

I fall somewhat into that same category frequently - although not always. Because I write books and make art and things for sale, I strive for perfection. I want my products to represent me in the best light. I think that people expect a certain standard from me. 

But perfection is such a hinderance. I cannot be good at everything. Do I want the striving for perfection to slow down my product range? My life? My art? My income? Sometimes you just have to let it go - especially when you work by yourself and are self-employed. Sometimes my patterns may have a typo. Although when I do find them, I shudder  and I fix them - do I really think a mis-typed word makes my work any less valuable. Seriosly. 

I think that having a child with special needs and living on a farm has helped me to face the fear of lack of perfection. I think that living with animals and all the life and death that goes on here has helped me realize that life is too short to worry so much about everything being perfect. 

I'm working on a range of new pottery to sell for the holidays on-line on my Etsy shop. Is it perfect? No, it isn't. But I will be putting it out there for sale. It is an expression of my art, my life, my growth as an artist working in clay and surface decoration. Whoever buys the pieces will have a bit of me in their home - my hands, my design sensibilities, my lines, my love of color, my slightly mis-shapen pots. 

So those are my thoughts for today for you. I would love to hear what you think about perfection, about the generational differences in "putting it out there" before it is really perfect. It's an interesting thing to think about. What do you do? Do you put it out there? Do you hide something that isn't perfect in your closet? And what generation are you? 

Now onto the rest of the story......

Sometimes I wonder where the weeks go. Don't you? I know where Thursday went. On Tuesday, I got an email from Yankee Magazine. I'm not sure if you remember but they were at our farm for an upcoming feature in their magazine last December 18th. (I run to the the mailbox every day hoping the magazine will be there! No luck yet.) Besides hundreds of photos that Joe Keller took, Amy, the editor, took a video of me making pom poms for their website. 

The Tuesday e-mail said something like "HELP" - the video file has disappeared. UGH. That meant that I had to re-create the tutorial on my own because it was referenced in the print article. I have made videos by myself in the past but not in several years. I much prefer having someone tape me and then let them do all the editing which takes hours and hours. I lugged out my camera, my tripod, my camera manual (remember those? I had to buy mine), my computer and carried it upstairs into the bathroom. It is the best place to tape audio because the room is small and well lit. 

Sometimes I really wish I had an assistant! It took me all morning. I am having trouble w/ my 70-105 camera lens - it seems to move by itself after focusing. It is fine for stills because they are quick. Every video I did was fuzzy. So I changed lens to my 50 mm, reset everything and re-taped everything. 

Then I wanted an intro because somewhere on some website or podcast I learned that viewers like the presenters to be seen in the videos. I set up the tripod and camera in the living room and then made believe I was on t.v. If anyone knew what goes on in here some days they would think I was nuts. I had to make Mark wait outside until I thought I had a decent take. Poor guy - all he wanted was to eat lunch. 

Then I had to crack open the new version of IMovie and try to put the video together. I hadn't used IMovie in at least 6 years and this version is much better and easier. I did find this tutorial on YouTube which was really helpful. Thank you YouTube. But it did take me at least 4 hours.

So here is my finished project. It is in high def on YouTube.

It is a little long - 11 minutes. I would love to re-edit it into a shorter version but I have so much to do that I'm not sure I can find the time. Remember - I am trying not to worry about perfection. I had to get it out there and move on. 

I hope you might making your own Pom Pom Garland project this upcoming holiday season. It is a fun project to do with kids and a great way to use up your scrap yarn - even moth damaged less than perfect yarn - as long as you have gotten rid of the bugs. 

Planting and Plants and Bugs

Like I said the other day, I've been in high gear planting mode. I am so late with my garden this year. Our tiller was broken and by the time it was fixed, it wasn't strong enough to go through all the weeds. I got a local guy with a tractor with big old attached tiller on the back and now my garden is ready to rock and roll. Here's what it looks like - pristine brown soil.

Yesterday I moved a large pile of manure which was last year's birthday gift to me from The Farmer. It has been sitting in the middle of the lawn for months. Bucket by bucket, it is slowly going away and moving into the garden. 

I made some manure stripes down the soil and tonight I will continue the planting. Always thinking about patterns!

The manure was full of gray grubs which I picked out and fed to the chickens. They were overjoyed with the delicious snacks I gave them - if chickens could be happy, these would have been shouting for joy. Here is a little video - not for the squeamish. 

I know it is gross but I find things like this pretty interesting - and for a woman who is way past 5 decades that is a good thing. I did a little research and in deed the grubs were Japanese beetle grubs. Here's an up close of them squirming. I think it could be some kind of textile pattern too. I know my neighbor Alicia could do a killer painting off of this photo. 

I surmised that they were Japanese Beetle grubs because I found 2 beetles that hadn't emerged yet from pile to fly around. 

The beetles on the backside look similar to the grubs. 

If you want to learn more about the lifecycle of a Japanese beetle, I found this article from Cornell really interesting. There is a quite beautiful illustration too of the life cycle which I have shared below. 

Illustration by K. English, NYS IPM via web link above from Cornell

I'm sure I'll lose some readers over this post but oh well. Sometimes I find the most interesting things when I am going about my daily repetitive life. It is so awesome to have a space like this blog to share things I find fascinating with you all. Just so you know - the grubs were towards the top of the manure - probably getting ready to emerge. Down below the pile is where all the worms are - I call them red wrigglers - they are very thin and not very long. The compost is very wet where they work it. I guess that is another blog post. 

There are over 300 sheep here in front of the house. Shearing is Monday, after being delayed twice because of the vast amounts of rain we have been getting. I really hope they stay out of my garden. There is temporary fencing around it and my fingers are crossed. 

Speaking of Plants - I stumbled upon this incredible Stop Motion Video for an iPad App called Plants by Tiny Bop. This really is worth a watch. Incredibly painstakingly hand made. Amazing. I think if I had a small child and owned an iPad, I think these Apps would be a fun way to help a child learn. 

Paper to Plants from Tinybop on Vimeo.

After you watch that, if you have time, here is another video about how the first video was made. Awesome.  



Hope you all have a great 4th. We are busy, busy, busy. After the Farmers Market on Tuesday I am off to Detroit next week for taping Knit and Crochet Now. I get to meet Deborah Norville who is the new host replacing Brett Bara who has just had twins. Then back for a Fabric Printing Class here at the farm on July 18/19. Still spaces available - check it out here. 

After that, I fear summer will be almost half over! Oh no. 

I wish all of you Americans a Happy 4th of July! Everyone else - happy weekend. 

Our Farmhouse Live on YouTube + An IPPY

Check out the video that is now live on Houzz.com's YouTube Channel. You can watch it here below or via this link. 

If you know anyone who might enjoy seeing our colorful home and critters, PLEASE share it with them. It will be fun to watch the numbers go up as time goes by.

Thanks everyone for helping me spread the colorful word around the world. 

I just found out that my newest book Crafting a Colorful Home has won a Gold Medal from the Independent Publishers Association in the Home and Garden Category! It is called an IPPY. Wow. Thank you Roost Books, my publisher, for entering the book and believing in my work.  

Lights, Camera, Action - Houzz TV Comes to Leyden Glen Farm

In January, I got an email from a man named Rick. "Hey Kristin. I work for Houzz. We are starting a TV section on our website. Would you be interested in us coming to your place to shoot a video?" Evidently the story about our brightly colored and creatively decorated farmhouse that came out on the Houzz.com website way back in September 2012 has been very popular with their readers. 

Discussion happened over the dinner table. We all decided that HouzzTV sounded like a good opportunity for our little sheep farm and my creative business. I responded to Rick - and we talked about a date. We decided upon the beginning of May and then I promptly forgot about it. Sometimes things like this crash and burn and never happen. Best to not worry about it and see if it will happen as the date gets closer. 

Well, it did happen. On May 13, Rick Spence and 3 crew members arrived bright and early at the farm. The plan was to make a video about our farmhouse, our family, and how I decorated our place with all the patterns and colors. It took two days and hours and hours of filming. I took some photos (when I remembered) and they are below. 

If you had ever asked me if this all could have happened here at our little farm, I never in a million years would have thought that this kind of opportunity would arise. The video is live now over on the HOUZZ.COM website. Next week it will be posted to YouTube. I will then ask you all to share it with your friends and family. (Waiting til it is on YouTube will help me monitor the numbers of views). 

Hop on over here to the Houzz.com website to check it out. You may have to scroll down a bit to look for the VIDEO link. We're all in it - me, Julia and Mark. It is pretty cool, I must say.

More photos and filming story at the farm continues below.......

It was a beautiful day. 

Rick arrived with 3 other men from California. Rick had promised me a good professional job and I trusted him. You may remember his name if you are a fan of HGTV. He was the Host of a show called Curb Appeal several years ago. To say that he was a great guy would be an understatement. 

It's always a tad bit uncomfortable when you are meeting and greeting people you don't know early in the a.m. and knowing (or not knowing) what to expect. There was a videographer named Danny, a sound engineer (whose name I cannot quite remember), and Alex who was a TimeLapse photographer and DRONE camera specialist. Yes, you read it correctly - DRONE. 

They all checked our home out and Rick came up with a plan. First off, I was interviewed for 2 hours in the living room. (As opposed to still photography, there are a lot of lights needed for the camera. It is fascinating to watch this kind of production happen.)

Rick was very professional - as was his team. He sat on the couch and fed me questions. I answered them. After the interview, they filmed and filmed and filmed more. 

It was a gorgeous day - with high billowing puffy clouds. Alex set up his camera in a bunch of different windows and did time lapse photos. They explained to me that they are very effective in video (and they were right). The camera is set to automatically take photos every 5 to 10 seconds for about a half hour. You can learn more about that here over on YouTube. The result is beautiful and the still photos can be incorporated into a video. 

After lunch, Rick asked Mark if he would mind having the dogs work the sheep. This was the first time the drone camera was used and I could not wait to see it work. Here are the three men watching the drone and hoping for the best with the sheep and dogs. 

Here is Alex flying the drone. 

Alex used an iPad mini attached to something that looked like joy sticks from a gaming console. I am not really clear how it all worked but the thing lifted off the ground and began flying around. It has 4 propellers on it and works similar to a helicopter. Alex flew it around using the joy sticks to move it different places all the while watching the iPad to see what he was getting. 

Here is a close-up of the Drone Camera sitting on the couch. This gives you an idea of the size of it. About the same size as Vera the cat. 

Amazing, huh? Nessie (our older collie) was the dog moving the sheep and she got tired so we stopped. We all ran back in the house and they downloaded it onto Rick's computer. 

The footage was okay but it was decided to try Kate work the sheep the next day. In the video, you will see both Border Collies Ness and Kate and Winston our Great Pyrenees Guard Dog. 

Here are some more photos of Alex flying the drone down our little road. Before lift off.

Action shots of the drone camera. Pretty cool, huh? 

Alex worked so hard - filming all kinds of angles all day long. He took hours of drone footage and very little was used. It certainly did add to the feeling of the video. And he had a fantastic time doing it. So very fun. 

Mark was interviewed outdoors. Rick told me he did a great job. Then late in the day, when Julia came home from school it was her turn. They put a mike on her and we fixed her hair and threw on a pretty pink sweater. She did a great job and you can see her in the video. 

She was a bit shy and tongue tied but she is 16 years old. It's not every day that a farm kid has this kind of experience.

Thank you Julia and Mark for putting up with my craziness. 

Three cats watched all the action from the kitchen island. 

The next day, it was all about the house. We began with another interview of me talking about the way I decorated our home off camera. It took about 45 minutes and I was not filmed. 

Next up, it was the farmhouse's turn for glory. Fortunately, my photographer friend Rikki Snyder had volunteered to come for the day. She and I styled each room, moving the clutter and making the house presentable for the world. Danny filmed many angles as we moved on to the next room, getting it presentable. 

Our house isn't very big and it is a real place with real people living in it. Any occasion like this takes an inordinate amount of work to stage it for the camera. To say I was exhausted at the end of each day would be an understatement. 

The results are really good and it was totally worth the work and disturbance to our daily lives. Now for the world to discover our beautiful little place in this little corner of Western Massachusetts I hope you enjoy watching and listening to the video. And thank you Houzz!

Here's the link to the video. Next week, I'll give you the link to Houzz's YouTube channel so you can help me spread the word.  Have a great day everyone! 

Brand New Things on the Farm + Fabric Printing Class at Our Farm July 18/19 + More

Guess what I picked up yesterday at the Bernardston Farmers Supply? A dozen day old Ameraucana chicks. So cute - aren't they? Here's a video I took of them chirping away. Make sure you have the volume up. 

Just a heads-up that last night I added a second Fabric Printing Class to the "Getting Stitched On The Farm" class schedule. The dates are July 18 and 19. 

This class is limited to 6 students. It is a very personal class where I help you learn to design your very own fabric. Read about the first session HERE and HERE.

Sign up via my website here. There are 5 spaces available as of this morning. 

Below are a couple photos of a recent in process Fabric Printing Project that I did. 

This weekend is the annual Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair in Cummington, MA. Saturday and Sunday. Check it out here. It is a great family friendly event with sheep shows, fiber, Border Collie Herding demos, angora rabbits and lots of gorgeous textile related things to buy. About 2 hours from Boston. 

The Farmer will be selling our lamb at the Amherst Farmers Market on the Common from 8 to 2 tomorrow - Saturday. Pick up some ground lamb and try out this recipe for Grilled Pitas Stuffed with Spiced Lamb. It's an interesting recipe and although it sounds like it will not work, it does. It would be a nice appetizer too - cut into wedges. 

This morning, some of the sheep escaped their fencing. I took this little video of them munching away on the weeds and grass. Listen to them munch and to the birds singing. 

There is a frost warning for tonight. If you live in New England, the traditional time to plant a garden is Memorial Day. I'm not quite ready yet but soon. For the time being, I can share the grass with the sheep. 

Hope all of you have a glorious Memorial Day Weekend if you live in the States. 

Colorful Greg Irvine - Kindred Spirit

Popping in today on this gray November day to to say hi to brighten your day with this fabulous video by Paris Thompson I found via The Design Files (an Australian design blog). If you can't get the player to watch, here is the Vimeo link.  (I have read via my friend Louise of Lines of Beauty that sometimes videos embedded on blogs do not play on tablets and phones - if anyone has any idea how to fix this I would love to know! Want to keep all of you happy.)

Australian Homes · Greg Irvine from The Design Files on Vimeo.

I could move into this place. It is the home of artist Greg Irvine who has been collecting since the 1960's. And collect he has. The colors and the combinations are so stimulating. Those sketchbooks. Gorgeous. Read the article on The Design Files here. You can sign up for a daily email from The Design Files which I quite enjoy. Here is one of Greg's paintings. You can probably guess why I am very taken with this one.

Greg has a show opening at The Hawthorne Gallery November 8th. I would love to see it. Too bad I live on the wrong continent. Click here for more information and lots of photos of his colorful work. Awesome! Thank you TDF.

Coming Full Circle - Part One - The Backstory

The first needlecraft I was taught as a kid was sewing and embroidery. I started with a needle and thread and some odds and ends of fabric. Both my Mom and Gram taught my sisters and I to hand sew. We learned the basic stitches - running, stem, backstitch, chain, lazy daisies, satin stitch. All the stitches that form the basics of embroidery which I still use today.

Soon I discovered the sewing machine and our neighbor Robin Cashen taught me the ins and outs of using a machine, cutting out fabric using a sewing pattern, sewing in a zipper and more. I was off - sewing clothes for my Barbies, making my own clothes, sewing beanbag frogs to sell to make money. I spent my teenage years sewing at the long table in our family room watching the NY Mets play on the old black and white t.v. In the midst of it all, I hand embroidered many a crewel embroidery project. Crewel was very popular at the time and I was in love - with the decorative stitches, the colors, the wool thread, the linen fabrics. Crewel embroidery and sewing got me through those awkward teenage years - they gave me focus. I learned about passion, challenges, textiles, fabrics, art and so much more from that humble start. This is a photo of a piece of Crewel Embroidery I did (aged 16). It was from a kit and came with printed linen fabric. It is not in the best of shape because it wasn't protected with glass and has been my Mom's attic for years. But it is a memory. 

I went to University for Clothing and Textiles and while there stumbled into the world of handknitting. My Mom had taught me the basics when I was young. During college I taught myself more through books so that I would have something to do with my hands while traveling back and forth to college. After my first job in NYC after Grad School, I somehow landed myself a job at a yarn company. It was 1984 and handknitting was experiencing a boom. The company was called Elite Specialty Yarns and it was based in Lowell, MA. While there for 16 years, I built a career in the knitting world. I imagine most of you reading this blog are here because of our mutual interest in knitting. I had a good long career at Classic Elite Yarns (the name changed in the late 1980's) and then a couple years after Julia was born, I decided to leave my full-time gig. All the travel wasn't fun with a little one with challenges. 

Since then, I have been writing books, designing knitting patterns, writing this blog, learning to take better photos, being a Mom, and helping The Farmer out with our sheep farm. And now I have come full circle as they say..... I'm back to the embroidery that I began with all those years ago. 

As I began this post I planned to introduce you to my latest embroidery design but I have been rambling and thinking back and so this post will be come Part One of Two. I started thinking about circles and the symbolism of them. When I write, I often look up the word in the dictionary to give me a germ of an idea - Julia calls it a "prompt". Here is how Merriam Webster defines a circle :
cir·cle - noun, often attributive \ˈsər-kəl\

: a perfectly round shape : a line that is curved so that its ends meet and every point on the line is the same distance from the center
: a path that goes around a central point

: an arrangement of people or things that forms a circle

When I think of a circle, I think of the center of a sunflower, the bottom of a glass or jar, the head of a nail, a doorknob, the lid to a jar, a clay cylinder, a color wheel, a bulls-eye, a dartboard, a steering wheel or the hubcap fallen off a car rolling gently down a street.  And I think of a beautiful round shape that can be stitched or knit into the decoration for a piece of fabric. 

When I was doing a lot of knitwear design, it was only natural for me to incorporate the organic shape of a circle into the colorful knitwear I made. Making a perfect organic round and voluptuous circle into a chart for knitwear isn't easy. Knitting charts are made from grids of stitches. Circles always come out a bit jiggy-jaggy - don't they? Let me show you some circles in my knitwear.

Here is a sweater I designed called Little Majolica which was published in an old issue of Interweave Knits. (You can buy the pattern from Interweave here.) If you look closely at the motif, you can see the the little shifts of the stitches at the bottom and top of the circle. There isn't a way around this - you just have to live with it or knit with an extremely small gauge yarn which will make the jiggy jags less noticeable. But I don't have the patience for those fine gauges and so I make do. 

Here is a knitted ottoman from my book Color By Kristin (published by Sixth and Spring 2009). This design features circles inside circles and squares inside squares. Once again - there are jiggy jags at the bottom and sides of the circle.

 

Somewhere along in my knitwear designing life, I started adding my old favorite needlework craft embroidery to my knitwear. I remember traveling to the Pitti Filati Yarn Show in Italy with Pat Chew (former owner of Classic Elite) and looking at all the displays - trying to soak up the designs, the colors, and generally getting charged up for another round of designing knitwear. I saw a machine knit cabled sweater and in the recesses of the cable, there was a bit of embroidery added. I put that image into the back of my mind and thought I would try it someday. Needless to say, that was the start of something. Over the years, I have added embroidery to so many of my knitwear designs. Sometimes just a touch of duplicate stitch, sometimes some full blown flowers and vines, sometimes polka dots, and more. 

Here is a little sweater shown on Julia from an early Interweave Knits Magazine. Here I added spider web embroidery circles to the simple zippered cardigan. You can order the Seeing Dots Cardigan here. To learn how to stitch an embroidered spiderweb on knits, see one of my early YouTube videos here. (This was obviously before I knew much about lighting, doing videos, etc but you get the idea!)

When Julia was much smaller, I made her a Fair Isle Zippered cardigan full of diamonds and circles and color. This was before my two colorful knitting books Kristin Knits and Color By Kristin. Here she is with two of her kittens Ginger and Cookie. If you look closely at the top of the sweater, I edged the inside and outside of the open circle with contrasting shades of chain stitch embroidery. (No - there was never a pattern for this sweater. It was before the days of self-publishing and Ravelry.) 

That little sweater morphed into the design below that was also in Interweave Knits and was called Stop Traffic. As you can see, the knit-in Fair Isle Circle design is embellished with chain stitch like on Julia's sweater above - making the jiggy jags disappear under the chain stitch. You can see a video of doing Chain Stitch on Knits here. The pattern is available here.

So as you can see, circles are a fabulous design element to add to your knitwear. They might need a little help from some embroidery now and then but now you now how to do it! Tomorrow, I'll let you in on Part Two of the CIRCLE story!

Lastly - exciting news - mostly for me and Roost - the new publisher of Colorful Stitchery. Colorful Stitchery was reviewed by the Chicago Tribune! Wow. Here is the link.  Thanks to Tecknikat for the heads-up. Since we are talking circles, here is one of the embroidery projects from Colorful Stitchery which features circles as the design feature. Overlapping circles in chain stitch, polka dots in satin stitch, and little dots. All hand embroidered on linen fabric.You can purchase a signed copy of Colorful Stitchery on my website here or from Amazon here. As always, I thank you for your support.

Photo by Kevin Kennifick from Colorful Stitchery, Roost Books 2014

Sheep Run + English Eccentric by Ros Byam Shaw + Giveaway

First off, a little from our day here. The leaves are changing and it looks to be a beautiful fall. Here is a little video of the ewe flock moving up the road to their next grazing field. Not very exciting but pretty none the less. Can you hear the leaves?

 

If I were close to Idaho, I would go to The Trailing of the Sheep Festival. Check it out here. For me, I'll just have to watch ours. Now onto my subject of the day.

Yesterday I wrote about paint entrepreneur and artist Annie Sloan. Today I want to introduce you all to Ros Byam Shaw and her series of books on English interiors published by Ryland, Peters and Small. Ros is also a past Features Editor at my favorite mag World of Interiors. You can read an interview with her here on the the Ryland, Peters and Small website. 

When I was researching and looking for inspiration when writing the upcoming Crafting a Colorful Home (Roost January 2015), I discovered two of Ros's books - Perfect English Cottage and Perfect English Farmhouse. Both were photographed by Jan Baldwin. I purchased them and spent time reading the different profiles of the owners of the homes and how they decorated their spaces. Each book featured about 20 different homes with stunning photography. I love a good house book and these helped me keep interested in writing about my home where my family and I have lived for 16 years. 

Just this spring, Ros had another book published called English Eccentric. It is even better (IMHO) than the two mentioned above. It is colorful and full of stories of families building their own style homes throughout the UK. I keep going back to it again and again to look at all the little details on the pages. I savored every page by reading a chapter at a time vs. going through the entire thing at once. Gorgeous. 

Below is the home of Antoni Burakowski - half of the fashion label Antoni & Alison. Love the colors in the kitchen. That striped cupboard is to die for. I know that most of these photographed homes might not be for most of you but there are bits that you can take away for inspiration.

This is the home of Fanny Ward - stylist and collector.

This is the home of Adam and Charlotte Calkin. Adam is a decorative painter and you can see more of his work here. Fabulous. Every inch of this home says "creativity."

What makes these homes special is the owners go out on a limb and decorate as they want to. Trust me - none of these homes are what realtors would suggest for resale. Most realtors want white, beige, and lack of character. YUCK. None of these places seem to be done by decorators per se although many of the owners are in some kind of creative business. Check out the links I have included to learn more about the talented homeowners. 

This is the home of Jewelry Designer Solange Azagury-Partridge. This home is full of fabulous color and pattern. It was difficult to pick one image to use. 

For Ros, this book had to be a blast to write. For Jan Baldwin, what a fantastic job on the photography. 

This is the home of Peter Hinwood who was an actor in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and is now an antique dealer. His home is also featured on the cover. I just love those turquoise walls and all the Islamic tiles. And that crazy striped chair and the cat pillow.

More gorgeous color from Peter Hinwood's home. That green wall. Fabulous!

This is Annabel Lewis's home. She owns the ribbon shop V. V. Rouleaux. Fabulous store - fabulous home.

This is the home of Liddie Holt Harrison. Liddie is a model - you may recognize her if you are an longtime knitter - she was on the cover of Rowan Magazine #04. Liddie's home is quite eccentric - full of all kinds of taxidermy and antiquities. She is a shop owner and antique dealer now.

I've got great news for all of you. One of my lucky readers will win their very own copy of English Eccentric supplied by publisher Ryland Peters and Small. Here's how you enter. 

Answer the following question in the comments section. Deadline is Monday October 13th at 11:59 p.m. 

What is your favorite space in your home and why? OR What would you like to change about your living space? OR any other random thought about home and color!
 
AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LEAVE AN EASY WAY TO GET A HOLD OF YOU. No easy way, I pass onto the next person after the Random # Generator gives me a winning number. Email address, blogger ID, or Ravelry name (although if you never check your Rav mail, don't bother to leave that name!)