katy – Page 65 – Apartment Apothecary

katy 28th May 2015

Styling Spring at{mine}

It seems like a life time ago that Charlotte and I teamed up with at{mine} to organise our second Styling the Seasons event. We had so much fun getting eight wondrous at{mine} members on board to style up some beautiful Bloom and Wild flowers in April and then choose their favourite styled surfaces from nearly 300 entries – such a touch job! We really were blown away by so many truly beautiful entries.

The judges and winners were then invited to a Spring floral workshop led by the super lovely and talented florist Caroline of Wild Rubus. Armed with more Bloom and Wild flowers we all set to work creating pretty Spring wreaths and May day posies at Homemade London, that runs bespoke creative events.

The beautiful Katharine Peachey was there with her film camera to capture the floral chaos and prettiness of the day. These photographs fill me with joy as it was such a lovely gathering and so, so lovely to put faces to those little squares of Styling the Seasons joy from Instagram!

And here are my finished Spring wreath and posy for Lou’s May Day posy project in all their glory…

A huge thank you to Ia and Helena, the founders of at{mine}, for collaborating with us to organise this event. Thank you to also to Homemade London for hosting us, Bloom and Wild for the flowers, Rose and Grey for the lovely posy jars, Katharine Peachey for the photographs and, of course, the lovely Caroline of Wild Rubus for teaching us on the day.

Styling the Seasons event photography by katharinepeachey.co.uk | Apartment Apothecary

Ia, Helena, Charlotte and me.

Lastly, a huge thank you to our wonderful judges and winners for making the workshop so much fun, as well as everyone who took part in Styling the Seasons that month. Charlotte and I hope to hold another seasonal event soon!

Katy x

P.S. All images by Katharine Peachey on medium format or 35mm film.

P.P.S See more of the beautiful wreaths made here.

P.P.S. See a list of all our lovely guests here.

katy 27th May 2015

Shopping in Hastings

I have to move to Hastings. No, seriously.

And it’s all Ruth and Jeska’s fault. On Saturday they arranged a Gathered Cheer Social down in Hastings that involved a tour of the best shops, a walk along the beach front, lots of blogger chat and lunch in a pub – bliss!

If you are a fan of antiques, vintage and unique homewares then Hastings is the place for you. Just in case you fancy a trip to the coast any time soon, I will tell you about some of the wonderful shops that Jeska, who writes on of my favourite blogs Lobster and Swan, took us to so you don’t miss out.

We got off the train at St. Leonards Warrior Square and I immediately bought two lovely stoneware bottles at Arthur Green’s Antiques Centre, which is just opposite the station. We then stopped off at the most wondrous florist called Bobo Flower and Garden Shop on London Road. Oh my word, the Peonies!

Next stop was Norman Road, which I enjoyed the most. We went to an amazing traditional haberdashery, full to the brim of ribbons, bobbins, fabric, linen, beautiful cabinets and haberdashers drawers. You know one of those shops where you want to buy the display cases. Yeh, that.

At the end of Norman Road is ‘Shop’, which was full of beautiful homewares from ceramics to gorgeous throws (and an incredible wooden board that Sarah-Lou bought that I’m super jealous of).

Shopping in Hastings | Apartment Apothecary

Image: Cool Places

We wandered along the beach front to the old town from Norman Road and chatted and laughed and took photos. So lovely.

We arrived at the old town and it was so pretty with its winding streets and brightly coloured painted houses; it turned out to be such a treasure trove.

First stop the beautiful Butler’s Famed Emporium with so many wonderful trinkets and vintage loveliness.

And on to Robert’s Rummage. I can’t describe this place, you just need to go for yourself and find your own treasure.

And we finished at the amazing Hendy’s. Walking in there was like stepping back in time and I could have bought ALL of it!

Image: Remodelista

After all that shopping we were ready for a delicious late lunch at the Crown Inn on All Saints Street, which I would definitely recommend. It was really good food and perfect pub decor.

Thank you to Ruth and to Jeska for hosting and organising the perfect day as well as the lovely ladies who attended and made it so much fun – I totally loved it and will be back. With a car. So I can buy everything.

Katy x

P.S. You can sign up to learn more about future Gathered Cheer socials here.

katy 25th May 2015

Samsung curved monitor review

I’m going to be completely honest with you, when the lovely folks over at Samsung got in touch about trying out their 34 inch curved monitor my initial thought was, “what about my aesthetically pleasing home office?!”. Jules is always trying to convince me that function trumps form and in this instance I have happily acknowledged that this monitor makes my every day work so much easier and more pleasurable and because it is a sleek flat screen it fits right in. As soon as the monitor arrived, I quickly figured out its functions and I am now completely hooked. I don’t think I will be able to go back to a small laptop screen (and lucky for me, the monitor is staying!).

Let me tell you a bit about how I use it and why it’s made such a difference. I’m not going to use any technical jargon as I don’t understand that stuff but you can find out all of those details here.

Firstly, this screen is huge at 34 inches so I can have multiple screens in one. As you can see below, I can have my emails, social media, blog, Photoshop and whatever else not only open at the same time but viewable so I can can work on different things simultaneously and keep an eye out for social media updates and so on. I hook my lap top up to the monitor, which sits in front of it, and work on blog posts and I can see the post developing on the monitor, rather than having to constantly hop between tabs. This is a revelation.

Another major benefit of this screen is that it is curved, which makes it so much more immersive than a flat screen and perusing a site such as Pinterest becomes a completely new experience. The photographs are wonderfully large and clear and I can get lost in a world of beauty.

The last thing that I have discovered about the curved monitor, which is amazing, is that you can split the screen in two. One side can be hooked up to my laptop and one side can be hooked up to someone else’s laptop. This is going to make collaborative work so much easier and more enjoyable – perfect for my big desk, too, as two of us can sit side by side. Anyone fancy a joint project?!

I’m sure there is much more to discover about this new addition to my working life. I’m totally sold (and Jules is totally jealous!).

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Samsung.

katy 21st May 2015

Urban Jungle Bloggers – my plant (and puppy) gang

For this month’s Urban Jungle Bloggers post, Igor and Judith have asked us to show you our ‘plant gang’. So, I thought a few shots of my balcony plants would do the job perfectly.

When we got Otto a couple of years ago, I had to remove some of the plants from the balcony as he liked to eat them and dig them up, especially the climbing Jasmine and raspberry plant. Here’s the evidence…

We now have far fewer pots contained in a few crates that I salvaged from an orchard that I took school kids to many years ago. I love this time of year when everything is beginning to bloom and looking at its greenest.

Balcony planting - Urban Jungle Bloggers Photograph by katharinepeachey.co.uk | Apartment Apothecary

From left to right: Geraniums, Snap Dragons, Camellia, Hygrangea, Rosemary. Photograph by Katharine Peachey.

The crates are perfect as they protect the decking from excess water and damp from the pot bases. Photograph by Katharine Peachey.

I have a few pots of herbs out here, too, and some early Sweet Peas ready to climb up a homemade frame. Photograph by Katharine Peachey.

I’m looking forward to adding more over the next few weeks and finally having some flowers that I can cut and display inside, which is the best thing ever.

Do check out Happy Interior Blog and Joelix.com for loads more inspiration as well as searching the #UrbanJungleBloggers hashtag.

Katy x

P.S. A few more snaps of puppy Otto antics on the balcony. Can you see why we had to get rid of the carpet?! Luckily, he’s not so keen on the taste of plants these days.

katy 20th May 2015

Ask Apartment Apothecary – an easy way to touch up paint work

WARNING: This is NOT an aesthetically pleasing post. There is a whole lot of yellow and a plastic peanut butter jar features far too much!

I haven’t done an AAA for ages and I’ve got quite a few to catch up on. Today’s question came from Karen who posted a question on my Facebook wall about tips for keeping her walls white, after noticing that much of my flat is painted white.

I have to say, that before Jules and Otto moved into my flat the walls were as white as can be and the odd scuff mark was very rare. Today is a different story. Dog slobber, mud and general Jules mess has taken its toll on my white walls. I also have to take some blame as I am constantly nailing and screwing in pictures, hooks, mirrors, shelves and then moving them all around so there are plenty of holes that I constantly have to fill and paint over.

Obviously, cleaning is step one for cleaning off dirt and marks and these magic sponges that Claire introduced me to a while back are brilliant. However, more stubborn marks and filled in holes do require painting over. I have previously shared a tip to always keep a brush and a plastic jar filled with your wall paint under your sink so that you can easily whip it out and paint over marks or holes with ease.

I have now developed this idea to make it even easier to touch up your walls with no need for a brush (and the annoying cleaning of the brush bit).

1. Use a plastic jar to store your wall paint colour. Label it clearly with the room and paint colour/make. Peanut butter jars are perfect (don’t use a glass one as the lid will rust).

2. Cut a piece of sponge – I used a bog standard kitchen sponge – that will fit into the jar snugly otherwise the paint will drip down its sides and end up in the lid, rather than in the sponge. The sponge must be thicker than the height of the lid and the thicker the better, actually. I think I’m going to add some height to mine as you don’t want the lid to come into contact with the wall when dabbing on paint. Stick the piece of sponge to the inside of the lid with glue.

3. Pop the lid on the jar, shake it up so the sponge absorbs the paint.

4. Dab it onto the mark or hole you want to touch up. Once you are done, screw the lid back on very tightly and store under the sink for the next time you need it.

The added bonus of using a sponge is the texture is more similar to a roller, which is what our walls were painted with. In the past, touching up with a brush has been quite obvious due to the stroke marks.

Hope this idea helps some of you. I don’t know if this type of thing is sold anywhere; if it’s not, I’m going to start mass marketing it 😉

Katy x