Magazine styling & inspiration

If you've been reading my blog for a while now then you'll be familiar with my little addiction. I'm talking home/interiors magazines of course :: not a new addiction by any means, no no, I've been regularly buying up magazines of this sort for a great many years, lordy, you should see my Mag Piles. They are quite impressively staggering. But I love them so so so much, they deliver a huge hit of Pleasure each and every month and I could not for the life of me think about giving them up. I find them endlessly fascinating and inspiring :: they reach out to the dreamy/creative/optimistic/aesthetic part of me which constantly needs feeding, and one of my very favourite pastimes is to take an uplifting little trit-trot through Magazine Wonderland.

My all time bestest magazine of this sort has always been Country Living, but in the past year or so I've really fallen in love with my monthly Country Homes and Interiors. The styling and photography in this magazine is beautiful, it really is. And the overall style seems to be very Me, which has surprised and delighted me no end.

I'm not sure quite what you would call this style...it's a mix of old/vintage furniture combined with bright new modern accessories, with a generous dash of quirky arty/craftiness set against a plainish background. Eclectic. Relaxed. Vibrant. Homey.

Lets take a look at a few pages shall we?

I absolutely adore these sorts of features within these particular sorts of magazines. They combine inspiration and ideas for interiors with a humongous shopping list.

There is often a theme of some sorts :: this little spread (April issue I think), is all about bringing colourful accessories into the home to brighten the place up a bit.

Pretty pages, aren't they? They make me feel quite ridiculously over excited.

This is June issue now I think (sorry to sound vague but I've left the mags downstairs and cannot be bothered to go fetch them to check).

Ahhhhhhh Jolly Times!!! How totally, heart-skippily FABuLOUS!!

As far as I can tell, this is unashamedly all about Shopping. It's about falling in love with this particular style (oh I have, I have fallen deeply in love, I am properly smitten), and going forthwith to Copy The Look by purchasing all the necessary components. Of course you have to be stinky-rich to be able to do this because the shopping list is extremely lengthy. But oh we an dream can't we?? We can swoon and ooh and aah even if we cannot go forth and Shop.

I just adore the above picture, my heart does some crazy flippety-flip type things when I look at it. A lot of the items come from a fantastic Danish design company called Rice, who I have long been in love with. If you bob onto their website, you will be transported into a colourful world of deliciousness. It really is extremely yummy. Take a little waltz through their online catalogues and I guarantee you'll be swooning with desire. Now you cannot buy from Rice directly as they only sell wholesale, but you can certainly find some stockists on the www :: two of my favourites (both UK online shops) are Berry Red and Nettle Green. And as you would expect I've already been there, frantically searching for that most Gorgeous and Desirable little painted red shelf. Oh my. I want it SO BADLY. Words cannot describe the level of my desire here. Sigh.

Ahhh...page after page of loveliness, isn't the styling and photography sublime?

 

Truly delicious.

Another issue, the current one this time (July issue, out now until Thurs) and another collection of heart skippy pages. This whole issue is very summery and utterly magical, I've been through it from cover to cover many times during the past few weeks and each time it leaves me feeling as if I've been on the bestest holiday.

So this is another inspiration/ideas/go-shopping feature called "Heady Summer Days", and once again it pulls hard on my heart strings. Old furniture and lots of scrummy colour. More Rice goodies (seriously lusting after that candle holder). What's not to love?

Yum yum yum.

oooooooooooo now that cutlery, do you see it?? I've already got that on my wish-list for Connievan, you can find it here at The Contemporary Home. TCH is another wonderful online shop (also selling a lot of Rice things), crikey, I really have a mean case of the Wanties at the moment, can you tell?

I hope you're enjoying this post today, I'm going all out to bombard you with grade A eye candy, and I'm having a lovely time!

So we're switching publications now OK, we're onto a Lady-mag that I truthfully never ever buy :: this is Prima. I don't really do Lady-mags cos I find a lot of the content simply does not apply to the likes of me. Cosmetics? Hair-do's? Fashion? Careers? Nope, I just don't ever go there. But Homes, yes yes, that's more like it!

 

And the reason I got to know about this particular feature in this months Prima is because of the wonerfully talented Selina Lake. Do you know of her? She is a Stylist with extraordinary flair and I love love love what she does. I have her book "Bazaar Style" which is one of my all time favourite books, I read it over and over and over.

 

You can find more of Selina Lake on her blog where she always gives info about magazine features she's worked on, and her Flickr pages too, which are scrummy.

Pheww............I think I've exhausted myself now after all that giddy, heart-skippy Magazine tripping. Only trouble is I'm now desperately trying to think of ways to get my mitts on some money so that I can go and shop. My Wanties are seriously huuuuge. Deep sigh.

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Edited to add :: a note from lovely Jo, the lady at Nettlegreen...she is offering Attic24 readers a 15% discount, valid until 10th July. Just enter ATTIC24 at the checkout. Hmmmm guess what I'm about to do.....teehee! xx

Comments

[dubai hotels]

That magazine is really adorable. The interior and designs shown in that magazine is awesome. Thanks for sharing. Do you have it's pdf??

[Shirley Isaacs]

I love your colours - you seem to love colour as much as I do.
Kindest regards Shirley I.

[Jane]

oh where oh where is Lucy?

[Kimberley]

Hi Lucy I hope you are feeling a little better and enjoying the sunshine with your lovely family and looking forward to the summer holidays. x

[Emma]

I don't think I'm alone in missing your updates ...

I do hope everything is OK in your world?

Emma

[Penelope]

Missing youand your lovely blog xox

[Lesley]

Do hope everything is okay?
Lxx

[Verity]

I love the looks in those mags. I agree that the fashion thing is just not for me as a sahm. I *love* the stripey blanket and I'm joining in on making it. This is my first venture into crocheting and I'm loving it. Thanks for the wonderful pattern.I'm hoping I'll get it done so my girls and I can cuddle under it while it is still winter. I live in Canada, so I guess my deadline is next March. LOL!

[Sarah]

Hi Lucy, You may think me silly, but I got very excited today. My friend who is staying with her in-laws' in Leeds, suggested we met up her family half way and we ended up in your home town. It's such a lovely place, I would like to take a better look next time.

But what really made it for me was that I saw you, twice! I did a double-take the first time and smiled at you and you must have thought whose that strange women?

My husband told me to go and tell you how much I love your blog but I said no, you would think me some sort of weirdo.

I do however really love your blog, it brightens up my days. Thank you, Sarah xxx

[ros badger]

GORGEOUS all of it.
X

[Shirley Araujo]

Oi friend to visit I came you and to say that I love its blog, congratulations bjus of Mint

[Danielle]

Quite a wonderful addiction indeed! They are all so inspiring. I especially love the plaque in the first picture that says "Coffee and Friends." Does it provide any indication as to where one can buy that?

[Liz]

Hi Lucy, I am thrilled to have discovered your blog through My Sewing Serenity. I fell in love with Granny Squares and have been learning crochet from your pages this past week and have finally managed to make some after much undoing and redoing. I love it and as you say once you start you cannot stop, it is such fun. Love your pictures and am a CL fan too, love their fairs. I will be blogging proudly about my Granny Square achievements next week. Thank you for being such an inspiration. Have a lovely weekend. :) Liz

[jo egan-small]

hi lucy, hope your morning is as nice as mine. drinking my coffee, looking at the blue, blue sky and feeling the cool breeze i was thinking of you and wondering how the sky looked over in england right now. are you out caravaning? happy days to you and your family!xo, jo (from germany)

[Renee]

I share your addiction. I have several "must have" and keep magazines.

I love all the colorful things on that red shelf.

[Leone Cabban]

Lucy.
I love colour and bright things also.Its great looking through mags at great pics. I have a question for you. Do you have a tutorial for a diagonal crochet? Thanks
Leone

[ramya]

hello lucy,

love ur blog,stumbled upon it recently and am hooked!! ama new crocheter havin knitted fro long. love crochet...have been devouring ur blog entries....fab.
uve been missing fro a bit ,r u ok?
fell in lov ewith ur circles scarf....any chance ofa pattern soon,pretty please?

pls do pot when u can,love to all the lil precious ones at me!!

love
ramya{an indian fan living in the uk}

[jessica domestica]

Lucy! Another happy item for you:
http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/281431
Wonderful!

[the quiet homemaker]

Hello Lucy, not sure if you'll get this comment or not, but thank you for popping over to see my rippling efforts! :) :) Still loving it, and I noticed something wonderful today (more details on my blog)...each row looks like a row of little people holding hands, like paper dolls. Isn't that beautiful??

Thank you again for teaching me how to crochet...I am SO enjoying it!

love, Tina xxx

[Dreaming Bear]

Everything is so lovely! My heart is skipping too, and I think I have a case of the "wanties" too. Well said!

[Teresa Kasner]

Hi Lucy, I've been working on my granny stripe blanket using the Creative Cotton "Lucy Pack" - I'm doing it in a rainbow progression starting with the purple, blue, green, yellow, orange then red. I'm in the greens right now. I ordered 2 more packs as the skeins are pretty small. I am making the blanket for the back of the sofa in my new (used, 2008) trailer (caravan) - and I just got 3 feather round pillow forms off eBay so I can make some matching pillows in rainbow circles!

I hope you can pop in again soon and tell us hello.

We're taking our trailer on it's maiden voyage next week to Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon - right near where Lewis & Clark spent their winter when they reached the Pacific Ocean on their discovery mission. You can see our trailer here: http://byteresa.com/trailer/

[Romero]

oohhh....lovely style!!!

[Nancy Richards]

Hi ya Lucy,

Hope your ok, just read your ravelry comment. I have 3 kids to and 2 dogs so understand how tiring it all is. Take care and do some chilling.
Nancy from sunny cornwall

[Mariann]

hei Lucy. Thanks for your inspiring croceting. To day I have linked to you. I have made a pillow after your recepie.Your colurs.
summerhug to you

[Becky]

We miss you, Lucy. It's good to "see" you on Ravelry, though!