Really, winter doesn't truly arrive until the solstice on 21st December, and for my other seasonal switch arounds and celebrations I wait for each equinox or solstice to begin to ground myself in the new season ahead. But, I always celebrate winter a little differently, and earlier than the other seasons, because we also love to celebrate advent and Christmas as well as the solstice. I confess that I got sick of dried leaves and pumpkins covering the house too, so recently cleared Autumn away and have been making way for winter. I know, I know, it's still too early for some, but I'm feeling ready to welcome the frost and sparkle of winter.

After hating it for many years, January has become my favourite month of the year. I have to swiftly state before you click off in bewilderment or disgust, that I used to long for summer and actively hate the cold season, approaching it with a deep sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. I am sensitive to the cold, with bad circulation. As a teenager, I lived in a very cold draughty house…

I have gone through my archives and pulled together some of my favourite Christmas tables to provide inspiration for your own table. None of the ideas are mega expensive or require buying much and can be pulled together fairly easily. I have added styling notes to each pic highlighting some of the ideas to steal.

The Nesting is my free quarterly supplement/ mega newsletter/digital magazine packed full of season al inspiration for your home. It’s purpose it to help you to nest, rest and love your home. It contains home styling advice, tips to get the best of each season, playlists and self care prompts.

I have created a special festive version of The Nesting, in addition to the Winter Nesting which will be sent out after Christmas.

Last Christmas, we fore-went the traditional Christmas tree in favour of a Christmas Branch. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you will know my love for a good branch in an interior. So a branch Christmas tree felt like a verrrryyy natural step!

I have taken successive steps over the last few years to simplify Christmas and this year is obviously no different. No presents at all for the adults means I have more time and energy for the fun stuff like making and faffing and yes, laying pretty tables (something that happens to bring me great joy, which is so important this year more than ever). You don't need to cook really fancy food this Christmas to make it magical (Hello Christmas breakfast!), nor do you need formal silver wear, gazillions of courses and the 'right' wine glasses either. 

I'm popping in with a super quick fabric wrapping tutorial for you today. I've used fabric wrapping for a few Christmasses now, but only recently figured out this super simple knotting technique which even makes tape redundant! A zero waste win! There is a horrible (horrible) amount of waste generated each Christmas, so I like that this is a small step toward eliminating part of it. Here I have used a second hand cotton flat sheet (barely used) from ebay, and some linen from a table cloth I had ruined with bleach (ugh) so the costs are minimal.

I first discovered this soup back in 2016 or so and the Seasonal Festivities were very different to what we are faced with this year (I am not crying, promise!)

Thankfully, great recipes stand the test of time and so I am resharing this again this year as more than ever, we need some deliciousness and warmth in our lives. This is by far the most delicious soup I've tasted in a very long time, a bespoke recipe developed exclusively for the workshop by the Rye London studio owners, Holly and Renee. It is rich and warming and tastes incredibly creamy without any dairy (I omitted the creme fraiche obviously!) 

I’ve fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole, looking at old styling pictures of when ‘winter feasting’ was thing! Probably not this year, but that doesn’t mean that Winter 2020 needs to be absent of table decorating and feasting joy.

Cast your mind back a few years:

I’m super excited to share these pictures from a dreamy winter styling job I did last year.

Meet the result of Lockdown and cabin fever: our new pallet seating area!

It really feels like a whole new room has been added to the house. We knew we wanted to create a seating area here but we had a few limitations. We rent so couldn’t make any permanent changes, we had a small budget, and there is a flower bed along the bottom of the wall on the left. Where possible we wanted re-use or recycle things. We also wanted it to feel really comfortable and luxurious- like a proper outdoor sofa. So here’s what we did!

This Saturday is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and it’s s wonderful thing to Celebrate. I usually suggest having friends over, and whilst this may be possible with social distancing, it isn’t for us with the kids, so it’ll just be the 4 of us. This is how we’re planning to celebrate it! My newsletter subscribers got this first (are you signed up yet?) but I wanted to put it here too.