Furnishing The Nest

A couple of weekends ago I popped into two of my favourite interiors shops, The Nest at No.9 and My Little Vintage, both in Olney. I find it so hard to walk past both of these shops as they always have something beautiful and inviting in the window that would make it rude not to go in for a browse! I treated myself to a few lovely bits for The Nest, including a beautiful 'paper' cut leaf, some gorgeous hand painted ceramic and metal hooks and a lovely stone heart with a lace print.

The creamy yellow card backing of the picture fits in perfectly with the deeper yellow of our walls and I loved the unusual hexagonal gilt frame

Little tactile and textural elements will all add to your scheme and I loved the old fashioned delicate lace doily pattern on the heavy stone underneath

I am still working on the interiors and decoration in The Nest, and I love gathering little bits and pieces to add to the decor. The poor person that has to put up / hang / drill holes in my walls probably doesn't appreciate it too much but it's nothing a piece of cake can't fix! 

As soon as I'm happy with a room I'll share some photos of my handmade bits and bobs, up cycled furniture and decor so you can see what I've been up to over the last year. I would definitely advocate living with a space before you rush in and decorate as that way you'll know what will work best for the space. Along with this, just buy what you love. That way you will create something that is unique and personal to you and the scheme will evolve over time. 

Chocolate, port and cherry cake

As it was such a success last year, I decided to make the chocolate, cheery and port cake from my Mich Turner recipe book. The cake is so wonderfully rich and chocolatey with a hint of alcohol in the cherries, what could be better!

I remained true to her design and kept it simple with piped ganache and whole cherries to decorate, however as it was quite warm when I took these photos, the ganache does look super shiny! That is the peril of making ganache in the middle of summer (However as I listen to the rain pound against the widows today I am wondering if that was our summer!)

I had some brilliant cards for my birthday as well, and these set off the setting for my cake perfectly, especially the cute grumpy cat with the bow which was from my boyfriend, I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to tell me there...!