A Spring visit to Upton House – A 1940s vintage gem

Posted on by Sarah 3 Comments

The 1940s is one of my favourite eras for its styles, in homes and fashion. So to find out that one of our local National Trust houses has been staged in that style meant a visit was an absolute must.

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The house was the country home to one of the great merchant bank families of London, Lord and Lady Bearsted of M. Samuel & Co. (Heir to the Shell fortune) When war broke out in London and there was a great risk to his art and assets in London. he moved the bank and all its staff to the Warwickshire village to be based at Upton House. the National Trust have homed in on this period of the house’s history to recreate the scenes of the era.

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It is very cleverly crafted and gives a genuine view of the era. Of course with the 1940s providing such inspiration for current vintage trends of homes and fashion, this recreation of the era is very much ‘en vogue’

img_6990 Combined with this is the winter garden walk around some of the grounds which is alive with spring flowers at the moment.

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As the house tours are booked for set times, we started with the walk around the gardens.

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It was a chilly day but with glorious sunshine which reflected off the honey coloured stone of all the wall and brick work.

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It made a nice change to be able to see the architecture of the buildings and walls whilst the plants and flowers are still fairly dormant.

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The walk included some fairly steep slopes and stairs but it meant the sloping levels opened up some lovely vistas.

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A magnificent cherry blossom was just about in bloom when we visited this weekend which was simply beautiful to see

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We continued our chilly but invigorating walk as it took us back to the house ready for the tour inside.

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We have visited the house before, but at that time they hadn’t staged it in the 1940s theme. I did actually prefer it this time as I did think it accurately portrayed the key time in the house’s history.

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So if you have a real interest in this vintage era and have fairly good mobility, it is definitely worth a visit.

Sarah x

 

Is it time for a spring clean?

Posted on by Sarah 7 Comments

Winter has almost gone, says I as I’m scraping the ice off the car again this morning!


Of course by lunchtime that frost has cleared and the clear sky means a lovely early spring sunshine emerges.

 

That spring sunshine however has the less than desired effect of bouncing off all those surfaces covered with a layer of dust, and the cobwebs which have kept the spiders in food all winter.

So now is the official time for a spring clean, well in my house anyway!


It’s a great opportunity to have a good old sort out and a rearrange whilst I’m at it.

What I tend to do is to take a room at a time, I take all my ornaments and bits out to give them a good clean and polish. I pull all the furniture into the centre of the room to give behind and underneath a good vacuum, I then tackle all those corners where the cobwebs have been un-disturbed all winter. Picture frames, top of doors, switches and sockets get a wipe and polish. Then finally all the furniture gets pushed back.

When it comes to bringing all the ornamental bits back in, I like to have a good rearrange and swap a few bits over to introduce lighter, brighter spring colours. Another great excuse for a bit of retail therapy.


A vase of fresh flowers and voila! onto the next room.


Do other people have a good spring clean at this time of year?

Do you do anything special to prepare your house for summer?

I’d love to hear from you

 

 

OCGsundaybest -Four of the best pics of Instagram 6/3

Posted on by Sarah Leave a comment

Thanks for all the lovelies who tagged their beautiful pictures with #ocgsundaybest this week over on IG. Here are my four favourites this week, I hope you all agree there is some fantastic talent on IG and it is my pleasure to share it with you.

Please head on over to their accounts and see for yourself what beautiful feeds they have. 

   
    
 

Photography tips to liven up your Instagram account – Macro photography

Posted on by Sarah Leave a comment

Phone cameras are such a boost, to be able to snap a shot wherever you are is a real bonus and the quality of the lenses within the cameras are so great the results are fantastic.

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So when the I found add on macro lenses that can be used with phone cameras I just had to have one.

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The Apple store sell the official macro and close up lenses called an olloclip;

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“The olloclip 4-IN-1 Photo Lens is designed for use with iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina display and iPad mini. It clips on and off your device quickly and easily and offers four lenses – fisheye, wide-angle and two macro lenses (10x and 15x) – in one simple device. So you can take stunning, creative photos anytime and anywhere”

But as it cost around £60 and I wasn’t sure if it is exactly what I want I thought I’d try a cheap version from EBay for £4.96

  
macro lens

“180° Fish Eye Lens Wide Angle Macro Lens Clip Camera Kit for iPhone iPad 5 Color”

This lens has proved to be very high quality considering the price, producing some lovely results.

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Now it just takes a steady hand and a bit of imagination to take some lovely macro shots. Some of the nicest shots are ones where you can have a play around with the depth of field.

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