Sania Pell

colours of my summer – part #2

August 24, 2012  in inspiring places

In a neighbouring village called Kali, renowned for its excellent fishermen, the colours of their nets, piled high on the side of the harbour jetty wall near their boats, caught my eye and I had to capture them.

I love the muted palette and different colours and tones found in these weathered, well-used nets as they overlay and combine with the textures and patterns of the crumpled mesh.

Comments: 11 Leave a comment

colours of my summer – part #1

August 23, 2012  in inspiring places

Having had a wonderful couple of weeks away with my family, enjoying each others’ company and switching off, I’m back to share some of my Summer inspiration with you. I took lots of photos and thought I would post some over the next week or so, split into a series I have called colours of my summer. The village where my grandfather built our family’s holiday home over 40 years ago is a charming, small and low key fishing village and now holiday spot, where swimming, lunch, siesta, reading and visiting the ice cream parlour in the evening are how the hours are spent.

There are plenty of modernised houses in the village, but it is the ones which wear their character on the outside that I was interested in documenting, capturing some of their charm and history. There are small pedestrian passages running between the old buildings, with skinny cats scurrying through and well-tended vines and olive trees in front of neglected or derelict houses. The cottages in the village are mainly built with stone, left natural or rendered and painted, with wooden shutters, terracotta tiled roofs and dry stone boundary walls.

Pale-leaved olive trees are everywhere, as are figs which we eat straight from the trees in our garden. Flowers and grasses spring up along paths giving little touches of colour amongst the walkways. Exotic insects, butterflies and bees buzzing around the oasis of nectar. Swallows swoop low and the heat is so intense that by 11 am all you want to do is swim or hide in the shade.

In this first post I have shown some of the buildings and flora to help set the scene and there will be more posts to follow.

I hope you have had a lovely summer too.

Comments: 13 Leave a comment

at home with emma cassi

July 21, 2012  in handmade goodness, inspiring places

A couple of weekends ago I popped over to jeweller Emma Cassi‘s home with my family in tow to catch up with her, have a chat and buy some new jewellery. We first met several years ago and I always enjoy visiting her home and chatting with her and her husband, and all of our little ones playing together. Twice a year Emma opens up her London home as an informal shop for friends and clients. The drawers in her living room display her work, each one filled with collections of exquisite jewellery leaving me in the wonderful conundrum of which necklace, bracelet or hair grip to buy.

Emma’s lovely home changes subtly with each visit, another layer of interest has been added, new beautiful items placed in front of others, or maybe I just didn’t notice them the last time I was there and they caught my attention that day.

I always have friends in mind when I visit… who has a birthday soon? a new baby? a child’s treat? It’s extra fun buying for others as well as yourself. A little set will be travelling to the other side of the world to a friend who deserves a treat and has just had a new baby. It is wrapped so beautifully too in music paper with string, elegant and simple.

A vintage beaded top hangs over a door in Emma’s living room, popping with neon inspiration.

So after a couple of hours of catching up and cups of tea, I returned home with treasure to wear and and a package of gorgeousness to mail across continents. A perfect afternoon.

You can see Emma’s new collection on her website and lots more on her blog here.

If you like Emma’s work you may also like this post.

Comments: 5 Leave a comment

coastal escape : whitstable

February 24, 2012  in inspiring places

It was yet another grey day that we chose to visit the coast during the school holidays last week. The sun hid behind the clouds all day, but it didn’t really matter as a visit to the coast is always a treat for us city dwellers, whatever the weather. Being by the sea with the salty, bracing air is refreshing and we all love the change of scene. We packed the car up with snacks for the journey, an optimistic blanket to sit on the beach, the camera and turned the radio up for our drive out of London to Whitstable on the Kent coast.

We had rented a little cottage for a week’s holiday a couple of years ago and the whole family loved it, so thought we would return for a spontaneous day trip. It is a charming fishing town, without being overly touristy or sickly seaside sweet, and its working harbour makes it feel real rather than just a summer destination. Wandering the side streets and along the beach wall reveals gorgeous shiplapped cottages, fisherman’s huts and buildings.

First stop was lunch at the excellent Whitstable Oyster Company restaurant overlooking the sea, a special treat. We all chose a different seafood – oysters, squid, crab, mussels, sardines – so we could have a taste of each others and they were all delicious. The children love trying different things and my son even tried an oyster!

There are some interesting vintage and antique shops at the top end of Oxford Street like Valentines Vintage and Warehams among others, as well as the usual myriad of charity shops you find in coastal towns. At the other end of town, Harbour Street has lots of great, independent boutiques to browse including The Sugar Boy old fashioned sweet shop, Sundae Sundae for a fun bit of everything, Buttercup for children’s toys and gifts and the fab Frank for British graphic screen prints, handmade stationery, books and other goodies. The harbour also has a fresh fish market and is great to wander around the black, wooden huts and watch the fisherman (grab a pot of winkles or cockles in vinegar or the delicious local oysters).

And the traditional British favourite, fish and chips, is a must-have; taken away, eaten from the bag, sitting on the harbour wall, over-looking the sea. Yum.

We hopped back in the car after dark, missing the traffic and returned home, the children drifting off to sleep in the back.

I’m already looking forward to our next family day trip to the seaside, but where next?

If you like this post have a look at my posts about Rye and Suffolk.

Comments: 12 Leave a comment

at home with emma lee

January 19, 2012  in inspiring places, interior styling

Today I would like to say thank you to Emma Lee, the talented photographer of my new book The Homemade Home for Children which will be out in a couple of months, and to share some photos of her home with you that I took while we were on location there for a day. I first worked with Emma almost 10 years ago on an Elle Decoration photo shoot and we became friends. We lived a 10 minute walk from each other at the time which meant we saw each other socially as well as working on jobs together and I was very happy when she agreed to photograph my new book. Emma has shot cook books for Gordon Ramsay, Mark Sargeant and Barrafina, editorial stories for Living Etc and Homes & Gardens magazines and commercial interiors shoots for clients including Fired Earth, M&S, Dulux, Cole & Son and Liberty. We worked hard on the shoots, had a lovely chance to catch up and have ended up with a book full of gorgeous photos.

The snaps I took here are from her home in the Ashdown Forest, part of the famous Hundred Acre Wood where A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh is set and the famous bridge is near by. It was a very wet Summer’s day and we worked inside whilst waiting for the rain to subside so we could take some images outside too. Luckily the rain did stop, the clouds broke and a few rays of sunshine meant we were able to take all the pictures we had planned on photographing. My children were there for the day too along with Emma’s sweet little dog Hesper, all taking part in a little modelling and helping us along the way. At the end of the shoot we had a moment to play Pooh Sticks in the little stream in the garden.

Emma has effortless taste and everything she touches she makes more beautiful, one of the reasons why she is in such high demand for her work. Her house is full of interesting and stylish objects with little surprises dotted about, keeping you excited to see what is around the next corner, and a divine colour palette; pale and muted with flashes of contrasting dark and brighter, fresh tones mixed in. There are many shades of grey too, a winning colour to me. What can I say, I have house envy every time I visit.

We shot here for one day of the six shoot days so you will see more of her home in my new book. Have fun spotting were we placed some of the projects and see if you can tell which projects are here.

Emma is represented by Pearson Lyle. Head over to their website to view Emma’s portfolio.

You can pre-order The Homemade Home for Children: 50 thrifty and chic projects for creative parents now on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Thank you Emma for the beautiful photographs in my new book and a wonderful day in your home.

Sania

x

Comments: 30 Leave a comment

amsterdam anniversary

December 11, 2011  in inspiring places

We had a wonderful few days in Amsterdam last weekend celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. Even though the weather was somewhat cold, grey and drizzly we had an inspiring time wandering the historic canals, museums, galleries and shops armed with Pia Jane Bijkerk’s Amsterdam: Made by Hand and the Wallpaper* City Guide to Amsterdam. The Dutch locals were lovely – friendly, laid-back with an under-stated cool style and we came home thinking it was a city we could quite happily live in.

We took inspiration from museum and gallery trips including the wonderful Rijksmuseum that, even though it is mid-renovation the one open wing is filled with stunning artworks from the Dutch golden age (Willem van de Welde I’s pen paintings from the mid 17th century were just amazing and so detailed). We also visited the Van Gogh Museum, Foam photography gallery as well as touring a couple of the beautiful canal-side houses on Herengracht and the moving Anne Frank House.

What I love about Amsterdam is that, although you are surrounded by the historic architecture and canals it doesn’t feel old fashioned nor just a big tourist attraction. With the vast volume of cyclists buzzing around it feels like a living city and you can glimpse into real homes as you wander, seeing modern interiors and creative solutions that respect the heritage but are contemporary and forward thinking.

The creativity and individuality is evident everywhere. I loved this personalised bicycle covered in silk flowers.

We visited the famous flower market and also the Waterloopein flea market which was disappointing unfortunately as it was all general stalls rather than antiques or bric-a-brac, though it looked like a lot of stalls had closed up early. The farmers’ market on the Noordermarkt was fabulous and well worth a visit.

Touring the shops, my favourites were Moooi, Droog and The Frozen Fountain. Bebob Design had a great selection of vintage and new classic 20th century furniture.  I always like to visit a major, old department store on a city break and we whizzed around De Bijenkorf which also has a good cafe/restaurant on the top floor. We stumbled upon a lovely little concept store called Maison NL and peered through the window of Raw Materials home store which looked interesting but was unfortunately closed when we found it. The American Book Centre was brilliant and opposite it Atheneum had a huge international selection of creative magazines.

All in all we had a lovely time celebrating our wedding anniversary and returned inspired. Thank you for making us welcome Amsterdam, we hope to see you again soon.

Comments: 142 Leave a comment