July – a review

July has been a funny month for me. I am so used to July being a ‘wind down’ month, having been a teacher, so it came as quite a shock, in this my first year of freelance work, that I have had to up my tempo rather than slow down. The result was a couple of weeks of paralysis – you know when you have so much to do so you do nothing at all?! I watched Wimbledon, enjoyed spending time outside and became fascinated with which flowers were blooming on my balcony, went on a couple of lovely weekends away and soaked up the sun at the beginning of the month. However, reality struck in the last couple of weeks, as did the rain and miserable weather, and I have come to terms with the fact that the summers will no longer be work-free zones for me.

Saying all that, I wouldn’t swap working freelance for anything now and I do realise how lucky I am. I have loved the flexibility to choose when to work and when not to; getting up extra early on big Wimbledon match days so I could spend the afternoon watching tennis guilt free, working into the evening so I could have an extra long walk with Otto when the sun was beaming, having a proper lunch break on our roof terrace with Jules and just adding an extra hour of work at the end of the day.

Never before have I been so aware of the seasons as I have this year and as summer has arrived I can not stop myself from inspecting every front garden that I pass and absorbing the changes in my local park. I’ve spent two wonderful weekends away this month in Norfolk and then Malvern and Warwickshire and both places had vegetable gardens that I loved foraging around in and asking questions about. I’m so grateful that Styling the Seasons has brought this awareness, something I have always lacked having lived in London all my life and never reallly encouraged to think about nature. I have asked “what is seasonal this month?” far too many times this year – I can’t want for next year when I will have so much more knowledge.

It has been far too difficult to pick my favourite shot for this month; I have loved them all in one way or another. I loved the way Emma captured the essence of summer, Esther’s first beautiful and thoughtful contribution to STS, the joy and excitement behind Kate’s post and the mental image of Rachel’s boys helping her with her gorgeous styling. I could go on and on.

In the end I chose this shot by Julia, whose beautiful blog Humphrey and Grace is fast becoming one of my favourites. The reason I chose this styled surface is the fact that it reflects how I have been feeling this month – a bit lost in quiet, calm contemplation. Such a beauitful image.

Do visit the other blog posts that were written this month for lots of lovely stories and beautiful styling. Don’t forget to search the #StylingTheSeasons hashtag on Instagram for hundreds more images from this month alone (5 000 in total now!).

Camellia Rose / A Quiet Style / Borrowed Light / The Villa on Mount Pleasant / The Lovely Drawer / Janice Issit Lifestyle / Really Pretty Useful / The Ordinary Lovely / Beauitful Simplicity / Humphrey and Grace / Tea with Ruby / Beak Up Crafts / Inside Out and About / The Vintage Good Life / Something I Made / thevintagehousethatcould / The Cabinet Maker’s Love Tale / Under The Plum Blossom Tree / Growing Spaces / Lotts and Lots / Cate St. Hill / Apartment Apothecary

I will be back on Monday with August’s post. Thank you to everybody who made July a bit more beautiful.

Katy x