I, being the try hard, trendy that I was, wore trousers that had a skirt built-in.  Jollied by my mothers assurances that it was about to become ALL the rage, I trotted into school that day with a smile on my face, confident that this look was about to propel me to seriously new levels of cool (I say new, meaning I was most definitely not cool to start with).  It took all of about 5 seconds on walking into the classroom for me to realise that I had made a grave mistake.

The key point about this quote, is that my version of ‘boring’, may well be very different to yours.

Well, my friends, that was my first lesson in trends.  Unless, you’re already cool, trying to start your own trend, with the hope of it catching on, is simply not going to happen.  You need someone cool (or in the case of the real world, a journo, a blogger, or someone with authority) to catch on to it and then you’ve got a chance at it taking off.

It took me a few years to recover from that non-uniform experience, not just in terms of emotional damage (!!) but also to realise that actually, I didn’t care what other people thought.  I spent most of my early teens dressing like everyone else, EXACTLY like everyone else.  To my mothers despair.  But it must have been a coming of age thing, because when I reached about 17 or 18, I actually stopped caring.  Of course, looking back on it now, I think, “What on earth was I thinking?”, but at the time, I was having fun and experimenting.  In fact, I used to like it when people in Leicester laughed at what I was wearing, it meant I had succeeded in looking different.

Now the point of this story (yes, I am getting to it!), is that exactly the same goes for your decor choices, folks. Design is so subjective and everyone has different tastes. Even one product can be taken and styled in a multitude of different settings to create a completely different look.  You don’t need to feel like you should follow trends. What’s actually important is finding what it is you love and basing your decor decisions around that. [You can read more here: How to Find Your Interiors Style.]

Image credit: @Patirobins | View her eclectic and moody house tour

And do you know what we find?  Anyone whose opinion we respect, or for that matter, care about, respects us for having the courage to step out and be different.  Our friends don’t always like what we wear, or what we have in our homes, but they respect us for doing it anyway.

If you’re going to try and style your home hoping that everyone else is going to come in, love it and then do something similar, then you can forget about it.  If you’re doing something different, then just embrace it and know that not everyone who walks in the door is going to like it.  But that’s OKAY.

How boring would life be if everyone looked the same, wore the same thing and styled their houses the same.  Urgh! I couldn’t think of anything worse.   So, if you feel confident enough to try something different, then fantastic, but try to remember my little story about the skirt and trouser combo.  You’ve got to go into it knowing that you might be on your own, but have the confidence in your own mind and creativity to stick with it anyway.

Hollie x

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Chefchaouen, Morocco

Photo by Dimitrie Vadim Stanescu

I mean, have you ever seen anywhere more magical? Nestled in the Rif Mountains, in the northwest of Morocco, the beautiful town of Chefchaouen, which translates to ‘looking at the peaks’ owes its beauty to the distinctive blue wash buildings of its old town. It’s a favourable destination for Instagram lovers, and quite rightly so, it’s hard to believe that this picture-perfect blue haven could lie within such an arid setting. There are many theories behind why the town drenched itself in the calming hue, one being that it keeps the mosquitoes at bay.

Burano Island, Italy

Photo by Fabio Mangione

Italy is filled with an abundance of brightly hued towns, but the colourful island of lace is way up there on our list of destinations with colourful buildings. Situated in North Italy in the Venetian lagoon, the Burano Island is a stark contrast to the splendors and elegance of Venice. However, the small island is equally as stunning in its own right, wouldn’t you agree? The rainbow coloured houses that line the waterfront just add to the beauty of the island.  Legend has it that the houses were originally painted in bold shades so that fisherman could see them whilst out fishing, even in thick fog.

Bo-Kaap, South Africa

Photo by Ken Treloar

Boasting an explosion of colourful Cape Dutch and Georgian architecture, the Bo-Kaap is Cape Town’s most distinctive neighborhoods. Each of its houses are adorned in one vibrant shade or another. Palettes of lime greens, lemon yellows, sky blues and hot pinks are just a few of the shades that bring the streets alive and entice tourist’s year after year.

Havana, Cuba

Photo credit: Mark Turner via Photo Pin

Cuba’s capital oozes culture and character and its riot of weathered colourful colonial buildings only adds to its charm. Thanks to its rich history and various outside influences over the years, the enticing city boasts an eclectic mixture of architectural styles including Baroque, Moorish and Art Deco, making it of one of the most architecturally diverse cities in the world.

Manarola, Italy

Photo by Marc Zimmer

Even though it’s the oldest and second smallest of Italy’s famous Cinque Terre towns doesn’t mean it’s any less magnificent. Manarola is best known for its captivating beauty, made distinctive by the colourful houses built upon the rugged Riviera coastline, which spill down towards the Ligurian Sea. Traditionally known for its fishing and wine making, its sweet Sciacchetrà wine has become renowned. What better way to enjoy the majestic vistas than relaxing with a glass of the local tipple?

La Boca, Argentina

Photo by Best Tourism

The rainbow coloured mismatch of zinc house is one of the main reasons why tourists flock to this Argentinian neighbourhood. It’s also famous for its football stadium and local street artists. It was said that dock workers who used to live in La Boca we’re so poor that they had no choice but to build their homes from rejected ship materials which they then painted in leftover paint, but there was never enough to cover a whole house which why the results are inconsistent.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Photo by Tim Trad

Nyhavn in Denmark’s trendy capital is certainly a sight to behold. Originally, the district was a busy commercial port where boats from around the world would dock. It was a hugely popular haunt for sailors and writers, including the very famous Hans Christian Andersen who lived at no. 20 Nyhavn, as well as no. 67 and no. 18. Today, the area is top attraction for tourists when visiting Copenhagen. The waterfronts grand rainbow-coloured buildings now inhabit lively bars and restaurants, making it the perfect setting to end a long day of sight-seeing.

Pachuca, Mexico

Photo by: Ted’s photos via Photo Pin

In recent years, the low-income neighbourhood of Palmitas in Pachuca has received a rather colourful face-lift which was commissioned by the government in aim to reduce violence among youngsters. Created by German Crew, a group of local street artists, the vibrant mural is painted across over 200 of the hillside houses. Covering some 20,000 square meters, the impressive art work presents a kaleidoscope of colours which can be seen from miles around.

Wroclaw, Poland

Photo credit: izrailit via Photo Pin

A lively cultural centre, Wroclaw is the fourth-largest city in Poland and arguably one of the prettiest– it’s easy to see why. Many of the city’s buildings have embraced Bohemian, Austrian and Prussian influences. At Wroclaws heart lies the magnificent market square lined with a vibrant array of incredible architecture that stands out even on the gloomiest of days. It’s also a hugely popular area for university students, making it one of the most youthful cities in the country.

Antigua, Guatemala

Photo by: Wuestenigel via Photo Pin

The assortment of rich and colourful buildings in Antigua stand proud against the remarkable volcanic backdrop. Its dazzling beauty and abundance of Spanish-language schools, makes it a global hotspot and must-see destination. The city was largely ruined by the earthquakes in the 17^th century but many of the colonial buildings were rebuilt and over the years have been renovated. Despite its natural disasters over the years, Antigua can certainly be proud of the resilience it’s shown by its inhabitants.

There’s an endless array of destinations with colourful buildings in the world that make it impossible to pick just one favourite. Whether it’s the serene blues of Chefchaouen or the worn out pastel hues of Havana, we’d love to hear which of the above colourful buildings stood out for you!

Jess x

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This Pour Over Coffee Drip Brewer designed by Danish brand, Bloomingville has a gold stainless steel frame and black ceramic base to bring a luxe aesthetic to your daily grind.  Comes with a beautifully textured glass drip.

Rather than blather on about how beautiful the new range is (seriously though, how gorgeous is it?!), I asked my good friend, Ed owner of artisan coffee shop and café 96 Degrees in Leicester to give his top tips on how to brew the perfect filter coffee.

“If you decide to buy this beautiful new coffee drip brewer from Audenza, you’ll need a few pointers on how to get the most out of this equipment.  The pour over drip brewer is a super-simple piece of equipment that can get you barista quality results at home, there’s just a few simple steps you need to grasp to help you get started.  Here’s how to brew the perfect filter coffee:

What you’ll need:

> Your drip and stand from Audenza
> A suitably sized filter paper
> A kettle
> A Hario pouring kettle (not essential, but has a narrow spout to help pour your water evenly)
> A burr grinder (not essential, but means you can grind your coffee fresh every time you brew)
> Scales (not essential, but weighing your coffee and water helps create a consistent brew)
> Some coffee! We recommend 20g of fresh ground coffee for a 300ml cup

Method

1.  Open up a filter paper and fold along the seam so that it sits comfortably inside your funnel
2.  Sit the funnel on top of your cup and pour hot water over the filter paper. This ‘pre-wetting’ warms the funnel and the cup, and also washes the paper taste from the filter paper. Empty the hot water from the cup and replace the funnel on top
3. Weigh and grind your coffee beans to a consistency resembling sand and place into the filter paper
4. Place the whole assembly onto your scales and hit zero. Now you’re ready to pour
5.  Boil the kettle and let the water cool slightly (to 96 Degrees, of course!)
6.  Pour the water into your Hario kettle (if using) and then slowly pour over the coffee grounds. At this stage, we don’t want to see coffee dripping through to the cup. We want to fully wet the grounds using as little water as possible. Once all the grounds are wet, we let it sit for 30 seconds. We allow the coffee to ‘bloom’, where natural gasses escape from the coffee and prepare it for a good extraction
7.  After 30 seconds, pour over more hot water, going in concentric circles until the funnel is full. At this stage, slowly pour water into the middle of the cup, until you’ve reached 300ml. If your cup is not that big, work on the ratio of 7g of coffee per 100ml of water
8.  Once you have poured over enough water, let the coffee drip through into the cup below
9.  When the water has passed through into the cup, your coffee is ready! The pouring process should take approx. 2.5 minutes. If it’s much quicker than this, grind your coffee finer next time; if it’s taking more than 3 minutes, grind your coffee courser next time.
10.  We always advise letting your coffee cool before drinking. The flavour will open up and change as it cools, showing you its subtle nuances and flavour notes.
11.  Enjoy your filter coffee! And one more thing, never, under any circumstances, add milk to your brew! 😉

How to Store Your Coffee

Have you ever drunk some milk from the fridge and noticed a strange taste of onions? Or eaten a cake that tastes of garlic? Well this is because foods can absorb flavours of other strong food items when stored together. It’s called the hygroscopic effect. Coffee beans have the same properties, they absorb water, smells, flavours, and anything else around them. This is why we don’t store coffee in the fridge; it’s full of strong food smells and flavours. Also, once a bag of coffee beans is opened, it begins to lose its freshness and flavour within a week, ground coffee loses flavour within 10 minutes (this is why we advise getting a simple burr grinder for home use). So, store your coffee in a tightly sealed container, in a dark, cool cupboard, away from strong smells and flavours. Alternatively, put it in the freezer to preserve its flavours for longer.”

And that, my friends, is how to brew the perfect filter coffee!  Huge thank you to Ed for taking the time to provide those tips for us.  If you’re near Leicester, I would thoroughly recommend checking out his coffee shop, Café 96 Degrees, it goes without saying that the coffee’s great, but from an interiors point of view, the décor is seriously on trend, with an uber cool industrial vibe and delicious lunches too.

Suffice to say I’ve already treated myself to one of our new drip stands, so I’ll be making myself the perfect filter coffee tomorrow armed with my new knowledge!

Hollie x

As you will all no doubt know, we’re a small, family run business.  However, shopping with us doesn’t come without its issues and I thought in the interest of being honest, I’d pen some thoughts on why you might NOT want to buy from a small company:

1.  Large companies always stick to their working hours.  Don’t you just hate those companies that stay open longer than they should do, just to get something finished for you, or help you out?  Ugh.

2.  Small companies want to do irritating things like smile, remember your name and thank you personally for your business.  High five to remaining anonymous and being frowned at.

3.  If you have any problems, you know that buying from a big company means you’re in safe hands.  Sure, it’s never the same hands; you will always get through to a different person every time and have to explain the situation all over again and you will most definitely have to call at least 10 times before they do sort it out.  But yea, they’ll almost certainly sort it out for you eventually.

4.  Calling a UK based, local phone number is sometimes a bit of a chore.  It’s often a much more pleasurable experience to just call a premium rate number and wait on hold for 20 minutes.

5.  Big companies always reward long standing, loyal customers.  Take your insurance company for instance, they would NEVER offer a better rate to someone who has just signed up, than to someone who has been a customer of theirs for 10 years.

6.  If there’s one thing I hate, it’s people that want to help me out.  You don’t have any of the rubbish with large businesses – they rarely take the time to listen or to really get to know what you’re looking for or what they can help with and personally, I much prefer being dealt with like that.  Just stop trying to help me out, goddamn it.

7.  I don’t know about you, but when I spend my money, I like to know that it’s not going to that friendly family down the road.  Like these chirpy looking chumps…

Photo: Samie Lee Photography

Anything you’d add to the list?  I’d love to know in the comments below.

Sarcastically yours,

Hollie x

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Hollie

1. I’m incapable of making a cup of tea.  Well, not incapable as such, theoretically speaking I can, I just forget.   I offer to make a cup of tea, only to get embroiled in emails again and then remember about an hour later.  If I make it as far as boiling the kettle, there’s about a 50% chance that I’ll actually remember to finish the job.  I’ve even made a tea before only to realise I hadn’t actually boiled the kettle in the first place and the water was stone cold.  Apparently Amelia and my Mum now take bets as to whether they’ll ever get the cup of tea that I’ve offered to make.  Not so much brain like a sieve, more like brain like a log flume.  If it ain’t on my to-do list, it ain’t gonna happen.

2. I still have a baby tooth.  Just one, and apparently I’ll be lucky if it lasts me another 10 years.  So I’ll be toothless at 40.  Well, perhaps that’s a little melodramatic, it’s just one tooth and I’ll get an implant.  But still.

3. I absolutely cannot stand the sound of people chewing.  Around a dinner table I can just about suppress it (amongst chitchat), but if someone happens to be chewing in my ear- God help them.  There’s something about it that makes my blood boil.  A searing, irrational anger that could see me ripping the food out of their mouth and strangling the offending person.  No, I joke.  But seriously, don’t do it.

4. I’m scared of… everything.  The dark, check (it’s dark for goodness sake).  Fish, check (just creepy).  Heights, check (I’ve been known to self-combust into tears walking across to the Bullring car park).  Spiders, check (shiver just went down my spine).  Cats, check (don’t trust them).  Ghosts, check (of course they exist).  The list goes on.   That said, I’m also very determined and if I’ve said I’m going to do something I’ll do it.   Though perhaps the parachute jump was a little too far.  Did you know that 98% of people who do a parachute jump end up really enjoying it, no matter how scared they were to start with?  Well, needless to say you’re looking at a member of the 2% club.

5. Apparently I’m a puffer fish.  Have you ever played that game where everyone suggests what kind of animal you’d be?  Well, we played that once and it didn’t end too well.  Amelia suggested I’d be a puffer fish- “likely to blow up at any given time”.   In retort I suggested that she was a lady bird- “pretty, but essentially boring”.  My mum called a stop to that game rather quickly.   These days I meditate and practice mindfulness in the hope of softening my puffer ways.  We’ll see.

Jacqui

1. I really hate Christmas! It’s not something I admit to generally as most people are appalled, but for me it’s a time of high expectations (all resting on me) and excessive amounts of work (also resting on me, but the girls do their share) coupled with the darkness at 4 o’clock and cold miserable weather. November and December are such a slog and I wish I could hibernate.  Oh the relief as January comes round and there is hope of more daylight and a possibility of warmth in the not too distant future, and I start to read my gardening books.

2. I am an introvert and find meeting new people really difficult as I am very shy and it is usually construed as arrogance or ignorance. My youngest daughter Amelia has the same affliction which is why Hollie is the voice of Audenza. She was always the noisiest child! I am happy to write but don’t ask me to speak too much, although a glass of wine always helps.

3. I panic if I don’t have a book or my kindle near me at all times. I think it’s the only thing that got me through bringing up five rowdy children – bury my head in a book and ignore them! I love Georgette Heyer for historical romantic fiction and she is my go to author when I want some light relief and witticisms (why aren’t there any films based on her books, maybe there are but I don’t know about them) and I reread her books constantly – and of course the fact they all have a happy ending is a winner when you have the blues. The rest of my books seem to involve a war, preferably the First or Second World War, much to my friend’s disgust as she peruses my book shelves for a loan.

4. Although I write blog posts I cannot upload or comment on a blog. I am shockingly bad at technology which, as you can imagine, drives the girls wild. I can’t use Pinterest, my satnav is totally redundant and I can’t change stations on the radio. I am excellent at buying online though – mainly plants haha. I have to stay off plant websites at midnight as I get carried away. My son (the gardener and tree surgeon) despairs of clients that buy loads of plants with no idea where to put them and no thought for design, and rants on the subject. I can see the look on his face when he is called round periodically to help me sort out the massed row of pots waiting to be planted.

5. I have been addicted to Vaseline for my dry lips from a young age and now all my children have the same addiction – the girls being the worst. I have a tin in the car, a tin by my bed, a tin on the kitchen table, a tin on my desk at the factory, a tin in my sewing room, a tin at the caravan – need I say more! I have tested all manner of lip salve but it has to be the plain old blue tin of Vaseline and I have tried to wean myself off but with no luck, but still, it’s quite harmless, I just look a bit greasy sometimes and get some funny looks on the train haha.

Amelia

1. Half my hair is shaved. The other half isn’t.

2. I’m scared of putting my feet on the floor of swimming pools because of the crocodiles lurking at the bottom.   I’m yet to actually lay eyes on said crocodiles, but I know they’re there.

3. Like my mother, I prefer not to speak. Wherever possible.   Unless I’m asleep….

4. I talk in my sleep and once insisted to Hollie that broccoli makes you tan, obviously she asked me to elaborate, to which I snapped back ‘oh just forget it, I’ll explain in the morning!’ (However, I would like to point out, before anyone starts eating absurd quantities of broccoli in preparation for summer, that I’m fairly sure it doesn’t actually have magical tanning powers!)

5. I love to cook and my boyfriend and I try a new recipe almost every weekend. I have however, had a few disasters… I saw a lovely looking recipe by Jamie Oliver for a moroccan tagine, which called for preserved lemons and I stupidly thought, no problem, I’ll preserve them myself. I diligently turned my jar of lemons several times a day for the first few days and then left them for a month to finish preserving. Now, I’m the sort of person that’s thinking about what to have for dinner at breakfast, so to wait a month for a recipe, it better be good! Well, the only way I can describe the taste of the tagine was lemon washing up liquid, it was vile! I’m not sure what I did wrong, but it’s safe to say I will never be preserving my own lemons again! To add insult to injury, I cooked an extra batch of chicken, thinking how lovely it would be to freeze and eat later. So in my effort to avoid any waste, I attempted to rinse the chicken (yes, that’s right, I rinsed my chicken under the tap), and then added it to a casserole sauce to try and mask the soapy lemon flavour, but there was just no hiding that vile taste. Even the dog wouldn’t touch it, he looked up at me as if to say, you expect me to eat this?! So, needless to say it all ended up in the bin.

We hope you enjoyed learning a little more about each of us- do feel free to comment below with a fact about yourself, we’d love to get to know our readers a little better too!

Audenza Ladies x

Photos: Samie Lee Photography

I read an article in The Sunday Times a few weeks ago by India Knight about social media and being permanently attached to our mobile phones.  I’ve read a few articles recently about this sort of thing and it’s got me wondering- is my mobile phone addling my brain?

Is it a coincidence that I make a cup of tea, only to get all the way upstairs and then realise that it’s stone cold and I never boiled the kettle?  Or that I made poached eggs the other day and came back to find I’d forgotten to even turn the hob on?  Or that I woke up at 7.30am the other day (knowing I started work at 8) believing that I had another hour until I needed to be ready, only to be told by my sister that I was in fact going to be very late! (I genuinely believed I had loads of time, that I was early in fact!) Or that I now always forget what I’m going to say, right in the middle of a sentence… poof! It’s gone!  Never mind the number of times that I’ve gone upstairs to get something and completely forgotten what I went for.  I’ve always been bad for doing that, but recently it happens, a lot!

I am a glad that for the most part I work for myself now (aside from my part-time receptionist job) because quite frankly I’m not sure I would be able to hold my own in a meeting with my old director these days.  The same director that can remember EVERYTHING from the entire 10 years that she’s worked at the company, “Do you remember that email that came from X a few years ago, asking if we did Y?”  In short, no.  “No, I do not remember a specific email about something fairly vague, which wasn’t even relevant at the time and has never been discussed since.”  This woman has an incredible memory, probably in part how she’s got to where she is, at a relatively young age.  I on the other hand, have absolutely no ability to retain information these days- if I remember something that I need to do, I have to write it down, that very second, otherwise 30 seconds later it’s gone and I will most probably not remember what it is for another week.

Now, I’m either going senile (I’m 27, so I sincerely hope not!) or something else is going on here.  It has gotten a whole lot worse in the last year too.  And what I have started doing in the last year? TWITTER!  You could blame it on starting my own business, that my mind is so preoccupied with so many things that it’s getting itself in a bit of pickle and can’t work out what sort of information to retain and what not to (in this case, it chooses to retain nothing!).  However, I was permanently emailing on my phone for my previous job.  I worked for a footwear supplier and it was my job to manage the product on my account, from conception (design) to store and all the many areas of hassle in between.  I was emailing factories in China on Boxing Day regarding problems with getting product made on time, I was emailing at 2am when I couldn’t sleep.  Now that did me no good at all (loss of sleep, namely), BUT, it did not have the same effect on my brain as is happening now I am on Twitter!  All of that incessant talking… of course the constant checking of my phone for website orders has got to be a big contributer.  A little obsession that I have developed in the last 6 months. My mood is directly linked to what comes through on those emails!

I’ve tried to find research on this, but there’s a lot for and against, as is always the case.  There doesn’t really seem to be much evidence either way, but I do firmly believe that social media, emails and my mobile phone is having an adverse effect on my brain capacity.  That there is simply too much going on and not enough down time in order to allow your brain time to breathe, to absorb information, to process it and store it away for future use.  Instead, I move so quickly from one thing to another, that the previous thing is gone as quickly as it came.

SO, I am going to make a conscious effort to start turning my phone off in the evenings in order to see if my brain starts to regain some of it’s former glory.  9pm cut off time, after which you will not receive an email response from me, you will not get a Twitter reply and I will not be reading blog posts and Googling SEO tactics.  You may say, “Why don’t I just come off Twitter altogether?”.  Well, Twitter, I believe is the lifeblood of any business these days, for networking, fraternising with journos and generally being ‘in the know’.  It’s very easy to miss important things going on in the industry when you work from a spare bedroom at home.

So…. How long will I give it?  Well, the bigger question is…. How long can I stand to do it for?  This is not going to be as easy as it sounds.  Turning my phone off in the evenings is like taking a dummy away from a baby, or asking a smoker to just ‘stop’ smoking.  I’m actually addicted to my phone.  There, I’ve said it.

My aim is to do a month.  I will report back in a week… and we’ll go from there!  I am of course posting this at Midnight, but tomorrow is a new day!

Speaking of social media, if you like this post- please share it with your friends! (Ironically, or course).

Hollie x

Is Social Media Addling Your Brain? -By Hollie Brooks