Hello to a brand new year of capturing colour. I don't know about you but these seemingly endless grey days are getting me down, so every day I look for the colour in my pocket of the world. 

I may not have turquoise blue seas to hand, tropical palm trees, brightly coloured pool inflatables but I have brightly coloured papers, flowers from the garden and some gorgeous new home accessories from Rose and Grey! I make my own sunshine when there's none shining from the sky.

As much as I love our neutral white and grey walls, I need an injection of colour in our home decor. Upstairs we have renovated the guest bedroom (which I will share soon) in a nautical colour palette of red white and blue in a coastal meets country style. White wicker and red bed blankets, blue stripe blinds and painted furniture. Our bedroom and en-suite is the next room update after we have the whole house ripped apart for new heating, plumbing and electrics. I think we will need to move out for at least a week - one for the dust and two for the pain of having to watch all the walls and floor get knocked about! I have fallen in love with the blush rose tones that continue to dominate home styling and need to decide whether to combine our dark wood bedroom furniture with such a delicate colour scheme or whether we should give it all a lick of furniture paint as a quick makeover project. 

I am finally committing to wallpaper in the hallway. It feels like a very bold statement and it's taken 6 months to decide which print I want to walk past every day! It needs a splash of whimsy and fun to balance the cool white walls and dark wood herringbone floor. Roll on the 18th when it's being hung and I can share some photos.

January feels like the month where you analyse your home don't you think? A time when you've cleared away all the clutter of Christmas and suddenly your rooms feels bigger and brighter and you start spotting all the nicks and marks everywhere. We had the stairway painted and when the sun hits the landing all I can see are the ripples of sticky fingers which slide down the walls every day! I want to keep it white for now to help bounce light into the upstairs but need to update our three big window frame photo collages that have been sat in the garage since we moved. The pictures are currently black and white but I am wondering whether to print new favourites in colour this time to bring some warmth to the stairs. Decisions, decisions.

I love how everyone is looking for colour too and the #capturingcolour gallery is just a visual delight. A couple shy of 27,000 posts joining in with seeking out every colour of the rainbow.

I loved these beautiful soft tones, the muted pink hues and the calmness in each frame. Pop over to Instagram and find these lovely accounts to follow. 

I think it's quite fitting that we have officially started a new year of #capturingcolour on a January Monday - for some reason I feel those Monday blues that but harder in January!

For the next fortnight I will be joining colourful forces with Rose and Grey to bring you some of their beautiful products and give you the chance to win £100 voucher to spend on some goodies for your home.

Rose and Grey was founded by a husband and wife team with two boys, including an Ollie like me! I love how they mix vintage and modern styles, and it's a treat to collaborate with a thriving family business who adore that modern heritage style I love. Exposed brick mixed with dark woods and white as a backdrop to pops of colour.

We tucked into a family brunch on Sunday and the fabric lined bread baskets made it feel just that little more special

I'm actually tempted to squirrel them into my office and use them for all my ribbons and stationery bits, they fit perfectly under my desk riser and will be the perfect excuse to reorganise all my twines and tapes!

They are so handy to keep all my dried petals and little props in for photos... I can see them never entering the kitchen again!

I am on a mission to sort my desk and office space this January too, there's paper and pens and scrap bits of material everywhere and I totally believe in the principle of a tidy desk equals a tidy mind. I need physical space to give myself mental space if that makes any sense?! I have lusted after this baby pink toolbox forever and it is just the right size for all my craft supplies. Long enough for my roll of hessian I use every week and deep enough for pots of paint and small tins of spray paint. But before I filled it with glue guns and left over confetti supplies I couldn't resist snapping some photos with a few flowers from the garden. Can you believe the daffodils are out already?!

The perfect prop for some Spring inspired photographs before I filled it up with glittery string! 

I've been decorating the house with poppy seed heads and corns dried from my neighbours garden. I love the calmness of the neutral colour palette for the sitting room, the mix of greys and blues with the warmth of the sun kissed husks. 

An everlasting bouquet that is sitting pretty in this bubble vase, on an old butler tray and stand I picked up at an antique centre over Christmas. 

For your chance to win a £100 from Rose and Grey all you have to do is share a photo to Instagram and tag #capturingcolour. 

To qualify for the give-away you must tag @roseandgreyinteriors in your photo, comment or caption and follow on Instagram.

Find Rose and Grey HERE.

Entries close at midnight GMT 24th January 2016.

Open to UK residents only. 

Good luck and we can't wait to see your colourful captures. Good luck!

Ok, it may only be the 26th November but I am in the festive spirit. For me, this time of year is a little like the birthday cake at a children's party. We always display our cake in the middle of the buffet table, so the birthday boy and everyone else for that matter, can enjoy it. Not spend lots of time (uh hmm I mean some money - on the resolution list to bake a birthday cake) on this incredible creation for it to be whipped out in the final 5 minutes then cut up and popped into party bags to get crumbled into the car on the way home!

Christmas is just like that. I want to enjoy the build up for as long as possible and that means getting in the seasonal spirit from right now!

I've been slipping colourful crackers into the house, picking up lengths of ribbon and edible decorations for the last couple of weeks, ready for this post. I may actually have squealed at the postman when he delivered the box marked Fragile, with not clue what was inside. But I did. 

West Elm is one of my most favourite home interiors companies. It's one of the stores on my must go to list when we visit my brother in the States and when they opened a London store with shipping across the UK I was giddy. It's one of a very very small number of brands whose products my husband and I 100% agree on. Everything from the styling of the store, the simplicity and understated elegance of the website, to the cushions and crockery. 

It's all divine.

When we bought the house last year one of the first purchases was a West Elm armchair, a blanket and matching cushion for the living room. They were the only company who embraced a coral and mint colour trend last year and I wanted to buy up the store. 

When we stay with my brother and sister in law, we have had the chance to go into New York City for the day. A quick 50 minute train ride and we always head to the Flat Iron Building to walk around the pavement cafes enveloping the park and then make a beeline for Fishs Eddy. I walk in and gasp. An independent family store, selling every kind of kitchen ware, crockery and beautiful books, vintage linens and unique glassware and ceramics. I carry my hand luggage onto the plane like it carries the crown jewels! 

I recently broke my favourite sausage dog jug and was over the moon when I spotted a Fishs Eddy collaboration with West Elm. They stock a number of their gorgeous lines and new in for Winter this year is their gilded table ware - and it's currently on sale too!  It was a pleasure to style up a festive table scene on our old french table, the mini balloons and greenery pulling together this black, gold and a hint of lime scheme.

West Elm in the country!

There's a hint of whimsy with the comical slogans and the elegant pattern reminds me of an art deco hotel. Paired with simple styling, elegant foliage, they get to be the star of the table. I love the more rustic woven napkin rings and ever since we moved here I have collected a stash of linen napkins. If you like classic lines mixed with contemporary prints and on trend colour palettes this is the collection for you. 

Gold feels like the colour of the year and their stemless glasses give the less formal naked table a more glamorous feel and the gold cutlery puts the fabulous in flatware! Take advantage of the sale where the glassware is on special offer. I would use the salad plates as dinner wares they are slightly smaller and perfect for a narrow table. And you can always have seconds!

I love the idea of table names, even just for a few of you. It feels like an extra special meal. Mini ginger bread men are a great way to get the children involved in your festive table, make a batch and use some for edible place cards, then you can eat your name tags! A sprinkle of edible gold leaf just gave them that extra sparkle.

The simplest recipes are always the best. My mum suggests this one. 

In a mixing bowl combine 350g flour, 100g butter or margarine, 5 teaspoons of ground ginger, 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon and a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Mix with your fingertips until crumbly. Add 175g of soft brown sugar, 4 tablespoons of golden syrup and one egg and stir until it forms a firm consistency. If you find the mix a little wet, add a touch more flour and keep stirring until you have a pastry type texture.

Roll out your mix to your preferred thickness and cut your shapes with a cookie cutter. Lightly grease a baking tray and cook in a pre heated oven at 180c/Gas Mark 4 for 12-15 minutes. Check after 10 minutes to make sure they are not burning as all ovens vary a little. 

Laying the table over the Christmas period is such a pleasure, I love planning it all, making an extra effort for Christmas Eve, (we are planning an Indian feast) the big day itself and we have lots of family and friends celebrations from Boxing Day through to New Year. It doesn't matter what you serve, making a little extra effort just makes it all taste nicer.

How do you style your table? Do you get your wedding plates out of a box like Monica from Friends?!!! 

I am loving all the beautiful tables shared on social media today. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US, especially my brother and sister in law and their mini bump!

In collaboration with West Elm.