Ever since I resurrected my Instagram account earlier this year, I feel like I have found this secret world.

A world bursting with creative talent.

I love that you can share not only what is happening around you, places you visit, your own unique everyday, but also style and share little creative corners.

Sometimes, even when I feel like I haven't got time to breathe, I make time to take myself off for 2 minutes with some flowers, some pretty cards or paper and tinker.

It's incredibly relaxing and inspiring. And Instagram is full of people who feel the same way!

In fact 3 of my favourite accounts have started a Friday competition encouraging everyone to faff to their heart's content!

Join in with @katherinedorrington @juliabesidethesea and @am_i_dreaming_now and tag your styled vignette #fridayfaffingcompetition. Then browse through the gallery of everyone else joining in, I guarantee you will be spoilt for choice for inspirational accounts to follow.

These people are naturally creative, naturally talented. They don't try. Day after day they share what they love and I love it a little more each day!

And here are 4 must follow accounts.

@brittcastellano - Britt is an artist whose colourful account will blow you away. I adore her prints and will be choosing a couple for our mint and coral family room. 

Follow for a daily dose of cheer and more.

@brownpaperlemon - Nikki an Australian artist and mother who seems to treasure the little things.

Follow to get lost in her dreamy whites and to feel the love for her small people.

@angesdesucre - Reshmi Bennett is the mistress of macarons and everything else full of sweetness.

Follow for heavenly food photos, styling that makes you gasp and a must visit bakery on your next visit to London. 

@emmakateco - Emma Kate is a wildly talented storyteller. A graphic designer with the ability to captivate you in one colourful, small square. 

Follow for an explosion of colour, for tea cup envy and travel inspiration.

Now tell me who are your must follow accounts?! 

Mastering the basics of photography and building up a foundation of knowledge will change the way you take your photos.

In this #backtobasics series I want to establish the fundamental principles and then build on this base level knowledge so we all can take better pictures.

If you missed What is Aperture you can read it here, but today we are going to learn about shutter speed.

What is shutter speed?

Shutter speed gives you the control to blur a motion or freeze it. So capturing something moving that will either be in sharp focus or have a blurry appearance.

It's the function that allows you to control how long the camera shutter is open for.

The shutter acts like a curtain, it opens to expose the camera sensor to the light. The shutter speed controls how long that curtain is open for and how much light passes through the lens to the sensor.

The longer it is open, the more light that is exposed to the sensor. On a sunny day this can make your photos look whited out or overexposed, but on a dark day, you need a longer exposure to capture the subject in focus. 

The button you press to take a picture is called the shutter button. This button controls the opening and closing of the shutter. So think back to your pair of curtains. You press the button to open the curtains. 

How is shutter speed measured?

This is the numbers part. Because shutter speed is a length of time, it is measured in seconds. When the shutter speed is less than one second it is measured in fractions of a second.

If you set your camera to Shutter Priority or TV mode (Canon), you will be able to control the number of seconds the shutter is open for. If you shoot with a Nikon Shutter Priority is the S setting. 

My camera allows me to change my shutter speed from the the fastest of 1/4000th of a second to the slowest setting of 30 seconds or 30" (The " symbol stands for seconds).

Here is a cheat sheet to help you see the range of objects you can capture, by playing with the shutter speed settings. Download and print it off here.

You will see that as the setting gets slower and the shutter is open for longer, you need to use a tripod. Your camera is sensitive to motion so particularly in lower light conditions, even the slightest hand shake can have an effect. 

Remember, in darker conditions you will need a slower shutter speed. In natural daylight on a clear day a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second will be just fine for everyday photos. 

I shoot with a Canon DSLR and their website has some great technical spec photos to help guide you around the camera. You find the shutter speed in the LCD Display panel.

Now lots of tutorials on the internet will talk about capturing birds in flight, but generally I take more photos of the boys than birds! One of the photos that I love taking at this time of year is of the boys in the leaves, throwing them in the air. This is when you need to adjust your shutter speed.

These photos of Ollie were taken at 4.30pm on a dark day as the natural light was fading away, and you can see that by slightly adjusting the shutter speed the leaves became a little bit blurry. If it had been earlier in the day and sunny I could have adjusted the shutter speed to 1/500th of a second and probably still have got the same effect. 

I actually prefer the slightly blurred motion, not only because you can see his face, but because it shows the action!

Now at this time of year you might take a photo of your handwriting in sparklers. We do this every year and I love it.

To get the perfect shot you need:

• A tripod or a steady surface
• Set your camera to Shutter Priority or TV mode 
• Set your shutter speed to between 5" (seconds) and 10"(seconds), depending on the length of your name.
• Practise! 

It may take a couple of attempts but it will be worth it! 

When shooting on TV or Shutter Priority mode you also have control over ISO. If you shoot on Aperture Priority the shutter speed will automatically adjust. 

ISO is the final of the 3 pillars of the Exposure Triangle, the fundamental principle of photography, that I covered in the next blog post in the next #backtobasics mini series. Read it here and don't forget to subscribe to more updates.

Happy snapping everyone, and if you take a sparkler photo or have a play with your shutter speed settings, let me know, I would love to see. Come and find me on Instagram and tag me so I don't miss it!

Hooray! The first room at the new house is almost finished. We have walls, a floor and lighting and now it is time for all the lovely bits.

I adore researching interiors, I carry scraps of paper of real home photos around in the bottom of my handbag, and the lounge is littered with home inspiration magazines. 

The family living space in the house is a large rectangular shaped room with a door to the hallway, conservatory and the kitchen off 2 sides. The room has several dark wood original beams and we are lucky to have an enormous 8ft wide fireplace as the focal point of the room.

With dogs and small boys, we decided that hard flooring was a safer option, given the muddy paws and dirty bare feet that run from the garden through to the grown up lounge across the hallway. The beautiful oak herringbone flooring we uncovered only went across half the room, so we made the painful decision to cover it up. One day when we can chip all the old concrete out and source reclaimed parquet, we will do, but for now we had to get the room finished, the most economical way possible. But the good thing is we know it's there for later! We have taken the original walls back to the plaster and stripped off the old lining paper so you can really see all the quirks in the walls. 

The house was built in the 17th century and we really want to see all it's character rather than hide it under lining paper. Of course that does mean you have to get used to lumps and bumps but we love it!

We removed the partition which created a snug area, in favour of a larger more open plan feel and have chosen to keep the walls white as a neutral base for the rest of the furnishings.

It does look a little stark at the moment which totally goes against my love of clutter and colour! But I am going to restrain myself and keep to a soft colour palette of greys, corals, mints and a hint of gold, to bring warmth into the cool space. All week I have stared at these roses on the dining room table and love the deep rich colour they bring to a room.

I like the concept of keeping your biggest items neutral, your walls, flooring and main pieces of furniture and then accessorising to bring in your chosen print or colour scheme. That way when your tastes change after a few years you don't have the vast expense of changing all the really expensive items!

The room serves 2 purposes, a family area in front of the fireplace and a dining area at the back of the room. After lots of searching I found the perfect sofa and farmhouse table and now I need to get to work on my charity shop chairs and source 3 more. Mis matched but not completely mis matched! There's a space for an armchair too to make the area around the vintage coffee table I found in Olliebobs locally more cosy, but we are still on the hunt for that now!

We chose the Anglepoise range of pendants and wall lights for their classic but contemporary feel and now need to source table lamps to replace the lanterns on the console which are more at home in the fireplace. 

I love creating mini mood boards. They help you imagine what your room will look like and you can take a little inspiration from each picture, rather than replicating a room set. Here is my current collection of beautiful images.

I LOVE the dipped furniture and would love to be brave and paint the thrifted chairs with coral feet.  The mint and coral colour brings a more feminine feel to the room and I love the hints of gold in the lamps and accessories. You can find all the images on my Pinterest board here. 

These room shots are my favourites. Contemporary lines mixed with traditional prints and fabrics. Eclectic but not cluttered.

So we have a little way to go before it feels homely. I am sifting through all our photos deciding which ones will go in frames on the deep window ledges and having lots of fun finding cushions and curtains, to make it feel less white!

Let me know any recommendations for soft furnishings, I am always on the look out! I can't wait to do a full tour of the room when it's finished, so check back in soon.