2019 is set to showcase colour in its boldest form and if you wish to keep on trend when buying your new accessories then here are a few things that will keep you fashion forward in your home:

Colourful: bright, bold, saturated and strong; colour makes a statement with vibrant tones and a playful feel, this year. If you like canary yellow, lime green, or peacock blue bring it into your home through your home furnishings it is sure to brighten up the greyest days

Black is back: black is tipped to be one of the year’s statement shades. It comes in a myriad of tones, from inky to indigo-infused, and can work wonderfully in a monochrome scheme or paired with metallic accents.

Subtle: subtle hues with a nostalgic feel are a welcome temper to the coloured and monochromatic looks of 2018. Think greys, lilac and elderberry tones. Although soft in colour they are strong in tone, creating a pretty look which can be restful or revitalising.

Weather you choose to go the full rainbow or simply inject some subtly sumptuous tones into your home interiors this year there will be plenty of new trends on offer to suite your home, its style and your personal taste.

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Now that the last of the guests have left and you have flopped with relief into your cosy arm chair you might be thinking that a more minimalist approach to your living space could give you just the boost you need.

Benefits of a minimalist home

Less stressful: Clutter is a form of visual distraction, and everything in our vision pulls at our attention even if only a little.

More appealing: Think about photos of homes that are cluttered, and photos of minimalist homes. The ones with almost nothing in them except some beautiful furniture, some nice artwork, and a very few pretty decorations, are the ones that appeal to most of us.

Easier to clean: It’s hard to clean lots of objects or to sweep or vacuum around numerous pieces of furniture. The more stuff you have, the more you have to keep clean.

What a minimalist home looks like

Minimal furniture: A minimalist room would only contain a few essential pieces of furniture. A living room, for example, might only have a sofa, another chair or love seat, a coffee table, an entertainment stand, a television, and a couple of lamps.

Clear surfaces: In a minimalist home, flat surfaces are clear, except for one or two decorations.

Accent decorations: A home completely clear of things can easily lack personaility. So instead of having a coffee table completely free of any objects, you could have a simple vase with a few flowers, for example.

Quality over quantity: Instead of having a lot of stuff in your home, choose just a few really good things you really love and use often. A really nice table, for example, is better than five pieces of press-board furniture.

 How to create a minimalist home

One room at a time: Unless you’re just moving into a place, it’s hard to simplify an entire house at once. Focus on one room, and let that be your centre of calm. This in turn will inspire you to simplify the rest of the rooms in your own time.

Start with furniture: The biggest things in any room are the furniture, so you should always begin simplifying a room by looking at the furniture. Think about which furniture can be eliminated without sacrificing comfort and liveability.

Only the essentials: Whether looking at your furniture or anything else in the room, ask yourself if the item is truly essential. If you can live without it, then it can go.

Clear floors: Except for the furniture, your floors should be completely clear. Once you’ve gotten your furniture down to the bare essentials, clear everything else on the floor you don’t need.

Clear surfaces: Same thing with all flat surfaces. Don’t have anything on them, except one or two simple decorations.

Clear walls: Clear your walls except for one or two simple pieces of nice artwork. They tend to have more impact than lots of pictures all placed together.

Store stuff out of sight: Store everything you need out of sight, in drawers and cabinets. Bookshelves can be used to store books or DVDs or CDs, but shouldn’t have much else.

Declutter: If you are clearing flat surfaces and the floor, and storing stuff in cabinets and drawers, you’ll probably want to declutter your storage areas too.

Plain window treatments: Bare windows, or simple, solid coloured curtains, or simple, wooden blinds work well for creating a minimalist look.

Plain patterns: Solid colours are best for floor coverings and furniture as complex patterns, such as flowers or checks, are visually cluttering.

Edit and eliminate: When you’ve simplified a room, you can probably do more. Give it a couple of days and then look at everything with a fresh eye.

Place for everything: Find a place for everything, and remember where those places are. Where does you blender go? Give it a spot, and stick with it. Aim for logical spots that are close to where the item is used.

Once you’ve simplified a room, take a moment to look around and enjoy it. It’s so peaceful and satisfying. This will be the reward for all your hard work.

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Organisers Sarah and Nick Henderson, who live in Buckingham, were devastated when their daughter, Rowan, died at almost 24 weeks from a fatal heart condition. Having been helped through the grieving process by support groups, the couple decided this year to organise an event in memory of Rowan and to raise money for one of the charities that helped them, Saying Goodbye.

Sarah Henderson, 37, a graphic designer and artist, said: “Even though we lost Rowan, she is still very much a part of our family and this ball is a tribute to her. But it will also help raise vital money for Saying Goodbye, which does so much to help parents like us, as well as improving wider awareness of baby loss at any stage of pregnancy, birth or infancy.”

It is estimated that, in the UK, around one in four pregnancies end in loss during pregnancy or birth. This affects thousands of people in UK each year. Saying Goodbye, which is part of the Mariposa Trust, supports families with remembrance services around the country and works hard to improve the way in which bereaved parents are supported, through lobbying, awareness campaigns, support services and education.

The Rowan Tree Ball will feature live music, three-course dinner and an auction of signed football memorabilia, holidays and other high-value lots.

Tickets, costing £54 each, are available by contacting Sarah Henderson via . Further information and updates can be found on the webpage https://www.facebook.com/rowantreeball/

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This month sees the end of the Chinese Year of the Sheep, but in the Four Shires sheep are still important every year. For centuries the Cotswolds and West Oxfordshire were at the centre of a once incredibly wealthy wool producing industry, largely because the landscape is made up of open grasslands and hill pasture that’s ideal for breeding and grazing sheep. Although the demand for wool has dropped with the advent of a range of versatile man-made fibres, and the price of a fleece barely covers the cost of shearing, we are still in the midst of sheep country.

Processing of sheep’s wool in Britain goes back thousands of years and probably developed as a part of man’s response to the challenge to survive. Ancient man used the pelts and skins of various animals for protection and warmth, but the sheep in particular proved useful because you could harvest its wool and it would keep growing, and it wasn’t necessary to kill the animal until you needed the meat. In our centrally heated lives it’s sometimes hard to appreciate that for our ancestors, keeping warm and protected from the elements was often almost as important for staying alive as finding food – in the short term, sometimes more so.

The early sheep didn’t have the luxuriant coats of today’s specialized breeds.  They would have been similar to the primitive native breeds such as Soay or Manx Loughtan, which are small, hardy, horned, and have pigmented coats that moult so shearing wasn’t necessary. As breeds were developed for improved wool characteristics the self-shedding property was largely lost and sheep now need to be sheared to collect the wool but also because modern fleeces are dense and heavy. This is usually done in early summer. Later in the season overheating and fly strike are real risks in unshorn animals.

The most prized fleeces are those that consist of long fine wool like that of the ‘Cotswold Lion’ sheep. In the Middle Ages wool produced in the Cotswolds was considered the best in the world and the area became very prosperous because of it.

Shearing is a skilled procedure and today is usually carried out using electric clippers, which were first patented in 1868. The sheep is upended on a wooden board that can easily be cleaned, and it takes an expert no more than 2 or 3 minutes per sheep. The older type of hand shears are still often used to give a sheep’s rear end a quick tidy up at any time of year.

In the Middle Ages the sheep would have been bathed in a sheepwash pool a few days prior to shearing, but now with mechanisation it’s much easier to clean the wool afterwards. This process is called scouring and is necessary to remove the mud, seeds, thorns etc that get caught in the coat, as well as to separate the lanolin, which when purified is a valuable byproduct for use in ointments and cosmetics. After a series of baths in hot water and detergent the fleeces are rinsed, squeezed through rollers and dried. They’re now 30% lighter.

Scoured wool is clean but tangled, and needs to be teased out into loose fibres. Historically wool processing was a cottage industry and the job was done by hand either using the spiky seed heads of teasels or two boards or ‘cards’ covered in fine metal teeth that were pulled against each other across the wool to separate the fibres. Today carding is done by machine and a series of toothed rollers transform the tufts of wool into long continuous ribbons of loose filaments.

In the modern woollen mill, what happens next depends on the intended end product. If the wool is destined to be made into fabric it is combed or worsted to remove the short fibres. The resulting rope of wool called a ‘top’ is rolled into a ball ready for spinning. It will be spun more tightly and so be stronger than the yarn made from the mixed long and short fibres that will be used for knitting wool.

Thousands of years ago, man learned that he could make thread from yarn. This was possible because there are microscopic scales on the surface of wool fibres that tend to cling to one another enabling a thread to be drawn out. Early spinning was a slow laborious process. The carded fleece was wrapped round the top of a stick – a distaff – that was held in the crook of one arm, whilst the strands of wool were gradually pulled out and twisted into a thread that was wound onto a spindle held in the other hand. Imagine doing that for ten hours at a stretch – a recipe for medieval repetitive strain injury? Once someone discovered that you could mount the distaff on a wheel to turn it, the job could be done ten times faster.

After the medieval invention of the spinning wheel little further progress was made until the Industrial Revolution in the 18^th century. Although processing wool continued as cottage industry for a long time after that, mills sprang up that achieved not only speed of production but consistency of output. The word homespun came to signify plain or coarse.

Spun yarn is versatile. It can be knitted, braided, plaited or woven. It’s unclear when weaving first began, but certainly thousands of years ago. A simple loom consists of a frame to keep a series of parallel threads taut (the warp) so that the weft (transverse yarn) can be interlaced, then pressed down firmly to gradually build up a sheet of fabric.

Over centuries looms became gradually more sophisticated to speed the process and to enable patterns to be built up, but one needs to remember that all those wonderful intricately designed medieval tapestries were woven by hand. Each one represents hours and hours of intensive work, often in poor light and without the benefit of ergonomically designed seats. It wasn’t until the 18^th century that looms were power driven. Today they go beyond that. Modern high speed looms are computerised and can achieve complex patterns that would be impossible for hand weavers.

Because in ancient times wool was washed ‘on the sheep’ there were many impurities in the fabric when it came off the loom. To get rid of these it was placed in a vat containing human urine (used for its ammonium content) and be pounded by men stamping on it with their bare feet! This process called fulling also encouraged the fibres to interlock and produce a stronger, softer material. Later, in the Middle Ages, fulling or tuck mills were built and the pounding was done mechanically by water-driven wooden hammers. The fabric was then thoroughly rinsed.

Once clean, the fabric could be dyed. For thousands of years natural dyes were used, but from 1856 chemical colourants became available. These were cheaper, easier to produce and the colour range practically limitless and easier to standardise. The fulling and dyeing were often carried out at the same mill. The waste water would then be discharged straight into the water course!

The wet fabric was then put on a huge “tenter” frame to dry, suspended from hooks (on tenter hooks!) either in the open air or in a wind shed. The modern manufacturing process enables wool to be dyed at any stage of production, and it’s dried using heat.

Wool may not be as vital a commodity today as it was in the 15^th century.  At that time the woollen industry accounted for about 50% of the British economy and the Lord Chancellor’s seat in Parliament was a symbolic woolsack. It’s not as important as in the reign of Charles II when 17^th century Wool Acts decreed that bodies could only be buried in wool to maintain the consumption of British wool, but . . .

In 2010 a “Campaign for Wool” was launched in association with the British Wool Marketing Board to promote the use of wool. Its chief patron is Prince Charles. Despite the numerous cheaper alternatives, wool still has tremendous cachet. Bespoke tailors and outfitters work almost exclusively with woollen cloth, and off-the-peg retailers offer woollen garments in their higher end ranges. If you’re walking the dog or hitting the shops, you’re probably sporting man-made fibre, but if you want to make an impression or cut a dash, for sheer quality it has to be wool, no question. Are you wearing wool today?

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Jasmine helps promote sleep quality: Jasmine is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family that is commonly found outdoors, but can live indoors as well. It emits scents that have been shown to make for better sleep quality.

Lavender helps reduce anxiety and stress: Lavender is a genus of 39 known species of flowering plants in the mint family and a commonly used essential oil. It not only smells wonderful, but can also reduce anxiety and stress, slow your heart rate, improve your sleep, and also calm restless babies.

Rosemary helps improve your memory: Rosemary is also a member of the mint family. A perennial herb, it has been proven to be effective at increasing your memory as well as the improving the overall air quality in a room.

Aloe Vera will improve overall air quality: Aloe Vera is a succulent plant species that has been commonly used in herbal medicine since the beginning of the first century AD. Use these plants for their superior ability to increase the overall quality of air with fresh oxygen.

English Ivy Plant will reduce mold count: English ivy is a species of flowering plant native to Europe and Western Asia. This plant has been proven to reduce airborne mold by 94%, which can have a significant benefit for those who suffer from allergies or lung irritation.

Snake Plant helps to prevent headaches: Snake Plant is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It has been proven to be extremely effective in treating headaches, eye irritation, and respiratory problems. It can also help to increase your overall energy levels.

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Assisting with revision

The secret to doing well in exams lies in planning. You can help your child to create a clear revision plan and method of studying that will make them feel in control of their work.

• work out a revision timetable for each subject
• break revision time into small chunks – hour-long sessions with short breaks at the end of each session often work well
• make sure your child has all the essential books and materials
• condense notes onto postcards to act as revision prompts
• buy new stationery, highlighters and pens to make revision more interesting
• go through school notes with your child or listen while they revise a topic
• time your child’s attempts at practice papers

Providing all-round support

A calm and stress-free home – The best way to support your child during the stress of revision and exams is to make home life as calm and pleasant as possible. It helps if other members of the household are aware that your child may be under pressure and that allowances should be made for this.

Study leave – If your child is given study leave in the run-up to exams, try to be at home as much as possible so that you can share a break with them and have a chat together.

Healthy snacks – Make sure there are plenty of healthy snacks in the fridge and try to provide good, nutritious food at regular intervals. Encourage your child to join family meals, even if it’s a busy revision day – it’s important to have a change of scene and get away from the books and computer for a while. Also encourage your child to take regular exercise. A brisk walk around the block can help clear the mind before the next revision session.

Few demands – Try not to nag or make too many demands on your child during exam time. Arguments are counter-productive and will only add unnecessary stress and distract from revision.

Sleep – It’s important to get a good night’s sleep before an exam, so discourage your child from staying up late to cram. And make sure he or she eats a good breakfast on the morning of the exam.

Bribes, treats and rewards

Some children are ‘bribed’ to do well in exams and are offered cash or gifts to achieve good grades. But bribery is not a good idea as it implies that the only worthwhile reward for hard work is money and that you don’t trust your child to work hard. Negative messages like these will affect your child’s sense of self-worth.

Encourage your child to do well for his or her own sake rather than for money or to please you. Explain that exams aren’t an end in themselves but a gateway to the next stage of life – to another Key Stage or to GCSEs, A levels, university, college or work. Good results are themselves the best reward for hard work and will make your child proud of his or her achievements.

Make sure your child knows you’re interested in their work and that you’ll be proud if they do well. Although bribery isn’t advisable, it’s fine to provide small treats by way of encouragement – perhaps a piece of cake or some biscuits after a chunk of revision has been completed. The end of exams can be celebrated with a treat that everyone can look forward to, such as a meal out or a trip to the cinema.

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BBC Strictly Come Dancing’s favourite male professionals, Ian Waite and Vincent Simone are joining together for the very first time in their brand new production – The Ballroom Boys, a show they say is going to be “a lot of fun!” as the title suggests!

 Neither are strangers to life on the road, with It Takes Two regular Ian having done several tours with former dance partners Camilla Sacre-Dallerup, Natalie Lowe, and most recently Oti Mabuse. While Strictly’s original and best-loved Italian, Vincent, has graced theatres up and down the country with Flavia Cacace in their Argentine Tango inspired shows.

So what made the two popular professionals join up for a so-called ‘boys tour’?

“With so many Strictly tours going out on the road in 2019, we wanted to do something a bit different, so Vincent and I spoke about a boys reunion and The Ballroom Boys idea came to life!” says Waite

Argentine Tango legend Vincent and King of the Ballroom Ian, will be joined by two

professional female dancers and a wonderful vocalist. The night will be packed with

dances, songs and loads of banter!

Simone, who has lost none of his cheeky Italian charm, says “I’m looking forward to

working with Ian again! As you know, we are both quite funny, if I say so myself!”

Expect dances including the Waltz, Quickstep, Paso Doble, Foxtrot and of course, the Argentine Tango!

Get ready for a high intensity evening of glitz and glamour with Ian & Vincent… THE

BALLROOM BOYS!

The Ballroom Boys 2019 Tour takes the two dancers across the UK and Ireland between April and June, with extra dates added in the autumn (Sept/Oct), due to huge demand.

Tickets are now on sale directly through the theatres or at www.theballroomboys.com

There are also a limited number of VIP tickets available at most venues, where people can meet Ian and Vincent before the show and have photo opportunities.

See them at the Royal Spa Centre

17 May 2019 | 7.30pm

Main Stage, Royal Spa Centre

Tickets: £28/Meet & Greet £55

 For more information:

01926 737154 or email

www.royalspacentreandtownhall.co.uk

The post Ian Waite & Vincent Simone The Ballroom Boys appeared first on Four Shires Magazine.

Sweet pea show bench  mix

Ever fancied winning your local village show with sweet peas with this new mix of large flowered Spencer type flowers you will be in with a chance of getting that red card.

Cosmos xanthos

This is the world’s first yellow cosmos covered in masses of soft yellow flowers from July to  October and it grows up to 60cm tall. This would be a great one to grow for cut flowers and is one to find space for in your flower borders.

Phlox cherry caramel

This is a lovely new variety that has caramel flowers with cherry coloured centres. It grows 25cm tall and can be sown direct in the border.

There are lots of gardening events taking place around the country in January to get you out of the house. If you love potatoes then you will want to visit a potato day, www.potatoday.org/potatodays.htm. They are a great way to find a new variety of potato that you have never seen before. Some potato days can have up to 150 varieties for you to buy in every colour you could imagine. But these event are not just about potatoes they generally have lots of other stalls selling tools and garden related goods most also have a seed swap.  Seed swaps have become very popular recently. Many take place around the country so do look out for one near you they are well worth a visit.

If you love chillies and peppers then now is the time to get sowing them. If you have not got a heated greenhouse then a warm window sill will do just as well. Fill a small pot with good compost evenly space your seeds out on the top of the compost then cover with a thin layer of compost. Water and place a piece of glass or plastic on top of the pot. They can be slow to germinate but should start seeing the signs by the end of the month. When large enough prick out into small individual pots and grow on.

If you are after an instant crop of salad at this time of year then why not try growing micro veg? These are basically seedlings that are ready to eat in 7 – 14 days from sowing indoors. Most seed company’s sell a selection including red cabbage, broccoli, rocket, basil and the old favourite mustard and cress. Just simply sow them on about a cm of compost, water and they will just grow away, they are one to try with the kids. But the one I am looking forward to growing this year is the new sweetcorn ‘Bodacious’ they are really sweet. Sow them as you would other micro veg but you have to grow them in the dark.

The post What to do in the Garden this month appeared first on Four Shires Magazine.

Thanks again Mr Emmett for taking the time to send the picture in to us here at the magazine.

If there are any other readers with pictures they’d like to submit to the magazine, we’d love to see them.

The post Misty Morning appeared first on Four Shires Magazine.

When mixing several colours together the order you mix them in will help greatly in getting the colour you desire. For example, if you have the four colours ultramarine, cadmium yellow, and alizarin crimson depending on the order you mix them you can get a whole host of new colours. Without first determining the sequence of mixing more than two colours together you are in danger of consistently mixing ‘mud’. Below are four examples of creating four totally different colour mixes by using the same three colours, but by changing the order you mix them in.

To get a Dark Chocolate Brown, first mix together ultramarine and cadmium yellow in equal amounts to make a green, and then slowly add the alizarin crimson.

To get a Very Dark Green, first mix together a lot of ultramarine with a little cadmium yellow, then add a small amount of alizarin crimson

To get a Light Tan Brown, first mix together cadmium yellow with a little alizarin crimson to make a yellow orange, then add a little of the ultramarine blue.

To get a Shadow Colour, first mix together the ultramarine and alizarin crimson to get a purple, then add a little yellow

The Art Surgery

Which Medium is Right for You?

 The beginning of a new year often brings about the urge to take up art, or attend an art class. I thought I would run through a few of the popular mediums here:

Acrylics

These paints are fast becoming one of the widely used mediums with beginners. A plastic polymer based paint in the same colour as traditional mediums, but with these there are subtle differences.

Plus points: They are much brighter than oils or watercolours as a clear binder is used to trap the pigment. Acrylics are opaque and so are extremely forgiving. You can paint any colour on top of another. They are water based, but permanent when dry. They dry extremely quickly and have no smell so they are great for working with in a class, or at home. They can be used on any surface including paper, card, wood, plastic, clay, and canvas. They can be used straight from the tube to give an oil effect, or diluted down with water to give a watercolour effect. Brushes or knives can be used to apply the paint. Paintbrushes are cleaned with water.

Negative points: They do not wash out of clothes easily. To some people they are gaudy and require some learning to make more ‘natural’. We do not know how long a picture painted in them will last because they are too new (only 30 years or so) compared to the more traditional mediums. Do not leave any paint to dry on brushes as it will be almost impossible to clean the brushes and get them useable again.

Oil Paints

The oldest paint medium still in use today. The paint consists of pigment mixed with linseed oil and in some cases, the addition of beeswax.

Plus Points: The artist quality versions are lightfast and will last hundreds of years. Solvent based, they require using turpentine or white spirit to dilute. Oils are opaque so any colour can be applied on top of another. They work similarly to acrylic paints. They can be painted on canvas, canvas boards, and primed wooden surfaces. They are very traditional and paintings painted in oil can generally command a slightly higher price. Brushes or knives can be used to apply the paint. Paint needs to be applied in layers starting with the thicker paint first, and more diluted subsequent layers. This is because a thicker more impasto paint will not adhere to a diluted paint. Brushes clean with turpentine or white spirit.

Negative Points: The solvents used can smell and cause breathing problems. Low odour and citrus based solvents are now available to counteract this problem. As oils are solvent based, they can take weeks or months to dry depending on the thickness of the paint. They dry from the outside in so the only way to ensure they are dry is to stick a pin in the thickest part of the paint. If it comes out clean, then it is dry enough to varnish.

Watercolour

The most popular medium, and one of the oldest. The paint consists of pigment mixed with gum arabic and in some cases honey. Available in student and artist quality, in tubes and solid blocks (pans).

Plus Points: It is transparent paint and so give a beautiful glow when painted properly. Due to being available in solid pans, it means paint sets are thoroughly transportable and are great to use on holiday or at classes. As watercolours are the most popular, there are plenty of reference books, guides and instructional videos available to help learn from. They can only be used correctly on properly sized watercolour paper. The paint is diluted with water and brushes are cleaned with water.

Negative Points: As they are transparent watercolours can only be painted in a certain way. The lightest colours have to be applied first and slowly darker colours can be added. This makes painting in them less forgiving as mistakes cannot easily be rectified. Getting the correct ratio of water to paint can take a little time to get right.

Coloured Pencils

With the increasing popularity of grown up colouring books, colouring pencils are coming into their own as an art medium. Available in a wide array of colours and qualities.

Plus Points: Extremely portable and user friendly. Pencil blenders or a blending medium can be added to the collection to help get more subtle blends or a more painterly quality. Coloured pencils are great for beginners as it’s a medium everyone is used to. By varying the pressure on each pencil, a wide eyvariety of shades and tints can be achieved. Coloured pencils are great for taking on holiday or for class, as all that is needed is cartridge paper.

Negative Points: As they do not blend or mix in the same way as paint, a greater variety of colour is needed. Most coloured pencils come in a range of 72 colours – the good part is you don’t have to buy all 72 together! It is easier to use them on smaller scale projects, although some artists do create very large pieces using them.

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