I am not the kind to jump on every bandwagon going. I mean to say, I had a blog for six years before I ever joined a linky or posted on Instagram. But when I find something I like, I do tend to fall for it big time.
Enter Styling the Seasons, a monthly linky by Katy from Apartment Apothecary and Charlotte from Lotts and Lots. I have been following the stunning posts and Instagram pictures for months now and decided back in January that I would join in. A birthday decision. One of many I made that day. One that has remained a decision and not become an action. Till now.
So now that the frugality of Lent is over with and the joy of Easter is behind us, it is time to pack away the chicks, eggs and bunnies and re-style the house.
While March for me is the beginning of the out-and-about time of year with lots of garden work and Easter holidays, April is an anything goes kind of month. Sunshine and showers. Wellies and picnics. A month to keep an umbrella close by, but a colourful one.
April showers mean growth and promise a bounty of fruit and veg from the garden later in the year. And so I have chosen to style the seasons this month with my recent junk shop find, my umbrella tea set.
If you’ve been following my junk shop finds, you’ll know that this tea set very nearly didn’t make it to our home. You can read about it here. I almost bought it but didn’t and then went back weeks later to find it was still there. How no-one else snapped this up for €5, I don’t know. Suffice to say I am glad they didn’t! I love the happy rain pattern. 
As I mentioned above, the Easter decorations have been packed away now. This little bunny got forgotten on the kitchen windowsill. Rather than root out the box of decorations again, I decided to let him have another few weeks on display. He looks quite at home gazing up at the grape hyacinths.
Bluebells have always been one of my favourite flowers, but grape hyacinths are a very close second now. I used not like them at all. Since having out own garden and seeing them spring up in the front garden every year, brightening the place up, they have grown on me a lot. 
Inspired by the colours of the umbrellas, but also by the mood I am in so far this month I chose to style our dresser with some treasured books of mine.
The books I have included in my little arrangement are a mixture of the practical, the historical and the inspirational. ‘The Living Garden’ was a gift from my dad when we bought our house and wanted to start a vegetable garden. This is the time of year I dip into it when I am planting the seeds for our tomatoes, rocket and radishes.
Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Water Babies’ is very special to me. My dad often read an illustrated children’s version of it to us as a bedtime story. This edition here is one I picked up at the fantastic second hand bookshop at the Hill of Tara in Co. Meath, Ireland. The shop is a treasure trove of beautiful second hand books. On the same day that I bought this 1879 edition (100 years older than me!), I also bought a 1937 edition of ‘Bambi’ in German and Dad bought a copy of ‘The Wind In The Willows’ for Number One.
When I got the book home and opened it, this photo fell out. No date or names scrawled on the back, no indication at all who these five boys are or when or where the photo was taken.
I would just love to know more about that day. Look at their faces – beaming! Five water babies. Brothers? Cousins? Friends? Whatever their lives brought after that fun day, I hope they were long and happy.
‘The Children’s Book’ by A. S. Byatt is another favourite of mine, symbolising for me the beginning of returning a little to being me after the birth of Number One. It was the first book of any substance that I read after becoming a mother, and soon before having my second child.
I read it around this time of year in 2010. Given that the storyline is heavily involved in the Arts & Crafts movement of early Edwardian times, it is a book that appeals to me on many levels.
So, that’s my April – happy rain and shades of blue.
That tea set gets more adorable every time I see it. It looks right at home with you 🙂
Isn’t it just so cute?
Yay! We are so happy that you have joined in and this is a beautiful post to start with. That tea set is gorgeous and what a steal (I’m a bit jealous!). Gorgeous colour palette with all the blues picked up in the grape hyacinths, which are my fave Spring flower. Beautiful! xx
Thanks Katy. I am so glad that I joined in and I loved putting together a display for this month.
I keep thinking I should join in with this one but I haven’t got around to it yet! It’s such a lovely set of posts. I love that tea set – kind of sums up this time of year perfectly. I have to confess I’m not a huge fan of bluebells after having de-bluebelled our garden which was absolutely riddled with them. I’m a huge fan of grape hyacinth though (which I’m aware can be equally thuggish in the garden!)
It was the thumbnail of grape hyacinths that drw to one of your garden posts in a linky recently. I love them.
The tea set is just perfect for this time of year. Today in particular is a real April showers day here.
I absolutely adore your tea set. It is just the cutest thing. I love the smell of hyacinths, I really must get some in the garden. The picture of the boys in the water is such a special find, they look so happy 🙂
Thanks Louisa. I was thrilled when I saw the tea set was still in the shop when I went back.
The photo is so special to me. I feel like I have a duty to look after it. I would so dearly love to know who they are.
I love the combination of shades in your photos. That’s so interesting about the photo, I’d need to know! #homeect
Thank you! Oh I am so curious but there is no way to find out. Forever a mystery.
That’s really interesting what you say about not jumping on band wagons and I really like your blue aesthetics-I think the blue/indigo trend is set to last.
Thanks. I have always loved blues and I think I always will 🙂
I absolutely LOVE that little tea set!! I’m so glad you went back to retrieve it — it was obviously meant to be yours!! 🙂 This is a lovely post Fionnu — gorgeous pics and lovely sentiments too!! Thanks so much for linking up to #HomeEtc xx
So am I Caro! I really enjoyed setting up my display and having a think about what I wanted to include and why.
Thanks for hosting xx
Oh that tea set was such a great find! I love that you went back and it was still there- a sign it was meant to be!! I am also enjoying the abundance of grape hyacinths in the garden – they’re such a pretty sight in the garden amongst the other plants. Looking forward to more of these posts from you!
That’s the way I look at it too Keira. Meant to be.
The grape hyacinths are fabulous, especially in clusters. I’ll have to find a new favourite now that they are the tulips in the garden are beginning to fade.
Yay you got it 🙂 Great styling and fab, fab photos xx Thanks for linking up – Jess xx
#HomeEtc
Thanks Jess. Full of plans now to join up again in May. I hope I remember to!
Beautiful images!
I keep saying the same, I’ll join in at some point, but maybe this is the month!
#HomeEtc
Thanks Karen. I must get going on this month’s one.