On those beautiful libraries and their shelves of knowledge....

"Plunging into the ocean of words, roaming in the broad fields of the mind, climbing the mountains of the imagination...."

"That joy must not be sold. It must not be "privatised," made into another privilege for the privileged. A public library is a public trust.
And that freedom must not be compromised. It must be available to all who need it, and that's everyone, when they need it, and that's always."

The wave of the mind....
Talks and essays on the writer, the reader, and the imagination.
Ursula K. Le Guin
My Libraries

#libraries #books #reading

Interior decorating for rented property Part 2

Part 2

Bedrooms 

Bedrooms can be brightened up, with the bed being the main feature, with good quality bedding that matches the curtains or carpet. Again, rugs and accessories will make the room more personal and unique. Not everything has to be too matchy matchy. Pick out particular colours that stand out and choose things that complement each other. You may want warm, earthy colours for the autumn and winter and paler pastels and primary colours, for the spring and summer. 

Wardrobes

If you don’t have a sliding door interior wardrobe, then you’ll be choosing your own, choose something that’s a little slim line in order to give yourself some more floor space, and make sure there’s plenty of shelving. You don’t want to bombard the room with too much furniture. It needs to be a tranquil and relaxing place for the end of the day when you want to unwind. You don’t want to be tripping over furniture, or bags of clothes you can’t find room for. 

Stay individual

Finally try and add some individual touches. If you decide on a particular theme, try and add something that makes it more uniquely yours. If you decide on shabby chic or minimalism, then it can all too easily end up looking like a furniture shop window display without any personal touches at all It’s important to have it just as you’d like it, but something that tells the visitor about yourself, such as photographs, books, ornamentation – just adding your own personal little quirks. 

You may not be able to paint it in a colour of your choosing, you may not be able carpet it yourself or choose the flooring, but at least you can bring your own personality to it, so it looks more like your home – and not the landlords.

Interior design for rented property Part 1

How can you personalise your home if it’s rented?

(This week: - Unfurnished property)

Part 1:

When you read articles about interior design these days, the focus is always on those that own their own property. They talk about house extensions, and there are dramatic colour dynamics for the living room and bedroom with all sorts of interesting lighting ideas for the kitchen, or dining area.

Yes, it's boring, but you can make it more interesting

However, if you rent, then many of those options are simply unfeasible, and with so many people being in a position where they CAN’T afford to buy their own property, then there are bound be restrictions on how far you can go in terms of interior décor.

For whatever reason, you may be renting, if this is the case, then you may be feeling frustrated by the fact that you can do very little to individualise the interiors of your property because your landlords won’t allow it.

Your landlords could be either an estate agent, or the landlords themselves, who rent it out directly to earn a little extra income.

Your home is your castle…

Although you’re grateful to have a roof over your head in such hard times, sometimes you’d like to be able to give it that unique touch that says it’s yours, to add your very own idiosyncratic touches that make it instantly recognizable, your own personal “gaff,” a place where people you know feel instinctively relaxed and comfortable.

Unfurnished property

If your home is unfurnished there’s room for manoeuvre, because although you have the expense of furnishing it, you can at least add a degree of personal choice. If it isn’t, then you’re slightly hampered by the fact that the furniture isn’t in keeping with your personal tastes.

This week, we’re going to take a look at ways you can turn your home into a tranquil haven that says so much about you and less about your landlords. In this first part, its focus will be on those in unfurnished property. All you need is a little imagination and a creative way of thinking and you really can personalise it in an original way.

If you’ve just moved into your property and you’re wilting at the sight of magnolia walls and beige wall to wall carpets, or the ubiquitous imitation wood-flooring linoleum then don’t despair. Yes, it is quite neutral, bland and unimaginative, but for landlords and estate agents, it’s an easy and cheap way to maintain the property, and once you move out, they can quickly paint over it without having to worry about an undercoat. The flooring is easily replaced with cheap plain carpet or linoleum.

What’s important is how you decorate and furnish it in order to give it an original touch and make the whole place your own.

Of course you will be restricted by how many pictures you can put up, whether you’re allowed to use nails and how your landlords feel about blue tack. Don’t forget that if you use tape, that when you take your pictures and wall hangings down, you may take down half the paper down with you, so be aware. If there are already nails in the wall then there shouldn’t be a problem in you using them in order to hang something up. If there aren’t, then ask permission before you start putting things up, you want it to look original and there’s nothing worse than a bare wall.

Walls

You could put up a series of pictures of your family at various stages in their lives. A row of black and white photographs would look simple and classy against a bare wall. If there’s a picture rail then even better, you can balance pictures along it (depending on its thickness). You could also consider wall tapestries that can be hung up, not only will they hide a bare wall, and a dirty looking wall after a few months of wear, it’ll add colour, as well as matching colours in your furnishings.

Hang up inspirational quotes as picture hangings rather than stickers

What’s on trend?

Inspirational sayings that can be stuck to the wall are quite popular right now, but beware, they’ll be hell to pull off, and you may be saddled with a bill for replacing the paint/paper. Also bang on trend are wall hangings that are brass, silver or gold with  flowers, geometric shapes, flowers, or plants with gemstones and coloured beads. By all means hang those on any pre-existing nails or put some up if you’ve had permission.

 

Wall hangings can add colour to a room and conceal bare walls

If you have a favourite local artist whose landscapes you admire then why not see if they’re prepared to offer a discount if you buy a 3 part series or a couple of pictures, rather than one? They’ll draw attention away from the walls and on to the paintings.

Curtains and blinds

Curtains can be chosen to match the cushions and sofas/chairs, they don’t have to be identical, they can simply have one or two colours that bring out a colour in a set of cushions, or the colour of the sofa’s fabric.

You may have blinds, in which case you’ll have to stick with them and you probably won’t be able to change them. However, if there’s a curtain rail you could perhaps hang curtains up, so they can be drawn at night.

Woods

If you’re going with woods then try and stick to one e.g. dark or light, pine, oak, or mahogany. That’s book cabinets, coffee tables, corner tables and if you don’t have your TV mounted to the wall, then a cabinet to sit the TV and DVD player.

A unique feature for your coffee table could be a vintage suitcase or chest that could be used for coffee and magazines. They can be sourced in online antique stores and shabby chic interior stores.

Either brand new or second hand, a chest can really add a unique touch to a room

Rugs

Purchasing a rug will not only save on wear and tear to your carpets, it’ll also brighten the room and offer a soft and much warmer tread for your feet. Pick something that matches something in the room, perhaps a colour or two in the furnishings or woodwork.

Rugs can brighten a room too and their softer on your feet

Rugs can add colour as well as wall hangings -  

Taith Copywriting

cordially invites you to a stress free Christmas with:

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From now until 31st December 2015

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Email: pandora.77@hotmail.co.uk

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Friendly service with rational, sane individual, to provide you with well written content in the run up to Christmas.

Please R.S.V.P. ASAP: 

Books I've read so far this year

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

 Jorge Luis Borges

Six months have passed since the beginning of the year. My New Year's Resolution was to read more and procrastinate less. I succeeded with the first and completely failed with the second. When I say that I succeeded with the first, I mean that it certainly felt like I'd read more, but seen as I'd not recorded what I'd been reading in this way before, it was hard to tell whether I'd read more than I'd done on previous occasions or less.

Nonetheless, my reading list for the past six months is below, keep in mind I'm a slow reader - I like to savour every sentence, often reading them twice if I think they're that good, underlining them, or copying them out. I also have a habit of reading 2 or 3 at the same time, so it takes me longer to finish a book completely.

Please feel free to plunder it if you wish, there's some classics and some new ones. There's always a book I'm desperate to read, or one I'm desperate to finish, so I can start the next one.

Below I've put them in separate lists of read, reading, and finally what I'd like to read next, in essence my "to read" list.

 Oh, there's also a list of "started, but haven't finished yet" Basically those books that get put aside when you're in the middle of reading and you never get round to finishing them off. A terrible habit, but one I shall make every effort to conquer.

For me, books are sources of information and wonder, they are how I make sense of the world. I dog ear them, I write on them and I smell them, stroke them even. I never treat a book like a priceless object, I don't want to miss any essential facts or information, I don't want to forget a thing, I don't want to miss any new words or new ways of seeing things.

 There's never enough time to read all the books you want to read in one lifetime, but I can try.

Books I've read so far

Was Beethoven a Birdwatcher

The Pearl   John Steinbeck

East of Eden John Steinbeck

A Russian Affair Anton Chekhov

God is Not Great Christopher Hitchens

Astragel Albertine Sarrazin

Necropolis: London and its Dead Catherine Arnold

The Moon & Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham

More Pricks than Kicks Samuel Beckett

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal Ben Macintyre

Marilyn Norman Mailer

Currently in the middle of reading

The Emperor of All Maladies: A biography of Cancer Siddhartha Mukherjee

Free at Last! Diaries 1991 - 2001 Tony Benn

The Happiness Trap: Based on ACT: A revolutionary mindfulness-based programme for overcoming stress, anxiety and depression

Cupid's Scythe: An Anthology Venus De Mileage

Books  I started but haven't got round to finishing

Naked Lunch William S Burroughs

The Goldfinch Donna Tartt

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke

Books I want to read

Eleanor Marx: A Life Rachel Holmes

The Creativity Question  Albert Rothenberg

The Book of laughter and forgetting Milan Kundera

Metaphor Denis Donoghue

Neverwhere Neil Gaiman

Coming up Trumps: A Memoir Jean Trumpington

Trials of Passion: Crimes in the Name of Love and Madness Lisa Appignanesi

Cook Simple: Effortless cooking every day Diana Henry

So there you have it, my have-read-books, my-nearly-there-books, and my-really-wish-I -had-these books. My live is one long literary adventure, with stories, new words and ideas swimming around in my head like miniature people.

If you'd like me to write your story well, you know where to find me. It can be anything you like, in whichever format you like. A sales letter, a press release, a blog, an article - they all tell their own story.

pandora.77@hotmail.co.uk

Darkness and light

Sometimes, almost always, perhaps most of the time then, I have to consistently remind myself that I'm good, that I can do good things, that sometimes I can make a difference. If I don't, my whole self is wrapped up in a constant state of misery, convinced that I really can't do anything right at all, that I'm stupid, that I am fundamentally flawed - that I'm incapable of receiving and giving love, that I am strange and bad.

I am a hopeless failure, a weirdo.

Too sensitive, too fragile to live. Every slight, every criticism is like a knife wound, every wronged word is burned into my skin. I'm fragile and incompetent, stupid and absurd. Every mistake proves me right. I am constantly at loggerheads with the bad and the good within me, with the bad always winning by a nose, ready to punish, ready to convince me of my inadequacy.

It is a dark hole to fall down for which there is no way out if I fall too far. A barren place where there is no forgiveness and no light. I have consistently fought my way out only to be drawn back in, but I have never allowed myself to go further than the first few steps into this darkness.

I cannot allow myself to be consumed by the negative, overwhelmed by my mistakes. Only focusing on the positive can save me, what little there is. I must believe that I am worth something to the world - that I am worth saving.

I am constantly at war with myself, fighting the darkness within me, a battle which I know I cannot win in the long run, but a fight that I shall win today, a battle I always insist on fighting alone. To walk in the light is to believe in myself once more.

It is a barren, cruel world - that darkness, full of self-pity and deep reflection, a place where old wounds are picked until they fester, and I am at my cruelest, taunting my inner self with my faults and errors, incapable of forgiveness. Sickening, vomit inducing, negative loving narcissism at its worst. Rolling around in the shit of my own personal hell. Bad memories and treasured miseries hang like grinning masks above me, there for me to play, touch and feel with at my leisure.

No compliments can comfort me; no words of kindness can cure me. Demonstrations of affection disgust me, cloying tenderness sickens me, no matter how well intended. I hate myself, and so must you, you must stand alongside me and see the cancer of my soul and despise the badness too, to be repulsed as I am by my own weakness and ineptitude.

You must be able to see this weakness; you must be able to see my talentless inadequacy. You must be able to see it, smell it and feel it and be disgusted by it, for I can feel it in your words and in your eyes.

You stupid effing bitch

To save myself I must see the light, I must see the good, the parts of me that are worth saving, my humour, my candour, my strength and my stamina (of sorts). To climb out of that black hole and gather my strength, for to stay too long in that cavernous opening I'm in danger of being consumed further in. I must seek the light and the strength it brings. I must be in the light and find happiness in the temporary ground I walk in.

Where there is negativity I must find the positive, something solid in the temporary and something good in the bad.

"Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand was stone."

Jon Luis Burgers

There now - there's my stomach churning self-pity dealt with for another day.

"Private education is not fair. Those who provide it know it. Those who pay for it know it. Those who have to sacrifice in order to purchase know it. And those who receive it know it, or should. And if their education ends without it dawning on them then that education has been wasted." 

Alan Bennett "Fair Play" London Review of Books, volume 36, number 12, 19 June 2014.
From a sermon before the University, King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 1 June