Blogger and interiors expert Willow Crossley lives in Oxfordshire with her husband Chaz and their two small cubs Rafferty and Wolf. With a background in design and a degree in fashion journalism at the London University of the Arts, she worked on magazines before moving to the south of France to live on a vineyard. She says “I’d left my job behind and so stared my online business and blog
Willow Rose boutique from there.” To celebrate the launch of her new book ‘Inspire’, which is all about bringing nature into your home, we asked her to style an Easter table with our
Hop & Peck Oak Bunny Ears Egg Cup.
We will be giving away a copy of Willow’s book, so watch the blog for more info. Scroll down to read our interview with her below and see her beautiful shoot.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND YOUR EASTER TABLE SHOOT?The
Hop & Peck wooden egg cups were my starting point and then I wanted to use my favourite blue and white speckled plates. Keeping it tonal and seasonal I added a jug of hyacinths and pussy willow from the garden. I’ve recently started drying hellebores heads instead of throwing them out when they’ve come to the end of their life and have scattered them all over the table. They take a few days to dry and just look so beautiful.
WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION FOR YOUR AMAZING BLOG?
Everywhere really. I’m constantly on the look out. Taking Wolf to school, in the supermarket, walking the dog, shopping, out to dinner. I don’t limit myself to topics with my blog – If I think it’s interesting/beautiful/delicious and want to share it with people – I’ll post something about it.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK?
It was always a dream. Both my mother and maternal Granny are/were writers so it felt almost like my path in life. My lovely agent Clare saw my blog when I was living in France and said to my Mother that she could see a book out of it. She obviously passed that on to me; we met, I went off and wrote a proposal, she took it to various publishers and then it went from there.
WERE YOU ARTISTIC WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
Not in a painting/drawing kind of way. I’m more creative than artistic I think. I’m obsessed with the way things look and am very particular – I spent my childhood rearranging my bedroom, making my brothers swap rooms with me so I could re-decorate theirs too. I can vividly remember making a very detailed housing complex for some flies in my room one summer in an ice cream tub. Lots of little compartments for their bedrooms, sitting rooms, bathrooms…
DO YOU LIKE CRAFTING WITH YOUR KIDS?
I love the idea of it but in reality they don’t have a lot of patience for it yet. They prefer to play with the piles of glue rather than doing anything with it. Although they love coming out hunting for feathers and stones with me and are always running in from the garden with treasures “for your work Mummy”.
HOW WILL YOU BE CELEBRATING EASTER AS A FAMILY?
An Easter egg hunt. I still completely love them and get so excited seeing a glimpse of a crème egg peeking out from underneath a bush somewhere! And a huge Sunday lunch at home. The table will have a warren of baby gold Lindtt bunnies scattered all over it as always.
AND LASTLY, WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST FLORAL TRENDS WILL BE THIS YEAR?
I’m afraid I’m not great on floral trends – I know what I do and don’t like and go from there really. I’m very anti tight, formal bunches of flowers and much prefer the loose, relaxed, wild feel. Saying that, launching my new book in Anthropologie I created a woodland scene using plants potted in cabbages. I took red, white and savoy cabbages and planted a mix of cowslips, pansies, violas and muscari in them. They were then nestled in among big branches I’d found in the woods and buckets of moss. So maybe using vegetables and flowers together could be my new trend!?
With thanks to Willow Crossley, visit her blog
Willow Rose boutique.
Inspire The Art of Living With Nature by Willow Crossley is published by CICO Books and is available from
rylandpeters.com
