What everyday things do you find utterly charming/chic?

[Croya]

I feel extremely accomplished and satisfied when I make a homemade pudding. I have no idea why. Probably because I came from a family where I don’t think a single thing was homemade. Seeing a homemade cake on a stand in my fridge actually makes me happy.

i also love seeing people lounging at home in battered jeans, jumper and very comfy/fluffy looking socks. Even better if they are stripey. It’s so cosy to me.

Piles of newspapers and magazines on a coffee table that actually get read is another one.

Really odd I know!

An enormous fruit bowl with lots of different fruits.

A water carafe where the glass is the lid is so grown up.

I always feel cosy when I wear my tatty old house cardigan.

I have blankets on sofas and plumes of dog hair everywhere despite constant hoovering so I suppose it’s cosy

I don’t know if it’s chic, but I love seeing our cat in his furry bed, tucked in the corner by the radiator. We adopted him last year after we had to have our lovely girl cat pts, and he’d been a stray kitten - the first time he felt safe enough to cuddle up in what had been her bed melted my heart. (We got him a new one of his own when we realised he was a bed cat.)

Flowers in jam jars. Once Christmas is past the £1 daffodils are the only thing that get me through to spring, and I like to have bunches in every room.

Red pelargoniums in an earthenware flowerpot on a kitchen windowsill and a big sprawling scented geranium on a windowsill by a staircase

Hair in a bun done with a stick

Chickens wandering round a garden and fresh eggs

A hammock attached to trees rather than a hammock stand

People with a kind face (I know! I think I can tell from their eyes...).
The smell of coffee when you step inside someone's house.
Someone who wears a big shawl or chunky scarf around their shoulders inside.
A crackling fire.
A cat curled up on a sofa.
A woman who doesn't care about wearing makeup.
Someone who doesn't care if their car is old and battered.
Someone reading a book in public instead of staring at a phone. A rarity nowadays.
Sparrows twittering.
Someone wearing a really delicious perfume.

A hammock attached to trees rather than a hammock stand

Yes! We have a hammock strung between 2 trees in the summer. Can’t beat those stand jobbies.

What a lovely thread!

I love smelling what people have cooking for tea as I walk past. It makes me feel all cosy.

I love using really nice soap instead of shower gel. I keep it in a little soap dish and it always smells nice.

How do you time the planting so you have a regular supply, @MarbleDrive? And are these mostly annuals?

I’m also a tulip lover. I can take or leave them growing outdoors, but I love a bunch in a jug. I love the look of well-tended, flourishing houseplants. Really nice hand soap. Crammed bookshelves where the books are clearly pulled out and read. A friend has raspberry canes outside her kitchen window, which I’m always charmed by. Trees around a house. People who can wear polo necks and look great — they make me look neckless.

Peat on the open fire the smell is divine forgive me environmental people I live in NI it’s freezing and a peat fire is very cosy indeed

Cats, Lego, craft activities - I’m currently knitting for DGC and have wool everywhere, jigsaws and just day to day stuff

Waking up and knowing i have no house work to do everthing is spotless.
Switching the coffee maker on.
putting a washing pod in the washing machine putting the wet washing in the tumble dryer.
I was raised without the above things.

Just painted my home out.
Got rid of all the whites and greys.
Now its funky alive with color.
Yellow, jelly bean orange, dark peach, yam, orange.
Light peach.

Driving around the town where I live and seeing Christmas tree lights twinkling in the windows on random floors of apartment buildings, lights on balconies, etc.

Not chic but utterly charming is my cat snoring, and I can hear her throughout the house.

So many things are chic and charming!

1. Wearing a silk scarf.
2. Having a signature perfume that is old (10+ years since release) that you wear all the time, not just for special occasions.
3. A suit, but only if you feel utterly confident and comfortable in it.
4. Eating alone in a nice restaurant.

I think people who are fashionable in general regardless of the season. I’m in my 20s, slim and reasonably fashionable, but there’s outfits I just wouldn’t wear, like knee boots with mini skirts/knit dresses. Looks great on other people but I just feel practically, it would be a faff and I’d want trainers asap!

I love long wool coats, more chic if they tie with a belt rather than buttons.

I still love getting birthday cards which people have written themselves in their own hand, ie not printed from moonpig etc.

We have a big whiteboard in DDs room and we leave messages to each other. It could be a seasonal thing eg happy start to the summer holidays or a to do list for a party. She has been enjoying long multiplication recently and loves me leaving her some to do on the board, so random and it makes me smile.

Oooh, I love this thread!

A basket full of fancy soaps, a cat curled up asleep where he shouldn’t be, a stack of freshly ironed napkins, a fridge drawer full of cheese, small useful things I’ve bought on holiday like my Italian salt pot, posh shoes . . .

And heavenly blue hyacinths, especially grouped in re-purposed old china, like a chamber pot... 😍

Window seats

As a cat-owning mother of one daughter, who lives in a colourful house with lots of books and throws and plants and an overflowing fruit bowl (and with a 'stock' of things like jam and olive oil in the larder cupboard), and a 20 year old family car - this thread is making me feel like I've found my people!

Some things I find chic:

• women with grey hair and red lipstick and/or bold glasses
• paper advent calendars
• brightly decorated Christmas trees full of a mix of shop-bought and child-made baubles (NO colour scheme!)
• stovetop coffee makers
• beautifully and visibly hand-mended clothes (I'd love to learn to do this)
• being polite to hospitality and retail workers
• clementines with the leaves still on
• women who order dessert
• the smell of beeswax candles
• slightly wild gardens full of flowers and vegetables, with insects everywhere
• being able to speak multiple languages well (I only speak one other one, I'd love to learn more!)

This is a lovely thread!

I think having a well stocked and organised pantry is incredibly chic!

Also popping to the garden to cut herbs for a meal you are cooking.

Pots of spring bulbs around the back door too.

Frosty morning