Actress and Malta’s Got Talent judge Maxine Aquilina is currently doing up her new house and is on the hunt for items that will make it feel like home – including the sort of vintage pieces she can’t resist. This is her pick of We Are Not a Shop favourites!
Hi Maxine! Thanks for joining us at We Are Not a Shop. You’ve picked some fabulous items. Which are your favourites?
This Cautionary Tales for Children storybook certainly stands out; it’s brilliant! Storytelling has always fascinated me, even more so now that I am studying Play Therapy. These moral stories are marvellous and really good fun. I have to admit they are a bit gruesome but I am captivated by them!
“I’m studying play therapy and great stories fascinate me – including these ones!”
I also love this French fashion newspaper – Le Petit Echo De La Mode, from 30th May 1948. The art nouveau style really stands out to me, and I can imagine having a framed copy of this in my home. Perhaps I’ll start a collection!
“Vintage French fashion is my favourite. What a fabulous find!”
Finally, I had to pick this souvenir booklet of Maltese photos; ‘Souvenir de Malta’ – a rare and vintage concertina photo fold-out. I love looking through old photos of Malta but have never seen so many of these and they are so precious. It reminds me of an old-style fold-out photo album, the likes of which I haven’t had since I was little. It’s amazing! A must-have for any collector of Maltese memorabilia.
“These photos are stunning. What incredible pictures of Malta. I could spend hours looking through them.”
We couldn’t agree more! Great choices. And what do you think about We Are Not a Shop in general?
I really like it! I have been so impressed by the incredible selection of gifts, including lots of things that you can’t usually find on the island. The fact that every cent goes to charity is brilliant. It couldn’t be a better mix and should be the first place anyone in Malta goes to if they need a gift. It’s a win-win!
Did you pick any of your items today with someone in mind?
Absolutely! My fiancé Adrian is a huge fan of vintage and antique items, so he’d love lots of the things on We Are Not a Shop. That said, I can think of hundreds of people I would like to gift things to here! I could spend hours trawling through them. I normally have to travel to find items as unusual and exciting as these, but can now find everything from the comfort of my own home. What a fantastic concept!
Finally, which item would you most like to receive yourself?
It’s a tie! I can’t choose between the 1940s-style turban, which I would love to wear this summer, and the photo album. Maybe I’ll just have to have both!
Attention, bookworms and nature enthusiasts! To usher in our new Spring into Summer campaign, the team at We Are Not A Shop is here today to talk about everything green, from sustainable living for the environmentally conscious, to the benefits of feng shui-ing your home and turning your habitat into a veritable Eden.
We’ve compiled some of the most eye-catching books that We Are Not A Shop has to offer, hand-picked from our Lifestyle, Garden, and Interior and Exterior Designsections, and all at very reasonable prices! Be sure to check those sections to find even more books that didn’t make the cut!
Clicking on the book titles will send you to our website, where you’ll be able to make the books part of your own personal collection.
Happy reading!
SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Making sure that your home is beneficial to your health and environmentally friendly has become essential in such a chaotic world. Thankfully, there are a number of books out there that aim to help you with just that.
Chris van Uffelen’s Façade Greenery: Contemporary Landscaping (€11.00) is great for those who want to go green but don’t really have the space for it. Who said gardens have to be horizontal? Green walls will not only help ecologically and make an area look like a forgotten wilderness, as there are also a number of architectural advantages, such as improved building climate quality and optimised energy balance. Essentially, you’ll be able to keep your home cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter! This is a great way of getting into the booming sphere of sustainable architecture.
Sally Coulthard’s The Bee Bible: 50 Ways to Keep Bees Buzzing(€10.95) pops out, not least because of its quaint cover. This “illustrated guide to helping the world’s best-loved insect” confronts the worrisome depletion in the bee population. These extremely important insects are essential for the pollination of the world. Coulthard’s book shows you fifty ways we can help, be it placing particular flowers in your garden to attract them, campaigning for them, or even learning a little bit about “bee whispering.”
Megean Weldon’s An Almost Zero Waste Life: Learning How to Embrace Less to Live More (€15.75) is one of many additions to the “zero waste living” trend, a way of living without sending anything to a landfill. Weldon helps in all domestic areas, including cleaning, meal plans, shopping, recycling, and much more!
To accompany Chris van Uffelen’s book, Ula Maria’s Green: Simple Ideas for Small Outdoor Spaces(€16.00) is another great guide for those having to make do with smaller outdoor living spaces. Indeed, it’s designed for those with “small gardens, terraces, balconies, and roof gardens who see their outdoor space as an extension of their home, rather than the horticulturally committed,” and employs low-maintenance items.
DECLUTTERING & FENG SHUI
Opening the windows and letting in the spring breeze is one of the best feelings in the world. Dust off those cobwebs and take a look at these books on decluttering, organisation, and the art of rearranging your furniture to allow maximum energy flow through your living space, otherwise known as feng shui.
In case you’re still obsessed with the concept of feng shui and want to go a step further in Asian-inspired interiors, Kelly Hoppen’s East Meets West: Global Design for Contemporary Interiors (€12.00) showcases the author’s travels through Asia and Europe, and “considers colour, fabric, texture, and objets d’art in a broad sweet of decorative influence that embraces Southeast Asia, from China to Japan.”
Get decluttering and organisational advice from YouTuber Cassandra Aarssen’s Real Life Organising: Clean and Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes a Day (€11.85). We believe that less is more, so if you’re looking to purge some items that you’ve been holding onto for all the wrong reasons (guilt and sentiment come to mind), this guide will help you finally take control over your living space. You’ll free up a lot of time during the day to do all the things you love!
For a more European touch, but one that still embraces minimalist qualities, try Hans Blomquist’s The Natural Home (€15.00), in which the influential art director and stylist explores “the essence of his style” through “interiors inspired by the beauty of the natural world,” all captured by Debi Treloar’s enigmatic photographs.
Learn how to bring the fragrance of spring into your home by reading Karen Wheeler’s The Scented Home: Living with Fragrance (€20.00). The benefits of aromatherapy are well-documented, and the scent of flowers is a love language all of its own. As Wheeler states, “spritzing bed linen with lavender water to promote sleep, or burning a sandalwood candle to help you unwind, has become as natural as choosing your colour scheme.”
REDECORATING ON A BUDGET
It’s all well and good when you catch the redecorating bug, but the financial aspect is a fact of life and sometimes needs to be adhered to. Nowadays, we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to ideas, interior decorators, and the huge amount of stuff you can potentially line your walls and floors with. But you have to start somewhere! These books are a melting pot of the best tips for redecorating on a budget.
And that’s all from us! We’ve given you quite a good selection of affordable sources of inspiration for redecorating your home while also considering environmental sustainability. If you have any other suggestions that you think nature and interior decorating enthusiasts would enjoy, be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below!