The case for an imperfect home.
finding comfort and inspiration from the homes in the Shirley Hughes books.
Hello I’m Lyndsay, I am so glad you have found your way here…
Welcome to Story & Thread., a cosy, welcoming place to be inspired by the quiet power of noticing beauty & wonder. Here we explore our creative lives through the lens of the seasons, and what it means to tell our stories with meaningful PR.
All subscribers will receive regular thoughtful posts about mothering, creativity, home and garden through the seasons. You are invited to become a member of The Beauty Thread., to join a creative community for online seasonal gatherings, home guides, co-working spaces and soon, guidance for crafting a considered PR kit for your creative business.
“My house is… full of so many memories and so much stuff that I don't know what to do with”.
―Shirley Hughes, The Independent, 2013.
Dearest reader…
How are you feeling as we step deeper into July?
It feels like treading a path between empty and full to me. There is a bit of a lull in the garden — a reminder that even a midsummer garden is not in bloom all of the time. Yet our diary is overflowing with end of year plans as we seem to race towards the summer holidays, and a summer of empty fullness lies ahead, the shape of which I can’t quite grasp…
A Seasonal Salon. in summer will take place at 10-11.15am BST on Wednesday 16th July 2025. It is scheduled a little earlier in the season than usual, as I was keen to make time and space before the summer holidays begin…
A Seasonal Salon. is an online creative gathering as part of The Beauty Thread. — an opportunity to anchor and soften into the season, as we create time and space to notice, and take cues from the beauty that surrounds us. In the session, we will weave together flowers, folklore, poetry, seasonal stories and more, to shape creative cues and find an anchor in the experience of this summer.
There is still time to upgrade your membership, once within The Beauty Thread., you will be sent the link to register your place, you would be so welcome to join us…
I wrote in my recent early summer post, that I am hoping for a summer that feels like a haze of loose plans, of slow mornings and unmade beds, leaving space for our summer stories to unfold. It is this sense of undone and imperfect that finds me today…
Comfort in the chaos.
As each season passes here in our North London home, the more I realise that home is not a separate entity from us. It is not something to be perfected or finished in any way, but that it is a living, breathing part of us — it is the vessel we live our lives through. Homes are a continually evolving process —as we are — they don’t just reflect our lives, but embody us as we leave our imprints within (and often on…) the walls we live in. In this season of life with young children, and as I continue to craft a creative career around them, I am coming to accept that the mess, the chaos, and the unfinished are central to my existence — and I am resolved to find comfort, warmth and joy in it all.
In the rare moments when I am not working or with my children, I have to admit that tidying is not my priority — I have so many other things I need and want to fill my time with, and like right now, most often I am drawn here, to my creativity, to make sense of a feeling, to write to you. Instead of berating myself, I am coming to know that I don’t need to wait until I have an immaculate home in order to find clarity and purpose, but that we are truly living in this space — that the rooms are filled to the brim with us, they emanate a feeling of aliveness, and there is much peace and appreciation to be found within that.
Style & nostalgia.
A couple of months ago, like many, I read and adored
’s post, and then Observer article about the timeless style of the mums in Shirley Hughes’ books being both a comfort and inspiration to women navigating new identities in motherhood. (I too, count any day that I could pass for a Shirley Hughes mum — or in fact my own stylish mother in the 1980s and 90s — as a very good day indeed).
But even more than the inimitable “functional chic”1 of the brilliant mums in the Shirley Hughes’ books, for me it is the homes — the backdrop to the endearing characters and their lives, that fill me with joy and fondness, and perhaps most significantly, allow me to exhale a sigh of relief. The welcoming, colourful and undone homes reassure and give me permission to allow home to be as it is — that I don’t need to be on top of it all the time.
Like Lauren, any book from the Shirley Hughes portfolio is my go-to choice for bedtime (or anytime) stories. For those unfamiliar with Shirley Hughes, she wrote around 50 books and illustrated over 200 from the 1960s until she died in 20222. Many of the stories tenderly chronicle everyday life through a kaleidoscopic child-like lens, weaving the little things into a rich fabric of life.
We seem to have accidentally (on purpose) accumulated many of the titles in the Shirley Hughes collection of books in our house — including much-loved gifts from family, second-hand books, and one of the original books of my childhood, the words (“baby blues, navy blues, blue socks, blue shoes”) still etched in my mind, instantly conjure a sweet nostalgia. While the books were a favourite as a child, they take on another layer in parenthood — they remind me of the exquisite tiny joys of raising young children in their earliest years (even when it feels hard), whilst subtly and sympathetically portraying the all-consuming wildness of parenting.
Lauren points to the nostalgia deeply woven into parenthood, perhaps we long for a sense of cushioning when we become the parents, and our sensory and nervous systems are wrung out by the day-to-day business of raising children. For me, the urge for comfort and familiarity began in pregnancy, and encompassed everything from food, to clothes and home. Whilst my body became a home itself, and grew an entirely new life, I intentionally stepped into my comfort zone. A seismic shift and simultaneously, a homecoming.
Gone are the days that I covet a home of pared back neutrals, now I am in love with colourful, characterful homes filled to the brim with the stuff of life.
Character & colour.
The homes in the Shirley Hughes stories are full of character and colour — there is often a steaming pot of tea brewing and freshly cut bread on a timeworn painted kitchen table, flower pots on the window sill, shopping yet to be unpacked, toys, odd socks and stray shoes strewn across the floor. These homes are unapologetic in their dishevelment, and comforting in their easy ‘realness’, and these days I love nothing more than knowing that someone has not tidied up for me.
Familiar streets.
Many of the stories that feel the most resonant, take place within a London residential urbanscape — one that feels very familiar to me having grown up in North London, and as we raise our children just a few miles down the road from where I spend my formative years. I recently discovered via Shirley Hughes & Friends that both Alfie and Lucy & Tom’s houses are set in Hammersmith and North Kensington respectively, in West London, not so far away from the Edwardian terraced street we live on in North London, though I feel sure that the familiarity is felt further afield too.
Lustre & life.
During the process of moving into our home nearly three years ago when my daughter was one and a half and I was pregnant with my son, thoughts of life as depicted by Shirley Hughes made their way into my mind — snowballs and snowmen in winter, seeds planted in early spring, May flowers, afternoons splashing in the garden during high summer, sitting in the honeyed warmth by the back steps in late summer haze, gazing at the harvest moon come September, kicking autumn leaves down the street, and watching fireworks from our back garden in November, anticipation and a Christmas tree in the window in December. When I think about it, many of these fragments of life do seem to have materialised here in one way or another, though not always smoothly, and often complete with ‘big feelings’ that Hughes does not shy away from. Real life takes on a precious lustre in the Shirley Hughes books, but there is also always a recognisable glimmer of real life, of imperfection, of the unkempt, and un-curated on the page that is appreciated more than I can say.
I return to the homes of Shirley Hughes’ characters time and time again, as they remind me that a real home is one that holds the day-to-day of our lives, however messy and magical they may be. Whilst I sometimes dream of a clearer, calmer space, perhaps it is about reframing the overspilling stuff as aliveness — we eat so there are crumbs, we wear clothes so there is (a lot) of laundry, we sleep in beds that are sometimes left unmade, we play so toys are scattered, we use things that can break, we move through space and leave our mark on it — home is a living story of a life that is not still, but constantly in motion, unfolding beyond the page.
Thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate you taking the time to be here.
I would love to know where you stand, do you need a tidy home to function best, or are you able to live amidst the stuff of life?
I hope to chat more with you in the comments, or of course feel free to send me an email, it is always lovely to hear from you.
P.S. You can find out more about The Beauty Thread., the paid membership within Story & Thread. — you can read or listen to more by clicking the link below…
Introducing The Beauty Thread. by Lyndsay.
Tending and telling our stories inspired by the quiet power of noticing beauty & wonder.
*creative gatherings | co-working | considered space | crafted PR*.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, out of alignment with your inner wisdom, and holding your stories tightly inside, this is an invitation to join The Beauty Thread. — a home that will provide you with time, space and quietude to come into relationship with yourself and the world around you. A place to put down roots, to cultivate your soil, to nurture your inner landscape, a place to grow from…
I would love to support you in your own homecoming with a multi-layered offering at The Beauty Thread. including seasonal creative gatherings, cosy co-working sessions, a series of guides to help you create an intentional and joyful home, and resources to support you in crafting the stories of your creative business using meaningful PR in a considered and sustainable way.
It would be an honour to welcome you into the cosy, creative community at The Beauty Thread….you can find all of the details are in the page below…
Welcome to The Beauty Thread. by Lyndsay.
Tending and telling our stories inspired by the quiet power of noticing beauty & wonder.
Thanks for this Lyndsay, a beautiful and relatable piece. Also a permission slip I didn’t know I needed to embrace a different way of living that aligns with the season of time my family is in now. Thank you ❤️
So relatable Lyndsay, and love some Shirley Hughes!
Sometimes in the moments when the chaos dissipates I find myself wondering where it’s gone… it feels like it’s absorbed along with all our living into these walls that hold us so well.