Corridor Dressing

Ever since we moved into our flat a full five years ago, the corridor has been a sad and empty place. We painted it white  which was a definite improvement on the lemon and jade walls/metallic silver woodwork combo that was there before but having done that we left it. Each time I walked down it I made a mental note to find some lovely colourful finery to adorn the blank walls and then other rooms stepped in, shouted louder and assumed priority.

But it was such a perfect blank canvas eventually I just couldn't ignore it and decided it was time to dress it up.

By happy accident I had over time acquired a few prints and pictures with a red theme running through them and they have formed a cheerful little collection on one of the walls:

My mother bought me the Ballet Russes poster at the V&A exhibition of the same name. The Leyland Buses postcard (in the smallest frame) was sent to me from the North by my lovely friend Helen - Leyland is her home town. The bigger London bus screen print is actually the poster for a Flight of the Conchords gig we went to - it is very rare that I buy show merchandise but this one appealed to me and reminds me of a night involving much, much laughter. The Rob Ryan limited edition laser cut for the V&A was a Christmas present from my parents. The gorgeous fox painting is from Mir Dinara on Etsy, found via The Seventy Tree and was the final piece of the puzzle. I thought this area was finished but then spotted the gorgeous Papermash banners on Tea For Joy and the Joie De Vivre one is now winging its way to me to act as the crowning glory.

I had also wanted to do something with the wall space above our bedroom door. Books are everywhere in our flat - Mr Crafty devours them and usually has about three on the go and both of us feel strongly about buying solid paper books and holding onto them. Our dream house of the future has a library but we have no such luxury in our two bedroom flat. As the two bookcases in our sitting room were bursting at their metaphorical seams we decided to use the space for a bookcase to hold Mr Crafty's collection of classics:






He loves the display of reading matter, I love the fact they make a rainbow!

I have a funny relationship with books in that I love reading, almost more than anything, but if my head is very full of day to day stuff I sometimes find it hard to pick up a book. It's as if I forget how much I enjoy it. When I do make a start on a good book then it is all that I think about but I can go for months without reading anything. So I made this banner from scraps of Liberty fabrics to remind me to pick up a book! I adapted the design from the Nice banner in Applique Your Way by Kayte Terry.

Finally, back in 2009 we bought a pine dresser from EBay. It looked like this when we bought it:

Since then it has been standing in the corridor looking very out of place but providing useful storage for all my cake making equipment. It was always my intention to paint it and I finally got round to it. It now looks like this:





I added the slate grey painted numbers on the drawers and doors which I hope you can just about see in the picture for a bit of interest. It blends in a lot better now although it is going to need retouching soon as it has become one of Milly and Jeff's favourite scratching posts.

I now sometimes find myself pausing in the corridor. It has it's own cheery identity instead of being a blank space to simply pass through. We haven't done a huge amount but what we have done makes me smile. Hope it makes you smile too.

Happy to make your aquaintance Mollie Makes

I know - I am way behind the times as ever but just wanted to remark on how lovely Mollie Makes is.

I have been musing for sometime to myself as to why we didn't have a modern crafty magazine in the UK. Whenever I have looked for something in Smiths there has been plenty for a different generation of knitter/cross-stitcher etc. but nothing for those with a slightly edgier aesthetic who still like to spend their time making and doing. Then along came Mollie Makes. I have been hotly anticipating the first issue and rushed down to by it on its release date. I wasn't disappointed. It is a visual treat and has the right balance, for me, between projects and inspiration. Really excited about seeing what they have in store for issue two!!

Marrakech Express

I am just back from a wonderful week in Marrakech. I have always wanted to visit Morocco and with the British weather reaching an all time low in February, Mr Crafty and I decided it was time for a spur of the moment trip.

The city is as wonderful and crazy as everyone says it is but boy do those Moroccans know how to make things look beautiful. There are jewel like colours everywhere and even the most ordinary of homes are made extraordinary with the use of beautiful mosaic tiles and decorative tassels galore.

One of my favourite places was the Majorelle Gardens which was created by Jacques Majorelle, a French Painter, and was latterly owned by Yves Saint Laurent. The garden sings with colour and is a oasis of peace in a frantic city. The cafe also serves a dreamy orange blossom ice-cream.

The fountain at the Majorelle Gardens

One of the many beautiful avenues at the Majorelle Gardens

We were lucky enough to stay in the wonderful Riad Zolah which was our sanctuary from the busy streets when we needed it.

The courtyard at the Riad Zolah with it's rose petal filled marble pool

Our lovely room complete with complimentary babouches (leather slippers)

But no trip to Morocco would be complete without trying some haggling in the labyrinthine souks:

These pictures don't begin to convey the magic, colour and chaos but I got a little reticent about taking too many photos for fear of making myself a target for the very persistent shopkeepers. We did come home with some booty though:

The one thing I really wanted to bring back with me was a pouffe. I have been admiring the ones from Graham and Green for a while but was always put off by the price tag. We got this lovely leather one for a quarter of the price and if our haggling had been better we could have probably bartered it down even more.

These tassels were everywhere and I couldn't resist bringing a pair back to bring a bit of the 1001 Nights to our South East London sitting room.

When we move to our "forever house" (which is where we hope our next move will take us whenever the time comes) I am definitely going back to Marrakech for some serious interiors shopping!

Heaven is a place in Bloomsbury

I had a lovely day out today - the sort of day that makes me fall in love with London again. A group of us gathered together for a friend's birthday celebrations. We took in the Egyptian mummies and assorted gilded Elizabethan clocks in the British Museum and then headed to my new favourite place in the world Bea's of Bloomsbury for the most marvellous tea!

I loved the high kicking cake stand and the red velvet cupcake was to die for. They have an open kitchen there so you can spy on all the clever pastry chefs rustling up wonderful sweet treats. I would heartily recommend it to anyone with a sweet tooth!

Me Old China

Well things are moving on with our kitchen. Our reclaimed worktop is being delivered this weekend and then with any luck we have people coming in next week to fit it and do the tiling. Mr Crafty is going to fit the floor and wallpaper the chimney breast. So with any luck it should be finished by Christmas and my mind has naturally turned towards finishing touches.

There is one very empty bit of wall. A poster would be the most obvious thing to fill it but I have seen a lot of lovely displays made with china plates in magazines recently and am thinking of something similar. Given that both my grandfathers worked in the pottery industry it seems rather appropriate. Perhaps something along these lines:

Photo sourced from Glassford Hill Girl Blog

Photo sourced from E How

Photo sourced from www.countryliving.com

I better get down to a car boot sale to start collecting!

A Spot of Camping

Well we finally dusted down my parents old tent from the 70s and took it on a trip to Sussex. It was just a one night taster to see how the old girl fared and I have to say for a tent of her age she stood up remarkably well. I slept extremely soundly after a night sitting with friends and drinking wine under the stars. I hope to take her on some more trips very soon.

Here are a few pics from the weekend (given the authentic poladroid treatment!)

Our tent in all her retro glory
Mr Crafty taking a break

Another fine retro tent belonging to friends

Our very cosy sleeping area

A couple of members of our merry band

Lighting of the lamps
And they all gazed happily into the sunset

Wings of Desire

I have mentioned my love of anything featuring our feathered friends before, although I know I am not alone among bloggers. Right now I am seriously coveting these cushions by peekboutique on Etsy. They are homegrown in blighty (Brighton to be precise) and the cheery colours make my heart sing like a bird.

Pretty Pictures All In A Row

Some of you may remember my post about the fantastic prints at Advice to Sink in Slowly. I bought a couple of my favourite prints a while back and have been waiting to get them up on the wall but wasn't sure where to display them.

I have seen a few picture ledges featured on design blogs recently and really liked the effect so when I saw Ikea did a white rail as part of their Ribba range I snapped it up.

I have also been coveting the butterfly prints at Rockett St George for a while so decided to snap one up as a centrepiece for the rail. This is the finished display - our blank walls are at last looking a little more interesting!

Game of Tag

The lovely Zoë from Conversation Pieces tagged me a week ago and I have been very slow to respond with my answers but here they are - finally! The rules are:

1. respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add more one question of your own.
2. tag eight other people

And my answers are as follows:

What is your current obsession? Vintage camping gear - Mr Crafty and I are planning to jump on the staycation bandwagon and go camping in the UK for our Summer hols but, not being one to do things by halves, I want to go the whole kitsch 70s hog with a canvas frame tent (preferably orange), floral deckchairs and all the paraphernalia. I have plans to take everything but the kitchen sink and deck the tent out in solar powered fairy lights and bunting. Although if it wasn't slightly out of our budget I would be very tempted by JollyDays Luxury Camping where they provide all the above for you:

Photos from Jolly Days

Coffee or tea? I could say coffee, which to me is resonant of continental sophistication, but it's definitely tea all the way. My all time favourite thing is afternoon tea at a posh hotel and which just wouldn't be the same without a pretty china pot of the amber liquid.

What’s for dinner? I am a total foodie, read cook books like they were novels and love creating new dishes but I am sorry to say I am currently on a health kick so dinner will most probably be steamed salmon fillets with brown rice and swiss chard. Boring but true.

What would you eat for your last meal?
I hope that I will never that know that I am eating my last meal! But if the question is what is my all time favourite meal then I would be very stuck for an answer. I have to say that whilst I love complicated restaurant cuisine and all sorts of exotic dishes you can't go wrong with a rare steak, bernaise sauce, skinny fries, grilled portabella mushrooms and dressed salad washed down with a decent red. In fact I definitely wish that was my answer to the previous question!

What was the last thing you bought? This embroidered tunic dress from Dorothy Perkins:

I have a soft spot for DP. A lot of the stuff in there is not really my style at all but every now and then they will design something really lovely and everything in there is reasonably priced which, given the fact that any tiny bit of spare cash we have is being sucked into the flat, is very handy. I have already got a lot of wear out of this dress, teaming it with black leggings, flats and gold jewellery. Let's hope the sun stays with us this summer so I get even more wear out of it!

What are you listening to right now? Spotify i.e. anything and everything! For anyone who hasn't discovered it, Spotify lets you listen to pretty much any track ever for free. What's the catch? You have to listen to a 30 second advert every 5 songs or so but in return for that you can listen to anything from new releases to forgotten classics. I have mostly been listening to the new Bat for Lashes album (brilliant in my opinion), Animal Collective (also brilliant) and a selection of rediscovered 80s tracks for old time's sake.

What's the best gift you have ever been given? Mr Crafty gave me the most amazing gold butterfly necklace for our wedding day. He gave it to one of my bridesmaids to give to me:

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Really good quality Pistachio or rum and raisin or preferably both in a nice old fashioned sugar cone whilst walking along the beachfront in Brighton.

What do you think of the person(s) who tagged you? Zoë writes a really fabulous blog (which she is much better at regularly updating than I am mine) and is a kindred spirit on pretty much everything - we even own the same pillow cases!

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Ikies Traditional Houses in Santorini. We stayed there on our honeymoon an it is as close to perfection as you can get. Oh to be back on that balcony:

Which language do you want to learn? French. I learnt Latin and German at school so managed to miss out on the obligatory French lessons. My brother now lives in Paris and I have a five year old Anglo-French bilingual niece who at some point soon is going to question my inability to speak her mother tongue. I need to catch up with her!

What’s your favorite quote (for now)? "Dwell in possibility" Emily Dickinson

What is your favorite colour? This changes periodically. At the moment I love grey. I think it's an underrated colour that has so many different tones and shades. We have a lovely charcoal grey on our bedroom walls and it is a really warm yet soothing colour to live with.

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe? My wedding shoes which I bought from Emmy as a huge treat to myself. I sold my wedding dress so these are my reminder of my wonderful wedding day:

What is your dream job? I used to be an actress but got fed up with the instability of the profession. I still think it's what I am best at though and I do miss the acting itself very much indeed. If I could work as an actress but have weekends off, annual leave and get to see my husband in the evening then that would be my dream job but unfortunately I didn't have the single-minded ambition to cut-it in the real acting industry. Otherwise I quite fancy cake designer.

What is your worst habit? I am a neat freak trapped inside a very messy person's body! I would love everything to be extraordinarily ordered and neat and yet I seem to be fundamentally incapable of keeping my space tidy. This means I am constantly at war with myself as I can't stand the little piles of paper that litter the carpet of our sitting room whilst they wait to be dealt with and yet generally I am the one who puts them there.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on? It would go towards a new kitchen worktop. We are in the process of giving our kitchen a face lift on a very tight budget but the one thing I do want to splash out on is a reclaimed oak worktop to replace the pink-ish marble effect laminate left to us by the flat's previous owners.

Do you admire any one’s style? Helena Bonham-Carter. I wouldn't copy her style but I love her English Eccentricity and total disregard for what other people might think of her outfits. It's also nice to see a celeb who isn't fussed about looking perfect in public.

Describe your personal style? I pay attention to current trends to a degree but not us much as I did when I was younger. As I get older I am more aware of what suits me and that may not be the latest fashion (it definitely isn't peg trousers or harem pants for example) My heart is with vintage, boho, girly clothes. I think I was probably born out of my time as I love clothes from the 20s - 50s and if I had the figure would wear pretty much nothing but vintage. Unfortunately the clothes that have survived always seem to be in wee sizes and I am too curvy for most of them.

What are you going to do after this? I am off to my parents to dig out their old 70s tent and see if it might do for our camping trip or if it has rotten away due to years of sitting in the garage not being used.

What are your favourite movies? Don't Look Now and Orlando are probably my favourite movies of all time. The Slipper and the Rose is my guilty pleasure. I spent my childhood watching it on repeat but could still happily watch it again and again.
What is your favorite fruit? English strawberries in season that taste like essence of pure strawberry.

What inspires you? London. I have a love-hate relationship with the city I was born in and there are times I want to run away and live in a little cottage surrounded by green fields. But there is so much that I love about London. I love the way that living here gives you the opportunity to experience so many different cultures. I love that even though Londoners aren't the friendliest bunch ostensibly we actually do a pretty good job of rubbing along together given the number of people per square mile. I love that London is artistically so alive with exhibitions, street art and happenings all over. I love the view from Waterloo Bridge and the South Bank at night. And even though I may end up in that cottage some day it will always be London that made me who I am.

Your favorite book? So difficult to narrow it down to just one! Probably 'Wuthering Heights' if I absolutely had to pick one but I am also a huge Haruki Murakami fan and 'Kafka on the Shore' is up there.

Do you collect something? Clutter! Not intentionally but I find it very hard to throw things away so I have loads of old rubbish squirreled away in the attic which we are trying to slowly get rid of at car boot sales and via eBay.

What is your favorite smell? English garden roses - just the most beautiful scent ever! It's such a shame that most roses that are grown commercially aren't scented.

What are you most proud of? My family. They are a very lovely, intelligent and talented bunch of people and I count myself extremely lucky to have them around me.

How many times do you press the snooze button before you get up? Before I met Mr Crafty it was three snoozes per morning for me if not more but he's been weaning me off the addiction and I am down to one a day.

Cats or dogs? Cats all the way! I have nothing against dogs per se but I love that you have to work a bit harder to work your way into a cat's affections.

What’s your biggest fashion mistake? There have been so many! I did have a particularly appalling fluorescent yellow swimsuit with a black satin bow on the back when I was 14. It was very trendy at the time, honest!

Complete the following: Love is… When you honestly and truly value your partner's happiness ahead of your own.

And I am going to tag the following Eden Rose, Seeds and Stitches, Slices of Beauty, From the Right Bank to the Left Coast, Her Little Place, Moments of Pleasure, Poppy's Pretty Place, My Crooked House

Life's a Picnic

I spent this weekend down in West Sussex, where Mr Crafty hails from. The sun was out in all its glory on Sunday which was a miracle as we had scheduled in a picnic with some friends a couple of months ago and that is usually like a red rag to a bull for the gods to play havoc with the weather. Instead we got brilliant sunshine and spent the day enjoying a heady mix of orange and lavender cake, prosecco with wild strawberry liquer and rounders.

Here are the chocolate truffle torte with fresh raspberries and afore-mentioned orange and lavender cake that I baked for the occasion (please imagine for a moment that these are resplendant on pretty vintage cake stands rather than in tupperware boxes).

I was reminded that when I was growing up my Father always coveted a proper picnic hamper complete with china, cloth napkins and metal cutlery, the sort that is synonymous with Glyndebourne, punting on the Cam and Pimms i.e. quintessentially British. I have inhereted a similar longing from him but these days most picnic sets come in the form of rucksacks with non-breakable, far too sensible plastic crockery and cutlery. What I hanker after is totally a impractical willow basket lined with lovely linens and stocked with patterned china and glasses you can clink.

I was, therefore, delighted to find the hampers of my dreams at Life's A Picnic. They assemble gorgeous hampers from vintage crockery and cutlery and do all the sewing and leather work themselves. At around £180 - £260 a hamper they are not cheap but no two hampers are the same and they are the sort of investment that you could pass down through the generations:

Is it Pimms O'Clock already? Must dash. TTFN...

Watch the Birdy

I discovered Etsy seller Nuka via the fabulous Knack blog and have fallen head over heels for this gorgeous cushion:

Nuka

A quick search on Etsy turned up these other fine feathered friends I would like to invite to share my nest:

Covent Garden Vintage

Laurel Begley

Whitney Smith Pottery

Prince Design UK


Red Hot Pottery

Lake District Style

I'm back from a week walking and relaxing in the glorious Lake District. We were lucky enough to have gorgeous weather while we were there which, given that it is famous for being the rainiest place in England, was a miracle! It is also famous for being stunningly beautiful:


...and also for being a fab place for afternoon tea which I can certainly vouch for. We had this lovely tea at the Lakeside Hotel and it was scrummy although we had to admit defeat and took most of the cakes home in a doggy bag:


I was delighted to discover that Grasmere, where we were staying, also has a couple of brilliant interiors boutiques in amongst the tea rooms and gift shops. Elk Home has been featured in Living Etc and has a great collection of Mibo cushions, Cowshed skin products, Eames chairs and, my personal favourite because I haven't come accross them before, Herdy throws:

Herdy was set up to help preserve the Lake District and in particular the Herdwick sheep local to the area. A percentage of profits go to Herwick Breeders and the Tourism and Conservation partnership. They make a range of gift items such as mugs and notebooks all featuring the Herdy logo but the throws are my favourite - so soft. They had one draped over an Eames DSW chair in the shop and it looked fab. I feel another addition to my birthday list coming on!

I also fell in love with The Attic which was a lovely little shop full of the sort of stuff you absolutely don't need but suddenly desperately want like ostrich feather dusters, bakelite telephones and wallpaper bunting. The Attic opens into Baldry's bakery and tea room which as well as serving amazing smoked salmon and cream cheese rolls had been done up so prettily:

I loved the church chairs and Farrow and Ball style colours on the walls.

Also, just in case you were thinking of visting Grasmere any time soon, you have, have, have to go to the Jumble Room. The food is really fantastic and the setting is lovely - really welcoming and cosy. It is owned by Andy and Chrissy Hill who also run B&B called Randy Pike. They have have renovated a Gentlemen's hunting lodge and it looks like they have done an amazing job from the before and after photos on their website. Here are a couple of the finished suites:

I know where I want to stay when we go back!