Friday I was lucky enough to visit the Design Museum and check out the stunning Tim Walker exhibition. I have been completely in awe of Tim’s styling and photography ever since I saw his ‘White Night’ photo shoot in Vogue, it not only captured my imagination but it really did capture a mystical and magical view of folk Russia (see the image below).

I think the way I feel about all the Tim Walker photographs is that I share his sense of beautiful fantasy, everything he shoots is so alive, because he makes it so. It escapes reality, but never too far away to be silly - skimming the edges of fairy tales. The over saturation of colours reminds me of my childhood spent looking at old book and playing with highly colourful, picturesque 1960’s Victory puzzles. I think I always assumed life would be like one of those puzzle pictures, idillic and over saturated and looking at Tim Walker’s photographs reminds me that I’m not the only one who’d like life to be a little richer in colour and little bit less serious. Beautiful! 

Ok, so it’s fair to say I have been the worst blogger of late. Not only have I neglected to post on here (thanks for the kind words Little Lj) but also I forgot to even give Little Doll Face’s 1 year Birthday a mention. Horrible, horrible blogger! Anyway I’m back now and ready to get back on it. By the way Little Doll Faces official Birthday was the 5th July - so I guess I’m 10 days late!

Anyway it was also someone else’s Birthday the other day too (Miles) and this is where these photo are taken from. The lovely cakes are from Lola’s Kitchen and man were they tasty. Carrot, vanilla, banana and chocolate were the flavours that they came in and the carrot was super yum! Miles and I spent the day out and about in London - it was really nice to have London to ourselves on a quiet weekday. So, happy birthday Miles and happy birthday Little Doll Face. Plus a really big thank you to anyone who has read or inspired my blog over the past year - it’s been so much fun having somewhere to share all the pretty things in life. x

I’m off to Barcelona with work tomorrow so I am a little bit excited. Though it suddenly dawned on me that I had done very little preparation into the best independent shops that the city has to offer. So now I am desperately looking for places. However came across this lovely and I just had to share. Dudua is a super cool handmade boutique in Barcelona, however you can purchase their wares online the website and blog is adorable - Check it out! The knitted muffins above are in the online store and are too cute for words! The Pietari Posti prints of the leaping deers are also adorable - I think I may have to make a purchase.

Anyway if anyone knows any good places to check out please let me know I would love to know your suggestions. I must get some sleep now as I have a bad cold (thanks Holly) and it needs nursing before the trip - Buenos noches . x

Another busy week and I finally came to the conclusion that I needed to dig out some of my old things that I’ve had stored away since my move -at the risk of sounding a bit dramatic,  it was a bid to re-connect with the old creativity. So, all week I have been re-reding my crafting books, dug out my old handmade notice board adorned it with my fave paper trinkets and treated Miles and I to new bedside lamps to match the Cath Kidston throw - the room needed some colour!

I have also been re-united with my old bed, from my last flat and think all the good nights sleep I’m getting is definitely giving me more energy. This is my precious Love pillow cases, by Lush Designs - they were a special present from Miles for the flat. I love all the Lush Designs things - especially the lamp shades! My side says ‘LO’ and Miles’ reads ‘VE’.

This is everything together - on my side, having all my favourite things  so close has really cheered me up,  I can’t wait to go home at the weekend collect all my crafty bits and go mad. I would like to note that the fox sticker on my notice board is a new Luella sticker I got yesterday, along with some beautiful badges. I love Luella and the shop is a haven of loveliness - if you haven’t seen her website check it out it seriously rocks!  

Wow, it’s the rainiest bank holiday ever here in the UK. However can’t moan too much it’s still a day off from work and a chance to snuggle up on the sofa in a blanket, with Nylon and Country Living - whilst drinking tea of course. I thought I would share my new table mats with you all, I had been looking for sometime now as I wanted something unusual (not store bought) and finally I found some at Grand Designs Live 2008.  

They are by an independent tableware designer and maker called Jenny Duff and the artist of the designs is Gillian Blease. Jenny’s company, Jenny Duff Tableware is fantastic, she has so many beautiful designs and offers them all a range of sizes. The thing that made me smile the most about my new table mats was that I had searched London high and low for something unusual and Jenny Duff Tableware is based only 15 miles from my home town of Whitstable?! Freaky that I had to go to Grand Designs in London to find her, it just proves that the crafting community doesn’t really have a good support network here in the UK - local crafts can slip unnoticed, even from my hawk eye!

I just wanted to say a really big thank you to Holly over on Decor8 for mentioning my little humble blog in her ‘Happy Friday’ post …. and saying that she ‘couldn’t stop looking at’ it. I am extremely flattered as Decor8 is one of my favourite, and the best blogs out there!

I went to grand Designs Live 2008 recently and it was pretty amazing, I’m only sorry that I have not posted this soon. I have had it half written in drafts for nearly two weeks - that is shocking! I’m a bad busy blogger with no time to blog!  Enough of that. There was so much to get inspiration from at Grand Designs I was in my element.  There was three glorious halls filled with home, garden and design related things and I got to see Kevin McCloud film a  scene for the live show.    

The design hall was my favorite  destination of the day - this was the place filled with soft furnishings and all the pretty trimmings that make a home. This was the True Love Always stand they had some lovely inspired bedding. They really have taken the concept of soft, relaxing bedding and turned it around in a really fun way that works. 

 I love this pattern, the horses are really cute and the rabbits were flocked and looked really luxurious. They were designed by Anorak, a cute design company. However they were pretty frosty at the expo and this really put me off. I got a stern telling off for taking a photo, almost like I had stolen something? 

Now this stall was filled with so many lovely things the problem was that I can’t remember it’s name - urrhh, there were just too many to remember. However I do know that the plates in the bottom corner are  by a designer I saw over on Design Sponge but I just can’t seem to locate the name - if anyone knows please put me out of my misery.  All in all it was a great day out I got a few things for the flat but was very restrained - I will photograph and post them up soon.   

Apologies for my  delay in blogging , time is a premium of late. I have updated about me page to include some of the other ways you can keep up with me including my Twitter feed etc. It would be good to know if any other crafty design bloggers are on Twitter. 

Moving on from my living room and my thrifty table, this is a little peek at my new bedroom in the  flat , and my biggest indulgence to- date - Cath Kidston Rose bedspread. It cheers up my day so much it turns the chore of making a bed into a pleasure as it is so rewarding to see it sitting so pretty once made. 

I know it is just ever so slightly girly, but it is so pretty and makes me feel special every time I lay on it on snuggle up in it. It’s kind of special too because it’s the first real thing I have been able to buy in the whole time I have been working. Ok, I am going to stop going on about a bed spread now as I don’t want to appear to have an unhealthy obsession with it (I don’t really). 

For the rest of my time I have been consumed by the lovely Pushing Daises, as a huge Jean Pierre Jeunet and Tim Burton fan I am in my element as Pushing Daises seems to be a strong mix of the two. Also, I’m currently dreaming about taking a trip to Laduree at Harrods for Macaroons and afternoon tea, after Fortnum and Mason and the Ritz I have a passion for high class afternoon tea (eeekkk, it’s an expensive habit!).

I really wanted to make my new table pretty but not too girly as this flat is half a boys flat, so I thought I would get some great oil cloth to make over the old table that my sister gave me. This table is pretty special it still has drawing on the underneath where my nephew secretly got underneath it a did some lovely drawings! Anyway, I digress - I wanted some unusual oilcloth and the one I had seen to get was Kitsch Kitchen and I foolishly saw it in Antwerp but never got around to buying it. Well it soon became a a real bee in my bonnet - you can’t seem to get Kitsch Kitchen anywhere in the UK, especially not the more unusual patterned cloth! So I did my homework and I finally found a really great oil cloth supplier that I was really excited to share with everyone. Viva La Frida sells imported Mexican oil cloths that are identical to Kitsch Kitchen at a much better price too!

I went for the black lace, and was pretty pleased with how nice the old table came up. I was considering painting the legs - I still haven’t ruled it out but I think for now they match the chairs so well I will leave them be. So I hope this is a hopefully tip for any one looking for alternative oil cloth in the Uk, and you don’t fancy Cath Kidston.  I have been away from the blog the last week due to a food over indulgence I am addicted to French Macaroons, and tonight I gored on way too much Dim Sum at Dim T, I am about to crawl into bed to sleep it all off! Goodnight x 

It’s that time of year again - I am slightly poor and the weather really does not permit all the super, pretty and cute things in the shops at the moment. It is the first day of spring and it snowed most of yesterday, my office was sub-zero today and I am reaching for the long sleeve t-shirts again!  I am really over wrapping up now - winter needs to end! So to cheer myself I made a collection of all things colourful, lovely and nothing to do with winter at all. 

The lovely Eames rocker, which has been on a never ending wish list of mine, Camper sandals please, Cath Kidston cowboy skirt, Miu Miu patent hair band is to die for, Clarks Originals lace up shoes and a cute Topshop yellow butterfly ring to add some subtle colour to everything! Heres to dreaming of warmer climates…. x

Happy Easter everyone, I hope all have feasted on copious amount of chocolate and had a relaxing day. I thought this would be a perfect quite day to get my act together, nab Miles and give Little Doll Face a facelift - I hope everyone likes the new look. Speaking of new looks I thought I would begin to photograph and share pictures of my new home - starting with some Easter pics. The picture above is a pic of my new living-room and sofa, however it is more about the cute daffodils and tin toy rabbits that bounce along!

Miles arranged an Easter egg hunt within our flat, which was super cute and really funny seeing as it is a flat making it pretty easy to spot Easter eggs dotted around the rooms. This funny picture is Miles idea of hiding Lindt bunnies - if you pretend that they are just another ornament you won’t notice them! So it is meant to be spring - but it snowed today and yesterday? Crazy, still I have enough flowers, radiators and bunnies (chocolate) here indoors to keep me believing spring is coming.