I’m really in love with flowers and candles lately. There is two downsides to this, 1) I am terrible at flower arranging and 2) I always bitched about people who liked candles - I never saw the point? Now I’m a complete sucker for the ambiance  they create. I have real expensive candle lust too, I want Jo Malone, Miller and Harris and Diptyque candles! This is not good news because all of these are around £30 for a glorified tea light.

Back to the flowers, these lovely flowers were created by my dear sister, who forages for natural foliage and made me this creation in a beautiful vintage milk creamer. I really appreciate gifts like this as I’m so hopeless at making flowers look nice. I’m a creative person but flowers just stump me every time, if anyone knows or a great flower arranging book please let me know - I’ll snap it up! So much glorious sun here in London, and so much more to come - I’m off to Athens on Thursday for my annual work holiday…. wish me luck! 

Sanderson rugs are pretty special. These round ‘Etchings and Roses’ collection in the various colours is so striking. A little bit of visual home candy. They would look great paired with an ultra modern interior, or thrown  down on some  wooden floorboards. Beautiful!  

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter and feels really refreshed from the break, ready for the 4 day week ahead. The weekend before Easter I had an inspiration day, it was much needed after weeks of doing nothing creative. It all started with this little blue birdie that I received that week. It was part of a good bag from Laura Ashley I received from work. It was filled with lovely bits and pieces, all for free! This was very exciting as I’m a massive Laura Ashley  fan. So I decided that I would get a move on a create something slightly festive for Easter and given my limited I opted to make my own Easter cards.

I managed to get my hands on a copy of Martha Stewart Living, something I’ve never read before, and I was so inspired. Recipes, crafts and lovely things fill every page. Now I know I’m probably late to cotton on to this but Martha doesn’t have the same presence in the UK as she does in the US, but anyway I’m hooked…I just need to find out how frequently the magazine is published so I can keep my eyes peeled. My work also announced that we are heading off to sunny Athens for our work annual holiday, so I’m busy researching cool hang-outs and shops.  Last year we terrorized Barcelona, so it will be great to get a bit more sun this year! 

I made all my Easter cards on my day of inspiration, however I wrote them and sealed before I remembered to take a snap of them (doh). However it was a great day re-connecting with all the things I love, doing crafting, buying fresh flowers, taking photos and eating my fave lunch. Inspiring food for an inspiring day! There’s nothing better than a day alone to rattle around indulging in all things girly.   Have a great week! 

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have a great day, whatever you’re up to. Relax, take it easy and eat a lot! These are my chocolate bunnies ready to be delivered to my family. I’ve been away in Oxford so I’m off to see my the loved ones today, plus it’s my sister’s Birthday. Have an egg-tra special day!

Just a quick thanks to Miles for all the photo’s lately,  my camera is still poorly.

I had to share the photos and a tip about the wonder that is Le Chandelier, in East Dulwich. Not only is it a beauty but it also serves a mean cup of tea. For all tea fanatics this is a massive plus!  We opted for Silver Needle Jasmine tea - yum! 

As the name suggests this little restaurant/cafe is stuffed full with beautiful vintage, glass chandeliers. The ceiling is dripping with them and it really adds a lovely atmosphere to the place. The rest of the decor is French shabby chic meets Turkish bath house - strangely it works really well and is very  pretty.

In keeping with the real shabby feel all the china tea cups are vintage and miss matched. All very chintz and incredibly cute. They offer loads of great food from afternoon tea to yummy weekend brunch. Dulwich is bursting with great independent shops and Dulwich Park offers recumbents to hire. Miles I spent the rest of the afternoon tearing around the park on a crazy side-by-side tandem - lots of fun!

Phew! It would appear spring is finally here. I think today must have been the hottest we’ve had so far, my cheeks feel a little warm from sitting in the park for most of the afternoon. As the new season arrives I’ve been feeling itchy for some new colours, styles and accessories - hence being really drawn towards blue! Today I tried the newly opened, Tibits, man was the food good. Amazing vegetarian fare, well worth a visit if your in London. 

I’ve been a bit bad at blogging lately, the sad news is my Nikon D40X has died, completely. So, now I am using Miles’ camera - it’s not as much fun as having your own. Back to blue, I managed to find these blue lovelies in TKMax of all places. I love the vintage corn flower blue enamel coffee pot next to the modern retro Jonathan Alder melamine plate. The cool colours are pretty calming - which is always nice in a hectic world!

I love the fact that the Chanel Spring/Summer 2009 Haute Couture collection  is themed around white, it’s so stunning. Paper is the main theme and fabric used, as Karl Lagerfeld says,’ it’s the fabric that I prefer most… I love paper! Everything begins on paper. Without paper I would be lost.’ Very true and as a big lover of both white and paper I am slightly smitten with this collection. All the beautiful paper flowers styled around the idea of a pop up book (the best kind of book). The white theme is running here in reality, London is still covered in powdery white snow…. outside my window all is white. 

All images are from Chanel.com 

These are the photos from my Birthday tea party, they are a little late coming but I haven’t been able to get my act together the sort them out or sit down and write a blog post. It was a lovely little gathering of my girl friends and honorary girl, Miles (of course). We ate cakes and crustless sandwiches washed down with wine and Champagne (it was at night). The night was topped off with some dancing at the very cool club Matter! 

 Thanks to everyone who came, I had a great night! Any excuse to get all my china tea cups and pretty things out again and play hostess. It’s currently snowing here in London, it’s been snowing all day and I have just returned from a snow blizzard on the motor way - which was pretty hairy! it was my nephews Birthday so we had a little party in my home town of Whitstable. Miles and I start our ballroom dancing lessons soon at the Pineapple Studios in Covent Garden, I seriously can’t wait to dance again. I’m not sure we’re going to have the best moves, but at least we’ll be moving!

This shot is my fave, it shows off my lovely cups from Laura Ashley, we have a small kitchen and no dresser so my china has to be packed away when it’s not being used. I can’t wait for the day I can give it a proper home. I have been passing my time listening to Passion Pit, Little Joy, She and Him and Little Boots (thanks Charlie for the tips).

It was my Birthday yesterday and as always I was spoiled with lovely Birthday treats. I am so blessed to have such lovely friends, family and Boyfriend  -who all treated me to some amazing presents and a wicked day! Miles got me a lovely Chanel brooch that is considered vintage and from Provence. I think it is dreamy and really special as Miles chose it for me. I love very few designers like I love Chanel and Marc Jacbos. I also got a whole host of other equally amazing and thoughtful presents that I will blog about shortly, however tonight I have limited pictures of all my loot so I can only share my new brooch. I hope everyone is having a lovely week…. x

Good looking books seem to be my newest obsession. It’s just something about how beautiful they are, with their pretty covers, pictures and pretty insides. I’m in love with the Domino book, I received it for Christmas and it’s a real reading delight! I love Domino magazine it’s so fresh and full of energy, I recently subscribed but it takes so long to get to me in the UK it makes me a little sad. Also occupying my coffee table is the Chanel book and The Kitchen Revolution. Both books I’m yet to totally get to grips with, but both  are really beautiful and The Kitchen Revolution  promises to change the way you cook forever, so I’m looking forward to that.  If anyone has any other recommendations for inspiring, pretty books please let me know….. I’m buying new book shelf in a couple of weeks so I hope to fill it with plenty more lovelies. 

I turn 24 on Wednesday, scary but true…….