I’m really early on this one but I am just so damn excited about Christmas! I think it has a lot to do with the fact that this year will be my first year with a place to decorate. Plus it’s my first Christmas living together with Miles … so it’s pretty special. I have been crafting my heart out trying to make some unique and special decorations. Now I am not the best crafter out there so when I set my self a challenge it takes me a while to complete as I am lacking in the skills - however after 8 hours of stitching and felting I finally made a Christmas Russian doll. She’s not perfect, but after all that time and effort she’s going on the tree no matter what (faults and all). 

I have also been making lots of felts hearts, they only take 45 or so to make! It will be interesting to see how all these creations turn out, or if I ever get the time to finish the all by Christmas?! Miles and bought our first decorations yesterday and I got so excited I wanted to put them up straight away - obviously I was restrained, it was hard. I can wait to get a tree and decorate it! Is it just me, is anyone else out there excited by Christmas coming?

Happy belated Halloween all…. I should have written this post two days a go but time wasn’t on my side. Here is a little picture of Miles’ pumpkin carving skills (it was more scary lit up but the smell of cooking/burning pumpkin wasn’t really my thing).

Hope everyone had fun?!

I am totally in love with A.P.C!

If only I could afford to stock my whole wardrobe full of their lovely wares I would! Alas, this is the ever restricting credit crunch so I can only but dream. The Parisian style is super cool, elegant and a little bit kooky in a bookish way. I wish I could go back to Paris - such an inspiring place full of beautiful things. It’s officially dark, rainy and super gloomy in London - I am not feeling the love. I guess I’ll just have to keep looking at inspiring things to keep me from getting too down. Speaking of inspiring things I can’t stop reading Ninainvorm’s beautiful blog - so lovely!  

Hope everyone has had a great week? I have been coveting the above knitted cakes all week, I am seriously in love with them all! They are by the very lovely, and inspiring Bombay Duck - a company that source very cool decorative items, homewares and generally everything lovely. I love how these cakes and the styling they use to photograph them reminds me of beautiful English fetes, he ones my mum used to take me to as a child. With tones of cakes, tea, lace and old china in various miss matched patterns. I love all the knitted cakes and want to get a huge Christmas tree and hang them all on - in all the various colours. That would be one yummy tree!  

Oh well a girl can dream but at £30 for four I think I should stop thinking about a whole tree covered in them. Have a great weekend everyone - oh, if any one does take the plunge and buys something lovely from them, there is a Bombay Duck voucher code in circulation giving 15% off - I may have to indulge!

The weather has been so unbelievably hot in London this weekend, I think it was set to top 21 degrees today and after trekking 5 miles around my local woods I can confirm it’s pretty damn hot. Yesterday I ventured out into London to attempt to find crafting materials, I ended up in Liberty’s very nice haberdashery section and came out a little poorer for it (they had a great selection of sparkle felts). I also stopped the the very cool All The Fun at The Fair in Kingly Court, Carnaby Street which sold the best knitted cactus’ ever! After lunch at the super Cha Cha Moon I found this adorable pink tissue shroom.

It reminded me so much of Shroom from Super Mario, but in super cute pink I couldn’t resist. It’s from a shop called Bird Cage Boutique  in London and they have the matching trays which are really awesome too. I am busy crafting and making Christmas felt lovelies ready for my first year of having a home to decorate - and my first Christmas living with Miles! Hope everyone else is enjoying the weather? It’s crazy making Christmas tree decorations when I am wearing flip flops and have the windows wide open. 

I have been seeking out inspiring things lately since returning from my holiday I have been a bit overwhelmed with work and everything so the situation called for some pretty inspiration. However it seems everything has come all at once, beautiful places to eat, my new Cath Kidston book ‘Make’ arrived today and Miles left me a gorgeous single coral rose in my Greengate jug on my dressing table, as he went away today. The collage above shows some of London’s prettiest places; Lauderee Harrods, Shipps Tearoom and The Athenaeum Hotel (big image). This is just a little selection of pretty pink hues around London that amaze me. 

I am off to the Future of Web Apps tomorrow (very exciting).  Happy 15th birthday Cath Kidston for tomorrow by the way (did anyone else enter the Cath Kidston quiz?)!

So I am back from my holiday in Mykonos Greece and I really did have the best time. It was amazingly relaxing and just what I needed (I hadn’t had a week off since Christmas). We stayed at the incredibly cool Mykonos Theoxeina, it’s a Design Hotel and boy did it live up to it. The picture above is taken from the lobby area all the inside was designed by interior designer Angelos Angelopoulos and it was all so beautiful I had to share it.

I love the colours it made me want to rush home rethink all my interiors to a blue/green scheme. It’s an amazing 1960’s hotel that was amazingly true inside to it’s exterior architecture. It was so nice to stay somewhere that not only was amazing in service but actually inspired you.

If I could have bought one thing home with me (apart from the sun) it would have been this chair. I fell in love with it, it was in our room and the fabric was so cute and shabby chic. Speaking of shabby chic I think I was the only person on the beach with a Cath Kidston ‘roses’ towel and beach ball - if only I could have got my hands on the lilo in time I could of really gone for it. I am now busy getting excited about Autumn - there are so many exciting fashion things on at the moment, I am emerged in catching up after being without the internet for a week (and during fashion week!).

I forgot to mention, I recently saw the Fashion in the Mirror exhibition exhibition at the London Photographers Gallery. It aims to showcase the development of self reflection in fashion photography throughout history. It shows the quest for perfect beauty and the development of the inside glimpse at the makings of what we see as ‘perfect beauty’. It was a small but perfectly formed exhibition - great for a spare lunch hour!  

There is just so many lovely things out there at the moment, I made a little collage of just a few of my faves. It’s hard to lust after autumn fashions when I will be off to sunny Greece this week - but when I get back I am well and truly getting stuck into autumn.

Ok so on the wish list line up is the divine Orla Kiely ‘Cube Print’ dress, this is a long shot as it is way out of my price range - but a girl can dream. There is a great piece about Orla in this month’s Vogue too! Next up is the Pop Art macaroons and gift boxes from Laduree I seriously want to try all the flavours and own all the gift boxes, they are so pretty and iconic. Then there is the irresistible Boden leather boots, my current boots need re-healing and I have fallen for these beauties.  The Russian doll lamp is so cute as you all my know (the name is a give away) but I am nuts about Russian dolls, so this lamp seriously blows my mind - it’s by Plumo. Not forgetting the amazing Luella horse tee and the amazing Cath Kidston floral sweatshirt which I WILL own when I get back from my hols. 

 I finally found time to make a few changes to the flat, Miles and I have decided to stay here in our tree house flat a little longer so I thought I would add a splash colour to get rid of my decorating itch (we rent so you can’t decorate!) I bought this amazing cushion over at Lush Designs (as mentioned before) and it is the most amazing quality - I love it! It is like a fairy tale cushion and I love the blue it really brightens up the room.

 In keeping of adding a bit of colour I decided to paint my table legs, and get some black chairs to match our Mexican oil cloth.  I have never been a fan of black furniture, but with our living room and our whole building being so 1950’s inspired it works quite well. I feels really nice to make a few changes, I love projects! So, Summer is officially over and photo are getting hard to take as the light is not too good, but I’ll keep trying to get some good shots. I am off on my holiday soon (finally) can’t wait -  sunny Greece here I come!