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.  

Lj, you can leave the picket line now please ….. I give in!

So I have taken a little break from the blog, I am not going to go on about how busy and preoccupied I have been as that is kind of old news now. I guess I am just one of those people if don’t have anything to say I won’t, and lately I haven’t. However I am really excited about the future, I am moving this weekend and have so much to share once everything is in place. I honestly can’t wait it is really soul destroying having nothing inspiring to write about. However personal life aside I have been doing some exciting things for work. The most relevant being I got to interview the amazing designer Clare Nicolson for the welovelocal blog. Her, and her brilliant Glasgow Craft Mafia did a guest post - and did an amazingly interesting job. Have a little look at the interview, it is all based around community and crafty goodness.

So this is a promise I will be back very soon with a much more exciting array of posts …… I promise Ljbigapple!

Happy Valentines everyone!

I hope cupid was kind to you all? I thought I would post up this lovely picture done my my very own valentine - Miles. I love it and I think it really says something romantic, but it is also quite neutral if your not into the whole valentines romance thing. I am at work writing this, so no cards or surprises for me yet - fingers crossed for this evening!

This is the picture that best describes how I would like to remember my weekend. I have spent the whole thing feeling pretty ill and sorry for myself, but today we ventured out to Greenwich to soak up some sun and stroll in the lovely park. I came across this beautiful independent cake shop called Daisy Cakes Bake Shop and had to tell everyone about it. I don’t want people to think I am obsessed with cakes, but they are just so damn pretty I can’t resist. Daisy Cakes is in Greenwich and they really do make a mean raspberry cupcake - very fluffy and really light. The cake shop also sells really useful and unusual cake equipment and accessories too, I’ll be heading back for supplies soon. The weather today has been almost spring like at 16 degrees  - a very welcome change to the grey skies we are used to.

To facilitate my feeling ill I have been watching the first season of the new American series Gossip Girl. It’s made by Josh Shwartz, the brains behind The O.C and gosh it’s good so far! I highly recommend it!

p.s Miles and I finally have ourselves a flat so it’s all exciting stuff!  

I recently made a welovlocal.com cake for work it was my colleague Dan’s Birthday and plus I thought It would be nice to make some cake for the office, anyway people always ask for the recipe and because I kind of make it up I can never simply write it out for them so I thought I would do it on here and be done with it (for you Elaine). 

Ingredients: (2 sandwich cake tins, well greased)

8 0z of margarine             Large slab of cooking chocolate (scotch block)

7 oz castor sugar               Large jar of Nutella

4 eggs                                 2 huge heaped table spoons of coca powder

8 oz of plain flour             2 level teaspoons of baking powder

1.   Cream the butter and sugar together until it’s fluffy then beat the eggs in one at a time.
2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and coca into the mixture giving it height for extra air (fluffiness). Fold and mix the mixture adding hot water in to stop it drying out, mixture should be moist and drop off a spoon. 
3. Divide the mixture into the two tins and smooth out mixture to give an even surface and then bake on a medium to hot gas mark in a pre heated oven for about 20 - 25 mins (keep checking to avoid burning). Put a clean kinfe through the cakes to see if the are fully cooked if it comes out clean then they are done. 
4. Leave cakes to cool and then begin to grate your chocolate for the covering, I use cooking chocolate as real choc melts too quickly. Grate one whole big bar and keep in the fridge until ready to use. 
5. When the cakes have cooled used a generous amount of Nutella as the sandwich filling it gives a great taste. Melt some non-cooking chocolate to a runny consistency and add and stir in a generous amount of Nutella (this will be used to cover the entire cake).
6. Now you have you two halves of the cake together smooth over the melted chocolate and Nutella, after a few mins remove the grated chocolate from fridge and cover the cake in the chocolate shavings (making sure you have no gaps) and then decorate with anything you like. 

If anyone gives it a go I would love to know how you get on? x

Yesterday was gloriously sunny so I thought I would grab a photo moment of my new lovely fruit/salad bowl that Holly bought me for my Birthday. It is by Greengate and is the Selma pattern. As many frequent readers will know I have the and milk jug in this range too. I am getting quite the collection, now all I need is the tea cups and spoons. Anyway, I love it and seeing as the weather is picking up what better time for a picture of some lovely vibrant organic colours, they really cheer me up!

I would have posted this yesterday but had a little bit of blog server problems - all better now though! I feel as though I am turning into the Sunday blogger, I apologise for this but with such a hectic schedule it’s though to make any other time. I miss posting more regularly I feel itchy too many pretty things out there not enough time to write about them. Oh the cute heart above hiding in the fruit is a fabric Greengate heart hanger that Holly also purchased me for my Birthday (lucky old me). In other news, I have spent most of the weekend flat hunting in London it is all very exciting - Miles and I are finally getting some where together. I actually can’t wait, it’s so exciting!

Decorating Ahoy!  

p.s I hope everyone has checked out the new Cath Kidston and Greengate Spring/Summer 2008 collections they are adorable! 

Ok, two posts one day I should slow down as I’ll run out of things to write about. I just couldn’t wait to post a pic of my latest treasure. This is my owl lamp I got it in the Urban Outfitters sale for a silly amount of money. There were so many left in the shop I had a job choosing - I think London peeps just don’t see how much having an owl lamp can benefit your life? Anyway I snapped one up and I am pretty glad I did. It has taken me an age to finally find the right shade for it, but the other day in Dunelm Mill (a very cheap store) I found this great shade. I am pleased as punch with the results. It is so damn cute! I felt my night owl is fitting in so many ways now as not only is it my night light, but I seem to be turning into a night owl blogger - through lack of time in the day.

Night all!