These are my new Orla Kiely mugs they were a kind of moving in present type thing from my now flat-mate. They are just so pretty I rarely drink from them due to not wanting to damage them in any way.  Things have been pretty crazy of late and I am really lacking time in which to blog. I am also having a bit of bloggers block, I have moved away from my inspiration (my home town) and now I am a little stuck! I am not going to let this or London beat me, I am going to get out there with my camera very soon and hunt down some shabby inspiration.

Wow! So, I really have to say a great big thank you to Yvonne over at Yvestown who wrote the most lovely and heartwarming post about me and my little blog the other day. I was so excited when I saw the post, I phoned my Mum, boyfriend and rushed round my flat like a mad woman. The excitement that finally knowing someone likes my blog and, that person is Yvonne! Iam very proud to me a member and reviewer in Yvonnes book club.  My recommendation was Independent London a great little book all about the most exciting and unique independent shops that London has to offer.  I wrote a full review over on the welovelocal blog. So life is changing and I am slowly learning to adapt, I have a major lack of free time, coupled with too much to do. I am off now to go and book my tickets to the London Country Living Christmas fair (I hope their are tickets left), maybe this will provide some much needed inspiration!?

So, this post has been a very long time coming, sorry it’s so overdue. Busy does not describe what I have been of late. I have started a new job, moved house and left my family and boyfriend behind - all in the space of a month! I thought to appease my siblings I would do a photo post of my new abode. I now live in Greater London and work in East London on a website called welovelocal.com 

 Ok, so the above picture is my sorry ‘our’ (being me and Holly’s) living/dining room. Notice the Cath Kidston inspired oil cloth.
 

This is our little window feature of a Claire Nicolson card in a frame with a salvaged John Lewis metal H, because we are both H in this flat.

This is our prized corner, featuring my bargain £5 reclaimed 1960’s wicker chair and stone spot cushion. It is just a corner of pretty things, like my pink Roberts radio. Also it has Holly’s Christian Ward painting propped up like a colour explosion. Please excuse the biscuits in the picture!

Ok this is the kitchen, well, a snippet of it.

This is a real taster of the kitchen, it’s not the nicest, but hey ho we are only renting.

This is the outside in all it’s aged glory, it is quite adorable really. Well I happen to really like it.

Ok, so that is everything. I thought I would add a pretty picture on the end. These are just some of the lovely flowers that miles bought me, I put them in empty glass Diet Coke Bottles to make a bit of a feature. I must end this post here as I am so tired, and need to resign to bed for some much needed sleep.

Ok two posts in one day this is an new record. However I have only just received my new Plumo catalogue in the post today and what was inside really needs some mentioning. I don’t usually find many things in Plumo to fall in love with as it’s quite fussy - this is not the case with their new collection. There are so many stylish and pretty things. I adore this Babushka cushion, it is so cute in all it’s embroidered glory. I try not to only post about Russian doll related items but they seem to be everywhere lately (due to autumn colour schemes) and even harder to resist.

I admit the cushion wasn’t the only thing that really caught my eye, this enamel tea set caught my eye and kept it for about 5 minuets. The best thing about this tea set is the unique questions written on the inside bottom of the cups. It playfully asks; another cup?, wash up? or go for a walk? I could see me sipping my jasmine tea from theses on a cold winters day. I think I’ll have to keep dreaming until richer days. Plumo is great for inspiring things. The catalogue is also great as it’s small and compact but perfectly formed. The Christmas decorations are very beautiful too - well worth a look.

I have been so busy of late it has been impossible to sit down and blog or even find some inspiration to blog about. This is by no means a moan, I love being busy but the last couple of weeks been very exhausting plus I have had a severe chest infection. Anyway, enough of that as it all worked out in the end. So, Miles and I finally managed to steal some leisure time this weekend and headed to Greenwich for the day on Sunday - and what a day it was. I really don’t know how to do Greenwich justice in words, it is so beautiful and there is just so many interesting things to see and do. I have to stress if you love unique markets (like I do) then Greenwich market is the place for you. We visited about three separate markets in total, and the place is not that big. They all sell a mixture of things including vintage furniture and clothing (hence the photo above), exotic foods and handmade crafts.

After all the markets and shops I couldn’t ignore Miles’ plea’s for food any longer so we made a b-line for The Gourmet Burger Kitchen, The burgers are amazing and they really do come piled high, so high they require a knife and fork. I had the chicken burger with camembert and cranberry accompanied by chips with satay sauce (very nice). Enough about the food, we had to walk the dinner off so headed to the naval college to see some sights. It is situated right on the bank of the Thames and you really feel somewhere else, it’s light and airy and very Parisian.

We then made the most of the good weather and headed up into the park, we stopped off at the mini boating lake and hired a pedal boat. It was a first for me having only ever experience oars! It was awesome. Then up to the observatory it’s quite a trek, but the view at the top is totally worth it - it could rival the London eye. Overall, an amazing day, Greenwich is so cool and the things to do are so varied. I will come back again soon, hopefully with all belongings (wink, wink Miles). Ok the alteria motive coming through - I want to live here please!

For some time now I have been meaning to put up something in my bedroom to house my ever expanding collection of Russian dolls . With funds and space both being limited I came up with this (see above). The total cost of the shelves came in at just under £15 - I think? It was a joint effort between Miles and I, and overall I am pleased with the results I think the Russian dolls look happy with finally a place to call their own.

The picture above is the shelves prior to their make over. They were originally from B&Q and cost approx £7.99 (bargain). All it took was some white paint and some retro wrapping paper from Paperchase to get the job done. I chose green as I think I am finally moving away from pink and really pale things - on to stronger and bolder horizons!

  Just a little close up to show the lovely paper, who needs expensive wall paper when wrapping paper is so good these days. I love getting something new for my room especially something that makes a significant difference, it always inspires me to have an overall change around and good old clean up of clutter. Now this post is getting very profound about some shelves - time to stop I think. Overall not much else has been happening other than a bit of crafting for pictures see my flickr. I am also in some serious training for my forth coming 10K run. It is the Cancer Research 10K run in Hertfordshire. I have been hard at it and managed 4K (in the gym), however my recent dose of cold and chesty cough has ceased all training. My sponsor page is here if anyone fancies a look, it’s quite funny - or better still sponsor me (any amount counts!) 

I have just got back from 3 days away in Salcombe, Devon, I was visiting Holly in her new abode. The weather contrast has been a bit of a shock since coming home. I left very sunny spells for dirty grey skies, constant drizzle and some mild flooding. I think the weather change occurred somewhere just outside of Reading, as the train passed through it left the weather behind. Anyway enough about the poor British weather. So, I spent many hours on the train to get there as I live in Kent but when I did finally arrive Holly and I got straight to it, the shopping. I use this term ’shopping’ in the loosest sense as I am currently the poorest thing ever. So what I did was some serious ’shoe-string shopping’. In Totnes the main destination was the shop to end all shops, Gazebo. This is a shop which sells a comprehensive collection of Greengate (finally). The stuff is like gold-dust in the Uk.

The picture above is a collection of just some of Gazebo’s great window displays. This is just what I could snap from the outside (I am always too scared to ask to take pictures inside). The inside is rammed full of curious objects and the latest Cath Kidston and Greengate supplies. Not to mention the Orla Kiely mugs and the very extensive collection of Rice products. Gazebo was great and really exciting, however not good when you have no money. I did manage to grab a bargain pale blue spotted Greengate sugar bowel to add to my collection and a lovely new season Cath Kidston iPod case (both so pretty).
 

We did do more than just shopping, with views and beaches like this to see there was lots to explore. We walked and walked, and walked some more but it was all worth it we saw some good beaches and some good dogs (just for you  Holly).  Then we got the ferry back across the estuary, I loved this part I think it’s all the splashing waves and wind in the hair. Anyhow, I ate very well thanks to a lot of ice cream, pasties and Holly’s Ma’s cooking- all in the holiday spirit. 

Ok, this is turning into an essay length post. So much to say and not enough time or space to say it. Last thing was my little study of sea plants (see above). I have a strange appreciation for plants that can rough it at the seaside, they are all hardy and so over-looked. Anyway they proved to be an interesting photography subject. I think the strange fascination comes from Geography at school (strange huh?). All round lovely trip, thanks Holly. See you in the smoke!

Ok, so many things have been changing lately. The look and design of my blog being one of them. The re-design took place last night, it was most unplanned and totally off- the- cuff. I had been wanting to jazz it up a bit since I first started, however with university ending and job hunting there was no time. Anyway, Miles and I stat down last night at his computer for a design play-around/tutorial and this is what emerged. For anyone who had visited my site before (hello) will recognize the difference. It was very pink and pretty, I still really love this but it only represented one side of me and I fancied something a little edgier. Design wise it all just happened in a couple of hours of bouncing ideas between Miles and I. This makes it quite organic and a really like that. I would love to know what anyone else thinks of the changes? Now, back to these lovely Foxyandwinston screen prints.

As I may have mentioned before (once or twice) I love screen prints. I have been searching high and low for some lovely ones to covert and when I came across these I fell in love. They are super cute and cool to say the least. I am a real sucker for cute kitsch animals like; deers, ginuea pigs and love birds.  The designs are by Jane Buck a designer who resides in New York. However she is British born and trained, which is quite exciting. She uses her designs for greetings cards that are made on recycled acid-free card (environmentally aware too).  To see more designs and limited edition prints visit her lovely etsy shop here. The toddler and baby organic cotton clothes are so simple and cute. I chose these two cards from the shop as they are my personal faves (see above). I have also added the Foxyandwinston blog to my blog roll if anyone fancies a look. 

A very funny thing happened the other day, well Tuesday. I received a lovely card in the mail from Holly. We had just been to Electric Gardens that weekend, she had been down to stay. Anyhow the strange part was the card that she sent. It was a super cute blue card with a pink donkey called ‘Donovan’. When I opened it I thought it looked familiar, then I turned it over and looked at the artist name and it was Clare Nicolson. Not very strange as she is a popular artist, but the strange part was only a few days before she came to stay I started this post about Clare Nicolson. I really loved all her stuff when I stumbled across the website on another blog. I thought wow that is freaky. Well we always do things like this. People constantly ask ‘are you sisters, twins or just related?’ We always buy the same stuff even when we are miles apart, and once had a bidding war on e-bay over a Paul Frank bag… The funny thing was neither of us realised it was the other one (I blame screen names). Anyway we both lost the bag in the end.

Here is the card. I scanned it, in all it’s glory. I think my 6 months working with greetings cards, and greetings cards only has left me strangely fixated with them. I can’t help but get excited over a nice one and Clare Nicolson makes some bloody nice ones. All her stuff is great, I love the way she uses real vintage fabric to create things (a girl after my own heart). The website is well worth a look, it’s  adorable. Plus, the lavender bird bags (above) smell as good as they look, perfect for putting in your sock or small’s draw.

I had to write this to give credit where credit is due, and the mini moo cards rally do deserve credit. I first ever heard about mini moo’s over at  Yvestown . I then investigated further on flickr and joined the mini moo card group to have a little look at other peoples ideas and images. I think overall they cost about £12 with P&P, plus you can pay via Paypal (so easy). They totally cheered me up after a very stressful week. I thought I would write this in the style of an electronics blog, capturing the un-boxing of the moo cards (he, he).

I ordered my 100 image slices on the Sunday and they were safely in my possession by the Friday, including a 3 day postal strike and coming from USA  (pretty good going). They arrived in a sturdy but simple white box. They were much smaller then I imagined, however so perfectly proportioned. I am not sure exactly what I will do with them yet…. inspiration will follow at a later date.  

Here is just a little scan collage I put together to show the cards. They are so cool for creating colour combinations to make whole pictures. I am considering putting some in frames. The scan quality is not great this is due to the fact they are small. Just a note to end on the moo card matter, the message and picture that you can put on the back is such a cool and unique touch. They could easily be used for business cards. Overall an great idea and a good buy 

Susie Watson pottery is lovely and unique. It is so delicate yet so versatile. I first saw her designs on-line and then in the flesh within a little boutique I visit in Tenterden, in Kent. She designs pottery that is hand made and painted within Britain. Her website is lovely and includes all her designs and products that she makes (she also has a linen range). My favorite design has to be the Oscar range as it is all my favorite colours rolled into one; baby blue, pink and cream.

  This is the Oscar Conical tea pot. I have to admit i have a real thing for tea pot’s and this one is lovely. All her pottery is dishwasher and microwave safe so it looks good and is totally functional. The designs are great because they could easily be mixed with simple cream pottery if you can’t afford the whole range, or like to mix and match your pottery for a more shabby chic feel. It is great to support our British designers and Susie Watson is really flying the flag for us with her country, shabby chic inspired designs. All made in the historic pottery central of Staffordshire. Ace!