New skill : Calligraphy

Ever since I was a little girl, spending my pocket money on Windsor and Newton inks in every hue from my local stationery shop, I have been in love with Calligraphy.  Back then, the books taught you how to do old school, medieval-style, script and I struggled to get my feather ink pen, or scratchy fountain pen, to get the right style. Thankfully things have moved on since those days and a more modern approach to calligraphy is now all the rage.

On Monday, after years of wanting to return to this beautiful way of writing, and in my new personal goal to expand my learning, I attended a workshop event hosted by Sheerluxe and A-laise at the Hoxton Hotel and had my first introduction into modern calligraphy.

After 2 hours our hands ached but I was hooked, all over again!

Here are a couple of my beginner attempts…

Bit scratchy but I’m loving the practising and hope to show you a more professional looking calligraphy soon!

xx

10 things to love this week

Sorry for being so rubbish at updating the blog. I promise to write more but as the rennovation of our house stalls due to finances and work committments, it is hard to find the time to update on the blog without having something personal to talk about!

10 things to ♥︎ this week.

♥︎ Spring is in the air and flowers are making us happy again…

♥︎  Sarah Burton’s Alexander McQueen has returned to it’s London home for London Fashion Week and it has reminded everyone that London is the centre of the universe..

♥︎ Not that I smoke now but surely I can find some reason to have this lovely thing in my life?  Paperclips, hair pins, ring holder…

Neon ashtray £19 – Zara Home

♥︎ Davis Cup tennis is back in March and this time we’re the ones to beat…

♥︎ Once every 3 years Farrow & Ball introduce new colours to their range and it’s that time again…

F&B Peignoir No.286

♥︎ This darling of a mirror at Anthropologie…

Bird mirror £168 – Anthropologie

♥︎ The new Crossrail train line that will go through and under London will be called the Elizabeth Line (and it’s purple cos she’s royalty)

♥︎ It’s been announced that Dennis Quaid is joining Season 2 of Fortitude later in the year..shame I don’t have Sky TV…

♥︎ This lace and pleated crepe dress is back in stock…!

Self Portrait Guipure Lace and pleated crepe dress £255 – Net-a-Porter

♥︎ Next month MotoGP starts the first race of the new season in Qatar and that means my husband will be a happy soul every sunday afternoon…

xx

 

 

The Small Home

A beautiful mum from Jack’s old nursery has set up an interiors company and I went along a few weeks ago to check out her first home sale.

The Small Home is about style and substance, carefully chosen artisan products that inspire your space. They are not perfect, mass-produced replicas.  They are about inspiring a feeling and telling a story.

Before I went to see for myself I wondered what could they offer that hadn’t already been done before but I soon understood when I stepped into their space.  It’s hard to explain it but there was definitely an atmosphere – a feeling of calm and of connection.  This wasn’t just another accumulation of random bits and bobs to buy, things you don’t need and probably won’t use.  There was a feeling of emotional well-being.  An antidote to city living.  A link to those who had created the pieces and to the places where they had been made.  An intimacy that can only be created by a small home.

Those gorgeous giant candles on my mantlepiece:

My new metal star:

The Small Home

Walls : Cornice

An exciting update on our house renovation – I have been looking at cornice for our ceilings for awhile. We have very high ceilings in the house and they need finishing and refining a bit so I went to check out loads of samples from the classic cornice company:

I settled on this one called egg and dart.

It is going in the entrance hallway, the first floor hallway and the three bedrooms on the first floor – the children’s rooms.

I want a uniform for the house – in other words a consistency of style – and that was helped by choosing a cornice to use throughout the house (the top floor cornice will be fitted at a later date when we redecorate the whole floor).

Here is the brilliant Dean fitting the first cornice in my daughters room:

I’m sooo excited about this!  It’s thumping a load of character into the house that, up to now, has been very plain in feel, both inside and out.  I like clean lines but I do believe that in a Victorian house you should celebrate the buildings heritage as much as you can but without compromising on modernity by keeping it fresh.

At the moment they are unfinished plaster which is a lovely dusty salmon pinkish colour but will dry to be paler.  We will see what shade they turn into and then decide on painting but a simple soft white emulsion might be the way to go.

What do you think??

x

Fashion : Savage Beauty

Yesterday I had the great fortune to go to the V&A Museum’s Alexander McQueen exhibition Savage Beauty.

It was, without doubt, one of the best hours I’ve ever spent looking at an artists work.  I was completely blown away and, frankly, very emotional!

I’m not one to think of Fashion as art – most of the time the industry is about selling clothes and making money to be fair – but McQueen was completely different.  He wanted to make a connection with people, to move them, to shock and inspire in equal measures. He didn’t just want you to admire his clothes – he wanted you to get the message loud and clear.

His Savile Row tailoring training was clear throughout his work – the shoulder skimming jackets, the drape of a hem, the cut of a billowing cape.  He was able to compose form and proportion in a way that set him apart.

Like costume dramas on an epic scale, the theatre that he brought to his shows, the narrative behind his collections, and echoed in the exhibition, gave his collections huge impact.

This celebration of his life’s work is made all the more poignant given his untimely death and you realise that he oscillated between life and death, between decay and vibrancy, earth, ashes, blood, nature, rebirth – the cycle of life.

Go go go and go again and if you can’t go then have another look at his work and remember how breathtaking his artistry was.

x

Jewellery : By Jada

Yesterday I had lunch with the very lovely Ceyda Gungor from By Jada in one of my favourite Soho haunts – Pix bar.

We chatted about her amazing business and her mission to bring fine jewellery to customers who are looking for timeless pieces at an affordable price.  In essence, jewellery that can be worn everyday and not locked away never to be seen. She makes real jewellery accessible to all, at a price that most of us can afford, and with a quality that ensures it can be passed down the generations as wearable family heirlooms.

By Jada jewellery is set in white, yellow and rose gold, with champagne, white and black diamonds, blue and green sapphires and beautiful rubies.

Ceyda juggles her business commitments as designer, founder and CEO of her jewellery business with the busy life of a mum of two having moved to London from Istanbul last year.

I love meeting inspiring women (I have the good fortune to work with one!) and I look forward to seeing what’s next for Ceyda, her business empire and her incredibly exciting future.

 

Did someone say it was Mother’s Day??

x

Hello weekend!

This week has taken ages to get to this point!  How long has this week been?!

Here is what I shall be doing this weekend:

• Holiday planning – other than 4 days in October at Centre Parcs we haven’t had a holiday for 7 months! Massively feeling the burn.  So a little planning, very unlike us, is required.

• Thinking about a few Spring purchases:

Zara dungaree dress

Zara blush lace ups

• Making roast beef and apple crumble for our family Sunday Supper:

• Starting to plan our Spring planting and watching the new series of Gardeners World on BBC2:

Monty Don

•  Reading about how to bring up my favourite girl:

Have a great weekend readers.

Cxx

Painting Project : Front Door

It’s been a long six months since we last had work done (our bathroom here).  It took considerable amounts of money and so much of my energy to plan and co-ordinate the project that we’ve taken a rest for awhile.  The winter months have kept us inside but now our attention again turns to the house.  Yesterday was such a lovely day that I was inspired to get down to the DIY shop and get supplies for our next project:  our front door.

Having thought about it for the past few weeks (see my front door post here) we decided to go ahead this weekend.  I didn’t give my husband much notice and we were both out there on a chilly afternoon sanding down the paint instead of watching football or Moonraker so he wasn’t all that chuffed!

We inherited a front door that is a mid-blue colour, sort of the colour of chelsea football club (after sanding it looks more like a faded cornflower blue).  It has large toughened glass panels, some chipped paint, quite a few holes, a kick plate and a mix of satin chrome and polished chrome brassware.

After sanding the paint back and wiping it down I have masked off the brassware:

I bought some dark tone undercoat/primer from the DIY shop as I’m going for a dark colour as a top coat:

Because our doors have Satin Chrome locks (which I think look more like satin nickel) I need to source a new letterbox and door bell as the old ones are polished chrome.

Satin Chrome Banham lock

I went to SDS in Wandsworth, close to my home, and bought a letterbox and door bell push in satin nickel:

SDS letter plate in satin chrome

 

With one layer of undercoat on I painted the first coat of dark eggshell:

And here is the result of 3 hours freezing work this morning…first coat finished!!

 

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Paint

Undercoat: Dark Tones primer/undercoat – Farrow & Ball

Paint: Off Black Exterior Eggshell – Farrow & Ball

(i did try and find a cheaper alternative but for shades of black there wasn’t any other choice at B&Q or Homebase).

What do you think?

Don’t look too closely as you’ll see my amateur attempt!

x

Shopping : HOPSCOTCH LONDON

I came across this East London-based company the other day and promptly ordered some gorgeous looking candles from them.  These hand poured soy wax candles come in simple glass jars with gold screw top lids and are divine.  When the wax is gone I will keep the jar as it’s a very pretty thing.

Not one to pass up a chance to support local business, I thought I’d do my bit to spread the word.

The online retail store is a perfect reflection of their no nonsense, design-led approach that lets the products speak for themselves.

Prints, jewellery, homewares, vintage and accessories all carefully selected to represent craftsmanship, quality and a clean, crisp design approach. A breath of fresh, soy wax, air.

dot print pouch £22.00

pyrite prism necklace £25

gold teardrop paperclips £2.95

vintage 1950s clotted cream tin

lavender soy candle

herbivore purify serum

via HOPSCOTCH.

Art : Egon Schiele – The Radical Nude

Yesterday i went to see this exhibition at The Courthauld Gallery in Somerset House:

Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude.

Some of the images i saw were disturbing, like the one of a naked sick child, but each nude had it’s own style, slender and muscular, and displayed a rawness and explicit exposure which must have shocked art society at the turn of the century Europe.

Strongly influenced and guided by Gustav Klimt, this Austrian artist died very young, at the age of 28, and never achieved his true potential.

It’s on until the 18th January.

x