Colour Joy
Joy Thigpen is a multi talented lady, event stylist, photographer and has the most finely tuned eye for colour that I think I’ve ever seen. She regularly blogs colour stories and they always perfectly evoke a scene or mood. The colours Joy use are always slightly unusual, often unexpected but always work flawlessly. Colour is a massive inspiration for me and something of an obsession, I love seeing how other people pull colours together, fusing seamlessly couture fashion, landscapes and interiors and seek out the delicate nuances that unify all the images so perfectly.
The Lady – Chic Child Spaces
Last month my article for the lady magazine was all about rooms for children, please read it here. Thank you so much to those of you who click over and leave a comment, I love reading them.
We’ve switched up the format a bit, lost the ‘loathes’ section and added a ‘blow the budget section, what do you think of the new format?
Great Expectations
A highlight of the Christmas break for me was undoubtably the BBC adaptation of Great Expectations. Deeply atmospheric with magical interiors. The romantically tragic faded grandeur of the home of Miss Havisham really captured my imagination. Exquisite.
Also, a good blog post title for the eve of 2012, I hope that all of your Great Expectations will be realised in the New Year!
Office Please
In the time between Christmas and the New Year I, like many others, like to get my space in order. A rare few days when for all too brief a time, the phone isn’t ringing constantly, there aren’t a million e-mails requiring my attention and in that pause I have the precious time to calmly sort, organise and prepare for all that 2012 will bring.
I particularly love seeing other designers workspaces (new series of feature posts to come soon). This is the gorgeous work space of party planners extraordinaire Bash Please. I really like the sense of fun and playfulness they have incorporated, the office is light and airy and full of personality. Please note the huge chalkboard wall for brainstorming, the large framed photo collage and the Homasote inspiration boards. Yes please.
More here
Festive
This year has passed in the blink of an eye, I really can’t believe it’s already virtually Christmas! I’ve decorated a little, we’re having a minimal Christmas this year, but I couldn’t resist putting up some of my treasured favourites.
When I think of what I want my Christmas to look like I’m always reminded of the lovely Elspeth Thompsons photos below, I’m a big fan of kitchen dressers in family homes, I love the cosy clutter, the handmade cards and decorations and the liberal scattering of potted bulbs. In amongst the Christmas chaos I love to see bulbs, a reminder of the calm that will follow the festivities… Elspeth was a wonderful writer and I love all of her books, she exemplified all the things I hope I will achieve in 2012; a return to simplicity, the art of the handmade, an appreciation of the natural world and a calm focus on the simple comforts of home.
For more beautiful Christmas cosiness may I direct you to one of my favourite blogs Ciao Domenica, where the very elegant and charming Sunday Taylor posts beautifully on all of my favourite topics and her posts on her Christmas kitchen are perfection.
Wishing you a lovely Christmas. I shall be back after the break.
A Return to Tobias
One of my favourite Christmas traditions is a trip to the annual Christmas fair that is held of White Hart Lane in Barnes. Two of my all time favourite shops The Dining Room Shop and Tobias and the Angel and many of the other shops open up their doors after careful days of preparation to a Christmas extravaganza. Tobias and the Angel always do Christmas exactly right. They make paper chains, they light candles, they make orange peel pot pourri and clove stuffed clementines, delicious mince pies and the whole shop smells like a dream. They also make the most exquisite homemade ornaments that I lust after every year, the angels, the fairies, the hand knitted Father Christmas’ and the abundantly potted bulbs, it really encapsulates everything I love about the holiday season.
