Category: 2015
Instant Gratification x
Heading to the sewing superstore today to re-stock the portable summer craft box…
(All pictures Pinterest)
I love the idea that one hook and some coloured yarn can do all this..
Laters, Kate x
Babe-li-cious x
Time..the beast that no man can stop. It’s almost the end of summer term, which has nearly the same madness of Christmas with it’s particular frenzy of Sports Days, concerts, exhibitions, class parties and Prize Days. The children finally break up on Thursday, we leave for three days glamping on Friday (yay!), arrive back on Monday..kids leave with their Grandparents for Greece on the Tuesday…(we leave the following week). It feels a bit like being in a tumble dryer. Or a piece of bread dough being pulled and pushed.
And I still need to get my swimwear sorted…I don’t think I’ll ever move away from the retro look..
It was designed for curves..
Best I’ve found so far are from Bettylicious..Great shapes, fab prints.
(Pictures from Bettylicious and Pinterest)
Now it’s just a matter of committing to one quickly as Sports Day starts at 9.30…
Laters, Kate x
Ode to Creative Coffee..
We had our final Creative Coffee EVER yesterday…a day of sadness, joy..and achievement all rolled into one.
Sometime it’s the simple things in life that make the magic and one of those things for me were Creative Coffee Mornings. They were started by the lovely Sophy many years ago now, when she made the genius decision that chatting over coffee with young children was so much more fun when creating was involved. Originally we’d all take over our unfinished projects and use the time to give ourselves much needed permission to complete them. Then Sophy and best friend, Minta developed it further and prepared, for a small fee, everything in advance with a termly timetable of once-weekly delights. From sugar craft to liqueurs to making sausages…it was the perfect antidote to urban brain boil.
Now Minta is off to pastures new – a whole new chapter is opening up for her in the wilds of Scotland, which I know she’ll relish and grab with both hands…but she’ll be missed.
Wednesday mornings will never be quite the same again..
(These are not handmade rolls but an edible sculpture, entitled ‘eight nude elderly ladies tying their shoelaces’..)
So I raise a cupcake to the wonders of Creative Coffee and all who sailed in her…. Ladies, it was a commanding performance with a spectacular range, lead with aplomb and an indescribable magical touch of alchemy. Thank you for the opportunity to spend time with some of the best women I know laughing, baking, making and creating. The memories will live long..(well..those that aren’t addled by sloe gin…)
I absolutely loved it.
Laters, Kate x
Wool and the Gang x
Wool and the Gang was born to find the best way to produce fashion..namely by hand…your hands..(or if you’re really nervous..someone else’s)
It’s a quirky, sustainable reaction to the fast fashions of our generation that says stop, think..and make something special that lasts whilst reducing stress and improving dexterity.
You can either purchase complete kits to make yourself..or a separate price is given for a ready made item where you can support fellow ‘Gangsta’s’ by buying their handmade pieces.
There’s different levels for various abilities..and options for men, children and the home too…even crochet.
Wool is a favourite yarn, but they also work with fashion factories to repurpose their fashion waste into new yarns to reduce landfill.
Clever eh?
It was founded by three women: Designers Aurelie Popper and Jade Harwood met while studying textile design at Central Saint Martins in London, after which they went onto work at Alexander McQueen and Balmain. Third member is Elisabeith Sabrier, former model, world traveller and yarn lover.
It’s the kind of stuff you you really want to make.
And now there’s no excuse..
Laters, Kate x
Summer Lovin’ x
The weather in the UK has yet to settle down. The majority of the hurrying figures I saw this morning on my way to school were wearing thick tights and scarfs, held tight against the wind. Give it two hours, the sun could be shining and all those layers will peel off in the time it takes for a corn kernel to pop in a hot pan. It’s confusing and disappointing and makes me dream of consistent kingfisher blue skies, warm, heavy air and the compelling rasp of cicadas.
If I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d head straight to Christophe Sauvat and fill my battered leather backpack with all his summer wonders…summer dresses to float in..
Summer tops to laugh in (a glass of rose in one hand, a good book in another…)
And shoes to die for.
We’d pile into the car, fill the petrol tank to brimming and head for the coast…
And keep driving to the sun..through France, stopping wherever to indulge in gastronomic delights to tantalise the tastebuds..or just to admire the view.
Then on to Italy, to visit friends and wrap them up with us in our hedonistic cloud..nostalgic for the past..loving the present.
Before heading to Greece, to pitch a tent and live a completely free few months, brown, barefoot and under the stars, knowing that the best things in life are the simplest.
A girl can dream…
Laters, Kate
So Wright..
The news around the world isn’t great at the moment. Condensed down, the underlying message I’m hearing is that big things don’t work (Didn’t we learn anything from the Romans?). And yet the drive to continually make everything bigger and supposedly better runs deep, because if you don’t…you’re a failure; The economy has to grow, companies have to grow..countries, even religions all want to expand till they become these slow moving bloated beasts that eat up everything in their way, with no joined up thinking except feeding this thirst for size and dominance. It’s a big day for Greece today. I don’t know what the right answer is..I’m not sure there is one, except maybe they should never have joined the EU in the first place. But it seems to me that things are becoming more and more about power plays than people.
Thank God for the whimsy of fashion….and the joy that is Linda V. Wright, former model and fashion editor, born in Texas but oh-so far removed from a rodeo riding stetson toting stereotype.
Now living in Paris and running her own shop, Crimson Cashmere,
She’s a lesson in graceful, chic yet expressive dressing.
Like the world’s best perfumes, she’s layered in classics all with subtle, different flavours.
(All pics from pinterest)
You want to sit down with her at a striped bistro table in a busy Parisian street and ask, is this really all possible? Can life really be this easy? This sassy?
Laters, Kate x
Oh Charlie….
I’m not sure what it is…end-of-term-itus, the weather..a growth surge? But Charlie and I are having regular run-ins like a pair of bulls in mating season. I picked him and Bella up from school just the other day and he got upset because I refused to carry his bag. I never carry his bag – it’s a principal. But because it had a library book in it, a big one chosen by him, he wanted me to. I had 4 bags and a laptop to carry. There was no way. He moaned and moaned. So I gave him my bags and took his. He couldn’t walk..and moaned again. Took my bags back and told him to stop complaining. He complained more. I said if he didn’t stop, I would dock 20p off his pocket money. He lost 20p. Then I realised we had to go to the shops before going home as Bella had a school trip the next day and needed a packed lunch. In the time it took us to get to the shop he’d lost £4.00. I asked him to wait outside the shop so I couldn’t hear him whine. He refused. By the time we eventually got home he was £8.00 down. I advised him in no uncertain terms that after 45 minutes of pure torture he got out of my sight before I did something I regretted, and maybe the best thing to do would be to go up to his room and punch a pillow till he’d calmed down and could be human again.
Five minutes later he re-appeared with arms outstretched saying, ‘I’m sorry Mummy,’
I went to give him a cuddle…
He looked up at me with his big brown eyes full of concern…’I’m so sorry Mummy….but unless you change your attitude I’m going to have to leave home.’
I pointed down the hall, ‘There’s the front door.’
Laters, Kate x
Klemens Torggler
This is a post courtesy of the lovely Lia in Brussels who first introduced me, via a comment on this Blog, to the incredible work of Austrian wizard, Klemens Torggler.
There are a rarified group of objects like the London Underground map that have totally fulfilled their design potential – to meddle any further would be to over-engineer or muddy. And so it could be thought with the humble door – opening or sliding are the only two options.
That is until now. Torggler’s design, based on rotating squares, makes it possible to move an object sideways without the use of tracks. Even if the object weighs 200 kg.
There’s also the Evolution door,a door based on triangles that moves at the touch of a finger tip like a piece of living origami.
What I would give for my own flock of steel birds – The perfect marriage of function and Art.
Laters, Kate x
Sun Rocking..
If you’re wanting to uncover your inner Bond girl this summer, Australian label Duskii – designed for swimmers, surfers, divers, sailors and beautiful beach babes – maybe just the one for you..
(This style plus others are on sale NOW at Net-a-porter..)
(Unfortunately the perfectly pert buttocks aren’t included)
If you’re liking the neoprene look but not the designer price tag, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel with southbeachofficial.com and their range of bikinis.
They’re not in the same league, but at £28 for a set…it’s hard to go wrong.
If you’ve got it. Flaunt it.
Laters, Kate x
Clean Slate x
Old fashioned..or functional and full of character? Anaglypta or embossed wallpaper has that decisive, divisional effect.
Personally, I love it..it protects walls from the bumps and bangs of everyday life and offers a rich, timeless texture that’s hard to find anywhere else.
My marmite moment was what they did to it in the eighties..blinging the raised bits with lightly brushed metallic gold and copper paint..I can feel the bile rising all over again. But in a deep, dark matt grey or black?
(last 2 pictures mine, all the others from Pinterest)
It’s time to experiment with samples..how high should the dado go? Maybe a whole wall of anaglypta..different anaglyptas….the mind is happily starting to bubble..
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 