Category: Fashion
Bea Johnson x
Anyone else read the article in the Times yeesterday about Bea (pronounced ‘Baya’) Johnson and her zero waste lifestyle? The picture above represents the amount of waste her family have accumulated over a year…it’s an eye opener..
She’s been living this way since 2008..and it doesn’t make her a crusty hippy.
Her (and her family’s) wardrobe are small enough to fit into carry-on suitcases…which they pack, wheel away – and then their house is rented out to pay for their holidays.
But a small wardrobe doesn’t mean she doesn’t have style.
It’s just that they’ve made choices about what they really need against what society and big companies want them to need.
I think I’m going to have to read her book…
Laters, Kate x
The Hall x
Time to decide which wallpaper makes the cut for the hall which is a bit like going into Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory and just choosing one ickle bickle flavour. How do you pick?
It will be William Morris because he is my interior design hero and God. But that hardly narrows the field down.
I’ve discarded some of the darker patterns, just because I’m going darker…on the dado and skirting boards..and in the kitchen..and sitting room..and cinema room..hey ho – just call my home a cave..
I’m thinking this one – Arbutus – could be it…There’s something about the 3D effect of the leaves and their blue/grey colour..
Decisions, decisions…
Laters, Kate x
Love Stack..
Some natural bling to shine in the grey…that won’t break the bank.
Made by two sisters in Canada with a shared love of nature and making wearable art.
The rings are cast in a handmade mould using eco resin – a biobased product derived from pine oils from the waste streams of other manufacturing products.
They’re left to cure for a week before being sanded down smooth using over 10 grades of sandpaper and polishing tools.
So each one is unique.
Find them at their Etsy shop Rosella Resin . With prices starting at just £24.95 plus postage it’s a tastefully environmental win win.
Laters, Kate x
Clothes List x
Weather update in London: Drab, grey, definitely cooler than December but still not cuttingly cold – not a true frost to be seen, instead lots of rain, puddles and mud. It’s when I miss the twinkling lights of Christmas and long for spring – which is still a good six weeks away.
Clothes are still transitional – I wore my big winter jumper for the first time today, but that’s probably more because we have no heating as the boiler is being moved. To go out, all I needed was a light wool jacket – which sums up the weirdness of a winter that’s never progressed: It’s a time of mashing up opposites – skinny jeans with giant cardigans, long wool coats with no socks….floaty skirts and enormous jumpers.
(Pics: Pinterest)
Just keep a brolly handy.
Laters, Kate x
David Bowie x
RIP David Bowie, the man who’s gone to heaven.
Hot tracks, cool suits, he was the slipstream where art and narrative collided.
I met him many moons ago as a film extra – we chatted over a chicken sandwich whilst having our hair highlighted together..he would eventually cut my throat. Not many people can say that..
The Picasso of pop and an enigma to the end: A superstar that, in a news crazy world where titbits are commodity and nothing is sacred, managed to keep his illness a secret and death a shock. Utter respect.
Laters, Kate x
Shine & Shade x
Wallpapers: Can you spot the rubies in the dust, the cheerful from the chips, the diamonds in the rough? Scroll through, remember your favourites….then see at the end. So this is number one..
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Seventeen.
Eighteen.
Nineteen.
Twenty.
Now for the reveal…..all the wallpapers were from Graham and Brown – not a company featured much in the interior design world glossies. But many of the concepts here are visually similar to their posher counterparts: Honolulu palm versus Palm by Cole and Son, Capulet teal versus Hermes jardin d’osier, tudor houses versus Fornasetti. But their price point? Nothing here was over £20..and some of them were as low as £7.50 per roll…check it out:
One = Honolulu palm green for £20 per roll.
Two = Desire gold for £8.50 (in the sale) or £17 per roll
Three = Marvel action hero for £10 per roll
Four = Juan white for £7.50 per roll
Five = Jiao pruple for £7.50 per roll
Six = Tranquil purple for £7.50 per roll
Seven = Bao white for £7.50 per roll
Eight = Desire damson for £7.50 per roll
Nine = Fresco Mai for £10 per roll
Ten = Olympus black/white for £10 per roll
Eleven = Majestic black for £15 per roll
Twelve = Petit papillon black for £20 per roll
Thirteen = Do the stretch mustard for £20 per roll
Fourteen = Capulet teal for £20 per roll
Fifteen = Botanic charcoal for £20 per roll
Sixteen = Kelly’s Ikat for £20 per roll
Seventeen = Enigma white/prussian blue for £20 per roll
Eighteen = world heritage black/white for £20 per roll
Nineteen = Honolulu black for £20 per roll
Twenty = tudor house for £20 per roll
Makes you think: Where does the beauty lie?
Laters, Kate x
Row Like a Girl x
Turn off Big Brother with it’s endless whining voice of entitlement and check out the Row Like a Girl team, now halfway through the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic race. They’re four British girls: Lauren Norton (skipper), Olivia Bolesworth, Bella Collins and Georgina Purdy who are hoping to become the youngest four ever to row the distance and break 2 world records in the process…just a mere 3,000 miles.
They’re part of 26 teams taking part facing sleep deprivation and exhaustion with a continual pattern of two hour on/off shifts, extreme weather conditions including 30-40 ft waves, and health issues with salt sores, blisters and possible infections…
Not something to be taken lightly…
But there’s something saintly about their bloodyminded combination of fun and fierce conviction. They bridge the gap between girly girls and inner strength, racing under the banner ‘strong is the new skinny’ and laughing in the jaws of adversity, making it all look like the most glamorous, fabulous romp on the planet. As I type, the girls are in a strong second but things are looking promisingly awful for the whole fleet with significant headwinds of excess of twenty knots expected…
Really..who needs reality TV?
Laters, Kate x
Progress..
The building work is moving up a gear now, particularly in the cellar. The digging is finished, insulation and underfloor heating is laid and it was all screeded and left to dry over the festivities. Now we’re onto the first fix and finalising plans for the second fix.
It’s an interesting space in terms of design – it’s predominantly a cinema/games room that needs to swallow a lot of ugly storage. But what doesn’t help is that I have a fundamental problem with the general concept of cinema rooms: It seems that the moment the word ‘technology’ is associated with a space it becomes infused with this need for everything cold, chrome, clean and clinical – like the ‘cutting edge technology’ needs to be supported and highlighted by it’s super-duper space-ship-like surroundings..which will probably be out of date in a year. The truth is I’ve yet to find a cinema room on Pinterest I like or want to lounge, Roman-senator-style in.
So it was back to the drawing board and writing a list from all these pictures of the things that actually make a room cosy: A fire, books, rugs, lamplight, dark colours..fluffy dog.
And that’s when the inspiration struck – why not create a false chimney breast for the TV to go on, with a fireplace where the DVD player/set top box/general crap/ can be hidden in the cleverly made fireplace surround? We can’t have a proper fire..
But there are some amazing electric cast iron stoves around..and in the summer it means you can have the glow without the heat!
It’s a work in progress, but the plan is to have significant 75 cm depth mega cupboards with sliding doors across the back with the boiler and water tank under the stairs. As you come down the stairs, the first cupboard you see will be low level holding games and a vintage dollshouse. Then there will be full height open bookcases either side of the chimney breast and all the way to the end of the wall. The chimney breast will come out 40 cm and hide all the cabling from the TV. The fireplace will be slightly lower than normal to help with eyelines to the screen, and the DVD etc will be housed in the central section of the surround under a fretwork door – which should mean we can use the remote without having to have the door always open (fingers crossed) . The stove will be quietly tucked inside to add ambience, all topped off with a tiled hearth.
May the magic begin!
Laters, Kate x
Best of 2015..
Laters, Kate x
Transforming teatowels..
Thank you to Kerry for my fabulous vintage tea towel, as model by Bella in our temporary kitchen!
I won my teatowel by getting the nearest guess to how many of these Kerry had made in a jar. She’s making 3,000 of them to turn into a bedspread…she’s that kinda gal – articulate, dextrous, imaginative..and can just make the most beautiful things, from hand woven blankets to mouth watering chocolates..and she also runs her own Etsy shop selling vintage linens. She truly is one in a million…if you click on the link now, there’s even a recipe for toffee which I can guarantee to be utterly delicious.
We’ll be turning these (an extra thank you!) into decorations for our first fake Christmas tree EVER. It’s in the garden right now…but when the builders leave us, it’s coming in, if only for a few days. And covered with all things home made.
As for the tea towel..I’m almost loathed the use it. It’s in such glorious shape/colour/nick, I feel, it’s like a much loved sheep dog or dog for the blind, that after a hard, fulfilling life it needs a good retirement. I’m tempted to turn it into a cushion, a bit like Julie from VintageAttitude did for me with my Grandmother’s tea cosy..(and yes..it will be complete with pom poms Dievca!) I can just see it as an elegant, refined bolster on our bed.
The two cushions I bought from Julie also started life as tea towels…
Food for thought hey…
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 