Category: Fashion
6 Facts…
1. It’s warm enough in London to wear shoes without socks but that doesn’t stop me looking at winter coats and dreaming.
1. I received a beautiful vintage tea-towel in the post today. More info and pics to follow, but thank you Kerry!
3. We have no toilet.
4. Charlie is making paper decorations as I type…but only if I tell him he’s the best cutter in the world. On a regular basis.
5. We’re going to my mother’s for lunch..and to use the facilities..
6. If you’re lucky enough to have any flex in your Christmas budget, Net-a-porter (where all these coats are from) is having the most amazing 50% off sale. Almost makes the prices human…
Laters, Kate x
Christmas Creative x
It’s the last day of the term for the kids, which would normally herald my favourite time of the year – hunkering down with crafts and an open fire to embrace everything glitter, festive and fun. It’s not the same with builders in the house…but why – really – should it be any different? In fact, with all our decorations in storage, the call to make everything is stronger than ever..I’m just thinking we need to keep everything as cheap and as simple as possible…decorations from paper?
Surprisingly effective: Cut out the shape, glue 2 sides together..and keep going. Miniatures for a garland..larger for a tree..
Or these globes? Fun with scissors and a hole-punch..
If we get really carried away…. a spot of origami?
(Or maybe we’ll just stick to to the good’ol paper chain….)
Laters, Kate x
Just Because..
Laters, Kate x
The Cellar x
Sigh. This is part of the inspiration for our cellar renovation..a warm, inviting room from epic the Hotel Provinence in Paris.
But before we get to the fun bits (we’re still shovelling soil), the room layout has to be nailed (literally). It’s not the easiest room – there’s got to be lots of multi-functionality but I’ve found a brilliant site – The Make Room – which is the easiest, most practical room planner I’ve ever played with.
You can pull in furniture..and alter their sizes to represent yours..or what’s on the dream list.
Save different layouts.
Add in measurements to ensure there’s enough walk space..(Top tip: As a base line the site uses feet and inches, to change – look to the right and click on ‘add all buttons’ then, look to the left, find ‘view’ click and change to centimetres)
You can choose plugs..lights..even slippers.
At the end – oh the joy! – it gives you a list of the sizes of all the furniture you’ve used..is that not heaven on a page?
Then just print off..and hand to nearest Bank Manager…
Laters, Kate x
Starlight Express x
At a Christmas party we went to at the weekend, there was only one lady wearing a full length dress. It was jade silk chiffon with a plunging neckline and long, billowy sleeves caught at the wrist. As she wafted past I told her she looked knock out. Like an expensive thoroughbred there was a shake of the head in acknowledgement…before she made a beeline for the champagne.
But it goes to show, a good dress is always a good dress – maybe even more so when you do your own thang. All these are from the Vilshenko range where there’s been a move away from the bright, Ukrainian embroidery of the summer.
To a more parred back sophistication.
Yet they still remain a folk-related potent force.
If I had the wallet to match, I’d take one in every colour,
Laters, Kate x
Assemble x
Say what you like about the Turner Prize, but this year’s winners just make your heart sing: Assemble are a London-based collective who work across the fields of art, design and architecture to create projects in tandem with communities who use and inhabit them.
Their idea is to celebrate an areas value in terms of architecture and cultural heritage, but to also support public involvement with partnership, local training, employment opportunities, resourcefulness and a DIY spirit. Which is exactly what they did with Granby Four Streets, a group of terraced houses in Toxteth, Liverpool. Originally built around 1900 to house artisan workers, the houses have had a rocky life – it’s taken the local residents ten years of fighting to save them from demolition, but now they’ve cleaned them up, organised a thriving monthly market, created a community and looked to Assemble for a little extra help.
Welcome to the Granby Workshop, a new social enterprise that manufactures handmade products for homes to sell. Their first range of products are designed to refurbish houses – the sort of stuff that was ripped and stripped out of the original houses when they were boarded up by the council.
Like lights cast using brick and rubble waste from the site.
They say ‘Our products are all are manufactured using processes which embrace chance, so that each is unique, developing in the hands of the people that make them’.
The profits will then go to support a programme engaging young people aged 13 to 18 in creative, practical projects.
It’s starting now – you can see what’s in the shop and place pre-orders (I have) for their first edition products which will support the launch of the business and the ongoing rebuilding of the area. If ordered before Christmas, you’ll receive a beautiful print by the artist Marie Jacofey. Each print will depict the product you’ve ordered whilst you wait for yours to be made..great design, a first-edition-part-of-the-Turner-Prize, with heartfelt spirit and all in the best cause…it really has to be the perfect gift. I sigh.
Laters, Kate x
Divine Decs…
If you don’t have the time to make your own, then Graham and Green have the best vintage-style-glass-bauble-bling for your ker-ching.
Or you could just see them as beautiful inspiration and an incentive…
Laters, Kate x
Woolly Palette x
Sheepskin has that rare mix of standout and empathy.
It’s come a long way from the full blown saturation of it’s seventies hey day which resulted in total burn out.
But it’s appeal is sneaking under the radar and gently returning, softening edges and singing of warmth and cosy nights by open fires.
No doubt the flokati rug will soon follow.
Laters, Kate x
Bag Boys…
Hero designs are those that fill multiple purposes and still manage to look the dog’s wobblies each time.
Like the Model M bag, hot on my personal wish list for a top totty present.
Made from fashion-flex – a posh name for a proprietary polymer (your guess is as good as mine) it’s resilient, lightweight and equally at home in the urban jungle or on a sun-drenched beach.
Those living in the States are laughing – it’s a mere frugal designer $120 dollars for you – which somehow translates into £125 for us Brits if you buy from Liberty London.
Might be worth doing the transatlantic shipping cost maths…..or dropping a note to Santa and his sleigh….
Laters, Kate x
A Cultured Christmas..
It’s the first of December (gulp) so our two elves on shelves, Jessie and Heinrik sorry – Pinkadou – he’s just been renamed by Charlie (‘Did you know Pinkadou is an old Italian name, Mummy??’ and there was I thinking it was made up. Silly, silly) have made their first appearance. Spotted them?
There they are sitting quietly on our giant loveheart.
Which, without the children, would make them horribly open to very childish abuse…
Which would be a very, very terrible thing….
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 