Category: Fashion
Crystal Balls….
There’s a change in the wind..can you smell it? It’s something I didn’t think I’d sense again, but it’s there and getting stronger. Like the White Witch of Narnia, the power of the White-Company-scandi-minimalist-Christmas is finally waning and being replaced with bright, retro, seventies glam. This year on my tables, all the candles will be warm…and red…
Fairy lights will be multicoloured and loud.
And the tree will be smothered in tinsel and those funny silver threads once again.
It’s time to embrace the kitsch and the vulgar..
Out with the bland and in with the true!
Laters, Kate x
These boots were made for walking..
If less is more and more is less, then a pair of Docs has to be a must for winter.
The do-anything-go-anywhere-shoe that can actually take a pounding and, like the best things in life, get better with age.
That’s one part of the winter uniform ticked off then..
Laters, Kate x
Building Update x
We’re still fairly chaotic in the back sitting room with now 4 sofas, three tables, a piano, footstool, fridge, freezer and 10 chairs (including one just visible on top of the two sofas..) which lists like a modern day carol.
My kitchen is still a cunning arrangement of two bookcases salvaged from the cellar on a console table. The ‘oven’ (on the table to the left of the chairs) is a one ring hob..that only works with a le creuset pan. How middle class? The sink is in the shed..the washing up is the bathroom upstairs. Oh joy.
But no pain, no gain and the huge steels are in and walls are down.
All two storey of them..from the cellar to the ground floor..to the ceiling above.
The middle has changed from this..
To this, with the pocket sliding doors elegantly in place.
The floor has been levelled, electrics changed, gas, water all re-routed.
And secret storage added.
Extra jobs like a leak in the roof have been fixed, plasterboard is going up..it is happening..and I am LOVING the space..
Laters, Kate x
Back-splash x
There’s still a long way to go, but I’ve learnt in this house renovation game to always be ahead of the curve in the decision making – there’s nothing worse than the pressure of time forcing a choice, so the current obsession is kitchen splashbacks.
Question: Did you choose your favourite based on the actual splashback…or which kitchen you preferred? (casing point, the pic above..nice tiles, shame about the curtains…)
Laters, Kate x
Vingil x
It’s spotlight time for Xenia Kigaeva from Russia and her label Vingil. Think stratospheric cosy knit factor, deep depth of richness and texture and a visceral resonance with the season.
She graduated in costume design. Does it show?
They are the pinnacle of defence against the dark arts of winter. Just accessorise with wellies and a large dog.
Laters, Kate x
Pretty in Pink x
The perfect pick for the party season? These sparkling whimsical wonders from Miu Miu are singing a siren song with their golden glitter and bubble gum buttons.
Pointy toes and block heels..they make you hungry for cocktails and painting the town in Christmas colours.
A clever girl knows never to run for a bus , but for these girls I’m prepared for an aggressive power walk.
Laters, Kate x
Hell-oween!
I did my bit for Halloween this year, complete with extra eyeballs and hairy, eyelash lips..
The house is still a building site..which could’ve made the ideal location for a spooky party, except the potential scenarios for genuine disaster and really putting the hell in halloween..so we all dressed up, my niece included and relied on others to provide the fun..
Although we did make some eyeball ice cubes..grapes with blueberries and a bit of raisen.
Or the savoury option..radish and olive.
Is it OK to say the kids looked lovely??!
Friend Jenny’s fab pumpkin..
It’s an evening the kids love..maybe because it rebels against every parental rule in the book..
Mwhaha-haaaaaaa!
Laters, Kate x
Eye Fear No Evil x
Sometimes I play that game in my head where you choose the people, dead or alive (Halloween is round the corner, though pre-buried state is preferred) that you’d love to sit down with large bottles of wine and have dinner with. The jewellery designer Solange Azagury-Partridge is definitely on the list. Self made, self taught, she looks at gems with a totally different eye. Her scary pieces cross the divide between just being brilliant Halloween bling with craft and humour to pieces you could flaunt all year round.
The heart of darkness..
The bleeding heart.
Something to scare the children.
Or just everyone..
(Scare the husband with the price..)
Need to make a point? This is the heart plucker ring..
As worn by Charlize Theron as evil Queen Ravenna in Snow White and the Huntsman.
Yep. She’s that good.
Laters, Kate x
Circle of Life x
Do you believe in serendipity? The digging out of our basement has been put on hold as we’ve taken the expensive decision to expand the works slightly. It was going to be L-shaped with this bit of the ‘L’ being the boiler room, but now the front wall’s been taken down to make way for the steels, it’s easy to see it would be possible to square the room off and gain an extra 2 metres in depth. Except this means more money..and going through Party Wall again as we’ve moved the goal posts. No pain, no gain. But..
Guess what the builders found?
A bag of Smallholder And Home Gardener newspapers, dated from WW2..which although interesting, wouldn’t be gold to the average person on the Clapham omnibus..
Except Mrs Smallholder, who wrote for the paper was a relative! Well, I say relative..Auntie Ethel (Mrs Samllholder) was the wife of Uncle George, who was the brother of one of the two midwives that adopted my Grandmother, Beryl Archer when she was born, and became her father-figure. The story of my Grandmother’s adoption has always been a family mystery. After her death, I found an article she’d written for a magazine about Norfolk, it read: ‘Beryl Maccafrey Archer was the fourth child of a hospital matron and an administrator. As a baby she was ‘adopted’ by two middle-aged nurses during the First World War, though to this day she has no idea why ‘I can only assume it was for safe-keeping during the east coast bombardment,’ she says now. Later she came to know her two older sisters and a brother, who all continued to live at home with their parents in Devon whilst she continued living with her ‘Aunts’ in Great Yarmouth. Effectively Mopsie (her family nickname) was brought up independently by 4 loving, caring adults who never had children of their own and adored her – she always said she had a far better life with them then her siblings ever did at ‘home’. I still have all the evocative, timeless stories Mopsie wrote about her childhood, written with love, clarity and humour about a time now long gone…before my children came along I started putting them together to turn them into a book..maybe it’s a project I’ll have to return to..serendipity…
Laters, Kate x
Cavorting in Kent x
There’s a touch of magic to a windswept English beach caught in the throes of autumn.
The lack of sunshine made no difference to the kids.
Big or small.
These were taken on Camber Sands on Bella’s ninth birthday.
How time flies.
We were lucky to spend the week with another lovely family which meant rounders was a serious option.
Not that the weather was all bad.
Visiting the glorious Walmer Castle..
With it’s doorbell of lust.
And views across the sea.
It has my personal favourite combination of grand but homely.
(I’ve charged my two with the task of becoming the Warden of the Cinq ports so I can live here in my dotage. I think it’s a small thing for a mother to ask for..)
We cycled, ate, drank, swam and geocached our days away. (If you’ve not experienced geocaching it’s an app that using GPS, shows where little pots of treasures are hidden. Addictive.)
There’s the hunt, the journey..
And the success..this was a plastic fish swapped for some acorn shells. Hmmmmmmm.
What none of us had ever seen before was the amount of mushrooms growing on the beach..
All different types, like something out of a Tintin book..
Shame our only knowledge of mushrooms was those with plastic cling wrap..but then we are urbanites, very happy to enjoy the delights of the countryside and re-charge the batteries with good friends, before heading back to the big smoke, building works..and the run down to Christmas. Help.
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 