Floored

I am so stiff and exhausted after this weekend I can barely type.  Chaz and I hired and skip and spent every single day lit hour ripping out cupboards, tearing down walls, pulling down ivy and chopping down trees.  Come night fall we retreated inside for some hardcore interior DIY.  Painting, putting up lighting installations and sanding - Kevin McCloud himself would be impressed.  

As weak and feeble as I may be feeling today, I can't stop.  I'm on a mission to finally finish off the house and my next task is the kitchen floor.  I've always dreamt of white washed wooden boards but my eyes have opened up to all the other options out there.  Should we paint patterns or go for a pretend parquet look?  Maybe each board should be a different colour? I guess no matter what we go for can be re-painted over again. I'm thinking the bolder the better...

Ideas and Inspirations, mostly from Pinterest.

What planet are you on?

My friend India Rose just sent me this and I can't not share it...

 Click on the link below and enjoy.

www.whatplanetareyouon.com

Name Cards

I got crafty a couple of weeks ago making name cards for a wedding lunch at Petersham Nurseries.  I've always had a thing about watercolour stationary so gave it a go myself;  it couldn't have been more simple to and they turned out to be rather pleasingly professional looking.

If you would t to re-create them, you will need;

Watercolour paper

Scissors

Watercolour paint

A wide-ish paintbrush

Water

Alphabet rubber stamps

Stamp ink

Start by painting the sheets of watercolour paper with the paint.

Wait for them to dry and then cut up the paper into the shape of the name card you want.  If you want straight lines it does pay to use a ruler.

Whip out the rubber stamps and ink and start stamping.

Easy as pie...

The English Home

I'm very excited to be featured in this month's issue of The English Home.  Here's a little snippet...

If you fancy a read, you can find the rest in their October issue which is out now.

Hats and Bells Party Cookbook Launch

I don't generally leave the house on a monday night.  Usually our sacred, supper on the sofa - bed by nine night - it takes something special to get me out the door.  This week was the launch of my cousin's very special first book and I was there with bells on.  

The book, "Hats and Bells Children's Party Cookbook" is full of the most brilliant recipes and ideas for small peoples's parties.   There is now no excuse for soggy sandwiches and dried up sausages.  I'm already excited about the Cub's next birthday.

The wonderful book

Authoresses - Hatty Stead and Bella Waley- Cohen

 Cake pops

The Ralph Lauren store  - launch HQ

Hattie and Sarah Watt

 Hattie and me

Bella and Hattie

Sneak peaks of inside the book

The Hats and Bells Party Cookbook is available to buy on Amazon and at Ralph Lauren on the Brompton Road, London.

Photographs of the launch taken by Emily Wolseley Brinton.

www.emilywb.co.uk  

www.hatsandbells.com

Victoria Beckham Dresses

I know I'm completely behind the times and people have been raving about her designs for years but this weekend, for the first time,  I fell head over heels in love with Victoria Beckham.  Her label that is. I'd left my wedding outfit slightly to the last minute - it was the next day - and had given myself a whole morning to find something.  I'd been to all the usuals, trailed ebay day after day and still had nothing I felt good in.  So I headed with a microscopic budget to my favourite second-hand boutiques in Knightsbridge.  Fifty dresses later, fed up with seriously static hair and about to give up,  I suddenly found her.  There she was, an immaculate navy and black silk, organza vision swinging before my eyes.  When the snooty shop assistants explained it was very small and very expensive in  a classic Pretty Woman sort of way, I knew I had to have her.  Even if I didn't like her.  Turns out she's a dream. Albeit a slightly small and expensive one.  The cut and the shape is like nothing I've every come across before.  Mrs Beckham is a genius.  I vowed to wear her to every wedding/party/funeral for the next ten years.

Fast forward 12 hours to the wedding and I'm not in the navy and black VB but in my trusty old red Roland Mouret.  (actually from Asos but people think it's Roland - don't want to waste time correcting them).  Turns out that the snooty assistants were right; it really is very small. I've got a couple of weeks to shrink myself into it.  If not, it looks very good on our bedroom wall.  Maybe a frame to do her justice?

 

Hen Night Extraordinaire

The last few months have been a blur of book finishing and hen planning.  They're both now done and I don't really know what to do with myself.  The hen party was for my sister in law Ruth and if I do say so myself - it was brilliant.  There seems to be such pressure for hen parties nowadays. Each one has to be as good as,  if not better than the last.  In my parents day drinks in a swanky pub or a posh dinner was totally enough.  They couldn't get over the hype, cost and effort that goes into them now.   Chaz and I were pretty much the first to get married out of our friends and were thrown the stag and hen do's to end all stags/ hens.  A week in Ibiza for him and a long weekend in the heavenly Trassiera for me.  (NB returning from Ibiza a day  before the big day is not advisable.  Give yourself at least a month to recover.)  So when it was time for my sister in law Ruth's hen this summer, our thinking caps came out in force.

The original plan was to go to Paris.  Trying to budget though we ended up needing about £700/ person for 24 hours. So it was back to square one and London.   The day was jam packed from start to finish; Beginning with lunch time champagne and cheeseburgers at Thomas Cubitt followed by hair and make-up.

Dressed up and ready to go, we headed to Delevingne HQ for a champagne tea party.  Penis piñata and present giving later - all donning Amanda masks- we piled onto a blacked out London Routemaster which had been turned into a party bus -  blacked out windows, mini champagnes and the cheesiest, loudest tunes blaring,  we were whisked off to a private room at Quo Vadis for strippers, Mr and Mrs and a personal video message from the one and only Harry Styles.  The actual real one.

 Vintage tea cups

 Giving the hen book

Penis Piñata with the bride in Sass & Bide

Violet, Vaness, Ruth, India, Connie and Fran

 Party Bus

 Amanda with her personal video message from Mr Styles

Amanda and Clemmie

Me, Emily, Clemmie and the Bride to be

 Watching the striptease...

Dinner Table at Quo Vadis

Harry Styles video message

Poppy and Ruth

Cara Delevingne wearing an Amanda mask

www.roseproductions.co.uk

Sluiz

stormy skies

I know shopping is not the first thing that springs to mind when you think of Ibiza.   I secretly couldn't have been more overjoyed though when on day two of our Ibiza weekend the rain started falling meaning an outing to the mega Sluiz was now on the cards. 

Sluiz is an Ibizan department store - more cool East End warehouse than polished Selfridges - and is meant to be a creative experience.  Full of everything you could possibly ever want - lighting, furniture, fashion, candles, baskets, trinkets, toys and random paraphernalia.  Despite nearly hyperventilating with excitement when I walked in - the sheer scale, colour and general massiveness is quite overwhelming - my credit card didn't get any action. Although if Ryanair's baggage policy was slightly more flexible, I would be sitting on these heavenly floor cushions right now..

the floor cushions

magical masking tape

Basket wall

The Sluiz cows

www.sluiz-ibiza.com