Monthly Archives: May 2012

Windsor in the Sun

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 8 Comments

Last week I went on a training course to Windsor and each afternoon, at the end of the work day, I got the opportunity to wander around Windsor and Eton in the glorious sunshine before I got my train back to Oxford.

Windsor is a very quaint and typically British city and is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family. As you can imagine, with just a week to go until the Jubilee weekend, the town was covered in Union Jack bunting.

Windsor has a lovely selection of shops, cafes and restaurants, as well as being situated on the River Thames with boat trips available to nearby attractions such as Henley or Marlow. I’ll admit to having a Mr. Whippy (icecream cone to my non-UK readers) out in the sunshine as I soaked up the atmosphere of this very pretty town.

I actually took more photos of Eton High Street than Windsor itself, and I’ll post these over the weekend. I’ll also share with you photos of a couple of independent boutique tours ….

→ 8 Comments

Posted in Out and About

Tagged Inspiration, travel

Portfolio – This week on Mydeco

Posted on May 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’m over on Mydeco again today with a new post….

How to Party in the Garden in Style this Summer!

I’ve featured some fun, bright (and a few vintage) accessories that I think my followers will enjoy, so please pop on over to check it out.

Image: Oliver Bonas Garden Furniture

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Portfolio

Tagged Colour, Decor, Interiors, mydeco, summer, Vintage

Handmade Makers Market – Oxford Castle

Posted on May 28, 2012 | 2 Comments

I’m really looking forward to the Best of Britain weekend at Oxford Castle Quarter this Jubilee weekend! One of the events on is the Vintage Village, featuring the Handmade Makers Market on Sunday 3rd June – 10am – 5pm. If you’re in or near Oxford I encourage you to take a look. I’ll be there with my camera snapping away and hopefully meeting some great designer/makers.

“Fairs and Markets for craft superheroes.

We love handmade, independently designed, cleverly crafted stuff. From prints to pincushions, jewellery to jumpers we are proud to support the craft superheroes of the UK!

We also love to get to know our sellers and our customers so if you’d like to show at one of our fairs please get in touch (there’s a link at the top of this page). And if you’ve visited one of our markets and bought something you love we’d love to know.” - Sam and Michelle – Handmade Makers Markets

The organisers of the Handmade Makers Markets have a great little blog that gives advice to small independent crafters looking to sell their work. They’ve nicknamed these people ‘Craft Superheroes’ which I just love!

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Art, Out and About

Tagged Craft, Vintage

Sunday Brunch

Posted on May 27, 2012 | 12 Comments

Happy Sunday folks!

This last week has been all about reliving The Hive and getting in touch will all the lovely people I met last weekend. There was a plethora of great posts reviewing the conference and I’ve listed a few of them below:

♥ Still Buzzing About the Hive over on I’m with Leia ♥

♥ The Hive Berlin: Blogging, Inspiration andPassion by Curry Strumpet ♥

♥ Favourite Business Cards and The Hive Berlin 2012 – First Impressions over on Sister Mag ♥

♥ The Hive Weekend over on OneZeroSixKids ♥

♥ A Weekend in Berlin over on Colour Living ♥

In my day job this week I had to go on a four day health & safety management course (exciting times!). This involved me getting up at 5am every day to cycle to the trainstation, then take three different trains and a taxi to the venue. The upside is that the venue was in Windsor and at the end of each day I could wander around this beautiful city in the sunshine! I will show you some more pictures next week, but in the meantime, you know why there is one above!

Now on to my favourite blog posts of the week across blogland……

♥ Oh La La Love Again by Anya Adores ♥

♥ The Neighborhood over on Paisley Boulevard ♥

♥ Houses for Dolls on The Drifter and the Gypsy ♥

♥ Get the Look Decor: Rockin’ the Retro over on The Etsy Blog ♥

♥ Rad Riad over on Yeah…Ok…Bye ♥

♥ Out and About: Paris Flea Markets by Confessions of a Design Geek ♥

♥ Time for Turquoise over on Oh So Lovely Vintage ♥

♥ Home Tour – Marie Olsson Nylander over on Natural History ♥

→ 12 Comments

Posted in Sunday Brunch

Tagged Decor, Design, Inspiration, Interiors, Retro, Vintage

Title, Name, Occupation ….

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 12 Comments

When you attend a conference of any kind, it’s always a good idea to have some business cards handy to pass on to people you meet during networking opportunities – it’s not rocket science – it just makes sense.

I, however, in my slightly chaotic mindset, completely forgot to get some designed up in time to have them printed before attending The Hive last weekend. It got to Thursday night, I suddenly realised I was card-less and I began to panic. How will people remember me? How will I make a good impression now? So I got to thinking and decided what better way to show off my interests but to combine upcycling with vintage….

I essentially spent all of that Thursday evening with my craft box out. I took a whole stash of vintage postcards that I’d been hoarding away since art school and hand wrote my contact details on the back of each one. This took hours and left me with a pretty sore wrist afterwards! I printed my mugshot and an image of my blog and added this to the back so everyone would get an idea of what my blog looks like (it’s quite colourful and I didn’t want people to think I was just about old black and white photography).

I was happy with the general idea, but I think the backs of the cards turned out to look like a rather shambolic mess if I’m honest, but I took the cards with me anyway.

It turns out they were a real talking point and several people have said they were amongst their favourite cards from the conference. It’s definitely helped people remember me. The girls from Sister Mag even featured one of the cards in a blog post! Do click through and check it out – Thea did something terribly clever with computer software that allows you to flip the cards over to see both sides.

Lesson learned about breaking the mould and doing something a bit different, although I still think a bit less chaotic in future.

*The images in this post were taken by the lovely Deepa of Curry Strumpet on Instagram.

→ 12 Comments

Posted in Personal

Tagged Blogging, travel

Etsy Focus – Hindsvik

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 2 Comments

This week my Etsy Focus features the lovely shop Hindsvik – owned by Daniel Garbutt and Valeria Herner, whose house I showed you the other day.

“Founded in 2009, Hindsvik shop is an online collection of vintage home decor and furniture products curated by shop owners Daniel Garbutt and Valeria Herner. The shop stocks everything from classic vintage designer furniture pieces to small kitchenware and accessories for the home.”

Mid Century Vintage Wood Jam Kitchen Cupboard

Mid Century Vintage Danish Melamime Kitchen Bowl by Soren Anderson

Mid Century Rustic Wood Farm Dining Table

Mid Century Vintage Red Creamer Jug

Reclaimed Wood Coffee Table with Vintage Hairpin Metal Frame

The Hindsvik store features a mix of mid-century and antique pieces, with a mix of Skandinavian, Japanese and North American influences. Please do check out the gorgeous selection of furniture and homewares.

Keep up with what is inspiring Daniel and Valeria on their blog Hindsvik at Home.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Etsy Focus

Tagged Antique, Decor, Design, Interiors, mid century modern, Retro, Vintage

Weekend in Berlin: Part 2

Posted on May 24, 2012 | 3 Comments

Last weekend was mostly spent at The Hive Blogging Conference, but there were few short moments of time during my trip to experience a little of the Mitte – central Berlin.

On Friday night the girls and I went and met with some other lovely ladies who would be attending the conference. We all had a delicious dinner in the asian-fusion restaurant Dudu.

The food was beautifully presented and bursting with flavour. I washed mine down with a nice glass of prosecco. I didn’t have any myself, but the ginger tea got a big thumbs-up from several in our group.

Look at all these lovely ladies tweeting and posting instagrams at the dinner table. A group of bloggers if ever I saw one!

Notice the ‘Crunchy Dudu’ – craziest name for a dish i’ve come across in a while. We went back on our second night and I tried some – sooo good! If you ever get a chance to go to Dudu, make sure you try this tasty dish!

Early evening on Sunday a few of us wandered the streets near our hotel (in the traveller not the hooker sense!). We came across all kinds of street art including this little bathroom set above – it’s not paint but red tape.

Just look at that blue sky! We were blessed with beautiful weather all weekend, which made it easy(ish) for us to cycle around town. I say easyish because we were navigating large roads and junctions in a capital city on the right hand side of the road, with traffic turning in directions we weren’t expecting it to. The nice weather helped us relax and remember to take in the sights and sounds of Berlin along the way.

The evening was rounded off with a scrummy cup of Yoli frozen yogurt, which helped to cool us down before we headed to the airport for our flight home.

I enjoyed my time in Berlin immensely and I’m glad my first visit did not take me to the traditional tourist haunts. I look forward to heading back there again soon.

What are your favourite things about Berlin? I’d love to hear recommendations for things to see and do if I go back.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Away from Home, Personal

Tagged travel

Weekend in Berlin: Part 1

Posted on May 23, 2012 | 10 Comments

I’d like to show you the hotel that Tina, Chi, Caroline, Toni, Ursula and I stayed in over the weekend. Tina – the superstar researcher – found this amazing place called Amano, which met all our needs perfectly for the weekend. For my few readers who don’t know Tina – she is super organised and always has brilliant suggestions of where to stay, eat and relax. She is a ‘London Property Curator’ and finds people incredible places to live – what a great job title! Tina describes herself as a ‘Home Finder. Home Maker. Home Thinker’. I urge you to check out her great website and blog.

I completely forgot to take any pictures of the apartments we stayed in (how silly!) but I did take a few up on the gorgeous roof terrace and other communal areas.