What I Wore

It was a lovely sunny 4th of July weekend here! I put on my new Cath Kidston skirt and the sweet little moccasins he surprised me with and went out on a date with Mr. Michie.

(P.S. My skirt was ironed, but I started doing things around the house and got it crinkly before we left, so please excuse the crinkles)

The Princess & The Pea

The Princess & The Pea is one of my favourite fairytales. I really have no idea why. I think mostly it was for the fact that I loved seeing the illustrations of all the beautiful assortment of mattresses piled one on top of the other, so high that you needed a ladder to climb to the top. The mattress were always covered in polka dots and roses and stripes and stars and I was always amused by that, as my mattress looked nothing like that. I also thought the idea that she could feel the pea under all those mattress was funny as well, however, as of late, I am beginning to think that feeling one little pea wouldn't be such a bad thing!

I haven't been sleeping very well for awhile now. We have a very old mattress and it is causing me to fall apart like an old lady. I can feel more than a "pea"! I can feel springs and boards and lumps and bumps when I sleep. I stripped the bed the other week and in looking at it, it reminded me of a 3D geographical map with a lot of mountains and valleys. Not what you want your little oasis of happiness to look like. I love my bed, so I want to be comfortable in it!

Since Mr. Michie isn't sleeping so well either, we realized that is was definitely time to make a change and to stop thinking about making one. So, we decided to go mattress shopping. I did my research and we knew what we wanted, we went to the store and were helped by the nicest man named Henry.

He was from Africa and had the most exotic accent, I loved listening to him speak. We told him of our old aches and pains and that we wanted a medium to firm mattress. Well, he took wonderful care of us, we walked out with a new mattress being delivered this Saturday and two new pillows as well! We even got a hug from him when we left! The company ranks their mattresses on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the "softest" and 1 being "orthopaedic". We must really be getting old because the bed that felt the best to us was a number ONE! We just had to laugh!

I will truly feel like a princess on this mattress as I will not notice Mr. Michie roll about, since he is quite a fidget, I can just lay still in perfect blissful sleep! So begone, peas and springs and feathers and lumpy mattresses, I am ready for sweet dreams!

(Image by Tim Walker)

Sunny Sunday Surprises

This weekend the weather was extremely gloomy on Saturday, but extremely SUNNY on Sunday. Mr. Michie had been away on a school trip for Friday night and most of Saturday, so Sunday became our "weekend".

He woke me up early and told me to get ready he was taking me out. Off we went in the golden sunshine to the train station and waited for a train to take us into central London.

We had so much fun, wandering around. I saw the latest goodies in Anthropologie, but I was very good and left without letting anything jump into my hands. I wasn't so good however when I went to Cath Kidston, they were having a clothing sale and I never never look at her clothes, but I did on Sunday and a beautiful skirt, jumped into my hands.

Then, Mr. Michie took me to Topshop to look at their jewelery stands. One of my favourite places to hunt for unique pieces and this little lady jumped into his hands and was purchased for me:

Isn't she sweet, I wore her this week on a Spring green Boden jacket that I have and she was just a piece of happiness on my blazer all day!

Blackbird LetterPress

I adore Blackbird Letterpress.  This is a company that I have been paying attention to for a little while now. Their cards are simply beautiful. Maybe, I am so in love with it all, because I did printmaking in College?

I have an appreciation for running things through a press, for pressing patterns into paper and the feel of it in your hands as it comes out the other side. The sensation in your fingertips as they gingerly touch the depressions in the paper. Or, what it feels like to peel back the layers of padding, to see how your print has turned out, after inking it for the first time.

I love paper, I love pressed paper, it gives your chosen item a vintage air and these cards certainly have that.

The yellow grizzly bear looks as if he has crawled out of the pages of your Grandmother's photo album as a memento she stuck in from their family Summer trip to Yellowstone. There is just such a simplistic beauty to these cards. I don't know if I would be able to give them away to someone; they would have to be another lover of paper items, like me.

I plan on getting a few of these and framing them to hang around my house, because one's house should never be without a fox and a grizzly bear adorning the walls!

(All images copyright: Blackbird Letterpress)

Pumpkin Hunting

The weather has turned and it feels deliciously like Autumn outside now! We have woken up to a grey morning, but the pinkest of pink skies is beginning to form over the rooftops and I think we might get a little sparkle of sun today.

I don't mind what weather we have today, because I spotted my first pumpkins in town last week and I am planning on going pumpkin hunting! I can't wait to see what I can find, which little pumpkin or two will jump into my hands and come home with me, along with a couple of flats of pansies.

My tiny grocery store in town had the most beautiful blackest of black velvety pansies and I want to grab some and mix them with orange pansies to make up a little Halloween planter outside. I am also crossing my fingers that they still have the yellow and white pansies as well, that mixed with orange will be candy corn colors bringing happiness to my garden!

Pumpkins are just such beautiful things to me. They seem to hold the essence of Autumn, in their bright orange blush that meld into hues of yellows, sometimes a touch of red. So today I am putting on my green polka dot wellies, grabbing one of my wicker shopping baskets and going pumpkin hunting, to bring a taste of Autumn inside...

(Image Marththa Stewart)

A Tuesday Date

Now, that Mr. Michie and I are both off together, we headed out Tuesday afternoon to run some errands. While running them, we decided to go to the movies, it was bargain Tuesday after all and all movies are £4 all day long! Woo-Hoo!

A quick trip into the candy store armed us with chocolate and strawberry liquorice.  He grabbed the tickets to "The A-Team" and I grabbed the Coke and popcorn. It was a great movie, just a good ol' Summertime movie!

We held hands, and stuffed ourselves with popcorn and just enjoyed being with each other. After the movie we headed to Nando's for an early dinner and then back to reality with a little grocery shopping, but not without stealing a kiss or two on the aisles.

There are no pictures to show for our date, but should there be? We were lost in each other and perfectly content!

(Image: Norman Rockwell)

Granny Knot vs. Wreath Knot

Now that I have my lovely new Birthday shoes (see: New Shoes), the question that begs to be answered is: Granny Knot vs. Wreath Knot?

After seeing this video, I think I will never go back... no more double knots for this little lady. You have to wait to the end too see what I am talking about, but it is worth it!



P.S. If you do not have Instapaper you should definitely get it, I have become an Instapaper junkie for those times I don't have time to read what I want, I can instantly save it and I can then, go back to it at a later time or date. Now that, is just happiness!

P.S.S. Instapaper is not paying me to advertize for them, I just like their product!

New Shoes

"Hey, I put my new shoes on today and suddenly every-things right!"

That is the song that played in my head this morning as I put my new shoes on! My crystal ball was correct, they did jump onto my feet yesterday afternoon after a glorious day wandering around the Quilt exhibition!

I have so much to share, but for now, I am off to bed, the rain outside is lulling me to sleep on this lazy-dazy Sunday evening!

Let the Weekend Begin

We are kicking off the weekend with a bang tomorrow and I can't wait! Next week is my Birthday and we are starting the celebrations this Saturday. In our house Birthday celebrations are not limited to just the actual day, they are an ongoing feast of little surprises. So, tomorrow I am being whisked away to one of my favorite museums, the V&A to see the Grace Kelly:Style Icon exhibition and the Quilt Exhibition.

Then off somewhere fun for lunch and a bit of shopping in the afternoon. I am looking at my crystal ball and I see a trip to Anthropologie in my future! I am gazing harder into my ball now and if I am lucky I see these jumping onto my feet:

My pink pair are sorely in need of a break and I love the bright happy color of these. So, the house has been cleaned this morning and made ready for the weekend, the only thing to do now is sit back and enjoy the ride....Hope all of you have a wonderful happy filled weekend too!

Candy Cakes

Well, Saturday took a different turn than expected. We headed out of our London burb and into the city center. Which meant a trip to Carnaby Street!

One of my favorite streets in all of London and a quick back entrace into Liberty's where I got to see a good portion of the Target range that is being offered Stateside, oh, how tempting it all was!

On our way there we took a short cut/ detour down a side street and went past this building: "Oh, Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden (in this case auburn) hair!" When you went up closer and peeked through the window the hair continued inside in this shell of a room, now completely filled with a cobweb of tangled locks. It was pretty interesting to see.

We also went past these cute painted drums, their faces made me smile! And then we headed onto Carnaby Street. I could hear the choir sing in my heart as we headed into Kingly Court, I thought this dress was Spring time pretty, standing in a shop window as advertisement for the vintage store upstairs. But, we  kept right on moving so we could get one of the best cupcakes going, from Candy Cakes.

I got blueberry with a blueberry yoghurt topping it was heaven as always! I had a little rainbow colored marshmallow twist on top of my cake, which of course I shared!


My sweet red head was in the mood for cake and got the most wonderful piece of carrot & walnut cake, I could have just eaten a bowl full of the icing on that cake and have been happy for the rest of the day.

So, an unexpected errand brought me the cupcakes I truly desired and I couldn't have been in more of a state of cupcake bliss than I already was. Hope you had a happy weekend?

(Click here to go to the Candy Cakes site)

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!

I feel like Max this morning from "Where the Wild things Are" and I am ready for the wild rumpus of a weekend to start. There are still bears and bunnies to finish, Mother's Day gifts to buy (they celebrate Mother's Day early here) and my sweetie pie wants to see the new "Alice in Wonderland" film.

I loved reading the book as a child, what I loved most was that when I finished the first book, I had to turn it upside down to read the 2nd, "Alice Through the Looking Glass". I am going into this film with my 3D glasses on and an open mind, I am not so sure about, it looks almost too out there, which my cute ginger argues with me is the point, so we shall see.

There is also a menu to be plan. My friends laugh at me, but I plan my menus for two weeks, we don't have a large grocery store in our town, so it is a ride down the rails for groceries with my hessian bags and red granny cart in hand.  I buy a few things to get us through locally as we need them, milk, bread, salad...

I am far from frugal, we eat very well and for the most part very healthy in our house, I don't cook junk; I just don't understand how they can randomly walk into a store and just see what they happen to find. One of my friends goes grocery shopping every morning and spends about £30-40 each time, that is insane!! I plan some meals for one nights, some will be leftovers some will have something entirely new made with their leftovers.

There will be a menu discussion in the house tonight, so far Aioli is on the menu one of my favorite pasta dishes and so simple, with oil and garlic and parsley; a mexican night with homemade bean burritoes, queso sauce and homemade guacamole; it is still very cold here so probably a stew maybe with dumplings and mashed potatoes on the side or just a hearty bowl with some buttermilk biscuits. Since we have had our first taste of spring, I really feel like either some homemade banana pudding or Nigella Lawson's "Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake".  This cake is a favorite in our house, it has been made for many a birthday. Although I do make a few changes, I half the required dark chocolate for the icing and mix it with milk or use all milk chocolate, since I found the dark at times became too bitter. (click on the photo to get the recipe)

But in all this sewing, movie watching, grocery shopping crazy filled weekend we will have, I want to make sure that we carve out a little bit of time to just be. I know sometimes I am guilty of trying to do too much in the space of 48 hours, I just need to remember to sit back and breathe!

What are you doing for your weekend?

(Alice in Wonderland image by: Katogi Mari)

We are Living in a Technological World

We headed into Central London yesterday morning and as the train rolled down the tracks I looked around me. Okay, the day wasn't perfect, there were some rain drops falling, but at this moment the sky was clear, the sun was shining, everything looked lush and green, a few blooms along the way showing that Spring could be on its way...

Everyone in our car section was talking away or sitting silently, concentration furrowing their brow. They weren't talking to each other though or concentrating on reading a book; they were all, every single one of them with a phone in hand. Even my adorable red-head, was finishing off a game before he tucked it away to talk to me.

I could just feel the bangle, diamond, dripping lace cladded Madonna singing "We are Living in a Material World", however I am not a Material Girl. I say this with a grain of salt because I know that I am a Blogger. But, I have my limits. Here was a perfectly beautiful day, the train was on time (sometimes a rarity) and not one soul was talking to each other or looking out the window.

Have we become so technologically advanced in this world we feel we don't need anyone else, that we can shut ourselves off from everyone by hiding behind our technology? Now, I know I could talk the hind legs of a mule, but I am quite happy in silence, just watching, just observing. I hope that I never become so technologically advanced that I forget to look around me, to take in the sights, sounds and smells. To just sit quietly or talking hand-in-hand with my man as we ride on down the rails.

On a happier and less ranting note, Cath Kidston had the gorgeous material I have been after and so I stocked up on some, I have great plans for this: I am making a yoga mat bag, if I can bring myself to bring my scissors anywhere near this sweet pattern.


And we visited a store we have yet to discover, I LOVE this about London, no matter how long I have lived here and how well I know my way around the big streets, the side streets, the cut-throughs, there are still things to discover. We found La Fromagerie and I am in LOVE. Gorgeous cheese, Poilane bread, beautiful white bowls filled with candied fruits, fresh produce.

We slid back the heavy glass barn door to enter the cheese room, it was just everything you would have wanted! Walking in there was heaven! I could have just sat down right there on the floor with my fresh Poilane bread in hand, a knife to smear on goats cheese and lived in happiness for eternity.

(The image used was only an example, I have nothing against Apple, I am a Mac girl through and through, thanks to my husband, I have left the world of PCs and gone to the Dark Side...the images of La Fromagerie are copyright to them, since we forget the camera)

P.S. It must have been a truly foxy kind of week, because while entering Anthropologie and heading upstairs I found this vintage children's playing card made into a greeting card and he decided he wanted to come home with me, so he did....

A Shopping Weekend

This weekend, I never stopped. I must have walked 50 miles! I went into London on Saturday to run a few errands and pick-up some items for projects I am working on at the moment, as well as some other bits & bobs and a few gifts.

It was sooo cold and I headed out early arriving before any shops had opened. So I marched to Starbucks and five minutes later armed with a hot chocolate and my Ipod filling my ears with Django Reinhardt (it is really amusing to watch the world go by, to certain tunes playing in your head as you walk along!) I headed down to one of my favorite haunts: Marylebone High Street.

Daunt Books' (always an early opener) door was cheerily propped open and I had a wander around. I love the smell of this store and their beautiful built in cases. It is such a pleasure to linger within those walls. Next, another early opener, V V Rouleaux to get some ribbon for a Valentine's gift I am working on.

After that I headed to Cath Kidston for a new ironing board cover and a Birthday gift and to Rococo's for some Valentine's Chocolates (Shhh! they are a surprise!). After that, I cut through the Cabbages & Frocks Market and headed back into town.

I met a friend for lunch and after dining, I headed into Liberty's on a haberdashery mission, alas, no luck! So, off to Anthropologie to pick up another little gift.

Next, it was off to Covent Garden to get my watch fixed, but Fossil had closed, hmmm! I was not happy! But, I went into Paperchase and got some adorable back to school surprises for someone special and a Valentine's Card for my sweetie!


So my Shopping List was almost fulfilled, I still have a few things left to get:

Cath Kidston-birthday gift and ironing board cover

Anthropologie

Air-Erasable Fabric Pen

Chocolates
New watch battery

Valentine's Card

Back to School surprise

Fabric-for new cushions

Turquoise thread

Yesterday, was spent at the NEC marching along the aisles of the Spring Fair on a buying trip. It was tiring, but a lot was accomplished! So, today I am just going to put my feet up and rest! I am pooped and you must be too after reading about my crazy adventures!

(Since I stupidly forgot to bring my lovely camera along, all images are copyright to : V V Rouleaux, Rococo Chocolates, Cath Kidston, Belle & Boo and Anthropologie)

Cabbage & Roses

I spent the morning oohing and ahhing over the beautiful photos on the Cabbage and Roses website. I wish we had one of their stores here, but they're only in London. That's the beauty of the Internet, though--we can still enjoy it from afar!

P.S. I'm hosting a $50 gift-certificate giveaway at Hooked on Houses today. Stop by and leave a comment there to enter!

Choose Joy

I discovered the artwork of Canadian artist Eva Juliet when she was featured on the blog Confessions of a Design Junkie recently. I really love this "Choose Joy" print.

I also like her Art Culinary series, which features prints of things like Parsley and Rosemary.

Aren't they pretty? To see more, visit Eva Juliet's Etsy site here.

The Sailboat Chair

When I first spotted this piece of furniture on the Anthropologie website, I admit I was a little puzzled. It looked sort of sailboat-like, sort of hammock-like. It was sitting on a dock, near the water, but had legs like a chair. Hmmm. A furniture mystery! So I had to investigate.

They call it a suspension chair. To be precise, it is a $558.00 "design marvel crafted of chestnut-hued wood and a carefully strung cradle of taut jute." (Hand that copywriter a medal for Most Creative Description of a Strange Sailboat-Shaped-Chair-Hammock Thing.) Oh, and it costs an additional $75 to ship. *Cough*

I'd be tempted to get it except, well, I don't have a dock to set it on, and I'm not sure how well it would look on dry land (aka my living room). What do you think?

Let the Sun Shine In

I'm in a yellow kind of mood. I find myself ripping pictures out of magazines and catalogs like these that have pops of bright, sunshiny color.


I came "thisclose" to buying this yellow cabinet from IKEA recently. Looking at it now makes me think I might just have to go back and get it. Surely I can find someplace in my house for it?

And I love this chair from Anthropologie. Hmmm. Where, oh, where, could I use a yellow chair?


Do you have a certain color that's been calling to you lately?

I've read a couple of books about color theory that say that when you're craving a color, it represents something that's lacking in your life. Like light blue represents creativity (which is why I painted my home office light blue recently!). Purple means you have a longing for spirituality. And yellow, as I recall, stands for communication.

(Photo at the top from BHG.)

P.S. I'm giving a tour of the Queen Anne Victorian home used for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" over at my other blog today. If you've ever been curious about what it actually looked like inside, take a look!

Sara Tetley's Coastal-Inspired Watercolors

I just discovered the coastal-inspired artwork of Sara Tetley, and I think it's beautiful! So I'm adding this to the "Beautiful Life" party over at The Inspired Room today.

This one is called "Collections from the Sea:"


Thanks to Sara for letting me share some of her art with you. In an e-mail, she told me a little about herself: "I’m an architect who loves the coast and coastal interiors. I have a small place in Beaufort, SC. Each time I am in Beaufort or nearby Georgia, I paint watercolors of vintage coastal cottages."

Aren't they charming? To see more of her work, visit her Etsy shop!

Today it's another Hooked on Fridays blog party over at Hooked on Houses. That means we're all sharing something that makes us happy this week. Head over there to check out the entries from all the other bloggers who are participating, too!

Hooked on Russell & Mackenna's Beachy Buffets

I've always loved painted furniture, so I was excited to discover Russell & Mackenna's fresh and beachy painted furniture when I wrote this post about the owners' home recently.

At Russell & Mackenna, you pick the piece of furniture you want and then tell them what color to paint it. The little girl in me would love to fill my house with one of everything from their catalog--and with each piece painted a different bright and happy color.

Check out the Russell & Mackenna website to see more. They have a lot more than just buffets! And if you missed my post about the husband and wife team behind it, then you have to see their house.

I'm adding this post to Hooked on Fridays, a blog party I throw on my other blog each week to celebrate the things that make us happy. Head over to see Brooke's beautiful beach house--the other thing I'm hooked on today!