The Womens Room

More garden snooping: Chiswick Mall open gardens.

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Chiswick Mall is one of the most beautiful, hidden bits of residential London, with The Thames on one side (most of the gardens have a riverside section) and the M4 on the other. Many of the houses were built in the 1700s and the area and some of the named houses appear in the book Vanity Fair. Needless to say, many of them, being large, are stonkingly expensive. So when, once a year, a few of them open up their gardens to the public, many locals visit to have a good old nose at such historic and valuable properties, us included.

The gardens are amazing, full of ancient trees, fabulous borders against old, tall brick walls, wonderful planting and inspiring ideas. The gardeners often have seedlings and small plants for sale (many of the plants in my garden came originally from here) and are happy to chat and identify what they've grown. below are highlights, if you are a gardener or nosy house person (like us) mark the last may Bank Holiday in your diary for next year and head along. 

Clerkenwell Design Week: Jennifer Newman

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If you are a lover of all things interior and all round brilliant design, then Clerkenwell Design Week is definately worth a visit. The three day festival (on until the 26th May) brings together a varied programme of events, including product launches, pop ups, exhibitions, installations, open studios and workshops.

Amanda and I got there bright and early for the press breakfast yesterday and had something of a middle aged moment. After an introduction by the PR team we were invited to look round some of the installations and events, but annoyingly some of them hadn't finished setting up! Mmmm not a great start, but after we had got over our 'grumpy old women' moment, we found some great products - and very stylish people - we just can't help noticing what everyones wearing!

One of our favourite exhibitors was Jennifer Newman, who stopped us to discuss clothes (she liked my bag). Jennifer confessed that although she is a furniture designer, her real passion is making clothes and she sews every night. We just had to take a picture of her, as she looked great in her Agnes B jacket, Yamamoto trousers and top she had made herself. She told us she 'makes furniture and clothes she can't find.' 

We loved the bright coloured aluminium garden furniture she designs, particularly the A-Frame Bench she launched at the show. A contemporary take on the classic pub table and bench set, its durability and sleek modern design would brighten up any environment. It comes in Signal Yellow, Citrine Green and Hot Pink, or you can custom order from the full range of RAL colours from her website. You can also find the groove table on The Best Dressed Garden.

Something for the weekend: Artists Open House, Brighton

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It's the 30th Year of the Brighton and Hove Artist Open Houses project this year, and last weekend we popped down to see some of the 250 houses and galleries on the first of four weekend openings in May. 

You know what we're like. Yes, we went to see the art, but really we are nosy cows and went to look inside everyone's houses and gardens. And what nice houses they are too, owners are incredibly patient and let whole hoards of visitors traipse through to see the art and craft work that has been carefully and lovingly displayed. All interiors have been tidied and buffed up and gardens weeded and tamed. Names of plants and sources of antique furniture were discussed enthusiastically as tea was sipped and cakes munched (they sure can bake down in Brighton and many houses were offering cakes).

We saw lots of fabulous craft work too, almost too much to mention, but if you get a chance to go to Into The Woods (8 Grantham Road) check out the lovely blankets by Woodchild and the wonderful quirky fox scarves by Mia Underwood. We also loved Sylph Baier's house, filled with her ceramics (we loved the fruit colander) and Sarah Lock's wood plates and bowls. Sylph rents out her sweet one bedroom flat, kitted out in beautiful retro style for holidays, if anyone is visiting.

The Flower Emporium had provided beautiful flowers for a few houses, which we were very taken with and quite the BEST display of kitchen merchandising (nicely displayed cakes and drinks) was at Adam Johnson's house, where we bought great cards. Altogether a great (and fabulously sunny) day out which made us want to live in Brighton.

There are three weekends left in the programme, but do check out the website as not all houses are open on all the weekends. 

Brighton and Hove House Festival, Artists Open Houses, weekends 7-29 May 2011. Houses open 11.00am to 5.00pm

www.aoh.org.net

Woodchild's woolly blankets of distinction, all made in Scotland.

Next winter, don't wear real fox, wear a knitted one from Mia Underwood (or a wolf, or swan, or badger...check the website)

Sylph Baier's lovely ceramic fruit and veg collanders.

This was the best merchandised kitchen we saw.....at Adam Johnson's house.

Aren't these lovely? Simple but fab displays from the Flower Emporium.

 

We love: Heal's Reveals blog

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The nice people over at Heal's have kindly put us on the blogroll of their new blog, called Heal's Reveals. We are very grateful as we are amongst good company (it's a 'carefully edited list that will inspire Heal's readers' according to our contact Victoria, how fab are we?)

Heal's Reveals is a good read, full of inspiring ideas, interviews with designers and details of events going on at the store (we're big fans of the annual Slade artists in residence event).The blog is nicely linked to the selling website too, highlighting stories around products and designers, it's amazing to us how few retailers and brands use their blogs effectively, they're either too hard sell or too much about brand building. This one actually helps the customer, which is novel.

It also features interviews with two of our favourite designers, Lee Broom (if Kate and William get too many cut glass decanters they could get Lee to turn them into one of his light chandeliers, above) and Rob Ryan. I for one, am heading off to find that hidden street Rob's talking about in his interview, where IS that? 

Charity watch: Kids of Kathmandu

 

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This seems a very stylish way to raise money for a worth while cause (and a little more up-market than the tea cosies, although we loved those too). The Kids of Kathmandu charity has organised a bunch of smart designers and architects from New York to design a range of children's desks, all of which are being auctioned off in a silent auction (ends May 12th so not much time to bid left).

And what gorgeous desks they are, they look beautifully made.....I'd quite like the one with the pencil holes in it, designed by Wadaly, or the double one above, by James Harmon would be fun. Sadly they are kids size, but perhaps if things go well at the auction they'll make 'em bigger too. 

The charity is Brooklyn NY based, so this is really for our US readers only and they seem a nice, committed bunch on the website. I really like the banner headline that came with the email, which said 'Support should be considered a power tool', which is a nice way to approach the whole idea of charitable giving. Check out all the desks and their makers here and the details of Kids of Kathmandu charity here. 

We love: Mel Made This

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Using traditional upholstery techniques and vintage fabrics, Mel takes unwanted furniture and lamps and turns them into unique objects of desire. She started collecting vintage fabrics when she was a textiles student and started Mel Made This, after moving to London and discovering unwanted and neglected furniture and lights around the junk shops of the capital.

All the pieces are one-off's and can be ordered from the website or she will make specific items to order.

Style Icon: Margaret Howell

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We came across a feature in the NY Times on Margaret Howell and were reminded of how much we admire both her personal and interior style.

She lives mostly in South East London and has a second home by the sea in Suffolk. Her 1960's coastal home is filled with mid century classics and flea market finds and looks like the perfect combination of style, function and comfort. 

Her personal style is uncompromisingly simple and she lives her labels aesthetic in every sense of the word.

If only we could afford more of her clothes, then we could emulate that stylish simplicity!

 Margaret Howell at home in Suffolk

Something for Easter weekend: Britains best tearooms

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While Amanda is sunning herself somewhere tropically hot and impossibly glamorous, I am up North for the Easter weekend to visit friends and family. We are dividing our time between the Yorkshire moors and the coastal town of Whitby and will no doubt find time to visit some of the many great tea rooms in the area.

One of my favourites has to be Bettys, which has branches all over North Yorkshire, with two branches in the lovely market town of Harrogate. There really is nothing like their afternoon tea, which has to be timed just right (have a big breakfast and skip lunch) in order to enjoy every single mouthful. Their website also has a fabulous selection of delicious cakes for every occasion.

If you are having a staycation this Easter, you might want to check out the Visit Britain Superblog's guide to the top 10 best tea rooms in Britain. The British Tea Councils website also has a guide to Britains top tea places and a fascinating counter documenting the number of cups of tea drunk in the UK so far today. I wonder how on earth they work that out!

Bring out the bunting!

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You cant fail to have noticed there is a whiff of patriotism in the air. We haven't quite made up our minds if we will be holding an anarchist type f..k the Royal Wedding type party or hanging out the bunting, but the lead up to Olympics and Royal wedding fever, certainly seem to be bringing out the patriot in some of us.

One event we will be interested in however, is the four month long Festival of Britain celebration at the Southbank centre in London. Festival highlights include Ray Davies curating this year’s Meltdown (June),Tracey Emin’s first major show at the Hayward Gallery (18 May to 29 August), plus a celebration of our national treasures such as by Lang Lang, Heston Blumenthal, Billy Bragg, John Berger,Meera Syal and Tony Benn.

Some of the the themed weekends sound interesting – from Stewart Lee’s curated weekend of comedy and music (27 to 30 May) the London Literature Festival (8 to 18th July), a hip-hop weekend (14 to 17 July) and our personal favourite, Wayne Hemingways Vintage Weekend (29 to 31 July).

The festival starts this weekend with a series of events, which range from Moroccan acrobatics to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Springwith live 3D visuals and a real street food market.

The Festival of Briatin anniversary has also inspired modern day design companies to look back to the past for inspiration. Interiors company Mini Moderns has produced new range of wallpapers featuring features highlights of the 1951 exhibition, with geometric shapes and abstract representations of the iconic Skylon, the Dome of Discovery and the Royal Festival Hall, all in lovely muted, tonal colours.

Now where is that tea dress and silk stockings!

 

Technology packing: How did Captain James T Kirk cope?

 Found on lillygayleromance

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I LOVE packing for a holiday, as it allows me to put into practise the years of experience I've had moving from place to place. My dad was in the RAF, consequently my mum was always packing us up and being 'Marched Out' of one house (it's what the forces call an inventory check, terrifying stuff apparently) and 'Marched In' to another. I also went to boarding school from the age of 12 so have spent pretty much my whole life refining how to pack my own bag. 

What I really like is to edit out to the barest minimum, see how little I can get away with, even then I often take stuff I never end up using. I tend to take clothes in just two coordinating colourways (ok, so mostly boring back and white), pack multifunctioning dresses and I do nerdy stuff like decanting big bottles of cosmetics into small plastic ones with the exact calculated to the day...( thank heaven for Muiji).

So packing clothes a holiday capsule wardrobe is no probs. But what I have noticed over the last few holidays is the burgeoning amount of technology we seem to have to take with us. I'm thinking we might start needing something similar on the technology front to cope with all our hardware and wires.

This holiday there will be four laptops (plus wires) five phones (with two different wires) five cameras with five different battery chargers (and that's not counting my nice new battery operated Poloroid camera), an Ipad, a number of those small Shuffles, maybe The Kindle (altho' no one really likes it much) and of course all those headphones. 

When I suggested we might share the laptops and cut down on luggage we got into such a fight I decided it was easier to just let everyone do there own thing. The idea of doubling up on phones was met with incredulous stares. To be fair two of the teenagesons have exams when they get back so revision is being done and I am blogging and it appears ten days away from Facebook is an intolerable thought for all the teens. But still, how much easier things must have been for Captain Kirk with his minimalist technology collection of communicator for 'beaming up' and his phaser for knocking unwanted trouble on the head. 

Capsule techno-wadrobe anyone?

We love: RE at Liberty

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We have mentioned before how much we love the homeware site and Northumberland based shop RE. Launched in 2003 by Simon Young and Jenny Vaughan, RE sells a really interesting mix of found, re- claimed, vintage and new furnishings and accessories for the home and garden. 

We are delighted that RE now has a stand alone space in Liberty’s Home Department, which opened last week. The satellite store will offer a number of second hand pieces of furniture, summer dining pieces, vintage garden tools and French stripe cotton fabrics and cushions. 

Simon says “We love utility, both old and new, small runs and mass production alike. We also sell cared-for second hand pieces like garden tools, lighting, textiles and furniture, because they are functional and still work. We also have recycled and fair trade products and our own exclusive range designed in house under the REgd. brand.”

Just in time for that Easter weekend gardening frenzy!

We love: A Collection a Day

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Lisa Congdon is an illustrator and fine artist based in San Francisco and a prolific collector of old and unusual things. In 2010 she chronicled all of her collections in a blog called A Collection a Day, and we loved the unusual groups of objects she either arranged or illustrated. She has an amazing eye for colour and texture and manages to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Lisa now has a lovely website and Etsy shop featuring her work, as well as a book which feature images of her daily collections and photos of Lisa's home and studio in San Francisco.

Shopping with expert: Sainsbury's Cast Iron cookware

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I went to visit the new Sainsbury's superstore at Crayford this week as part of the day job and was surprisingly impressed. We do most of our grocery shopping online now and buy fresh stuff from our local high street when we need it so it's a long time since I visited a giant supermarket and the Crayford store is one of three of Sainsbury's 100k giants (more are planned), meaning that the store footprint is 100,000 sq ft. It's exhausting just thinking about pushing a trolley around that size space. 

But I'm actually quite pleased Crayford is a long way from where I live as I think I'd be smuggling in all sorts of home stuff in the trolley, including these fabulous turquoise cast iron casserole dishes. The home ware dept feels a bit like a John Lewis store, spaciously laid out with loads of tempting cookery equipment, for which I am a complete sucker. The cast iron cookware is one of the biggest selling ranges in the store, according to Nathalie, the manager who showed me round. 'Ahh but', I sighed sadly, cheap cast iron doesn't work on Agas, as the bottoms warp and don't sit flat on the hot plates, not so say's Nathalie, Crayford sells such high volumes of the range, and Sainsbury's customers are so quick at bringing stuff back if there's even the slightest thing wrong, she reckons she would have heard if the range didn't work on all cookers. It's also got a ten year guarantee. So there you have it, quality cast iron at rock bottom prices in fashionable turquoise. There's also a third off currently, the pan here is reduced from £40 to £26.66, so even better and it's available on line. 

We loved: The Selvedge Fair

Emma Lamb

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The Selvedge Spring fair was a joy as expected and very busy (very middle-class-middle-age, but in a nice way). One of the reasons it was so good was the thorough edit done on the stall holders, everybody showing at the fair was showing work of the highest standard. There was no tat in other words, and although we are big lovers of tat in the right context, it was also fantastically inspiring to see so much high quality craft on show, it made us want to reach for our sewing and knitting needles. 

Our favourites included the wonderful Emma Lamb and her colourful and superior quality crocheted pot holders and cushions. Check out her blog and Etsy site for the full range, it was selling so fast on Saturday that my favourite cushions went while I was taking photos. We also loved the way her swing tags had little crochet flowers on and the little brand tag was hand embroidered.

Emma Lamb

For those who can't own a dog for real, Holy Smoke's hand sewn dog sculptures, made from vintage linen and full of character are the next best thing. Honestly, I nearly walked away with a whole menagerie of them, the Afghan hound was ADORABLE as were the little gothic black birds.

Holy-Smoke

It was great to meet the Blodwen ladies from Cardigan Bay in Wales, who we've admired from afar but actually got to say hello to and hear about the soothing and repairing properties of the Mamgu Organic Wild Rose Oil range...I bought some face and body oil and can confirm it smells wonderfully rose-like, I'll report back on how the tired and flakey skin on my arms and legs likes it. After some of the expensive stuff we've been trying, this seemed like a bit of a bargain for £35. 

Blodwen

But my absolute favourite item to buy was the versatile and decorative This & That note book from Mud Rabbit. This is a notebook that you never have to run out of paper with, as the pages are divided into small mini-book sections that are all individually sewn in. When you finish a section or need more pages, you just remove old ones and stitch in new ones, instructions and needles come with each purchase. They are very well priced at £45 for the large one and £32 for the smaller ones, if these were in the Liberty stationery department (and they are a natural fit) , they would easily be double that. They were launched at the show but will be on the website shortly. 

Mud Rabbit

We were revived by cups of tea from High Tea of Highgate, found another lovely shop to visit, Made in Hastings, when we next visit the seaside town and will check out Ray-Stitch and Our Patterned Hand when we need vintage buttons and threads. It was uplifting to see so many talented women doing such great things with craft, you get the feeling they just HAVE to do this, it's not about money, it's about being creative and loving what they do. You just can't keep a good sewer (and crocheter/knitter) down, we say.

If you went, which was your favourite stall?

Something for the weekend: Selvedge Spring Fair

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We are VERY excited about going to the Selvedge Spring Fair today, the love child of World of Interiors crossed with the W.I (well in our vivid imaginations anyway). We're going, if you are too follow us on Twitter and come and say hello. Can there be a better way to start the Mother's Day weekend? (Oh yes, we're extending it to a weekend celebration in our houses....)

We love: The House of Hackney

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If you are fan of minimal interiors, look away now, as this is about as over the top as it gets. The fabulous new luxury interior company, House of Hackney launched yesterday with a pop up shop in Dalston.

It's really more of a show room/installation than a shop, as you can't actually buy anything there. A bit like a museum (on acid) with everything laid out in room sets, the collection is explained by the charming staff and you then head home to buy online.

We think we will see more of this style of retailing in the future, as clever companies will create amazing interactive experiences, allowing you to view the product in a curated environment and then purchase later online.

The House of Hackney describe their collection as  "Conceived as the antethesis of disposable identikit furnishings and white wall fatigue, the home furnishings, wallpaper and textiles are characterized by prints and products that are steeped in tradition but are bold and non-conformist".

The whole experience reminded us of visiting Dennis Severs House in Spitalfields and the 40 Winks Hotel in Stepney. The stunning collections of wallpaper, fabrics, soft furnishings and furniture are named after local landmarks such as Hackney Empire and Dalston Rose, and we loved the maximalist mantelpieces, crammed with huge ornate ceramics, clocks, apothecary bottles and china dogs.

The pop up is in Ruby House, one of the amazing locations owned by Castle Gibson and it's worth a visit just to see this stunning Victorian townhouse.

In the basement cake specialists Lily Vanilli have set up a 'British Tea Room', where for £10, you can indulge in goodies such as mini apple champagne donuts and absinthe and mint chocolate chip ice-cream, accompanied by live acts including Marawa the Incredible and her Fruit Salad of Death and a Live Fortune Cookie Teller! 

If you live in north or east London, or fancy a trek to the increasingly fashionable Dalston (which is a little ironic, if like me, you have lived in the area for the last 20 years) it's really worth a visit and you could always make an appointment to visit LN-CC which is just around the corner.

House of Hackney Pop-up Shop
76 Stoke Newington Road,
N16 7XB
Until Sunday 3rd April
10am- 7pm

We love: Fabulous location houses

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If like us, you love to look round interesting houses for inspiration, we have found just the site for you. I stumbled across JJLocations yesterday and lost a couple of hours nosing around some truly fabulous places. 

Set up 1987 by photographer Johnny Jones, the company rents out some of the most amazing interiors in the UK for photographic and film shoots. There are city houses, country cottages, beach homes and apartments. My favourite section is the unique properties, which features everything from a chapel to an underground bunker, and wonderfully eclectic shops and homes.

Be warned, make sure you have some time to spare if you click on it, you could be some time! Weirdly I even spotted some neighbours houses!

We are reading: Creative Walls and Modern Vintage

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Geraldine James, the author of Creative Walls, started her career in fashion and is now the Homeware Buying Manager at Selfridges. She is also a collector of beautiful things.

Lots of our friends work in design and buying and have the most amazing collections of unusual items, picked up while traveling, dotted around their houses, and Amanda and I are more than a little partial to the occasional tablescape or curated shelf.

The art of arranging stuff which could sometimes be defined as junk, to the non trained eye, is all about creating themed groups, and this book explains how to display collections by colour, size, type, texture etc, to gain maximum effect.

Emily Chalmers is an interior stylist and writer, and owns one of our favourite East End shops, Caravan. She has a passion for all things vintage and combines old and new pieces in a quirky and eclectic way. She has written several inspiring interiors books and in her latest Modern Vintage, she illustrates how using vintage items in a contemporary context can introduce humour and personality to your home.

She will be signing copies of her book at Anthropologie on the Kings Road, tomorrow.

We are reading: Pia Jane Bijkerk

Pia Jane Bijkerk, from Enhance the Everyday

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It's all about lovely things to look at the moment...quite independently Jane and I have selected this week to write about nice books we've seen (there's a nice one coming tomorrow too)...I'm sure the fact that Mother's Day is coming up has NOTHING to do with it.

This week I've been busy researching a feature on food which has allowed me to amble through a whole host of wonderful foodie blogs and websites....I have hardly made it to lunchtime without diverting into the kitchen to eat or make something, how professional food writers survive without getting huge is beyond me.

Anyway, I found Pia Jane Bijkerk's startlingly beautiful blog Enhance The Everyday on my internet travels and think it's worth a mention. Pia is a stylist and photographer, specialising in food and interiors so some of our more in-the-know readers may already know her work. She scuttles between Paris, Amsterdam and Sydney and photographs and soundscapes all three cities regularly. Wouldn't that be lovely to live in three such gorgeous places? 

Her photos are lovely and the interior ones particularly inspiring, the blog features interesting things to do and see in all three locations (and more) and there are recipes from 'guest cooks' who feature things from their recipe books. But my favourite bit is the Soundscapes, recordings of places Pia has been, just simple stuff like a walk in the woods, opening a window on a sunny day or a trip through town while a brass band is playing, which is just a magical touch. Listening to them quite cheered up my day. 

She has already written a couple of nice sounding books, Paris Made by Hand, and Amsterdam, Made by Hand and there's one to come out very soon, which had me at its title, My Heart Wanders so they might be good to add to the list, or just look at the blog on a regular basis, certainly cheered me up.

We love: organising the bookshelf

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This lovely video has been doing the rounds on some of our favourite blogs recently, and we thought you might quite like it too. Being big fans of arranging things, we love the slightly obsessive (but visually pleasing) nature of it. Not sure we have quite enough hours in the day to give it a go though!