Stylish Blogger Award!

We can proudly say we have been awarded a Stylish Blogger award from Iz Bakinog Ormara, thank you! We are meant to say seven things about ourselves but since this is a shared blog I will do three and Tom will do three at some point and then one together. So here are my three:

My favourite place in the world is my bed:

There is nothing better on a sunny afternoon than lying on the soft patchwork quilt, bathed in sunlight, breeze wafting in through the window and watching the world go by unaware.

My favourite artist changes almost daily but at the moment I am obsessed with James Abbot McNeill Whistler:

I think that one of the worst inventions of the twentieth century is UPVC double glazing; many people think I am odd for this hatred in a country obsessed with this disgusting, plastic defacer of houses. On new houses fine but row upon row of pretty Victorian houses have been ruined forever by tasteless, white plastic rims and blankly staring sheets of wobbly looking glass, all supposedly in the name of economy and 'green' living. It saves on average £120 a year on bills, a decent amount, but think how long it takes to start earning back the cost of putting them in when they cost thousands and then you have to replace them every 20-30 years anyway! Why not put a lick of paint on your nice wooden frames once a year and buy a pair of nice thick curtains to keep the heat in? It is proven to be just as affective. For those still convinced, put this in your pipe and smoke it:

How long is that going to take to bio-degrade? I think people are only just starting to cotton on to recycling this stuff. I know what I'd rather.

More to come soon!

Valentine's Weasel

Definitely the best Valentine's day present yet- a taxidermy stoat. The mustelid family have long fascinated me so to finally own one is something my nine year old, weasel obsessed self would have had hardly believe would happen! I haven't thought of a name yet, any ideas?

A Few Drawings

Since Tom has delved into realm of artistic endeavours recently, here too are few of drawings of mine that I like, the first two being drawn from found photographs and the last is a sketch after Vuillard's 'The Visitor. Annette in the rue de Calais Salon. c. 1920.

Clothes Complex- Topshop

Topshop, though I am delighted you are finally designing really nice clothes again, this is frustrating as my bank balance does not permit me to indulge. How can I choose just one lovely thing?!

La Vie Parisienne

A few images from a couple of copies of saucy French magazine La Vie Parisienne I bought from Otto, one issue from 1926 and one from 1930. I hope to scan a few more in soon. My (and Tom's funnily enough) favourite is the pretty red head clutching mistletoe, her being in Santa's beard is a little odd and Santa does look like a bit gin-soaked!

Portrait in the Evening

I am rather proud of this quick portrait of Maria. Somehow, painting of an evening by the light of a 40 watt bulb always produces interesting colours, on this occasion my efforts were (I think) rewarded. I am sure that Maria would want me to say that she is wearing a red knitted cardigan with bobbles on it and a very 1930's-ish naval silk scarf.

Tom Cooks Every Bloody Night

That was Tom's idea for the name of this post; I was going to call it adventures in a kitchen and he said would be an adventure for me to be in the kitchen. While Tom so merrily cooks a nice risotto, I drink wine and try on my newest skirt, fresh from eBay today. It is a Marks and Spencer skirt in a grey/brown tweed pattern with buttons down the front, the kind I hope to go with just about everything. Tom is taking refuge from the cold in a vintage virgin wool fishing jumper that is like wearing a radiator!

Leather Satchel

This is what I got Tom for Christmas, a brand new but classically styled satchel from Grafea. Tom likes it because he can wear it while he is cycling and because you can fit two bottles of wine in it, I like it because it looks so very smart and I really actually want one myself!

Electric Gypsy Dress

My Christmas present this year is something I must share, a Reproduction vintage 1940's style dress that is made to look like a two-piece suit from our friend's vintage and hand-made label Electric Gypsy. It fits like a dream and will be perfect for any important interviews I might hopefully have at some point. I also have my eye on the floral 1930's style dress for summer. Thank you Tom!

Clothes Complex - Spring

If money were no object this would be my Spring wardrobe.

Top row: Blouses- Topshop, Dress- Whistles.
Middle row: Jacket- Cabbages and Rose, Skirts- Topshop.
Bottom row: Dress- Laura Ashley, Coat and shoes- Hobbs, Bag- Grafea, Cardigan- Brora.

Christmas preparations...

Home-made Christmas decorations are the best. Spray pine cones gold, dry orange slices in the oven, gather festive looking foliage and mix with flowers and holly, make pomanders with cloves and pretty ribbon and make paper chains.

It's been a while...

It has been a very long time since I last posted but I just have to celebrate the best December I have ever had! Being brought up in the South West of England has meant I am used to relatively warm, wet and rather boring winters, the last couple of years have been different though and this year has just kept getting better! We have had more snow than I have ever seen and beautiful cold, crisp days.

The Hourglass Inn

The dreaded flu has kept me away from our usual Friday night date with the best pub in England- it has however been redolent of childhood illnesses; being tucked up in bed, smelling my Mum's Chanel perfume (now mine) through a blocked nose, eating my favourite dinners for strength and finding enough energy to indulge in my all time favourite computer game, Simcity. Tom never knew he was seeing a computer geek in disguise! Sorry to have missed you Hourglass Inn, there is always next week.

Each Autumn begins like this, with stunning horoscopes reching beyond the expectations of a single season.

The beginning of autumn calls for a squash supper and inspires a wintry landscape to finally be painted onto the screen we have been meaning to decorate for an age. An annoying space in the kitchen has been given a new lease of life with a perfect fold out table onto which we have a selection of our favourite recent finds.

Bicycle Luggage Special

Lately all the things I seem to find or ideas I have had have seemed to point in the same direction, that direction is towards bicycle luggage. It might seem like a slightly odd axiom to the threads of my spare time but that is how it is.

To begin with some of the ways in which the theme has been seeping into my consciousness I will post the below pictures from a couple of magazines I won on e-bay. They are from 1913 and have wonderful cover images (the chap on a punt is an example of this). Note the stylish luggage featured in the bike snippits...




Some of you reading may have spotted the early Brooks advert on the corner of the page above, so did I. I was reminded of my lovely brooks Glenbrook saddle bag which I love terribly but don't use very often because in Exeter it would probably be stolen and my Mother bought it for me Christmas just gone. I needed something less precious.

This book has some great passages about luggage. This was a present from a local junk dealer and was very well received. I remembered having seen it somewhere before but couldn't think where, then I remembered it was on the Tweed Cycling club's website. Found it? Somehow, although I can't quite see why now looking back at their pictures, I thought that perhaps a good satchel would be a possible solution. So the next weekend I happened to be looking through a couple of barn's belonging to an antique dealer and found this...


A good, heavy canvas fishing bag with a nice wide strap and lots of pockets. It really does the job nicely and it stays with me when I lock the bike up making it much harder to steal.

That said though I have started working on a leather bag made from some old folios I have cut up. The sewing machine just about goes through the leather if turned by hand. I am just waiting for the buckles to arrive in to-morrows post and then it can be finished. If I remember I will put a picture of it on here. It doesn't look as scruffy in real life.