Signposts: Home time

I’m entering the process of tidying up my house for people to stay and it’s always an emotional process. As the child of one obsessively tidy person and one slovenly person (hi Mum!), I am always, like an enormous housebound quark, both tidying and making mess. So my mind is on the home and how wonderful it would be if it was tidy, which is the topic of almost all my thoughts not relating to what I will have for dinner; Miu Miu bags; and whether One Tree Hill will be renewed or not.

• Best Tumblr name yet: Things Organized Neatly.

• I’ve posted about Donna Wilson and her lovely cushions before but now there is an urgent need to mention her again because of DOUGHNUT CUSHION. I need it.

• The designer and creator of these beauties asks people not to repost the images, so I am gallantly not doing so, but in summary: embroidered Penguin Classics! They are gorgeous. Much as I love and defend my Kindle, I am prepared to accept this is one thing you will never be able to get on it. While you wait for your hand to get the message from your brain to click the link, let’s look at another Penguin Classic, Shakespeare’s sonnets in the now iconic Coralie Bickford-Smith design.

The completist in me wants to have them all in a row on my shelf:

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Sunday home post

After an epic stretch of crazy working I have returned to my natural home environment and am back to a schedule of reading, watching bad tv on my laptop and pottering around at home. The upside of this is that I am available to do all those twee Cath-Kidston-y things that home blogs make look like a second nature. I’m not that great at presenting my life in a series of nostalgia-tinged, soft-focus photos (oh to be Tartelette) but I do love wrapping stuff and sending it to people.

I would be a professional wrapper if there were such a thing. I foolishly didn’t photograph the mailing box before I sent it out but its a Marimekko postage box with a blue poppy print on it. This is a very belated birthday present for my friend Jenny who lives outside of London somewhere (!). It contains a book (Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti), cards, biscuits, sweets, face masks, letters from me and some underwear – she asked for me to send any cute pants if I saw them, I’m not a knicker-sending weirdo.

Off it went last week (I didn’t want to post this before she received it).

More wrapping shenanigans came my way in the form of birthday presents for my boyfriend’s family. Their birthdays are not all at the same time, it’s just that he leaves sorting out presents until the last possible minute, i.e. about halfway to the next birthday.

This first present looks like the interior of a Soho gastropub and contains The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and a book about a character called Flashman, which is from the olden days and I bought because it was recommended by the guy in Waterstones, who looked like the guy who played Ned in Pushing Daisies. In real life this is what we call Very Handsome.

I found the gold pen that we used to make the labels for our birthday party last year so everything got gold ink on it to go with this cool card. This packet contains the book Wolf Hall, which is also one of the best books I’ve read in the past year. It’s on 3 for 2 in Waterstones you know. I’m linking to so many books in this post you’d think we knew how to make money of the blog.

This is my favourite. I got the wrapping paper and cards from Oliver Bonas and they turned out to be by a designer called Sanna Annukka, who has designed packaging for M&S and Marimekko (my life is like a wheel within a wheel, like a circle neverending, like an ever-spinning reel that brings me back to Marimekko). By chance, I had some sticky ribbon in my wrapping boc that went with the dotty part of the paper and with some beige Ikea ribbon and obligatory gold pen action, I made this package, which looks very nice and tonal. Inside is the Hummingbird Bakery book and some Cath Kidston stationary, just to keep it well West London.

While poking around Oliver Bonas I saw something I’ve been looking for for a while now: a water bottle that doesn’t pretend it’s going to be taken on a hike anywhere. I bought this lovely Celia Birtwell bottle to take on the tube with me so I won’t have to get thirsty/buy bottled water anymore (expensive and bad for the environment kids).

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Sunday home post

There is one corner of my house that is not always terrible and that is the hall. I usually manage to get flowers to sit next to my nice Vincon (Spanish designer superstore) concierge tray and the wooden heart thing I brought home in the bottom of my suitcase from Finland. Looking at it now it could probably use more tidying up to look even better but what am I, a housewife? I can live with this state of affairs.

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Nap-o-matic

I am a home person and I like it. The latest physical manifestation of my love of being at home fiddling with things is my new BREADMAKER! It’s a Panasonic, which according to my grandma is the best make. Presumably she had a bad experience with a Yamaha breadmaker or something and will never stray again.

Here I am with my shiny new machine and a closeup of my exciting programming of my first load. I shunned the ready-made mixture as I don’t understand how it makes it easier and it costs way more than just flour, butter and a teaspoon of sugar. Due to my reckless taking up of an internship at cool web magazine Amelia’s for the next three months, me and my co-habitee are going to be eating a lot of beans on toast. My argument that a breadmaker will save us money in the long run fell on slightly deaf ears I must say.

In the East End of London born and raised, at home is where I spend most of my days, chilling out, maxing, looking like a fool and baking loads of bread instead of doing anything cool.

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Where I like to blog

When I had a job I used to blog on the sly from inside a a little cubicle with my desk inside it, which had loads of my stuff pinned to the felt and put in nooks and crannies. I am not into clean desk policies; I think it’s nice to be able to carve out a little space for yourself wherever you are. Also, I need distractions and stashes of food on hand or I go a bit crazy. Maybe office life isn’t for me.

Anyway, now that I don’t have a job, I am back in my preferred location, which is by the window in my flat, keeping an eye on potential wrongdoing outside and checking my Google Reader every five minutes. Here is where I sit:

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Home stuff – clouds

More clouds from Donna Wilson.

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My nest

It is Sunday so I am going to indulge my Nap side and think about home stuff. For a long time my favourite flowers were tulips but they have been usurped by a new queen, the peony. Peonies are dramatic and blowsy; they always look like they’re on the turn so they’re like the ultimate flower as a symbol of mortality. How I can work this into my “rented accomodation” interior design look of late I am not sure.

These arrangements are from a US online shop called Saipua (the Finnish word for soap, which they also sell). I am always thinking about colour combinations and I love the way these arrangements zing. It’s so sad that flower arranging is considered to be a nerdy hobby for old ladies because, like other domestic activities, it can be satisfying to do and does not necessarily give you points on your feminist license.

I have also been giving some thought to the big, blank, white wall in my living room. I can’t bang nails into it to hang pictures because it will crumble apparently but I want to put something there. I had the idea that I could build up a mural with carefully applied paper or hang things on strings from the picture rail. So far I haven’t come up with anything brilliant but it needs to be something bright, maybe a few images or objects in a range of colour tones.

Inspiration from Kaffe Fassett:

And Marimekko:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your Sunday.

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My wardrobe – in pictures

I think my walk-in wardrobe is now fit for public consumption so here is a little gallery of how it looks – now with furniture! Click on the pictures for more detail.

I’ve gone for a minimalist rather than overly girly look, with a simple chrome clothes rail from Habitat (expensive but much sturdier and shinier than cheaper versions from Argos etc)  and a white block of cubes from Ikea for clothes, shoes and bags. I need to go and get some more cubes, and I hope eventually to construct a sort of ziggurat or Tetris shape, with a tall bit for putting my makeup and general bits and pieces.

I have two vintage suitcases I use for underwear and trousers, one bought from Ebay and one from a vintage shop in Finland (vintage shopping in Finland is great).

I still have a few stacks of unsorted stuff in the room which needs sifting through, plus I’d really like to get a chair in there so I can sit somewhere to tie my shoes and just to chill out sometimes. The room needs a cool curtain rather than the default beige ones. Hopefully I can do another trip to Ikea soon.

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