Wish list

I love trawling through furniture and art online. While this is an undoubted pleasure in my spare time, it is also slightly sadistic on my part as I cannot afford any of the items! Well thats not going to stop me furnishing my imaginary dream homw with all these amazing pieces. Here are some that have caught my beady eye today.

'PP130 Hoop chair' by Hans Wegner. Designed in 1986 - the year my sister was born. Crafted in ash and woven flag halyard structural support with removable neck rest and upholstered seat pad.

Absolutely love this! isn't it incredible like a giant cats cradle. Now the fun part is trying to find a more affordable version so you can get that 'look' at home so my suggestion would be this style of string chair.

  

You can find this style of chair on Ebay for less than £100.

 In interiors I have a real 'thing' for statement lamps and chairs, so our basement is full of lamps which I have bought in a great whirl of passion, sure that they will be the cherry on top of whatever room I am doing only to get a new cherry a little while later.

This 'Daddy long legs' chandelier is right up my street. I think it would go very well indeed in our living room.

My affordable version would be the Meurice chandelier by Jonathan Adler. Now this is $750 dollars so its not that cheap but, I think it is a great piece in its own right and its still alot cheaper than Daddy long legs! Sorry for the small pic, but you can find more of his amazing lights on his website -jonathanadler.com

                                                    

Yestersday I said that I had been painting and here are the results; This is our little hall off the kitchen that leads to the garden. It houses the boiler and has until now been a pretty dull space painted all white - no longer!

 I really like this little hall now. It has a real identity and it glows when its all lit at night. I can imagine going in here in the winter to get a hit of heat and brightness in those grey cold months. The colour doesn't photgraph very well unfortunatley - its even more vivid in real life! The colour is Charlotte's locks, by Farrow and Ball. It is quite difficult to get an even coat of it as it has so much pigment in it, but its worth the many coats for the depth of colour you get.

When  we first decorated the house it was very much a monochromatic scheme which I really like but I'm enjoying adding colour to it gradually. I wonder what will get the rainbow treatment next!?

Back to Black

                              

Was very sad to hear the news of Amy Winehouse's passing this week. I won't repeat what has been said over and over but I think it is a real shame that she didn't have longer to see what she could have accomplished.

We were/are the same age and it does get you thinking. My main thought was what a waste. I suppose this has particular resonance for me at the moment as I still don't know what to do with myself. It has gone beyond the point of having a good think about my options and now I feel like I am aimlessly drifting along.

This is not good and I have to get my act together. Why this is easier said than done is beyond me!

In this spirit of actually doing something I was going to enter the British Airways - Great Britons competition. This was to have your art put on the side of ten 747's for the 2012 games.

 I love 747's - random but true. I really think they are a true work of engineering beauty. Suffice to say that to see my art on ten of them would be probably the most exciting moment of my life so far!

                                         

                                     

(As a bit of trivia, this is Lady Penelope, the first plane I ever worked on as a steward and the best jumbo in the world in my opinion)

Well you can imagine my shock when I went to enter this morning, only to find the competition had closed yesterday! I had written the date down wrong! What the F**K! This sort of stupid mistake is I fear all too illustartive of my state of mind at the moment.

 To be fair, I haven't just been sitting at home watching Will and Grace (well maybe a little!); I have been down in Surrey for the past couple of weeks building and landscaping a truly massive pond. Earlier on in the blog I shared my childhood love for all things water based, so this job which involved more water than you could shake a stick at was just pure pleasure from beginning to end for me. Here's some photo's that show the constrction and the finished product.

                                   A very big hole! the pond is 13 metres long by 7 metres wide.

 This shows the insulation that goes in before the liner to protect it from getting torn. It was very  soft and at this point the hole seemed a great place to lie down in and read a book - although being a true professional I ignored this urge!

 The liner has gone in! You can get an idea of scale from James, although he was quite small anyway so maybe this isn't that helpful.

              A hole with water. Now the task of trying to make it all look a little less like a giant bin liner.

                                     

                        

                         This shows the pond with all the edges done and the start of the waterfall.

This is the finished pond! The idea was to make look quite natural, so all the sides are turfed rather than paved and all the planting is very informal. On the far bank next to the waterfall is a mound which has been planted with bulbs and will be covered with grass. This will look great in next spring.

The waterfall looks pretty raw at the moment but when it is all over grown with plants and moss it will look great! I am pretty happy with the waterfall and was quite chuffed that I moved that tonne (literally) of stones by myself.

 So there it is! I hope you like it as much as I do. Can't wait to go back and see it when its a bit settled in.

Today I have been back at home in London and I have been busy painting and rearraning things at home again. Pics to follow shortly. I'm off now, my friend has suggested a Winehouse love in and that sounds like a truly fab idea to me!

Laters!

Super Gay, Super Bass and SBTRKT

Here's to South Beaches first gay hotel?! How its the first is beyond me considering that South Beach is as gay as gay can be with Cher on top! I have always loved South Beach and now I know where to stay next time I go back - Lords.

The decor is pure camp South Beach, with imaginative details everywhere. The sunshine coulours are perfect for the location and its nice to see a bit of fun being injected back into South Beach as many of the sea front hotels have become a bit dry in recent years. The Design was by BHDM of New York - job well done guys!



Such liberal use of Elizabeth Taylors image is getting a big thumbs up from me. I want that print!



So that was Super Gay, now Super Bass. I'm not usually a great fan of hip hop and definately not the videos which have moved on somewhat from the bitches and ho's format to I'm out in da club, with some mates one of which will be wearing geek glasses, que flashing lights and endless dull cliches of 'a great club'.  J-lo couldn't help but spread this format even thinner in her video 'On the floor' and she looks as bored as we do by the whole concept.

So thank god for Nicky Minaj! I love the video for her song Super Bass.





My favourite bit is with all the flourescents, its great if a little done, but I think using it in this context was unexpected and therefore, me likey!

Finally SBTRKT, have no idea what that stnds for but I like what I've heard of their music. What I like even more is the posters for their debut album which are popping up all over London, keep an eye out for them. Nu Tribal.