Merry Gaga-mas

I do love London but sometimes I wish I was New Yorker; they have way cheaper taxi's, better bagels and now to top it all they have Lady Gaga's Chritmas takeover of Barneys!



Hitting the shops really isn't high on my list of things to do at anytime of year, but with the Christmas shopping madness approaching it would take something super special to get me near one - Gaga is that thing.

I've been quietly excited to see what her team would pull out of the bag for this and so far it looks pretty good. I love the 'hair' windows - below and the whole 'Nightmare before Christmas' vibe of the rest of the store.











You can see some of the products online and its nice to see something a bit different to tempt you to drop your hard earned cash.

My favourite has to be these amazing stockings! The perfect gift for your inner street-walker!

  

I'm sure there are more exciting things to come, unfortunately here in London there will be no hooker heel stockings. I suppose we Brits will have to be satisfied with some X factor rejects switching on the Regent Street lights.

Palm Springs Revisited

Today Is my first day off in quite some time. Yes, day off! I am once again in very full time employment, to none other than Jonathan Adler! I've written about being a fan of Jonathan's work and ethos before so you can imagine how happy this makes me.

Well time for a bit more appreciation. I've been dying to go to the Parker hotel in Palm Springs for some time now. I'm so drawn to the idea of the place, the low slung mid century buildings,sun bleached pastel colours and waif thin palm trees reaching into the cloudless sky. I have a definite feeling I may end up seeing out my later years somewhere like that, perma-tanned in a kaftan!

Well I had somehow not realised that Jonathan had done the amazing interiors for the hotel - shame on me. So to make up for this oversight here are some images of the amazing Parker hotel.















Today I have well and truly put my feet up and relaxed. This is the result of a lesson learned on my last day off when I rushed about like a mad thing being productive. Being productive and virtuous is all well and good but, days off are for serious chilling so I have indulged in the box set of Brideshead Revisited. I've only managed to get half way through it because it is a truly epic watch but what a great way to spend the day .If you haven't seen it you must, it really is the kind of masterpiece television was made for.



The filming on location at Chatsworth house is truly incredible. It seems so strange to think that just one family used to live in such epic places! I'm not sure if it would be truly amazing or just plain ridiculous to live in a place like that. I think probably ridiculous, after all what would you do with all those rooms? As soon as you become the kind of person with a present wrapping room you know there's something very wrong!

I also read today about this amazing house in  Witley - Surrey, which unfortunately doesn't exist any more. There is nothing that gets my sense of adventure going like the picture below. The though of these long gone, amazing places which I'd love to be able to go back in time and explore. Part of the house does exist and this makes it even more intriguing because it is an underwater ball room!



The ball room (below) is pretty much all that is left of the house but what an amazing room to have just randomey sitting at the bottom of a lake in Surrey! The builder, a Victorian speculator obvioulsy had some imagination and he aparently enjoyed playing billiards in his underwater folly!

It all looks a bit creepy now and I do wonder what would happen if one of the panes of glass need mending? But its nice to know there are these little oddities out there in the world, it gives me a great sense of comfort in a world where design is all to often about head rather than heart.

Postcards from Greece

Here are SOME of the photo's from my recent trip to Athens. I have a tendency to get very snappy happy when I am abroad. The photo's at the top were taken in the old Athens food market which I have been wanting to explore for some time and I wasn't disappointed! This is a pretty short post but then a picture paints a thousand words so maybe on second thoughts its not so short after all!

Part Deux

So here is the follow up post to the Palace Art Fair. Before that I wanted to share with you some work from the art gallery that I've been telling you about. Below is a picture of the upstairs seating area. We are not using this scheme now but I really like it. What d'you think? Such a big fan of a monochrome palette with bright bursts of colour. I would happily have this as my living room - though with more 'stuff/mess' obviously.

I found this picture that I've kept for some time and think it links quite well to the scheme above. The yellow wall is too good for words and I love the graphic black and white poster at the back. I'm also intrigued by the corner of the plant diagram banner on the left, I love things like that! Very science lab chic.

So down to business and here are the other artists that I really enjoyed at the show. The first is Emma Franks. There is something about her paintings that I just can't get out of my head. They are quite melancholy but very sweet at the same time. They remind me of Tim Burton films (early ones) and that's no bad thing. See more at www.emmafranks.co.uk

Maria Rivans makes the most fantastic collages. In fact I'm pretty partial to a collage myself. I really like how she has used vintage collectables, hand made paper, photographs and fabrics to create the pieces.  www.mariarivans.com



So in honour of Maria I am posting one of my own collages. Its slightly less intricate and slightly more homoerotic, but hey, horses for courses.

Last but not at all least is Flora Mclachlan. Wow, I really like these pieces. It seems that I'm very much drawn to work that has a naive dreamlike quality. Flora draws inspiration from the countryside and stories. These pieces definitely remind me of half remembered stories from childhood and the strange magical

things that might happen there when the moon is shining bright.

Flora@murky.net

Now, a thing of beauty to end on. I've mentioned my 'thing' for chairs on here before. Not all chairs obviously, but I think I have found a new contender for absolute favourite. I have no idea who made this chair or what its called, so if anyone does or has one they would like to give me please get in touch. Isn't it just fantastic! It looks like it wouldn't win any awards for comfort, but like many women will say of a favourite pair of heels, its not about comfort its what they look like!