CHINESE NEW YEAR

For Chinese New Year, my work held a free lunch and of course gave out fortune cookies! I like it how life sometimes gives you little messages to remind you of what you need to know at the moment.

TWISTING

Here's my beautiful bodies at a yoga class I held recently. As we don't have a sofa yet, I am taking opportunity of the lovely big space we have available, so am trying to hold a couple of classes each week. This was a Yin class, opening up the shoulders beautifully.

COCA COLA

Coca Cola. Sometimes, it is just necessary!! 

SLIPPERS

My friend Nadia bought me these AMAZING slippers. They are literally the comfiest slippers in the world! They are handmade in Warsaw by a company called Mounties By Pama I believe you can buy them on Chatsworth Market on a Sunday, or mail order!

STONED

So this will be the first job- well second job, as the first job was painting the living room and bedroom white, which was done the day after we moved in.

This fireplace... Well... What can I say? I think it's hideous. It's sandstone, and feels like it belongs in a small chateau, not a small two bed cottage. Alas... It's there, and it's a working fireplace. You may wonder why we have boxes stuffed in there... This is because Clarence tried to scale the chimney. He is a terror for getting into TINY spaces, and loves to squeeze into anything his svelte shape will allow- often leaving Alabama behind... So when we caught him half way into the vent, we decided it would be best to just block up the fireplace and create more space- always the aim.

SATURDAY

The weekend just gone was the last weekend till April that we have no plans, so we lazed about all weekend... Utter bliss.

VALENTINE

Valentine's day consisted of breakfast in bed, and Agent Provocateur, with the papers.

PUSS PUSS

God, this magazine is good.

KIR TODAY

Cote London Bridge, with Kir, and Tonje. Naturally.

SPRING

I get excited when daffodils become available. The end of Winter is in sight, and Spring is on its merry way. I love the fresh crisp mornings and the little pop of colour into our monochrome living!

TRIANGLES

Testing, testing. These are indeed just tests. Rachel and I are wanting to get a tattoo together and we were testing out placements.

I love triangle, I like the simple lines and find it visually arresting.

It is also three sided (obviously) and the number three resonates with optimism and joy, inspiration and creativity, speech and communication, good taste, imagination and intelligence, sociability and society, friendliness, kindness and compassion. Number three also relates to art, humour, energy, growth, and expansion.

All of this, and it also symbolises woman. So eventually, we will get round to it... One day.

 

SKETCH

I postponed my birthday because of house moving. So a week later, Rachel, Amy and Marine took me to the Shrigley room at Sketch for afternoon tea. It was wonderful. I love getting lost in sketch, it's like a grown up Alice in Wonderland. This MASSIVE wonderworld hidden behind a normal London terrace.

VANILLA BLACK

Belated birthday dinner at Vanilla Black, the food was incredible. Deceptively filling, so I couldn't even finish my main, OR have one of their incredible looking desserts (avocado ice cream!? WOAH) I wore my backless black dress. She makes an appearance once a year or so.

CHARLOTTE

Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte. Have you ever seen something so beautiful?!

 

T2

I got an amazing T2 set for my birthday. I love their branding! I am so happy Sophia has introduced me to them! Their peach tea in particular got my taste buds tingling!! So lovely.

LENA

Another person who knows me well. <3

REISSUE

So I don't know why it didn't happen sooner, bit IKEA have reissued some of their old stock. I went in with my Mum a couple of weeks ago to get their EKENASET armchair... I bargain at £150. They were sold out, and I managed to convince them to sell me the display!!

POST MOVE SLUMP

This is the third move the cats have done. They're quite used to it now. But I think Clarence is pretty fed up of it.

PARIS

One of my very best friends Tonje bought me a very good birthday present. She is a mind reader.

 

WOOD

First day, all moved in, plants are happy. Can't wait to get working on those floorboards!!

CHOPPED

So I made the leap, and cut all my hair off. The amazing Premlee from Hershesons did it a couple of weeks ago. It feels great to get all the dry dead ends off from when it used to be blonde! The grey is starting to look more prominent, especially since most of the length has gone from the bottom. Whenever I have a wobble and reach for the dye, I just Google Sarah Harris to keep me going.

ALL PACKED UP AND READY TO GO

The final night at our old flat. I didn't really feel sad, as it never felt like home, it was always a project. Which makes me feel a bit weird, like I was using it, which I guess we were, but it made me feel awful, like the flat had feelings! You know like when you leave an ex boyfriend and they never saw it coming?

Anyway, here are some of the boxes all stacked up.

CITRUS

Vitamin C, get in me.

BRIGHT

For the final new nights of Hibbert Road we slept in the back bedroom, as the neighbuor had decided to leave the extractor fan all night, which was near our actual bedroom. Waking up in the back bedroom was a pure joy! We never had any curtains or blinds put up, and it was BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT, which I love!

 

SHEPHERD

The mornings are eventually getting lighter! Here's the classic tower block on way to yoga school, as the sun is rising.

 

DORYAKI

New favourite snack! There is an amazing independent Japanese takeaway place near my work, and recently I was introduced to Doryaki! It's two pancakes, with a matcha mascarpone and adzuki bean centre! A delicious little sandwich.

 

SALLY

My favourite Sally Mann print. Right next to my favourite Larry Clark!

HOME

I am thrilled to announce, the sale of our flat went through (not entirely without hiccups) and we secured our first house! A lovely two up two down on a quiet little road in Leyton, right next to a beautiful City Farm!

We can't wait to get stuck into our next project. We will be here a little longer than the last place, as we would like to enjoy the process a little more. Also, this place is totally liveable, so we have the luxury of doing it up in sections! The last place needed EVERYHING DOING TO IT ALL AT ONCE!

NIKE

I've never been a huge sporty gal. But these beautiful Nike Roshe's from Other Stories I can get on board with!

SILVER LININGS

Another grey update. It's starting to look deliberate now. I tucked my hair in to get the feel for it being all grey, and decided I would chop all my hair to this length. Photos to follow! They grey, like I have said before, comes in waves with love and hate. It is very marmite. People LOVE it or HATE it. No one is indifferent. I also hate the apology that comes with peoples' snide remarks. But more often than not, people seem to get it, or at least they say they do to my face... Which is good enough.

LEMON

Post yoga rituals.

SCRAP

I love scrap booking. I hate that photographs are so disposable now, and everything is stored on this digital portal, and memories can be erased, swiped and deleted at the first malfunction or hasty decision! So I decided to start scrapbooking after we got married. I use polagram. It's an amazing service, you can print any photo from your iPhone or Instagram into a chosen design- I always go for polaroid. I have filled three albums so far, and dated by time period. Even now two years in, I like looking back to holidays and memories with friends and family and I like that they are tangible and in my hand.

QUIZ

I'm AMAZING at pub quizzes. Not because my general knowledge is any good... Because I am an EXCELLENT cheater. I am the most discreet Googler the East End has ever seen! The trick is to not get EVERY answer right, and to make it look like you are having a text argument. No quiz master will want to interrupt a text argument right?!

BUILDER

Any one who knows me, knows I love green tea. Any kind of green tea. Green tea with vanilla, with jasmine, with mint, with peach etc etc. You get the general idea.

The other day though, I CRAVED builders tea. Which is unusual. Usually this only happens on a hang over... And normally accompanied by a rather greasy fry up...

BATH

Bubbles and berries. Bloody brilliant. I have a wonderful husband.

BOXED

Long live procrastination. ARGH. I was so organised. I ordered the boxes, I ordered the removal company, bla bla bla. And I JUST CANT START PACKING. I JUST CANT DO IT.

CONTEMPLATION

No one likes packing. Alabama certainly was choosing to ignore me, when I asked for her help.

EXCHANGE

When we eventually exchanged on our house sale, we were ecstatic! We opened a very nice bottle of red. I think we bought this one is Versailles when we were over for Paul's 30th.

BREAD

I love baking bread! But it can be longgg and laborious. This is the tastiest and easiest bread I have ever made. Its the NY times famous no knead bread recipe. Find the recipe here

Enjoy!

JAM

Laduree... Famous for its macarons. But also available there is this amazing Marie Antoinette jam!

HOOVER

Cats hate hoovers. Obviously. Everyone knows that. But I just LOVE how puffy Clarence's fur gets when we hoover! Look at his little face! He will not run away, he just puffs up his fur and stares at it.

LIZARD

About time for another yoga pose! Here we have lizard lunge (Utthan Pristhasana.) It's an incredible hip opener.

 

Not only does Lizard open the hips, it's great for hamstrings, groins and hip flexors, whilst strengthening the inner thigh muscles on the front leg.

It also opens and releases the chest, shoulders and neck. It is a great in preparing the body for deeper hip openers such as Pigeon Pose and Hanuman Pose! I LOVE THIS POSE. I think it's my current favourite, this and humble warrior.

How to Lizard:

1. From Downward Dog, step your right foot forwards between your hands. Manoeuvre your right foot to the outer edge of the mat, so that the foot is slightly wider than your shoulder.
2. Now sink the hips down, so they are heavy, and they settle forwards and down. Now walk your hands forwards until you are able to come down on to your forearms. You may place your forearms on the ground, or on a block.
3. Extend your heart forward, and lengthen the spine. Try to soften the chest and draw the shoulder blades together, taking the rounding out of the back.
4. Hug the right knee towards your midline to get into the inner hip and thigh area of your right leg. You can keep your left knee lifted (as pictured) with your leg active, or for a more restorative version, you can lower your left knee.

VEG

I rarely cook meat. Paul is now fully vegetarian, and I'm working my way to getting there eventually. At the moment I probably eat meat once a week (always a roast, I'm yet to find the PERFECT veggie roast!) But at home, I never cook or eat meat. The Leon Fast Vegetarian cook book is full of amazing inspiration!

DUNGENESS

Dungeness has been on my bucket list for a very long time, I was so so happy I got to visit when we went to Rye for New Year. This is a little belated, but look at this architecture! Dungeness is the UK's only desert. It's this beautiful wasteland with the most stunning buildings. Derek Jarman's prospect cottage and the Shingle House were my two favourites. There's something mesmerising about this little gem. Imagine waking up and your back drop is the sea and a nuclear power station. How very Suede.