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Country Living Fair

Last week I went to the Country Living Fair to look at lots of lovely interior and textiles things. I had three hours from yo to go and when I got there and looked out across all the stands I thought there was no way I could do it.

There were indeed some very lovely objects there – my favourites being the ceramics, ironware, vintage linens and ceramics, and antiques dealers.

It always gets more interesting once you talk to people and find out about what they do and what their story is. Also the one stand I only found when I came back to collect my forgotten coat – the one I found once I’d packed my camera away – that was the stand that was truly full of treats. That was the guy I bought my beautiful old beeswaxed birch breadboard from.

A month ago I didn’t even really have Country Living Magazine on my radar. But when Yvonne came to visit she left her copy at my place and I realised it’s the magazine for me. We’ve just agreed to renew the lease on our house for another two years so I’m very excited about our plans for the house and garden this summer – and what better place to visit than the lovely people who had taken the time to exhibit at the Spring Fair. Didn’t find any wall decals – which is what I was looking for after seeing some amazing wall art in Milk magazine a few months back.

There were some standout designers and makers there: of note were Linda Bloomfield – ceramics; Alex Pole Ironwork – knives, hooks and fire tools; Caurnie Soap from Scotland – producer of beautiful handmade transluscent soaps with herbs and flowers; Anna Perring – Luna Lighting – lovely porcelain tea light holders; Caroline Zoob – a very carefully curated antique store – just beautiful things; Rosie’s Armoire – lovely fun antique style homewares, textiles and gardenware and Hogben Pottery – very pretty rabbit and robbin mugs and jugs.

A nice rainy day and a visit to Violet Cakes

Outtake – final Violet Cakes photos at Lovely Food

Ah, I love waking up at 6.30am on a Sunday and coming downstairs with Astrid. Even better this morning it was raining, which meant we didn’t have to go out walking – we could all stay inside and I could secretly get some work done editing photos. Lots of cups of tea later and I’d had enough so off we went out for a lazy Sunday drive – off in the usual East London direction with the promise of a visit to Whole Foods in Stoke Newington.

We got waylaid of course, trying out the coffee from Long White Cloud in Hackney Road. They sell Kiwi Marmite! That made me a happy lady indeed. As did the oat milk latte. Although I think I prefer soy.

Then off to the lovely Violet Cakes in East London – my favourite London cake shop.
Cupcakes for the girls and cupcakes for my camera.

We got home, me small box of cakes in hand. I set about rearranging my office and now et voila I have my studio table in a new spot with good light. A homeless sewing machine but there are worse things right. Which might include a slightly burnt cake (I burnt it) that just will not be photographed!

The living room

Back in June when we were in Provence the whole interior of the house was painted. So far I still haven’t styled the house to my satisfaction. No matter how tidy it is, the girls come along and mess it up. Three steps forward, two back. Always.

At times like this I remember Melissa’s sewing policy – that she’s not a dressmaker and her sewing isn’t perfect. I like that philosophy. The philosophy of imperfection. It’s got character and it keeps things moving. So in that vein I shall be posting imperfect photos of our interior. If I waited for me to make it perfect we’d be waiting at least another fifteen years.

The walls are painted Farrow and Ball Calluna and the feature wall is in Brassica. Big painting by Polly and the small one is by Euan McGregor (not that one though). Oh, which reminds me of something that happened today. Liam Gallagher was walking to Starbucks for coffee and the entire street just stopped and stared. What incredible presence he had to stop a street in its tracks. It was literally like in a film. This guy with such energy walked from his apartment block up the street and it was as though time slowed down. People stopped talking and just looked. It was like he had left a golden trail of presence in his wake.

Back to our living room then. Walls in Farrow and Ball, my favourite corner in the house of course with mum’s crystal collection, my beautiful collection of vases and the lovely Babette from Le Train Fantome. The tall sideboard and coffee table are from Skandinteriors in South End Green just up the road.

The sofa we bought in Auckland for our amazing industrial warehouse office in 2004. It needs re-covering and wooden feet putting on. Persian carpet from eBay. Little cat bed from Cath Kidston and orange lamp by Kartell from Pink Apple Designs.

A winter kitchen

I’ve taken delivery of the amazing and beautiful Nigella Lawson mixing bowls. Amongst other things. The brilliant secret sale compares only to the Le Creuset half price sale of sky blue cookware a few years ago. I spent all weekend rearranging and clearing the kitchen. This evening I briefed Joelene our nanny on where everything goes. On Saturday I briefed Kevin.

So much has been ditched, the kids have got a few pieces for their kitchen.

But I, I am happy. A clear space. New cookbooks. Total kitchen perfection in tidy spaces and cupboards and clear bench tops. Space now for the new cook books and ingredients to sit on the bench. This weekend I discovered pomegranate molasses, new balsamic and North African spices from Melrose and Morgan, red wine vinegar from Carluccios and fresh parsley and pomegranate from our corner shop.

I spent all weekend in the kitchen, working on new recipes. Learning from new cookbooks. And working on energy efficient cooking. This weekend we had smoked salmon which I’ve not dared eat for seven years. We had anchovies with caramelised onions and garlic. We had scary dark Italian tinned tuna with giant penne. We had potato tart with thyme. The girls loved their macaroni cheese made with bechamel sauce from The Silver Spoon. I made tabbouleh with my famous hummous. Grilled pitta crisps. Soft fried purple carrots in butter.

The brown velvet curtains are up at last. Insulation to keep the cold of winter out and to stave off the ever rising London electricity prices. Upstairs and downstairs. The Christmas tree is up. Home is becoming ever more home. And I’m so looking forward to a couple of weeks off work for big walks on the Heath. Amazing Christmas food and wine has all been carefully curated and ordered.

Good company and warm times ahead.

Parts of rooms

Now the house is slowly beginning to take shape I’m taking photos of part of rooms. A couple of people have said they’ve seen my house photos on the blog but they still can’t really tell what the house is like; just very small zoomed in bits of it.

So I’m branching out a bit from tiny zoomed in scenes to parts of rooms. I’m not quite yet brave enough for whole rooms. They’re still not quite perfect enough. Or perhaps I shall just do it like my new way of sewing (as inspired by Melissa) to not worry about being perfect and just do it for the sheer joy of it and accept how things are without painfully striving for perfection.

That said I’m not taking any bed photos. Well, I did. And it was upon sight of said bed photo that I realised just how ugly our giant IKEA bed indeed is.

Kevin wants modern from Heals. I want a vintage style french bed maybe from here http://www.thefurnituremarket.co.uk/french_furniture.asp that I can just order now. Although in reality I will want a real vintage one which I’m happy to wait for. Perhaps a reason to go to Paris for some furniture market shopping.

And onwards and upwards to whole, photographable rooms.

Party season

When I was young and sociable I used to often host afternoon tea parties with canapes and bubbles. I still make the same food. The party now starts an hour later at three and I definitely don’t wear fancy Steffen Schraut dresses like I used to.

But I can bake better than I used to. And I now use almond meal in everything. Apart from the other day because it was late and I for the first time in my life bought self raising flour. And I forgot. The muffins were good though. Jolly easy to make – from the Edmonds Cook Book.

I also baked a Hazelnut cake from the Silver Spoon, which I forgot to photograph, and I baked my usual cake, also forgot to photograph it. And I forgot to photograph all the little toasts I made with incredible Chicken Liver pate – again, from the Silver Spoon. I even baked biscuits from the Silver Spoon; flour, sugar and olive oil. That was all.

We got presents. Lots of bunches of flowers, what a lovely surprise! Some people dressed up in special party dresses. Some people dressed for a walk on the Heath complete with gumboots. I like both!

And another little present which I’ve tucked away – out of the way of little fingers that like to take little bites out of biscuits and put them back on the biscuit plate before Mummy will see – tucked away for a little winter fashion photo shoot soon.

{ Happy Birthday Bala!! }

Eight years on…

When I met Kevin, a friend of mine, Mark Matthews, asked whether Kevin knew I’d dump him within a year. We laughed about that. Kevin laughed too. I think.

Six months later
Kevin and I had moved to Auckland. Set up Transcend there. Renamed ourselves Uniform. Became addicted to Kingsland coffee and brioche. Got ourselves a little cat family. Bought a house. Decided to move back to London.

Two years later
Kevin and I were back in London. I was studying aromatherapy and oriental medicine. We were back living at Kevin’s brother’s place in Baron’s Court. The cats had to stay in Auckland. We missed them like mad. We even visited them once that year from the UK.

Three years later
Kevin and I were back in Auckland. Reunited with the cats. I was pregnant with Astrid. We were back in our old house. We sold it. We moved to a big amazing family home in Mt Albert. Our forever family home. The unborn daughter enrolled already at my old school. Life was looking nicely mapped. Astrid was born. My mother died. My UK visa expiry date was moving closer each week I was away. Edith was conceived. Six weeks later we flew back to London. Our beautiful home rented to friends. We were going back to Roderick Road, where I used to live when I met Kevin.

Five years later
Kevin and I were back in London. Overjoyed to be back in the wonderland of NW3. So happy to be back in civilisation. Wondering at the hot London summer. Pregnant. Astrid was 18 months old. I had to start working again. And Astrid went to Lorraine’s during the days. Amazing to think Astrid didn’t speak back then. Let’s see how many paragraphs till she can talk. I remember the little house was so tiny we used to cram in the kitchen at a little IKEA fold out table, the Edith-bump dangerously aimed at the table corner. When my maternity leave started we were so poor we lived on tuna, pasta and bread for months. I have such fond memories of our time at 47 and a Half. Time spent with Astrid before Edith. Time spent sewing and blogging. We started meeting people in the area. Shopkeepers say hello to us. Matthew and Marie and Annie are our neighbours. Those were the end of those days. The dawn of Edith brought a much deeper responsibility to provide for the family. It was the winter of our discontent when Edith was born. I’ve never finished writing her birth story but it was the worst night of my life. Apart from her. A few weeks later we booked our tickets back home – a journey that would wait six more months until we could take it.

Six years later
We arrived back in Auckland. We stayed at Dad’s for a night. We had all caught the flu in Hong Kong. It was cold and damp. Dad had moved from warm and dry to cold and damp. We got the ferry to Waiheke and moved to really cold and damp. But ours. I loved walking down the hill to Little Oneroa in the early morning moonlight to wait for the bus to the ferry. I adored Waiheke. We had to wait for our house. So we moved to Parnell. We had cats and no garden. Rufus escaped. I came home from work and got him back in. I used to walk to work in my Muji raincoat each morning. My hair was an inch long. I’d had it all cut off. Eventually we got back home to an overgrown garden. I cut and cut and hacked and chopped and clipped and chucked. And then planted and mulched and tidied and landscaped. Then we painted and carpeted and had the kitchen fixed and we sandblasted the deck and washed the house and then not that long after we’d moved back and we were so happy back there and we bought amazing furniture from Malcolm and we had two saabs and I had an amazing job. I then didn’t get the CD job I so nearly had so then fuck you Auckland we booked flights and four weeks later we were in Singapore signing papers selling our house. On our way back to London. The last time we move back to London. It was a very deliberate house sale.

Seven years later
we were back in NW3. In Estelle Road. A few months later we found our house. A year and three months later we are still in the same house. We’ve looked at other areas. We could buy a house but not the neighbourhood we’re in. We’ve looked at renting houses closer to the school. We’ve looked at schools closer to us. More expensive schools. But things now just won’t shift. We tried to move schools and it refused. We looked at buying a house in East London. It’s refusing to happen. We don’t want to go anywhere.

Eight years later
We’ve been wrestling with the idea that we need to buy a house even in a place we don’t like because that’s somehow better than renting in a place we love. We had a neighbourhood party. Yesterday our neighbours all came. Our new current street neighbours. And some old ones too. Lorraine came. Matthew came. We’d be mad to leave. We don’t want to leave.

We’ve found our place we want to be. We are here. We are here.

Our new sofa

A few weeks ago Kevin and I went to Heal’s and bought the most amazing sofa in the world ever. We knew it was long. And we knew it might not fit up the stairs. But we secretly wished it would fit up the stairs so we bought it anyway.

And it doesn’t fit up the stairs.

So we have got a really amazing sofa now in the kitchen. And it looks SO amazing there. Except it’s probably going to get a bit dirty and jumped on and stop being such a beautiful special sofa. So this weekend it’s getting moved to the sunroom aka the new office.

Downstairs.

It’s going to be a huge disappointment putting the horrid old white IKEA sofa back into the kitchen after the splendour of the Chrysanthemum velvet sofa which has transformed the room into a burst of crimson wonder. Bet you didn’t know (I know I didn’t) that a sofa is called a couch in New Zealand. Lots of couches on villa verandahs in Auckland. Ha.

Of course you know what this means. Don’t you.
Yes. We are going to have to get another new sofa for the kitchen.
Not as good as the marvellous crimson chrysanthemum. But something that can withstand the children’s mucking about, eating and jumping and generally harassing the cats.

Poor old cats.

I know it would be sensible to be sensible and buy some nice domestic leather sofas. I’m not sure.

Nothing’s ever going to come close to the pinky red velvet.
Like Hotlips Hoolihan the sofa is. Yeah. That’s a good name for our new sofa. Hotlips Hoolihan.

New paint

Well, we have lived in our dream ramshackle house by the heath for almost a year. Perhaps, just over half a year. And we adore it for its rusticness. And we adore it because it’s the right house for us.

We were very lucky our landlords wanted to paint it. Because it hadn’t been painted in about six years. And they were going to paint it white, as initially I had suggested, but the week I spent working at Zoe’s parents house I noticed their house was painted in proper grown up colours. And I looked around and thought, “colour”. And Zoe told me about Farrow and Ball. Of course I already knew about Farrow and Ball. But Zoe SOLD me Farrow and Ball.

So I instantly went online and chose a couple of good colours and emailed our landlords and said, “Oooh. What about some colours?” And they said, “Yes. Brilliant idea. You choose them”.

Then one night I felt like staying up late. And I thought I could just do a quick sketch. But instead I did a diagram of our house. All four floors. In Omnigraffle. And then at about 1am I looked at the colour chart and picked a few that looked good in the 1am light. Some that I had already chosen, so not so random as it sounds.

And I plotted out the colours on the walls in my Omnigraffle diagram. Put in some blackboard paint. Acted as though I knew about paint. I mean, hey I choose colours all the time. Colour theory, right?

We went to France and the painters moved in. The house looks incredible. And in two weeks they’ll be finished and we’ll get our amazing new cleaner over to give the place a good old clean and I’ll be ready to photograph.

Nothing like a nice tidy house as Yvonne will testify to. When we did our little Hampstead cottage for the book shoot she said all I needed to do was hoover and dust. And put out fruit and flowers. To celebrate our new amazing cleaner who was recommended by our gorgeous neighbour I’m going to invest in a good Cath Kidston ironing board cover and a proper Dyson Hoover.

Kevin will be glad about that too. Because he’s the tidy one. Maybe one day I’ll blog about the pre-Kevin Charlotte. The very messy one indeed.

And for now I shall be happy about the new tidy Charlotte. And the new beautiful painted house.
It’s beautiful and brilliant. Very very brilliant.

Ah lovely long weekends of Spring

I must confess I’ve not run in just over a week and I’m feeling it. But we’ve had such lovely weather and I’ve been sorting out my fabric cupboard instead. Making piles of books with post-it notes. Piles of fabric. Waiting for my new ironing board to arrive.

We have had two four day weekends. Well, in fact today was the Royal Wedding and we wandered up to South End Green and Edith wanted to go to the Fun Fair because she refused to believe that it finished last weekend, so off we wandered up by the ponds at the Heath just to make sure the bouncy castle really had gone – and plain forgot to get home in time to watch the Wedding on TV. There was a bit of an M&S diversion for Colin the Caterpillar iceblocks (known by Edith as Olly-Ops which is a cross between ice lollies and ice blocks) and a bottle of proper champagne half price yay – for a wedding toast.

The streets were strangely quiet – we didn’t see a soul on the way home because they were all tucked up inside in front of the tele. Not a soul outside with the radio on. We also didn’t see any houses with bunting. There was one single big union jack hanging from a window and that was it. Maybe people all had theirs inside like ours was. Oh I wanted to hang it from the house but our windows only open a few inches.

Well. Happy Royal Wedding Day!
What did you do today to celebrate?

Man in the Moon prints from Le Train Fantôme

It was Christmas. And other stuff

Rob Ryan bunting from Bodi and Fou

First Christmas. Three days later Astrid turned four. Last week was Edith’s second birthday.

It’s been a stark contrast to last year’s Christmas holiday when we were in New Zealand enjoying the bright blue Summer skies, a beach at our doorstep, days spent making sandcastles under a rosy sun umbrella. Astrid’s birthday on the front lawn celebrated with mummy’s usual birthday cake, and a BBQ on the Weber which we’d packed in the car for holiday cooking. Shiny cone-hats for everyone. Swims. Ice creams. Sauvignon blanc and bubbles.

This year we hadn’t all managed to get the flu, in fact only Mummy and Astrid had it on Astrid’s birthday and it only lasted 24 hours. Kevin’s family came down from Leeds. Mummy made the usual cake – although this time it was an apple one and we had a chocolate one left over from Christmas because there was so much to eat and none of us felt like eating too much. And we lost the birthday candles so Astrid had one big one instead.

Astrid got a Post Office for her birthday. And a silk rose bower for her bed. And a weaving loom. Lucky Astrid.

Astrid’s third year saw her enjoying her time at The Learning Centre in Ponsonby where she was beginning to make new friends and learn lots of new words. Mummy worked a lot and so did Daddy so Astrid and Edith got a new nanny called Kelly and they both loved her to bits. Kelly was very laid back and fun for the kids. She was definitely a good friend to them.

Edith and Astrid now have a lovely new nanny who is much more strict with them – which is precisely what they need. Astrid is loving being back at school and Edith is her usual daredevil self hurtling around the place, diving off sofas and climbing on boxes to be near Mummy in the kitchen.

Edith had a very low key first birthday. Her cousins were all sick with 40° temperatures only a few days before they are due to fly to New Zealand for holidays. We had a lovely time though. Astrid suggested we go to the local city farm so we kept the kids awake after lunch and went in the drizzling rain to see geese, roosters, cows, sheep, goats and pig huge pigs snorting and squealing in the great big muddy pen. Astrid and Edith snorted back at the piggy wigs. Just like in Pepa Pig.

Edith had a new kind of cake this year. Edith had a selection of little cakes from Le Pain de Quotidien. She had berry tart, raspberry tart, mini pavlova and chocolate square. We remembered to buy birthday candles which went into the sticky chocolate square. Yum! We eat it all on the new kids table and watched Pepa Pig. Snort!

Too cold for Autumn

@N07/5107743968/" title="autumn by anknel + burblets, on Flickr"> autumn

It’s supposed to be only Autumn but already last week I have been out and bought myself the most incredible super padded super warm winter coat from Comptoir des Cottoniers. And this week I am ordering another pair of boots from Trippen so I can at least alternate them through the Winter. I toyed with the idea of shoes but I’d just never be able to wear them in this cold.

Somebody said it was going to snow this week. I wonder if that can be true? I think by the feel of it they weren’t joking. Last night as I was putting Edith to bed – we’ve got her into a bed now – a task that now requires some effort and time as the excitement for her is indeed high and she wants to jump around and hop out of bed a lot before she is tired enough to stay lying down. But last night in her room it was so so cold but the radiators were on maximum and the heating was set to 25 degrees.

And it’s only October. I wonder how clever it was to put all the radiators under the windows and not on the inner walls – because the heat all just goes and slips right out of the glass and out through the drafty cracks. I think we’re definitely going to have to get our heating looked at as the radiators are called narrow somethings and not the big somethings. The narrow ones aren’t very warm – and in our enormous five bedroom house we really need the warm kind for our heating.

Next week we’re getting the chimney sweep around to sort the chimney and then we can have our very first fires ever. I have never ever lived in a house with a proper fire and I can’t wait!

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