Delicate Days

Aedh Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats

Photo courtesy of BendyChange

Foraging Foray

Autumn is here in all it's glory and we are off this weekend foraging in Epping Forest for 'shrooms! Not sure what to expect, except the guaranteed influx of rain which is due tomorrow morning. So wrapped up to the hilt, basket and flask at the ready we are off to join Andy Overall for a day with a difference. If I can manage to get the camera out without it and myself being washed away I'll be back early next week to unravel the adventure! Have a lovely weekend one and all, now where are my wellies?...




Mushroom shots courtesy of fungi to be with
Deer shot courtesy of Iain West

A sad sad day in our household

The 4th August was a dreadful day, one which we had dreaded for a long time. Our dear sweet boy left us, drifting away calmly while he slept. Our hearts are broken, a massive gap in our lives has been created and our house is so quiet. We will miss you dearly Jo Jo, you gave us so much unconditional love and joy, more than we could have every asked for. Sleep peacefully, we'll never stop loving you. xx.

4 Sleeps To Go!

Everything in my life has been on hold for a long time now and in four days time I am able to reclaim my life again. I have to admit I have had a ball being back in advertising, with some real challenges, but most importantly some great people and colleagues that I have worked with. However, now I am ready to get back to RedFish, my interiors, my vintage buying exploits, sourcing wonder pieces for people and getting Teacups & Pearls truly up and running (more on that another time). So my first challenge is to create and build a website for RedFish and Teacups & Pearls, and for this I have given myself three weeks. I am going to use this space to show the countdown and see if 3 weeks are possible. Let's see shall we?

My best friend T believes that if you think hard enough about something it will begin to happen. There is one thing just recently that has happened in this way, but I will save that for another post as the culmination of the thought is on Monday and I don't want to tempt fate.

The thought I do leave you with is that today at the market I bought 4 1920's pen illustrations of ladies head fashion and a sale poster scamp for Derry and Toms (which I will share with you when I find their full history). Derry and Toms were one of the largest department stores in 1920's London. They were rivals of Selfridges and Swan & Edgar attracting vast queues on their opening sale days and standing the test of time until they sadly closed on January 13th 1972. Most people would then have known the building to have been taken over by Biba with the amazing Rainbow Restaurant and the famous Roof Gardens, commissioned by Derry and Toms, and now owned by Richard Branson.

So imagine my surprise when I am part way through researching the history of the illustrations I had bought and clicked onto a blog I read regularly Ted and Bunny. Her latest post was about yellow and how much she would love to wear it but sadly cannot, as the colour does not suit, and the last time she had bought a yellow piece was in Biba in the old Derry and Toms building on Kensington High Street - weird, random, coincidence?

Catwalk Capsule

Would love to be wearing this today, grey and yellow hues with white accents - bring on the sunshine!

All images courtesy of Anthropologie

Getting Away From It All

We all have dreams, some of us are lucky enough to live them, some of us tiptoe around them and others just continue to dream.

Mr S and I have been dreaming and talking for a long time about what we would like to do if we were ever to get out of the big smoke. I guess we are still at tiptoe stage, however, we do have a small list:

• A boutique B&B,
• A Delicatessen with a vintage tea room,
• An interior business we could combine with the B&B,
• A goat farm or
• A combination of all of the above!

And, it is with this dream that I gleefully stumbled upon this wonderful small boutique B&B in Hastings, right near the coast. It's not totally what we dream to have, but there are beautiful snippets of the building and interiors that can't do anything but make you smile.

So if you like what you see in this post why not pour yourself a steaming cup of tea, click on here and plan that long deserved weekend away. We can all dream.

Lucienne Day - 1 January 1917 to 30 January 2010
Thank you for your inspiration.