Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Country Living Fair - March 2015, Part One of Three


I would have to say emphatically YES!  If you're planing a trip to England.....


why not plan it around the time of a Country Living (UK) Fair?


If you only have a little time to spend and think you'd enjoy a snapshot of U.K. life


and British tastes (beyond Burberry, in other words) a Country Living Fair is A SURE THING.


As much, methinks, as a zip around Liberty's which I have, in the past, been known to characterize as "HEAVEN FOR GIRLS".  (There are fewer stairs here at the Country Living Fair.)


The Country Living Fair will likely be HEAVEN for your tummy


if not your waistline


and ground ZERO for sourcing all


that the country lifestyle requires.  Whether you live in the country or


just like taking picnics out to it.  (with Toto, too!?)


The Country Living Spring Fair could set you up with sausages for that picnic.


Scarves in case of that brisk breeze blowing up.


Proper decoys for your picnic cloth


to frighten away marauding moochers.


Cuddly toys for any of the little ones you might like to picnic with.


And of course.....DESSERT!  ("Biscuits and pudding" if you want to be properly British.)


There are experts at the Country Living Fair, who will happily argue amongst themselves about the best way to rid your garden of annoying slugs.  (Have you EVER known any gardeners who actually agree on much?  I haven't!)


Did you expect yes, beautiful shoes at the Country Living Fair?  (No?  Neither was I!)  But you'll be having a little walk after your picnic, won't you?


Have you noticed I'm not really a committed shopping blogger but - beautiful arty dresses for walking in-style?  For this outfit, I can make an exception.


I was dying for this dress, and everyone else had their eyes and hands all over the necklace with the polkadot bobbles (that was made especially for the dress, I was told).

Have I shown you enough to get you interested?  Well come back soon because there WILL be Parts Two and Three.

Yes.  The Country Living Spring Fair was a bit of a shopper's extravaganza!  You'll see what I mean.








Sunday, April 26, 2015

La Douleur Exquise


A post about mystery


beauty


and a bit about


negative spaces.


if you think about it a minute


each of these pictures seems to speak


of what might be missing as much as the beauty


of what might be there.


It's been another tragic weekend in the world.  It's hard not to think about that which is lost.  And yet still require the comfort and reassurance of beauty.

All photos via La Douleur Exquise






Monday, April 20, 2015

Clifton Nurseries - More Tales of the Unexpected


It's the unlikeliness of the location.  Nestled within a block of Victorian


and Edwardian buildings...you pass through a black metal gate and down a planted alley into.......


an urban Paradise where all things "gardens" rule, and the best of them are a bit


out of the ordinary.  I mean, how many of the usual suburban garden centers will try to sell you twine in all the colors of the rainbow - for tieing up your sweetpeas and nasturtiums?  


Clifton Nurseries will supply you with the usual roses and daffodils


camellias, geraniums 


and primroses, but it's not everywhere


that will offer you the VERY LATEST in garden furniture in that distingue Hermes orange


to take home with your ancient olive tree for "instant Mediterranean" in your backyard.


Some people die for rhubarb pots (I do).  You might need to send a man to collect them for you, they won't fit in your tote bag......I know - you weren't expecting to find rhubarb pots on this trip to the shops - me either.


And in case you've been feeling left out of all of this season's Sakura viewing?  Clifton Nurseries can help you plant your whole neighborhood.


Surprise, surprise?  Those yellow orchids are fake!


But the garlanded amphorae and the stone sphinxes are 100% percent real.  Wait a minute - which of your suburban big box stores has one or two of those overseeing their sales floors?  None you say?  No, I didn't think so.  And if you are thirsty.  There is a cafe at Clifton Nurseries, inside a greenhouse, for a nice chat with the light pattering of raindrops overhead......

Or if you are like me, there is a nice pub around the corner!  The planting will wait.




Thursday, April 16, 2015

Moving Miniatures


Sometimes a theme develops.

 (Photo by Artemis at Junkaholique)

Stars align.

 (handmade by hand in the traditional Chinese way presumably, by Paris' Petit Pan)

Great minds think alike.  That sort of thing.


As Nadine at Tiny Woolf* recently pointed out to me, Artemis at Junkaholique and I covered some of the same ground in London this past month.  Artemis got to Clifton Nurseries before me.  She cadged the tin caravan at a South Bank boot sale (methinks).  Me, I have saved Clifton Nurseries pics for you for later.  And I cadged pictures only of a little boat and an emergency van.  (The originals of which I encountered at the Conran Shop and in Camden Passage in Islington.  Pics 2 and 3 respectively.)  I think though, that all three share in common a very appealing simplicity of form and refreshing graphic qualities.  SO NICE!  I JUST HAD TO SHARE!

Yes, I'm giving you just another idea of some cool things you could become an avid collector of!  No need to thank me.  I know.  I get it.  

Anybody else have samples of similar miniatures?  Send me a pic and I'll add it/them to the post!  Wouldn't that be fun?  We could make a virtual-visual-cyber-collection.  I know, I know, someone's probably doing it already on Pinterest.  But wouldn't we rather be different and a bit retrograde?

*(So nice to have lunch with her in London!  We were enjoying chattering/eating together so much we forgot to take a picture!  I promise you, it was a happy lunch.)



HAVE  A LOVELY WEEKEND ALL!
********************************












Tuesday, April 14, 2015

London in Full Flower


I get color and flowers


all year round now in Los Angeles.


But the English way with flowers 


still makes me say


"WOW!"







Sunday, April 12, 2015

Camden Passage, Islington


This is still


what most non-Londoners


first think of


when you say


"Islington".


Now there are more


"up to date" boutiques like "Hexagone" (specializing in all things French).


But the "fripes" at Annie's


 (and the unbearable whiteness


 of being)


still rule at Camden Passage.


Now you know where the costumers


and set-dressers come for little details and inspiration...for all those gorgeous English costume dramas.*


Yes, you can take a break for frozen yogurt


and pick up dinner at a hipster fish monger's


But the low, or no overhead, vendors remain with their books and bric-a-brac.


Between the daily bread purveyors


and the natty head surveyors.  Bobo Islington


still retains the whiff of Downton* days.


Even if the toffs have traded their topcoats and tails


for buckskin and fringe.


At Camden Passage the past will live on.  And tea-time will always be NOW.