day out

Day out with Lucy in Islington, we dropped into the Country Living Christmas Fair at the Business Design Centre... blimey, festive overload! we stayed long enough to seek out the Treefall Design stand where Manda McGory has used our Logpile wallpaper as a back drop to her sweet and charming collection of homewares and beautiful, simple hand made children's clothing range (pictures taken on my phone, sorry!) It was lovely to finally meet Manda.

Enough of jingle bells and reindeers, we walked as far as the serene and thoughtful Folklore shop via twentytwentyone, bought a 21st birthday present handbag at Whistles, some flouro printing inks at Cass Art, checked out the vintage clothes shops in Camden Passage (beautiful but expensive) had lunch in the Elk in the Woods, and tried to see the Old School print exhibition at Smug. Roped off again, better luck next time. We also spent ages in Penhaligans identifying our signature scents. Daughters, fun but expensive.

day off 2

After the V&A I took a walk around South Kensington visiting some of my favourite shops selling things I can't afford - Scandium, Few and Far, Mint and Margaret Howell; home of the understated English style that I aspire to but can't quite achieve because of my boot sale and charity shop habit. Then on to the Kings Road where I checked out the new Anthropologie (do they sell anything without a bobble or a frill!?) in the old Antiquarious site, what an amazing building. Then on to The Shop at Bluebird via Sigmar where I fell for the hand blocked wallpaper, I may be able to afford one sample sheet! On the way I visited the good old Conran Shop in the fabulous Michelin building. It was like stepping back in time to the 80s, I swear their displays have not changed - Phillipe Starck ghost chairs still abound. They were also guilty of taking the annoying trend of arranging books rainbow-style to a new extreme, holes drilled into hundreds of old books to make a colour coordinated window display, it made me cross!