Wednesday 31 October 2012

THE BEST OF HALLOWEEN

Halloween is one of my favourite days of the year, I love all the fancy dress and the trick or treating but I mainly love it because my husband proposed on Halloween. Of course, he didn't actually realise until, in a flurry of over-excitement of being engaged I said:

ME: "What's the date!? We have to remember the day!" 
HIM: "31st October!...Oh shit it's Halloween - sorry." 

Not necessarily the most romantic day of the year but still...

Back to the fancy dress...Everyone knows the main reason to have children in the first place is to dress them up so, with Baby A we now have the perfect opportunity. So without further ado here we have my favourite fancy dress costumes for babies. 
These are total genius, some people may say it's mean but please, shush, you're wrong.


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 Seriously I effing love this. One fat, happy little shark.

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Moving on from Fancy Dress...

I've seen some amazing pictures of pumkins in the run up to Halloween this year. Pimping pumpkins is practically an Olympic sport now - have a look at the effort that has gone into these!


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Happy Halloween!


Friday 26 October 2012

YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED

Yeah I know it's a crap title.

We have a little office nook here in our apartment in Amsterdam and it needs a little loving. I've been thinking about doing a gallery wall in there for a while as I have quite a few pictures that are lying around homeless. I love that gallery walls can basically be whatever the hell you like - matchy matchy, same frames, same colour, photos, art, trinkets - whatever your heart desires. Our nook has enough space for our desk (stainless steel with blackened tempered glass), our office chair which (a vintage Walter Knoll that I gave to the husband for his 30th, brownie points cha-ching)and some matching black wood Chinese shelves and drawers. Now you know what it looks like. (I'm choosing to omit the framed signed England Rugby shirt in my description).

I'd love to paint the whole nook black up but that's a pretty brave feat - also I haven't spoken to either the landlord or the husband about this yet so it may be a long shot (hello husband, what do you think of my idea)? Like I said I've been thinking about this for a while but then I picked up a copy of House and Garden and saw this bedroom of Bunny Turner from TurnerPocock and I just want to eat the whole room up for breakfast.



Then I went to the Zoo with Baby A and in their cafe I saw this monster.



It's so high you can barely see the top.

So with all these millions (2) of cryptic signs (not really) I figured I should look at a few more images of gallery walls to get the inspiration juices flowing for our own wall.

Hold your horses though because before that I'm going to thrill you with a few new pictures that I've recently bought to go in this so far imaginary gallery wall. Firstly the lovely LIPS picture from Jessica at The Aestate



I just love it and how cool will (would, ahem) that look on a black wall in a gold frame?

I also bought a few Japanese papers, (they are literally A4 papers and cost 2 euros each). A steal don't you think? Picked them up in a paper shop here in the Dam. Couldn't work out which colour I liked more so got both - I know, go crazy. I am so in love with the blue I went back and got it in A3. Maybe I'll just quit the gallery wall and tape these all together to make wallpaper.




So back to the inspiration pics and starting with some black and dark walls...

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I still don't get why people hang plates on walls.


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This here is Kimberley over at Swoonworthy's Gallery wall, pretty natty having the TV sneaking in there huh? She also has written a post with tips on how to do your own gallery wall incase you're interested.


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OK this I LOVE.
Love the LOVE print.
Love the colours
Love the gold lamp
just Love.


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This is brilliant, it's for an architect's office and combining all the antique maps in an asymetrical way is perfect.

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This is the super smart version of the gallery wall. Perfectly lined up, matching size prints and same frames. It's also a hotel room, wow, totally would (stay there).

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This is perfect the green is awesome although I can't help thinking I'd impale myself on those coral handles.

This is what I want in my nook - mismatched pics on two walls.

Pretty cool use for Washi Tape. 

Another thing I have to go on my wall are those photobooth photos like the above which I've collected from weddings and parties and have taken on my phone - they are the BEST (along with polaroids).





Okey Dokey that should do for the moment. 
TTFN

ps. WTF is this below? I don't like it. I would constantly be worrying about things falling on my head and it would give you nightmares as you'd think you were actually standing up and you'd try and walk and you'd go nowhere and...ARGH STOP IT. 


Friday 12 October 2012

PING PONG

I LOVE Ping Pong. Love it. I recently read about two new Ping Pong  bars in London that have picked up on a trend in the US and it's just rekindled a Ping Pong fire in my belly. Now I'm adding PP table to my list of things to go into Dream House (as well as a pool table and a table football table naturally). I don’t want a “games room” though nope, I just want a stylish table so I can challenge unsuspecting visitors from time to time. 
I'm not gonna lie, I think I'm pretty good.



Let's go with some inspiration pics shall we? Ellen DeGeneres has an awesome table in her house which was featured in Architectural Digest above - I’m a huge Ellen fan and even more so now I know she has a Ping pong table smack bang in the middle of her house. 

Then there’s Jonathan Adler’s table in his apartment (pictured below) which is a little bit more in your face but I'm still loving it (check out the legs on that).



Or this cutesy one. In fact a bit too cutesy for me but I’m loving it being painted in stripes.

But...if, let’s just say, you aren’t blessed with a house that’s got a spare room for a Ping Pong table why not go old school and have one in your backyard à la Chateau Marmont. No messing around with this one, it’s understated cool, it’s not trying too hard it’s just hanging out in the corner with a string of lights. 



Or an attention seeking super shiny sucker? Yes please. 



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Ok, for arguements' sake let's just say that you have no room for a table in your apartment or your garden so you need to go elsewhere to meet your ping pong needs. Back to the two I mentioned earlier (both in London I'm afraid for those reading from elsewhere). The first is Bounce co-founded by Adam Breeden who did the super-cool All Star Lanes



This is a whopping 12,500 square foot of space just next to Farringdon tube. The interiors were done by Russell Sage who has done some awesome projects such as the Zetter Townhouse, the Savoy Grill and The Hospital Club.



 Uh huh that above's a real table from the Olympics.




That'll do nicely.

Next up we have Ping in Earls Court from the management team of Bungalow 8At Ping you can have a slice of pizza with a cocktail and compete in the Tournament Tuesdays if you think you're man enough.



Play Interior Design is behind the decor which is "shabby yet chic" (their words not mine) that has a mix of street art, graphic prints and some very comfy looking red leather armchairs. I'm a fan, it looks like a cosy place to quietly get drunk and play some racket sports.





Anyways I think they both look amazing, if I was in either neck of the woods I'd be hustling those tables.

Finally, in the same way that I love Ellen a little bit more after I found the pic at the top, I just found Spin in the US which is part owned by Susan Sarandon so now she too has gone way up in my estimation.


 Again with the shiny..think this is my have







Right, c'est tout.
TTFN