Choc Star

I love a good female led business that was just a good idea made a reality.

I saw this piece on Petra Barren in delicious magazine this month, hoped over to her website and was enthralled. Such a simple idea, really well executed and who wouldn't want an iced Triple Chocolate Malted Shake or a Guinness chocolate cupcake upon seeing her van around a corner?

She's currently travelling around the UK so check out the map and see if she's coming near you! It looks like she's coming to Norfolk and my beloved Holt soon, which is rather exciting.

Choc Star!

PS. How much do I love her chunky sunshine yellow wedges?!

Royal Ascot 2010

It's Royal Ascot week. It's always been an ambition to go, but until I do, I admire the fashion (and racing) from afar. As usual, there's the mix of high couture millinery and British eccentricity on show.

I love these colour co-ordinated ladies! The mustard yellow dress is divine.

Very elegant, it shouldn't work but somehow does.

I love this one, a favourite of all I've seen.
...and of course, Her Majesty The Queen, who always looks lovely.

Roll on Ladies Day!

Making me happy...

* My wellies arrived from Joules, and I almost didn't want to open them as the packaging was so lovely.

* Persephone Books have a brand new forum . It's like an online book club. This month, William : An Englishman by Cicely Hamilton.

* I went to Waitrose yesterday, and unlike most supermarket shopping that is a process of getting what you need without thinking and leaving as soon as possible - a trip to Waitrose is a real treat, and a true pleasure. I love looking at all the lovely packaging and finding new products by artisan producers and having a hot chocolate and croissant in their cafe afterward.






Just some of the lovely things to buy. I could resist taking some snaps on my Blackberry as I went round.

* I've been thinking about trying to grab a holiday in my (very short) summer holiday this year, and I have a yearning to go to Wales. My Grandmother was Welsh giving me my middle name of Olwen, and I feel a very strong affinity to it (plus...the Toast outlet store). The Welsh tourist board have been advertising on TV with these lovely, lovely little short films featuring a real family and it's really sealed the deal for me. They are everything a lazy, hazy summer holiday should be and the direction, art styling and music used are excellent.

I'm going to hop in the car and go, probably not having such a varied adventure as the Darkes family though.

Gemma Arterton Got Married

I really like Gemma Arterton, she's a young actress with a lot of composure and grace and I thought she was wonderful in the recent Tess of the D'Urbeville's adaptation.

She got married yesterday in Spain - isn't it a gorgeous ceremony? Captured by the paparazzi and not for a magazine article (which is great), but too cute and pretty not to share. Her dress is inspired by Zefferelli's 'Romeo & Juliet' where Juliet runs out of the bedroom in a bed sheet. How very lovely.






A really nice, unpretentious looking wedding, and they look very much in love.

Loving...

Jarvis Cocker (of PULP fame) has been commissioned to produce an album celebrating some of the National Trust's best properties. It's like diving in to a dream with the bird song in the garden, the footsteps down ancient hallways and the chiming of the old bell tower. It features Blickling Hall in my beloved Norfolk and also Belton House setting of my favourite children's book. Available to download free here. Discovered here.

These water bottles featuring classic 1930's London Underground poster designs by Arthur Watts. I can't resist South Kensington.
Ever since I was a little girl I've loved television. My Dad hated it and wouldn't have it in the house, so maybe it has been my one and only act of rebellion. *g* I enjoy films, I like music but I *love* television. Television drama, really; amazing, thought provoking, inspiring, affirming, clever, witty, heartbreaking drama. I love the thrill of waiting a week to find out what happens, I love getting hooked by a love story, I love suspense, I love the locations and the set design and appreciating the script. I just love it. However, I am not often bowled over as I used to be back in the halcion days of the 80's/early 90's.

I have been bowled over, smacked around the head and flawed by Ashes to Ashes though. The word genius is so overused, but I think genius can be thoroughly applied in this case. The Wizard of Oz meets The Last Temptation of Christ meets the 1980's meets tragedy meets comedy. The finale was on Friday that tied up both Ashes to Ashes and Life on Mars and it was so good I couldn't sleep that night. Wow.

(icon from here)

Om Pom Pom

Saturday was a drive along my beloved North Norfolk coast, window open and the smell of rapeseed in the air. From Burnham Market ~




a place very dear to my heart and getting trendier and trendier each time I visit (and I'm not sure how I feel about that), although still as beautiful and perfect. My favourite labyrinth book shop and some of the loveliest houses~






via Cley-next-the-Sea and a trip into the church book stall finding us in the midst of a lovely vintage themed wedding, so I took some snaps of the wedding party walking across the village green to their reception ~






On to Salthouse, a beach we found only recently but which I really like. The sky goes on forever and the sea is oddly calm. Fishermen had cast their sea lines all along the shore and we spoke to a local who told me that during a frolic in the sea, a seal was a foot away from me in the waves~



Finally stopping off at Wivenhoe Hall Farm cafe. Very disappointing this time around, the food not quite up to scratch (cracked tea pots, tiny scones at least half the size of a normal scone) but enjoyable ambiance nonetheless. It's very unique with it's bright colours and salt marsh location.

Making Me Happy...

♥ Having a few hours break in my work schedule to sit down with a cup of hazelnut coffee and read the latest Waitrose Magazine.



♥ The internet is a wonderful thing. It's been 15 years since I saw a BBC2 'Modern Times' documentary on the Brockwell Lido in London. It has stayed with me very strongly ever since I saw it and then the other day, there it was waiting for me to download it. I can't explain the joy of this half an hour - it's tranquil and hypnotizing. It's merely the mundane thoughts of the visitors to the pool on a given day, and yet within that 24 hours there's a Gay wedding at the Lido, an HIV positive man sinks to the bottom of the pool contemplating his place in life, a mother questions her parenting, an Italian dreams of love and lost lifetimes, friends drink champagne and talk about men, there are Lord's and Margaret Thatcher's private secretary and an old married couple sharing tea out of a flask. Shot on film and with this gentle, watery quality to the direction. No voiceovers, no tricks just...life. I LOVE it. More pictures here








♥ Speaking of TV, I am in the middle of a malestrom of glee. Doctor Who, Junior Apprentice and other guilty pleasures, but also some wonderful quality drama which is making me fizz. Lewis is back, Ashes to Ashes two part finale coming up (with answers) and also the brilliant Luther starting Idris Elba from The Wire which is stunning me with it's noir-ness.

♥ I am slightly obsessed with this bowl and cursing my lack of money:



♥ My chum Sian has started a blog, and as I would expect from her, it's fabulous.

♥ Billy Joel's 'She's Alway's A Woman'.

I (think) I'm on bloglovin' now! so...

Follow my blog with bloglovin

I want to visit....

I recently saw a programme on Red or Dead designer Wayne Hemingway's new design company Hemingway Design and his passion for re-designing/re-imagining the way we use buildings . Of great interest to me, as I've recently learn he's tackling an eyesore in my home town. His most recent achievement is the Boscombe Overstrand project near Bournmouth.


Take a 1950's sea front building with no particular use or modern appeal and transform it into a retro inspired modern beach front facility with showers, a restaurant and most interesting of all, 'pods' to replace the classic beach huts.



Each 'pod' looks out into the reef and is available for the day (and now a weekly stay - sleeping bags ahoy!) and contains just the bare essentials for a day at the beach, but with some fantastic retro touches such as large 50's inspired murals and deck chairs. There is also the Urban Reef restaurant whose light and simplistic design I really like:


The menu looks delicious with local ingredients and classic British fayre.

The prices are so reasonable too - a week long stay (albeit of a camping variety) in a pod is only £150 in season! I think I may have to treat myself for a few days in the summer as a.) it's in my budget and b.) POD'S!

Making me Happy...

1. I don't own my own home yet, but I am dreaming of when I do post-qualification in a year and a half and as ever, I am inspiration surfing for design and interiors. I tend towards a vintage/art deco/touches of Victoriana style with classic pieces and a cosy feel but I am beginning to be really drawn to a more minimalist style. I don't like extreme white, white, white minimalism but in the right airy property, I am swayed by a clean colour palate. I came across this house on FlickR:








and I really love the classic pieces with a sparse style and light, light, light. Gorgeous.

2. This is Naive's 'People at Work' post on the super talented Nadinoo. Beautiful clothes, and beautifully captured.

3. I stumbled on this site by accident but I am coveting so, so much.

Virginia Wolf parcel tape "Life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope which surrounds us from the beginning of consciousness to the end":

Go Away, I'm Reading book bag (in orange!):

Sylvia Plath, Ariel mug:


The book cover of *my* edition of The Catcher in the Rye as a poster:


and that's not to mention a I Capture The Castle quote tote and classic ladybird cake tins!

4. The spring sunshine. It makes such a difference to mood!