Day trip...

Yesterday, Deerylou and I took a wonderful day trip South West to Richmond to visit the beautiful Petersham Nurseries and Ham House, a 17th century mansion and gardens which sit in a picturesque spot next to the Thames.

Lunch in the Petersham café and tea house was delicious... we both had to agree that it was THE most amazing carrot and chocolate cake ever!

My new bag

I've had many more compliments than you might think for my new bag, which was a lovely gift from P.

He got it from Labour and Wait, but we've since found the original source... which has many, many more!

Erie Basin Georgian Diamond Ring

I'm completely in love with this Erie Basin Georgian Diamond Ring...

Toast

My new season essentials from Toast... love them and want to wear them every day!

Alina trousers...

Shawl wrap cardigan...

And, my wish list... a soft grey Welsh tapestry bedcover, English beeswax candles and a green lovat cabled tea cosy.

Sunday...

Columbia Road for sunflowers, a cute variety known as Teddy Bear.

As usual, a peek in to Ryantown...

Home for tea and toast with marmite and a browse through the October issue of Vogue, which has articles on...

Mr Rob and Ryantown...

Orla Kiely, which mentions a range of spectacles for 2009. As an Orla fan who wears glasses this is especially exciting news!

Cath Kidston, and a peek in to her lovely new London home...

New addition to my book collection #7 & #8

The other two titles are recent offerings from one of my favourites... J.otto Seibold.

Seamore, the Very Forgetful Porpoise

Vunce Upon a Time

New addition to my book collection #6

Last night P and I walked over the Tate Modern for the last night of Cy Twombly, so I took advantage of the late night shop opening and added a few titles to my growing collection of illustrated books.

First up is Charley Harper ABC's...

As you can imagine, this smallish square board book's illustrations are beautiful. Two of my favourites are K for koala and P for penguin...

Antipast accessories for earthman

Of my many odd passions, possibly one of the silliest is my fondness for socks. Not just any old socks mind you, but those by Japanese mother and daughter designers Antipast.

A small selection of my collection...

Some new A/W08 pairs, which I buy from Fenwick (crikey, they're now £18 a pair!!)...

It's not easy to find this brand in London, and I often surf for images of their clothing and accessories on the internet. I have a folder in favourites dedicated to sites which carry their goods, mostly Japanese. Just came accross these beauties last night at Space Moo... mmm, shame I'm not a petite Japanese size!

A busy week for read me...

This past week, time seems to have flown by... the only benefit being that the weekend is here again. YAY!

Last Friday, P and I met at The Wolseley for a quick bite before goint to see Hammershøi at the Royal Academy. It was the last weekend of the exhibition, and I'm a little disappointed that we had not managed to see it earlier because I absolutely loved it. No exhibition catalogues or even postcards left in the shop... uugh.

This Thursday evening we were very kindly invited by R to see a private viewing of Francis Bacon at Tate Brirain. It's an impressive collection and I was amazed by the richness and quality of the work, although I can't say I enjoyed looking many of the images which I found quite vulgar and aggressive. After the exhibition we had a delicious supper at Tate's Rex Whistler restaurant.

Images Royal Academy & Tate

Little Marc

I have a thing for bags which fold up in to small neat pouches. This one has just made it on to my wish list...

Little Marc Jacobs at Little Fasion Gallery.

Dick Bruna Black Bear & the Gingerbread Couple

I was over the moon to find these Black Bear prints by Dick Bruna in Habitat recently.

And while there, I picked up a frame which I wanted to use for three of our four wedding invitation cards.

Lovely new bedding

Absolutely, positively could not wait...

Lovely new bed sheets!

Marimekko

I need to sort out blinds for all of our windows, but for some reason I can't seem to get on with it. Two fabric contenders are these from Marimekko...

Marmeladi designed by Iiro Ahokas

Bottna designed by Anna Danielsson

Images Marimekko

Orla Kiely at Heal's

An exciting collection of furniture and homewares, designed by Orla Kiely, is being launched at Heal's.

Top of my list is the grey Scribble Stem Print Bedlinen...

And, I'd be more than happy to accommodate this...

Or this...

Or... well, I'll leave it there because I could go on forever.

All images Heal's

The hallway... nearly there

Painting done, carpet fitted, pocket string back up. Just a few odds and sods left, but on the most part the hallway is done.

It was nice to finally be able to put up our Hang-It-All... along with some of our other treasures...