Sunday...

This week at Columbia Road we picked these beautiful dahlia's. They're a red and white variety known as chequers.

Made By Me Me Me

I came across the wonderful work of Jade Gallup this week, and have completely fallen in love with a little brown bunny...

Reading the NEWS page on her website me me me, I am staggered that I haven't come accross Jade's work before, especially as her beautiful pieces are carried in one of my very favourite London shops, Family Tree.

I'm also really rather taken with Jade's Mary and Swallow brooches...

Image 1-5 made by me me me

Favourite things

Sharing a big bottle of chilled Spanish beer with P at Leon before going to see Radical Light; Italy's Divisionist Painters at the National Gallery.

Great time with great friends

We spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with some of P's oldest and our dearest friends. R&I hosted us at their amazing North London home.

Time flew... chatting, eating, drinking and enjoying the company of beautiful Georgi.

My saturday afternoon baking was a success. YAY!

Hydrangeas

Our flowers this week are these extraordinary green and red hydrangeas. They really are lovely... sadly my photography doesn't do them justice!

We still have one of the green blooms from two weeks ago.

The cup is a Flora design by Bjorn Wiinblad for Nymolle.

Ryantown is here...

Our weekly Sunday morning visit to Columbia Road flower market just got a whole lot more desirable... Ryantown is here, and what a gem it is.

Mister Rob has created an absolutely wonderful showcase for his exceptional talent. I couldn't resist...

One of these had to come home with us!!

Home baking...

We've been invited to friends' tomorrow for lunch, so I decided that I'd make and take a cake... Actually, I decided that I'd use it as an opportunity to try making a batch of Marie Tuttle's caramel sea salt brownies.

I've been obsessing about them since seeing her New York bakery website. I followed Mari's recipe but found the brownies a little too sweet.

Yesterday I had a trial run using Nigel Slater's 'very good chocolate brownie recipe', and despite using a little too much of the caramel I could tell that this was much more to my liking.

And... if brownies aren't enough, I had another go at making the Rose Bakery ginger cake.

D & A Binder

Today we went in search of a cabinet for our living room. We were unsuccessful, but did enjoy some time wandering round D & A Binder, who specialise in traditional shopfittings, display cabinets, etc.

Toy-A-Day

On Tuesday 20 May, Joe started a year long project called Toy-A-Day, and he will be making and posting a paper toy every day for a year... I think it's a brilliant idea and can't wait to see the final toy in May 2009!

Some of my very favourite illustrated characters have already made an appearance... Astro Boy and his sister Astro Girl, Moomintroll, TinTin, Hello Kitty and Charlie Brown...

Some suggestions for Joe, should he be interested, are Olive The Other Reindeer, Snoopy (who I am sure will be seen soon) and a traditional red heel sock monkey... to name just a few.

Found via Yeah, Yeah, Whatever... thanks Kate!

Roses

We were not able to get to Columbia Road this morning... luckily our green hydrangeas and pink peonies from last week are still going strong.

But this has given me the opportunity to post a few photographs of some absolutely beautiful South African roses which we saw at Few and Far on a recent visit. At £3 per stem, I had to make do with these pictures only!

Few and Far is an ecclectic shop full of beautiful trinkets for the home, jewellery, clothing, vintage toys and quirky stationery, among other things, and items are available in limited quantities... hence the name. The shop is the work of Priscilla Carluccio... married to Italian chef and restauranter Antonio Carluccio... she is also sister to British design legend Terence Conran.

New addition to my book collection #5

Up In The Tree by Margaret Atwood, and published by Bloomsbury is such an adorable children's book which was first published in 1978.

Atwood wrote and illustrated the story and used only two colours for the printing as three would have been too expensive. She opted for blue and red... which together meant that she was able to include some brown, to really satisfying effect.

New addition to my book collection #4

I couldn't resist The Lonesome Puppy by Yoshitomo Nara... and think that every home should have a copy!

It's a very sweet tale of a lonely puppy who is so large that no one notices him... until one day a little girl does... and they become life long friends.

Needless to say, it's the cute childlike images which are the real draw for me... I absolutely love his work!