Archive | February, 2012
29 February, 2012 

Spring, Lucien, Nancy but no David

What a wonderful springy few days we have had! I loved basking in the sun, letting the boy run in the park and getting our garden ready for the planting season.A lot of herbs and flowers came out of the greenhouse and the greenhouse itself got cleaned and organised and it is my little planting haven.

We had a visitor and went to see Lucien Freud at The National Portrait Gallery which was breathtaking, seeing those amazing canvases close up is such an amazing experience, the brushstrokes, the poses, the expressions. A truly remarkable body of work. It’s very hard to get tickets at this point so the best bet is to be there at 10.00am otherwise the queue is 2-3h long.

We were supposed to go and see David Hockney too but my friend with the tickets got ill and had to stay at home, we enjoyed a very long lunch at Café Boheme so wouldn’t make it anyway and one big exhibition was enough for the boy.

I have been disgustingly indulging in Nancy Mitford. Pursuit of Love, The Blessing (beyond hilarious!) and Madame de Pompadour. The woman can write so well and her social observations are excellent. The Dior and tweed-clad heroins and their love lives are very gripping but I was really impressed what a great biographer she is. Madame de Pompadour is a very addictive read full of anecdotes and vibrant descriptions. I also have Don’t Tell Alfred waiting by my bedside – a paper version was half the price of Kindle mmmm…..

I haven’t been baking a lot but I did make some brownies topped with pecans and crystallised ginger.

In techy/social media sort of news I am on Pinterest, totally loving it. A massive addiction!

20 February, 2012 

Diamond Jubilee

This year will be full of events and street parties to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I simply cannot wait, I have heard we will have a little party in our street so I am searching for vintage bunting and will be baking up a storm!

V&A started the year with a small exhibition of portraits Cecil Beaton took of the Queen. It may sound very stiff and official but the pictures are wonderful, the Queen is portrayed with her children and as a young girl, there is a remarkable intimacy between the photographer and his subject. Some pictures are of course very official but you rarely see Elizabeth in tender private moments like some of these photographs.

17 February, 2012 

Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern

Strolling down to Tate Modern earlier this week was a true pleasure as the sun shone and everyone looked so happy.

What a fantastic show ! We had a collection of sculpture, drawing, collage, painting, film and installations. Even though I had to walk pretty fast through most of the rooms or bribe my boy with snacks when I wanted to see detail we both fell silent in the two installation rooms. These two are spellbinding.

All the below images are from The Guardian.

I Am Here But Nothing

Infinity Mirrored Room

 

 

14 February, 2012 

Happy chocolate day!

We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day but hubby surprised me (again!) with a box of the most amazing Belgian chocolates and I simply had to share them. Available at Verde & Co in Spitalfields.

Hope you all have a lovely day! x

12 February, 2012 

February things

We are nearly in the middle of the coldest month and March is round the corner when we can officially hope for warm weather and sun. Having said that we had a wonderfully cold, crispy and sunny day yesterday, we took a walk to Wimbledon Village, went passed the station where we found a great second hand book shop called Copperfield’s, had a little play in a playground and ended up at Freddie’s cousin’s 1st birthday party.

This is the view of my street from the Common


Other enjoyable things in February are:

Pursuit of Love by Nancy Midford – very funny but I struggled to read paper books again and started about 4 before settling down with this one

Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris which surprisingly I enjoyed very much, I love his old films but everything after Small Times Crooks is disappointing

Looking forward to Hockney and Freud in two weeks time, tickets are booked, very exciting

Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern this Wednesday

Baftas tonight, I haven’t seen all the films yet, trying to, but Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is very good. Can’t wait to see The Artist.

This little family deserves a big cheer

We are nearing the end of The Sopranos, I will probably feel down afterward but Mad Men is starting again soon

Car boot sales are opening again end of this month

Pancake day, this Jamie O recipe is a winner, we made these last year and even the hubby who doesn’t like pancakes loved them

I finally achieved the unachievable – everything that was meant to be sold on ebay is gone!

8 February, 2012 

Children books I

Since having a baby I have accumulated a lot of books, obviously. Freddie has got a set of favorites and I have to read them to him over and over again. Miffy and In The Night Kitchen are the most popular ones at the moment. There is also a wonderful book called Inventory of Fruits and Vegetables which he just adores. This brings me to the amazing world of illustrations. Having to read books over and over again makes me notice all the details, colours and be amazed what works for the little ones best.

Inventory of Fruits and Vegetables , illustrations by Emmanuelle Tchoukriel. We bought this book in Paris when I was a few weeks pregnant, it’s very difficult to come by in the UK and I have only seen Italian and German translations. there is also Inventory of Animals which I would really love.

My First Nursery Book, illustrations by Franciszka Themerson.

I had books illustrated by Themerson in my childhood so this one was a great addition to Freddie’s collection, thank you Karen!

A little vintage find from Isle of Wight, The Ladybird Book of Rhymes.

Coming up: Dick Bruna, Judith Kerr and a vintage Polish edition.

5 February, 2012 

Well, hello there snow

After a very long wait we have snow in London and I am so glad I bought the sledge. I really started to doubt that it will happen this winter but last night everything turned white and this morning we wrapped warm (I am not sure why snow makes us put on so many layers given that the few preceding days were much colder!), wax the sledge and went for a smooth ride to Richmond Park.

Freddie was very excited smiling all the way and complaining when we took him out. We climbed up a baby hill and slid down with the babe to much laughter.

Dorich House from the park side.

After coming home we had a reward in a shape of a chocolate mousse. Well, hardly a reward since we had so much fun! It is really rich and delicious and perfect with a cup of coffee.

Ingredients:

200 g the best quality chocolate you can afford/get your hands on; 70% cocoa solids

a knob of butter

2 tbsp caster sugar

300ml double cream

1tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, separated

a splash of Amaretto

a little bit of good cocoa powder for dusting

shortbread biscuits, ideally home made as the shop bought are usually pale and floury.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over hot water. Beat cream, sugar and vanilla into soft peaks. Add the egg yolks to the cream and combine, in a separate bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt into stiff peaks. Fold the melted chocolate, Amaretto and gently fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon. Out to the fridge for a couple of hours. Dust with cocoa before serving. Enjoy!

This is another chocolate mousse recipe if you only have 5 minutes, a bar of chocolate and a splash of water. Great for Valentines Day if you celebrate.

 

2 February, 2012 

Winter dinner

After a brisk walk in Wimbledon Common with the bub and almost freezing my fingers off I  made my sourdough pizza, this time with chunky tomato and onion sauce, mozzarella and chicory, drizzled with olive oil. It has to be one of my favorite pizza toppings ever.

Fingers crossed for some snow soon, I still haven’t had a chance to use the sledge, obviously (!) and Richmond Park would be so perfect for it.

1 February, 2012 

New season Liberty fabrics and a bedroom inspiration

I have been searching for a nice fabric for bedroom curtains. Ideally flowers in Bloomsbury Group style, something that would complement this 1930s house. I have looked over and over again through the curtain department at John Lewis but there was nothing that really stood out and felt right. I even fell in love with this Sanderson Dandelion Clocks pattern and then decided it is not right and also so overused everywhere else. My bedroom is in a desperate need of soft fabric and nice pattern, is is way too stern at the moment and bit echo-y too. So I am thinking flowers on the windows and navy stripes on the bed….

Anyway, the new Liberty fabrics are out and they are oh, so lovely. There is one in particular that I like so it’s time to save the pennies as I need a lot of them!

Here are my favorite ones:

Just imagine big Prada-esque skirts made of these?

My curtain number one is this Glencott House D Tana Lawn fabric:

And a major bed crush is this lovely Toast duvet cover mixed with white pillow cases and a contrasting throw: