Category: Home
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A nice rainy day and a visit to Violet Cakes
Outtake – final Violet Cakes photos at Lovely Food Ah, I love waking up at 6.30am on a Sunday and coming downstairs with Astrid. Even better this morning it was raining, which meant we didn’t have to go out walking – we could all stay inside and I could secretly get some work done editing photos. Lots…
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The living room
Back in June when we were in Provence the whole interior of the house was painted. So far I still haven’t styled the house to my satisfaction. No matter how tidy it is, the girls come along and mess it up. Three steps forward, two back. Always. At times like this I remember Melissa’s sewing…
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A winter kitchen
I’ve taken delivery of the amazing and beautiful Nigella Lawson mixing bowls. Amongst other things. The brilliant secret sale compares only to the Le Creuset half price sale of sky blue cookware a few years ago. I spent all weekend rearranging and clearing the kitchen. This evening I briefed Joelene our nanny on where everything…
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Parts of rooms
Now the house is slowly beginning to take shape I’m taking photos of part of rooms. A couple of people have said they’ve seen my house photos on the blog but they still can’t really tell what the house is like; just very small zoomed in bits of it. So I’m branching out a bit…
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Party season
When I was young and sociable I used to often host afternoon tea parties with canapes and bubbles. I still make the same food. The party now starts an hour later at three and I definitely don’t wear fancy dresses like I used to. But I can bake better than I used to. And I…
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Eight years on…
When I met Kevin, a friend of mine, Mark Matthews, asked whether Kevin knew I’d dump him within a year. We laughed about that. Kevin laughed too. I think. Six months later Kevin and I had moved to Auckland. Set up Transcend there. Renamed ourselves Uniform. Became addicted to Kingsland coffee and brioche. Got ourselves…
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Our new sofa
A few weeks ago Kevin and I went to Heal’s and bought the most amazing sofa in the world ever. We knew it was long. And we knew it might not fit up the stairs. But we secretly wished it would fit up the stairs so we bought it anyway. And it doesn’t fit up…
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New paint
Well, we have lived in our dream ramshackle house by the heath for almost a year. Perhaps, just over half a year. And we adore it for its rusticness. And we adore it because it’s the right house for us. We were very lucky our landlords wanted to paint it. Because it hadn’t been painted…
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Ah lovely long weekends of Spring
I must confess I’ve not run in just over a week and I’m feeling it. But we’ve had such lovely weather and I’ve been sorting out my fabric cupboard instead. Making piles of books with post-it notes. Piles of fabric. Waiting for my new ironing board to arrive. We have had two four day weekends.…
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It was Christmas. And other stuff
Rob Ryan bunting from Bodi and Fou First Christmas. Three days later Astrid turned four. Last week was Edith’s second birthday. It’s been a stark contrast to last year’s Christmas holiday when we were in New Zealand enjoying the bright blue Summer skies, a beach at our doorstep, days spent making sandcastles under a rosy…
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Too cold for Autumn
It’s supposed to be only Autumn but already last week I have been out and bought myself the most incredible super padded super warm winter coat from Comptoir des Cottoniers. And this week I am ordering another pair of boots from Trippen so I can at least alternate them through the Winter. I toyed with…
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Beautiful clarity
Ah, the beautiful whiteness of home. So I can photograph again – something I have so been looking forward to and I can’t wait to get the house in order and begin to style everything and make it all cosy. It’s midnight already and I’ve not even begun to look on eBay tonight. Tomorrow we are…