{Collection} Têtes de bergères

My parents in law are visiting and I am getting on with helping designing their future home in the south of France. We are all so excited about the project. It is a great house/ruin in the centre of the town of Uzès. They bought the house almost 3 years ago and works have finally started... Yippee!

Today we have been obsessing about specifying ironmongery... In French! Although french is my mother tongue, it has been interesting trying to translate hinges, bolts, escutcheons...

The cutest thing I have come across in my research were these shutter fasteners often used in France called "Tête de bergère". They use them to hold shutters in place to stop them hitting the walls when they are open. Like a sort of window guardian. 

Cute aren't they?

 

If you are interested in the renovation/restoration process, I can give more details in future posts.

{Shop} Folklore in Islington

I have been meaning to go into Folklore for a while now (they opened in June 2012), and I finally got around to having a peek around last week. I loved it!

Folklore is an independent store that teams up with designers to bring us carefully curated designs for home and life that are made to last. Their ethos is simple: "Craftsmenship, quality, simplicity, durability".

Folklore’s product range includes homewares, furniture, lighting, art and lifestyle goods, all made with a concern for the environment.

With its white painted wooden floorboards the shop has a calm scandinavian feel. If you are looking for a gift for someone (or yourself), it is a great place to start. Alternatively, you could visit their online shop.

FOLKLORE

193 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1RQ (0207 354 9333)

Open: Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm

{Design} Lasso flat-packed slippers

Lasso is a pair of flat-packed slippers by french team Gaspard Tiné-Berès & Ruben Valensi. Cleverly made from a single piece of wool-felt with a leather sole and laced by yourself, in the colour of your choice. Simply lace it up... Et voila!

By involving the owner in the manufacturing process, the idea is that each pair will be unique, depending on the person who owns it. A true local product.

If you like them, you could help kickstart the project here and get a pair or more in return depending on your contribution...

VIA Kickstarter

{Art} Damien Hirst for Red Nose Day 2013

My daughter's school does a lot of fundraising! All the kids are very aware that they need to be involved in their communities, and act if they want things to change. Since the next big fundraiser is for Red Nose Day, I thought I would share it with you...

All in the shape of Damien Hirst's 50 limited edition prints of his diamond-encrusted skull with a Comic Relief red nose. 

One of the prints is displayed at the Tate Modern until Sunday 3rd March 2013. The other ones are for sale for lucky collectors for £2,500 each. All the proceeds of the sales will go towards the fundraising efforts of the 25th Red Nose Day on the 15th March 2013.

So think of something fun to do with the kids and help fundraise. You can find more details on their website on how they spend the money raised in the UK and in Africa.

Print your Instagram photos with Origrami

I love the photo sharing App Instagram, and take a lot of photos using it. I love how I can easily tweek your photos, use the filters to create dreamy effects... The photos easily look like somewhat of a special photograph even though I am not so good at photography. 

I was trying to find a way of printing mine and Ori­grami stood out. This Australian company prints your Insta­gram pho­tos in a fun Polaroid-style format or on a roll of film. 

The double-sided prints include a photo on one side and the date and num­ber of likes on the other. If the photo is geo-tagged, they can print a map of the loca­tion where the image was taken on the back of photo.

For around A$20, you get 36 polaroid style prints with free world­wide ship­ping. So easy: go to the Ori­grami web­site, con­nect your Insta­gram account and select the pho­tos you want to print. 

{Kids} Wooden Lego blocks by Mokurokku

Lego was pretty much the only toy that lasted all through my childhood, spending precious hours playing with them. The 40s toy is enjoying a revival via the Japanese firm  Mokurokku and their wooden lego blocks. Each box contains 50 bricks (2x4) and I think they might even be compatible with regular Lego blocks. I'd love to see a combination of the colourful ones and the wooden ones together.

I could take this opportunity to have a go at Lego for their gender specific marketing with the Lego Friends range. In my days, Legos for girls were called Legos... Yellow, red, blue! 

I might have in the past, but it is only since we introduced the pink bricks into our home that my daughter has taken a keen interest in building with the little bricks. 

We now have a huge collection, since we have all of Nico's ones from his childhood, as well as many from the new friends range. Her most recent constructions have included a space ship, a pen holder & a 2 storey house for her Moshi Monsters.

VIA Highsnob

{Art} Broken Flowers by Jon Shireman

I love these images by New York photographer Jon Shireman. He soaked various flowers in a liquid nitrogen bath and then smashed them, recording their destruction with a high speed camera. The results are just beautiful.

All very reminiscent of the cold weather we are having again after a failed attempt at spring in February.

VIA IGNANT

{Art} Altered route by Kilian Martin and Bret Novak

Today I have something very different for you... I have to confess that this post was influenced by spending more time than usual with my lovely husband, since he has been home sick.

Since we have all been a bit unwell these past few days, we have spent a lot of time procrastinating and watching youtube and vimeo videos on our Apple tv. My favourite was this one: Altered route. 



Kilian Martin is a freestyle skateboarder and he teamed up with filmmaker Brett Novak to create this beautiful video, all to the song "Adventures in your own backyard" by Patrick Watson. The result is this elegant 4 minute short film.

It is not your typical skateboarding video. His moves are fluid and effortless, an almost dance like sequence set in the Mojave desert. I love it!

{Style} Beautiful bedrooms

Both adults in our house are sick today, so we have been taking turns keeping the bed warm. I love crisp linens, fluffy duvets and pillows. Here are a few I found earlier for inspiration.

VIA APRIL AND MAY

VIA PINTEREST

VIA LILY

VIA BODIE AND FOU

VIA PINTEREST

VIA VTWOMEN

You can find a lot more ideas on my Pinterest.

{Kids} Solar system hard candy lollypops

Astronomy and sugar! What a great combination! That is how you get your kids interested in the solar system.

These Vintage Confections Solar system hard candy lollypops really impressed me! They have a 10 pieces made to order collection that includes  the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. 

VIA SWISS MISS

Oscars 2013

It is Oscar season with the 85th annual Academy Awards Ceremony to be held on the 24th February 2013. I came across Olly Moss' amazing poster for the Oscars 2013. I say amazing because his brief was tough! Find a way to reference every single best picture winner of the past 85 years. Brilliant result!
The poster features 85 statuettes each referencing a best movie winner from 1927 to 2012.

You can see more of these statuettes here and play the guessing game. Here are a few of my favourites.

 

As I am so out of the loop in terms of cinema going, I will not attempt to guess the results this year. I used to be an avid cinema goer, with sometimes 2 movies a day. But 2 kids will do that to you... Although, I did enjoy watching Disney's Wreck it Ralph at a midday session earlier today. It is half term after all!

{Kids} FUNharmonics on the Southbank

It's tricky to get kids interested in activities that are fun for you also... As a mum of 2, I have had my fair share of kiddy music classes. I still attend 2 a week with my 19 month old. Thankfully, as kids get older, their interests evolve, so we upgraded from church halls, to the Royal Festival Hall.

Last weekend, I took my children to our first LPO FUNharmonics Family Concert. These are wonderful grand orchestra concerts for kids, presented by Chris Jarvis from CBeebies (clever!). It took him and conductor Nicolas Collon a couple of minutes to get the Hall settled and focused. The format is to keep things short and simple: one hour long, interactive, engaging and entertaining. With wonderful classical pieces by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky.

Also, throughout the morning in the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall, children can have a go at playing an orchestra instrument or join the Human Orchestra workshops. These concerts are very popular and tickets go quickly, so book early. I already booked ours or the 13th May, although my eldest (7) is already a bit old or them, my youngest will love it!

In the meantime here are some lovely illustrations to What makes an orchestra - written and illustrated  by Jan Balet (1965).

VIA MY VINTAGE BOOK COLLECTION

{Style} Tomboy style icon

My 7 year old daughter has always been a very girlie girl! the first 7 years of her life have been a whirlwind of princess dresses, tutus and the likes. But these days she aspires to dress down... Finally! Don't get me wrong! She still put in thought and effort in her appearance, but seems to agree that less is more. Especially when you go for a muddy walk in Cambridgeshire.

This is for you my baby girl! Katherine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid. One of my favourite movies of all time. What an adventure! I can't wait to watch it with you...

How about you? Do you have any tomboy style icons? I'd love to hear about them in the comments box!

{Design} Cross blanket by Pia Wallen

It seems that since I started this blog, everywhere I look... There it is! The Cross blanket by Pia Wallen. Every Scandinavian design lover wants one, including myself.
It is the less expensive version of the famous 1991 Crux blanket. The 1991 version was a 700$ wool blanket made in Sweden, the "remake" version is made in Peru in ecologically sourced cotton and costs "only" 150£. It comes in a variety of colours: red/white, green/white, grey/white... My favourite would have to be the black/white one.

You can get them from Story North in Surrey. They also have the cutest baby size one.

I will keep an eye on the prices, who knows, maybe they will have a 70% sale one of these days... In the meantime, enjoy these gorgeous images.

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What is it about the cross that is so appealing? Just perfect!

You can also make your own cross bunting, follow instructions from Bluebird vintage for a quick and easy project.

VIA

I liked these last 2 images, although I can't seem to remember where I found them.

You can find all my images and more on my Pinterest.