Everyone loves a wedding

Less than a day to go.

Until we have a new fairy tale to follow. A new princess. A chance to ooh and aah over a beautiful bride. A grand royal occasion.

London is getting ready for her starring role in the event. There aren't as many wedding-related decorations up as I expected. The only place that you can feel a sense of something happening is around Buckingham Palace - the crowds seem larger than normal and the press are already there in huge, organised numbers.

I took a walk around yesterday and thought you might enjoy a look at pre-wedding London.

Most shop windows are doing business as usual but there are a few getting into the spirit of the event...

 

 Regent Street and the Mall are draped in Union Jacks...

 

The press is ready... 

 The balcony is ready...

All we're waiting for now are several hundred soldiers on horseback, church bells ringing, trumpets sounding, crowds singing and a beautiful bride.

Enjoy the wedding wherever you are!

x

(Images: PPT)

Happy Easter everyone

Wishing you a joyful Easter weekend with the people you love, doing things you enjoy. And just a little chocolate!

x

(Image: PPT)

Passe-par-tout is back

I'm back from a happy, sunny, shiny place far far away. Sorry I didn't write. Not even a line... Oh well.

It's amazing how when you are truly away from it all and relaxing properly the things that seem so essential at home become quite irrelevant. There's the phone charger you were so concerned you'd forget to pack, yet if you happen to notice your battery has died you can't quite bother to go looking for it. Or the laptop cable that you don't seem to have the right adaptor for. Oh well.

I promise to make up for it.

As a start, I couldn't resist sharing this gorgeous and uplifting video commissioned by the amazingly creative people at Kate Spade (who I posted about recently here).

Hope you enjoy it too. And take the message to heart - live colourfully.

x

(Link: yellow by mother new york)

Celebrating Spring series - No one does colour better than Anthropologie

In my home I like to keep the tone neutral - whites in the bedroom, creams in the living room. I've been known to paint a few accent walls olive green, burgundy and deep blue. But my preference is for the canvas to be simple.

Colour for me comes in the accessories. I love colourful cushions, paintings, books, objects I've picked up on my travels, rugs, lamps. There is often no rhyme or reason for the colour combinations, they just work for me or the items are too special to resist displaying together. I'm always amazed how different colours that you might not think to combine often work brilliantly.

At the moment my living room has cream as the base with yellow and red as the primary colours. Not a combination I had ever thought of but finding red and cream cushions I loved, and one day absentmindedly throwing on a lone yellow cushion I had, brought this combination to life for me. I am also very taken with navy and burnt orange at the moment...

Anthropologie is always top of my shopping list. They combine many colours and the result is always simple, beautiful and just what you were looking for.

I'm very taken with the blue, yellow and black butterfly linen in the first photo. It wouldn't work in my bedroom but perhaps in a guestroom. And I'm sure I can find space in my kitchen cupboards for the floral jug and many of the multi-coloured glasses. Oh, and I'm definitely in the market for a turquoise fruit bowl. Fruit will never have tasted so good!

Anthropologie is an American store. It was a very happy day for me early last year to find out that they were opening branches in London.

x


(Images: Anthropologie March 2011 catalogue)