homely

some new additions! an old school chair that doubles as a bookshelf and a picnic blanket that doubles as a curtain.

also, lovely clark's desert boots (a bitch to wear in, let me tell you, but i lasted all day in them today).

a week of art

ellie and i went to tate mod this afternoon to check out baldessari, pop life and this...

how it is by miroslaw balka.

it's an empty oversized shipping container and it's pitch black inside. call me crazy but it would have been infinitely more effective if people weren't attempting to take photos in there. idiots.

that said, it gave me goosebumps.

onto to tate brit tomorrow and hopefully anish kapoor on the weekend (probably very busy though). if not, my week of coffee (after two weeks without) can be interrupted.

today

today, i went somewhere i've never been before : the victoria miro gallery. it's really close to where i used to live.

this is the walthamstow tapestry by grayson perry. obviously it is very commanding and hugely detailed, but his other works (drawings, pottery) are equally captivating.

everywhere freesia

i wandered/shuffled through columbia road today and found these dutch freesias (two for a fiver). apparently it's still spring in holland?

autumn

the view from my window, saturday morning.

wonderful day for windows

i spent today (well, most of it) hanging out with my darling stranger of a sister doing the rounds of the shops we like in town.

we experienced a few pretty exciting window displays too. this is the first - a ww1 miltary jacket worn by john lennon. the photo does not do it justice.

the second was at dover street market and i was too excited to even think to document it - a checkerboard of the shigeru ban/artek collaboration. now would be a nice time to have money and a house to furnish.

and these were in the window of the gap on regents street. pretty damn excited for this film to come out, i must say...

... pretty damn cool to see some of the puppets too.

recovery

this past week i worked seven days straight and survived relatively unscathed. five of those seven days was accompanied by this - loud, dusty and incredible disruptive road works, right outside the door. you would think that it might dissuade people from coming in, but no, soho kids are loyal like that. either way it's over now, and because everyone has returned from their holidays, i'm only working two days a week from now until my return. so in my recovery, sunday was spent as a customer (with celeste from milkbar) and today i don't really feel like going outside so life will resume again tomorrow.

new york, new york

this is quite incredible. i'm not entirely sure how to feel about it. i find it devastatingly sad that a seemingly perfect ecosystem could be so trampled and completely erased (even central park is fake, did you know that?), but the fact that the greatest modern metropolis is the result has left a biter-sweet muddle in my head. i like the hopeful note at the end of his speech, but like any grand city plan (hello perth) implementing it is easier said than done.

oh dear

i've got a fair bit of reading to catch up on.

last day

we spent mum and dad's last day in london wandering through the east stopping at favourite haunts to refresh. i met them down on columbia road and we walked up to climpson's for breakfast and coffee. then we sauntered down the canal to the pavilion for more coffee and marveled at the geese in the algae. from there, we retraced our steps back to rochelle's canteen which was busy (the busiest - it was gloriously sunny) but, as always, worth the wait.

mum departed after lunch so dad and i trekked around the City (starting here at rivington place) visiting the greats and discovering the underdogs.

hello gherkin.

hello lloyd!

this building is just so incredibly detailed. imagine all those joints, all those connections that needed to be considered. it really is a fortress though. distant respect is now fully fledged puppy-love.

dad took this one. i can't claim credit.

and this is the view from mum and dad's suite (!!! - they were upgraded) at the boundary. i want to live here.

lovely london light. hopefully you know that i'm way too lazy to have altered this photo. if anything, downsizing has diminished its vibrance.

up on the roof.

ellie vs. me.

ellie vs. dad (dad won, i think).

dad and my beautiful, hilarious, darling cousin, stephanie.

new arrivals

whoops. my two favourite things, together at last. you can't see on the box, but they changed the horse (in the logo) into a zebra. genius.

the long-anticipated stella dress from richard nicoll a/w 09/10. it's true ever-lasting love.

and the darling magnus mark bradbury, the first of my second cousins! i didn't get a decent shot of him with his own mother (my cousin, emma), so here he is with mine.

misc edinburgh

mr j.

not sure who belongs to this but the gallery had a very extensive paolozzi collection, so it could be by him.

richard long.

rail bridge over the firth of the forth.

and a small town/hamlet called south queensferry.

some ducks. apparently i can't help myself.

civilization

the scottish parliament.

by enric miralles.

robbie burns... get it? it's made out of matchsticks. oh that scottish sense of humour!

castles

treated like royalty...

...in the castle we stayed in. to be more accurate, it was closer to faulty towers than any kind of regality (is that a word?).

a real castle (not for sleeping). don't recall the name because dad kept calling it the wrong thing so it has been struck from my memory.