Blogs

Attended the press opening of the latest in retail venture to make green lifestyle stylish on Tuesday. The ECO store opened by Colin Firth, his wife and her brother in Chiswick was long-awaited, although the actor declined to make an appearance (no doubt he didn't want to steal his wife's limelight).

The idea behind the 'eco hub' is to simplify and educate any average bod as to how they can make their lives and homes more environmentally friendly. To this effect, the store stocks all nature of gadgets and accessories - from the cutesy to the completely useless. The solar chargers splayed on the big glass windows looked like summer flowers absorbing the bright daylight; quite gorgeous. I was rather less convinced that a small tin can lined with fabric qualified as a 'recycled' handbag worth its £40 price tag. But apparently these are quite popular Stateside. Each to their own.

The shop is set up on three levels with the basement acting as an interior more »

Princess Cirrus held a breakfast meeting with her parents, King and Queen Cirrus.

Finding and flying to Cloud Nine was an opportunistic move but only if they could build the Castle of their dreams.

Looking out at the vast expanse of fluffy down the project looked daunting. There was nothing there. No bricks, no grass, no running water and no electricity.

King and Queen Cirrus looked glum and enquiring. How would Princess Cirrus solve the problems?

'We first have to consult with the best architects in the universe,' said Princess Cirrus. I will communicate with the World Wide Wind and request consultations with three outstanding architects.

The architect from Cumulus was the first to arrive. He had an enormous carriage cloud and was obviously out to impress the royality he had been summoned to serve.

Architect Cumulus strode over the down, measuring, writing and generally taking no notice of the conversation of his potential more »

So ridiculously pleased that my new friend Kitty has made a positive comment I return to the blog refreshed. Refreshment has been long and varied this weekend. Birthday boy, who is definitely more grown man than a boy, deserved a serious celebration so on Friday we set off for the serious heaven of Blakeney, Norfolk with Mr Bo Jangles in tow. On route we rescued London son and his Yorkshire girlfriend from a little station with plenty of signs but no obvious entrance. At this point we had to re jig the luggage and Mr Bo who had slobbered and rained on all his bedding. Feeling slightly guilty about the worried, sodden Mr Bo we lunched to excess with Nottingham son and friend at the Hoste Arms and the ever expanding party eventually landed in Blakeney. It is amazing how inventive you can be in one hotel bathroom. Mr Bo's bedding was washed in many tiny bottles of shampoo and hung to dry on the shower rail and then somehow London son's scarf and sweater joined the wash room as Mr Bo more »

What is the verdict on green kitchens?

(These images are pinched from other blogs - it's not my own kitchen!)

I've just booked an appointment at Magnet - although to be honest, I might head down the IKEA kitchen route - and I just don't know what style to go for...

I'm keen on dark grey granite worksurfaces as it's so hardwearing and wooden surfaces mark really easily - but i think i'll have a wooden bar to break down the harsh look... And slate floor perhaps?

Anyhow, colourwise - what does anyone think about green kitchens? Cool or a bit sickly? My brothers used to tease me in my flat that my kitchen looked like a school san... it was cooking apple green from Farrow & Ball and I loved it.

I was thinking about painting my kitchen units a pale pistachio green with Moroccan or Portuguese tiles as a splashback but having doubts now... more »

When my husband announced that he was going to buy a new T.V to replace our old one, that to be fair had long past it's sell by date, I have a vague memory of agreeing that this was a good idea, and some recollection of a discussion about it fitting into one of the alcoves in our living room. Now whilst in my professional life as an interior designer, something as important as deciding on the size of a T.V measured against the available space, the integration of the cabling and surround sound system into a scheme, would be something that was carefully planned to ensure that my client had a perfect design solution. Seemlessly blending the technology into an aestetically perfect environment.

But after a hard day's work when all that really matters is that all important glass of Rioja and the new series of Desperate Housewives, something went horribly wrong with my normal brain function and I allowed him to order the T.V all by himself. Having measured the width of the more »

Last week my business partner and friend, Diane, signed us up for a blogging course. The course was labelled a breakfast meeting with the wonderful start time of 8.00am and the only attraction of breakfast on arrival. Formal meetings over breakfast are definitely not my thing. The Microsoft lady started and stopped many times. The pauses were not caused by her obvious knowledge and eloquence. Just the faulty microphone. So there we were listening to the wonderful world of blogging and all the intricies of RSS and many labels, which went fast past me, but it was the technology of powering the voice that was the main hurdle to learning about a brave new world. So with all the enthusiasm of trying out something new I signed up to mydeco and then did nothing. For a few days I remained unsure of this strange new toy and then I took the plunge, added the picture and clicked around to see what my new friends looked like. 'Never blog if you have been drinking, ' said the Microsoft lady, more »

Whilst grumpily waiting for the Fab new 3D software to be er... Fabulous, so I can get on with some room designing, I've been watching more late night TV. Mostly 30 Rock to cheer myself up but rather fitting then that I caught the hilarious if cringey Grumpy Guide to Design on Comedy Central last night too.  It is airing again late tonight Monday 10th May on British TV and is a must see or tape if you haven't already.  http://www.comedycentral.co.uk/tv-guide I daresay it will be repeated if you miss it. Of course the deal is they get to be grumpy and dismissive of their chosen topic.  You will cringe at their sharp analysis of those of us who are in to design but it is worth the more »

In preparation for Bo & Jangles beautiful furniture and art furniture to be sold online,  I have been tasked with in putting the data on the excel spread sheets. At present we enjoy conversations with our clients, and we hope the chats will continue, but offering the choice of  e-commerce to our customers is where we are heading. So each product needs a product code, a sku, a j-peg, a weight, height, length, width, a range, description, name, manufacturers name and a RRP. It is possible to order the Princess and The Castle Art headboard in ten different sizes. At the moment there are three Art Headboards in the children's range and one Art Headboard in the Tree range so multiplied up we suddenly have forty product codes. Amazingly four products populate four hundred and eighty boxes on the spread sheet. As yet I have not started the chairs, chaise, cushions and fabrics but I do recognise that box filling is going to have to become my forte very rapidly which it most definitely is more »