skate

I had my first official taste of the festive season last night when a group of us took to the ice at Somerset House. Admittedly we were a little stiff at first, but after twenty minutes or so we were all whizzing round the rink at lightning speed (only minor injuries were sustained). After an hour or so skating beneath the freezing night sky, it was time for a well-earned hot chocolate and an early night.

magazine reading: the world of interiors december 2012

The December issue of The World of Interiors is a fashion special. It's a brilliant issue, and included at the back of the magazine is an article on a glorious Welsh cottage belonging to Jamie and Jessica Seaton - founders of the British fashion and home wares brand Toast. Incidentally, I will begin working as the new Editorial Assistant for Toast and Toast Travels on Monday. Hurrah!

usa take two

The view of the Meatpacking District from our hotel room.

Duncan installing the Fox and Flyte window displays at Club Monaco.

Haeni by Central Park.

The Rugby store on Bleecker Street.

A perfect little house in Greenwich Village.

Squashes outside a deli.

Jazz, gin and tapdancing at the Top of the Standard.

I got back from a wonderful winter whirlwind trip to New York City yesterday. I was there, along with Duncan, Haeni and Elliot, to work on Fox and Flyte's Christmas 2012 windows and pop-up shop for Club Monaco's flagship store on Fifth Avenue. If you're in NYC, do pay a visit! The antiques and objects on display in the windows will be available to buy from December 1st. When we weren't up to our elbows in gilt mirrors and croquet mallets, we had time to explore and enjoy the city in all its glory. We spent a morning at the Met, we wandered along the High Line, we bought shirts from Ralph Lauren, we ate Mexican food in Brooklyn and we listened to a brilliant jazz band, The Hot Sardines, at the Top of the Standard. We can't wait to go back.

an afternoon in paris

I had to hop over to Paris on Monday afternoon for a last minute meeting; Paris is one of my favourite cities and it's always a joy to visit, especially at this time of year. My meeting took place just around the corner from Place Vendôme, so I had time to pay a quick visit to Goyard on the Rue Saint-Honoré. (All I want for Christmas is personalised luggage, you see...) Afterwards I had a few hours to kill before catching my train home, so I decided to have a wander around the Marais and St. Germain, sparing half an hour to feast on steak tartare and hot chocolate in a sweet little bistro. I had just enough time to take a trip to the Louvre before boarding the Eurostar - I've been so many times before, but it's such a magical place, it always feels like it did when I was thirteen or fourteen and visiting for the first time. It's quite a romantic thing really, passing the Inverted Pyramid in the Caroussel du Louvre, climbing the great stone steps up and out into the nighttime air of the Napoleon Courtyard... The striking modernity of the great glass sparkling pyramid against the piercing black sky... Oh, Paris... Until next time!

jerusalem

I stopped by The Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell a couple of Tuesdays ago. It is such a charming little pub. So charming in fact, I was quite surprised I'd never paid a visit before. One of my favourite things in the building (which dates from 1720), are the marvellous blue and white tile designs - one for each of the seasons.

scoop

to autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats.

two nice new things for winter

Scarf from Margaret Howell.

Coat by A.P.C. - I bought this off of a friend from Saint Martins. Going back a year or two, I used to borrow this coat from the friend in question, admire it in detail, and try it on almost every day. Needless to say I was thrilled when she no longer wanted it.

remember, remember the 5th of november

A bonfire in Yorkshire on Saturday evening.

From Patrick Wolf's The Bluebell:

Down in the park
In the last of the light
Among the stray dogs and families
I smell the bonfires and watch
The bombs
Fireworks
Burst
Above the trees
Into pillows
Of
White cloud
And
Another year has gone
Goodbye
Now it is the fifth of November
So
I lock the doors
And
Swallow the key
And
Draw the curtains
Closed forever
Forever?

posting autumn

a whole new house

I think we may have caught some sort of decorating/completely-mad-overhauling-everything-in-sight-bug. After the bathroom, we are now painting the rest of our flat - the living room in Little Greene's Rolling Fog, the bedroom in Farrow & Ball's Oval Room Blue, and the hallway in F&B's Folly Green, which is, let's just say, a rather surprising and electric shade of green. For the time being our furniture is covered in plastic, and we are camping out with candles and books in a corner of the living room, trying to avoid asphyxiating on paint fumes. It will be worth it however - I cannot wait to live with all this colour.