Things I like

In the sleeveless jacket walking up the garden path… my nemesis! To this day, the first thing I do when I get home from work is check the ceilings for any leaks from the upstairs flat. That is his fault. Rubbish times.

This is all very interesting… I’ve just discovered that Barbara Hulanicki has designed a range for Asda. Much more in the spirit of the original Biba, as in it’s affordable (all items are apparently between £8 and £25) and accessible (available in store across the country and online).

More information here:

http://www.handbag.com/fashion/features/you-should-know/barbara-hulanicki-for-george-at-asda-interview

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/101013-barbara-hulanicki-designs-for-asda.aspx

I’ve just found out about this: http://www.mybiba.com/index.php

Basically Biba has been bought again, this time by House of Fraser and they are relaunching it this month with ubiquitous Daisy Lowe as the face of the brand. Having had a good look at the photos on the website, I’m feeling a bit yuck about it all. Hopefully this will change in time once I have seen more of the range and the actual items in the shop because I’d like to be able to eat my words, being a fan of the original designs and patterns. However my beef is this: the idea behind the original Biba stuff was that it should be both affordable and original. This new range doesn’t seem to be either of those, I certainly wouldn’t want to pay up to £425 for a dress that isn’t that different to what is already on offer elsewhere (e.g. most of the stuff in the run up to Christmas in the basement of Oxford Circus Top Shop) or over £100 for yet another Bet Lynch style leopard print coat, but maybe it’s just me being picky. Some of it is nice looking, and I’m sure there’ll be lots of fans… I just feel a bit disappointed by what I’ve seen so far.

Whenever people talk about the various relaunches of Biba, the little shop that was open in Covent Garden in 1996 / 1997 never seems to be mentioned… does anyone else remember it? A friend and I went to the closing down sale and it was like a jumble sale, with all the clothes and shoes in piles on the floor. I got a pair of amazing black suede knee high platform boots for £5 that I could never walk in so ended up giving them to a charity shop in Hackney about 10 years ago. Gutted.

EDIT: Here’s the Biba stuff for sale on the House of Fraser website: http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/on/demandware.store/Sites-hof-Site/default/MTemplCont-Show?cid=BIBA Still not convinced!

Pip 'Attitude' Dobinson

This is my budgie Pip, she has to be one of the two most grumpy domestic birds I have ever met – the other being Custard Cream, the canary I had when I was about 13. Anyway, Pip has got a nasty habit of throwing poo against the wall nearest to her cage – she has been in three different spots around the house since Christmas and her poo has always ended up quite high up on the wall, I’m not sure how she’s managing it as I never catch her in the act. We have now painted our living room, so I came up with the idea of making a backdrop for her cage that could protect the wall by capturing the poo. You can see the backdrop in the photo above, it’s made from a fabric I got off Ebay a few months ago, backed with calico to make it a bit less floaty. I loved the budgie pattern of the fabric and had ordered 3 fat quarters, the backdrop only used one of them so I’ve still got some more to play around with. I thought it might make Pip feel relaxed and at home, so what did she do to thank me? She pecked my finger really hard, and attacked my hand. She had never done this before so I don’t think she liked her home improvements.

This Hornsea owl mug was a Christmas present from my sister in law. I tried really hard to buy one of these on Ebay in 2007, but got outbid everytime because they were going for silly money. So it was a nice surprise when it made an appearance on Boxing Day and has now gone on display in our Hornsea and Carlton Ware cabinet:

Hornsea owl mug

I bought this fabric from Ebay last year, and my Dad’s wife turned them into an amazing pair of curtains:

Bedroom curtains

I found these mugs in a local charity shop. I loved the handles, pattern and colours. They look vintage but I’m not sure if they are. I’d love to know where they came from, there’s no markings on the base of the mugs but I’ve looked on Flickr and there are many mugs of a similar shape and style. Some are tagged as vintage and / or Japanese:

Flower mugs

Lovely owl moneybox from Oxfam, a Christmas present from my Mum – it’s made of leather:

Oxfam owl money box

The last of the Food Friends stash:

Food Friends pots

New member of the family:

Pipkin Dobinson

http://www.retrotogo.com/2009/12/modern-animal-clock-from-decoylab.html

This has been blogged about by loads of other people, but I just had to stick it on here cos it’s so lovely.

I just can’t help myself… especially when visiting Paperchase after a glass of prosecco. I wasn’t going to buy anymore Food Friends stuff, especially this late on in the month having spent quite a lot of money on the range already, but then I went into Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road yesterday and they had loads of new additions. I woke up this morning and laughed when I saw the bag containing it all (stayed in Covent Garden Travelodge last night for work purposes) but also couldn’t wait to get them home to show Chris.

Food Friends apron, tea towels, oven mitt and pass case

Obviously I couldn’t resist the tea towels (having previously said I would buy them if they made an appearance, so that was justified) and we did actually need an oven mitt, which led to adding the apron to the pile.

The tea set is so lovely I’m not sure I can use it so it might have to go into the display cabinet in the Ladderax with all my other ’special’ kitchen items, however the utensils pot is taking pride of place in the kitchen, unless I think of a good use for it elsewhere in the flat!

It was quite funny because when I found the display, there was another girl standing there deliberating on what to buy from the range and we had a little chat about how lovely it all is. Then I had to ask a girl who worked there if she could get me a boxed tea set from the store room as the only one out was unpacked and I didn’t want to ruin the display. When she came back with the box I started rambling on about the stuff I had got already and how I’d seen the tea towels on Flickr etc etc etc and she said that there is more to come (what else can there be??!!! my mind is working overtime at the thought) and led me to the pass case, which I was so pleased about having missed out on the owl one. After I had paid I was about to walk off and the girl who got me the tea set came over and said that if I saw anything else new from the range on the internet and couldn’t get in the Gunwharf store, then I should give them a ring at TCR and they would send the item(s) down to Portsmouth – how amazing is that?! So nice!

Again I wrote about a few of the bits I got, but never updated fully. The owls range was amazing. I managed to buy pretty much everything I wanted, with the exception of the glasses case and the travelcard wallet, both of which I am cheesed off about because they sold out in Portsmouth and Southampton really quickly. I got the spies out for them all over the south east, but unfortunately they were long gone from the shops. Although I do hold out a tiny bit of hope, because when I went to Tottenham Court Road Paperchase on Wednesday night they had three owl passport holders, which definitely weren’t there when I visited in June and scoured the place.

Anyway here’s the bits I’ve got.

Paperchase owls stash

Paperchase owls doormat

Paperchase owls tea towels

I’ve just realised that I forgot to include my A4 binder and A4 document wallet, however in these photos are: big laundry size bag, smaller magazine size bag, shoe box, stationary set, tin of coasters, stickers, key top, mug, pen, purse, passport holder tea towels and door mat.

The designer of this range is fab, some more of her work can be seen here: http://www.lillarogers.com/artists/jillian-phillips.