Hot buttered Toast

I love autumn – the chill in the air, the clear sunshine and the anticipation of my annual pilgrimage to the Lake District. This week has been hectic, exciting, energising and exhausting in equal measure and has left me yearning for time cocooning at home. If only my weekend could look a little something like this…

Parchment floral duvet cover £99 / Ticking duvet cover, £79

Half glaze tableware from £14

Cushions £55 / £59

Socks from £25

Terracotta tableware from £22

I never had myself down as a patterned bedding kind of girl, but I think I might’ve just changed my mind! There’s so much more loveliness on the Toast website.

Name the place

I’m really intrigued by these Places cushions by Swedish textile designers, How Are you. Each one shows a landscape photographed by Niklas Blom and is named after the longitude and latitude where it was taken. Paste the co-ordinates into Google Maps to see the exact spot the tripod was standing.

61.496164,8.808289

68.150634,14.201546

61.393267,8.798332

OK, so it’s a bit of a novelty, but I appreciate the thinking behind it and the cushions themselves are lovely. There are no UK stockists yet (they’re looking) but they sell online for £63 each and can be shipped over here.

If these float your boat, check out their fun Making Hard Things Soft range too – great for an industrial room.

The prettiest colour combo in the world ever… the sequel

Cavegirls can go gooey over pretty colours too, right?

{via Food & Cook / Carolina Prep / Martha Stewart}

I can’t get enough of sugarcoated mint and blush at the moment… wear it, cook it, decorate with it. This is what spring looks like to me this year!

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

You might also like these posts:

Previously the prettiest colour combo in the world ever, coral and turquoise

The one where I bang on about yellow and grey. Oh and another one. And another…

Spiders and bats and snails, oh my

Not the most likely motifs for a beautiful textile collection perhaps, but these creatures and more appear on the cushions, throws and shawls of Finnish design studio Klaus Haapaniemi. The patterns are drawn from Finnish folklore and the textiles are mostly made by hand using traditional methods, materials and dyes.

{all Klaus Haapeniemi}

Unsurprisingly, these handmade textiles don’t come cheap (the throw above is £395, the cushion, £70 and the silk scarf, £110) but if you can stretch you can order online. While you’re there, check out the charming screen prints too – the green owl is my favourite. Don’t be fooled by his whimsical expression… his talons tell a different story.

Lovely letterpress: 5 of the best Christmas cards

So, once again, I haven’t got around to making my own Christmas cards. Perhaps if I start in January I might actually manage for 2012! Thankfully there’s still time to get shop-bought ones in the post… here’s a round-up of my favourite letterpress designs this year.

£15 / 12, Thornback & Peel

£2.50, Bobalong

$4.00 Zeichen Press

£3.25, Lollipop Designs

£2.49, Abigail Borg

Which design would you like to drop through your letterbox?

Wish list: The Original Pop Up Shop

What do you do with an ice cream parlour in the depths of the British winter? Open a pop-up Christmas shop of course!

The Original Pop Up Shop is the brainchild of interiors stylist Louise Rastall and sees her family switch ice cream for icicles (boom boom) by turning their shop into a Christmas wonderland selling trees, wreaths and decorations. The latter are available online too. Here are a few of my favourites…

Felted acorn garland, £15.95

Isn’t it funny how you never seem to know how much you need a string of felt acorns until you see one?

Red robin linen napkins, £44/4

These napkins aren’t so overly Christmassy that you couldn’t use them at other times of year too (loving the simple bobble trim napkin ring idea too Louise!)

Baking tin candle holder, £6.30/2

The Scandi-style candle holders would look really pretty dotted down the centre of the Christmas dinner table.

Handmade with love gift tags, £2/8

Every year I decide I’m going to make all my Christmas presents by hand. Usually I fail miserably and there’s still no way I’ll manage to make them all but I have got a few craft projects on the go – these tags would be the perfect finishing touch.

If you’re in the Newark area you can find directions here or start filling your present sack online.

Mint ride, innit

Don’t worry, fair readers, I’m not getting down with the kids.

But it’s definitely mint.

And you’ll need a mint to buy one too – it’s an eye-watering $2,200 from US Anthropologie.

Dat’s bling-bling, fo sho.

Toast + mustard

+ cheese = tasty Welsh rarebit

+ wool = tasty Welsh homewares

Whatever your choice, feast your eyes on these gorgeous homespun goodies…

My favourite thing to do on a cold evening is to build a nest from blankets, don my slippers, make a mug of steaming hot chocolate with a cheeky pinch of chilli and snuggle up in front of some cheesy telly. Oh, how I’d love to be wrapping up in these beauties this year!

Aldwyn organic flannel bedlinen, from £17; Hand crochet throw, £175; Hand thrown mug, £17.50; Fair Isle slippers, £39; Crochet cushion, £49 all Toast

Wish list: Cox & Cox

There are some shops that just make you go ahhhhh. For me, Cox & Cox is one of them and their lovely new autumn/winter range is no exception.

I think this industrial desk lamp has to be my top pick. This trend is all well and good, but if you’re not careful your home can end up looking more communist era Czech factory than cool warehouse loft. Add a little bleached wood into the mix and problem solved quicker than you can say bourgeoisie.

This colour has been citrine and sulphur in previous years… Cox & Cox are calling these bud vases golden olive and bungee. Golden olive I can live with, but kind of a colour is bungee?!

I love all things grey, so these rustic household candles have to be on my list. Pop over to the Cox & Cox website to compile yours.

Simple pleasures: Falcon enamelware

When I was a child we had a set of Falcon enamel mugs for camping, bought from the village hardware store. I’ve loved the oh-so-simple style ever since. But while those in the know realised the white and blue designs were a style staple long ago, it seems that Falcon themselves have only just caught onto their cult status. After 91 years as a household favourite they’ve finally kitted themselves out with a smart new website, contemporary re-brand and some lovely new photography.

Feast your eyes on this.

{Sam Stowell}

I love it when old fashioned brands get a new lease of life. Some everyday items deserve to be hailed as design classics and it’s good to see that Falcon are not only giving their existing range a push, they’re launching some new products too – keep an eye out for the prep sets and tumblers (lovely for serving hot chocolate, ice cream or even popcorn) – on their way soon.