London Sunday - The Markets

On Sunday I headed up to London for my Maid of Honor's birthday.  Mum, Bean and I decided to head to London early so that we could spend a few hours together, wandering, and looking at the sites.

On Saturday I had a look online on Time Out London to see what sort of things we could do for a few hours before we had to meet Lydia and her mum at 3pm for Afternoon Tea at the Haymarket Hotel.

The first place we headed was Columbia Road in Shoreditch for the flower market.  There were loads of fantastic shops and the street had been transformed into an oasis full of flowers and plants; everything from gorgeous, freshly cut flowers to fruit trees and cacti.

We wandered through Columbia Road, popped into a gorgeous perfume shop, some cool antique shops and found a cute little square where a guy was playing his guitar and people were sitting about drinking coffee and eating bagels, all with their flowers and plants in tow.

From here we wandered around to Brick Lane where, of course, another fabulous Sunday market was happening.

These are really the bits of London that are real that show the diversity of the city.

Cake Hole - wikid antique crockery shop and tea room

Cake Hole - with its Easter inspired decorations

Cake Hole - the whole place is colour coordinated

Mum and Bean checking out the flowers

Gorgeous tulips at Columbia Road

Such an array of colours and scents

Cool Guitar Man

Funky Square off Columbia Road with cool shop fronts

COS Scarf, Zara Blazer, Aubin and Wills Top, Dorothy Perkins Jeans, Next Boots

Grabbing a lunch wrap at Brick Lane

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue

{17th August}
I am very lucky to have a plethora of garden roses growing in the garden.  They aren't long stemmed roses so they needs a small vessel to house them - a jam jar or teapot.  I used my lovely flower print Cath Kidston teapot for the garden roses I picked last week for the living room.  Really cute little arrangement.

My pink roses in the garden tend to have slightly longer stems if you are selective when picking which allows for slightly deeper vases.  I have 2 vintage milk bottles that I bought from a flea market in Brighon.  They are perfect for little flower displays.

I love the idea of using unusual containers for my flowers and I love this idea for my shop bought rose this week - a storage jar placed on a beautiful delicate plate on our coffee table.

I love jars, wine bottles, and tea cups for flower displays.  It would be great to hear what you use as vases.

Happy Saturday

Life is the flower for which love is the honey

Nothing dresses a room better than freshly cut flowers, whether in a glass vase, jam jar or tea pot.  There are so many things you can do with flowers, but for me, simple is better.

I'm not overly keen on flower arrangements and prefer a vase full of the same flower.  I also find that flowers keep a lot better if you keep only one variety in each vase.

White Hydrangeas are my favourite.  I love their soft, full, heads, they just look so delicate and perfect.  I find you can get 3 stems from a florist for about £5 and they tend to last about 2 weeks.  I found the key to Hydrangeas is only giving them about an inch of room temperature water and changing this every other day.

They aren't particularly fragrant but they do look beautiful.

Fab-tastic Friday

New look for my nails to brighten up Friday

{19th July}

Thank God It's Friday!! Really and seriously I haven't been this happy for it to be a weekend in so long.  After starting my new job 2 weeks ago I haven't really stopped.  Last weekend we had nothing planned but in the end it was one of the busiest weekends we have had in so long.

This weekend we actually have nothing planned.  I would like to visit the pop up Maze that has been created in the Brighton Pavilion Gardens, enjoy the sunshine and take some nice pictures but apart from that we have nothing planned!

It's been a good week and so I thought I would share some of the fab things that I have been loving this week.

Thanks to Sophie in the office for our mid afternoon ice cream break! FAB!

Random I know but I just love the juxtaposition in the picture of something so delicate and natural, against something so straight and man made.

My button & ribbon jars - I remember when they were empty and I never thought I would get much of a collection! 3 years later...

Just waiting and waiting to have a special occasion to use all of our new Emma Bridgewater wedding crockery.