Vaulted ceiling and conservatory dining rooms!

My neighbour is building an extension and it got me thinking; perhaps I should do that?  Why not? The dining room I have is too small for all our extended family.  At Christmas I bring the garden table indoors and luckily it's the same dimensions as my dining table so we put both together and manage to squeeze in 14 people!  The only problem is once you're seated you are trapped there until everyone has finished their meal.  So a dining room extension would be the ideal thing, well that's what I'm trying to persuade my husband anyway.  We could build it onto the side of the house and get into it through the existing dining room which luckily has a window at the side we could easily turn into a doorway.  Well that's the plan anyway.  If all goes well this time next year I'll have a new dining room extension measuring 3.5m x 8m so I should surely be able to accommodate everyone then.  I've chosen some of my favourite images for inspiration, see what you think.  I'm drawn towards a vaulted ceiling with velux or glass and sunfold doors opening on to the garden at the back.  I can't sleep at night for dreaming about it!

Tiffany blue (is there any other?)

There is one instantly recognisable colour: Tiffany blue.  How exciting is it when you are given a gorgeous package in that colour?  There is no doubt what is in that box, it's going to be something beautiful and fab.  Imagine surrounding yourself with that colour?  I've been having a look at what is out there in this colour (and trying to see where I could use it in my own home - of course!)

I also discovered an amazing website www.colourlovers.com.  You can go onto this website and create and share your own colour palette using their on-line 'create a palette' tool.

Stylish (and comfortable) home offices

I opened a Tweet this week and up popped a link to some images of beautiful home offices.  So that got me thinking; you really only need a small space to make your own home office.  My office at home is around 6' x 6' and at the moment is crammed to the ceiling.  Some serious clearing out is required, and in this day of a paperless office the stuff I keep is a piece of nonsense.  I recently decorated the top floor room of the house for my daughter's wedding.  So that she could use it a dressing and make up room on the day.  I'm now thinking I may tidy up my act and move my office up there.  I am totally inspired by the images below, especially the one with the beautiful pale blue Armoire.  I have an Armoire like this in my dining room, hmmm I wonder if I cant get it up two flights of stairs into my 'new' office?  (Ha ha, I know what my husband will say to that idea and it is two letters and starts with an N!)

I hope you're as inspired as I've been.  I'll also keep you posted on how my office move goes.......

My favourite one is below

I love the wallpapered ceiling below

Christian Lacroix stationery

In these modern times of email, text and tweet, it is very refreshing to see the resurgence of good old fashioned writing sets.  Where people actually put pen to paper, put a stamp on the envelope and post it to the recipient.  There is some fabulous stationery out there, and my favourite at the moment has to be the Christian Lacroix stuff I've seen in Liberty, Selfridges and in LA.  For my daughter's wedding invite I used the Christian Lacroix 'Love notes'.  These were not available in the UK so I ordered them on US Amazon and had them delivered to an address in LA.  For the inserts I used beautiful card purchased in Paper Source in America.  This store is totally amazing, they have everything you could ever want, in every colour and every size.  I wish they would open a store in the UK!  I love the whole punk, glam, collage element to what Lacroix has done.

I have posted a pic at the bottom of what I produced for the wedding invite.  Hope you like!

Below is what I did for my daughter's wedding invites

Ruffles and frills

There is something almost decadent about frills and ruffles.  Picture a swishing ruffled underskirt of years gone by.  How feminine (sorry guys, if there any reading this that is).  I love the crisp cotton ruffles of my Anthropologie bedlinen.  This week I've found a few more items which are frilled and ruffled.  Unfortunately they are all from the US.  My favourite here has to be the monogrammed dish towels from The Pottery Barn (I do wish we had that in the UK!).  I feel a craft project coming on...