Beautiful books: Animal Farm (Illustrated hardback)

I remember reading Animal Farm at school and crying over the cartoon version with my sister (this was back before collective paranoia meant that the first time children had to deal with death was when it struck someone close to them). My mother gave me a beautiful hardback copy illustrated by Ralph Steadman and I was really saddened when it got lost in a move. It's out of print so I've been keeping my eyes open in charity shops in the hope of finding another copy. The illustrations were, in true Steadman style, a little unusual and disconcerting and there was rather a lot of blood - a bit of a first for me at that age. It's not what you'd automatically think of when you consider books for young girls but the realism of the ilustrations brought the story to life and made it one of my favourite books.

Images from www.signatureillustration.org and Ongemist.

Give me bookshelves and I'm yours for life

Every time I move house I try, and fail, to cull my (over-populated) bookshelves. I've always been surrounded by books - my mother instilled a love of reading in my sister and I at a very young age - and I've never learnt to throw them away. I still have books from my childhood and a lot of them are associated with my fondest memories - I still remember the first political discussion I ever had when my mother gave me a copy of Wild Swans when I was ten. My poor books are routinely torn inside handbags, dropped in the bath, covered in whatever I'm cooking at the time, filled with sand when I'm on the beach and have their spines cracked where I leave them open on my bedside table. Yet although they're abused, they are loved. I want to create a small library, complete with squishy armchair and lamp, in our new house and found a couple of examples of what I'd like to do - although they're all much large spaces than I have, (boyfriend please note) I'd far rather have a library than a walk-in closet!

Pictures from Business Week, the lovely Alkemie blog, and Homes & Bargains.

Lumadessa Deco prints

Ever since my mother took an infant version of me to the Natural History Museum and I came face to face with a rather dusty stuffed dodo, I've felt a sad affection for the poor things. I also have some hereditary guilt as apparently it was Portuguese sailers that finished the species off. The dodos were such trusting creatures that they'd waddle over to the sailors to see what was happening and would get popped on the head and uncerimoniously roasted. So I was really excited to see the Dodo print that's part of the Extinct series of prints by Lumadessa (found on OMG Posters!). They've also got some cute art deco bird prints, mostly in limited edition runs of 50 - at just $20 they'd make ideal stocking fillers!

Chez Minette birdcage mirror

I've been looking for a mirror for my new bathroom for a while and just adore the birdcage mirror available on Bouf (£125). Perfect for checking makeup and reminding yourself that you live in the gilded cage of a consumer culture...actually scrap that. It's just really pretty and whimsical!

Interview: Ivomaia design

I don't feature many personal accessories but the Ivomaia bags are so pretty that I wanted to make an exception - especially when designers Ivo Maia and Liliana Reis were kind enough to agree to an interview! Ivomaia specialise in both interior and product design and are based just outside of Porto. Their website acts as a boutique although their products are already widely available in shops across Portugal, Spain and France. Over to them.

1. Tell us a bit about what you do and what first inspired you to do it?
The company tries to spread Portuguese design, telling a story with each bag. By designing bags, we're able to create graphic projects that can be worn. The designs are simple but creative.

2. What do you do when you're not creating/selling?
We find it hard to disassociate the act of designing when we see inspiration everywhere we look. We get inspiration from the world around us and our minds are always on our next project. We spend most of our free time visiting expositions, reading and spending time with our friends.

3. What's your favourite piece / the hardest thing for you to sell?
We don't have a particular favourite piece but we try to create collections around a certain theme. The first pieces of each collection are the hardest ones for us to part with simply because we've worked so hard on them that we think of them as our children!

4. What is your most valuable possession?
Our most valuable possession would have to be our creativity - without it we couldn't exist in the design sphere!

5. What are your plans for the future / new ranges?
We want to concentrate on selling outside of Portugal and making our brand more international.

6. Complete this sentence: "Happiness is..."
Happiness is....doing what we love!

Shaken and styled...

I firmly believe that one of the worst things to happen to modern society was the disappearance of cocktail hour. I cannot imagine anything more civilised than coming home for work and having a dedicated hour to sip a cocktail and chat with the Boyfriend. Being a traditionalist, I've always preferred a tin-and-cup shaker but this Alessi Chiringuito cocktail shaker (£88) is unbelievably elegant. The person that owns this shaker probably speaks at least three languages (one of them Russian) and can bake a perfect souffle as well as having point-perfect aim when they practice firing their antique pistols. It'd make a wonderful present for a bartender.

The most beautiful house in the world?

I originally saw this film location home on Bandelle and, having taken a look at Shootfactory's website, I know I'm going to be using a lot of their locations for inspiration. This is a large, four-storey house in Mile End (London) and although I'd like it to look just a tiny bit more lived in, there isn't a single room I wouldn't copy exactly:

The national symbol of Portugal: the noble Rooster

England gets a Lion. Brazil has a Jaguar, the USA has an eagle and China, who I suspect may have cheated, have a dragon. Someone check the rules - are they allowed fictional beasts? When it comes to national animals, it's hard to make the Portuguese rooster seem cool in comparison. Basically, if the world were a barnyard, Portuguese life expectancy would be about ten minutes.

The Barcelos rooster has long been recognised as the national symbol for Portugal and the tourist shops are crammed with the things painted in traditional colours:
The story of the cockerel dates back to the 14th century. A crime was committed in the town of Barcelos and a man from Galicia fell under suspicion. To make a long story short, he violently protested his innocence but despite his assertions that he was a pilgrim, he was condemned to be hanged. Before his execution, he requested (and was granted) an audience with the magistrate that had pronounced him guilty. The magistrate was dining with some friends but agreed to see the prisoner. The Galician once again protested his innocence, and, to the amazement of those present, pointed to a roast chicken on the table and exclaimed: "If I am innocent, that cock will crow if I am hanged!" Sure enough, as soon as the rope went around the pilgrims neck as he stood on the platform, the cock stood up on the table and crowed. The man was freed and later returned to Barcelos to build a shrine.


Hundreds of years later, the cocks have gone from being generic tourist souvenirs to being individually hand-painted works of art. The Porto shop Aguas Furtadas is stocking these unusual versions (from €8 to €80), all of which can be bought in three different sizes by emailing them. I want one of these as a doorstop but I just can't choose...

All I want for Christmas is a whole pig's leg

I like my meat to be so rare that it squeaks when I put my fork into it. I've always loved really bloody steaks and salty meat products so Presunto (Portuguese Serrano ham) is naturally one of my favourite things in the world to eat. The traditional way to eat it is to carve the ham that you want straight from the leg, which is usually mounted on a wooden stand. Barbaric? Maybe. But oh, so tasty... So imagine my joy when I found out that PortugueseFood.co.uk is now providing the UK with Portuguese food. No longer will I need to haul large amounts of illegal cheese through customs, worrying that it'll explode in my case! And even better, they've got proper pig's legs on stands. That's right, 6.5kg of pure piggy goodness, with the foot still attached. Now I just need to find somewhere to set it up at home...

Interior design: Rough Luxe

Interior design is always going to be extremely subjective. But every so often, you come across something that really splits people into two camps. Or rather, your boyfriend and his mother approach you with a radical design idea for the townhouse you're helping to renovate and ignore your increasingly horrified face as they smilingly explain the concept of Rough Luxe. Based on the Rough Luxe hotel in London, the proposed look would leave some of the walls bare with strips of the various wallpapers used since the house was built in 1837 showing. Never one to dismiss a new idea out of hand, I've agreed to see how it looks once it's finished but I'm exhibiting the look here anyway as I suspect I'm seriously outvoted in this situation. You can agree a look is cool (and I do) and still be dubious about it's impact on everyday life. Opinions?

Guest post from kittens&crumpets: How to wrap a Christmas present

I'm proud to say that I've managed to get quite a few life skills down pat. I can dress myself every morning, have no difficulty in maintaining oral hygiene and am perfectly capable of discussing recent events from various different points of view. So it's embarrassing to have to admit that any present I wrap ends up in several layers of badly folded and scuffed paper and swaddled in parcel tape. Thankfully, I'm able to hand you over to Beth-Emily of the lovely shop kittensandcrumpets. She's designed a limited amount of quirky, seamed, festive paper and was kind enough to agree to write a feature on how to wrap a present tightly and professionally. Read on and then wrap on!

Get these things:
1. Christmas cheer wrapping paper
2. Sticky tape
3. One gift
4. Ribbon
5. Cutting utensils Do these things:
Step 1.
First you will need to open the A4 size paper and lay it flat so that the sewn edge will be in the middle of the paper, the paper size is now A3 (420 x 297 mm). The best place to do this is on a flat surface. Fold down the sewn edge to the right hand side so it becomes flat. Step 2.
Place your gift face down in the middle of the wrapping paper. Bring the paper from the longest sides up to the middle of the item. Pull both sides tightly so that they hug the item smoothly. Use a bit of tape stuck in the middle to secure the edges. Step 3.
Next you will need to close the ends of your gift. Face the open ends towards you. Now you will need to fold the left and right edges. The best way to do this is to push the sides next to your item, to form flaps which you can then fold down and tape closed. Repeat on the other side of the gift.
Step 4.
Tie pretty ribbon around your gift. Now you're ready for some Christmas cheer and gift giving YAY! ^_^

Christmas comes early with Smythson

Having a bad memory is a curse. At 26 I'm dismayed to find that I regularly find myself in a room wondering what on earth I came in for. Needless to say, I'm the queen of to-do lists. If I don't write things down I'm sure to forget them. I tried electronic organisers but there's some thing about writing on paper that's still so pleasurable and when you're writing on paper bound in butter-soft leather, the experience just gets better. This year I decided to buy myself a little Christmas present and ordered a 2010 diary from Smythson. The Erdem girl collections have been making the blog rounds but I'm a traditional girl at heart and the staple ranges appeal more to me. Any of these beauties would make a wonderful stocking filler (hint, hint).

Toy box

I'm currently encouraging everyone I know to breed as fast as possible. And I have a selfish reason for doing so. I mentioned one of my favourite childhood books in a previous post, explaining that I want an excuse for buying (yes, and for playing with) the pretty toys found on the market today. Little birdies tell me that by next Christmas I should have several mini-people to buy for but this year I guess I'll just have to content myself with looking at these gorgeous new finds from Cox & Cox.

Penguin push-along, £23

Knitted T-Rex dinosaur, £13

Liberty Rabbit, £9

Magic Ink, £18

Duck watering can, £7

Wigwam, £40

Sheep puppet kit, £12

Knitting and sewing kit, £38