Ines Martinho: Upholstered table

I'm enamoured with the idea of making a quilt at the moment. I've been looking at bright textiles at places like Liberty's and really like the idea of something that's cheerful and different. While I'm not sure if it's something I'll ever get around to, I like seeing combinations of different brightly coloured fabrics and so am really taken with this small upholstered table by Ines Martinho.

The amazing Miss Piggy!

I have a secret to confess. I know that whenever people ask you who your ideal dinner party companions would be you're supposed to use it as an excuse to show off how awfully intellectual you are and say Stephen Fry, Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill. But if I'm honest and I could choose to meet any celebrity living or dead, it'd have to be Miss Piggy. I love her constant optimism, her flamboyant style, her business sense, the way she couldn't care less what others think and her determined pursuit of the long suffering Kermit. I'm not advocating stalking here clearly, even when your target is green, but she never fails to make me roar with laughter. Move over Sex and the City and other pale single-girl imitations. Miss Piggy, you're the original definition of fabulous and I salute you. Your books, although they're ten years old, have just made my wish list!
Photos from Muppet Wikipedia, TV Acres and Freaking News.

Hang your herbs....from the kitchen ceiling!

A while back, I fell in love with living walls. However, given the size (and layout) of my tiny kitchen, they're sadly not really practical for me. I've got a pretty little garden so it's not that much of a problem but I'd still like to keep some plants inside. Never content with anything as simple as a normal pot (striving for a difference? Moi?), I've now transferred my affections to these fantastic Sky Planters (starting at just £24.50) from the lovely Rockett St George. Hello, my name is Cat and I'm an unashamed plant tart. Now if I could just make my ceiling that little bit higher...

The house of moss by Nendo

I can't wait for the summer. I feel trapped and panicked by this constant damp and depressing grey. It's starting to get me down and I'm craving sunlight. I want nothing more than to be able to spend a whole day lying in bright sunlight in my garden, not talking to anybody but just spending time with a book and my thoughts. Gardening always makes me feel happy - there's something really satisfying about watching something you've made grow. So when I saw this moss house that Japanese Nendo designed in Tokyo in 2008, I was certainly interested! They covered the modern interior of the traditional house in a moss-pattern and made a delicate room partition out of real moss! Beautiful, calming and simple.

Agatha Ruiz de la Prada

Bright colours are alway a quick mood-lift and Agatha Ruiz de la Prada has always been a favourite designer. Although it might be a bit bright for a flat in England, her designs are always fun to flick through.

Flickr find: conmike12 seascapes

I've been browsing through Flickr lately. It really is the kind of place that you can completely lose yourself for hours. Conmike12's seascapes really jumped out at me. They are hauntingly pretty and really convey a stormy and aching sense of loneliness and desolation.

Aldo Bakker - kitchen design

Ever since I can remember, I've been addicted to kitchen gadgets. This means that I need blinkers whenever I'm walking through the kitchen section of any homewares store or I emerge later on, dazedly clutching something I really don't need, like a neon pink egg peeler (that takes longer to set up than it would to peel an egg) or an olive de-pipper. It all goes back to my mother who was cured with the same affliction. Nobody in the family will ever forget how excited she was about her revolutionary new lettuce knife that promised any lettuce it cut wouldn't ever go brown. This turned out to be because it was as blunt as a spoon and so wouldn't cut the lettuce in the first place. Still, their marketing wasn't exactly a lie... However, Also Bakker's collection is not only useful but also beautiful and simple and thus should be firmly on wish lists everywhere.

O Rei do Lar (The King of the home)

I have a weakness for before and after pictures. Sadly, it's led to the purchase of several unused gym memberships over the years. However, when it comes to homes and interior designers, I'm always surprised at how few decorators bother to put up before photos. O Rei do Lar (portuguese interior designers King of the Home) haven't fallen into this trap however and their before and after pictures are a good way to show what a difference can be made to a normal, lived in home. That padded headboard really is to die for...

Weird and wonderful chairs

I've been researching armchairs for a while now and it never fails to amaze me at how many people spend their lives designing things for us to plonk our bottoms on. While I don't think any of these would work for me, they're odd enough to be worth a look!
If you're a crafter, what could be better than a stool shaped like a large ball of twine? Thomas Eyck
These red chairs are bizarre but inviting - they make me think cocktail bar! Then again, most things on a Friday afternoon make me thing "Oooh, cocktail bar!" Quarto Sala

These chairs look pretty impressive - but then they also look uncomfortable! Poeira Design.

Dressing tables to die for

I'm not exactly a picture in the morning, unless the picture you're thinking of is "The Scream". However, one of my very dear friends (who also happens to be one of the most glamorous people I know) craves a dressing table at the moment. Happy make-upping!
Art Deco dressing table, £1520, Black Orchid Interiors

Clarissa Dressing Table, £275, Graham and Green

Antique French Dressing Table, £159, Homes Direct 365

I’m in a colourful mood today. And I’ve found and fallen in love with a new supplier. Re-found Objects (great name – does what it says on the tin) sells globally sourced, re-usable objects. There’s very little on the website that I wouldn’t want in my home but as I’m on a budget at the moment, I’m going to say that my top pick would have to be these £9 recycled metal picture frames made from old oil drums.

A Cascais beach house

I love living in London. I really do. But one of the things I miss most about Portugal is the sunlight. It makes everything look different, not least brightly coloured furniture. Were it up to me, my house would look like an explosion in a paint factory. I’d furnish the whole place from Boca do Lobo and Squint London. However, it’d look odd in the dreary greyness we’re stuck with here. So I went green with envy when I saw what Vera Cristo had done with her house in my hometown of Cascais, which is right on the beach. Her use of colour has made every room a joy to look at. I can’t imagine that anyone living here could ever be in a bad mood!

All pictures from

Maxima Interiores.

Interview: Cabracega

Although they're nothing to do with interiors, Portuguese design agency Cabracega (literally translated, meaning the blind goat) are just cool. I noticed their original quirks when I saw their “All City” campaign, which had them getting some of Portugal’s most famous graffiti artists to decorate traditional Portuguese china, showcasing the contrast between “then” and “now” and getting people to think about issues in a different way. I spoke to one of the co-founders, Hugo Tornelo about some of their campaigns (including the brilliant coca-cola campaign arming women with a different type of broom to make people acknowledge what they do in the home) and their plans for the future.

1. What made you start Cabracega? How has it grown and what are your plans for the future?
We started Cabracega because we wanted to do more than one is able to do while working for somebody else. We feel like we’ve something to say and to do regarding creativity. For instances, it’s common to develop solutions by starting to define the medium of the outcome, while we believe it should be the other way around; the best ideas/solutions will determine the medium of the outcome.
2. What's the campaign you're most proud of and what effect did it have?
Probably, Sensorial Lisbon. We created a tour around Lisbon where participants were blindfolded to try to ensure they got the true meaning and flavour of the city. It was a well-accepted project worldwide. In fact, part of its recognition came around half a year later when it got to Springwise top ten ideas for tourism in 2008. We were also fortunate to get the project published worldwide and broadcast in National Geographic Channel, for example.

3. Tell me a bit about the All City campaign - what was it for (in your own words) and how did you go about doing it?
All City was thought of in parallel with ExperimentaDesign 09, regarding its theme “It’s About Time”. For this project we worked together with Ricardo Vasconcelos and Rita Gonzalez. The main idea was to have an exclusive set of traditional Portuguese porcelain customized by 5 of the best Portuguese graffiters. That way we intended to confront 2 different times and contexts. At this time, the pieces you see on our website, are unique pieces, and we’re still negotiating a possible production with other companies.
4. Do you ever sell any of the products that you design (for example, the coca-cola mops and brooms)? If not, do you have any plans to or do you have any of your own ranges ready to come out?
Actually we are more into selling ideas and experiences rather than objects. But recently we’ve been repeatedly asked the same question, which makes us think we should look more into it. Nevertheless we’re always open to design new products and to produce our own creations, but in the end there’s a balance to be made: is it more worth it to produce 1000, or just one?
5. What brand would you most like to work with and why?
A brand that still doesn’t exist. A blank piece of paper with no history, but willing to start writing one as we speak.

Interview: Photographer Helder Silva

Helder Silva is a master of photo manipulation. His original photographs have made the rounds of blogs everywhere because of their originality and so I was really happy when he agreed to talk about some of his work. His flickr gallery is somewhere I stop off regularly, not least because his amazing photos have suggested viewing music (much like a serving suggestion on food) and we have the same taste in music! Over to Portuguese photographer Helder:
"I became interested in photography early on by magazines like national geographic, photo and those big Sunday magazines that newspapers have. Then I got a very basic film camera when i was about 12 and have been shooting ever since. The big boom came when i first got my digital camera: I started shooting more and it was easier to put my work online. And that's when I started connecting with other like-minded people and getting feedback. Although I always loved photography I never pursued any formal training, all I do is self taught either through books, specialty magazines and tips from people on the internet.
I like to say that my style is having no style at all. When I was younger I did a lot of landscape and nature shots. Then I started doing lots of architectural and portrait shots. After i joined flickr and discovered photomanipulation that's the kind of shots I've been most known for, although last year I did a more conceptual series where I shot something everyday with my cellphone camera. But landscapes is still something I always love, I've had the pleasure of some people who follow my work saying that because of my landscapes they've added Portugal to their list of countries to visit next.

I follow the work of many people (Rankin, Lachapelle, Demarchieu, etc, etc), but if I have to pick one that I believe has been most influential for me, it'd be Annie Liebovitz, I guess she started a trend with her portraits and her Soprano posters. I have to admit that I don't follow that many Portuguese photographers but only because it's harder to have access to their work, one I love is João Martins - excellent photomanipulator.

Five years from now I expect to be making more photomanipulations and have my work in some exhibitions. I'm not looking to make a job out of it, it's something I do as a creative outlet, so I'll probably be better at it, get some gear and maybe publish a book of some surreal landscapes I have planned. However, people can buy my work at my online

shop."