ephemerette

I've been away in a pretty little seaside town for what I hoped would be a relaxing weekend with friends but for various reasons turned out to be less so. Unfortunately you can't always enforce serenity just because you're on holiday, but I do find watching the sea is always quite a meditative experience so here's a quick snap I took as a sliver of blue sky snuck through the gloomy clouds which were lurking about for most of the weekend.

Images via Designamour & My Marrakesh I'm constantly day dreaming about running away to exotic climes and one of them for me is Marrakesh. I wrote previously about having a  heavenly spa experience at Les bains de Marrakesh , and next time I'm Morocco bound, I'd love to stay at Peacock Pavilions  which is run by blogger extraordinaire Maryam, and her architect husband Chris. I've been following Maryam's blog My Marrakesh for several years as the couple designed, built and exquisitely furnished their guest house set amongst olive groves just outside the Medina of city. This black and gold beauty of a room is one of many features Maryam designed along with decorative stencil specialists Modello Designs . Inspired originally by a beautiful art deco screen Maryam had saved a clipping of in her inspiration files, I'm absolutely in love with it. You can read about the design and application of the pattern over here at Designamour. Right, back to my...

Just discovered these lovely air mail themed accessories by Paper Plane. I can't seem to find a dedicated website for the company but goodies like this envelope purse and 'something for the weekend' travel bag are available pretty widely on line in the UK. I've ordered myself change purse from the gifted penguin .

...for people who don't like sightseeing. Clarchens Ballhaus on Auguststrasse  in the Mitte area. A fabulous old building full of faded glamour and quirky touches which has been hosting dances since 1913. If you're brave you could try out a tango or swing lesson in the evening, alternatively laze around in the rose filled gardens and lunch on amazing pizza and salads accompanied with a bottle of Berliner beer, or turn up on Sunday for a sumptuous brunch in the sun. You might get adopted by a portly old waiter with a sparkle in his eye and marvellously waxed handlebar moustache.....just saying. Have a poke about in Design Panoptikum on Torstrasse in Mitte . It's as much a curiosities shop as a vintage design paradise. Full of amazing modernist furniture, chandeliers and lamps, old signs, typewriters, candelabras, old fashioned telephones, rare east and west German designed products. R eally the list's endless, and the place is mind blowing. Although some parts...

via FGR Sorry for the temporary disruption to service at ephemerette but I've been h aring around trying to get it together to finally leave the country for a couple of days, I'm off to B erlin  tomorrow for a short break so normal service shall resume next week. In the mean time some links.. * Read about some gorgeous sounding scent and be transported away with dreamy pictures from lola is beauty * Watch a vintage interview with A udrey H epburn over at the neo traditionalist * Why not take a visit to the fashion zoo at little doodles? * Or try some delicious Vietnamese recipes from fernandez & leluu Also I wanted to give a little shout out to Erin from Dropped Stitches who very kindly passed on a V ersatile Blogger Award to me - having written less than 100 posts I can't begin to explain how lovely it feels to be developing a little readership, leave alone be given an award, I'm incredibly flattered and will do a little post with 7 random thi...

Thes e lovely butterfly studies caught my eye yesterday over on mydeco . C reated by artist J oseph W arren using vintage maps, geological surveys and even lunar charts. They appeal to me as I'm not keen on the idea of keeping real butterflies in cases and I really like themes linked to travel and exploration in artwork. There's a nice little interview with Joseph on the mydeco blog here . The originals are quite expensive at £500 a piece over at image surgery which prices me out of owning one for myself, but I do like the idea of collecting some vintage maps and experimenting with creating a little set of my own.

I came across the Alvhem website recently which is a Swedish property brokerage and interior design company based in Gothenberg (which has now been added to the already huge number of cities I wish to visit!) Its chock full of beautifully styled, gorgeous light and sunny apartments which make me want to immediately pick up sticks and move...and/or paint every surface in my home bright, bright white.

This week I have been mostly:  ferrying my dad to various medical appointments, wondering why the skin around my eyes is literally peeling off (and as a result not wearing any make up, looking terrible, then repeatedly bumping into someone I have a huge crush on), painting my nails coral,  cursing the weather, eating industrial quantities of refined sugars and watching my butt expand exponentially, planning to go on a diet, booking a trip to Berlin , screaming because apparently my washing machine was hungry and somehow shredded a hole in my favourite jeans, buying new jeans , desperately trying to console a dear friend in distress, trying to get my head around the implications of having a new Government (its my job), not getting enough sleep, wondering how long I can go before having get my fringe trimmed, booking tickets to see bands , missing my cat, trying to find new artwork for my living room , planning new blog posts but not delivering.... ...

images originally NYT & musette Ahh to be she...in g ay P areee ...Coming from someone who generally leaves the country at least every quarter, my complete holiday fail for the past 7 months has me aching to get outta town right now . I' ve had to jump through all sorts of administrative hoops to reschedule my original planned trip to Lisbon to the A utumn , which is an unbearably long way away, so as V (my travelling soul mate) and I can't possibly ba re the prospect of being stuck in England for much longer we're tentatively discussing another quick trip to somewhere in E urope  within the next few months. The main problem we're having is decid ing where to go...  Paris? For a bit of louche cafe culture? Madrid? Gua ra nteed fabulous food and fun loving people. Berlin? Style, music and mayhem...  How to decide?

This isn't Lisbon my friends. I've got to say, it's pretty peculiar to wake up to the news that your flight has been cancelled due to a volcanic eruption  but such is life, holidays will have just have to wait till the skies clear up. *Sigh*

image found via the fabulous neotraditionalist Hurrah hooray! I'm off on holiday! I tend to get very upset if I don't have a flight confirmation in my name at any given time, and I'm the sort of person who needs to plan a new trip within a week or two of arriving home from the previous one. It's been an absolute age since I've been able to get out of the country due to having had a pretty crummy past 6 months. So I'm taking a very well earned little break to Lisbon for the next few days where I intend to wonder the streets and get thoroughly lost, seek out curious shops, gorge myself on seafood and custard tarts and bar hop till the early hours. Apparently Lisbon is a city perched on seven hills, so I suspect despite all the aforementioned good living I intend to do, with any luck I'll come back to London with with buns of steel too!

When my muscles ache and I'm stressed out. When I'm sick of being cold all the time. When my skin, ravaged by winter feels more like alligator than silk. When I catch the scent of roses from someones perfume. I mentally go back to my happy place le bains de marrakech .  Three friends and I spent half a blissful day here being steamed, scrubbed, rubbed and oiled in glorious moroccan style last year. We emerged dazed, blissed out and glowing with the best conditioned skin we'd ever had in our lives.  Although way fancier than a normal hammam which locals might frequent regularly for a stream, rub down and gossip in Marrakesh, the 5 star treatment we recieved cost only the equivalent of what you'd pay for a distinctly average massage in London. If you lucky enough to get away to Marrakesh any time soon, have a little wonder round the Kasbah, head for the city gate and you might stumble into the rose petal strewn corridors of this place. ...

via http://www.sources-caudalie.com/ It seems de rigueur for fashion designers to try a hand at hotel design now, often with spectacular results. The grande suite at Le Sources de Caudalie in Bordeaux has a really interesting juxtoposition of styles and architecture. Minimal hard, sharp furniture, and intricate panelling set within in what looks like an industrial looking room from the inside but is in fact a cabin built on stilts over a lake. I've seen the use of pilows stacked up on the wall for a headboard before somewhere, here it reminds me slightly of a rather glamorous asylum (in the nicest possible way!). Posted via web from ephemerette-interiors

Given the choice of holidaying in the UK or hopping on a plane to somewhere foreign and exciting I'm usually down the latter route every time, however I've been unable to kick day dreaming about visiting the Scarlet in Cornwall to lounge about watching the waves crash down the beach and hunker down to a bit of luxurious peaceful quiet time, bliss. Posted via email from ephemerette's posterous