ephemerette

Hows about a little bit of interior décor porn to start off the new year? Love the light, the floors, the monochromatic scheme and quirky features in these rooms although I'm slightly woeful about the fact that I barely scratched the surface of the endless list of jobs I have to improve my own little abode over the holidays. Never mind, I'll just pretend this is my flat instead. Images B&B Italia via Marcus Design

I was admiring my friend L's homemade necklace the other day. She'd found a beautiful pair of vintage pocket watch keys in a charity shop and threaded them onto a long chain to make a pretty and unusual pendant. I thought I'd have a little look around Ebay to see if I might find any equally pretty keys for a similar project when I stumbled across, and promptly bought this beautiful (and working!) fob watch necklace by Fallen Angel .  They specialise in creating vintage inspired hand made jewellery and seem to have a bit of an obsession with Alice in Wonderland themed necklaces. I must admit I never really think to look for jewellery on Ebay, I tend to go to Etsy if I'm looking for something handmade or quirky, but judging by how many of Fallen Angel's pieces I've earmarked for possible Christmas gifts, clearly I might have been missing a trick.

I'm blaming Claire from Lola is beauty for alerting me to the existence of Sofia Coppola's second collection of SC bags for Louis Vuitton. Heaven, unaffordable, buttery, suedey, swingy heaven. She's got the perfect balance of luxe materials minus any clanging *designer* logo down. Lovely tidy size but capricious enough for the essentials - just the perfect take anywhere bag. As much as I appreciate LV's classic status I've never been very keen on their traditional monogrammed handbags as there are too many knock offs walking the streets, these clean, simple bags are the perfect antidote. Images via style rumour

I think I'm going to have to forcibly ban myself from any further extended periods of internet access, I've bought no less than 6 pairs of shoes in the past month and I keep finding more that I want including all of these beauties from F-Troupe . Buttons. Victoriana. Star shaped brogue punch outs. Squishy leather and bouncy crepe soles. I can't take it anymore, I'm checking myself into shopping rehab. Adieu.

As much as I'd love to regularly splurge half a months mortgage payment on purse it's just not a reality for me, and since my beloved Orla Kiely purse was stolen by some little toad earlier in the year I've been on a long search for a new perfect wallet and I think I've found it in this shiny little beauty above by Mimi Berry . It's not to big or small, has seperate zipped compartments for cash, change and cards and crucially for me isn't loaded with pointless clunky hardware causing it to take up too much room in my already overloaded handbag. I spent an embarrassingly long time deciding between whether to get the patent or grainy leather options and a further age agonising over sensible grown up black or brown or eye catching red or pink, but the 8 year old in me won so shiny pink it was and very satisfyingly it is too. Mimi Berry graduated from Central Saint Martins in London and specialises in beautifully crafted bags and purses all manufacture...

I'm just in love with all of the rich texture and colour in this picture...wonder if I can track down some mermaid-y green sequins to adorn something with? via Oh fashion models

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...

Why oh why isn't H&M home available in the UK? ( just as well really, or I would have bankrupted myself on frilly cushions and leopard print towels by now !) Loving the way these linens and accessories have been styled by Swedish stylist and set decorator Sasa Antic . I'm besotted with the top image, a glamorous bedroom in a barn! Just lovely.  

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.

images via Per Gunnarsson Mismatched tea light holders and baby's breath,  pastel glassware and ice cream dishes, beautiful pink blooms, letters on shelves.  

I couldn't help but take a few snaps of this beautiful collection of Wedgwood tea sets I spied recently whilst trailing around a department store in search of some non hideous curtains for my living room. All of the patterns and styles have been revived from vintage pieces held in the Wedgwood and Coalport archives, and are beautifully packaged in embossed teal and gold gift boxes. The top two images are from the polka dot tea story  collection, and second two from the Harlequin collection.

via she design I'm really on a Scandinavian tip at the moment, j ust love the intricate honeycombform of this  pouffe  designed by SHE design studio based in Oslo, Norway. A pparently its entirely constructed of textile and bounces slightly when you sit on it!

Ooh want. My beloved (no name) little tan satchel is slowly dying after several years of use and abuse, more than a few trips abroad and one horrible man putting is hand in to nick my wallet, so I'm in the market for a replacement. Not sure who this one is by, but it's fitting the bill nicely, well structured, adjustable strap, lovely rich colour and the perfect size to carry enough, but not too much of my   crap  chic possessions around.

Mia Doi Todd "Open Your Heart" dir. Michel Gondry Love, love, love Michel Gondry's work, but not really heard of Mia Doi Todd until now. This must have been loads of fun to film.

Rob Ryan time lapse at Pick Me Up gallery from karl sadler I love Rob Ryan's paper cut designs, always sweet and sometimes they break you heart a tiny little bit. Stumbled across this stop motion video by Karl Sadler of Rob and his team of cutters painstakingly creating one of his designs for the P ick Me Up graphic art fair which ran at S omerset H ouse earlier this month. Rob has a shop in Columbia R oad in L ondon called Ryantown , and also sells work through his website here .

I'm smitten with Bryonie Porter's wallpaper covered vintage dressers and drawers. Now I'm pretty sure I can't afford her £300 plus commission fee to attack one of my old bits of furniture with the best of Timorous Beasties or Osbourne and Little's papers, but I'm seriously considering a smaller scale attempt at it myself, watch this space for the (possibly awful) results sometime in the future...

I love discovering new blogs and talented people through comments left on posts, and that's exactly how I discovered Elizabeth of E tells tales  who hand makes these charming cushion covers, available at her etsy shop iviemade . I've got a huge crush on the Eiffel tower pillows (eventually you'll work out I basically have a huge crush on almost anything with an Eiffel tower on it) . If you hurry over to her blog right now, she's running a competition to win a pillow in celebration of her blogging birthday.  

I'm really enjoying flicking through the decor 8 interior styling group on flickr here . Lots of inspiration, well curated and loads of obviously very talented people contributing. I'd love to join in but being honest I'm so symbolically disorganised I'd clearly never get myself together enough to contribute regularly - anyway it's great source for ideas and inspiration.

I feel like I've been re designing my bathroom for about a year now to finally replace the frankly skanky 1950's suite with what will hopefully be a sleek modern shower room with a few glamorous touches. I came across these gloriously pattered tiles by Tex-Tiles recently, They specialise in creating patterns based on traditional and contemporary fabrics and carpets, taking inspiration from around the world. I'm loving the Umayyid black and white geometric tiles pictured in Homes & Gardens below, a perfect way to introduce a little Moorish style in a modern way.

Been pootling about on line to find an appropriate birthday present for a girlfriend and rediscovered Red Direct today, then promptly fell in love with about a hundred things. Here are my edited highlights. Bigger pics first - Rawxclusive  'I rule' print, which could very well be the present as my friend has a very queenly name. Gorgeous, gorgeous tan Cheet Nell clutch , really think this would be a perfect bag to cover both spring and summer, plus it has a Chanel-esque chain strap for hands free wearing. Smaller pics - Love the stylised peacocks on the  black Evi cosmetic pouch . Pretty 22ct gold 'me 4 you' earrings by Alex Monroe. Mimi ' Fonzy' purse - loving the anchor and vibrant yellow leather. Fun union jack noticeboard by Green & Co. Gillian Kyle foil teacake shopper - I love tea cakes. Bright fun Louise Buchan purses. Silver Service Hummingbird necklace , and finally really nice looking metallic sneakers by Ash Vir...