Squares...triangles...rectangles...circles

South bank viewpoint

Sights and sounds along the South bank on a cold sunny Autumn day. Very disappointed with the Sunflower Seeds exhibition by Ai Weiwei at the Tate Modern (see my post here) - problems with dust from the porcelain has meant no-one can actually walk across the floor after all.

Aqua Architecture

*tiled *cladded *striped *embossed *carved *overlapped *raised *scaled

Antwerp street shots

Creative merchandising

Another random collection of photos from Antwerp: shop windows, posters, displays, hand-written signs, painted numbers, colour stories.

Shoe styling

A nice bit of visual merchandising with shoes, plastic bottles and.....glow-in-the-dark tape?!

Brussels snapshot

24 hours in Brussels on the way to a work research/inspiration trip to Antwerp. Didn't find a lot of creativity in the persistent rain except some yummy lemonade with fresh mint and huge mug of hot chocolate. Stayed in the Hooy Kaye Lodge - a 17th century merchants house with stripped-back minimalism, antique wooden furniture and gorgeous textiles.

Chelsea blooms

A couple of quick shots out of the bus window on Sloane Street this morning where the shop windows are being covered in foliage, flora and fauna for Chelsea flower show. I love the oversized flower at Cartier that breaks through the window to reach the sun.

Keep off the grass!

A very bizarre sight when I was in Paris recently and stumbled into Luxembourg gardens on a hot sunny day hoping to relax in the shade on the grass, and everyone was sitting on chairs around the grass rather than on it.

My friend and I kept walking in the hope of a small patch of grass hidden somewhere discreet, but then came across a patch where you were allowed to sit, and had to squeeze onto a postage-size section of greenery. The contrast between lush empty lawns and mounds of sweaty bodies was enough to put anyone off their ice-cream!

Full of hot air

Not quite what I expected to find on the South Bank today....Nick, Gordon and David blowing around in the wind!

Toolbox chic

I can't believe I haven't blogged for almost a month, my life has been pretty hectic lately and I definitely needed a break for a couple of weeks, but then my mojo disappeared and I got stuck in Milan during the Salone with the ash cloud. So finally I am feeling revitalised and have lots of gorgeous pics to share from the furniture fair, as well as a couple from an unexpected weekend in Paris on my overland trip back to London.

First up is one of my most favourite things from Milan, although not even an exhibit! Our first stop was the new Venture Lambrate area, with disused garages and warehouses turned into galleries, and it was there I found these fantastic tapas-style picnic boxes from old toolboxes and a rusty metal trolly for full and empty glasses. I love the idea of getting a couple of toolboxes for my roof terrace when I move house in the summer, especially with basil plants standing next to them so you can just rip off the leaves to add to your mozzerella.

As I was going to St Ives....

....I saw

daffodils for sale in bright plastic buckets

a stripy deckchair resting against the wall

a fisherman weaving lobster pots and baskets from wicker cane

the tide out, exposing the sand and anchors

sea-themed bric-a-brac on the windowsill

cake stands full of knitted treats and shell collections

rusty watermarks on whitewashed walls

Dexter Dalwood exhibition at the Tate

the Smock Shop and a red telephone box peeping out from behind

a pretty road called Fish Street

Discovered patterns

Some of the original tiled floors that I have found while house-hunting for my own Victorian conversion.

Colour flash*

Puckered paper

Seen in the window of a vacant shop - the condensation has blurred the colours, muffled the drawings and puckered the paper to create 3D relief and slumped form.

7 days of chic

Another shameless plug for my very talented friend who reveals some of her very stylish but sometimes completely bonkers outfits on Fashionair's '7 days of chic'. I sit opposite Cassie at work and am continually mesmerised by the narrative behind each day's outfit, and how clothes she picks up from car boots and Camden's finest charity shops are transformed with a trim, some vintage buttons or shoulder pads! Watch her video here.

Paris in the spring

Some of the favourite things I found, explored and loved in Paris:

giant holographic bubbles outside the Pompidou

a rainbow of coloured balloons in Le Halles

snow and shadow in Nation

thick marbled notebooks at Merci

vintage photo album at Ultramod

Valentines pillow in St Germain

graphic art in the Marais

neon signs in the Pompidou

taxidermied animals at Deyrolle

stylised posters on the metro