Delft Tiles in East London

Discovered these 'Delft Tiles' (painted on panel) by Paul Brommer via the Gentle Author. Lovely! Such a shame I missed the exhibition!! Read more about them here.

Could not resist

Venus of Cupertino

found here

A Piano for the Hallway

A superb piece of furniture for all the family. I really love the simplicity and accessibility (for big and small) . You will find more about the Piano at Feld.

found here

London Calling

found here

Maps

I love maps - We have a huge world map in our kitchen and travel around the globe nearly every dinner!

found here

I therefor very much like this travel concept, where you can scratch off all the places you have visited to reveal your very personalised world.

Flat or House?

Recently I find myself thinking that flat living might be the thing for us. At the moment we live in a rented house with a bit of a garden (a luxury in London - I know). Apart from the house prices which will obviously affect any kind of decision should we ever want to buy and having looked around I do think a big flat would be rather nice. However, and as I have mentioned before, family friendly most of them are not. I am hankering after a Parisian or Berlin style flat, maybe a bit like these here:

Paris

found here 

Berlin

found here

London flats have charm of course, but I discovered that square living is so much nicer than rectangular flats, which you can find a lot of in London - long and narrow hallways are just not my thing, but I am sure the perfect space is somewhere out there !!

London flat

found here

P.S. If you are like me and like to look around other peoples houses, check out freundevonfreunden.com which interviews interesting people in their apartments in more and more major cities around the globe.

It's Friday

What shall we do this weekend? Endless possibilities!

See Picasso at the Tate Britain (till 15. July),

or stock up on your Monster Supplies (at the Ministry of Stories Store),

or walk London with Bowl of Chalk 'pay what you want' tour to find out new and old things about the city

or just find yourself a nice swing and enjoy the moment

greyorgreen

Whatever you do, have a lovely weekend!

Betty Blythe

I am always on the lookout for independent coffeshops and recently came across Betty Blythe in Shepherd's Bush / Brook Green. Quite close to the total opposite which is the enormous Westfield Shopping Centre. A whole world apart,  this vintage shop does very nice coffee (and tea, naturally) in a very cosy atmosphere and is a nice find in an otherwise quite unassuming area.

greyorgreen

World Shakespeare Festival 2012

Part of the 2012 Cultural Olympics and led by the Royal Shakespeare Company, companies from around the world will bring their take on Shakespear to the UK, starting 23. April on London at the Globe Theatre with Troilus and Cressida. Find out more here.

Very small Houses

According to a report by the Royal Institute of British Architects new-build British Houses  are the smallest in Western Europe and I like to add that looking around affordable houses or flats in London (old or new) you certainly get a claustrophobic feeling.

Flats very often are aimed at young couples with no kids, they will offers 'entertainment' space but tiny bedrooms, and most of them have only two - which really does not encourage you to even start a family. Houses are mostly on the small side, so people have started converting the attic and digging deep.

Here is an impressive (and yes, expensive) example of how one can achieve more space in London

found here

Summer Term

Summer Term has started today for the kids (and us) with rain (which we need) and very cold temperature (which we don't need), inspiring me to work on my sketching skills with this quite addictive new app called Paper. It's fun and maybe I will have to share more in the future ....

On the Tube

hans chu

found here