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

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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.

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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

Happy Easter

wishing you some nice and relaxing Easter holidays! See you soon X

Michael Graydon 

found here

Cross Country

The delights of London. Have a cross country race just 30 min. from the city (without the traffic jam). Makes me smile!

Richmond Park

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Things to do at Easter

The Easter Holidays will start for a few schools today already!! And whilst some are slightly worried that they will have to hunt for snow on the continent during their skiing vacation, others are hoping for a warm and sunny Easter here in London.

Spring definitely has arrived for my husband with the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge, this year on the 7th April 2012. Blink and you miss them, but the atmosphere along the Thames is cheerful and you can check out this page for good viewing points and pubs, of course.

For a nice egg hunt try Kew Garden and their Mayan Adventure  or our favourite haunt for a hunt, Ham House.

But I take cookie dough, ready and handy from the freezer over a chocolate egg any day, I'm afraid. Be inspired by this recipe with a twist from Canelle and Vanille (it's a gluten free recipe).

And if you insist that not everybody can live on chocolate alone, try out Nigel Slater's Easter recipes (he is our favourite chef!) for your Easter lunch (+ pudding).

And make your own Easter Eggs, like these maybe

found here

Have a lovely weekend! 

London Street Art

I keep discovering some really interesting London Apps recently. After Dickens and Hackney I came across this new Street Art App which helps you find some amazing art out there and gives you an insight about the people behind it all.

I am very impressed by ROA

found via

or Swoon

found via

and there is so much more ...

Something for the kids

draw a stickman

check it out here

found via

Easter Ideas

Check out Sweet Paul's very inciting looking Spring recipes (love the styling, too) in his new Spring Magazine.

Put a few of those on the wall

found here via

Go Egg Hunting in London: 209 eggs are hidden across London 

found here

Sanctuary

Sanctuary - this book, as the title suggests, is about places, most of us won't be able to visit - the studios of 120 British Artists.
Looking at the photos of the different studios is a bit like watching a conductor rehears with his orchestra: approach and technique of an artist in his surroundings might just give you a rare glimpse into their artistic process. Inspiring!

found here via

Hackney Hear

Hackney Hear is an i phone App which - through GPS -  plays location specific stories, music and poetry. So, you still have to get out there and explore, but whilst you potter around East London's Hackney, the app will help you to uncover and discover. Nice idea!
Check it out here and here

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Healthy Spring

Nice idea for improving on your spring salad and a bland window sill

found here

Couldn't resist

found here

It's a date

Last week I was raving (in a very reserved, German kind of way) about the Soprano Anna Prohaska. If you like a chance to see and hear her soon, she will be performing again at the Wigmore Hall with the Academy of Ancient Music on the 26. April 2012

Portrait of  C.F. Abel, posing with his Viola da Gamba, 

by T. Gainsborough

found here

The Lost Lectures

found here

After secret supper clubs and secret cinemas I recently stumbled across the Lost Lectures "Enchanting Talks from Secret Locations". The idea is to get the lecture out of stuffy establishments and onto new sites in front of new audiences. 6 speakers per evening, from the world of science, art, music, design, business etc have 12 minutes to present an idea, a story, experiment or experience - for those who can find them!

The next lecture will be on Wedneday 21st March 2012. Check it out here.

Kyoto Garden - Holland Park

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Recently, at the Wigmore Hall

Des Fischer's Liebesglueck

Franz Schubert

Heard Soprano Anna Prohaska at the Wigmore Hall recently. Although indisposed, she gave a beautiful debut recital with a very ambitious and superbly devised programme called 'Sirenes', songs of fairy tales and seduction, by Debussy, Faure, Schumann, Schubert, Dowland and others.
Listen to the music (but do ignore the video)

Visual Note - Modern Still Life

by Michael Graydon

found here

Makes me want to pick up a brush

    

by Michael Graydon

found here

Link with Love

Recently, the discussion about copyright on the web has intensified dramatically. Sites like Pinterest have divided the community. I myself have tried very hard to link properly, find the original source or get permission from the author or artist. Since starting this blog I have learned more and more how to do it and got better at it.
I do feel however, that stopping 'linking' altogether will seriously diminish the very creative and hospitable world of blogging in particular. I am very much in awe and love the generous spirit of the creative blogging world where I do spend some time. We share, contribute and recognise each others talent very much - and I hope that this will continue!

Link with Love puts it as follows:

 

found here

The Good Gym

Just came across a very nice idea via the Guardian website. The Good Gym, an initiative from East London, enables people to combine exercises with community work.

The idea of the Good Gym is to use the energy people spend in a Gym or jogging and channel it towards helping their communities, contributing to improve quality of life for older and lonely people.

found here

The Good Gym pairs runners with isolated older people nearby. You will jog to their home, deliver a paper,  something nice like a fruit and a chat and run back. You will have a very good reason apart from wanting to get or stay fit to leave the house and your 'partner' will look forward to some friendly human contact. 

A great idea and something the organisers hope to introduce to other parts of London, the country (and the world).

A spot of gardening

If you could see our back garden you would not believe that I am even considering this title for a post. However, although we have covered all our space with an enormous trampoline, living in England you cannot really avoid catching the gardening bug on some level.

found here 
via

Apart from all the fantastic London Parks you can get inspiration at the Chelsea Physics Garden. They are at the moment creating a new part, the Garden of Edible and Useful Plants, which will open on 23 May 2012.

And since this is a big jungle of a city, you could even join the garden guerrillas at night, or - and this is something for the coming weekend - go all tropical at Kew Garden (till 4.3.12)

But if you want to take it one step further, check out the Garden Museum on the South Bank. I recently stumbled across it and need to check it out as soon as it gets a bit warmer. In the meantime I will stick to the warm Green House at Kew.

Have a lovely Weekend!