Two fridays ago the Cockpit Arts studio in Deptford opened up for a weekend and I gamefully hit it first thing with a hangover and a friend. Very quickly we found ourselves eating comfort food in the cafeteria. I had my very first ever homity pie. I knew nothing of this pie before and it sounded all kinds of wrong – potato, onion and cheese mooshed together. Blergh. Think it was a post war creation, or maybe a during war thing, but either way it was totally delicious.

Yeh yeh, this is no food blog so let me swiftly cut to the chase with a new maker find, ceramicist Matthew Warner. A very sweet guy with a great eye for colour who runs a neat workshop space. He makes beautiful cups, mugs, bowls, vases, jugs and all in colours that look great together or alone.

(more…)

Joni Mitchell’s Greek cave house

“The wind is in from Africa, But last night I couldn’t sleep…” The lovely opening bars of Joni Mitchell’s Carey were in my head while I was in Corfu. They’ve been in my head every time I’ve been to Corfu, or any other island – including the one in Scotland. Carey is a beautiful song, […]

Terrazzo and other expensive beautiful floor finishes

I’ve been a bit obsessed with Terrazzo since I saw it on the floor of a friend’s kitchen in Islington ten years ago – she’d inherited it lucky thing. I’d not fully cottoned onto Terrazzo before then. Anyway, it’s sort of back in fashion with a vengeance – quite recently Max Lamb designed a version […]

Discovering Gae Aulenti

On stumbling across a house I liked I’ve discovered Italian architect and interior/furniture/set designer Gae Aulenti. She designed the Musée d’Orsay as well as super cool showrooms for Fiat and Olivetti plus a bunch of private homes – I slept through all of that apparently. She died aged 84 at the end of 2012 and as the […]

Property porn – Corfu vs Hackney

Well I’m back to a 50mph wind off the sea and a flat full of damp chalk dust (coastal erosion is real folks and it’s collecting on my ornaments). To take the sting out of leaving Corfu I was immediately Googling rustic ruins to buy. The beautiful old olive presses and cottages of Corfu has […]