Which roughly translated means to have a lot on one’s plate. My Mum and Dad came to visit today, on the way back from their French hangout, and they brought news of the house that my cousin and her husband have bought there.

What a handsome beast. They’re keeping a blog about their progress, which has started with painting all those shutters <does that French gesture of waving hand while blowing out of side of mouth>. The house has recently been used as a sort of hostel for adventure holidays (I think) and so the inside needs a lot of work.

They’re both super-sleuths for stylish junk and handy too, so they’re more than up to it. I think they’ve got their eye on this for something. If you fancy following a big project from the comfort of your armchair check out their blog, here. Bon Chance family!

Trend or travesty: colour headache

I didn’t go to Design Week. I had a nasty cold and in a fit of sick-person pique told My Friend I hated design anyway. So instead I’ve had to visit a few blogs to get the gist. A few things caught my eye and I’m proclaiming a new trend! It’s Multicoloured Mental and I’m […]

(S)coop

I love blogs that are really specific, and some of my favourites are ones documenting shop fronts. This one – SouthernFriedLondon.com – hits the spot on many levels, focusing on chicken shops in south east London. I don’t even eat fried chicken* but I know each and every one of these pretty well, having lived […]

Hang it all

If I had a pound for every time I’d predicted an interiors trend I’d probably have a tenner by now. As anyone who tuned into my shed angst will know, I was fantasizing about a super-organised perforated panel solution for hanging up gardening tools. Well, stone the crows, if it isn’t a snazzy feature of […]

In ruins

Reporting today from the three-way intersection between theme parks, Japanophilia and deserted buildings. The Japanese for ruins is ‘Haikyo’, and it also refers to the hobby of photographing abandoned architecture. Photographed by Michael John Grist, this Jungle theme park was abandoned 7 years ago. On his site he explains that during the 1980s boom, when […]