Obviously, there are interior design trends and widely-acknowledged product designs which seem to be universally accepted. I can’t stand some of them.

White plastic rocking chairs

I really can’t stand these. I can’t even be bothered to look up the name of them and the designer. I think they’re hideous! I guess this piece has been recognized as great product design, but I just don’t see it. To me, it looks like one of those plastic catch-all baby bibs merged with a telescope tripod and a set of skis. Ick.

High back dining chairs

When I see high-back dining chairs, I think cliché staged model home. I think they are a design cop-out! Punch me if I buy these.

Exposed shelves in the kitchen

I know it’s all the rage right now, but I just can’t bring myself to accept that people have shelves or exposed cupboards in their kitchen that look anything like the dream homes I’ve seen on Pinterest. Just where are you putting your Pyrex measuring cup? Who has stuff that matches this nicely?!?! And the dusting, don’t get me started on the dusting!

Random empty vase trio

Urghghgh these drive me nuts! Nothing screams “I drove to Bed, Bath & Beyond and didn’t know what to buy so I got these” more than 3 metallic, empty vases. First of all, they don’t serve a functional purpose beyond being a space-filling matching pair of three somethings (I love matchin pairs of 3, just not bloody vases). I guess I didn’t come up with a second point. JUST DON’T DO IT, OKAY.

Keep Calm and… parodies

Two years ago, new to Britain and full of enthusiasm, I was all about these posters. Vintage, typographic, bright and INYOFACE, the Keep Calm and Carry On posters were right up my alley. Now I just feel a little resentful towards my little kitchen poster. It’s a shame that all of those ‘funny’ posters killed it. I especially hate when they choose a typeface that doesn’t even resemble the original.

And so, after finding ourselves in both Stow-on-the-Wold and the most amazing antique shop ever, I bought a sailor’s wine decanter. Usually I’m not comfortable in antique stores because I don’t really know what’s a good deal and generally wander around telling Chris to stop touching things. Nevertheless, I made my first antique store purchase today!

The rose-tinted decanter on the left was a car boot sale purchase from a few weeks ago: a steal for a mere £5! Sarah, my neighbour / friend, spotted it and actually passed on buying it herself because she knew I was looking for one – how nice is that?!

Today’s decanter was quite a bit more expensive. It was listed at £45 but I hummed and hawed it down to £40. It’s in much better condition than the rose one, though, so that’s how I validated it. Don’t they look nice together?

I’m now on the lookout for a set of four crystal whiskey glasses and a long, silver tray to put everything on. I think one more decanter in a different style to both of these ones will complete the collection nicely. And maybe an ice bucket with a lid, too. Yes, I can picture it now…

In other house-related news, we’ve decided to change a few of the rooms, so I will likely have lots to blog about this summer!

I’ve always been extremely proud of where I come from, by which I mean my hometown of London, Ontario in Canada. I actually spent most of my childhood in nearby Dorchester, but I was born in London and always think of it as home.

A trend of bashing London has emerged following many conversations with fellow Londoners (and Dorchesterians, for that matter) and it’s got me all riled up!

I’ve been living in England for nearly four years now, but my heart still belongs to London, Ontario. Living in the downtown core for two years was one of the big highlights of my life! I cherish my memories of Victoria Park, walks along the river, roller-blading in Springbank Park, summer concerts with friends, Funk Night at Call the Office and countless others.

What’s not to love? London is small enough to provide a close community feeling and is packed full of local arts & culture. It’s a 30-40 min drive from two of the Great Lakes for when you’re craving a beach day. There are a ton of delicious restaurants and watering holes, filled with friendly locals. Many beautiful, old Victorian homes are seen throughout the city. I really could go on forever; I love London!

Sure, London has its share of imperfections, too, but every city has them. Paris smells like pee in many places and Rome has a lot of crappy graffiti, but they don’t tell you that! Even seagull-infested Bath isn’t without flaw… There are good and bad things about every city, so why dwell on it?

Leaving the city was bittersweet for me, but I happily babble on about my London at every opportunity. I miss it every day. Today I’m craving Sammy’s Souvlaki and a roll-up-the-rim-to-win french vanilla (just so that I can Facebook about how many times I’ve lost!).

It’s a big world and I’ve clearly got nothing against wanting to leave the comfort of one’s bubble to discover it, but don’t bash your hometown, yo! Seeing the world and being proud of where you came from are not mutually exclusive.

So, to all you lucky Londoners, I envy you. Don’t take my London for granted; fly its flag proudly! *tear*

I hadn’t intended to spend the day gardening, but as I was having my cup of tea on the front step, I noticed that many more things have begun to bud. The rose bush that Neil gave me has been busy!

Even the hydrangea I thought I had definitely killed last year has magically come back to life!

Seeing all this new life gave me motivation to take care of our garden, um, situation. Both Chris and I are out-of-sight-out-of-mind people, so it didn’t take long before this happened…

Ahhhhk! I know, right? It’s been so cold lately and we’ve just chucked everything behind this hedge:

See? From the kitchen window, you don’t even notice the piles of recycling and garbage gathering behind it.

But that’s not all we discarded out there. We’ve got another dirty little secret! Remember that holiday we celebrated a few months ago?

Yup, that’s right. Our dead Christmas tree is hiding behind the other garden wall. I believe it’s still got some tinsel on it.

Yup, we’re those neighbours! I thought I better tackle the randomly strewn garbage first because Alan warned me that we’d get rats if I didn’t (Alan is the neighbour I wrote about in Our Royal Wedding Party).

Before

After

If you ever wondered how to breed earthworms, apparently the ideal environment for them is soggy cardboard… Ew!

Moving on! The front gardens were full of weeds and the sage bush was a sorry state.

Before

After

Much tidier, eh? Those plants on the left spilling over the edges have pretty white flowers. I planted them two years ago and they’re lovely in bloom.

You can tell I planted everything before I knew how sprawling the sage gets!

On the other side of the door, I seemed to be cultivating lavender, curry and a lot of weeds. Everything was covered in a layer of soap due to our drain overflowing again, but hopefully things will grow on nonetheless. Any ideas on how to hide that big ugly white box?

Before

After

Sorry, nothing drastic going on there; it’s mostly soil for now! I’ll get some spring flowers to stick in there at some point. It looks much nicer in bloom, obviously! Here’s a shot from last year, taken from the top step:

My day of gardening was interspersed with play-breaks with Mat & Sarah’s beautiful dog, Alfie. Isn’t he majestic?

Back to the garden. I’ve got some planning to do, also, as my baskets that last year looked like this…

…looked a bit weedy this morning!

I finished up my day by weeding the containers and then sitting back on the front step to enjoy the view. The poor Christmas tree can wait another week! I can’t tell you how good it feels to be writing this with my feet up and a nice cup of tea by my side.

Happy weekend! x

Drink loads of tea

What they say is true. British people tend to have a variety of different types of tea and biscuits (normally some sort of digestives) in their cupboard and they will always offer you tea, even if you just came over to ask them a quick question.

Never criticise how someone takes their tea! Scones are topped with jam first and then clotted cream, unless you are in Devon.

Drive like it’s your road

You know where every single speed camera is and you want to go fast. You must follow people closely and take up both lanes of narrow winding roads if there is no oncoming traffic. Expect others to give up their right of way for you, especially if you drive a flashy car. Don’t forget to be polite though; a quick wave or flick of the high beams will do the trick.

At round-abouts, you know exactly what to do and you don’t hesitate. If someone hesitates, lay on the horn!

The same goes for parking. Don’t be afraid to tap bumpers or use the pavement (sidewalk) if you need to get into a space. If you block someone in, don’t worry – it’s happened to you plenty of times.

Take pride in your garden

Outdoor space is very limited, so make good use of your garden (or ‘yard’ to North Americans)! If in doubt, plant roses and lavender. Take your tea outside in the summertime and never chastise a cat for coming to say hello. Cats will poop in your garden but you accept this.

Love the park

If the sun is shining, take a Sainsbury’s bag to your nearest park and have yourself a wee picnic – even if it’s just your lunch break! If it’s warm enough, roll up your sleeves and trousers to maximise the Vitamin D potential.

After work, take a disposable barbecue to the park and meet your friends there, too. Drink beer from cans and toss a frisbee / rugby ball back and forth. Eat fresh strawberries for pudding and comment on the tramps (homeless people) who are drinking in the park as well.

If you are lucky enough to live by the coast, do all of these things there instead.

Support a team

You must have a favourite football (soccer) or rugby team. Choose wisely because you must always defend this team’s honour. If your team is doing poorly, blame the manager and never the players.

React to the weather

No matter how much you’re accustomed to it, you must mention if it’s raining and follow that with a declaration of your dislike towards the rain. Wear wellies (rubber boots) and carry umbrellas if any sort of precipitation is coming from the sky (this includes snow).

When winter comes, lay a blanket across your car’s windscreen (windshield) and shut the edges of it in your front car doors so that the material is taut. This will save you scraping the frost off in the morning. If you forget to put the blanket in, squirt half a bottle of de-icer on it and wait.

Be very polite

Always mind your manners. This makes it fairly easy for Canadians to blend in. Say your please and thank yous when you should. If in doubt, throw in an extra “Cheers!”. Hold doors for other people and apologize if you bump into someone. If you’re trying to squeeze through a busy pub, say “Sorry” instead of “Excuse me”. Give dirty looks to people who try to squeeze onto trains before letting others off; that was very impolite!

Hate the public transportation

Trains and bus fares seem far too high and this angers you. It wouldn’t be so bad if trains were on time (or arrived at all) but they never are. You have experienced several replacement bus nightmares and have missed several connections due to train delays, so you are entitled to moan about them as much as you like!

Sometimes you don’t buy your train ticket in advance just to see if they will forget to check your ticket. You’ll hope for a free fare and when you do get one, you feel rather smug about it. If asked why you didn’t buy a ticket in advance, you must always complain that the ticket machine was out of order (even if it wasn’t).

I love the bright purple colour, the detailed stitching, the gold leather lining and that itty bitty heel. I must class up my shoe wardrobe soon!

These fuchsia Oxfords are available from Ted Baker for £75 (on sale from £150 if you need to justify it!)

Anyways, here are the patterns; I’d advise to use the black & white one sparingly. Click a pattern to download the .zip (which contains 3 repeating .pngs and a .pat file)

Charcoal Houndstooth Pattern

Rose / Pink Houndstooth Pattern

Classic Black & White Houndstooth Pattern

Most people close to me (and everyone who subscribes to me on Facebook) will know that I am obsessed with crafts lately. It started with a bit of crocheting and has progressed to candle-making, jewellery, beading, and basically anything that I can get my hands on.

Today I was cleaning out my craft box to make way for some new eBay goodies and came across three lonely shoelaces. I always seem to have random shoelaces lying around. I decided I’d put them to good use.

What you need

• three shoelaces
• scissors
• lighter

I started by tying all three shoelaces together and proceeded to braid them, making sure to turn the laces towards the centre as I braided. After tying both ends together and ended up with something like this:

I had to fiddle with the knot a little as I tested to see how many times the braid would wrap around my wrist. I wanted it kind of snug so I had to move the knot up a bit.

A quick snip of the scissors and off come the aglets (yes, the ends of shoelaces have a name!).

Then, to prevent the edges from fraying, I melted them with a lighter. Note: just get the shoelace close to the flame – don’t put it right in!

And that’s it! Enjoy your super easy new bracelet!

Strawberries and scones enjoyed in Margate

First up, scones and strawberries on a lace cake stand from a cream tea enjoyed in Margate with Chris’s grandparents. I like this photo because it’s the first photo I’ve added a colour filter to that I actually like the look of. And those scones were gooooood!

Dyrham Park National Trust Property in spring

This photo was taken during our outing to Dyrham Park in early March. I must have driven past this park more than a dozen times before finally stopping to check it out. The house is kind of tucked away in a valley, so the approach is really something else. Light catches the house in a really nice way; it’s a shame about that pile of dirt, though.

Jurassic Charmouth Coastline

You might recognize the above photo from my post about Easter in Charmouth. I really like how the light catches the very man-made foreground so it takes you a second to notice the beautiful Charmouth coastline in the background. Shortly after taking this photo I slipped on some algae and nearly submerged my camera.

Megan, the Caine terrier, runs on the beach gleefully

Ahhhh, my favourite Caine Terrier playing on the beach! It’s not beautifully framed, but I like how you can see the specs of sand behind her. This was taken during our camping trip with Dave and Jemma.

Cretaceous cliffs near Lulworth Cove

I climbed up a massive hill without my asthma puffer for this photo. This was also taken during our camping trip with Dave and Jemma. Normally I can’t stand climbing big hills, but I’m glad I did in this instance as the view from the top was breathtaking (literally, and I didn’t have my puffer)!

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace. As a Canadian living in England, I’ve yet to tire of the Royal Family! This was a good summer day I spent zipping all over London with Ally.

Ally photographing Stonehenge

I like this one because it accurately illustrates what it’s really like to be a tourist at Stonehenge; you can’t go right up to the rocks.

Jars of various preserves in the Cotswolds

This photo makes the list because of the memory associated. It was snapped on a rainy day spent with Chris and Laura in the Cotswolds.

Apple tree in July

Our neighbour’s apple tree, photographed mid-July when everything in the garden was coming to life. I can almost smell the apples when looking at this photo!

John Cleese hosting Bath Galleries Group Charity Auction

A decent low-light shot of John Cleese, taken inconspicuously at the Bath Galleries Group Charity Auction with no tripod. I was quite proud of myself for this one.

Bath's Bridge & Great Pulteney Streets, at night

Shot on the same evening as the Bath Galleries Group Charity Auction. No tripod here, either!

Rainbow while glamping at Summerhill farm near Exeter

We went glamping (camping in Yurts) near Exeter in the summer and we were greeted with this beautiful rainbow on the Friday that we arrived. I love the light on the green fields below.

Horse grazing atop a hill in Dartmoor

By now I should know that if I have to walk up a big hill, at least I’ll get a good photo out of it. A wild horse grazes atop a hill in Dartmoor National Park. I like the mood of this one; it’s very Princess Bride, no?

Gravy playing the favourite cat staircase game

I wouldn’t be true to myself if I didn’t throw a few cat photos in here. Gravy loves playing this staircase game where he attacks my hand through the spindles.

Summer evening along Tory in Bradford-on-Avon

I like the colours in this photo of our house at night.

Torquay Seascape

This is a photo taken on Bird’s hen weekend in Torquay. I want to be on a yacht in that strip of sunlight out there.

Guy Fawkes fireworks display, as viewed from my bedroom window

I feel quite proud of myself for snapping this out the bedroom window with no tripod and just using auto mode!

Smoke after Guy Fawkes Fireworks in Bradford-on-Avon

This is the aftermath of those Guy Fawkes fireworks, as viewed from my bedroom window. How creepy!

Gravy being silly at home

Here’s Gravy being a goof. An accurate portrayal of my cat’s personality!

Catherine Mattingly is born

Probably the highlight of 2011 was Chris’s neice, Catherine, being born. What a beautiful baby she is.

Madrid Panorama

I visited my cousin Alicia in Madrid and she gave me a fantastic tour. This how beautiful Madrid looks from a rooftop in late November.

Sunset photo taken from plane over Orlando

I visited my parents in early December and this was the sunset I saw from the plane as I was landing in Orlando.

Macro shot of Brown Anole lizard in Florida

I took quite a few decent pictures in Florida (if I do say so myself), including this macro shot of a Brown Anole lizard.

Man and alligator silhouettes in Mount Dora, Florida

When I took this photo, I didn’t realize that the man in the silhouette was looking at an alligator!

Bird reflections in Mount Dora, Florida

This is probably my favourite photo of 2011 altogether. It looks like it could be in a Disney film, doesn’t it?

Giant alligator sighting in Mount Dora, Florida

Here’s the alligator as close as I could get to him.

Sunset in Mount Dora, Florida

And here’s the sunset I saw shortly after. Mother nature is to credit for this photo; I merely pressed a button.

Christmas lights reflecting on a car in Mount Dora, Florida

I love the reflection of the lights on the car here.

Catherine in a baby-sized Santa suit

And finally, to end the year in photos, here is our beautiful neice in a Santa suit. So cute!

This has been surprisingly cathartic. What a good year 2011 was!

The Garden, mid July

I had created a monster. Those leaves proceeded to climb up the wall, across the patio and, for a while, were a major point of contempt between Chris and I. He hacked them almost back to nothing twice, but this was no ordinary pumpkin plant. This was a man-eating pumpkin plant.

Pumpkin plant mid-takeover

Somehow, though, only two pumpkins came to fruition. And they were MASSIVE ‘culinary’ pumpkins. I mean huuuge!

Huge pumpkin

I think one of my mistakes here was that I planted / harvested the pumpkins too soon. The stems had gone woody but the insides were slightly green and sort of spongy.

Gutting the pumpkins

Nevertheless, the pumpkins were seeded and gutted – my favourite part of the process, actually; gutting pumpkins is very therapeutic.

Next I chopped them up and steamed them in the biggest pot I had. It still took me a good couple of hours, though, just because of the size and quantity of pumpkin! I would recommend using smaller pumpkins because they’re sweeter and you don’t have to add as much sugar to them.

Boiling pumpkins to make purée

I also saved the seeds to rinse and roast – yuuummmm!

Pumpkin seeds

Finally, when the pumpkin was cooked through enough and mushy, I let it cool for a few minutes and then filleted it from the skin (if that makes sense).

The cooked pumpkin

A quick zap in the food processor and I had my very own pumpkin glop purée! All but three cups of it went straight into the freezer and the rest was spiced according to this recipe (which I’ve made several times now and is delicious).

Puréed pumkin with spices

By this point I had run out of patience so I rolled out a store-bought pastry (gasp!) and chucked it in the oven.

Pumpkin pie in the oven

I had enough for two pies. And boy were they ever good!

The finished pumpkin pie - yummm!

Seriously, it’s so rewarding making pumpkin pie from a *real* pumpkin instead of that crap you buy in cans.

A little late for Thanksgiving but better than never, right?