Wimbledon

Yesterday was my first time ever at The All England Tennis Club, Wimbledon and not only do they serve up great tennis, strawberries and cream, Pimms and bubbly, but also fabulous fashion (compared to yesteryear).




Wimbledon’s ‘almost entirely in white’ dress code lets the players express their own individual style

Venus Williams Style

(Image courtesy www.philtennis.com/fashion.php)

Diva Ana Ivanovic sporting the white Adidas Adilibra dress
(img: http://www.womenstennisblog.com)


Mattek's Monroe-style tennis dress is a winner

Sharapova's more traditional look (Image Reuters)

and King Federer goes military

You can also check out Wimbledons fashion blog here.

I had a fabulous time with plenty of sunshine, great atmosphere and great tennis!

Hopefully I can do it again next year.

x

Donna Hay General Store...

I am a great fan of Donna Hay (Australia's bestselling cookbook author and food editor).

Her food, recipes and styling focuses on basic ingredients, simply prepared and beautifully photographed. Donna also has a successful homeware range and recently (earlier this year) opened her first concept store (Donna Hay General Store), in Sydney’s fashionable, Woollahra (one of my favourite suburbs in Sydney).

It was mentioned in the July/August issue of Australian Vogue Living, but there was only one photo! Craving more, I stumbled across Jillian Lieboff's blog, who had the most stunning photographs of the store...

If you're in Sydney, its definitely worth checking out!
xx

Temptation

The temptation of this front cover, from the Fortnum & Mason magazine, was too hard to resist in buying.

'The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it' - Oscar Wilde

Have a great weekend... I'm off to the Wimbledon Fair.

xx

Following in his footsteps.....

Today I decided to head into Londons Piccadilly Circus and follow the footsteps of my celebrity client, Cary Grant, that I am working on, for Project 2.

Upon reading copious amounts of research, I discovered, when he was in London he would visit his favourite haunts which included:

The Burlington Arcade on Piccadilly

I also stopped and met up with Mr N for a coffee and pastry at the famous Laduree (first started in Paris) at the arcade.

Then, I walked down to Jeremyn Street and found Floris, Perfumers and Maunufacturers of toilet preparations (oh, it sounds so English!), where Mr Grant would buy his favourite toilet water New Mown Hay.... I asked if I could smell the scent of this bespoke fragrance (and it was quite lovely!)

A few doors up was his favourite shirt, tie and waistcoat makers, Hawes & Curtis. I was surprised to see in the window display, A Well Dressed Gentleman's Pocket Guide, featuring Cary Grant

I couldn't resist stopping in at Fortnum & Mason to buy some tea (their window displays were just adorable... sorry no photos)

Teapots on the 1st floor caught my eye..

And then it was up to Saville Row, where he would buy his bespoke suits from Gieves and Hawkes and Kilgour

A day in the life of Cary Grant.......

xx

Designer Recession Strategies

After a very busy week, this afternoon I was able to sit down and recap on what I missed blogging about last week and also read some of my favourite bloggers.

Last Wednesday evening after battling the London traffic (due to a 48 hour train strike) and arriving one hour late, I managed to attend a lecture by Dr Rachel Smart on "Recession strategy: assess, improve and refocus for the future" at the beautiful Clive Christian Furniture Showroom at Chelsea Harbour.

Rachel has a management consultancy company, providing services to design businesses and it was interesting to hear her strategies on how to get "more strategic" in these tough times.

She basically talked about refocusing, looking at the past with the types of clients and problems you've encounted, the fee's you've charged and time you spent on each project, which projects were profitable and which were not.

Being proactive and ready when the market bounces back..... by looking at new markets, new locations, who your contacts are (continue making contact, even though there is not much work around), maintain relationships, reviewing your own processes (in your office and your projects) and being confident and more professional .... by not just sitting in your office and waiting for work to come to you!

There was also an open discussion about being professional and defending your profession, especially when it comes to clients questioning how much you charge as an interior designer.

The message was: Be smart, trim back now, do less work... but make a lot more money!

We also had a tour of the beautiful Clive Christian showroom. I didn't take any photos, but the beautiful book that we received in our gold goodie bag was very inspirational (for the luxury end of the market).




I then read, Vicki Archers blog on Confidence and thought this quote from her was exactly what was needed here:

"Confidence is that quality that makes us walk tall, that gives us the courage to go the extra mile and to change the small things in our lives that can lead to the bigger breakthroughs."

Which got me thinking, that as a blogger (well, I'm only new to this), it takes confidence and self assurance to start one and even tougher (as I'm finding out), to keep one going!
And I guess, a way of starting relationships with other like-minded bloggers .... and a start to being proactive. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
xx

Brooches

A few months ago I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum and was blown away by their enormous jewelry collection. A few days ago I was doing some research work for my next design project and stumbled across these brooched on the V&A website.
I loved the black and white photos of these gorgeous women, wearing the incredible bling!

Green....

I'm feeling a little green today, envious really ..... well alright.... jealous of people that live in warmer climates. Its June and its only 14C in London!

When are we going to get a real summer?

These images cheered me up a little........

Sky- high Alexander McQueen shoes

These green, silky dresses from Donna Karen Spring 2009 Collection

This gorgeous pendant from the V&A collection

Just some nice bottles,

A soothing cup of hot green tea,

These wickedly, wild, green funkies,

And when the sun finally comes out, these flashy green sunnies,

Cupcakes....

Most afternoons after school, my girls always ask if they could have a cupcake.

Some days I give in. Today was one of those days.....

xx

Roger Federer - Grand Slam!!

Congratulations to Roger on winning the all elusive (French Open) Grand Slam Title and completing his career grand slams!

Watch out Wimbledon .... and I have tickets to my first ever Wimbledon Tournament.

I'll share a lot more when the time comes.

xx

Tate Modern Museum

After a lazy Sunday brunch at Sloane Square, my middle daughter (G!G!) and I spent a lovely afternoon at the Tate Modern Museum.

She is doing a Six on Six cross art-form project, focusing on six major visual artists of the 20th century and the music that inspired, or represents their creative thinking.

The artists are Kadinsky and Munch, Pollock and Mondrian, and the third pair, Warhol and Lichtenstein. So we thought we'd check them out!

Here is an extremely small sample of what we saw;

Jackson Pollocks - Summertime

Kadinsky

Lichtenstein - Whaam!

Warhol Room - Pistols for Two

I couldn't resist adding:

Picasso's - Weeping Woman

Picasso - Nude Woman With Necklace

Picasso - The Kiss

And one last photo of St Pauls Cathedral on the other side of the Millenium Bridge.

We had a lovely bonding, cultural afternoon.

xx