Floating woman - Selfridges, London*

Walking to work at the crack of dawn during London Design Festival, I saw this woman floating from balloons in Selfridges window. Lovely

Upsy Daisy Bakery, Chiswick*

Went for tea on Saturday morning [yes am proper grown up] with my mate Knowlesy. I had tea and bodyswerved cake [detox!]. But I did admire the cute blue chinzyness of this new Chiswick tea room and tried not to stroke the walls out of true appreciation. Upsy Daisy Bakery, check check it owt.

Training Dresser by Peter Bristol*

one day i will have more time to write. one day i will have more time to lounge. or lie looking at the trees. this must be nice as it really caught my eye in amongst all the modern day driftwood. Training Dresser by Seattle designer Peter Bristol. It's a chest of drawers for children with the drawers shaped like clothing - cute

Vintage-style ladder from Howe*

I heart this vintage-looking ladder from Howe. I heart it a lot!

Vintage Furniture Flea* London - Ercol chair

Vintage Furniture Flea at York Hall, Bethnal Green was cool. Smaller than I had expected - imagine a giant school hall full of vintage treasure - but was lovely nevertheless. The best thing about it? The prices. Lovely vintage pieces but surprisingly affordable. I treated myself to a beautiful Ercol chair. Note to others - *carrying a vintage chair on the tube = nutter magnet!*

Vintage Furniture Flea* London

This is where I am going on Sunday at Bethnal Green - Vintage Furniture Flea. Spend spend spend spend spend!

Plumen 001 lightbulb*

A lightbulb has won the Brit Insurance Design of the Year - Eureka! It's a lovely lovely thing [shame it's not dimmable though]. Plumen 001 lightbulb by Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson

Hare & Tortoise* - Ealing

Went for noodles the other night in Ealing, expecting the noodle joint to feel like... Ealing. Uh uh - I felt like I was in central London via Honshui. It was all glamour on entry replaced by simple, minamalist, eastern inspired timber interiors. Olive green padded leather banquets added some understated luxury. If I designed a restaurant interior this would be it. Check out my new second home **read extended kitchen** Hare & Tortoise.

trincket treehouse flooring*

How lush is the new eco-conscious flooring by Bolefloor? The manufacturer cuts the boards by following the trees natural curves. I could use them in my new house. There is something quite romantic about the idea of living in a tree house in West London.

new house*

Somewhere, in between all my other projects, I need to find time to design our new house. I always think this is harder than any other design. Because you are the client, you don't have time pressures, and I could happily daydream up a million different schemes, making no progress in the meantime. Our house is a generous three-bed edwardian in a leafy street. I fell in love with it because of the 3m ceilings and it's shabbiness [it's in need of some serious love]. The dark London nights are getting lighter so it's time to draw up some plans.

The Dylan Amsterdam**

Ok, I had a bit of a splurge last week... It was my birthday, moving up age groups makes me officially older, so there was only one thing for it - a trip to Amsterdam in a dead swanky hotel!! Stay at The Dylan if you ever go to Amsterdam. It's an old townhouse in the traditional Amsterdam merchant style, but Anouska Hempel has transformed the inside into a luxurious, dark, contemporary bolthole. We blagged a room in the Kimono style, the interior giving a nod to the city's golden age and colonial past. The room was a duplex and so had stairs leading to a bathroom mezanine with bath underneath exposed black lacquer beams. This is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in - not only because the design was beautiful but because it conveyed exactly it's past while it's design was 100 percent in it's time.

I heart Delft glazed tiles*

Have just been on a birthday trip to Amsterdam. I never realised how beautiful the Delft glazed tiles are. Antique shops in the Nine Streets have beautiful examples for sale if you have deep pockets, or H and E Smith have just brought out a sweet, glazed range.

kitchen yum*

Cool kitchen with Piet van Eek wall - yum. You wouldn't even know it was a kitchen...

Bold graphic interior* - Kathryn Tyler

Mix graphics with interior design, throw in some retro, mid century influences and some bold modern fabrics and you have a cute interior for The Townhouse Rooms by Kathryn Tyler. My favorite thing this week.

Hotel Condesa interiors - Mexico City*

On a trip to Mexico City a few weeks back I went for a drink at Hotel Condesa. It's an uncompromisingly modern hotel in aesthetic - so maybe you would expect it to feel cold or 'designed'. It didn't and this is where it's success lies. It felt homely despite all the clean lines. I loved the warm wooden furniture against turquiose walls. The choice of bold painted coloured wall seemed fitting for Mexico City. I found out talking to the owner that the hotel was designed by India Mahdavi - an interior designer with the skill to design in strikingly contrasting styles and worthy of a blog entry all to herself.

SIS Deli and Cafe, Helsinki*

On a recent frosty and snowy client trip to Helsinki I was lucky enough to have a coffee at SIS Deli and Cafe. Now I am generally not a sucker for branding but the graphic interiors of this place make you want to buy coffee from here. The interiors were designed by some clever people at Finnish firm Muotohiomo. The interiors and very cool [white glazed metro tiles, sans serif vinyl lettering on the windows] and warm, with beautiful wood detailing throughout. There are some cute retro touches too with weighing scales and other vintage pieces. I suppose the best thing though are the checks, carried through the interior and onto the takeaway cups. It's like wrapping a big warm Finnish blanket around you on a cold, snowy day.

Casa Luis Barragan*

This week has been a bit mad. Yesterday I was in Mexico City working on a project, basking in the sun. Today, I'm home, it's minus 5 and snowing in London. What I noticed on arrival in Mexico City was the light - everything looks technicolour compared to London. I was lucky enough to visit Casa Luis Barragan, a lifelong ambition. I admire him because he didn't just design his interiors in the International Style. He took modernism and used it to reflect his heritage - most notably combining vivid Mexican pinks, ochres, yellows and blues with clean architectural lines and vast glazing. I am very very happy I came here.