Between Carole King and acquiring a new rowing boat (more on that soon) I got reminded about just how much I love Karen Nicol’s work…

This old flower lark can sometimes feel like painting or doing intricate sewing with an awful lot of pin pricking and spilt terps along the way so this lovely work is a perfect antitdote…wish I could fluff up my whole boatola with it – dreamy.

This week, courgette cake, a creepy clematis and the disappearing icecream cones.

xxx

Leg in brace due to boat fall, theme tune for a love song- Terry Callier. Attire? Stripes mon dieu. Interior yearn – victorian tiles for the kitchen. Lovely things in the shape of lupins and god daughters.

And finally having a Miss Jean Brodie moment with Margery Allingham.

xxx

If anyone deserves an upgraded George Melly-esque buttonhole it’s Ms Dearies pal, Bob Dorough. This week an evening with Fran Landesman saw me Captain and bump amongst swingers and sharp tongued songstrels at the Southbank.

It takes a lot to get me off the boat but the event of his jazz cat paws on the piano was a must…more of his lovely music here.

More hoorays tho as Blossom of the petal variety beckons over the next few days with some Rivoli rosettes and a sweet pea extravaganza.

xxx

I’ve been having something of a love affair with hessian this summer…

This weekend a wild country party at a grange down in Berkshire saw Captain and I bombing through country lanes – we were on Vivien Leigh soil and I got to make flowery tiaras so all was good.

Elsewhere canal fun….Hattie Jaques and her voracious appetites, lunch for ten under the cherry tree, my sailors new look and cooking with abandon in barefeet.

Wild guelder, cosmos, salvia, hydrangeas and aquilegia.

Yay, summer is here.

XXX

Green days and a shoot for Mr Testino.

A private sitting and a photographer with a cat allergy – six flights later and the pregnant strawberry spacehopper I’ve become arrived with bundles of foliage hotly pursued by the funny tailed studio mog.

Made a mess, then it looked lovely. Whiteleaf, guelder rose, lily and dill.

xxx

That I love you? If I haven’t, well I do. I’m surrounded by blousey Brigitte Bardot peonies, flirty at their best show offy at their worst.

Flowers for a friday.
xxx

P.S Fluffy hortenses and sweet william are back too.

In my clear out for cots and the like I’ve found lots of teen memorabilia, among them several cringoid diary entries, bad art and a box of frosted rimmel lipsticks.

Back then polaroids were still the rage from the first time round and blooms never got a look in. Life simply revolved around the fantasy love triangle that starred me John Taylor and Judd Asher Nelson the first.

Times have changed, tears shed over tapes from anxsty paramours past are long gone – my heart belongs to flowers now and most days I no longer yearn to be a pop stars wife. I am however willing to concede on a mix for Gypsy Rose Junior and with tons of music friends the boogy tunes for baby are rife.

Joni is a dead cert, Ink Spots loom…Lena Horne today is a must and I’m wondering if a Beatlesque beat will be appreciated?

xxx

A posey for a friends christening….interspersed with a near bun fight at an NTC sale, a Passport to Pimlico, an inscription to baby Constance in The Surprise of Ms Spry, (flower girls it’s really rather good) and Nappy bags of the Cath Kidston variety.

I wonder if there’s any rock and roll in sight.

xxx

Just when I thought his blog was about to take the baby and soft furnishing route….I get asked to do a fashionable affair in the country, dress code pastel chiffons…and styling wise, lilacs, pink champagne and splashes of Cecil Beaton.

This job is going to require Captain being dashing, backdrops of the dramatic type, large urns and a stuffed zebra or two. Oh and a vehicle a tad bigger than Mabel. Don’t you love this back garden of his?

More soon…

Lacey swoonerooning …We’ve been indulging in a bit of doily action on the boat this week. The result of my girl crush on these frilly things? Paper panels for a tall shop window – a really stylish but simple backdrop for summer.

It’s this time of year I start the snorefest of feverishly making bunting but this spring instead of getting tangled in fraying fabrics I’m going to whip this idea for a friends wedding in July. Easy peasy gypsy prettiness – how much fun?

Meantime…it’s all about meanwhile gardens, reading La Lady, craving lemon cake and listening to Private Lives.

xxx