A DREAM IN WHITE

Come in and be amazed! I love this house!

(image: Dave Coote)

GET DRESSED!

I'd love to have a dressing room like this one. Wouldn't that be great? Oh well... maybe someday...sigh!

(image: House Beautiful)

SMALL PATIO DESIGN IDEAS

The weather has been lovely in the UK recently and I'm slowly but surely looking forward to moving into our new place.
It will have a little patio area and I hope that it gets the sun in the mornings, so we can have breakfast outside.
As far as I remember one of the walls is painted in a nice deep blue colour and I would love to get some lovely plants in pots to add some greenery to the scenery... :-)

(image: Apartment Therapy)

WALLPAPER ON DISPLAY

Hello my dear friends!

I have been the worst blogger recently, I know! I have so much to catch up on and I feel humbled that I have even gained some new followers. Welcome guys and thanks so much for signing up to this blog. I will try to post more regularly again and with Bologna and London bookfair out of the way, I will hopefully have a bit more time on my hands again.

As most of you probably know we'll be moving houses soon and as I started packing today I decided to get rid of some of our furniture that won't fit into the new flat. So we put our dining table on the net. It found a buyer within an hour. I also out a display cabinet on sale but then I came across this pic and I thought maybe I should keep that one and put some new life into it.
I really like the idea of putting wallpaper in the back. I will definitely keep this in mind!

What do you think?

(image: Sally Conran)

FLOWER POWER

I wouldn't generally go for a flowery sofa but combined with the simple coffee table and lamp as well as the white floor boards, I actually love it!

(image: Apartmenttherapy)

FLEA-MARKET STYLE

I love flea-market style designs. They have so much character and look so effortless...

(image: Livingetc)

BOOK GIVEAWAY: WINNER ANNOUNCED

Friday is drawing to a close and it's time to announce the winner of the book giveway.

Thanks so much everyone for joining in and please don't be disappointed if it's not you...

The winner of this giveaway is Mara from Home Shabby Home!

Congrats Mara!!!

Please let me know your postal address and the book will be on its way to you in no time!

Have a nice weekend,
Nadine x

WHO DOESN'T LOVE GREY?

I have some great news! Our offer for the lovely flat has been accepted today! Yay!!! At first it looked like it would fall through as there were some issues with the place being furnished or unfurnished. Well, it's all more or less resolved now and we will move in mid May...

...so I'm looking for some inspiration already and this is what I love today...


Thanks so much everybody for your kind words and keeping your fingers crossed! It definitely worked!

Nadine x

DREAM HOME

Let's take a break from all the house hunting talk and look at other people's home again!
Sophie Dahl, the former model and daughter of author Roald Dahl, is hosting her own cooking show on British TV at the moment.

But that kitchen I've been admiring all along is actually not her own kitchen, as I foolishly believed, but a rented property that's now for sale!

Looking familiar you think? Well, you might be right. The property belongs to photographer Paul Massey. I'm sure you've come across his work before and if you haven't, here is a taster!

And this is the lovely three-storey, 5-bedroom house now up for sale for mere £1.45. Oh well, it's a dream though, isn't it?

(images: 1,2, 16-20 Daily Mail, 3-15 Paul Massey)

FINGERS CROSSED...

Today we will be putting an offer in for both flats and I'm so excited. My heart is set on the second fat which is about 5 min from Richmond.

I was itching to go back and see it again yesterday but it being bank holiday there was obviously no chance to do that.

We then decided to explore the area around it instead and I must say that I was impressed. The flat is set in a nice lovely area, only 8 min from Richmond Park. For all of you who don't know this part of the woods, Richmond Park is the largest Royal Park in London with almost 2500 acres and around 650 free roaming deer.

It's such a nice area that I will be be very surprised if they accept our cheeky offer. Oh well, let's keep our fingers crossed...

To distract myself a bit I've uploaded some more pics from Bologna for you that I took in one of the many cute shops in the city.

I love this lamp!!!

HOUSE HUNT CONT.

Yesterday we went flat-hunting once again and the two favourites are these:

The first flat is just down the road from where we live at the moment. It's a 2 bedroom flat, split over two levels and set over a nail studio. Here are some pics!

Living room: very spacious with built in shelves and wardrobe.

2nd bedroom: very spacious as well and the master bedroom is even slightly bigger than this one. Both have a sink in them which is a bit odd... I guess the built-in wardrobes make up for it though!

Kitchen: Narrow L-shaped kitchen that is in serious need of some decoration. The bathroom looked quite grim with only a tiny window in the corner. It's long and narrow and offers hardly any storage space. I think this room would be the biggest challenge.

The advantages to this place are that it's in the area we love and that the rent is potentially cheaper than what we pay at the moment.

The disadvantages are that the bathroom is not on the same level as the two bedrooms but two flights of stairs down and that the flat is above a nail studio. When we entered it I thought I could smell the nail varnish but I can't remember whether it bothered me when we where in the flat, so not sure how bad it was.

The flat is generally in need of some redecoration but it's spacious and I think we could make it nice. It's a bit closer to the main road than we are at the moment so leaving the living room window open could be very noisy...

Staying in Richmond would be great though so I'm tempted with this place.

The second flat was about 15 minutes away from Richmond but just ticked all the other boxes. It's a 2 bedroom ground-floor flat situated in a nice and quite area. It has a little patio where we have BBQs and even store the bikes that we weren't able to get until now as we didn't know where to store them.

The living room is very big offering enough space for all our furniture including the dining table. I also love the wooden floors and the fact that the flat is really light and airy.

This is one of the two bedrooms. They are both roughly the same size and seemed quite spacious as well.

The disadvantage is that this place is not in Richmond and that it's a bit of a walk to the train station but there are good bus links to Richmond and we could get some bikes so we have the option to bike to Richmond.

This place is also a bit more expensive than the first one and we would have to put in a lower offer and hope that the landlord accepts it.

I must admit that I loved the place from the minute I walked in. I have seen the other place twice now and always have to stretch my imagination to tell myself that we can make it feel like home.

We have two more viewings on Tuesday evening and have also found some more flats on the Internet that we will need to inquire about on Tuesday so the search goes on...

Nethertheless, we'll put an offer down for both places on Tuesday morning and see what the landlords say.

Wouldn't it be great if I could have the second flat but located in Richmond? Oh well... I must sleep on it a few more nights...

What do you think?

x

BOOK GIVEAWAY

As I have reached 50 followers I think it's time for another giveaway!

This time it's a book but not just any book but the most comprehensive book you can find on Sewing...

If you are quite left-handed when it comes to sewing (like I am) The Sewing Book by Alison Smith will be just the right thing for you!

The book gives you not only guidelines and step-by-step instructions on various sewing techniques, it also offers an overview on sewing equipment, fabrics, patterns and ideas for project such as sewing a drawstring bag, making a book cover, cushions, aprons, hessian bags, roman blinds, you name it. It even includes a directory of fashion and soft furnishings...

Alison Smith is a trained Arts and Fashion Textile Teacher and owns her own shop called Fabulous Fabric. She has also set up her own sewing school, the Alison Victoria School of Sewing in Leicestershire, which is in fact the largest independent sewing school in England.

Interested yet? Then enter the price draw!
The requirements are as follows:

1. You are a follower of this blog.
2. Leave a comment on this post.

The winner will be announced on Friday, 9th April 2010.

Good luck!

(images: Dorling Kindersley)