Johnny Lulu's gone red, white and blue

With the count down to the Queens Jubilee celebrations and the Olympics well under way my local branch of John Lewis of gone OTT on red, white and blue. There is nothing apparently that you can't slap a union jack on!

I'm looking forward to a big Jubilee street party. What are your celebration plans Brit bloggers?

Keep calm and decorate!

In honour of the Queens Jubilee and the Olympics coming to London Farrow & Ball have produced these lovely images which I thought I'd share to jolly up your blog page.

It's a grand year for old Blighty!

A nice cuppa cha

A couple of years ago I was stopped by US Customs at Los Angeles airport. Having some guy with a buzz cut rifle through your M&S pants is embarrassing enough but it's the boxes of Yorkshire Tea that really raised the US eyebrows! Call me eccentric but you just can't beat a good cup of tea and I never travel abroad without my tea bags. You can imagine my excitement this week then when my groceries were delivered and this lovely tea caddy was in the bag.

This gorgeous tin was free with my tea bags. I was thrilled! I can imagine this being a collectable in 50 years time can't you?


I also found a lovely little tea caddy recently which was meant for the shop but I couldn't let it go!

The teapot at the bottom of the picture was also destined for the shop but somehow made it into my kitchen cupboard.

So tell me. Do you have something you just can't travel without?

Why I heart Denmark

Because nobody does white better than the Danes ...

Whether old or modern, they have houses to die for ...

Then there's best TV drama in the world that has me glued to BBC4 on a Saturday night ...

Not forgetting those pretty bicycles ....

Just a few of the reasons that Denmark is top of my list of places to visit right now. Do you have an itch to visit somewhere too? 

Vintage New Jersey? Help needed

US friends on the East Coast I need your help. I'm planning a big birthday trip (huge, we're talking blowtorch for the candles) to New Jersey in September to see this chap sing a bit:

(No that's not me and my boyfriend it's the Boss!)

I'm staying in pretty Ocean Grove which I know has some antique stores but I am looking for other good places to go vintaging in the NJ area. I've read that Lambertville is a mecca for vintage - anybody know if it's worth a visit? Or maybe you know some little out of the way place - where beautiful finds go for a song haha?! 

Over to you...

It's a Hertfordshire Life

Can you feel me *blushing* ?  Remember I blogged about being featured in Hertfordshire Life magazine? Well Mays edition hit the news stands this week and oh my - a four page spread!

It's a lovely feature written by interiors journalist Natalie Flaum. To be honest it's a little embarrassing seeing yourself in print but I don't think I sound too daft! My friends are delighted for me - my dear friend Hildah has been practically stalking the magazine racks of her local supermarket in anticipation!


I was a little disappointed that they didn't include a photo of my kitchen ...

but a little bit of recognition for all the years of making and vintaging is rather special.


I haven't been recognised in the street yet ;-) but my Mum's proud of me in that's what counts!

Linking up with Show Off Your Cottage Monday today

The Home Store at Hastings

Hastings is a bit like Brighton was 25 years ago. Windy lanes up from the seafront, quirky shops, and unusual period property. I love to visit the area known as the Old Town in the summer - its a wonderful place to spend an afternoon browsing the individual shops and exploring the pretty streets.


One new shop I am really looking forward to visiting this summer is The Home Store - a Georgian renovation labour of love by Alistair Hendy (who took these photos). The shop is laid out like a home, the era lovely recreated. The renovation took three years - well worth the wait as these pictures show. Inspirational!

Have a good week xxx

Vintage Easter

What ever your plans this holiday weekend ....

Have a very Happy Easter and Passover

xxx

Helloooo Wembley!

So it was time for our second Rock Choir performance of the week .... at WEMBLEY STADIUM! I've been soooo excited about this event - serious goosebumps! We were part of the pre-match entertainment, along with McFly, for the Saracens V Harlequins rugby match.


We arrived at 10.30am for the preparations for our 2.20pm appearance on the hallowed turf of Wembley. 1400 Rockies were taking part, many like me from the Hertfordshire Rock Choirs (I'm in Watford Rock Choir) so it required military like organisation.


Here's some of my lovely fellow Rockies on our walk up to the stadium on Saturday.

And here we all are huddled in the bowels of the Stadium waiting for McFly to finish their sound check. There was lots of hanging around - show business isn't all glamour you know!!

By the time we walked through the tunnel on to the pitch for our own sound check we were pretty damn excited as you can see from the video I took!

Finally it was for us to perform to the crowd. Though many spectators were still making their way to the stadium it was still an awesome experience walking out on to the pitch!

Literally minutes before we walked through the tunnel we were informed that the Stadium had insisted we would have to curb our usual nifty footwork for fear of damaging the turf before the game! Despite this it made for quite a spectacle.

It was a brilliant and memorable day. Not everybody can say they sang at Wembley can they?!