Hanging out the Jubilee bunting!

We're having a Jubilee street party tomorrow and today it was time to hang out the bunting!

At my house

And all around the pretty area of Merry Hill where I live

Bunting criss crosses roads and neighbours lend a hand

The Union Jack is everywhere!

Royalist or republican

Rain or shine

It's going to be a great party!

London today

Looked fabulous!  

Union jacks are flying on Oxford Street

...and Regent Street

Iconic and beautiful ... brought an unexpected patriotic tear to my eye

The Jubilee celebrations are nearly here!

(Do you have plans?)

St Albans renovation

A lovely friend of mine and keen vintager has just renovated a large Edwardian house in St Albans, a beautiful cathedral city in Hertfordshire just north of London. The place was in quite a state let me tell you. Friends told her she was crazy to take on such a task but my friend had the vision, the nerve and what turned out to be great builders to turn this run down old house into something special. 


I've been watching it's progress since work started just after Christmas and yesterday was the big reveal as at last the furniture and all that lovely pretty vintage stuff could start going in. I think it's looking just fabulous - don't you agree?

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?