H is for Home

Jubilee Gems!

For the past month or so everywhere you look there’s been bucket-loads of special commemorative things being produced for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. There’s a lot of tat out there, but there are some future classics too!

Here’s a rundown of our top ten…

Alison Gardiner tableware: £12.95-£69.95 | Emma Bridgewater comport: £75

Think jubilee… think garden and street parties - this fabulous crockery will do any gingham cloth-covered trestle table proud!

Liberty of London English breakfast tea tin: £7.50 | Prestat truffles: £29.99

If you’re going to be watching the festivities on television from the comfort of your sofa, the combination of this English breakfast tea & truffle chocs will help keep your energy levels up!

FieldCandy tent: £395 | Fulton funbrella umbrella: £12

You may be planning on spending the Jubilee weekend in the great outdoors. How better to nail your colours to the mast than with this fabulous two-person tent? Just don’t forget your brolly - you can never rely on the Great British weather!

Barbour Beacon backpack: £205 | Radley tote bag: £99

And to carry your stuff on your travels during this extended bank holiday, a couple of patriotic bags -  for him & her.

Tala cook’s measure £8 | Great British Street Party Cookbook: from £3.62

And if you’ll be having a Great British Bake Off of your own this cook’s measure will make calculating your ingredients that more enjoyable! And how about impressing the neighbours with your culinary prowess with the help of this cookbook?

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Wednesday Wish: Curvy jeans

Gap 1969 curvy | UNIQLO bootcut B | Levi’s Bold Curve skinny bootcut

 I have to my name, one pair of charity shop-bought Miss Selfridge wide-legged cuffed jeans and one cheap-as-chips Primark stretch skinny jeans (whose zip refuses to stay zipped). That’s it - two pairs of jeans… neither of which I’d say I particularly like.

I’m not after a pair of those £600 designer examples and I don’t want trendy ones that are ripped, sequined, distressed or overly logo-ed. I just want a plain, simple, humble, indigo jean! I’ve got fairly long legs (34” inside seam) and an ‘ample’ behind. These shouldn’t really be reasons for me to have such a hard time finding a pair that are a decent fit - i.e. don’t bag at the waist, can button up, can get up over my thighs, don’t stop three inches above my ankles!

Here are three I’ve found online that I have high hopes for - two of them were specially designed for those of us not built quite like Kate Moss!

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Tuesday Huesday: Vintage garden chair

We’ve been having the most glorious late spring/early summer weather here in Todmorden and our vintage garden chairs have been seeing some action for the first time this year. We completely disagree with whoever came up with, “blue and green should never be seen”!

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Bookmarks: London Underground Maps

We have a real gem for this week’s Bookmarks post - London Underground Maps - Art, Design & Cartography by Claire Dobbin.

It’s hardly possible to imagine London without its underground system - and equally impossible to imagine this underground system without the classic map which guides its millions of users.

This book takes you on its own journey - from 19th century origins to the 21st century future.

Chapter 1 covers the early history and mapping of the London Underground. The first line was opened in 1863 - it was actually steam trains that ran along these early tracks which came as a surprise to us - electric trains being introduced much later, in 1890. Another quick snippet of trivia is that the now ubiquitous term ‘tube’ for the whole of the underground system comes from an early nickname for the Central London Railway which was known as the Two Penny Tube.

The early maps aren’t to be overlooked. There’s some stunning work by artists such as MacDonald ‘Max’ Gill and it also has to be remembered that Harry Beck didn’t start with a blank canvas before producing his famous 1930s design. He took ideas & influences from this earlier mapping such as line diagrams and distinct colours for individual lines.

However, there’s no denying the importance and brilliance of the map originally devised by Beck in 1931 and first published 1933 (there’s a story there too, as it was rejected on its first submission). Chapter 2 charts the map’s development - its geometric design and the abandonment of geographical accuracy.

The various versions of Beck’s map are very interesting - its continuous evolution being essential as new stations were built or design tweeks put into practice.

In addition to reproducing the maps, the book also has some great examples of promotional posters and historical photos showing stations, travellers and artwork in situ.

Chapter 3 explores the continuing legacy of Beck’s design and its influence over other transport maps. Also its branding, souvenir value and wider influence over the art world in general.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed this book and can highly recommend it.

It adds so much background to the subject without ever being dry or unapproachable.

…and if you’re one of those people who has to hop on & off the tube regularly, this book will really help you see the places with fresh eyes.

The book’s launch ties in with the Mind the Map exhibition that opened last week at the London Transport Museum - the author, Louise Dobbin is Senior Curator there. The exhibition, with accompanying events programme, runs until 28 October 2012.

As well as Lund Humphries, the book is available from our UK & US Amazon stores.

[Many thanks to Lund Humphries for the review copy]

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Wednesday Wish: Cuisineart ice cream maker

Cuisinart ICE30 ice cream maker, £65.68 - Amazon

Regular followers of this blog will remember us, not so long ago, posting a Wednesday Wish for a new fridge freezer. Well, we’ve had the new fridge freezer for a couple of months now - and we still haven’t got used to ALL THAT SPACE!… especially in the freezer compartment which, in the old one, was primarily taken up with a whole lot of ice build up. My thoughts have been turning towards utilising some of our new-found capacity with a shiny new Cuisineart ice cream maker - especially with summer just around the corner.

Cuisinart ICE40BCU Ice Cream Maker Duo, £89.97 - Amazon

This one I think, despite being more than £20 dearer, would suit us much better. Justin & I have completely different taste when it comes to ice cream. While he likes smooth classics like vanilla, strawberry and coffee; I prefer mine to be copiously stuffed with chunks of cookie dough, chocolate chips, chewy caramel, glazed nuts and other goodies (although not necessarily all in the same tub!).

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Tuesday Huesday: Ryohei Yanagihara

_{image originally found at Randy’s Bamboo Room blog}

What a fantastic character - so of the era! He’s ‘Uncle Torys’, a real good time guy, designed by Ryohei Yanagihara back in the 50s to advertise Suntory Whisky. This is his dapper gent persona, but he can also be found parading as a Wild West outlaw, bedecked in a loud Hawaiian shirt, golfing attire and even martial arts garb! There are little Uncle Tory figures to collect. Here’s a Flickr group paying homage to the designer. And there are a few vintage TV ads staring Uncle Torys to be found on YouTube - here are a few!

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Bookmarks: Personal Best, Paul Floyd Blake

Before we start, we need to declare a personal interest in this particular book. The author is a very good friend of ours - in fact we’ve blogged about him previously in our Friday Folks series.

Over a period of five years, Paul Floyd Blake regularly photographed sixteen young athletes in the build up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. His work documents a unique time in British history, and captures the development of a generation of sportspeople as they grow from childhood to adulthood within the intense world of elite sport.

Blake’s restrained and subtle portraits offer an alternative to conventional sports photography, with its emphasis on dramatic moments of action. Instead, his images pay tribute to the long slog towards glory that is not usually seen or celebrated, whilst excerpts from the athletes’ own writings offer insights into their personal hopes and fears. Blake’s approach emphasises the individual’s own story and motivations beyond the values and structures of competitive sport, as the title Personal Best suggests. Of the athletes that Paul selected for the project five years ago, three have been selected to take part in the London 2012 Olympics.

The book includes texts by curator Pippa Oldfield (Impressions Gallery, Bradford) and Professor Jonathan Long (Leeds Metropolitan University).

PERSONAL BEST
£20.00 + £5.00 P&P
Hardback, 112 pages, 50 colour plates
285mm x 245mm
ISBN: 978-1-907893-21-6

To order your copy please email PersonalBest@photographer.net

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Wednesday Wish: Frownies

Frownies anti-aging facial patches for wrinkles on the forehead & between the eyes - £17.50

I stare at some kind of screen for about 12 hours a day… every day. Laptop… television… phone… Add this to the fact that it took me about a year too long to go for an eye test & get myself a pair of glasses, I’ve started developing ‘elevens’. No, I didn’t know either that that’s the name of those vertical lines one gets between one’s eyebrows from squinting!

I’ll be slapping them on each night before bed and whenever I’m spending the day indoors… at least until they start producing them with retro patterns like those plasters you can get from Ikea - then I’ll rock them in public like a fashion accessory!

Who needs painful, expensive botox when there are Frownies?!

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Tuesday Huesday: Reversible Destiny Lofts

Completed in 2009, Reversible Destiny Lofts are a group of 9 dwellings in Mitaka, Japan designed by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.

Apparently they were:

“Set up to put fruitfully into question all that goes on within them, they steer residents to examine minutely the actions they take and to reconsider and, as it were, recalibrate their equanimity and self-possession, causing them to doubt themselves long enough to find a way to reinvent themselves.”

They’re amazing structures - on both the inside and outside - see more photos here!

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Forthcoming Attractions: Mid May 2012

Here’s a new batch of recent vintage finds - slightly more items than our last ‘Forthcoming Attractions’ post!

We’ll start with a few pieces for the kitchen. Quite a blue feel to the selection. These vintage mixing bowls often have cream interiors, but more rarely have these lovely coloured glazes in blue, orange or yellow. The utensil sitting inside the bowl is a drinks mixer or frother. The metal whisk end spins as you press the handle down - perfect for cocktails, hot chocolate etc.

The sugar or flour sifter is classic 1960s with its geometric pattern in sky blue & deep olive green. It’s from the ‘Tivoloi’ range produced by Portmeirion Pottery.

This bowl could also find a good home in the kitchen, but has a thousand uses around the house. We often feature these pieces of colourful enamel produced by Cathrineholm of Norway - teapots, pans, bowls, ice buckets and more!

Now for a bit of wood. The butter knife set is a great bit of Scandinavian design - sculptural and useful. It was produced by Karlsson & Nilsson of Sweden in the 1950s or 60s. We think the letter box is very sweet - it would give a lovely vintage touch to an office desk or hallway.

Probably our favourite object this week is this 1960s shopping list board. It’s a humble object and quite a rare survivor being so simply constructed. It certainly has lots of charm.

We love the graphics - wife doing a spot of homemaking, hubby out collecting the parcels!!

And finally, a bold flash of orange. The lampshade is a very good quality piece of cased glass - it was produced by Holmegaard of Denmark, in the 1960s or 70s. The fabric is from a similar era. We think it might have been produced by Crabtree Fabrics. It would make great cushion covers.

Or perhaps even more perfect… curtains for a vintage camper van. One glimpse of these and you’d be in a happy, holiday frame of mind!

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Chuffed with my ciabatta!

I’m chuffed with my ciabatta! It was my first ever attempt and I think the loaves turned out really well!

I used a recipe from one of my favourite baking books, Bread by Christine Ingram & Jennie Shapter. If you’d like to try making this one yourself, I’ve listed the recipe at the end of this post.

There’s always a little ‘hold your breath’ moment as you cut the first slice and have a look at the crumb. Proper, big ciabatta holes!

I had a few slices, fresh from the oven, with a handful of watercress and East Lee soft cheese made locally by the Pextenement Cheese Company… Justin had his with the slightly less healthy option for his Sunday brunch - fried eggs with pork & chive sausages - but it was all local produce too - and delicious he said.

For the biga starter

7g/¼ oz fresh yeast

175-200ml/6-7fl oz/¾-scant cup lukewarm water

350g/12 oz/3 cups unbleached plain (all purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

For the dough

15g/½ oz fresh yeast

400ml/14fl oz/1⅔ cups lukewarm water

60ml/4 tbsp lukewarm milk

500g/1¼ lb/5 cups unbleached white bread flour

10ml/3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Makes 3 loaves

1. Cream the yeast for the biga starter with a little of the water. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Gradually mix in the yeast mixture and sufficient of the remaining water to form a firm dough.
2. Turn out the biga starter dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for 12-15 hours or until the dough has risen and is starting to collapse.
3. Sprinkle 3 baking sheets with flour. Mix the yeast for the dough with a little of the water until creamy, then mix in the remainder. Add the yeast mixture to the biga and gradually mix in.
4. Mix the milk, beating thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Using your hand, gradually beat in the flour, lifting the dough as you mix. Mixing the dough will take 15 minutes or more and form a very wet mix, impossible to knead on a work surface.
5. Beat in the salt and olive oil. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1½-2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
6. With a spoon, carefully tip one third of the dough at a time on to the baking sheets without knocking back the dough in the process.
7. 7 Using floured hands, shape into rough, oblong loaf shapes, about 2.5cm/1” thick. Flatten slightly with splayed fingers. Sprinkle with flour and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas mark 7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped on the base. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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Wednesday Wish: Handpresso Hybrid Outdoor Set

Handpresso Hybrid Outdoor Set: Fairfax Coffee - £135.00

Justin gave me a lovely espresso machine a couple of Christmases ago and it’s seen a lot of service - a quick pick me up before going out in the morning!

But what’s a girl to do when she’s out & about, miles away from a coffee shop and needs a fix? We’re off for a break to the Lake District soon so that scenario is highly likely to occur. Step forward the Handpresso Hybrid Outdoor Set… it’s the ultimate glamping accessory!

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Tuesday Huesday: Stained Stairs

I saw a copy of an image of these stained stairs and sought out the original to see how they were done. Well, after a nifty little Google image search trick*, I found the people who actually did them. They were designed a few years ago by Melanie Royals and stained by her studio assistant, Melissa. The designs which mimic marquetry work are stencilled, or more accurately “Modello-ed”, then stained by hand - hugely time & labour intensive, but what a result!

As well as stairs, her designs look amazing on walls and on floors too - here are lots more photos of their handiwork.

*_{Go to the Google homepage, click on the ‘Images’ link found on the top toolbar, enter/paste the url of the image file you found on the internet into the search bar. To find the url, right click/control click on the image and select “copy image location”. Finally, click on the camera icon. All the instances of the image that are online will be magically listed!}

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Ideal Home Photoshoot

In our last post we mentioned this week’s photoshoot of our home.

Photographer, Simon Whitmore and stylist, Sally Denning arrived on Wednesday morning laden down with loads of equipment - cameras, lenses, lights, light reflectors, computers - all essential kit to produce glossy magazine-quality images.

There were hours of arranging, discussing and reviewing images. Our blog photos take us quite a bit of time, but this is a different world!

The house feature is for Ideal Home Magazine and will be published sometime in the Autumn.

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Forthcoming Attractions: Early May 2012

There isn’t the usual number of items in this Forthcoming Attractions post. It’s just that they really summed up the last few days. We had a magazine photoshoot on Wednesday chez H is for Home. The groovy flower-power apron represents the hours of cleaning we had to do before they arrived - and the fabulous Cathrineholm kettle represents the endless cups of tea that kept us going! It’s not that we live in a dirty house or anything, but there’s a constant battle against coal dust & dog fur.

Both items will be hitting the shop soon - and a further post about the photoshoot will follow very shortly too!

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