Little Paris Kitchen

Wow how beautiful and stylish is Rachel Khoo?! Caught the end of this last night on BBC2 and I'm hooked - can't wait for next weeks show!

Marni for H&M

Collection hits the stores today!

I've got my eye on this outfit - fingers crossed!

Cosy breakfast

Inspired by 365 days of breakfast here is a cosy breakfast for a cold snowy day! Boiled egg in Mr Badger eggcup with an innocent smoothie knitted cap :) seedy bread and marmite mmm

Castlefield Artisan Market

I spent a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon over at the Castlefield Artisan market today! I think I first read about it on Nadinoo's blog and was so glad I sought it out despite all the sludgy snow.

Top eats included a delicious pie from the award winning great north pie company, some blue stilton, and bread and cakes from of crust and crumbs. Entertainment came in the form of some great swing music and dancing from the cotton town hot club.

The market will be held on the first Sunday of each month alongside the canal near Dukes 92.

I also popped into topshop on my way home to see if I could find anything to spend my christmas vouchers on! I have been eyeing up this gogo philip necklace for a while and now it is all mine. mwah ha ha :)

Drink, shop & do

I had a wee trip to drink, shop, do yesterday to celebrate my friend Felicity's birthday! I have been wanting to visit ever since Felicity told us her cousin Coralie was going to open a cafe near Kings Cross Station. Drink shop do is just as lovely as I imagined - we had afternoon tea with some delicious cocktails - I was torn between which menu to choose as they do a man's afternoon tea of pork pie, scotch eggs and ales :) well the mini smoked salmon triangles and macaroons decided it for us. Everything in the cafe is for sale - they had a beautiful Narnia style wardrobe but how to get it back to Manchester with me on the train posed a small dilemma. They have recently opened drink shop dance in the basement (the old sex shop) which boasts a fantastic Gin bar - we will be returning to this place for sure.

Happy Birthday Felicity!

Deck the halls

This year I had a go at making my own Christmas wreath - it was pretty fun walking round the woods to find some bits and pieces to go on it! There seem to be so many berries around at the moment so I picked out some to weave on the bottom. The base is made from buff willow twisted into a hoop. It took a few goes to get one looking this round but actually once it is covered with greenery you can't really see it.

We don't have a tree this year so I have decorated the alcoves in our house with fairy lights and baubles - its looking pretty cosy in here. One of the things I love about this time of year is eating delicious treats like panettone - isn't the tin beautiful?! This one is a present but I like to eat it toasted with a hot chocolate :)

I'm going to make some more decorations later inspired by the sweetest occasion I can always find something in the DIY projects to try!
Jo

A little DIY

When Tom and I moved into our first flat together in Whalley Range we had VERY little furniture ... for quite some time! It was like camping, but very cosy camping, in a lovely one bedroomed ground floor flat with a pretty garden. Over time we have been given enough furniture by friends and family to fill a two bed terrace house! My mum gave us this chair which was one of the first items my parents bought for their first 'proper home'. As with most if the furniture we have been given it needed a little work to restyle it. The cushions had lost alot of stuffing and the fabric was pretty worn.
I took the chair apart and spent a couple of days sanding and stripping the wood back. Once the legs were sorted I measured the cushion seats and made new covers for them with some Harris tweed I had left from another project. I used velcro strips to secure the cushions in place as putting proper zips in seemed a wee bit fiddly - I don't think my sewing skills quite extend to upholstery yet!



I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I think I will varnish the legs with a bit more matt finish varnish in the spring but for now I have dressed it up with my red Masai blanket and a white cushion to make it look a bit festive!

Jo