Snowy London!

Today was the last day of term, that means that holidays are starting! I have a lot of work to do though, but at least I won't have to go to classes for three weeks. As a treat from all this academic stuff, my friend Sephy and I went to Stoke Newington under a snow storm. All of a sudden everything started to turn white and people looked like snowmen, as they were being hit by the snow. So lovely but also so annoying!

Anyway, I've just recently discovered this area and I already love it so much, I think it's my favourite part of London at the moment. It's full of nice little shops and cafés, vintage, yummy bakeries, and weird men selling furniture in garages. It was such a christmassy atmosphere, with snow and decorations everywhere. I really wish you were here, you'd feel at home!

This was part of the Tea Room shop on Church Street.

Some street art in Church St. I wish it was hot!

We had lunch in this tiny café, the scones looked amazing!

This is a pub I went to the other night. Finally a nice and cosy pub in London!

Elsa Schiaparelli

I'm sorry I've been such a slack blogger lately! Things are getting a bit crazy round here leading up to Christmas. I just wanted to share a lovely winter knitting project idea with you.
Do you know the designer Elsa Schiaparelli? I always thought she would be right up your alley. She designed amazingly inventive and beautiful clothes- she was more of an artist than a fashion designer in the sense that she was interested in making creative and artistic items as opposed to creating fashion trends.

I have been obsessed for ages with her amazing design for a knitted jumper with a faux bow collar, and I just recently found out that you can get this free knitting pattern for it online! Oh, how I wish I had some knitting skills. I don't know what point your knitting is at Elisa, but I can definitely see you wearing one of these, in bright Elisa colours of course!

Cats

This is Epping's sister, Crumpet. She lives in Somerset

I've never been particularly fond of cats, I'm more a dog person. However, since we got one in the house, I started liking them and appreciating their independence and elegance. Although I cannot handle being scratched for fun, I love finding Epping (that's her name) in unexpected places, or watching outside the living room window, as if she was contemplating the world.

Countryside

My love Josie,

This weekend my dear friend Sephy took me to Somerset and Bath. I had really great fun, besides the fact that it has been a genuine English experience for me - I ate far too many chips and fudge.

On Saturday night we went on an old steam train, where we were served dinner and drinks. I felt I was in the Russia of the 30's, maybe because I dressed up as a voyager of that time. The carriages were so amazing, we got one just for ourselves. The seats were velvety and springy, and everything else was wooden. It must have been so comfortable to actually travel on those trains, it made me dream of the orient express and Agatha Christie!

Anyway, we arrived in Dunster, an ancient tiny town, that had been lit up by candlelights to welcome Christmas; all the shops were open, selling goodies - that's when I had my first fudge experience and I think it will be the last as well, I couldn't handle the sugar rush. We also found a place where you could pat owls, I'm usually freaked out by birds, but these were so funny! One of them had such a grin in its face that we couldn't stop laughing - unfortunately, I didn't take any picture of them.

I had rum and raisins fudge

The day after, we went to Bath for some Christmas shopping and city-seeing. The city is lovely, I never went there before, it's a shame that the ticket to the Roman bath is so expensive though. It was full of Italians as well, I tried to hide myself, putting on the best British accent I could do. We had a yummy lunch in 'Café Retro', a cute café full of 70's posters, and a delicious hot chocolate in another café near the abbey. I wish that all the weekends were like this!

Mince pies made me think of our trip on the way back from Sydney

Oh Comely!

I'm so looking forward to the fourth issue of Oh Comely magazine, it's been great so far and every issue it gets better. I think the key for its appeal is to be genuine and really not pretencious, different interests and passions come together in there. I love the design of it too, nothing is wrong! I discovered it the first time in a bookshop in Broadway Market, I noticed it because they had an article about Emmy the Great and her own house in London. Since then, I follow it every month and it's so nice to finally read a magazine that represents me.

What's better than having a tea and a nice reading when outside it's snowing and freezing?

cute café in Camberwell

snowy park in Bloomsbury

Cards.

 By Hammerpress.

 By Hammerpress.

 By Sycamore Street Press.

 By The Wheatfield.

 By The Wheatfield.

E!
I can't believe Christmas is so soon, it's freaking me out a little. Most years, my sister and I make our own cards. It's getting to be a little bit late this year so I don't know, but we're still going to try! There are some etsy sellers and crafters out there doing some pretty amazing designs though.  These are some of my favourites, but there are also lots more amazing ones to see on this post here. I love design and paper and stuff!

Around the block

I loved the bright blue gutters

I wonder if it is as good as the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne!

These two houses reminded me a bit of Holland

I really liked the neat hedge

My dearest,

Winter has actually come here and it has been so cold that I spend most of the time at home. Pumpkin soup and chestnuts are great for a Sunday meal! Yesterday I went for a walk around the block - with four layers of clothes on! - and I really enjoyed myself looking at houses and urban elements. One of my favourite activities, especially in this season when it gets dark early, is to look into windows and imagine other people's lives. You never know what you could find - yesterday there were a lot of TVs on!

Collage

Hey Elisa!
Hope you're having a good week.
I thought you might appreciate this amazing collage art by Javier Pinon.

Knitting

The idea of the patchwork sounds great, Josie, and I love the flowery fabrics, I think it'd be perfect for an outside tablecloth or for a picnic basket!

My latest passion is knitting: I used to do it when I was little, and now I took it up again. It's the best way of spending your time during winter, a cup of tea and chats over the knitting work. To me, it's one of those 'lost' skills that were really important in the past, and now have been displaced by the industrial production. When I went to my grandmother's I found an amazing book from the 50's that explained all the techniques for knitting, and it was so interesting to see how women's habits and written comunication have changed. The introduction of the book said something like 'you should have a break every hour, maybe look outside the window, watch the TV if you have one, or smoke a sigarette'. Where would you find now a book that tells you to smoke?!

Maybe you know it already, but in Broadway Market Rd there is a whole shop dedicated to wool and other fabrics, it's called Fabrications. They have really cool projects and courses going on, I love the idea of gathering with strangers and knit. On this note, there is also a Feminist group in Shoreditch, the Shoreditch Sisters. It is ran by Jazz Domino (the one who's in many Emmy the Great songs!) and the members basically come together to talk about feminist issues, while they're crafting, knitting, sewing. Isn't it amazing?

Patchwork

Elisa!
I found this great tutorial for this nice patchwork throw and I thought you might appreciate all the colour. I'm going to have a go at making one soon, it seems like a really quick and easy summer project, and it will be useful too for hot Melbourne nights.

Fashion Film Festival

My dear Josephine,

Unfortunately the weather here is not nice enough to sit in parks anymore, apparently we will see the first snow on Saturday! Instead, I have been eating loads of clementines, that really mean autumn to me, and been amazed by the amount of brown leaves on the ground all around the city.

I spent the whole afternoon in the library today, and I came across the Fashion Film Festival that will take place at the Tate Modern, the Barbican and the BFI Centre from next week. They'll show rare films from the 40's to the 70's, all linked by the use of incredible costumes. The festival is, on top of everything, dedicated to the ways fashion has been represented in the cinema industry and how it has been popularised and interpreted through this media. It made me think of you. While I'm waiting to go to the screenings, I found some pictures that I really like.

Looking at some of these shots, I realised that Lady Gaga has invented nothing new.

Moulin Rouge, dir. E.A.Dupont, 1928

La Princesse Mandane, G.Dulac (1928)

Salomé, dir Charles Bryant, 1923

Melbourne in the Springtime

Dear Elisa,  I wish you were in all of these photos!
This Spring the drought seems to have finally broken, we have had tonnes of rain, and our garden is growing like crazy. The parks are green and perfect for springtime picnics in the sun.
My current favourite things are:

• the singular apricot coloured rose growing outside my bedroom window
• picnics
• eating chicken salad sandwiches and watching Boardwalk Empire with Josh
• playing stupid games with friends
• nice bars with sunny places to sit
• the sunsets on our street
• sewing new dresses
• having iced tea in Borders with my sister whilst we look at quilting books and plan Christmas presents to make