A new Loo Series from Les Deux Salons

In between Christmas and New Year we headed into town for a meal out, because well you can never eat too much at Christmas can you?  Not sure how busy it would be we booked a favourite of ours, Les Deux Salons close to Trafalgar Square, to save the aggravation of traipsing around trying to find somewhere with a waiting time of less than an hour.  I don't mind some times waiting, but not when it's cold, and definitely not when I'm hungry, so booking removed the guesswork.

It's a typically French restaurant, with typically French fare, and it's reasonably priced too. But today I'm not telling you about the restaurant, but their loos. They're upstairs and I was pleased I'd remembered to bring my phone, to save the multiple visits that normally happen when I'm not expecting such fancy loos. 

My eyes were taken by the mosaic tiled floor.

JUST LOOK AT THAT REFLECTION ON THE DOOR PLATE

And then I noticed the rest of the Ladies, the copper sinks, chrome accessories, while tiles, large mirrors and marble counters. Quite a statement isn't it?

Once again I found myself with the loos to myself, so what else was I to do?

Now I mentioned the sinks before, but I didn't tell you how beautiful they were. The colours were fantastic and to have the four in a row was just stunning.

Breathtaking even.

So if you find yourselves near Trafalgar Square and fancy a great Steak Frites then pop over to Les Deux Salons, and don't forget to check out the loos in person.  MOH tells me the Gents were "quite fancy" too, he also told me he wouldn't be seen dead taking photos in a loo either!

Could you live with a sink as beautiful as this?

Celebrating January with new wine glasses

If you're taking part in Dry January, then I apologise, this probably isn't the post for you. And while I agree it's a great initiative that raises both money and awareness for the charities involved, and brings personal benefits too, it's not something for me. I'm not saying never, just not now.

Part of that reason is because I find January can often be hard anyway, after the social month that precedes it the stark contrast is often already tricky to deal with. This year though the other reason is I've some stunning new wine glasses, which I couldn't wait to use.

I mean, just look.

HAMBURG RED WINE GLASSES FROM HABITAT

If they look familiar, then you have seen them here before. They were on the table at the Habitat Supper Club I went to in December. And I was impressed with them then; their modern design, which is delicate enough but yet still angular and chunky enough to stand out. That evening I was pretty sure that MOH would like them too, even though for glassware he's more of a traditionalist, liking fine stemmed glassware. But as we've found out - with a few smashes - the glasses that we use most regularly need to be robust for everyday (or every weekend) use.

I bought the red wine glasses and they are big, only just about fitting into our kitchen cupboard. Their capacity is 54cl, which when ordering online meant very little to me. If you're keen on a more modest sized glass then I think the 31cl white wine glasses would be a good alternative.

And contrary to popular opinion, the larger glasses don't encourage us to drink more. I mean, when the bottle's empty, it's empty, isn't it?

You can enjoy 10% off your first order from Habitat

I left the Supper Club with a voucher from Habitat which I used against my purchase of these glasses and and a set of water glasses in the same range (more on those another day). By using the following link you can enjoy 10% off your first order from Habitat , no strings attached.

What will you buy?

* This is a collaborative post, but all views and opinions are my own.

My current obsession: Scrappy quilts

I've always had a thing for patchwork quilts. I've even made a few in the past; more recently that fondness has manifested itself in the patchwork bread bag I made.  You'll know I planned to make another one, but somehow I haven't yet, and that's because something else has been gnawing at me. And that something is bigger than a bread bag.

It's a full blown quilt.  Well, actually it's more than one.

I know, crazy huh? 

It's not like I have plenty of spare time, is it? But I can't shift the desire to make a quilt, or two. So I've been looking around for what type of quilt, and what pattern I want to make. I know I'll need something relatively simple, and something that grows quickly too. As I've a feeling that if the first one is too hard, or something I perceive to be too hard, then it'll likely get stuck.

I already have some material, well quite a lot in fact. I have a bundle from Prestigious Textiles of yellows, greys and white geometric prints that I always planned to make into a quilt at some point. And I still will but I've realised these will be my second quilt. As while the material is gorgeous, and will be perfect in our bedroom, it suits a more complex design, and isn't for my relatively simple and quick growing quilt.

The design I've chosen for this material is Lori Holt's picnic star quilt, which you can see on her website - scroll down on that link until you find the red, white and blue quilt, and you'll know why it's on my list, and why it's not in top spot, yet.

So what kind of quilt will I make?

The other reason for rejecting the yellow and grey star quilt as my first quilt, is that to me it won't be truly scrappy. I think scrappy quilts should be more, well scrappy. But coordinated scrappy, if I can. When I saw Lori Holt's Great Granny Squared book I knew this was the kind of thing I had in mind. There's enough of a design, enough fabrics repeated, but still scrappy enough to qualify as a scrappy quilt to me.

But how to make it happen?

I could buy the material to make this quilt, but again that defeats the point of the scrappy quilt.

I've material that has been amassing for some time now. Some I've bought, some left over from my earlier quilt making days, which is quite a feat as it's survived several clear outs and has hardly been touched since we moved here some fourteen years ago!  Some more material I'm sure has come from my mum, who is a big sewer. And more still has come from clothes I've cut up instead of throwing out. 

And so, the thing I'm wrestling with, is do I have enough material to do the scrappy approach justice. I'm hoping that by mixing in materials that hold memories the quilt will have that extra-specialness I'm after. MOH's initial reaction was that I couldn't use old clothes for this, but soon backed down when I asked what he thought the origins of patchwork quilts were. It was the easiest win I've ever had, I can tell you. He doesn't know yet, that the space freed up using material is only making space for future treasures, but then again perhaps he does.

I *think* I have enough scrappy material, but I need to work that out for sure before I start. I'm telling myself that "I only need 33 two and a half inch squares" as a minimum to make it work. I mean just thirty three squares, that's not so many is it. In fact I need quite a few sets of thirty three squares, which is where the doubt and uncertainty creeps in. So I think next weekend you'll find me looking for enough similar and contrasting materials for the main part of the quilt. And hoping I have enough. And if I'm lucky, actually cutting some of those squares, but we'll see.

I'm less worried about the background as I have that sorted. I have a king-sized duvet that we no longer use, that should be plenty big enough to at least provide the background for the top of the quilt. While it's cream (which I like), it's design is a bit too fancy and it doesn't look so good un-ironed (I'm less keen on those) and so it too has been relegated for another use. If it doesn't to the back, I've plenty of time to come up with a plan for that.

So wish me luck, acknowledge my craziness and definitely look out for some updates along the way!