My French Kitten

A Stephanie Allin French Wedding

Ok so I'm getting married next year, and yes I'm getting married in the South of France which means I'll just have to have a Stephanie Allin wedding dress!

I'm trying them on next month after cooing over them in every bridal magazine they appear, even the names make me smile with Bardot (below) and Frankie my current favourites. Love, love, love them!

Crumpled City Map

Whilst wandering around Utility design shop in Liverpool I stumbled across a genius design idea - the Crumpled City Map. Made from a woven fabric-like paper the map in rip and waterproof with a soft texture to allow clear reading of the map no matter how crumpled it gets. Having had many a travel disaster involving the crease of a map (missing a boat in Sicily and becoming stranded to name but one!), I am overjoyed at this genius idea! Other than trying to fold and fold again, the issues of rain, storage and looking like a tourist are the bane of my map using life.

Made for Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Rome and available for a mere £10 here on utilitydesign.co.uk I know what's on my birthday list!

French Brocante: How may plates do I need?

Having spent the summer trawling the regional brocantes (antiques markets) of the Lot region of France and having come home with armfuls of strange items for my new house I was perusing my new items thinking I should never ever buy another tea cup in my life! (I have over 60 now...)

One of the benefits of buying antiques in this region is the many chateaus in the area selling their wares. Dinner services, for example that are seen as fussy and old fashioned by their owners, but the city dweller picks them up as vintage chic. I did see a dinner service that brought out the seven year-old child in me, the princess fairy castle style, vile and pink but something of it reminded me of my youth.

When I was about seven or eight my sister and I visited the vicars' wife Lesley Condor at the vicarage to spend an afternoon making our own Faberge eggs (Ok I realise I am only 26 and this was about 1990 not 1920 but I had a rather Enid Blyton childhood). So we carefully blew the eggs which I seem to remember were the size of my head, but must have just been goose eggs not dinosaur.

We cut out the front, make a little interior platform, painted them and coated the inside with sparkle before affixing golden legs and a gold top. The best part however was choosing the tiny figurine to put inside and a transfer on the back. Being about seven I went for a Marie Antoinette looking fairy inside and affixed similar themed transfer to the back - this memory, stored in the far recesses of my mind flew straight into the present when I saw a dinner service at the brocante this summer. The motif was almost identical and this nearly saw me depart with €150 for a 53 (yes 53, must have had a breakage) piece dinner service complete with gravy boats, serving plates and an alarming amount of dinner plates! In which lifetime did I think 23 dinner plates would be necessary?!




This said however, since researching the practicalities of holding our wedding in France, buying these antique dinner services would be cheaper than renting them from the caterer! So next summer I shall take the plunge and get one, just maybe not with a pink Marie Antoinette figure on!

Jumping for Joy in Bristol!

Better late but never, this summer the Sharkey family were jumping for joy in Bristol when my little sister Moo graduated with First Class Degree in Biology! Well done little Moo!



So we had an excellent two days in Bristol, despite the loss of my iPod touch, sob sob. The best bit was watching Moo doing the Bristol University tradition of putting your hands together and pleading for your degree as you go up on stage - strange but funny! At Glasgow we got boshed on the head by a cushion - honestly where do these things come from? But you've got to love the odd traditions!

Congrats Moo! Oh and congrats of starting your PHD, you little geeky child!