And She Was: Week Forty-Eight 2011

Eeek, we’re under four weeks away until the end of 2011! Are you feeling ready for 2012 yet? I’ve got so many things to tick off the list for this month alone; I just don’t know how I’ll make it to January. Probably thanks to red wine and procrastination, the fruits of which are borne every Sunday with my round-up of favourite finds:

*Knit and Eames, via Birkiland via Design Milk via Jane Wang*

*Orange checks, via J Crew via Wear Color*

*Marimekko and mountains, via Satsuki Shibuya via DesignSponge*

*Turnups, via Topshop via Wear Color*

*Two collars, via A Pair and a Spare via Wear Color*

*Yellow fans, via Mint*

*Rainbow field, via Jaakko via Present & Correct*

*Coloured glass, via The Design Files via Rosie Andrews One Little Nest via Seventy Tree*

So this past week I pretty much took it easy. With Jim away in Cornwall until Thursday, Effie-cat and I had the run of the place together, so got lots of Gossip Girl-watching done. I did go to a work party on Tuesday night though, and when Friday rolled past I enjoyed having the day off work with Jim (even if I did have a shitload of work to get through, as next week will be insane.) That afternoon my cousin Andrew landed over here from Australia — he’s travelling around Europe for six weeks or so, and stayed with us until Sunday afternoon.

Thankfully his jetlag was non-existant, so we hotfooted it down to Brixton Village for an Elephant curry and wander-around (it blew his mind), then visited Upstairs at Ritzy Picturehouse for a glass of vino, before collapsing at home in front of a new Blu-ray purchase, Alien, snaffling the red velvet cake we’d bought at the market.

Saturday was pretty much the perfect day — we got up early and headed to the disused tube station Aldwych, where we went on a guided tour and visited the platforms. I shot four rolls of film but the results were pretty poor (more on that later), but I didn’t know that at the time, of course. Sigh. We wandered along the Thames and ducked into Borough Market for a raclette each (in Andrew’s case, a raclette, a pork burger, AND a Portuguese custard tart), and then headed home as it was getting dark. Later that night we went back to Brixton Village, per Andrew’s request — he wants to try and tick off every restaurant in the indoor market before he flies back to Perth. (He’s house-sitting for us for a week in January, while we’re in Vegas.) This time we went for Mama Lan dumplings, which were great.

One more thing which made Saturday absolutely perfect — my two good friends, Laura and Nick, got engaged! It’s been a long time coming (the suspense was driving me crazy, because I’d helped Nick design the ring — though he did most of it; I was there more for moral support I think), and I’m over the moon Laura said yes. He’s a lucky man to have her, that Nick. And she’s very lucky her babies will resemble Macauley Caulkin.

Today Andrew and I headed into town, and after pointing out Liberty, Cos, Topman and Selfridges to him like some sort of traffic conductor on Argyll Street, I headed into Liberty to finish off my Christmas shopping. It was a dangerous affair, as I ended up buying mostly for myself, but I did get a few much-needed gifts, too.

Right! The kettle is calling me. Hope you all had lovely weekends too?