DCCH Charity Trees

So, blogging is so much harder than I thought - its been a whole month! But last night we decorated a charity designer christmas tree at DCCH, with trees by Joanna Wood, Nina Campbell, Trevor Pickett, Tim Gosling among others for the International Disaster Relief Charity 'Shelter Box', with the Lights being switched on by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, who is their president. Our tree was a celebration of a South African seaside Christmas and was covered in pearls, starfish and seahorses.... When HRH was introduced to us, cuddling Margot - resplendent in her pearls - she looked at the tree and said, "Seaside Christmas- I wish!"

www.shelterbox.org

HOW COLD WAS IT THIS MORNING!? Fire in any form really warms things . The first time I saw a collection of scented candles was my uber stylish cousin Margot Gilfillan, and its something I have taken to. It sets a mood and a tone for any evening, even if you are just chilling at home- especially if you are just chilling at home. From Diptique to the less well known boutique candles to the very popular Manuel Canovas candles at Colefax and Fowler. Where to get great ones- oh, anywhere these days; but my favourites at the moment are Heeley's Verveine Lemon Verbena and The White Company's Cassis- which is particularly wintery.... but the all time best is Amber. Amy Howard in Atlanta has a wonderful signature scent- and does not tell what it is, but it is very special....

Flowers flowers beautiful flowers...

No one smiles more than when being given a beautiful bouquet of flowers for whatever reason. I love flowers of one colour tone in a bunch- like this one we were given by our friends interior designers Andrew Buchanan and Stephen Richardson Pope. I used to sell flowers through Melissa's in Cape Town about 15 years ago when I was studying- wrapped in tracing paper and tied with string; bunches of farm roses and rosemary. Still chic, I think. A great flower idea is to choose three different varieties and display them in three different height containers as a trio without mixing the varieties together. My greatest flower inspirations have always been three people- my grandmother for her beautiful proper flower arrangements; my father for the amazing roses he grows and my old friend Robbie Honey for his absolute genius. www.robbiehoney.com

Friday Fabrics

Today was spent sourcing fabrics for two very special drawing rooms and I went beyond the DCCH (Design Centre Chelsea Harbour). I visited Claremont and De Le Cuona and Chelsea Textiles among others and found some wonderful old favorites and new fabrics...

Where To Find It

Trevor Pickett gave the entire troupe of 7 designers a leatherbound personalised notebook - brand new to his collection and embossable with names and initials etc. See www.pickett.co.uk. We had our character name embossed on the front and the signature on the back. Fabulous Christmas present!

Last Of The Summer Tomatoes

Pick the green ones and they will go red in the bowl in your window. Amazingly simple - with anything that includes olive oil and Maldon sea salt.

Shutters Hotel, Santa Monica

Shutters Hotel: Sunday afternoon club sandwich and sun over the pacific.....

Shutters are also tweeting - maybe I should get into that too?

Heigh-Ho!

Entering 'Blogland' is about as scary as walking the boards of the Garrick Theatre, London and so - after last week's West End debut as Taupey in Snow White and Seven Designers, alongside Tim Gosling, Joanna Wood and Trevor Pickett to mention just a few of the interior design thespians in the cast - here we go... Heigh Ho!

Playing Taupey was wonderful in the extreme, clad in a Diesel-designed cowboy costume with fabric head to toe by Brunschwig and Fils. We sang songs from 'High Society' to 'Taupe' - a reinvention of Madonna's Vogue - all penned by the insanely talented Russell Penn. We were produced by the ever patient Matthew Gordon from MJE productions, whose next production is the much awaited GHOST.

So what happened? Evil wicked Queen Cassandra (Tim Gosling, resplendent in a Pucci catsuit) banished everything beautiful including Snow White so that the mirror on the wall - Bill Bennette - would utter those unutterable words. And as we meander from Panto to Panto its "Designers to the rescue - Yay!" all the way...

Classy - Joanna Wood; Dapper - Lavinia Dargie; Snappy - Andrew Wright; Snazzy - Charlotte Lane Fox; Natty - Caroline Lawson; Dizzy - Trevor Pickett and Taupey, played by myself. MAD INDEED!

The whole event was run to benefit Dementia UK - please do check out their website here!