Home tourist: Kew Gardens

Mondays are for Mugs: Sobigraphie

Pineapples are having a bit of a moment right now (and not just in my fruit salad). These prickly juicies are popping up all over fashion and interiors. So make sure your Monday Mug doesn't miss out with this tres jolie mug from French designer Sobigraphie.

I likey, I'll have an extra helping of ananas with my cuppa this morning please.

Papaya Y Pina Mug, from Sobigraphie, price £15.08 on Etsy

Faves: Cat Cushion

Cat Cushion from Howkapow, price £22

The Perfect Tea Towel: CAT WEEK

As it is my birthday week...it has become an unashamed Cat Week here on the blog. 

So on Monday I shared one of the finest pusscat mugs on the market. Now here are the very best Tea Towels featuring our feline friends. 

And if you were thinking of buying me a birthday pressie, I'll have all of them thanks :)

Aqua Cats Grey Tea Towel, by Lamina, price £12.38 from Etsy

Happy Cat Tea Towels, by Mr. PS, price £10 each from Not On The High Street

Lucky Black Cat Tea Towel, by Alice Pattullo, price £11.50 from Tinsmiths

Moggy, by Repeat Repeat, price £9.95 from To Dry For

This rather marvellous vintage tea towel sold on Etsy a while ago sadly...but a gold star goes to anyone who can find another one on sale!

Mondays are for Mugs: Chrissie Abbott

I think this mug pretty much sums up 2013. It's mystic. It's bright. It's slightly surreal. Oh yeah and it's got a cat on it...

Sadly I think the above design is out of stock, but the small design below is pretty darn cool too. And y'know also has 2013's spirit animals on as well. 

Magic Cat Mug small, by Chrissie Abbott, price £20 from Jaguar Shoes

The Perfect Tea Towel: Leah Duncan

This tea towel is outta this world:

Well Outer Space at least...as that is the name of this marvellous tea towel from Austin Texas based designer Leah Duncan. Whose work is described as the very pleasing 'folk meets modern'. A phrase I think I'll remember as a perfect fit for many of my favourite things.

Outer Space Tea Towel, from Leah Duncan, $24, ships internationally

Mondays are for Mugs: Reading is Sexy Mug

This slogan totally wins. 

A good juicy novel and a nice cup of tea are two of my favourite things. So this mug goes to top of the class. It's actually made from 100% biodegradable plastic, so it gets extra points for eco cred too. Cos, you know, it's nice to save the world sometimes. 

Also is is bad that I really want her haircut?! 

Reading is Sexy Mug, by Sarah Utter, from Buy Olympia, $12 (ships worldwide) 

The Perfect Tea Towel: Avril Loveti, Modern Home

If I *had* to choose one of these tea towels (in a Desert Island Disc, one tea towel for the rest of your days kinda way) from Canadian designer Avril Loveti's Modern Home collection, I think it would have to be the Bubbles designs: 

But, y'know, as I have my own free will (and what good would a tea towel or a record for that matter?! be on a Desert Island anyway?) I would actually happily add all three of these tea towels to my Perfect Tea Towel collection. 

Here's the Combs design. Like Bubbles its colours are most pleasing to the eye and I love the simplicity of the patterns: 

And finally the Herringbone design goes down very nicely too, I wouldn't mind drying a dish or two up with those chevron-esque lines.

All available from Avril Loreti Modern Home on Etsy, pricr £17.22 each

Mondays are for Mugs: Fine Little Day

There is something so charming about mismatched cups and saucers. So charming and easy you think! I could do that you say! And envisage pottering along to your local chazza shop to find super-cheap dainty retro ceramic pieces just waiting to be paired by you. 

Sadly it isn't quite so easy (she says with a frustrated look in her eye). Pairs don't match so easily, prices aren't so low (now even the most old-fashioned charity shop has cottoned on to the new trend for vintage china) and sometimes...I have to admit my pairings aren't anywhere near as pretty as I imagine they would be.

Which is why these things are best left to the experts. And why my pick for this week is this mix and match collection of teacups and saucers from talented Swedish designer Fine Little Day.

Behold how right paired up mismatches can be!

These come as a set of two saucers and two teacups. Carefully chosen so whichever combination you choose, you won't (ahem) lose. 

So do remind me of this next time I heard to Oxfam with that mad pottery pair-up look in my eye again...

Two Pack Cups and Saucers Mix, from Fine Little Day, price €87 (ships worldwide)

Home Tourist: Sunny Southbank

  

The Perfect Tea Towel: Nook

Hope you like the look of these tasty tea towels as much as me. I think the clean lines, simple shapes and straight-forward colours are pretty much perfect.

They are, pleasingly, faithful reproductions of 1950s Swedish designs. An era that is renowned for the rise of perfect housekeeping...

And looking at these three beautifully designed pieces of kitchen kit...didn't they just do it right?

Swedish Tea Towels, from Nook, each £12.95

Mondays are for Mugs: We Love Karou

Start this Monday with an optical illusion (probably best avoided for anyone recovering from Glastonbury excesses this morning though) with this Basilica 1 mug from We Love Karou. 

I know this brand best for the brilliant stripes in their popular Breakfast range (which I also love natch). But it's great to see another excellent collection of mugs from these British ceramicists in a cool monochrome palette and this subtle eye bending illusion. 

The designs are based on 17th Century Venetian church tiles and the gold highlights are proper 22 carot gold and painted on in Stoke on Trent where the whole bone china collection is made. Very nice indeed. 

Basilica 1, from We Love Karou, price £22 at FAO Shop