Midland Hotel, Morecambe

It's love. I visited the Midland Hotel on Morecambe Bay last week and oh yes it's love.

The Midland is a recently restored Art Deco masterpiece (and yes, Agatha Christie fans, it has actually been in Poirot!) I managed to take a sneaky peak into one of the amazing penthouse suites. Check. it. out.

Beautiful Art Deco architectural details.

Cool, classic font and inside...?

Oh the staircase! leading to the penthouse suite...

The bed...

Seating area in the sun...steel grey L sofa behind me too (in case you need to lounge natch)

And yes, the view. On the terrace. Hot tub out of shot.

Fabulous food and...
Cool bar.

I'm moving in.

South London snippits

My South London adventures continued today...but I found out that Bank Holiday Monday isn't apparently the best day to explore lovely independent interiors shops (fool that I am - I will remember next time).

Yet I still managed to press my face up to the window of a couple of Herne Hill's finest vintage and antiques shops and even found my to way into a delight in Crystal Palace too. (Hint for non-bank holiday visitors: Crystal Palace's Church Road has a growing selection of mighty fine 20th Century antiques shops - full report to follow soon no doubt.)

First face presser...the rather fabulous Bleu Furniture in Herne Hill. Elegant mid century furniture and accessories spied right under the rail bridge...I particularly fell for these dining chairs (1950s Italian on their website).

I have also not yet made it in to The Good Companion (more face pressing) furniture and arts shop with in-shop cosy café. It looks like the perfect spot for a good cuppa, with a novel and time to browse the eclectic selection of great looking art and furniture.

Finally up the hill at Crystal Palace I had a chance drop into Cartwright's, a great contemporary furniture shop on Church Road.
Could this pair of G-Plan tables at Cartwright's could put an end to my coffee table quest? Maybe, but I'm having far too much fun looking to give up just yet!

Roullier White, SE22

A visit to Roullier White in East Dulwich left me with an unusual urge to clean. The lifestyle boutique is packed to the brim with everything a domestic goddess would ever need: fabulous feather dusters, divine smelling candles, the famous Mrs White eco cleaning range (Mrs R White perhaps?), every size pyrex dish you'd need and a lovely collection of gifts to boot.

The old-school style of the store makes this a great shopping experience, with its proper counters, vintage display cabinets and even a working counter bell spotted.

Roullier White is definitely worth checking out, even just to inspire the domestic goddess within, at least for a couple of hours...

Welcome to Kemp Town

I haven't *actually* moved to Brighton. But visiting Kemp Town (and a certain cheeky road of antique shops) gave me another very good reason why I really could...

Rather than keeping to my usual Brighton haunts I found that venturing East away from The Laines was definitely worth it. I firstly stopped to check out Brighton Flea Market, a cool, varied collection of antiques, quirky collectables and a whole hoard vintage furniture.

I was actually sent to try to commandeer a recently spied vintage leather chair that had sadly already found a home...but I was still most impressed with the ever refreshed pieces of furniture - there was plenty to buy/ogle (delete as your wallet allows). Oh and if you go make sure you check out the full size diving helmet...

A couple of (antique shop) doors down you'll also find In Retrospect 60s and 70s original designs. An aching cool shop that introduced me to a G-Plan coffee table, that I now need urgently for my living room, and cluster of hip alarm clocks that I could just about allow to wake me up in the morning

Oh and in my imaginary Kemp Town life can I live here please? Brighton's famous Royal Crescent with a sea view - feels like home already.

Gallery of Nothcote Road, SW

Northcote Road Antiques Market. After finally receiving a fab jar for my teabags as a birthday treat, I discovered this market. Never have I seen so many a suitable jar...among a surprisingly huge collection of antiques in this deceptively small fronted market.

Lovely Huttons is a great gift shop where I found these melamine plates, perfect for picnics (maybe not today though, eh?)

Northcote Road also has some stand alone antiques shops like Carey B Antiques and Braemar Antiques with a very cool affordable selection - I think my obsession for birds can continue thanks to them...

Sale at Cabbages & Roses natch.

I also found out that I am not too posh for TK Maxx, despite the usual jumbly scrum, I spied this pretty smart London Transport teapot. No lid, mind, ah well...

Birthday treats

Wonder Whistle, vintage and antiques extravaganza, KT10

A sunny Sunday in London is always a treat. But this one had even more of a treat in store as I headed over to beautiful Esher where the Wonder Whistle vintage and antiques show was taking place at Sandown Park Racecourse.

This family run (with a family-close feel) antiques and vintage fair is held around ten times and year on Tuesday and Sundays. It boasts up to 300 specialist dealers bringing an amazingly wide range of their expert products, running from really affordable prices. The stall holders offer a huge selection of types and eras of vintage/antiques including silver, clothes, crockery, furniture, collectables, toys, textiles and jewellery (hint to boys...if you ever want to find one-off jewellery some pieces here would make a girl very happy).

So this fab fair really got me. I rolled up 1pm for a leisurely stroll around the stalls inside and outside the rather marvellous racecourse venue. The mixture of unique pieces on sale made it a happily distracted stroll as the friendly informative dealers didn't mind sharing the stories behind their fantastic finds. Like this real Welsh Guard's uniform! Straight from the front room of a real Welsh Guard. Not something you see every day at the races!

As the stalls offer vintage pieces as well as antiques there is a huge selection for any vintage lover. In particular with the vintage jewellery, clothes and accessories like...fabulous square toed 1940s heels still ready to wear, super cool 1950s kids' sunglasses and (my favourite) this amazing authentic bakelite necklace, as the dealer pointed out - look at the detail of the black framing the birds! A proper snip at £65

But my heart lay (surprise!) between interiors pieces. The Flour storage tin had me with its lovely old-school font, but I think I'll have to commit a little further to my baking before I can invest. I also spied a complete and perfect set of Thomas crockery including sugar bowl and dainty coffee cups(just £35...can't think why I didn't buy it now!)...but this elegant French style tin jug and bowl set in white with a simple gold stripe made it home with me in the end. It makes me want to wake up early, wash my face with cold water and find some moors to trek across...but that might just be me...

Wonder Whistle is a definite must visit for anyone who likes anything from accessible unique vintage pieces up to rare and specialist antiques. The next show takes place on Sunday 12th September and you may have to fight me off if any bakelite necklaces turn up again...