Inspiration

When two men break into your home wearing balaclavas and carrying hunting knives let me tell you, it’s a GAME CHANGER. Not least because at the time I had two very small children asleep upstairs, and was the only adult in the house.  Feeling helpless doesn’t even begin to cover the stream of emotions that race through your body and mind as you realise that this is real and not a dream.  As the ordeal progresses you begin to process things in a different way as your body goes into fight or flight mode.   When there is a knife at your throat I can assure you all thoughts of fight disappear extremely rapidly.  You soon realise the safest ending to … Read more

                                              I think the most surprising thing about finding the nest is emptying is that I didn’t see it coming.  You embark on your journey as a parent with the whole process and excitement of being pregnant.  At the time the weeks seem to pass so slowly. By nature I am impatient and couldn’t wait to meet our babies.  Then you are catapulted into a world of responsibility and care and things you have no understanding of.  The learning curve is massive and there is no handbook.  Each baby is different; different children different worries.  You entwine your heart … Read more

            Some of the remaining Art Deco Hotels on Ocean Drive, Miami Beach. Spending a week in the most beautiful Art Deco Hotel in Miami has got me thinking about interiors over the centuries. This particular property has been sympathetically restored, maintaining the integrity of a bygone era. I can imagine the stylishly clad women and men walking on the stunning tiled floors, surrounded by stylish fixtures and fittings. The hotel itself is a landmark 1941 Art Deco building; understated yet opulent, and by the nature of the way it has been restored, it is very easy to imagine how it would once have been. Our decor today seems to be a bit of ‘anything goes’. … Read more

2018 Why, oh why, do we have resolutions only in a new year, which in this country falls in the winter?  Surely we would feel far more energised if it was in June and we had the sun on our backs wearing flip flops, than when we are seemingly weighed down with food, alcohol and late nights.  But it seems to be the way it is, as we say goodbye to the old and wish in the new.  A clean slate, a new beginning, heading into a new year resolving to change our habits, jobs, diets and routines, to name but a few. OK when I say new year, I should probably have started writing this in January.  I have … Read more