What I learned today #358

Every day teaches us something new - if you're willing to learn. It always comes down to the same thing. You create Heaven and Hell. Hell hides in making others responsible for your story. Heaven lies in honest ownership of your life. No one else can make you happy, healthy, beautiful or valuable. If there's a problem, its you. If there's a solution, its you. You have total power. Use it wisely.

Shop: Ras shoes

Been on a bit of a shoe fest recently. One of my findings is the lovely Spanish shop, Ras, who sell perfect pumps, clogs and boots that smack of the shoes you lusted after, when you were 12 and on holiday with your parents.

They have one outlet in Paris and their online shop appears to sell overseas.

What I learned today #364

Other's fortune is not your misfortune. Born wealthier than you? More popular? Someone somewhere envies your wealth and popularity. Stop comparing and start celebrating all blessings everywhere. No life suits you better than the one you have and no other is available. You wouldn't want to swap problems with anyone. Don't ask to be lucky. Make everyone you meet feel lucky. That's success.

Hotel: Saint Valerie, Juan-Les-Pins, Cap D'Azure

My beloved is attending the advertising conference that happens annually in Cannes and so it seemed rude not to join him for a few days. This post is written poolside at the Saint Valerie Hotel Juan-Les-Pins which is truly gorgeous. A couple of villas surrounded by lush gardens and big shady mulberry trees where you can sip cafe with the beautiful people. Whopping great bedrooms with shady shutters and slipper baths in big adjoining bathrooms. Very french and stuffed with antiques, the staff are attentive but they still retain the ever-so charming minor chaos.

We had dinner last night at a local restaurant sipping pale provence rose and then wandered the streets dodging the mopeds along the promenade. True heaven!

Today Im meeting my skipper brother in law for lunch on his yacht in Cannes and will indulge in a spot more people watching!

What I learned today #357

There is no better version of you available elsewhere. If you're being the best you can be and someone does not want you, then they want someone else entirely and you're free. No need to take another's requirements as a judgement. Let them get on with their search for happiness while you get on with yours - and you won't find it in the eyes of those who don't get you. Focus on those who do.

Rikki Beadle-Blair

Website: Doggelganger

There are loads of pets all over the world that are looking for homes. To help combat this problem in New Zealand, Pedigree have recently launched Doggelganger a website that helps prospective adopters find a dog who looks just like them.

Pedigree used agency, Colenso BBDO to create a site which allows users to upload a pic, or use their webcam (although I haven't yet been able to make this work). 'Human to canine pairing software' then analyses the face and matches it with a dog twin. Details on the dog and how to get in touch are then provided.

Such a great idea! Im in line for a dog in Sydney, so please share it elsewhere Pedigree!

What I learned today

The course of your life is decided by the quality of your thinking. Think small and options shrink, devalue yourself and life becomes cheap, decide you're unlucky and opportunity will agree. Enough of constructing circumstances out of limited beliefs. Cease investing in reasons to not be yourself. Forget thinking outside the box - break the box up and burn it. Think bold. Think big.

(thank you Rikki)

What I learned today #354

It starts with the morning. If you crawl reluctantly out of the sheets, craving coffee and resenting the day ahead and leave the house starving, what kind of day have you begun? It's to open your eyes, let the light in, nourish yourself. Are you ready to dig into the day and see what's it's holding for you? This morning are you ready to rise?

Thanks Rikki

Shop: Clifton Nurseries

Yep I know, an oldie, but such a goodie. This little gem is hidden behind houses in Little Venice, Maida Vale and houses a garden centre, cafe, shop and flower shop. Its not massive but always full of new and unusual plants and they do lectures and courses. They also sell great water features such as the Medusa fountain I had in the garden of my last flat. Amazingly, they are currently selling old wooden crates for £19.99 which is unheard of. Many a time I've just popped in for something and spent a fortune on plants for my window boxes. They aren't cheap here but they do seem to last for ages.

Its a bit of a bugger to park nearby, so don't - far better to walk along the canal which is so gorgeous near there. Whilst in the area you can also visit the pretty tea dress shop Suzannah, just round the corner.

Clifton Nurseries

5a Clifton Villas

London W9 2PH

Tel: +44 207 289 6851

What I learned today #353

Everyone deserves a love song. Something created specially for them; A poem, a book, an email, a note attached to roses. Somewhere someone is wondering if you ever think of them - tragically unaware of your depth of feeling. Perhaps you're best friends, perhaps you're family, perhaps you're married to them. Every kind of love craves expression. Don't hold back, Serenade someone.

(Thanks Rikki)

Shop: Renaissancelife.co.uk

Pretty and rather unusual necklace from Renaissancelife.

What I learned today #350:

Nothing ages you more than worrying about your wrinkles. Nothing makes you uglier than constantly staring in the mirror. If you fret about weight, all you'll think about is food. No one falls in love with their stalker. Grip the soap too hard and it slips away. Desperation is unattractive. Fear is never appealing. Stop scaring fortune away and get on with being blessed. it's lots more fun.

Thanks again Rikki!

Shop / cafe: Petersham Nurseries

Yes I know its much blogged about. I'm not even sure these photos are much cop but its always on my regulars list and it never fails to disappoint. This time, it was a visit with my sister and her 8 month old daughter, who gurgled in her chair as we sat in the courtyard eating courgette pasta and drinking rose-flavoured Fentimans lemonade. After that a lust around the shop and a drool over the plants that I can no longer buy, followed by a quick lap round the Thames walkway outside.

Shop: Baby Ceylon

90 percent of my wardrobe has been purchased from Baby Ceylon over many years, mostly in a variety of shades of blue and green and each piece still gets a mention. This year I'm lusting after the Avalon red dress which must be a sign.

Baby Ceylon

12 Portobello Green Arcade

281 Portobello Road

London W10 5TZ

(there are other stores too and worldwide posting from the online mail order)

Tel: +44 2088298968

What I learned today no 352

The secret to wisdom and eternal youth are the same - a boundless curiosity. Nothing is more attractive than an enquiring mind. Take interest in the world and you will never be lost for fresh ideas. A miracle waits within everything, no matter how grey and still it seems; everyone you meet is a potential adventure. Life's a playground full of inspirational new friends. Say hello.

Thanks Rikki.

Home: Nice wallpaper

My experience so far is that wallpaper is quite expensive in Australia, or its my excuse anyway to look for nice patterns for our new home, whilst Im away. I'm thinking of this wallpaper for our boy's room. Whilst Sydney Harbour is a long way from Whitby's which is the inspiration, we have the same seagulls I recon. Thing is, I can't decide what colour!

'Whitby' wallpaper from Mini Moderns

Shop: Suzannah

I parked outside Suzannah whilst visiting Cliften Nurseries, one of my regular haunts for pot plants. Suzannah is Suzannah Crabb who was once a trend forecaster but now makes beautiful tea dresses to order, from her shop in Maida Vale. She now also makes wedding dresses, of which I'm on the hunt.

Suzannah Boutique

6 Bristol Gardens

London W9 2JG

Marylebone Summer Fayre

Hooray! I love a good British fair and this one is just down the road from where I used to live.

There will be dance shows, food from great retailers, including the Conran street picnic. There's also live music, market stalls and all in aid of a good cause - the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Marylebone Summer Fayre 2011

Sunday 19th June from 10:00 to 17:00

Marylebone Village

Cafe: Morito, Exmouth Market

Meeting my designer friend Paul in Clerkenwell gives me a good excuse to go to Exmouth Market for lunch. This time we visited Moro's new baby, Morito which is a tiny tapas bar next door to the original.

Its fairly traditional tapas and after knocking back a couple of pomegranate juices, we shared squid, olives and patatas bravas, walnuts and other tiny plates of deliciousness. Paul, who was once a vegan but now is a rare meat lover, managed to squeeze in a tiny hamburguesa too.

Morito

32 Exmouth Market

London EC1B 4QE

Tel: +44 2072787007

Shops: Fabric in Portobello

On the hunt for fabric for the cane sofa that I'm reviving, I've visited two of my favourite West London fabric stores. The first is Warris Vianni, where, many moons ago, I bought the cream fabric for a sofa that I loved, which now lives with my friend Jess in Brighton. This shop stocks beautiful textiles, bed spreads, cushions and shawls, many from artisans in India.

The second shop, The Cloth Shop, is stuffed to the gills with all manner of fabric, linen, gauze and cotton. Also war time blankets and the odd bit of camping gear.

And its hard to mention West London fabric without mentioning the infamous Temptation Alley which stocks pretty much anything you could ever want if you were going with 100 feet of a sewing machine. Worth a visit for the experience alone.

Yes they post, anywhere apparently

What I learned today #351:

The better the excuses the worse the career, the slower the progress, the sadder the story. Stop turning your loved ones into alibis. Stop betraying your body with blame, stop rewriting opportunity as tragic biography. There is one reason and one reason only - that reason is you. Stop designing a life out of Why Nots, and use that creativity to take back this day. No excuses, no delay.

Every day, Rikki, who I've mentioned before, posts his learnings from today. Always apt and something from which we can learn.

Shop: Monicaandjoe.co.uk

Hooray! Another good online fashion shop that posts to Australia.

Set up by a pair of ex-fashion buyers to showcase their favourite European brands. Thank you, I don't mind if I do!

Shop: Phoenix on Golborne

Another new shop on Goldborne that is keeping the spirit of the area alive, whilst giving me (lots of) things I want! Phoenix stocks rustic, 'shabby-chic' furniture, china and accessories, which have been brought back to life. It's pretty owner, Jess who arranges wildflowers in vases and uses beautiful chalky paints, to do what we always think we could do ourselves, but never do. She also stocks paints and offer lessons, just in case you might one day.

A former marketing chick, she followed her father into the antiques trade and is doing what she always wanted. A lesson to us all.

Phoenix on Golborne

67 Golborne Road

London W10 5NP

Tel: +44 208 8964 8123

Hampstead Women's Pond

One of my most favourite places is the Womens Pond on Hampstead Heath. Its such a special, almost secret place and it makes me know I'm at home when I visit. When I lived in London, I came often, summer and winter. A quick dip in winter gets your heart pumping and staves off colds like nothing else. I always tried to shy off, but then saw the older ladies who braved the ice and realised I had no excuse. Summer is pure delight. Kingfishers early in the morning. Ducks, moorhens and geese nesting messily on the life rings, then proudly showing off their young, who trailed behind them across the meadows.

I love the wildflowers on the paths and the heathrobinson-esque shower arrangement, involving a hot water tap and buckets when the warm shower stops. I love the chat of the regulars in the mornings and the welcomeness they show to newcomers, offering spare costumes and towels. I even love the school girls in large groups who lounge lazily on the meadows in the summer holidays, talking at the top of their voices then shriek as they enter the water.

My favourite thing to do is come early, with a friend and, after a big stomp around the Heath, and catch our breath every time at the top of Parliament Hill, use our swim as a good catch up. Then scrambled egg breakfast at either Kalendar (was Cafe Mozart) on Swains Lane, or a walk to Kenwood to sit outside in the pretty garden and read the paper in the sun.

Shop: Kokon Tozai

My beloved collects toys. Small Japanese dolls in plastic bottles, china rabbits, little kissing dutch kids, anything really that is bright and ever so slightly unusual. Out shopping with my sister then on Golborne Road couldn't say no to the brightly coloured Pluto which was made in 1962. After an earthquake in Macedonia around that time, the Americans apparently sent lots of toys and he had been wrapped in tissue ever since.

From the same collection, I bought my nephew Pinocchio, with strict instructions to his mother that he be placed on a high shelf with no Sharpies to hand.

What a great shop though - housed in an old oxblood red tiled butchers, a marble counter runs from one end to another, filled with treasures. China, jewellery and antique lamps. There are also hand crocheted shawls and spectacular sparkly clothing which is the mainstay of what they do.

This part of Portobello is still my favourite and whilst the shops are changing slowly, places like Kokon Tozai are welcome. There's still not a chain in sight.

Kokon Tozai

86 Goldborne Road

London W10 5PS

Tel + 44 208 960 3736

http://www.kokontozai.co.uk