All things Brighton beautiful

Want to know how to make a fortune while on holiday AND while exploring the world of design and making use of your exquisitely good taste?

Here is an easy use case which you can implement at home if you have a credit card:

Step 1 - go on holiday to a nice English seaside town that is very hype and packed with vintage furniture shops. Enter random furniture shop/tea room.

Step 2 - spot potential target. Make your move.

Step 3 - ascertain that it is indeed a perfect target: authentic and ridiculously cheap.

Step 4 - take it home with you to France. Try it out for a week to confirm what you already knew: it's rather uncomfortable as a desk chair but it's also worth double what you paid for it. 

Step 5 - take a pretty picture and put it up for sale on www.leboncoin.fr.

Step 6 - sell it to the friendly girl who answers your advert within an hour and wants to pay €350 for it.

Not bad for a £140 find in the cellar of a tea room in Brighton!

Better late than never never land

As a special birthday treat, Boyfriend and I took a day off work and spent the day at Eurodisney. We got in for free as it was our birthday week (woooot) and it was pretty nice to just walk around aimlessly and take pictures and get our brains knocked to a pulp riding Space mountain. True to myself I lost my courage while queueing for Indiana Jones and left Boyfriend to do that on his own while I watched the parade. Good times. My favourite ride is still ands down the Alice in wonderland cups and saucers. Some things just never get old. Ready for some pics of Disney interior design?

Oh but first, let's take a moment to remember the lovely carrot cake that my Mama baked specially for my birthday. YUM. Nothing beats my Mama's cooking.

Right, off we go! Iiiiiiit's a small world aaaafter allll, laaaalalalalaaaalalaaaa...

I like the little village bit at the entrance. Dream house alert!

It was all Halloweenie as well, which was nice although I'm not a huge fan of the ghosts myself. These ones are Disney, which means they are cute by definition. And friendly.

 

 On to Alice and her teacups and labyrinth.

I think I need these for my terrace. 

Photobomb powa

We also had a look in and around the palace, which I had never done. Owls everywhere! It's so cuuuuuute!! Look:

The parade was a little bit scary. As in lots of make up and mechanical animals and a weird song and choreography that they keep on singing over and over again. 

 I did see Winnie though. I'm pretty sure he winked at me too.

 Like I said: pretty scary.

Then it got a little cloud and I got a little artsy.

And here are the random pics I couldn't fit into my story. 

Boyfriend was wearing his "STAFF" hoodie and right after I snapped this pic an American woman walked up to him and asked if she was allowed to take a picture of her son with Tigger...she thought he was Tigger's security guard!!! Oh how we laughed. I know, we are evil. But come on! How silly can you be?

So there you have it! A day at Eurodisney with Tigger's security guard. I'll admit I'm a little starstruck ^^

A blustery day

A couple of weekends ago we drove down to Fontainebleau to pick up a dresser (more on that later!!) and decided to stop for a little walk in the forest. This post doesn't require many more words, the pictures speak for themselves...

Autumn colours: yay! 

Mushrooms and critters: yay!

Early evening light:yay! 

Heartwarming snack in a real French café complete with smokers and old ladies talking to themselves: sort of yay in a weird creepy way.

So there you have it. A perfect sunday afternoon. Plus I got a dresser for the bedroom and it's seriously groovy. Can't wait to show you.

An English road trip: say cheeese

When we left Bishop's Stortford we were headed towards Nuneaton and my favourite members of the family. But we got slightly diverted once or twice. Or maybe three times.

Our first stop was Stilton, Cambridgeshire. It's disappointingly small with not much going on. We even had to ask a few people to find out where to buy cheese. Turns out the hotel sells cheese. Makes perfect sense, no? We also found a country house and an Indian restaurant. Cheese, snobs and curry. At least two good enough reasons to want to move to Stilton.

A random property between Stilton and Stamford. Taken just as a pheasant flew over our car, hence the shaky picture.

Next stop: Stamford. A beautiful town in Lincolnshire with lots of old cottages and interesting antique shops and a tea room to die for and charity shops galore.

Oh how I would love to live in one of these perfectly quaint townhouses with perfectly manicured gardens. See the apple trees?

Want want want

The Otter's pocket. Good name.

Inside the tearoom.

Outside the tearoom

I like that this mini cemetery was right in the middle of the town. The living relaxing with the dead. It was also just across the road from one of the many charity shops where we bought brass candle holders and chalices and the cutest of oil cans. That post is coming soon!

Baby tomatoes on spikes. WTF?

Can a house have too much character? Every single street was full of beautiful old houses. And before you ask, yes, I found an estate agent and checked the prices. Yes, they are ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as Paris. Just saying...

Did I mention that I got a real suntan for the first time ever while on holiday in England? I didn't even have to go through the traditional sunburn phase first. Magic!

This antique shop was just about to open a tearoom, we walked in the door and were met by the builders who politely stepped back and let us take a look inside. The photos don't really do the place justice. It was huuuuuge. and prettyyyyyy.

Please forgive my Boyfriend the photobomber. It's a gift he's got.

Picture room after room full of furniture, jewellery, crockery, etc. Luckily we escaped without having spent all our money. It was close though, that pair of oars would have looked fabulous along my living room wall.

More lovely houses

Next up: Melton Mowbray. As an ardent Adrian Mole fan AND a pork pie fan I decided it was a mandatory stop. Well the pork pie (topped with Stilton!!) was yummy but the town itself hasn't got much going for it. Rather depressing, but now I understand why Adrian wasn't too bothered about going there with his Mum to pick up pork pies for Christmas.

Just to be clear: we didn't eat both those pork pies, one was saved for our lovely hosts in Nuneaton. Just how greedy do you think we are?

Pretty much the highlight of our visit. Probably the highlight of the Queen's visit too.

Last stop: sunny Nuneaton, where we packed 3 days of eating, laughing, sleeping, sunbating (!!!) and driving through fields with cows in them. Pictures up next!