lifeofyablon.com

This week has been a bit of a blur.  One day has blended into the next as I’ve raced against the clock to get everything done.  I even multi-tasked my evening on Wednesday night by catching up with Clever Friend (like really clever, PHD clever) while also bagging some much ‘needed’ tops from one of my favourite brands, Mercy Delta.

cialis en mexico

Katie’s Mercy Delta scarves

Founder of Mercy Delta, Katie Lightfoot (read more about her here) opened up her studio for one of her fabulous sample sales and – on the way to a dinner review – I popped by to wish her all things festive and grab one of her silk Ts which I could wear for the event I was hosting the following day (more of which to follow!).

a selection of stunning Mercy Delta tops

So it was wonderful to stop, breathe and chill (outside) with Clever Friend at the Churchill Hotel’s recently renovated Winter Bar on the way back.  I knew that if I’d been at home I would have been working so this was a perfect excuse to walk away from the keyboard and properly catch up.

Churchill Hotel Winter Bar and Terrace

Allan Cook, the bar’s dapper manager sidled over to introduce himself.  He explained that the hotel’s Winter Terrace opened last weekend, post some seriously expensive renovation and – tossing some sheepskin rugs, wool blankets, heaters and a damn good Winter Warmers cocktail menu in our direction – he left us to it.

Allan Cook, the VERY proud bar manager

I got stuck into my Churchill Martini (£15) with lurid green Sicilian olives while Clever Friend remembered (because she’s clever) that there was a car to get home and so opted for the non-potent Blood Tonic Lemonade (£8).

Clever Friend drinking Blood Tonic Lemonade

Meanwhile that sample sale blitz had left us starving, so we ordered some food.

Eating outside, we both felt that a big bowl of soup would be perfect.  Clever Friend had the Lobster Bisque (£6) and I plumped for the Butternut Squash (£6).

a Churchill Martini for me

And then we shared some small plates:  scotch quail eggs with tartare sauce (£8) mini aged beef burgers, mature cheddar and tomato relish (£16) and lemon sole fingres with lemon mayonnaise (£16).

mini aged burgers at Churchill Winter Terrace

The terrace felt refreshingly different, not as cold as you might imagine and definitely a potential glamorous destination.  The service was amazing (this is after all a 5 star hotel) and the food delicious.  So next time you’re shopping in Selfridges or partying at Home House and need to snatch a pause, head across Portman Square for a little Churchill action.

The Churchill Bar & Terrace is open til 2am.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.  Apparently.  But actually one word will break me, that’s housewife.  Now I’m in danger of alienating readers and offending friends so I STRESS the word only hurts when directed at ME.  It sends me into a spiral of self-analysis and total breakdown.  Again, MY issue, and not because the description when directed at anyone else is in anyway derogatory.

Charlotte Colbert’s Dining Room

When I first heard whispers of Charlotte Colbert’s photographic exhibition, I knew it would be right up my street.  Firstly because I love iconic black and whites.  Secondly because Charlotte pushes boundaries without being ridulously melodramatic in her artistic endeavours.  And thirdly because I had a feeling that A Day At Home would perfectly reflect my own working/domestic life, which, of course, is in the home.

a doll’s hand on a typewriter… in Charlotte’s Interior Study (A Day At Home)

So the first day Gazelli Art House declared Charlotte’s collection hung, a snap-loving friend and I zipped along to Dover Street.

snap-happy friend at Gazelli Art House

Charlotte’s protagonist (she is a screenwriter after all) is a semi-hyserical 1950s housewife who feels trapped.  As a writer, this relatively new feeling of isolation (Charlotte married The Rodnik Band’s Philip Colbert earlier this year) is heightened as she works alone at home.

previous inhabitants – depicted by Colbert

The house itself is one which Charlotte and her new husband have just bought in Bethnal Green.  In need of some serious renovation, there lies a perfect setting for her shoots which focus on loss, confusion and a crumbling world. Stripping back the wallpaper and discovering newspapers from the 60s, Charlotte is also intrigued by the previous inhabitants of this home, the families and their relationships witnessed between these four walls.

The photography is out there but only a little dark, illustrated with a certain amount of humour.

While I can empathise with Charlotte’s housewife identity crisis, I don’t feel ANY feeling of isolation as a writer at home.  In fact, I savour the isolation while our home is empty and crave it again once it’s invaded after school pick-up.

lunch at Rose Bakery

ginger and honey tea

cakes at Rose Bakery

Snap-loving friend and I headed to the top of Dover Street Market for some lunch afterwards.  I’ve been dying to visit Rose Bakery for a while now.  We snapped the rooftops, the food and a festive New Bond Street on the way back home.

Gazelli Art House and Rose Bakery are both located on Dover Street, W1