Merry Christmas!

Wishing all our customers and everyone in the blogosphere a curiously cracking Christmas. Here’s a curious card I picked up at my local newsagents-cum-Post Office: Thought you might appreciate a rather quirky take on London in the snow - as it was a few days ago. Not sure if Chelsea has ever looked quite this pastoral, but its prettification has a certain quaint and timeless olde worlde seasonal charm... (by the way, that's not a fashion season I'm referring to and no, this isn't a blog about trends, though nostalgia is pretty big at the moment).








If you travel a little outside London (just 20 miles up the A41 will do) you can find the real thing – as I discovered last weekend when driving to a party in deepest Buckinghamshire. See the photo left (taken from a car window) of the English countryside looking peaceful and serenely beautiful - though it was actually fairly treacherous on the roads.

Thank you for being curious in 2009.

I’m really looking forward to another year of style with brains in 2010.


Are you?

Purple rain

Well, we have been experiencing some very curious weather. I haven't seen any purple rain yet, but these stunningly beautiful alpines seem to flower in London for at least six months of the year - if not more.







Here are a few photos (taken on my terrace by Kurtay) of some of the unusual and amazing jewellery by Aris Geldis that's available at ShopCurious. What I love about these pieces is the use of totally natural materials, the fact that they're handcrafted, very individual and yet also completely wearable. This unique necklace looks like something inspired by art deco and the 1920s. It's handpainted and has the most extraordinarily clever design - I'm truly smitten!

These pieces of iridescent painted carved crystal have to be one of the iconic jewellery designs of the year. The fabulously original necklaces are artisitic and quirky, yet also highly collectable designer curiosities. A unique accessory like this would work equally as well with a dress for the Oscars as it would with a t-shirt and jeans. Simple, classic, timeless, naturally beautiful and inspirational are some of the words I would use to describe this very special pendant.


And for la piece de resistance, there's a limited edition super-stylish luxury version for lovers of beautiful things who can afford to look really different. Style with brains is one thing, but sometimes a little money helps too:

Take a closer look at the £20 note. First of all, it's purple. And secondly, it features Adam Smith - whose "insights into human nature, the organisation of society, the division of labour and the advantages of specialisation remain at the heart of economics", thus spake Mervyn King. Interestingly, Smith's major work was entitled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Sounds like something we could do with today?

The new-style £20 notes, introduced in 2007, are apparently much better from a security point of view than the previous ones, with more ultra-violet features. Just as well - we've had enough rain in the UK, I'm voting for purple sunshine!
Are you?

Old meets new down under

Down under the Silk Route there's a place where old meets new. Rather like ShopCurious, where unusual and vintage curiosities are to be found side by side with the latest technology in the form of that great modern invention, the internet. At ShopCurious, we simply love combining the old, new, quirky and classic in an eclectic melange of unique and beautiful things. We've got stylish antipodean vintage silk scarves, for instance, that each have a story to tell. So let's continue our journey - which seems to be getting curiouser and curiouser... Let's start at The Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven wonders of the natural world - even larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing that's visible from space. The reef is breathtakingly beautiful, with an abundance of marine life, comprising of over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays, hundreds of picturesque tropcial islands and some of the world's most beautiful beaches. Possibly one of the quirkier things to be found in Australia is that distinctively individual creature, the duck billed platypus: a mammal that has a duck's bill, webbed feet, a furry body and lays eggs. One of the few mammal-like things about these oddbods is that they swim with their eyes closed, otherwise they're essentially underwater cats with a double layer of fur so they never get wet. How curiously clever is that? Let's make a quick detour to Papua New Guinea, which is a perfect place for a spot of twitching (Brit term for bird-watching). The tropical rainforest is the most wonderful habitat for a wide variety of extraordinary birds, including the world's smallest parrot and 38 of the 43 known speices of birds of paradise. Many tribal groups in the region use bird plumes to decorate their traditional costumes and head-dresses - making for a very original fashion statement. Some of the more curious birds include kokomos (hornbills), palm cockatoos and Papua New Guinea's largest bird, the giant cassowary. There's also the land of the kiwi, New Zealand, to consider if you're travelling south of the equator. 200 million years ago, New Zealand was part of a big continent called Gondwana, which later split apart into the continents of the world as we know them today. New Zealand is rather like the lost piece of a jigsaw, which remained cut off from the rest of the world. Because of its isolation and lack of land mammals, New Zealand became a land filled with unique animals, ancient frogs with no tadpoles, insects as big as mice and birds that couldn't fly. 85% of New Zealand's flowers are endemic (that means they're unique to New Zealand). Of course, like most of the people down under, the Kiwis will put on a bit of a show for the tourists (see right) - or are they actually trying to scare us away? Anyway, I'm just about ready to be heading off back to Europe. Better be eco-friendly and remember to offset the carbon emissions from the air miles... Will you?