Pink chintz and charming country style

I’m saving the middle part of my Christmas story till later, but early in the New Year I spent a couple of days visiting friends in rural Derbyshire. I wanted to share this with you first, because if you happen to find yourself in that part of England, I’ve discovered a rather lovely place to stay:

I can thoroughly recommend Park View Farm near Ashbourne. An eclectic mix of granny’s attic style meets faded chintzy boudoir chic, this has to be amongst the most charming Bed and Breakfast accommodation in the country.
















There’s a creaking wooden staircase, four poster beds, free standing roll-top cast iron baths and the main house is adorned with characterful vintage prints, chiming clocks and quirky curiosities.


The traditional pink chintz curtains made me feel completely at home – I have a feeling they’re made from the same Laura Ashley fabric I had in my flat in the late 1980s.















There are wonderfully dated festoon blinds, which are perfect for collecting Jack spiders, so they don’t nibble you in the night. A painting of a curiously cute rabbit hangs above the loo - and, amidst the memorabilia, there are even some old fashioned costume prints to keep us fashion hounds amused.












If you’re in a big party, there’s plenty of accommodation in additional guest cottages with pretty names like Honeysuckle Cottage, curiously appropriate since honeysuckle pink is Pantone’s colour of the year.













There’s also a large breakfast table, where you can congregate for a home-cooked breakfast that (to borrow a word from Jamie Oliver) is utterly delish… What’s more, the table is beautifully set with Willow Pattern crockery, plus there are crystal serving bowls and twirly-stemmed antique candlesticks.




















In terms of practical comfort and simple but stylish home decoration, you can’t go wrong with a country farmhouse style kitchen, especially if you actually live in a country farmhouse and can look out of the window onto an authentic field of grazing sheep.

The host and hostess are a lovely couple who are polite, friendly and amazingly available for a chat at the same time as running a farm and preparing a full English fry up (with mouth-meltingly buttery mushrooms, freshly laid eggs and unusually tasty wholemeal toast). Radio 3 burbles along in the background, though apparently the cows in the milking parlour prefer Classic FM.








Anyway, if you’d like to ‘get the look’ we’ve some uniquely arty Willow Pattern placemats at ShopCurious, along with this fabulous antique porcelain cherub mirror. Perfect if you’re suddenly feeling all romantic.

Are you?

Curiously cold, but crammed with colour

I feel really sorry for all those whose travel plans were disrupted by the snow this Christmas: The time of year is stressful enough as it is. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve done my own rather rushed UK tour, visiting friends and relatives in far flung parts of the country, in addition to all the usual duties like food shopping, preparing Christmas party fare, making a traditional turkey lunch, tidying bedrooms and speed-wrapping stacks of presents.




This year one of my resolutions is to slow down - I’m just hoping that my curiosity to do, see and try new things allows me to pack a little less into my days so I don’t end up permanently frayed and frazzled. Anyway, here are some of the curious things I’ve seen during the bits of the holiday that were spent in London:

Yes, I met a talking tree at the Winter Wonderland in London’s Hyde Park.







Other strange encounters included a lost Father Christmas (above right) and an artificial snowman with child…

Unfortunately, the snow in London had almost all melted by Boxing Day, but remarkably the Serpentine was completely frozen, and looked eerily beautiful in the late morning sun.




















A ride on the helter skelter is about as dare-devil as I get when it comes to fairgrounds, but I’m curious to hear what it’s like on this enormous tower that looks seriously scary to me...




































More to my liking were the VIP views of London from the observation wheel – in a minimalist pod complete with computer-generated Christmas carols and champagne.


















And, a few days later the fabulous lightshow, as seen from my balcony, of the New Year’s Eve fireworks over the the river and Big Ben.


This year there was also an unusual light display around the London Eye. And the dense freezing fog of previous days lifted just in time to be able to see it all, thank goodness…








If you're not already snoring, I'll share a few more photos of my curiously crammed Christmas travels in the next post.








Meantime, this month I’ll be rejigging and re-stocking the ShopCurious website. So look out for a new selection of sale items coming shortly, along with a pared down, but uniquely original offering of vintage and contemporary gifts, accessories and curiosities.

Will you?

2011, romantic pink heaven?

Happy New Year!

The ShopCurious style icon for 2011 is Dame Barbara Cartland – for the following reasons:

1) In keeping with our current nostalgia for (and desire to mourn) all things past, she died in 2000 at the age of 98. Death style is the new lifestyle, after all...

2) Barbara Cartland was renowned for her curiously unique, eccentric style and usually dressed in coral pink - a hot fashion trend for 2011.

3) She was a trend setter in other ways too, being one of the first to carry pretty little pooches as fashion accessories under her arm.




4) Dame Barbara was a working woman, with her own opinions and income from her many romantic novels.

5) She wrote extensively on the topics of love, marriage, etiquette and family values (more on this in my post at The Dabbler).

6) She was Princess Diana’s step grandmother (and therefore related by marriage to Prince William, the soon-to-be-married future King of England).

Above all, Barbara Cartland had style with brains…

Do you?

Curious Christmas greetings

Forget the Adoration of the Magi, Christmas has become a time for all things kitsch and over the top. Last year we sent you Christmas greetings from Chelsea.

This year ShopCurious brings tidings of glad joy from wonderfully olde worlde Fulham. Yes, there was snow in London very recently, but as far as I’m aware, it’s never looked quite like this…

Other curiously quirky Christmas touches I’ve spotted recently include:









Crazy Christmas lights in the backstreets of Battersea.










A knitted nativity scene.








Timelessly thought provoking children’s art.











A stuffed stag's head decoration (from my guest loo).









A curious Christmas icon from Mexico (looks Christmassy whether it is or not).






My mother’s Christmas cake – purely ornamental and totally excessive as no one ever eats it, but she insists on baking one every year - and probably has several from Christmases past rotting in tins at home. And not forgetting all the peculiarly coloured festive drinks (read more about my experience of these over at The Dabbler).









Anyway, for those who are curious, I can confirm that Father Christmas didn't quite make it back to the North Pole - due to the snow he got stuck in Fulham.

Wishing you a fabulously curious Christmas Day wherever you are.

Are you?

It pays to be curious

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all our lovely customers.

I hope that your visits to ShopCurious are always enjoyable, educational and time saving?

Incidentally, you were curiously clever if you found some unique Christmas gifts online - and you were also spared the mercenary mania on the cold, wet streets - especially this year in London:




























































And these photos were taken before the snow…

Thank you for being curious.

Are you?

Scents of the season

I was out in the snow yesterday, playing with my new best friend - Calum, the snowman. Don’t you love the sound of icy snow crunching underfoot? And the appearance of freshly fallen snow: that strange yellowy blue light from the snowy sky, and the curiously lunar-white landscape. The coldness and soft melting quality of snow to the touch is totally unique – it even feels and tastes rather lovely on the tongue. But there’s one thing that snow doesn’t seem to have… a smell.

I was trying to recall the scents that have stuck in my mind, if that’s where the sense of smell resides? Then I found myself wondering about the first thing I ever smelled. At what age does recognition of smell kick in? Why do young children sniff so many things up their noses (sometimes requiring medical intervention to get them out again)?



I vividly remember my grandmother’s smell. A sort of lavender talcum-powdery, bathroomy sweetness, not unlike the relatively recently created Agent Provocateur fragrance. Then there was my first trip on a school exhange to France, where it wasn’t so much the wafting aroma of fresh croissants and coffee, more the pungent niff of Palmolive soap used by my host family that stuck up my nose – or in my memory at least.







Nowadays I use Burt’s Bees shampoo. Partly because it’s made with natural ingredients and is hypo-allergenic, but also because I love the smell. It reminds me of the bedroom I had as a child. There was a big honeysuckle bush outside, and almost every morning I’d be woken up by the sound of a bumble bee coming in through the open window and getting stuck behind the curtain (ahh, the days of the open window..)



On another trip to France I visited a wonderfully plain and simple white-washed church, where monks sang Gregorian chant in a haze of incense. The sounds and the smells were equally divine, and the essential purity of the whole experience left a lasting impression on me.

If you love naturally beautiful perfumes and ingredients too, I can suggest nothing better for Christmas than the organic scented products from Zarvis London at ShopCurious. From exclusive Patchouli Baby and Lavender Crystal gift sets to home fragrances like the seasonal scents in this Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh tin, which are guaranteed to 'bring forth good cheer.' There’s something for everyone - and every occasion in this range… So long as you have a suitably discerning sense of taste and smell.

Do you?