Frownies anti-aging facial patches for wrinkles on the forehead & between the eyes – £17.50

I stare at some kind of screen for about 12 hours a day… every day. Laptop… television… phone… Add this to the fact that it took me about a year too long to go for an eye test & get myself a pair of glasses, I’ve started developing ‘elevens’. No, I didn’t know either that that’s the name of those vertical lines one gets between one’s eyebrows from squinting!

I’ll be slapping them on each night before bed and whenever I’m spending the day indoors… at least until they start producing them with retro patterns like those plasters you can get from Ikea – then I’ll rock them in public like a fashion accessory!

Who needs painful, expensive botox when there are Frownies?!

Completed in 2009, Reversible Destiny Lofts are a group of 9 dwellings in Mitaka, Japan designed by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.

Apparently they were:

“Set up to put fruitfully into question all that goes on within them, they steer residents to examine minutely the actions they take and to reconsider and, as it were, recalibrate their equanimity and self-possession, causing them to doubt themselves long enough to find a way to reinvent themselves.”

They’re amazing structures – on both the inside and outside – see more photos here!

Here’s a new batch of recent vintage finds – slightly more items than our last ‘Forthcoming Attractions’ post!

We’ll start with a few pieces for the kitchen. Quite a blue feel to the selection. These vintage mixing bowls often have cream interiors, but more rarely have these lovely coloured glazes in blue, orange or yellow. The utensil sitting inside the bowl is a drinks mixer or frother. The metal whisk end spins as you press the handle down – perfect for cocktails, hot chocolate etc.

The sugar or flour sifter is classic 1960s with its geometric pattern in sky blue & deep olive green. It’s from the ‘Tivoloi’ range produced by Portmeirion Pottery.

This bowl could also find a good home in the kitchen, but has a thousand uses around the house. We often feature these pieces of colourful enamel produced by Cathrineholm of Norway – teapots, pans, bowls, ice buckets and more!

Now for a bit of wood. The butter knife set is a great bit of Scandinavian design – sculptural and useful. It was produced by Karlsson & Nilsson of Sweden in the 1950s or 60s. We think the letter box is very sweet – it would give a lovely vintage touch to an office desk or hallway.

Probably our favourite object this week is this 1960s shopping list board. It’s a humble object and quite a rare survivor being so simply constructed. It certainly has lots of charm.

We love the graphics – wife doing a spot of homemaking, hubby out collecting the parcels!!

And finally, a bold flash of orange. The lampshade is a very good quality piece of cased glass – it was produced by Holmegaard of Denmark, in the 1960s or 70s. The fabric is from a similar era. We think it might have been produced by Crabtree Fabrics. It would make great cushion covers.

Or perhaps even more perfect… curtains for a vintage camper van. One glimpse of these and you’d be in a happy, holiday frame of mind!

I’m chuffed with my ciabatta! It was my first ever attempt and I think the loaves turned out really well!

I used a recipe from one of my favourite baking books, Bread by Christine Ingram & Jennie Shapter. If you’d like to try making this one yourself, I’ve listed the recipe at the end of this post.

There’s always a little ‘hold your breath’ moment as you cut the first slice and have a look at the crumb. Proper, big ciabatta holes!

I had a few slices, fresh from the oven, with a handful of watercress and East Lee soft cheese made locally by the Pextenement Cheese Company… Justin had his with the slightly less healthy option for his Sunday brunch – fried eggs with pork & chive sausages – but it was all local produce too – and delicious he said.

For the biga starter

7g/¼ oz fresh yeast

175-200ml/6-7fl oz/¾-scant cup lukewarm water

350g/12 oz/3 cups unbleached plain (all purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

For the dough

15g/½ oz fresh yeast

400ml/14fl oz/1⅔ cups lukewarm water

60ml/4 tbsp lukewarm milk

500g/1¼ lb/5 cups unbleached white bread flour

10ml/3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Makes 3 loaves

1. Cream the yeast for the biga starter with a little of the water. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Gradually mix in the yeast mixture and sufficient of the remaining water to form a firm dough.
2. Turn out the biga starter dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for 12-15 hours or until the dough has risen and is starting to collapse.
3. Sprinkle 3 baking sheets with flour. Mix the yeast for the dough with a little of the water until creamy, then mix in the remainder. Add the yeast mixture to the biga and gradually mix in.
4. Mix the milk, beating thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Using your hand, gradually beat in the flour, lifting the dough as you mix. Mixing the dough will take 15 minutes or more and form a very wet mix, impossible to knead on a work surface.
5. Beat in the salt and olive oil. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1½-2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
6. With a spoon, carefully tip one third of the dough at a time on to the baking sheets without knocking back the dough in the process.
7. 7 Using floured hands, shape into rough, oblong loaf shapes, about 2.5cm/1” thick. Flatten slightly with splayed fingers. Sprinkle with flour and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas mark 7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped on the base. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Handpresso Hybrid Outdoor Set: Fairfax Coffee – £135.00

Justin gave me a lovely espresso machine a couple of Christmases ago and it’s seen a lot of service – a quick pick me up before going out in the morning!

But what’s a girl to do when she’s out & about, miles away from a coffee shop and needs a fix? We’re off for a break to the Lake District soon so that scenario is highly likely to occur. Step forward the Handpresso Hybrid Outdoor Set… it’s the ultimate glamping accessory!

I saw a copy of an image of these stained stairs and sought out the original to see how they were done. Well, after a nifty little Google image search trick*, I found the people who actually did them. They were designed a few years ago by Melanie Royals and stained by her studio assistant, Melissa. The designs which mimic marquetry work are stencilled, or more accurately “Modello-ed”, then stained by hand – hugely time & labour intensive, but what a result!

As well as stairs, her designs look amazing on walls and on floors too – here are lots more photos of their handiwork.

*_{Go to the Google homepage, click on the ‘Images’ link found on the top toolbar, enter/paste the url of the image file you found on the internet into the search bar. To find the url, right click/control click on the image and select “copy image location”. Finally, click on the camera icon. All the instances of the image that are online will be magically listed!}

In our last post we mentioned this week’s photoshoot of our home.

Photographer, Simon Whitmore and stylist, Sally Denning arrived on Wednesday morning laden down with loads of equipment – cameras, lenses, lights, light reflectors, computers – all essential kit to produce glossy magazine-quality images.

There were hours of arranging, discussing and reviewing images. Our blog photos take us quite a bit of time, but this is a different world!

The house feature is for Ideal Home Magazine and will be published sometime in the Autumn.

There isn’t the usual number of items in this Forthcoming Attractions post. It’s just that they really summed up the last few days. We had a magazine photoshoot on Wednesday chez H is for Home. The groovy flower-power apron represents the hours of cleaning we had to do before they arrived – and the fabulous Cathrineholm kettle represents the endless cups of tea that kept us going! It’s not that we live in a dirty house or anything, but there’s a constant battle against coal dust & dog fur.

Both items will be hitting the shop soon – and a further post about the photoshoot will follow very shortly too!

We normally talk about books in our Bookmarks blog series – but we’ve not seen this title yet as it is yet unpublished!

Artists’ Textiles 1940-1976 by Geoff Rayner, Richard Chamberlain and Annamarie Stapleton is due out later this month – so keep your eyes peeled for a review!

Mariem Besbes is a Paris-born Tunisian craftswoman who weaves textiles from wool. She colours them with her own hand-mixed dyes made from henna, madder and other natural materials to produce the most vibrant reds, earthy browns, lush greens, zingy yellows, aquamarine blues, regal purples…

Visit her website to see many more examples of her exquisite fabrics!