Grand Designs Live voted Consumer Show of the Year is a great event for design and inspiration for your home. This show takes place from the 1st to the 9th May 2010 and will combine cutting-edge design products, interactivity and an eco-friendly message. It’s for anyone who has any sort of interest in interiors, builds … you can buy, build and furnish your house all under one roof.

If you do go, make sure you check out the Design Arcade as it’s where you get to see all the up and coming designers first!

It’s on at the Excel Centre, and you can buy tickets online. Weekend Tickets cost £13.00 in advance, £18 on the door and Weekday Tickets cost £10 in advance, £15 on the door.

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Oh how I do love these house shaped magazine racks made from stainless steel. Available in white and a chrome version, I love the quirky detail – the doorways, chimney, and the man standing inside reading the paper. Height of cool. £28 each Dutchbydesign

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I am loving this. Etsy seller Obsessive Consumption is drawing other people’s mixtapes and has created this 19 x 25 inch screenprinted poster. It’s  printed on heavy weight Mr. French White Butcher Paper with lavender dots, orange tapes and navy blue outlines. Edition of 25 – Signed and Numbered. It’s retro cool and I want. $35 each

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Flicking through last nights Evening Standard, I homed in on a little piece about the forthcoming Quilts: 1700 – 2010 A Major Exhibition at London’s V&A museum. It’s such a hot ticket, the V&A’s done over 9500 tickets in advance sales. Showcasing 65 British quilts from the past 300 years with contemporary delights by hot artists including Tracey Emin (her quilt pictured – it’s part of a confessional installation) and Grayson Perry as well plenty from their own collection which commemorates prominent historical figures and events, as well as loans from various museums. Each quilt has objects relating to their subject matter such as paintings, prints, diaries, and personal keepsakes. Very cool.

Image via V&A

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I admit it. I am a bit of a chair lover, so when my friend received this game for her birthday I really had to stop myself claiming it as my own and doing a runner. Then I found out it there was also a collectors version available….. I want them both!

Chairs is a stacking game with 24 miniature (8cms tall) chairs in 8 different styles. I promise you it’s addictive. It’s a balancing act as players take turns adding a chair to the precarious stack. Currently on sale at Amazon for £5 a must for chair lovers and game lovers.

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Normally I’m not an ‘ornament’ person but I’m making exceptions for these contemporary interpretations in Habitat’s ‘Ivy’ collection of nature inspired objects – a hare (my favourite), an owl, and an apple.

They’re handmade from porcelain and feature mostly gold pattern, although the owl has a quirky splash of plum floral motif.

The apple’s £10 and the other’s are £25 each.

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One of Nest’s favourite stores Pedlars is having a ten-day-only Warehouse Clearance Sale starting Thursday. The sale will be online only and stocks of all lines are limited.

And they’re mixing it up this year by giving followers of their blog the opportunity to make an offer for some of the products for charity. Followers can make an offer for these products and the best offer wins. You can read more about it on their site.

I’m limbering up, getting ready to click click … Exciting times!

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If you are always on the lookout for the perfect window sill ‘thing’, I think I have found the solution! These are just too precious and they look good. They’re Egglings – they look and feel like a real egg, but crack it open, add a little water and you get a supercool garden for your window sill. Made of white porous ceramic, each comes with a terracotta tray and seed pack. Plants grow for up to five months in the eggling’s fortified peat mixture, then you can plant them directly in soil.

Ten Egglings are available: three herbs (basil, mint and thyme), three flowers (chrysanthemum, phlox, petunia), and four special edition varieties (lavender, cactus, red pepper, and wild strawberry). It comes well packaged – yes I am one of those who can be won over with great packaging. It’s a delightful gift for the chef, gardener, the kids or anyone who loves the cute and curious.  They cost just £6 each from Findmeagift.com

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Last year I excitedly featured paper decorations including boats, angels, and lanterns by popular Dutch designer Jurianne Matter featuring nature inspired prints with a retro colour palette and I’ve just felt all swoony at her new Blom paper flowers which come in packs of 15 and include florist wire to either thread through and hang, or to make a whimsy floral display in a vase, or put them on cocktail sticks and transform fairy cakes. They’ll be £8.50 per pack and are due in stores in April and will also be available from the Phillipson Zoet Life’s A Party Shop at Not On the High Street which is full of scrumptious bunting as well as her other paper decorations.

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I have just become a huge fan on Bocci chandeliers - they are stunning also also visually quite subtle.

Each individual pendant is a cast glass sphere with a frosted cylindrical void that houses a 10watt lamp. When lit, the glow of the light gives the effect of tiny candles floating in a sphere of water. The light interacts with the imperfections and bubbles of the cast glass to create a visually rich halo of light. Because cast glass is an organic process, imperfect by nature, each piece produced is distinctive.

Beautiful – but as this ‘7′ sphere one costs £1250 plus VAT sadly a tad out of my price range. Sigh.

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