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Images via  Ensembles Spring 2012 No 1 by La Garconne, Topshop Boutique and screenshots from Marni x H&M campaign by Sofia Coppola. 

It may still be baltic outside but that hasn't stopped me from dreaming of spring days where bare legs, loafers and easy cotton pieces are all you need. As always I am drawn to simple, slightly preppy basics with a twist - a polo shirt dress in neon, oversized pinafores, silky slips, ankle socks and tailored linen trousers. La Garconne and Topshop Boutique are both very very good at this kind of aesthetic and this season is no exception. The mood of Sofia Coppola's ad campaign for Marni x H&M is also perfect - all long, hot, lazy days and lush prints. 

creature discomforts

Currently I am living in a state of chaos. My bathroom is being totally refurbished and so I have 12 -14 working days ahead of me with no shower at home (luckily we still have a working toilet, in case you were wondering). I am a creature of habit and the removal of an integral part of my daily routine is making me a little anxious and it has only been two days. I find myself seeking out opportunities for showers in every possible place including local leisure centres, friends' houses and even train stations. To take my mind off the situation I am escaping into the black hole of the internet and being drawn toward all that is ordered, structured and serene.

From top left: Beautiful room found via Pinterest and annoylingly uncredited (I shouldn't even be repositing but it is is so pretty and I am in desperate need of beauty right now), Boxes by Hay, Cushions and Blanket by Lucky Boy Sunday, gradient concertina files by Hay, tapestry map by Rita Smirna.

If all else fails I am going to make like it is the 16th century and wear linen shirts for the next two weeks, which at the time people believed did away with the need for bathing by making one look put together and respectable regardless of personal hygiene. Margaret Howell here I come.

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Things that I'm into at the moment (from top left): amazing outfits over at The Dreamy Little Picture Show, Yue natural raw leather backpack at Pour Porter, APC quilts, this girl photographed by Face Hunter, reading about the New Balance factory over at Another and tracking down another pair, admiring Ashley Helvey and Miles Pederson's house over at Design Sponge (and as a result looking into getting a Chemex to make my own coffee), counting down the days until Von Sono and Colenimo SS12 arrives in store.

This week I've also been baking my own bread (I used the Easy Little Bread recipe from 101 Recipes and the name fits, it is really easy), eating lots of cabbage (it is in season now and is sooooo good. boiled in water with a bit of stock, add kale and other vegetables as desired. mmmmmm) and have taken up ballet again after far too long.

far away

All images from my Instagram (ally__oop). From top: flowers for Christmas, homemade granola, Christmas lunch, lovely branding, homemade soft cinnamon buns (Nordic Bakery recipe), Pompidou Centre, breakfast for a birthday boy, Staircase-III by Do Ho Suh at Tate Modern. 

Happy 2012! I've spent the last few weeks since my last post celebrating Christmas in London. I roasted a chicken for the first time which made me feel like a grown up. Other Christmas activities included a mid-morning run, watching Love Actually and getting drunk on champagne. Boxing Day I went to Paris for a wee break with my boyfriend and his little sister who is visiting. We ate far too many pastries, wandered the streets, visited tourist attractions, discovered new favourite places and revisited old haunts. Then I had food poisoning for five days, including New Years Eve, which was truly unpleasant and probably too much information but I am suspicious of blogs that present life as always perfect and happy and shiny. 

Now I am recovered I feel like the year has finally begun and so I've been reflecting on the past year, a year in which I lived in Paris, Glasgow and London, with a quick trip back home to Australia in between, graduated triumphantly and then fell into a dark hole of self doubt after struggling to get work of any kind (let alone something vaguely related to my field), and eventually found a lovely job and settled into life in the capital. It was also the year I finally figured out what I want to do with my life. 

For this year my resolutions are simple. I want to be extra thrifty and save, I want to eat well using mostly seasonal ingredients from the farmer's market, I want to make more things myself (from cards to cakes to coffee), I want to continue exploring London in my spare time, I want to read everyday (real books not on the internet), I want to take serious steps in my work life. I also want to stop thinking so much and listen to my instincts and impulses a little more. 

fantasy home

Johanna Burke's Brooklyn apartment captured by Freunde von Freunden.

One day I would really love a home just like this. With faded paint and bare concrete, hanging potted plants, antique rugs, grand windows, lots of bookshelves, a long soft couch for reclining and reading and of course a lovely feline companion. A house for hosting dinner parties, catch ups over tea, for working, relaxing, living. 

I would jump at the chance to live in a place like this, but somehow I am also content with where I am now, in a cosy but slightly chaotic sharehouse that reflects my current stage of my life. I am no where near where I want to be professionally. I still have lots of ladders to climb up and down, challenges to face, people to meet, decisions to make, all that. Just as it takes time to build a career, it is going to take time to build a home of my own. Time and lots of work. So for now I am embracing the flaws (and I mean real flaws, not artfully distressed walls like above) like the ramshackle collection of furniture no one else wants, the bad carpet, the ugly set of drawers and the shower with a mind of its own, and dreaming of that one day.

lalala

From top: Ambatalia dish towels,  Sarah from the Sun x2, Peta Kruger necklace from Alice Euphemia, Topshop Boutique bomber, Motion blanket by Chevalier Masson, Sidsel from Fashionpolish - a blogger with amazing style, amazing hair and who smiles! (rare quality indeed).

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After wrapping hundreds of presents at work I have turned into a wrapping machine and now want to get some lovely linen and cotton fabrics so I can wrap my lunch to take to work, wrap gifts for my own loved ones and wrap up my summer clothes that are in storage for the winter. This is also a new thing for me - I've never put away clothing for a season as Melbourne's weather is mild and varied throughout the year so just about everything is used all year round. London is a different story and I am enjoying the distinct seasons and the changes in my routine, in clothing, in food, as the temperature drops.

I've been absorbing a lot of information the past week, but not really processing or responding to any of it. I was going to write 'inspiration' instead of information, but wanted to make a distinction between the act of mindlessly consuming an endless stream of images and ideas and the act of really engaging with content. Sometimes the internet is too much. I think that is why I started this blog, to take stock and give myself a space to collate all the things that I am really drawn to, the things I want to look back on and reference later. Essentially I was, and still am, tired of feeling like I am falling down the rabbit hole when browsing the world wide web. I am now aiming to approach the internet with a more careful, considered and structured attitude.

With that in mind, I've really been enjoying slowly going through the archives of Hunter Gatherer and I'm Revolting this week. Also reading lots of interesting articles found on Arts & Letters Daily (via So Much To Tell You). I was also really excited this week to discover Fashionpolish (via Discotheque Confusion) and Sarah from the Sun (via Childhood Flames). I am also loving the return of Vliin. Falling down the rabbit hole is perhaps worth it after all.

kinfolk

I recently discovered Kinfolk - a magazine that is the result of a collaboration between over forty artists and which focuses on entertaining and more specifically simple, casual, intimate, small-scale entertaining with an emphasis on the the home, on friendship, on nature and on sharing. The well-written, interesting articles are accompanied by beautiful photographs and the whole thing gives you a warm fuzzy feeling (and I'm sure this feeling is amplified when it is read in hard-copy rather than online). Volume One was released this past summer and I am eagerly awaiting a reprint of that issue as well as the next volume. 

From Brian Ferry's musing on the joy of going to a coffee shop alone, to Nikole Herriott and Tara O'Brady's perfect ingredients, and recipes, for a weekday catch-up, Youngna Park's tribute to the humble cloth napkin and Sarah Winward's top tips for flower arranging, the magazine is filled with ideas, information and inspiration. I am now super keen to host a dinner party, or a brunch, or a picnic, or all of the above and more - which I think is the intention.