After spending two weeks in Austria researching with my Columbo G hat on, today is my first day back home. I love being among my familiar things again. It’s a nice feeling isn’t it?

Just this morning in my kitchen, the simple act of boiling an egg felt so lovely. Please don’t think I’ve gone into hausfrau overdrive. Believe me, I haven’t. But there’s nothing like having the right utensil for the simplest thing. It gives you that warm glow of satisfaction, it makes the smallest cooking task (I know I’m stretching the term here with a soft boiled egg) easier and more enjoyable. And if you’re anything like me, more often than not the most you get out of preparing a lovely meal is the joy of using lovely utensils and a sense of tremendous relief that you’ve managed to cook anything at all.

Not so long ago, I didn’t consider my kitchen utensils much, but bit by bit I realised that a few little things made me feel more connected to my kitchen. My pink Labour and Wait enamel pot was just the beginning…. so let me come clean here about my love of Labour and Wait where I bought it…

x 1 – I have a crazy love for anything that comes close to being kitchen related. If I so much as see a chopping board, I start to swoon. So imagine when someone in Labour and Wait says… ‘this is a ceramic blackbird pie funnel which allows steam to escape while you bake a pie!!!’ It’s all I can do to stop myself from keeling over.

xx 2 – I also have a crazy love for wool blankets and quality notebooks and pencils, I think it’s more the feeling I get when I curl up against soft wool or run the outside bit of my hand (I don’t know what it’s called) against lovely new notepaper.

xxx 3 – If I were asked to Goddess-ify a kitchen I’d definitely include a huge wooden table, lots of cookbooks full of beautiful images and many, many things from Labour and Wait. Oh my, but it has to be one of my favourite London stores.

xxxx 4 – I’m crazy about Labour and Wait’s buyers. Owners Rachel Wythe-Moran and Simon Watkins spend such a long time sourcing each piece that it’s more like a well curated gallery of well designed objects than a traditional hardware store. Oh and the prices are also really, really good which is nice for a change.

xxxxx 5 – I have a crazy love for their useful basics, from brushes and brooms to enamel pots and pans, classic stationery, industrial lighting and vintage Welsh blankets (I know I mentioned them already didn’t I?)

xxxxxx 6 – I love the packaging on their products (especially the old glass bottles of cologne and candles and toothpaste etc.) And the way they wrap everything so beautifully (they even sell long Japanese paper cutting scissors which lets you cut wrapping paper in a snip.

xxxxxxx 7 – And have I told you about my longing for the rope knot doorstop??? It so needs to come home with me. It’s very nautical, speaking of which….

xxxxxxxx 8 – Have I mentioned their Breton tops??? I haven’t. The secret here is the teenage sizes are a better fit than the adult ones (on me at least) and cost a fraction of the adult price.

Does it seem like I’m getting carried away with all the x’s in this post? It does right? You’re right. But they’re kisses for all the lovely things that are thankfully affordable.

Okay, off I go. Have a super day and let me know if ever you visit this beautiful store, it’s oh so full of goodness. Big hugs!

Labour and Wait, 85 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DJ Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 6253

Today I’ve decided to post this pictures of Mimi Berry. I don’t post street style pictures very often, but that depends on you as well. Do you like street style? I do very much but in this instance it’s more fashion photographed ‘on the street’ of someone I’d met indoors whose look I instantly loved.

To explain, I went to visit Mimi at her bag boutique, the bag boutique everyone loves in London right now. Yeah… right now…. which means as usual I wanted everything, but while I was browsing I was also mentally asking myself if I had in my wardrobe items that would suit all her different bags.

So yeah, the thing I love in these shots is Mimi’s Fishing Smock. (Yes if you told me a few weeks ago that I’d be getting excited about a Fishing Smock, I’d say yeah, sounds nice and all, but I can’t see it working somehow). Am I right?

Except Mimi grabbed one of her own designs… a small hard leather satchel called Little Peggy and slung it across her body and I instantly loved the contrast between her brown leather bag, the navy utilatarian Yarmo Fishing Smock (which she purchased at Labour And Wait nearby on Redchurch street) and the little gold buckle on her Mimi Berry brown leather belt and matching gold rings.

But it was her lace-up Rae Jones saddle shoes teamed with her Gap jeans which I wanted the most! Wow, aren’t they SO BEAUTIFUL? Look at the laces???? Even I, (and I rarely wear this style of shoe), was totally smitten by them. I was ready to pluck them from Mimi and skip quickly down Cheshire street.

So in short, today I was inspired by Mimi’s styling. And it made me think…. no designer put this idea together, Mimi totally owned this look. I have no idea why, but it works. Okay, I’m gonna try and see if I can get a Fishing Smock and style it up my way. Big hugs!

X In other news, the shop Mimi is standing outside is Mimi Berry (I blogged about it yesterday). It’s in East London. As well as Mimi’s really great bag collection you’ll also be able to find some Rae Jones shoes there from time to time. Biiiiigggg huggggsssss!