view from hoher kasten....

unlike most of the locals we trecked up this swiss mountain in brulisau via the cable car, i blame my healed footwear rather than my lack of motivation towards steep walks.....a swirling cloud surronded the top of the mountain with the beautiful scenery below peeking through now and then. i'm told on clear days you can see for miles, and we had a peek of this through the live camera feed a few days before our 'treck'. these purple and white flowers were beautiful...a gorgeous dusky colour, and very similar to my feature on winter purples below!

at the top of the mountain is a restaurant with 360 views - lovely!

cuteable feature: snow white...

thanks to lynsey at cuteable for featuring my snow white necklace!

particularly liking this cute mirror case from Milchmaedchen also featured on the cuteable post

(posh) tea....

being a tea snob, travelling to europe always fills me with a minor fluster of worry about where i can my daily cup of brew. now, i know you can get tea in europe but....it's just not the same. this time we came prepared and brought with us a cute caddy of fortnum and mason's early grey as a gift for our host and some spare tea bags for us. i love that f&m is a little boutique style shop, and particularly adore their branding with the lovely minty coloured victorian style (?) pattern. i must say that my personal tea favourite is twinings chai.... and even twinings tastes, and looks different out of england.


this cute tote from ratherwhimsical reminds me of holiday tea where twinings comes in special buttercream colour branding, and i love the fact that the lining of the bag has been matched to the colour of the twinings teabag sleeve!

hundertwasser....

on our way to bodensee (lake of constance) we stopped off in staad to see one of hundertwasser's buildings. bizarrely located between an industrial estate roundabout and an aldi, this amazingly colourful and happy building jumped out of it's surrondings like a throbbing thumb. i adore his work, i think it's the apparently odd and random selection of colours, edges and heights that particularly appeals. the building feels very luxurious and bohemian inside, and a real inspiration - i'd love my garden to be a shrine to hundertwasser, full of rich glazes, bright gold paint and odd shaped mosaics. we brought the print below, and think we may end up going back for the 'save the rain ' print. the prints are particularly fab, having been created with foil pieces within the paper....you can't really see it in the print below but you can just about see it in the blue raindrop on one of the post cards i brought.

if you're not making it out to austria or switzerland any time soon you can get the prints from here though i would definately recommend seeing in person.

greetings from zurich....

my last visit to zurich saw me gorging traditional swiss cuisine - a fab raclette dish - at a lovely hotel in the old part of zurich. for those who have not experienced raclette before i can heartedly recommend it (although be careful not to overgorge as i did if you have a delicate constitution as whilst delicious, the raclette is also very rich). what i find particulary charming is the 'heater' on which you cook the raclette - similar in theme to fondue in that you prepare it in front of you - but you can also cook meats, veggies and fried eggs on the griddle should you desire. you add slices of this gorgeously nutty cheese onto little dishes and place them under the heater until it has melted and then drissle it all over your food - joy! this picture from savage_pictorial is a perfect example of this dish:

this visit we tried the less traditional but still delicious thai/chinese takeaway from the restaurant angkor - situated within puls 5. our visit to the loo revealed the lovely restaurant that we hadn't seen due to sitting outside in the takeaway section, and left us a little sad that we hadn't had our meal inside. we were particularly taken by the table decorated in traditional thai style with thai silk cushions and carvings, and situated within a koi carp pond! definately worth a visit if you are in zurich. the cushions reminded me of the gorgeous designs in pamelatang's shop...

everything in it's place....

first day in liechtenstein and already gorging myself on cheese....kasespaetzle on our arrival (which is the most wonderful doughy twiddly things smothered in melted gruyere and served with caramelised onions...i will try and post a photo next time i have these) and cheese and egg for breakfast! it's good to be visiting friends and enjoying unfamiliar surrondings. one of the things that strikes me most about liechtenstein and zurich (where we flew to) as being particularly different to the uk is the minimalist design...fewer teeny winding and cluttered streets, no 70's airport design with brown 'classroom' carpets, more so a wide tidy 'openess' both in the space and almost in the air, and particularly at zurich flugenhafen (airport). seeing this designated wheelchair space made me so happy....in the vastness of an aiport even wheelchairs have their place. i'm almost inspired to mark spaces for everything within my home, though fear i may be accused of being obsessive...

more sightings in zurich:

leather....

i struggle with this so much.....i love the look and feel and the gorgeously creative ways in which this is crafted into fab accessories....but as a vegetarian, i've been feeling very guilty about wearing leather. i don't eat meat for ethical reasons, i don't wear fur for ethical reasons....so is it hypocritical to wear leather, particularly when it's hard to be sure of the leather source? my hope for an more ethical meat industry - where free-range cows are well kept and when slaughtered all aspects used in a sustainable manner, be it meat or leather - is a distant hope....

so, 'ethical me' has been spying these shoes from vegetarian shoes in brighton. they are made from all synthetic material, so perfect for those looking for 'ethical' shoes. from seeing them in the flesh ('scuse the pun!) they also look fab and suprisingly like suede.

but, whilst i'm still weaning myself off leather, i've also been admiring these....

particularly this gorgeous butterscotch coloured leather laptop bag from hard graft (previously working class heroes). their shop is also full of gorgeous asphalt black industrial felt accessories. on a similar work + leather theme, this bag from neikodesigns is a fab combination of simple modern lines and classic style design - I particularly like the masculine touch with the chrome handle.


i have a very secretive outfit planned for an upcoming 'A' fancy dress party (to dress as something beginning with the letter A) and stumbled across this beautiful leather fairy mask from faerywhere in my fancy dress foraging

more news on the fancy dress outfit soon....

autumn creeping in....

i've noticed a morning frost starting to creep in during the cool and crisp 7am starts i've been having....though inevitably burned off quickly by the bright sun, it gives me hope that autumn is on its way. now, not that i am wishing summer away, but i adore autumn; the leaves, the tingly air and the warm knits!

is purple the colour this autumn? i'm particularly loving these gorgeous dusky shades from gaiaconceptions, schmanda and celia birtwell at topshop


had a sudden flash of memory today whilst browsing purple knits - a bright raspberry wool took me straight back to being 15, walking through the autumn woods, wearing my favourite raspberry thick roll neck jumper, hand in hand with the new boyfriend.....wow, how time flies, and yet still the memory seems so fresh. i still have the jumper, though it is a little out of shape now...have been thinking about turning it into a cushion cover, but i haven't quite been able to bring myself to cutting it up yet.....

i must learn this...

i'm flying to zurich soon, can i learn this dance in time? this really is a life ambition of mine.

come back sun...

i was stuck indoors with a sore throat when we had the lovely sun, please come back - i'm feeling better now! here's my dedication to our rare but beautiful english blue skies, the lovely turquoise rare sky bracelet

(off) white ceramic....

whilst in town yesterday trying on 'the' dress (see below - and utterly meddling things by trying on the matching skirt and a cute pussy bow top, i don't know which outfit i prefer now and definately can't afford both.....or one) i came across these yummy lace ceramics by linea in house of fraser - good prices too and the cake stand is fabulous.

i'm really loving white ceramics at the moment - alyssa ettinger's ceramics are gorgeous and i've admired her lovely knitware vases for a while now. the new vintage milk bottle casts are also really cute.

bristol based seaurchin's textural ceramics are stunning, and lots of pieces with gorgeous melted glass

to match the shoes...

i found this! it's gorgeous, fits perfick too.....so....should i? can i? oh i'm getting shopping guilt again...

could wear it with these though, a cute vintage fabric purse from ridikridonk....

of course the shoes, but in black....
and maybe this to finish?