Amanda | The Womens Room

Food, We Are ReadingOctober 31, 2011

The Fat Duck Cook Book by Heston Blumenthal

By Amanda

Another book sent to us from The Book People, this one’s a mighty weighty tome in every sense. Fans of Mr Blumenthal will love the history and background read here, how he and his team came together and changed the… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 29, 2011

Christmas party planning: Wishwantwear

By Amanda

Are you frantically planning your Christmas party outfits? Nope, us neither, but for those who are thinking about it and anyone who has to do ‘seriously dressed up’, has limited funds and doesn’t want to buy a party dress they… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 27, 2011

We Love: Merchant & Mills

By Amanda

We are indebted to TWR reader Louise who tipped us off about the fantastic Merchant & Mills, suppliers of beautiful patterns, accessories and general important stuff need for sewing. The website is like a little bit of heaven if you… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 25, 2011

We loved the Experimental Food Society

By Amanda

The Experimental Food Society held a ‘Spectacular’ last weekend, which both Jane and I went to not JUST to eat cake, although we did a lot of that, but also to see what some of the foodie nerds were up… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 23, 2011

Perfume for stationery geeks: Comme des Garcons

By Amanda

When @tamsinblanchard tweeted that the new Comme des Garcons perfume smelled of brown tape and industrial glue, we knew we had to get a sample to test, after all, this could be the smell of stationery in a bottle and… Read More

Art, Culture & Craft, We Are ReadingOctober 22, 2011

The Liberty Book of Home Sewing

By Amanda

Another nice book sent to us from The Book People and another good one for the Christmas present list is the Liberty Book of Home Sewing, written by Lucinda Ganderton with photos by Kristin Perers and clear illustrations on how… Read More

Out & AboutOctober 21, 2011

Vintage Red Cross

By Amanda

The team at the British Red cross sent us a nice invite to the opening of their first ever Vintage Shop, which opened yesterday in Shrewsbury. Sadly we couldn’t go but they sent us pictures and now we wish we… Read More

Home & Garden, We Are ReadingOctober 19, 2011

Beautiful Chickens by Christie Aschwanden

By Amanda

This week the nice crew over at The Book People sent us over this gorgeous edition on chickens. It is the perfect tome to buy anyone who loves chickens but can’t keep them due to space issues, the photography is… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 19, 2011

Frieze 2011 fashion part three: shoes, skirts and trousers

By Amanda

Back at Frieze….. Last year it was all about knee high boots, this year we got more shoes and shoe boots. I just adored the wedges below, worn with Issey Miyake Pleats Please skirts and wrinkled fine cotton coloured socks.… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 17, 2011

Frieze 2011 fashion part two: colour

By Amanda

Colour was very evident this year and clearly the whole colour blocking trend is having an effect on our confidence to ‘live it up’ a bit when it comes to brights too, neons, orange and shots of yellow were everywhere.… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 17, 2011

Frieze 2011 fashion part one: dresses

By Amanda

Frieze Art Fair VIP day -held on the first afternoon of opening- is a total treat to go to. Yes the art is great, but the clothes! A joy to behold for the 40plus woman. OK, so lots of these… Read More

Art & CultureOctober 15, 2011

Frieze art 2011: TWR highlights

By Amanda

Frieze art fair, which is on its ninth show this October 2011, is a must for any art lover as it brings together, under one roof, an extraordinary mix of contemporary pieces from the best global galleries. As Grayson Perry… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 13, 2011

We love: Old Town

By Amanda

Tipped off by TWR reader Dinah Hall we love the look of Old Town, a reassuringly trend free clothes website selling useful and beautifully made items with a wholesome, slightly nostalgic air. If I tell you that a couple of… Read More

Food, We Are ReadingOctober 12, 2011

Odd Bits by Jennifer McLagan

By Amanda

Another -the newest- book by Jennifer McLagan, who is the sort of cook I think I’d like to be friends with. We reviewed Fat earlier this week, well Odd Bits is a timely review of many of the cheaper, weirder… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 11, 2011

Estrid Ericson and Svenskt Tenn

By Amanda

I recently went to Stockholm and came across Estrid Ericson (above), founder of the spectacularly colourful home furnishing empire, Svenskt Tenn. If print and colour are your thing, then you probably know about the late Estrid’s lovely flagship store and… Read More

Food, We Are ReadingOctober 9, 2011

Fat by Jennifer McLagan

By Amanda

The sub title of this book is ‘An appreciation of a misunderstood ingredient, with recipes’ and on reading that I immediately wanted to read it. I am a natural fat lover, butter, lard, suet, olive oil, I love all of… Read More

Health & HappinessOctober 9, 2011

Thank you Easy Living!

By Amanda

It’s official, we are ‘ witty and stylish’, we know this because Easy Living said so! I know! Isn’t that nice of them? We are in the Gone Surfing section of the October copy, as one of their best blogs!… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 7, 2011

We love Eileen Fisher

By Amanda

The American brand Eileen Fisher will be more familiar to our US readers (hello Kay, yes we know you live in it!) than our UK ones, but it’s great the brand has opened in London because it totally understands our… Read More

Things We LoveOctober 6, 2011

Breakthrough Breast Cancer: Warehouse pink lace top

By Amanda

As we mentioned, October is breast cancer awareness month and the Break Through Breast Cancer charity has organised for a number of brands to produce items that they donate (usually at least) 10% to the charity for every purchase. The… Read More

Middle Aged MumOctober 5, 2011

Middleagedmum.com: a weekend away with the girls

By Amanda

Last weekend I went away to Paris with my group of treasured girlfriends, all 50 plus. We’ve known each other since we were 18 and the secret of our long lasting adoration of each other is that we know, deep… Read More

Fashion, We Are ReadingOctober 4, 2011

Diane Vreeland The Eye Has To Travel by Lisa Immordino Vreeland

By Amanda

This book is an essential by for Diane Vreeland fans. If you have Allure then you have to buy this, no question. It’s an assessment of Vreeland’s career as an editor on Vogue, Harper Bazaar and at the Metropolitan Museum… Read More

Things We LoveOctober 3, 2011

Breakthrough Breast Cancer: Sainsburys

By Amanda

If you have to buy a cast iron casserole dish this month, then make it the Sainsbury’s Breakthrough Breast Cancer heart shape one at £30. Firstly, Sainsbury’s gives a 10% donation to breast cancer research with every one of the… Read More

Health & HappinessOctober 3, 2011

Menopausal weight gain: an actual fact

By Amanda

I learnt an actual fact about weight gain during the menopausal years of (approx) late 40s to mid 50s recently. It comes from a very good book by Debra Waterhouse called Menopause Without Weight Gain, and the fact is… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 1, 2011

More about Moths: Angela Flanders Moth repellent

By Amanda

When we were at the wonderful Fashion Fantasia last week, we met Angela Flanders (who is Kate’s mum), purveyor of gorgeous perfumes and….moth repellent. Now, you know how we feel about moths, so when we spotted the above notice in… Read More

Novels & Biogs, We Are ReadingSeptember 29, 2011

Books from Peirene Press

By Amanda

What a joy this little publishing house is, which kindly sent us three of its titles last week to read. Firstly, its an independent publishing house producing interesting European works of literature (not too many of them around). Secondly,… Read More

Fashion & BeautySeptember 29, 2011

We shop Marks & Spencer accessories collection

By Amanda

It’s a while since we spent any time in M&S as we’ve been a bit disappointed in the clothes over the last season or two, but things are looking up on the accessories front. We liked the new Westfield Stratford… Read More

Home & GardenSeptember 27, 2011

We love: Falcon enamelware in Christmas red

By Amanda

Anyone who went to the London Design Festival this weekend might have visited the Falcon enamelware pop up shop in The Tramshed. We are rather fond of this bakeware in a retro-fabulous way, I have a number of the baking… Read More

Home & GardenSeptember 25, 2011

What a difference a year makes: student friendly chocolate cake

By Amanda

Goodness what a difference an academic year makes. This time last year we were learning to let go of middleteen as he went nervously on his way to university. This year he is driving himself back, has stripped our house… Read More

Novels & Biogs, We Are ReadingSeptember 23, 2011

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel

By Amanda

Did anyone else see the wonderful Culture Show Special with Hilary Mantel last week? Amazing. We have already read Wolf Hall, which we’re pleased to hear is getting a sequel, but hadn’t read Beyond Black. I am currently half way… Read More

Things We LoveSeptember 23, 2011

Grenson for women

By Amanda

We’ve wittered on about the long awaited launch of Grenson shoes for women, we’ll they are here at last. Fabulous quality, comfortable from the very first moment and beautiful….we are in love. Available on line, if you are in any… Read More