Home & Garden | The Womens Room

Home & GardenFebruary 14, 2012

Reader’s kitchens: Lee from Edinburgh

By Amanda

Who: Lee Randall Where: Edinburgh What do you do in your kitchen and who with? I live in an Edinburgh tenement flat on the South Side of town, and three of my four rooms overlook The Meadows — which is… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 29, 2012

Railway shelving

By Amanda

I live close to a railway line in London, where about once a week -more in the summer- we get a Pullman coach steam train whistling through, billowing cotton wool clouds of steam and chuffing nostalgically. It’s thrilling to hear… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 23, 2012

Starched and Crumpled (via Selvedge)

By Amanda

Still on the subject of vintage fabrics and mending (see previous posts) I found this lovely supplier of antique fabrics, clothing and haberdashery via the January issue of Selvedge magazine. Run by the well travelled Jennifer-Bristow Smith from her refurbished… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 22, 2012

How to own a dog without the mess: Dog Lamps

By Jane

If you long for a dog but have a partner who hates them, a relative with an allergy, or simply can’t bear the thought of all that fur and mud (and believe me at this time of year it’s muddy… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 15, 2012

American Stuffers, Xtreme Taxidermy and pet preservation

By Amanda

I was alerted to the spectacularly entertaining American Stuffers, A Show About Pet Preservation (Animal Planet) by @BelgianWaffling and @Randallwrites, both of whom tweeted about it this week. It’s a show about taxidermy, well to be truthful it’s a show… Read More

Home & Garden, Out & AboutJanuary 10, 2012

The London Fields Brewery

By Jane

Just when most people are trying to detox, or at least stick to the reccommended two alcohol free days a week, we are banging on about artisan distilleries and micro breweries. Instead of doing the ‘no drinking in January’ thing,… Read More

Home & Garden, Out & AboutJanuary 9, 2012

Sipsmith gin in Hammersmith

By Amanda

Gin is having something of a moment in the spotlight, with lots of small artisan distilleries popping up all over the place creating hand crafted gins lovingly distilled in copper stills. There was an excellent Radio 4 programme on the… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 8, 2012

Frugal flower ideas for January

By Jane

If you are experiencing the January blues and missing the added sparkle that Christmas fairy lights brought to your house, pop out now to your latest petrol station and buy some flowers, because believe it or not, garage forecourt flowers… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 7, 2012

New word for ‘waste not want not’: mottainai

By Amanda

I’m still in ‘Japanese make do and mend’ mode (after Monday’s post on Kintsugi) and have another recycle-y word for you, Mottainai, which is Japanese for ‘waste not, want not’ or the beauty of respectful reuse of fabrics until… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 5, 2012

New word for ‘make do and mend’: Kintsugi

By Amanda

New Kintsugi, gold repair from Humade on Vimeo. This could be the year we all look a bit more seriously at fixing stuff rather than throwing things away and buying new. Typically for such an artistic people, the Japanese have… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 26, 2011

We’re on our holidays…..back January 1st

By Amanda

We are on our Christmas holiday break, we will be back on January 1st with more fun and nonsense. J&A… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 22, 2011

Your Christmas Cocktail

By Amanda

It has been the Year of the Cocktail for me this year, it must be an age thing. Half way through the year I gave up wine completely because it was making me feel awful and I swapped to (mostly)… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 21, 2011

Try this: lavender hot chocolate

By Jane

The Christmas holidays are all about lighting fires, watching films, curling up on the sofa and eating comfort food. And what could be more comforting than a steaming mug of hot chocolate? I’m not a fan of instant or shop… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 14, 2011

Dressing your door – Christmas wreath photo round up

By Amanda

The Christmas wreath on the door is the domestic equivalent of the holiday shop window so this week I swapped my usual retail observations for front doors. There are some lovely ones around, from the huge and beautiful (Knightsbridge -things… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 12, 2011

Martha Moments: wrapped amaryllis bulbs for Christmas

By Amanda

I was in Amsterdam last week for a flying visit and spotted these lovely Christmas-wrapped amaryllis bulbs. Now, the Dutch know a thing or two about bulbs, as we all know, but I think this is the first time I’ve… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 10, 2011

Scented Narcissi for Christmas from the Isles of Scilly

By Amanda

We are indebted to TWR reader Cilla for tipping us off about the Scented Narcissi company from The Scilly Isles, which is one of her favourite places on Earth. When our family went (on her recommendation) we felt like we’d… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 2, 2011

Martha Moments: make your own Christmas decorations

By Amanda

We come across some very clever people when we do shop visits, and this week was no exception. Over at Nom de Plume, co owner Pippa was busy putting up her home made Christmas star balls as window dressing. “They… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 19, 2011

Alternative Christmas shopping: Christmas Fairs

By Jane

This year M.A.D and I are attempting to buy all our Christmas presents locally. Hackney is home to more artists than anywhere in Europe and has so many unique and interesting shops and markets popping up all the time, it… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 18, 2011

We love Sally from Undercover notebooks

By Amanda

We are self confessed stationery geeks here at TWR, as you know, so when we stumbled across Sally Leonard-Morgan, who runs Undercover UK, a stationery company that makes fabulous notebooks, paper goods and other wonderful leathery-things, at a press day… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 15, 2011

Alternative Christmas shopping: give a skill

By Jane

It’s that time of year when one starts to think, ‘this year I am really going to make an effort to find some interesting and unusual Christmas presents, I might even make some’. Then in four weeks time you find… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 12, 2011

Christmas decorations, a quick round up

By Amanda

It’s ok to start thinking about Christmas decorations now, mostly because if you don’t , they will all have sold out. Earlier this year (July in fact, Christmas seems to go on for ever if you are a fashion hack)… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 10, 2011

HRH The Prince of Wales’s pop up Christmas Shop

By Amanda

Should everything go ‘bottoms up’ for our current heir apparent, he could definitely make it as a retailer. I’m not talking about the Duchy Originals brand, although heaven knows that’s been successful enough, I’m talking about the Highgrove range, which… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 5, 2011

The Flower Appreciation Society

By Jane

Thanks to WR reader Hilary for telling us about The Flower Appreciation Society, which is now bookmarked in our favourites bar. Founders Anna and Ellie have backgrounds in illustration and textile design and a mutual love of flowers. They make… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 31, 2011

Dear Jonathan Adler, can we move in please?

By Amanda

In our ongoing quest to find shops we’d like to move into, we’re adding the New York SoHo store of Jonathan Adler to the list, which I visited when on holiday there last week. Jonathan Adler is a talented ceramicist,… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 30, 2011

One for the Christmas list: Aggie’s Family Cookbook

By Jane

Sometimes when celebrities publish cook books (or clothing ranges!!) one wonders if they actually do roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty? Well this time, we can genuinely vouch for the fact that Aggie’s Family Cookbook is no… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 28, 2011

A literary night out

By Jane

This week I spent a very inspiring evening at the Shoreditch House Literary Salon (despite the unorganised and rude bar staff – don’t get me started!). A free event which is open to everyone, simply join their Facebook group and… 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

Home & GardenOctober 24, 2011

Dog shopping and when Archie got his ‘hair did’

By Jane

Owning a dog opens up a whole new world of shopping needs and as a trend forecaster I foresee massive opportunities for specialist services and high quality products for this market in the future. I have recently met some lovely… 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