Up The Wooden Hills

Hello friends and happy Friday! Today I want to introduce you to handmade clothes specialists Up The Wooden Hills. Based in Sweden, Up The Wooden Hills create beautiful hand-made clothing that has a "dreamy, pretty and playful" quality. All garments are made with cotton fabric from Liberty of London and are made-to-order.

The focus is on simple, pretty day dresses in pastel hues and delicate patterns. Although there are some smock tops and skirts too.

I love the simplicity of these well-cut dresses. I can see myself literally living in one of these if I owned one - so easy to wear.

My personal favourite design has to be the CAITLIN dress below in Liberty's classic 'Poppy and Daisy' print. It has a beautifully simple design with two front pockets and self-tie waistband. I literally wouldn't need another dress again!

If you like what you see head over to their website to see more or to buy. Also, Up The Wooden Hills have a great blog, so make sure you check that out too! Have a great weekend and see you here Monday!

{Images: Up The Wooden Hills; Image one: Beata Rydén}

Owls by Matt Pugh

I'm a big fan of 'lived-in' homes with lots of personality and character. For me, accessories go a long way to achieve this homely look, so when I discovered designer Matt Pugh and his colourful wooden owls, I knew I wanted one for my own space. They're lovely pieces of design and also add a bit of fun to a room. The cute wooden owls are available in either oak or walnut, and the colour detailing comes in either white, pink, gold, brown, red, blue or green.

Aren't they sweet? They would look lovely perched on a bookshelf. These owls below are made from oak.

And these ones are made from the slightly darker wood, walnut.

They're £30 each, which I think is very reasonable for a piece of design made here in the UK. If you like these you can find out more about Matt and his other designs over on his website.

{Images: Matt Pugh}

Inspiring Interiors: Victoria Smith's Home

Back in April SF Girl by Bay blogger Victoria Smith shared some snaps of her beautiful home. I remember bookmarking the page straight away as I knew I would want to look at these photos again when I was ready to decorate my own space. I absolutely LOVE Victoria's bohemian style, everything she picks seems to resonate so well with me, from her colour choices, to her love of florals and to her edginess. Today I want to share a few of the images with you, both as a record for me, and as some eye candy for those that haven't yet seen it. I hope you like her space as much as I do!

Victoria has an amazing collection of oil paintings dotted around her house, they're even in her bathroom! It's this guy in her dining room though that I like the best. He adds so much character to the space.

I love the mix of texture and pattern in Victoria's home. The cow hide rug and the floral cushions in the dining room, the sheep skin rug and Moroccan leather pouffe in the living room, and the blackboard wall and colour pop blanket in the nook.

What an amazing space! To see the photographs in full head over to SF Girl by Bay. All photographs were taken by Bonnie Tsang, a lifestyle photographer based in LA. If you have instagram you should definitely follow Bonnie on there as her snaps of food and daily life are so pretty.

{Images: Bonnie Tsang via SF Girl by Bay}

Midweek Treats: Madeleines

As the weather was unbearably hot in Munich on Monday I stayed in and did some baking. Armed with my trusty The Art of French Baking book I set about choosing something from all the lovely recipes. I decided on the French classic Madeleines as I had bought a Madeleine tray earlier in the week- for some reason I'd never been able to find one in the UK- and wanted to try it out. Here's how they turned out:

Because I'm currently living in rented accommodation and cooking equipment is limited, I had to make these without the aid of a pair of scales- nightmare! Luckily they turned out well.

Here's how to make them if you fancy trying them out:

Ingredients:

125g butter, melted
150g caster sugar
150g plain flour, sifted
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170˚c (higher for non fan-assisted ovens) and grease your Madeleine tray
• Whisk the eggs and the caster sugar with an electric whisk until they have tripled in volume
• Fold in the flour, butter and vanilla extract
• When a nice consistency, rest mixture in the refrigerator for around 2 hours
• Spoon the mixture into the moulds, making sure to not fill them quite to the top (they rise a LOT)
• Bake for 6-8 mins (the recipe I was using said slightly longer but I made 3 batches and the ones that were baked for around 6 minutes turned out the spongiest (and nicest!))

*recipe makes 36 small Madeleines*

Let me know how you get on if you decide to make these as well!

{Image: Laura Blanksby, using Instagram; recipe adapted from The Art of French Baking, Phaidon}

Mini Moderns

If you like mid-century design then you are going to love today's post. Mini Moderns are a British homeware brand that sell everything from wallpaper, ceramics, rugs and cushions all with a distinct mid-century feel. The most popular design in the collection is the Whitby range, shown below.

The Whitby design comes on wallpaper, cushions, fabric, tea-towels and porcelain (mugs, plates, cups and cake stands) and comes in a few different colours. Another favourite is the Festival range, inspired by the Festival of Britain in 1951 when the government organised a national festival celebrating everything from design, art and technology to help revive Britain in the aftermath of war.

The whole of the Festival crockery range is fantastic so if you like the pretty tea cups and saucers above then click here for the full collection. Finally, if like me you can't resist a floral, then have a look at the pretty Alice collection. Below is the wallpaper in mustard, though if yellow isn't your thing they do it in pale blue, grey and dark grey as well.

I quite like the idea of having this sunshine yellow wallpaper in a little nook in my future house. Maybe in the office so it can brighten up my working day? What do you think?

{Images: Mini Moderns}

Inspiring Interiors: Beautiful Blues

Hi  guys, happy Monday! What are you up to today? I'm currently sat indoors hiding away from the blistering heat we have here in Germany today (32 degrees!), it's just way too warm for me and my pale freckled skin! Therefore I'm spending my afternoon doing a bit of blogging and a bit of baking, yay!

The first post on High Street Home this week is a house tour of designer Fiona Douglas' home. Fiona is the founder of Scottish textile brand Bluebellgray who specialise in printed floral textiles. Her own work is on display in her home as well as lots of blue tones, Fiona's favourite colour.

I absolutely LOVE Fiona's kitchen. The pops of colour from the chairs and artwork work so well against the aqua walls.

Fiona has painted the names of her favourite shades of blue on the stairs which I think is a great idea. A lovely focal point with a personal touch.

A colourful comfy armchair adds a cosy element to the kitchen area.

The bedroom colour scheme has been paired down slightly with the addition of plain white walls, though there are still lots of colourful accessories dotted around.

I'm not usually a fan of the colour blue but Fiona has used the colour really really well. I love how there is a lot of colour around but the space still looks really elegant and grown up. What do you think?
Most of the floral designs in these images (light shades, cushions, upholstery) are by Fiona's company Bluebellgray so if you like them head over to her website.

{Images: David Cadzow}

Street Style

I'm in no way what you'd call a 'fashion person' but I admit I do like looking at street style photography. I often think the way we dress on a day-to-day basis is way more experimental and fun than when we 'dress up' for a night out. I regularly read The Sartorialist and Topshop's tumblr page for ideas when it comes to style as I find they offer a lot of inspiration, both from the people they photograph to what they're wearing. Below are some of my favourite snaps from the Topshop site for inspiration for the coming months. I love all the black accessories from clunky boots, leather bags and polka dot tights- all 'must-haves' for me for next season.

{Images: Topshop Tumblr}

Dreamy Vintage Bedrooms

Today I spent an afternoon happily catching up on my favourite blogs and pinning over at Pinterest. It was a productive session and I've now got lots of ideas of how I want to decorate my flat. The prettiest of the lot has to be these bedrooms below. Feminine and full of vintage charm.

I love the idea of using a favourite item of clothing as a permanent display object. I've seen a lot of rooms where pretty dresses have been used and I think they add a lot of interest and colour to a space.

The reason I've included this last image is that I LOVE the contrast between the dark, rough floor and the dainty lace throw. So pretty!

You can see all these images over on my Pinterest boards at pinterest.com/laurablanksby.

{Images: Pinterest}

Summer Pastels

At the back of my diary lives a list I call the BIG LIST. On it are things that I like but can't afford just yet. So there are things like a Falcon enamelware bake set, an Ercol studio couch and a set of Diptyque candles amongst other things. A good thing to have, you might think, never having to worry when someone asks what you want for your birthday/Christmas etc, except that the list grows almost on a weekly basis...eek! The latest addition to the list comes in the form of a pastel-hued satchel from leather specialists, The Cambridge Satchel Company.

These new pastel satchels are available in lemon, rose pink, lavender and duck egg blue but are strictly limited edition so you'd better make up your mind sharpish about which one you want! It's 100% the rose pink for me but I have a bit of a thing for lavender as well at the minute since buying this pretty Topshop nail polish. Click here to view the full pastel collection.

If you live around the Cambridge area, Cambridge Satchel Co. are having a Clearance Sale this Saturday and Sunday (11th & 12th August) at the Guild Hall so it might be worth popping down to grab a bargain. If not, the company are also offering free UK delivery on all satchels. For details just head over to their on-line site.

{Image: The Cambridge Satchel Co.}

Flea Markets in Munich

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I've moved to Munich for the summer. Even though it's only for a few months, while the OH works on an important project, I'm still excited to embrace German life and get to know the city.

Of course, the first thing I did when I found out I was temporarily moving out here was to google local car boots and flea markets. The first one I found was Auer Dult, a flea market held three times a year, selling everything from local food produce to antique educational wall charts. It was with great delight that I discovered the market was on during my stay so I wasted no time in getting there and headed down straight away.

The market had a good mix of everything vintage and new, though, disappointingly, there was a large amount of JML-style stalls too. We promptly avoided these and focused on the antique and vintage sellers nestled in the heart of the market. 

There were lots of lovely designer-makers at the fair selling their wares. This bright stall was one of my favourites with the cute fishy bowls, plates and cups. However, due to lack of space, I had to leave empty-handed.

There was lots of vintage furniture up for grabs, including this super cute wicker chair. I was quite smitten with that wicker basket too. I've wanted one since watching Moonrise Kingdom (if you've seen it you'll know what I mean!).

There were lots of crafty stalls around too which was great for me, though less great for the OH as he waited while I rummaged through box after box of ribbon and material.

To top all this flea market-y goodness off, there was a mini fairground complete with ferris wheel and carousal. And I even made a new friend.

I'd definitely recommend a browse around this market if you are planning a trip here. There was a great vibe to the place with the fairground rides, traditional Bavarian food stalls and lots of vintage goods. It's only on three times a year though so make sure you check the dates!

{Images: Laura Blanksby}