The Kate Spade website is one of my happy places (it’s been a long-term love affair, as recounted here). Like a moth to a flame, I can’t resist its vibrant colours, clean lines, and it’s – how can I put this – grown-up chic. And the best news of all? Kate Spade is coming to these shores… finally! Their pop-up store in Covent Garden was the talk of the town last year, and now I can’t wait for this gorgeous brand to put down some permanent roots this side of the pond (in my dreams it will be next to Anthropologie on Regent Street). Here is some KS goodness, all zingy colours and elegant French Riviera. Enjoy, my friends:

{1. Essex Scout bag / 2. Wish shoes / 3. Hot to Trot gold bracelet / 4. All Wrapped Up bow belt / 5. Mercer Street Mini Lacey / 6. Gold Coast Shimmer Small Maryanne bag / 7. Sugar Hill Medium Seraphine / 8. Make a Day of It bangle / 9. Ivana sandals}

When I posted this amazing West Sussex beach house, I promised that I would shortly feature a ‘best of’ the ridiculously lust-worthy locations from 1st Option. And I’m a girl true to my word… so here is a selection of rooms that caught my eye. Ok, so the majority caught my eye, but it was something about the subway tiles, the purple velvet sofa, the cashmere rugs, the pink clawfoot bath and Arabian nights by the pool, that especially stole my heart. Do you have any particular favourites from this line-up?

{images via 1st Option}

All hail King Colin! Massive congratulations to him and The King’s Speech team for a right royal clean-up at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. And well done to Natalie too, a) for a more than deserving win for her incredible performance, and b) for looking a million times more elegant than most non-pregnant women. Although I haven’t seen the whole ceremony, I get the impression that Anne Hathaway never strayed far from shrill during her debut as host, and that James Franco appeared half asleep. Better stick to SNL in the future, guys.
Now, for the important part, the dresses. It was a strange year, really. On the whole most of the stars played it very safe, apart from Cate Blanchett, who can carry controversial dresses off. Jennifer Hudson, not so much. I made sure I didn’t look at other’s opinions before forming my own, which made for quite amusing reading afterwards – some critics made similar comments, but others were effusive in their praise for dresses that I strongly disliked. But that’s personal taste for you! Here’s what I thought of the frocks on show this year:

Natalie Portman – I had a feeling she was going to pull something special out the bag. And knowing that you’re pretty much a shoe-in for one of the night’s big awards means you must pick a show-stopper, because that photo is going to be around forever. It’s got to be timeless, but also have an edge so as not to be boring. Bingo! Also, nice tie-in wearing Rodarte after they designed the fabulous Black Swan costumes.
Sandra Bullock – Yes! Love it. Fits her to perfection (someone’s evidently been off the carbs since the New Year) and an overall feel of Old Hollywood. I’m extra happy when Sandy B gets it right, because she’s one of my absolute favourites and in another life I’m positive we’d be best friends.

Mila Kunis – Mila + Elie was always going to work for me. It was an inspired choice for her. On someone else it might have had a touch of your grandmother’s net curtains, but on this lady it’s a winner. I’m going to stop now, because too much gushing is tacky.
Halle Berry – This picture makes me want to drop what I’m doing, hot-foot it to the gym and stay there until I look like this. Berry has made some dubious red carpet choices lately (*cough* Golden Globes), but she’s back on top with this one. Marchesa is one of my favourite designers, mostly because of their penchant for a ruffle, and the colour and fit is spot on here. Can’t stop looking at it.

Michelle Williams – Thank Chanel for that! I thought she’d struggle to recover from the Valentino gaffe at the Golden Globes, but she looks exquisite here. It works perfectly with her delicate skin-tone and elfin hair. Welcome back!

Reese Witherspoon – I grappled with this one. I wanted to heart it, because I heart her… but it’s just a safe dress, an ok hair-do and cute earrings (albeit a tad Angelina from last year). But it’s a long way off the wow factor of 2007. Although that one did need to be a corker to drive home the “in your face, Phillippe” message.
Cate Blanchett – My head’s screaming, “hate it, it looks ridiculous” , but there’s another voice telling me that it sort of works on her. It may look like something that Lt. Uhura might wear to the Starship Enterprise Summer Ball, but I can’t bring myself to completely slate it. I think it’s the pleats. I do like a good pleat.

Amy Adams – I actually said “meh” in my head when I saw this. I kind of see where she’s going with it, but it looks too fussy with the jewellery on top. Love the loose waves and healthy glow, but Adams has the potential to look a million dollars (literally), so this choice falls a little flat with me. It would have worked better at an office Christmas party and she was trying to pull Dave from Accounts.
Hailee Steinfeld – Turning up looking like an extra from Black Swan is not going to improve her chances of taking home a prize. By the way, this is blatantly jealousy talking that she gets a custom-made Marchesa gown and she’s about 11.

Gwyneth Paltrow – Gwynnie, your hair looks amazing, and well, that’s it. You look a bit like Daryl Hannah’s body double in Splash. I know you’re no Sofia Vergara in the curvy stakes (and that’s largely down to genetics… and doing yoga in your sleep), but this isn’t the best choice for your body type. I see this and all I want to do is introduce you to something called a Mr. Kipling Cherry Bakewell.
Jennifer Hudson – Just because orange is the shade du jour, doesn’t mean you find a shiny, badly-fitted version of it and wear it to the Oscars. This really wasn’t the best time to get it spectacularly wrong. Or expose a two-tone chest. I say this with love, because I know she can do better.

Penelope Cruz – You know what this reminds me of? An item from one of those solitary shops on the high street (called something ironic and misspelt, like ‘Klass’) that sell cheap prom dresses. The ones that are always deserted, smell a bit funny and you only went into because you wanted a plain tank top for 2 quid. And you quickly leave because you fear for your life. Yep… that’s it.
Nicole Kidman – Seriously, Nicole, this dress? It looks like an expertly-folded napkin with some festive glitter sprinkled on top… and that she took a pre-Oscars nap, woke up late and shoved her hair up because she didn’t have time to wash it. These people have stylists, right? Or a mirror would have been a start.

Anne Hathaway – I’m at a loss for words. Actually, I’m not. She is selected as the event’s co-host (why they didn’t pick Bullock is beyond me) and she opts for this number? It looks like the kind of thing your friend has asked you to wear as her bridesmaid, “because it’s a winter wedding and everyone does red” , and you haven’t got the heart to tell her you hate it, so instead suffer through the barrage of photographs and people telling you that you look lovely even though you know for a fact that you look like a badly-wrapped Christmas present with a load of excess paper bunched up at the back with sellotape. Which I’m guessing is not the look she was going for.
Scarlett Johansson – Scar-jo, if you wore this to show Ryan what he’s missing, then you wore the wrong dress. You would have done better coming in one of the Mango frocks you’ve been modelling so beautifully. And not scrubbing off the stamp from the club you went to last night? Leave that to Paris Hilton.

Hilary Swank – I know you weren’t up for an award, but please revert to the ‘Hailee Steinfeld’ memo.
So, tell me dear readers, what do you think? Feel free to contradict everything I’ve just said… I’d love to hear your thoughts!

To start the week, I wanted to bring you some inspiration that I’ve been seeing a lot of lately… gallery walls. The beauty of displaying art, photographs or possessions in this way is that there’s no order to it. In fact, the more randomly the items are placed, the more interesting the effect is. I think it brings a real homeliness to a room, whether you’re showing your favourite memories, your hobbies or just a mishmash of images. Unfortunately in my current flat the walls are harder than Alcatraz to infiltrate – I therefore have a handful of pictures hanging on nails that are precariously embedded in about three millimetres of plaster. I worry every time someone so much as sneezes. But this is an idea that I’ll definitely use in future homes:

{images via pinterest, tumblr, House Beautiful, design*sponge & LivingEtc}
What do you think? Are you a fan of gallery walls?

Happy Friday everyone! Spring has definitely been in the air this week, with the temperature in the capital yesterday hitting a practically tropical 15°C. This weekend I’ll be staying in London, catching up with friends at a restaurant that I’ve been dying to try out since it opened, working hard on getting {weddings you fancy} ready to launch next month, and hopefully watching either The King’s Speech or The Social Network (I know, I’m so behind, although I’m a still freaked out by my Black Swan experience) before the Big Event on Sunday night. For me, though, it may be a little more about the dresses, I have to be honest… you can expect a full report on the Oscar’s red carpet fashion on Tuesday. Best of luck to Colin! I know he’ll do us Brits proud.

{images via pinterest, Into the Fold, Coralie Bickford-Smith & This is Your Kingdom}
1 – I’m always jealous that the US gets to see all the Oscars action live without having to stock up on Red Bull and pull an all-nighter (oh, memories from uni)… but a pre-Oscars party could be a solution. Invite friends round and don your swishiest gowns, serve Champagne cocktails and popcorn, and have your favourite films playing in the background whilst you choose your best-dressed stars from past years (stand-outs for me have been Jennifer Lopez in 2003 and Reece Witherspoon in 2007). For an event planner I’m extremely disorganised, but I will do this next year!
2 – If you’ve never been on Camilla’s fashion blog ‘Into the Fold’, then please do so when you get a chance. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I was 14 I had acne issues, was sporting hypercolour t-shirts and really knew nothing about myself. This 14-year-old, on the other hand, writes like a pro features journalist and carries a Mulberry Alexa like, “yeah, it’s my school bag, what of it?”. Maybe being American-Danish is some magical hybrid combination that grants you natural wit and maturity in your teens, but whatever it is, she’s hilarious. For example, she named her Tumblr account ‘Astrid’ because, “I wanted to name my future baby girl that, but then I changed my mind, but then I wanted to name SOMETHING Astrid, you get the idea”. She might not be to everyone’s taste, but I love clever writing and random commentary, and ‘Into the Fold’ has it by the bucketload.
3 – Shiny pink peep-toes with a fancy schmancy heel. Seriously, Monsieur Louboutin is really spoiling us with these beauties. All they need is skinny jeans, a white tank top and a blazer, and you’re good to go. Also, I’m trying out a little experiment: my blog as a handy and not-at-all-cheeky gift list for my 30th birthday in June. Somewhere for family/boyfriend/friends to pick up SUBTLE hints. I’ll let you know my findings.
4 – Love these vintage book covers by Coralie Bickford-Smith – not only do they look gorgeous on your book-shelf, they’re a great way of encouraging magazine fiends like me to read the classics. I don’t think the fact that I’ve read no.75 about 243 times makes up for my performance on the rest of this list.
5 – When I came across this beautiful website, I soon realised that it was created by a girl who used to live with a good friend of mine (Congrats on the site, Hannah, what a fantastic idea!) – small world. TiYK came to be after two friends agreed, “how wonderful it would be to create an online community where people could both discover and share invaluable insider snippets of local knowledge.” It currently covers London and a few other counties (but I’m sure it will grow to encompass the whole of the UK), and readers can discover hidden gems in their region where they can “eat, drink, walk, think, potter, ponder, snuggle, shop or sleep”. Celebrating what’s great about Britain? I’m all for it.

{images via prphotos & pinterest}
I recognise that I have a verging-on-the-unhealthy obsession with OP and her fashion choices, and I did try to find someone whose ensemble I preferred this week… but I went with my motto: If in doubt, go Palermo. The fact that she sat next to Pixie Geldof at LFW, who looked like she’d just rolled out of bed and dressed for the gym, only highlighted the immaculate outfits (oh yes, there were many) of this New York socialite. So, please Olivia, dress down next week… give the other ladies a chance. Finally, here’s a bathroom that may not have a bath (and usually a bathroom without a bath is a deal-breaker for me), but I’m a big fan of the double basin action and that rug. Mornings wouldn’t be half as bad if you had this to greet you.
I hope you have a superb weekend whatever you’re doing and wherever you may be…