26/05/2009 by admin.

Had a fabulous day at college on Friday.  It was time for us to learn about Lighting Design!

We were introduced to a lady (or girl depending on how you look at it) called Izzy Kerr who is a Senior Designer at Light IQ.

I’d like to bore you with all I now know about lighting plans, but I will save you all on this occasion. One thing I did learn is that lighting designers aren’t big fans of electricians. In fact, Izzy managed to spend most of the day slagging them off.

I should probably mention at the point that both my Dad and my Brother are electricians. As are lots of their mates…

So, slowly but surely, throughout that day I became increasingly annoyed with Izzy’s attitude. ‘Electricians are useless if you don’t tell them exactly what you want.’ STATE THE BLEEDIN OBVIOUS WHY DON’T YOU!!! I think most of us are inclined to agree that if someone doesn’t tell us what it is that they want, we’ll probably do it wrong. Crazy notion I know, but there it is. ‘Electricians don’t ask, just do.’ For the record, I’m fairly sure my family of electricians actually ask their client for more details if something isn’t clear. If the ones Light IQ are using don’t, here’s a small suggestion. HIRE DIFFERENT ELECTRICIANS! (Preferably one of my lot if you want the work done properly).

Funnily enough, I was not the only person who noticed this annoyance. And even funnier, I’m not the only one with an electrician in the family.

Lesson of the day: treat your tradesmen with respect and give them proper instructions if you want a job done properly, they are not mindreaders.

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26/05/2009 by admin.

Spent a lovely day out yesterday with an old friend of mine. We intended to shop until we dropped at the newish Westfield Centre in London. I was on the search for a few treats, to get over the pain in my wrist (carrying shopping bags probably didn’t help) and generally have a wander.

Firstly, I have to say, Westfield is really not that great! The building is impressive (as is the newly updated Shepherd’s Bush tube station) but that’s where it ends.

Apart from a few tiny boutiques, the centre is very ‘high street’. This is not a bad thing, but considering the size of the shops, you’d be better off goingto Oxford Street where you’d get far more choice. The Topshop was tiny, Zara was scary (looked more like Primark with clothes strewn everywhere), and we didn’t even bother going to ‘The Village’ (high-end designer bit) when we found out that most of the shops sold accessories instead of clothes!

Biggest disappointment of the day was the Dwell shop. Whoever designed the interior of that shop needs a serious talking to, or possibly just be shot! (Sorry, but blog are all about opinion, please don’t judge me) I love Dwell’s affordably priced furniture, and woudl probably still buy it through the catalogue or website, but if that shop had been my first taste of Dwell, I would have run screaming…

I’d l0ve to show you pictures, but I didn’t take any in fear that my camera lense would break in shock! The interior is ridicuously dark, which in turn does not help show off their dark furniture (of which there is a lot). The layout is very cluttered, there’s way too much on the ground floor to try and take any one piece in. I couldn’t bring myself to go upstairs, but I suspect the story continues in a similar vain.

Good points:

• Staff are lovely
• Furniture is still lovely

So, if you happen to be popping over to Westfield, have a look at Dwell and then tell me if I’m overreacting.

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17/05/2009 by admin.

Hello everybody

This is probably going to be a short post this week, as my damned RSI has kicked in again. For those of you who have never experienced the joys of Repetitive Strain Injury, it’s not an rubbish excuse to get out of the office. Oh no. It’s actually really bloody painful. Especially when you’ve got it in both wrists. Hence, I’m not supposed to be using the computer at all. Oh well…

In between studying kitchen planning for college this week (fun collecting lots of kitchen brochures) I’ve decided to try an convince the hubby that the lounge needs sorting out and the pine needs to be eradicated. I’m sure pine is lovely in the right setting, but despite that fact I live in what my Mum calls a cottage, I live in a town. One of those new-fangled things with supermarkets and trains stations. Hence, the pine needs to be gone. We inherited the pine furniture from the previous owner who was downsizing (or couldn’t be bothered to sell the sideboard, chest of drawers, laundry bin and beside table) and haven’t quite got round to selling it. All of it is on eBay as we speak (check it out here) . It’s lovely solid pine, but it’s got to go. Any help would be appreciated!

Once it’s all gone of course, we need to decide what to replace it with. I love the idea of slightly French, baroque luxuriousness/shabby chic like this

[caption id=”attachment_115″ align=”aligncenter” width=”300″ caption=”I especially like that chest of drawers in the corner.”][/caption]

My hubby is extremely fussy it turns out and thinks it’s all a bit too light (and therefore easily ruined, he’s really doesn’t get the whole shabby thing) so I managed to drag him to Ikea, just to get an idea of his style.

Looks like he’s a fan of walnut and chrome things (Ikea no use there then). So I’m thinking that Dwell might be able to help.

[caption id=”attachment_116″ align=”aligncenter” width=”300″ caption=”Bit too big…”][/caption]

So it’s looks like, in addition to the white(ish) sofa and off white(ish) walls we’ve got, we’re going for a boutique hotel stylee! Will let you know how it all goes, fingers crossed we’ll be finished in time for our BBQ at the end of June.

Now before I head off into the world of wine and painkillers, here’s a little tip for you. You can get a massive Designer Pint Colour Card Pack (normally £5.99) for free from www.designerpaint.co.uk if you quote this code: CCP409 at the checkout.

Happy painting!

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