As my kitchen build starts to resemble a real room, I am getting more and more excited about the finishing touches. We have had the electricians in for the first fix, and we have three dangling wires above what will be a great big island. Here’s what has been inspiring me to attach to them:
After the luxury of our first six days on the south coast of the island, we headed inland to Ubud, the cultural centre of Bali. It is a bustling place with loads to do, and the home of the island’s arts and crafts makers.
We stayed in a very nice hotel right in the centre of Ubud.
I went to Bali in April last year for a friend’s wedding. It was long before I started this blog, and I never thought my holiday pics would make it further than the eyes of my closest family. But, a good friend is on a world adventure and although she has been gone for months and she will now be a worldly-wise traveller with a knowledge that far outweighs anything I can impart, I did promise to share some of my Bali tips before she heads that way. So here we go…
Here in the UK, as we are all too well aware, it has done nothing but rain for what seems like months. Now I know this isn’t unusual as it always rains here, but this rain has even managed to surprise us Brits. There is flooding everywhere, and whilst the swans are happy, most people are not. But today, as a welcome change I woke up not to the rain lashing on the windows, but to see the sun straining to get through the gaps in the blackout blinds. There is nothing like a bit of sun to help you leap out of bed on a Sunday! And it couldn’t have come at a better time as I had planned to spend the afternoon with the family checking out Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens.
I am currently green eyed for Beni Ourain rugs, and I think one would be just perfect in my new kitchen/diner/sitting area. They have been used by designers for years, but recently they have been popping up in magazines, design blogs, and in the in the homes of the cool and chic more and more often. You would be forgiven for thinking that they are a modern creation, with their contemporary dichromatic colours, abstract patterns and robust creation. But they are in fact hundreds of years old.
In the deepest depths of the Atlas mountains of Morocco, the Beni Ourain tribe used the skills passed down from their grandfathers, and their grandfathers’ grandfathers to create rugs from the thick, long and curly wool of the Berber sheep to keep warm and protect themselves from the harsh elements.
Today, they are used more to keep our feet warm, and to look delicious in our homes.