Sorry!

I know! I am rubbish, but January has been full of illness and busy times etc etc. I'm rubbish.

To apologise I have some treats for you, my army of faithful followers. Firstly, here is a brilliant track from a brilliant band, and I think that the lyrics really reflect what life is actually like for a lot of people, particularly young people, in the midst of the recession. They're just about to release their third album and I think that they're a brilliant example of some of the great music that Britain can still produce when we set our minds to it. Plus, BF and me are going to see them at a really intimate gig in Coventry and they're filming it for the first single off the new album so look out for a tall, Germanic looking man. I'll be at the back, by the bar for health and safety reasons.

Also a little graphic design treat: saw this on the internet over the holidays and thought it was a cheeky way to get young people to think about safe sex. Check out the website to see more of the campaign.

 More posts on SS12 trends and a relatively cheese free Valentine's gift round-up coming soon!

Teatowels 'To Dry For'!

Tea towels are no longer just sad little rags to dry the dishes with, these days they're absorbent works of art! I love me a good tea towel, so just between you and me, here's the name of my tea towel connection.

Just check out the designs on these beauties! All of them can be found here, along with many more little lovelies. Just think how happy the dishes will be!

Weekend Warbler #1: Nerina Pallot

Here's the bit of the blog where I will (hopefully) introduce you to a new artist or song you may not have heard before. Obviously it's all subjective, but I hope you like what I have to offer!

First up is Nerina Pallot. Her album 'Year of the Wolf' is out at the moment and you can get it here. It's definitely on my birthday music wishlist along with Lana Del Ray and The Black Keys because her sound is just great. Poppy but soulful. This is the first song I heard of hers and it's just so catchy and the words are beautiful.

The video is also great, shot in London and just really fun and happy! Hope you like it, look out for another Warbler next weekend!

No copyright infringement intended. This video is the property of Polydor and Nerina Pallot.

Cardboard, actually does now, rock!

Got this little treasure for BF this Christmas just gone, as the mp3 speakers we got for our hols were totally rubbish and broke after around three days usage. Sometimes you just need to play it out loud!

It's from a very cool UK based company, Suck UK who have a great deal of other things that make the things that are boringly domestic, for all you people who aren't interiors nerds like old E, that little bit more bearable.

It's so beautifully designed and put together, the sound quality and volume it produces is seriously impressive and it's quite retro to listen to an FM radio these days. Of course it'll be obsolete once the digital switchover happens but there's still the MP3 input to bring us joy. Besides all of this, there's a massive novelty factor about the radio coming from a cardboard box!

Plus, look at how utterly sweet it is!!

Mini gallery

Due to my background in graphic design, I particularly enjoy an excellent poster. Add in a big girly crush on music in general and in particular, a band called the Arctic Monkeys and I'm staging a one-woman 90's rave. The Scotland-Foster collection is currently in almost obscene health following the festive period, and His vinyl selection is also bubbling under.  Now all we need is a lottery grant to frame them and somewhere beautiful to hang them, like a big house in Primrose Hill or something. The BF could pop to the pub with Noel Gallagher and I could spend whole afternoons shooting dark looks at Gwyneth Paltrow's superior downward dog in our yoga class... until that sunny day, they'll hang out at the back of the wardrobe in cardboard tubes.

Now that I have this blog though, I can virtually display them for all our potential celebrity neighbours to marvel at!

That last one was a total steal. I was in Greenwich in November last year when, early for a beer and a burger and eager to finish off my Christmas shopping, I walked into The Flood Gallery in Greenwich Market. I had seen this poster on the internet and scoured ebay for one, to no joy. I had then seen it in The Flood Gallery earlier in the year, came back the next day and they'd sold their only copy (the poster is in a Limited Edition run of 500). Tonight though, I walked in and browsed the A section on the off chance and there it was! So my heart gave a flutter and the exact amount of money I had in my wallet did too and the poster and I have lived happily ever since. 

They are all so beautiful, now I just need a few screen printed Kylie tour posters to compliment them!

London Likes #1

So this is the first edition of London Likes, where I demonstrate some willingness to make the best of being in London. I'm a country girl, who likes change from a tenner for two pints of bitter so London doesn't suit me but, I suppose I should try my best to engage with it whilst I have the opportunity. If I sound ungrateful, I probably am but I am adverse to paying £200,000 more for a two bedroom terrace just because I'm within walking distance of a Starbucks instead of the sea or the moor. Just saying!

Absolutely Starving

Anyway, first up is a place I found when I was researching the decor for a corporate event. I spent nearly £20 in here but it was worth it. The choice of sandwiches, salads, drinks, cakes and desserts is amazing, even if it is more of an occasional treat than a regular haunt. The place is Absolutely Starving on Tooley Street, just outside London Bridge railway station.

I work in Stoke Newington, N16 which is in Hackey borough, up the road from Shoreditch - very trendy darling. Everyone has loadsa money and does pilates/ rides a bicycle with a basket etc. Naturally I simultaneously despise and envy these people, as going 'up North' every week allows me to escape the total shithole that is Thamesmead, but I keep it real by working for a living unlike these 'yummy mummy' types who spend the day on a cafe-crawl before attending a meditation and pottery class in the evening...blahblahblah.

Speaking of cafés though, there is a really great one literally down the road from the office, Fred and Fran. The coffee is 'artisan', which to everyone else means 'posh', but it is lovely stuff; strong with almost an aniseed aftertaste. Plus, they serve freshly baked goods all day long, chocolate and orange cake, raspberry muffins and my favourite, pear and chocolate brioche. I get a lot of cooking inspiration here and recreated the Guinness and Ginger cake to excellent effect (I'll pop up a recipe soon). So all in all, a cracking place if you can get past the blockade of Land Rover prams and wispy haired, double - barrelled brats. I normally take-away to prevent a greenish tinge from creeping up my marsh-dwelling face.

Fred & Fran

Last but not least for this rather 'foody' post is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub, just off Fleet Street. Food isn't fantastic here, apart from the fish and chips with mushy peas obviously, (and steer clear of the meat pies due to the Sweeney Todd associations!) but the ales and bitters are good, and cheap. The real draw here though is the long history of the place, and the fantastic original interiors. Apparently, Dickens drank here and you can definitely tell.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

So, there are definitely some great places to go in London. But the Best Pub in the World prize goes to the now deceased Upin Arms, Reading, with The White Hart, Stockport and The Skiving Scholar, Plymouth also worthy contenders.

Moxycreative 'Dumb and Dumber' Poster

 I bought this poster from Moxy Creative in Canada for my BF's birthday, as it's his favourite film, and in his eyes, the greatest film ever made. I have some issues with this but keep them to myself and instead, look graciously upon his silly face.

They have a great site worth checking out, but remember to roughly halve the prices as they're in C$.

Moxycreative also have a new range out, Touristique. My favourite is New York but I suppose it's more appropriate to go with London! They also have Paris, Toronto and Amsterdam. In my 'Mind House' I have all of them and they sit above Mad Men style clocks which show their corresponding times in my spacious and well lit attic design studio. Perhaps I shouldn't have told you!

Garden Museum

Last year I started volunteering at the Garden Museum because I love pottering around outside and saw it as a good opportunity to get out of the house and meet new people. It would also give me a bit of extra time with the BF because he's currently working six days per week and we really only have Sundays together, and even then it's mostly used to clean!

Anyway, there's not much to do there at the moment during the winter months, but I'm really looking forward to getting back into it, meeting up with the Saturday team and getting my delicious (and free!) veggie lunches from the cafe there.

The Museum does some really great work with the community and I personally feel it's a really important resource for reconnecting urban dwellers with nature, and this urban dweller in particular!

Next time you're in London, it's definitely worth a visit, and I might even see you there!

Egg and Tomato Breakfast Muffins

The BF got me this amazing cookbook for Christmas Kitchen Garden Companion. It basically tells you all you need to know about growing and cooking produce, and so therefore taps straight into my aspirational fantasies about living in The Good Life.

The first recipe I am attempting from it is little egg and tomato muffin/quiches for Sunday breakfast tomorrow. Thought I might do them tomorrow morning but realised that however positive and organised I might be, I will never be a morning person!

I've got BBC 6 Music on my brand spanking DAB and a fresh apron on, so let's get started!

30g melted butter

12g fresh fine breadcrumbs

4 free range eggs

125g ricotta cheese

1 pinch salt

black pepper

3 spring onions finely chopped

1 tomato finely diced

1tsp grated cheese

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.  Brush sides and base of a muffin tin with melted butter. Divide breadcrumbs evenly between holes and shake off excess.

2. Food process eggs and ricotta to form a smooth batter. Scrape into a mixing bowl and add spring onions and tomato, as well as salt and pepper.

3. Spoon mixture into tin. Bake for ten minutes. Then sprinkle cheese on top of each muffin and bake for a further 10 minutes. Leave muffins to cool for 3 mins before easing them out with a palette knife. Leave them to cool on a cooling rack. They will deflate slightly.

Store in airtight containers in the fridge for 24 hrs. Reheat in an oven at 100ºC.

Mine come out in about three minutes - I'll let you know if they're any good!

*Update* Muffins came out well, quite tasty with the onion and tomato. More quiche-y/omlette-esque than muffins, but tasty and light nonetheless!

Welcome

Hello!

I thought that with the new year and everything, I would have a go at this blogging lark, since I read enough of them myself!

I don't know if anyone will even read these, but even from a totally vain POV it'll be helpful to get a sort of visual distillation of my likes and style. 

The name probably requires some explanation; I like me a good eiderdown, they're warm, retro and they remind me of Mary Poppins. In the delirium of post-xmas detox and in an effort to start the year as I mean to go on, I decided to give it a positive spin. Who would read a blog called Eider Down, it's a little too melancholy for where I'm aiming to pitch this thing, so instead, Eider Up!!

As for content, I'm going to stick recipes, music and movies, what I'm up to, what I'm currently liking and, in an effort to make the most of living in the capital despite my loathing for it, London Likes - a few things I've discovered here that aren't so bad.

Anyway, hope you'll read and enjoy!