AT THE TIME of writing, Lockdown 3.0 has been announced in England for the foreseeable future, signalling an abrupt end to the holiday season that lasted a little longer than past years, simply because the new year fell on a Friday morning. We decided that we might as well begin work again today rather than on the first of January as other years ...
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Not certain why it took me so long to finally catch up on Pride and Prejudice, the 1995 TV series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. It was just added to Netflix this past July, so perhaps that is the reason. I've been watching an episode a day during cardio sessions on the exercise bike and had no idea it was so charming and can now see why the world has been swooning over Colin Firth ever since ...
We are city people, P and I. Before Valencia and before Edinburgh, we lived in a huge metropolis filled with millions of people. We barely knew our neighbours in the tall building where we lived, and the ultimate luxury was having an elevator all to ourselves on the way up to our condo after a long day at work in an office complex in the west end ...
IT ALL BEGAN a month ago, when someone we knew sadly lost her husband suddenly. We wanted to send flowers, of course, so I found myself searching online for florists that would deliver in her area and would not disappoint. I'd been here before, searching the internet for flowers to say thank you, only to find out later that the bouquet that arrived didn't look anything like the photo ...
RECENTLY ORDERED A new chunky cable knit sweater and it's the warmest, cosiest thing. In fact, if it were not for cosy jumpers and crackling cottage fires, autumn would be nearly unbearable with its damp, cloudy days, bare branches after all the leaves have fallen, and inevitable end in winter ...
IN THE PAST WEEK, we ate a little too much, drank a little too much, and watched a lot of holiday films. I did something that was very strange to my being, a thing very foreign to me, a thing normal people refer to as relaxing. For the first time in a very long time, I did not work for five days straight. It was wonderful, actually.
We happened upon the lovely home office of Atlanta-based blogger Kristin Jackson quite by accident, and immediately fell in love with all of the wonderful details in the room: the architectural elements and lucite, the skirted table and leopard print. But by far our favourite part was what we thought were wood built-in shelving that turned out to be freestanding bourbon cabinets.
EVERY YEAR, around this time, it's a TIG tradition to share holiday inspiration. While this year is definitely not like other years, we still have to make the best of it. And so, this year, we share with you pretty festive wreaths on windows and doors, Christmas trees along sidewalk cafés in Paris and sweeping garlands down balustrades in the Upper East Side; evergreens draped in fairy lights, snow in the Cotswolds and more...
IT TOOK THREE separate home deliveries of puffy winter coats to finally find the right one and it was of course, the warmest one I could find, for it looks like it might be a very long cold winter. The final selection, was not, however, a quilted one, as the quilted one I really liked was forever out of stock ...
THIS WEEKEND we put up the Christmas lights and watched The Holiday with wine and popcorn. Yes, it might be a little soon, but this year needed cheering up, so we're beginning early. We're also wrapped up in the holiday mayhem that comes with tracking down missing packages and making sure everyone receives everything on time and are in the midst of beginning a brand new ...
WHILE SEARCHING for a festive wreath for our front door, ended up coming across many wonderful florists on Instagram who we've begun following. The first sculptural garland we discovered was London-based florist Kitten Grayson's holiday installation...
WE HAVE BEEN eating Christmas chocolates for the past couple of weeks already, and may have popped the cork on a bottle of cava or two, well ahead of holiday festivities. The news has been all Brexit and vaccines and an alarming rise in the number of cases (even in our area, which has been lucky so far) and to say that it's been a difficult year would be an understatement ...
LAST WEEK, IT RAINED all day on Thursday and Friday, and by Saturday, cabin fever. So we walked in the sun, which finally came out, and joined a festive food stall set up outside the pub down the street where flatbreads, mulled wine, mince pies and caramel shortbread were on the menu. On Saturday night we watched the film ...
AT THE SAME time that I was contemplating wearing sequins over the holidays even if everything ends up small and socially distanced and low-key, a package arrived at the door containing an extra-fancy pair of sweatpants. Now that I (and everyone in the world, it seems) have been spending our lockdown days in sweatshirts and hoodies, it seems foreign to being wearing silk skirts and strappy heels, or button-up blouses and midi dresses.
AFTER I LEFT the (traditional) working world for good two years after I began This Is Glamorous, every night, before I went to sleep, I found myself really looking forward to the next morning. That first cup of coffee, reading, working at my desk in my pyjamas. It was, and has been ideal for a long time.