Do you remember life before podcasts? Yes, obviously, is likely to be the short answer. Podcasting is still a relatively youthful medium, after all. In fact, it is exactly 20 years this month since the format’s invention: Open Source – a politics and culture discussion show hosted by the journalist Christopher Lydon – debuted in the summer of 2003, and is widely considered the first ever podcast. (Not that it was actually called podcasting at that point; the term was coined the following year by Ben Hammersley in an article for the Guardian.)
Increasingly, we’re surrounded by fake people. Sometimes we know it and sometimes we don’t. They offer us customer service on Web sites, target us in video games, and fill our social-media feeds; they trade stocks and, with the help of systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can write essays, articles, and e-mails. By no means are these A.I. systems up to all the tasks expected of a full-fledged person. But they excel in certain domains, and they’re branching out.
THIS WEEK’S Two Lovely Things features the romantic scalloped wicker accent. While we're known to love wicker for pretty much anything, in the form of scallops, it adds an extra-special charm. Here, the scalloped wicker accent comes in the form of a pretty window valence over white linen curtains in a cosy home office in the French countryside, and as a decorative element along the top edge of a wicker storage basket set beneath a console in a bright entryway ...
HAVE YOU ever looked at real estate listings for décor inspiration or just out of curiosity about real people's interior design choices? We do that often and sometimes come across amazing properties that we always share with you. This particular listing is a large, historically significant Grade II-listed manor house in Bitton, Gloucestershire that is over 5,870 sq ft with six bedrooms and sits on three acres of land ...
THIS WEEK'S Two Lovely Things features the front door curtain, something we've been coming across quite a bit recently, especially in English countryside décor. There are many reasons why one might hang an entrance curtain over their front door: as a beautiful way to frame the doorway, but also as a chic solution for reducing heat loss at home, as a heavy fabric curtain can help prevent cold air from passing through a draughty entranceway.
BITS AND PIECES of this quintessential English countryside cottage have been featured here before (without us realising that they were all from the same place) because Charlotte's Folly, as this Shropshire cottage is known, ticks all the boxes of the things we love lately: Stripes and Garden Rooms; Blue and Pinkish Brown; and of course, using Curtains Instead of Cupboards ...
PERHAPS IT IS the shortening days that fade even before 7:30 now, or the evening chill that flutters leaves and creeps in before suppertime. Whatever the reason, we find ourselves drawn to deeper, darker hues lately, and especially to a variation of pinkish brown (or brownish pink, if you like) that we seem to be seeing everywhere lately ...
WE ACTUALLY DISCOVERED the ultra-chic Paris apartment of Christine d’Ornano via Barbara, who used to write for TIG. d’Ornano, who works for the French botanical beauty brand, Sisley Paris, moved from London to Paris when she moved up in the company to the position of global vice president in 2018 ...
YOU MAY HAVE seen the work of Amber Lewis here before⏤snippets from her Instagram page, @amberinteriors, with wonderfully calm rooms in neutral tones mixed with beautiful textures such as marble and rough-hewn wood, plaster and linen and rattan ...
IT'S STRAWBERRY SEASON and Wimbledon, which can only mean one thing: strawberries and cream. Have you been watching the tennis? Also, Summer Solstice was just a couple of weeks ago and we said a bittersweet good-bye to the longest day of the year. Here is a little of our lately: homemade gazpacho and June rose; pints on a sunny pub terrace and wildflower meadows; friendly llamas and gin and tonics and so much more...
ON AN ESPECIALLY grim day around here, there will always be someone who mutters well you don't live in Britain for the weather. And while that may be true, it's definitely cosy when you're sitting in someone's home for tea where it's bright and warm.
BY PURE COINCIDENCE, I recently watched both It's Complicated, the 2009 film with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin; and Father of the Bride, the 1991 film with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton. Now everyone knows that when you watch Nancy Meyers films, the interiors nearly steal every scene (remember the charming cottage in The Holiday?), so when I came across the writer-director-producer's redecorated Los Angeles home, of course I had to have a peek, especially since she worked with LA-based interior designer Mark D. Sikes, whose work has been featured here many times.
BRIE AND PEARS at a picnic by the seaside at sunset; wicker lamps and wicker bags and sun umbrellas flapping in the breeze; Lisbon kitchens and wide-legged pants; summer sweaters with city shorts and trolleys full of lemons... These are the things of far-flung places but also of summertime, our very favourite time.
NOW THAT WE'RE updating the TIG Instagram a lot less, we thought we'd begin posting our favourite snapshots here, like we used to. Just because we're not using our social media platforms as much as before does not mean we've stopped making beautiful memories or taking beautiful photos, and since this is, in essence, the scrapbook of lives, why not here?
THIS BANK HOLIDAY weekend we saw The Batman. We're not normally into superhero films, but this one is with Robert Pattinson, so we made an exception. It was really long⏤nearly three hours! And maybe a little on the slow side? It began very promisingly with the gritty cityscape and a voiceover and Nirvana's Something in the Way drifting through the air but then lost its way ...
