A Room with a View

This was my view this morning when I woke up...  I am staying in a friend's apartment in Rome with the most incredible views imaginable. I have a panoramic view of the city from the 6th floor and there is a huge terrace on which to wander about and breath in the atmosphere. To my right is Piazza Venezia, directly in front is the Colosseum and in the opposite direction is St Peter's Square. I love this place!! Rome has a magical quality about it and I'd be quite happy to stay here pottering about on the terrace, doing a bit of gardening and not venture out into the streets at all... A Lovely Room in Notting Hill has made all this possible for me as I have a reciprocal arrangement with my friend whereby he can stay in my flat if ever wants a little visit to London.

Yesterday I watched the Royal Wedding on tv and enjoyed an italian take on the proceedings. Why is italian tv so unbelievably bad? It's hilarious. In the end I had to turn the commentary off as they were so over the top.  In fact watching the RW on youtube was the best bet as there was no commentary at all. It was all very moving and Kate looked  beautiful. The whole event was planned with such military precision it was awesome. We Brits may have slipped in the world power stakes but we know how to put on a good show. I felt a pang of wishing I was at home in London participating in the excitement with my friends and neighbours but then I looked around me and felt an overwhelming joy at being in Rome.

I set off on foot to see Piazza Navona which I adored the first time I was here. Then I headed towards the River Tiber and crossed over Ponte Umberto I, wandering up to see St Peter's Square before it gets taken over by a few million Catholics all wanting to be present for the beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1 at the Vatican. Rome is going to be a seething mass of humanity on Sunday and I will probably head to one of the gardens for some peace and tranquility... I let myself meander through the streets on the way home and found myself in countless lovely piazzas, one of which is pictured below

I have received instructions from Michal to research any new gelato recipes in Rome and will be applying myself to this task with great enthusiasm. There's nothing I like more than eating italian icecream than making it. My God it's delicious!!!! In fact I love most Italian food and will have to do a lot of walking for the week that I'm here to work off all those calories... probably best not to think about it.

I have brought sketch books, paints etc and plan to do some sketching while I'm here. Didn't bring a scanner with me (joke!) so any results will be posted on my return to London. Today I am meeting up with an old friend who I haven't seen for years and I am also meeting someone new so I am feeling happy and sociable. La vita è bella! 

Ciao

Baking with Michal

My friend Tonya very kindly invited me along to a cake baking workshop last week at a private club in London run by the super talented head chef Michal. A small group of us enthusiastically followed instructions given my Michal who first demonstrated what to do and then gave us each one recipe to follow. Tonya and I were given  lavender cupcakes (I am after all the cupcake girl!) and other recipes were tiramisu, chocolate mousse, strawberry cheesecake cupcakes, a very sophisticated pastry called pasta frolla for a fruit tart that also included pastry cream (really delicious) and peanut butter cookies. I have to say that it was the most fun I've had for ages and more than made up for the debacle at the cafe. It was great experience to attempt some quite complicated recipes with the expert guidance of Michal who bravely guided us through all the stages until we finished with a pretty impressive display of cakes and tarts. (see above). We all sat down at the end of the session and did our best to eat as much as possible of the delicacies with  several cups of tea... such hard work!! We ended up taking away bags brimming over with goodies and with an increased knowledge of the wonderful world of patisserie baking.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Time and time again I have to remind myself to keep life simple. It is so easy to get caught up in other people's madness and each time it happens I get my fingers burnt. ouch!! I'm feeling a bit annoyed with the whole cafe business. It all went a bit pear shaped as the owner (who is a perfectly nice woman but a bit all over the place) invited me to bake cakes at the cafe but also asked another much more experienced cook to do the same. On my first day at the cafe I arrived to find the table heaving with several huge, lavish cakes made by the other woman... not only were they extraordinarily over the top but done in a totally different style to those previously made at the cafe. I was a bit stunned and disappointed. After a couple of days it was pretty obvious that there really wasn't room for both of us and I aired my feelings to the owner. She did have the good grace to apologise but it took the wind out of my sails and I think we both realised that there was no point in me continuing to work at the cafe.

So keep calm and carry on is the theme this week. Instead of dwelling on the frustration of the last few days at the cafe I want to focus on what I've learned from the experience. It really wasn't my fault. The cafe setup was fairly dysfunctional as the goal posts were constantly changing and that actually created a lot of anxiety for everyone concerned. I think it was an odd way of managing people but I couldn't control this situation so it was best to walk away. I have at least learned how to make a pretty nice cup cake and I can work a bit faster now. I know that everyone makes mistakes and I'm aware that no-one set out to be nasty - it just didn't work out. I also know that it's not a good idea to let people take advantage of my creativity and I know that when I got excited about re-designing the cafe it was because of my enthusiasm for the project. In reality, there was no budget to make it happen and once I realised this I pulled back to save myself from further disappointment. It's a shame but there it is.

Keeping calm saves one from investing too much time and energy into things that lead nowhere. It's a really hard thing to do as it's so natural to get excited and positive at the beginning of a project. The problems arise when you have to work with other people and they don't have the same level of commitment or have a completely different agenda. I am learning how to not dwell on difficulties and try and move on with insight as opposed to fear and loathing! Good thing I have yoga to help me with that... also I know that I am extremely lucky to be able to have the opportunity to try out new work situations. It's a challenge and also quite humbling to set out on something new. I don't expect to be the queen of pavlovas just yet...

Spring colours

How lovely to see such fresh bright colours again. Spring has arrived! It's an absolute joy to wake up in the morning, look out the window and see the blossom on the trees and the buds opening at last in the warmth of the spring sunshine. I've been inspired to give the Lovely Room in Notting Hill a total spring clean. That includes the sash windows too, which means a bit of dare devil maneuvering on my part as I'm on the 2nd floor, but it's worth it to be able to see out again. I've planted new flowers in my window boxes and gone for some gorgeous pinks and oranges, inspired a little by India and also Marc Jacobs new spring collection!! After such a dreary and grey winter, I feel the need for some vibrant and electric colour...

I was given some lovely mini easter eggs and they fit nicely into the colour scheme as well. I'd better take my time eating them as they look so pretty in my room...

I just can't resist buying plants and flowers at the moment and as I don't have any outside space I fill my flat with more and more colour. It's an obsession. I like to think I'm as keen on gardening as the next person it's just that I do mine in window boxes and on every available surface in the flat. I'm very lucky as this flat has loads of light pouring in all through the day and plants love it here. One day I'll move somewhere with a garden, just not yet... I really still feel this flat is my home. Each spring I'm filled with renewed love for it and want to stay and give it a new lease of life.

Notting Hill is buzzing with activity at the moment and London is a great place to be. I've been cycling through the parks and enjoying the sense of winter melting away as we move into the new season. It's great!!! I'm excited about my new job in the cafe and life feels good. I'm not in any hurry to move anywhere else soon. I was very close to leaving London over the winter but I no longer feel that way now. I feel I've worked hard to create several new beginnings for myself and I want to see how they all pan out... I used to think it was impossible to plan anything in life. It always seemed too precarious to me. I think it was Woody Allan who said "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans" which makes absolute sense to me. However, I've learned over the years that you can try and make plans but you just have to be very flexible. It's being able to keep an open mind and having a fluid plan that enables you to ride over the bumps along the way. Maybe having learned to surf as a child helps me to keep going as well..
 

To quote Woody Allan again: "To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.” This sounds so crazy but it's true. I'm feeling a bit braver on that front as well and I feel that something positive is on the horizon. We shall see.... roll on the spring!

Celebrating the beauty of older women

My friend Harriet Walter has published an inspiring book that celebrates the beauty of older women. I worked with Harriet in the early stages of the book and I used my research skills to help her when she was looking for images. She commissioned some beautiful portraits by a variety of photographers and the end result is a really lovely book. Harriet's idea for the book was to allow photographs to show the gains in depth, personality and individuality that older women have traded for the flawless glow of youth. My very talented  friend Micaela Scimone photographed her 85 year old Aunt Amelia in Sicily and this wonderful image was selected by Harriet for the front cover of the book.

It's always really thrilling to get anything into print and I am very delighted to have one of my photographs included in the book (see above). This photo is of a stylish lady called Daphne Selfe who, at the age of 82, is this country's oldest model. Her modelling career blossomed in older age as she promoted the benefits of going grey.

"My hair is my fortune, it made me more striking," she says, "I don't feel a day over 60. It's fantastic. I'll continue modelling until they stop asking. I love it. It's fun and keeps me young. I was never one for wild parties and I've never had any need to get drunk."

I love her attitude and wish everyone could be as positive about growing older and having fun like her. She seems to have a natural self confidence and I think it is this quality that comes across in her work. She's having a really good time and is happy to show it.

"Facing It" is an uplifting and moving collection of photographs and reflections on growing older. It's available from Amazon and also the National Theatre bookshop.

The Mood Board

On the advice of an art director friend of mine I made a couple of mood boards to help me come up with ideas for the decoration of the cafe. It's a great way of doing research and putting together a visual picture of what you have in mind. I suppose I could also do a few sketches to convey ideas but this feels more tactile and I love doing image research anyway, especially if it's for something that really interests me. I would like the cafe to have a feminine and elegant feel to it but for it also to be fun and a bit eclectic. It needs to be somewhere that people would like to linger and feel comfortable enough to drink lots of tea and eat cake (of course).

The cafe as it stands is an old photographic studio and is perfect as a blank canvas on which to create this cafe. Light pours into the space as there are two huge windows at the front and that also means that we can create beautiful displays and decorate the glass from time to time if we feel like it... there's a little area outside where people can sit at a table and take tea and I would like to decorate it with flowers and plants so that it looks pretty outside as well.

Returning to the theme of the original post on my blog "home". I guess this desire of mine to decorate comes from the same place as wanting to create a home. It's definitely a creative urge and I think that although I don't have a family of my own I still like to create a feeling of "home" where ever it may be or whatever form it takes. When I am involved in making something I'm searching for the best bits of myself and I try to put these together in a form that other people can understand and appreciate.

I've always enjoyed giving parties as well. It's hard work but also very satisfying to create a lovely atmosphere and open up one's home to friends. That's my ideal way of being sociable. I don't do it that often but when I do I like to make sure there's plenty to eat and drink and that my home looks and feels a comfortable place for my friends to relax and enjoy themselves.  Oh God, I think I just sounded a bit like Nigella but so what... although she may have turned into a rather crazed domestic goddess I like the way she writes her cookery books. She encourages the reader to try out recipes and not aim for perfection and I'm all for that. It's about making something that looks and tastes lovely without falling into the trap of trying to make it perfect. My pavlova's a happy pavlova!

So hopefully this cafe will be a place which exudes charm and invites people to feel comfortable and be happy. Tea and cake, who could want more?

Sketching

 

I went to see the Imperial Chinese Robes from the Forbidden City at the V&A Museum and took my sketch book. Most of these textiles have never left China. They remained in the Forbidden City stores for hundreds of years, treated as sacred and carefully tended even though the Opium and World wars, Boxer and Taiping rebellions, and the dissolution of the entire imperial system exploded around them. As soon as the emperor, empress, concubines and their children died, their clothing was taken to the stores, never to be worn again, never exposed to sunlight and the various effluvia of humanity. The collection is so enormous that it is has taken almost a century since the opening of the Forbidden City to catalog all the pieces. That’s five generations of curators dedicated to the task.

The exhibition includes a wedding gown made in 1889 when Yehe Nara Jingen married the emperor Guangxu, which took three years to make. It is richly embroidered with dragons and phoenix, on red silk, the colour for weddings: the last boy emperor Pu Yi recalled that when he married in 1922, two years before he was expelled from the Forbidden City, the bridal chamber “looked like a melted red wax candle”.

The garments followed a strict hierarchy: bright yellow for the emperor, apricot yellow for his sons, Siberian sable only for the imperial family, pale blue for moon ceremonies, padded robes embroidered with narrow rows of gold to look like metal armour for travelling with an entourage of 3,000 people, 6,000 horses and 1,000 boats. Ordinary Chinese people could never have afforded the sumptuous dragon embroideries, but were in any case forbidden by law to use them.

I found the whole exhibition fascinating and would love to have gone back again but the exhibition ended the the next day. Keeping a visual record of what I've seen is becoming more and more important to me. I like that I now have more confidence in my drawing abilities and feel able to make a little sketch instead of taking a photo when I want to remember something. It feels more meaningful than simply taking a snapshot with a camera. You really have to look and explore your subject as you make your marks on the paper. You also have to be quick as there's never much time and you are forced to make quick decisions about what it is that you find interesting and try to convey that in the sketch. Having said that, drawing can be very intuitive and there's something great about just losing yourself in the act of painting or drawing. It's as if the whole world just melts away and you focus only on creating an image.  I'm learning to be happy with what I've made instead of always looking at how it could be improved and that's quite a significant shift for me.