I recently had a trip to Greenwich and decided to make a day of it by going on the Thames Clipper. Even though it may not be as quick as the tube I just love cruising down the Thames, listening to an audiobook so I can keep my head up and enjoy the sights. But I always find Greenwich a bit of a disappointment when it comes to food: I'm sure there are good restaurants there but I can never seem to find them. So as it was a nice day I suggested we go under the foot tunnel to the Mudchute Kitchen cafe in the city farm there: I'd heard good things about their cakes and figured the lunch was probably pretty good too. There's something just not right about missing out on afternoon tea on a Sunday, it's like not drinking at least a few glasses of Pimms in the summer - plain wrong. So earlier today when things were looking a bit grim on the cake/biscuit front at home (the rock buns were long gone) my other half and I made the bold decision to strike out and try a new afternoon tea venue .

We are lucky enough to live within 10 minutes walk of Tate Britain so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to pop there, have some tea, and if there was time whizz around an exhibition - although obviously tea was the priority. Much as I love going out for tea there's plenty of pleasure to be had in creating a lovely afternoon tea at home. chandelier hoist ddj100With that in mind I thought it was about time I let you in on one of my favourite recipes. wine glass chandelier leitmotivAs you're probably aware by now I am quite a scone fan, but I find they're hardly worth bothering with if you haven't got great jam and clotted cream to go with them. chandelier room sala san marcoAn easier option is the good old Rock Bun (no sniggering from our US readers) - or Rock Cake if you prefer.

They are a bit similar to a scone in flavour but can be served just as they are. Better still they can be made with the kind of ingredients you might well already have in your kitchen. One of the unexpected benefits of writing this blog has been the increasingly frequent requests from friends to join them for afternoon tea. Not wishing to be rude, I have felt obliged to accept. The most recent outing was to a place I'd never heard of in East Dulwich called Le Chandelier. As soon as I arrived I had a suspicion it was going to be my kind of place. The decor is what I suppose we generally refer to as shabby chic: lovely wooden floors; a mixture of tables and chairs; and, of course, lots of chandeliers. It was clearly a favourite spot for the local yummy mummies but thankfully they seemed to contain themselves and their offspring in the back room and my friend, who had already arrived, had grabbed us a table in the front. I think my love affair with afternoon tea began when I was eleven or twelve during a family holiday to Cornwall.

We spent an entire month in St Ives lazing on the beach, jumping in the surf and, most importantly, indulging in traditional Cornish Cream Teas. So when a family wedding took me back down to Cornwall last weekend it seemed like the perfect opportunity to rekindle my first love. I was a bit pushed for time over the weekend but just before heading home I found myself with an hour to spare and grabbed my chance. The wonderful thing about Cornwall is that while in, for instance, London, one may need to seek out the afternoon tea, reading reviews, booking tables, travelling across town, etc. in Cornwall signs advertising cream teas are everywhere. I was staying in Newquay and decided to pop into Nile's Bakery on the main street; it was apparently established in 1955 and looked homely and fairly traditional. I was recently shocked and embarrassed to discover that not only was there a mail order tea company I hadn't heard of but that it had actually won the award for best online retailer in the UK's Observer Food Monthly Magazine.

Suitably ashamed I decided I needed to check out the Rare Tea Company forthwith.Well, I was thinking blue walls, but now I'm thinking green. I've had light mossy-sage green sort of walls before and loved them. Hmm, I think the blue is just making me nervous! Ah, we shall see. What's moved me more towards green is thinking of . I love his rustic, natural sort of flea market style, and I was thinking, what would he choose? I think he'd definitely go for green. These few examples here I found on . Also, asked me to tell you 7 things about myself. I guess I should choose 7 things you wouldn't already know because that's more fun! So...here are 7 things about me you may not know: I like to eat tomato paste out of a can, I prefer eating over cooking, my mom is one of my best buds, morning is my favorite time of day, I love cotton candy pink clouds, I think my husband is awesome (I just don't talk about him too much on the blog), and I make my bed every day. It looks like we'll be moving soon!

I haven't said a peep because it's not totally official yet, but it looks like it will be next week. We're just moving across town, north of the river, but I'm soooo excited. The neighborhood is great, and I'm excited to fool around with decorating a new place. We've been in our current place for a year, but I still haven't quite figured out what to do in certain places, so I just haven't. Instead of seeing it as a challenge, I've though of it as a drag, blah. It hasn't been too fun. One issue is choppy walls--walls divided by a lot of doorways and windows, which is the complete opposite of our last place. I just don't think I have the right stuff to work in the right places, if that makes sense, and I haven't taken the time to hunt for the right stuff. Ah, well, I don't have to worry about it anymore. Our new place is sort of boxy like our apartment in San Francisco, with two big, long walls in the living room. I felt sort of over that by the time we left San Francisco, but I'm looking forward to it again.

I understand how to arrange my things better on walls like that. I'm also thinking of color. Our last place had neutral, beige walls, but I'm thinking of a very pale robin's egg blue. I love the way deeper colors look against that shade of blue--rusty orange, reds, navy, green, golden yellows, etc. Deeper, darker colors look really good with that color to me.  and I love the way all of her things stand out against it. Here are a few pictures I've come across for inspiration. These shades vary, but I think my favorite is the second one, just below. I like that it is a touch grey compared to the others. I've put them all in Lately I've been thinking in color. It has been so dreary here these last few months that daydreaming of bright things has been the best way to chase my grey day blues away. Today though it's actually sunny, finally, and so nice outside! I went out for a stroll earlier to see the blue sky and get some much needed vitamin D. I'm also thinking of random colorful things to keep my spirits up.

To start with,  in the Netherlands, and... Patchwork (it is still winter after all). But I'll think of instead. My new favorite thing (fairly new to me anyway) is , an online inspiration board of sorts where you "pin" favorite images. I'm not totally sure of all the ins and outs of Pinterest since I just recently joined, but if you love online image eye candy and are like me and have messy folders on your desktop of random saved inspiration images, you will LOVE Pinterest. When you pin, it credits the source of where you found it (though often that's not the original source of the actual image, and I imagine this could be an issue for pinterest at some point, hmm). I hope source issues don't cause too much trouble because I really like the service. Right now I've just focused on pinning images of interiors, but other folks have boards of so many other things. Below are a few things I've pinned to my board this week. All the sources are linked to the pins on . (The image above, "things I like" is by John Derian--possibly my favorite designer, one of the few whose name's I can even remember!)

I've been thinking of wallpaper lately, specifically . I love her  wallpaper. I might have to make a trip to to get a roll. I also love her wallpaper. Actually, I like all of them! They've made their way around the design blogs for some time now, but I don't get tired of them.  Images: , , , . Yesterday I visited , a beautiful cafe-restaurant and atelier in East Dulwich. I always love discovering new tea spots here in London, and when I read about , I put it at the top of my list. It was as beautiful in person as it is in pictures. The light-filled space, with white washed walls is narrow and long, with high ceilings, and the cosy atmosphere and decor make you feel like you're in a 17th century salon. You can choose from more than 25 loose leaf teas, which are selected by Le Chandelier's very own tea master. They also serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner (dinner on certain nights), as well as a beautiful selection of sweet delights from their patisserie. As you sit and sip your tea and indulge in a nibble, it's easy to be dazzled by all the beautiful chandeliers overhead, which are for sale, and sourced primarily from France.