Fabrique en France

I love these stripey cotton makeup bags from Artiga.

Madewell and Alexa Chung

I hate to jump on the bangwagon of worshipping Alexa Chung but she's just designed a range of things for Madewell and... CLOGS AND TIGHTS! Osh Kosh pinafores! dresses and brogues!

Via Refinery 29

The best meatballs ever

From the Leon cookbook...

For the meatballs
1½ wholemeal pittas
120ml milk
1kg minced lamb
A small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
A small handful of mint, finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
2 cloves of garlic, chopped

For the sauce
30ml olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 x 800g tins of chopped tomatoes
1½ tbsp harissa
A handful of basil, leaves picked and chopped
A handful of parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper

Rip the flatbread into pieces and soak in the milk for 10 minutes. Put the bread into a mixing bowl, add the mince and stir in the parsley, mint, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well, then roll the mixture into walnut-sized balls. On a griddle pan, brown the balls quickly - it's all about colouring them and not cooking them through, for about five minutes, turning occassionally.

To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and gently fry the crushed garlic. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and harissa and simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the sauce has reduced. Put in the meatballs and continue to simmer for a further 20 minutes with a lid on until the sauce looks about right. Stir in the herbs.

Peter Som

It must be this interminably grim weather - the driving rain, the heavy skies and chill-to-the-bone wind - that's making me long for the days I can skip out of the house in bright, clashing prints and bare legs, inspired by these dinky little outfits by Peter Som.

Cabbages & Roses

I'm a fan of practically everything Christina Strutt does at Cabbages & Roses and I love these things particularly from her new range. She's one of those designers who just does her own thing, whether it's fashionable or not, and she shares my view that clothes should not have the sole design purpose of making women look skinny. Her clothes are romantic, and rumpled, and comfortable, and old-fashioned, and unusual, and well made, and everything I've ever bought from her I really love.

Brickett Davda

Jo Davda's ceramics are ridiculously beautiful. The pics of her studio on her new website make me wish I worked in a workshop.

Denim

I'm really keen on the denim shirts, trousers and dresses at 45rpm and particularly like that the models are smiling and have wonky teeth. Also those Fair Isle leggings would be a seriously cosy addition to my alpine boots.

Alpine Boots

I love these Penelope Chilvers snow boots. They're based on a vintage pair she found in a junk shop. I love the funny little upturned toes, braided trim and red laces. They make me hanker for some crisp mountain air, a log-cabin and some gluhwein.

Amanda Peet's bedroom

Ever since I saw actress Amanda Peet's spare room (in Domino, ages ago) I have been mildly fixated on recreating - in scrupulous detail - it in our bedroom at home. Our bedspread, happily, is already an uncanny match. So now all I need to do is convince Archie this wallpaper isn't too "greetings card", and paper it up to the ceiling (leaving a nook for artfully chosen books). And then that we must take out a massive loan to buy a clutch of Mary Fedden paintings - I'm thinking this and this and this (because Amanda would like them). And then we'll need a set of cripplingly expensive bedlinen, with a smart navy trim, from here. Followed by a hunt for a mercury glass light fitting just like that one, here, and then we'll need to track down that yellow lamp - which will necessitate a Eurostar to Paris, probably. Now, how to broach the subject...

Picture by Coliena Rentmeester

Local Apparel

I hadn't heard of Local until I found what is now my hands-down-favourite cardigan in the dregs of the Anthropologie sale. Looking at their new summer range, I don't think there's a single thing I wouldn't like to own.