Things to wake up and want: the Valentines edition

This 14th February treat your Valentine to something extra special whether it be homemade chocolates or a simply stunning scent...

Light bulb vase by London Garden Trading (available on Not on the Highstreet)

Mini heart-shaped bowls by Golemdesigns

Rose 31 by Liberty London

Follow your heart coin www.kutuu.co.uk

Big Love Valentine timbergram Anthropologie

Hazelnut macarons and chocolate truffles: both recipes are found in The Simple Things issue 3 available here.

A love letter to London

My dearest London,

You look so handsome today. The sun is making you all shiny; warming you up after you shivered for a while under the snow. I like seeing you like this. It reminds me of all the reasons we’ve stayed together over the years. The golden cityscape you treat me to every morning from the top of the hill; your ability to pleasantly surprise me, like when I first heard classical music being played at Clapham North tube station or learned you were home to a family of flamingos; and the way you rally everyone together when times are hard.

I might not always show it, but I want to make things work between us. There’s a lot going on underneath your often tough exterior that I love. There’s your markets; your mews; your green spaces and Victorian trees. There’s your guerrilla gardens, like the Edible Bus Stop in Stockwell, and your inconspicuous jazz bars, like the Hideaway in Streatham.

Then there are your many characters. The lovely Sara who taught me how to keep hens in the city; Steve the London Honey Man, who makes your urban bees very happy indeed, and the elderly gent I see regularly on Portobello Road carrying a Jack Russell on his shoulder like a parrot.

The past eight years have not been easy; we’ve gone through our fair share of testing times. I blamed you when things were going badly – the redundancy, and those early days when your rents left me broke, when I questioned why I was still with you and felt I could find a better life back up north. But you didn’t abandon me. You taught me the tenacity I still see in you everyday - in your unwavering desire to grow skywards, and in your leafless apple tree at my local station that refuses to let go of its fruit.

Living in each other’s pockets was always going to be volatile. You really do have a tendency to overcrowd me at times. When distance is called for it’s always me putting those 200 miles between us, as I escape to a quieter place. Those early days were especially feisty, remember? I’d go from feeling excitement and awe to having my bags packed ready to leave in a matter of days.

Then often against my will I begin to miss you. I think about your beauty at night, and about finding your organic coffee shop in Notting Hill that’s been serving me flat whites well before the world put a name to them. And I think about all the other little things I haven’t even discovered about you yet.

It’s fair to say it wasn’t love at first sight, but we’ve grown together and mellowed over the years. It’s on days like today when the sun is shining and you’re beckoning me in that I feel we’ve got something special – let’s hold onto that.

Yours, Rachel

Friday night dinner for two (behind the scenes)

As it's a Friday and only 7 more days until Valentines,  we thought we'd share a few more captured moments from our dinner for two special (p104 - p111) in this month's The Simple Things.

Duck with spinach and pomegranate recipe found in this month's magazine.

MENU

Aubergine with pistachio

& sesame seed crumbs

*

Duck with spinach

& pomegrante

*

Poached pear with

gingerbread biscuits

Have you tried any of these delicious recipes? Leave a comment below or hop on Facebook and share your perfect romantic meal menu with us.

Happy Friday all!

Get the look: mimic the style of the Fat Radish in your home

In this month's issue of The Simple Things Alice Gao visits the Fat Radish in New York for lunch and picks up some of her favourite recipes to share with us (found in the mag on pages 34-39). Just as Alice did on her first visit we instantly fell in love with the restaurant's charming farmhouse vibe, and wanted to show you a few simple ways to recreate the style in your home.

Hang a vintage map

Food and travel go hand-in-hand, so hanging a map is a great way to inspire you in the kitchen. You can find antique and modern maps all over the web, but we're particularly fond of these two we found on Etsy.

North Pole antique map: artic sea exploring expeditions 1914 available from Carambas Vintage

Antique map of the World 1777 (high quality digital image) available from Patterns n Prints

Create a modern chalkboard

At the Fat Radish you'll find chalkboards painted directly onto the exposed brick walls, such an easy and quick way to transform a bare wall into something useful and beautiful. We found the perfect DIY over on A Beautiful Mess to save you spending a fortune on chalkboard paint, with this tutorial and a little imagination you could transform pretty much any surface into your own chalkboard, cupboards, table tops even your own coffee cup! (See pg 114 of this month's mag for details)

Here are some of the chalkboard ideas that caught our attention, we particularly like the wedding chalkboards from Her Majesty's Pug - a great way to upcycle scratched or unused silverware!

Wedding chalkboards from Her Majesty's Pug, antique framed chalkboard: Nixey and Godfrey, Barkboards available from Olive Manna

Build your own floating shelves

The restaurant also uses floating shelves to display an impressive wine collection, simple, stunning, and perfect for adding a more modern feel to a kitchen. Vintage revivals has a fantastic tutorial on how to make your own.

We've shown you how to get the look of the Fat Radish in your home, now make sure you have a go at mimicking the taste on your plate with the exclusive recipes found in this month's issue.

The Selby meets Annie Novak the urban farmer

Three stories up in the air, the power of an idea & fresh food are growing…

You have probably heard of Todd Selby, the brains and photographer behind the revolutionary project The Selby, which offers an insider’s view of creative individuals in their personal spaces. Perhaps less familiar however, is Eagle Street rooftop farm, a 6,000 square foot green roof organic vegetable farm located atop a warehouse in Brooklyn.

At Eagle Street, Annie Novak and Ben Flanner supply locals with an onsite market during New York City’s growing season, as well as running a range of farm-based educational and volunteer programs. Head farmer Annie grows everything from rare types of kale to radishes, and also keeps hens and bees on the rooftop.

Eagle Street farm is America’s first commercial rooftop farm, the project is a figurehead of the potential for refitting green spaces back into our cities, and The Selby really captures the beauty and spirit of the place, a simple and Eden-like getaway high above the concrete jungle that is New York – look at these pictures and try not to smile!

To see more of the views of Eagle street taken by Todd, don’t forget to visit The Selby, and if you would like more information about the farm visit Eagle Street’s website.

Meet The Amazings

As one of the most overused words in the English language, you could argue the term ‘amazing’ has lost some of its sentiment, but not when it comes to this truly incredible group of people...

Like something out of a marvel comic, The Amazings have been brought together for their invaluable set of skills in order to pass on what they know to the next generation. They are doing this by providing us with courses and classes ranging from the classic to the curious, with lessons in woodturning, bookbinding, interior design, and even perfume making available in and around London.

without colour we are lost

The Amazings was born out of a simple idea. Society has always learned from its elders. But along the way that connection between generations is often lost – which means sometimes losing rich, valuable, and rare skills. Skills such as those of Christina, The Amazing's resident interior designer, who has spent the last ten years creating beautiful spaces for people to live in with a focus on colour, attention to detail, and the notion of space.

Christina, Interior Designer from The Amazings on Vimeo.

One off classes start from as little as £15 and what’s more, the team are offering 20% off all courses until 7^th January, simply enter the code ‘FacebookHQ’ at the checkout when you visit The Amazings’ website. So perhaps this year we should all try something old, to learn something new!

Don’t forget to like and follow The Amazings on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates from the team.