Happy days are here again

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It’s that time of year again, when all sensible people are overloading on carbs and wearing fashion-defying beanie hats, and the design world is gearing up for the celebration of frivolity and sheer ludicrousness that is the design season. It started this week with Maison & Objet  in Paris and will continue until Salone di Mobile in Milan in the spring. There will be a brief pause before the madness of the fashion weeks and interior design weeks from summer to autumn.

Obviously you all base your yearly calendars around these events, and life would have no meaning if they were cancelled. Yes, you’re right; I only sneer as a defence mechanism. I love all the shiny new stuff that arrives with the shows. As entrepreneurs from the CEO of IKEA to Orla Kiely have been busily telling us off for buying new stuff, apparently on some suicide mission to destroy their businesses (Ratners, anyone?), could we at AlaraApothecary please strongly reiterate that we wish you to buy as much of our products as you can afford without having to file for bankruptcy. Until 7 billion people have worked out a way to barter hemp bags for eggs etc, we are going to stick with the system we have if that’s OK.

So, gorgeous shiny new things for you to stare at before you go and do something useful like re-grouting the bathroom. In case you didn’t know, the final picture shows the Pantone colours which have been chosen for 2016. They rejoice under the names of Rose Quartz and Serenity. I love the design world, I really do. And the Bugatti Type 51 Dubos Coupé? That’s just eye candy that I couldn’t resist because, oh my, what a beautiful car. I could almost believe that if I had that car, I would be a better person….almost. I wouldn’t actually drive it, you understand. I would just stroke it and sing to it and occasionally sleep in it. Idolatry, you say? Pah! I knew there was something wrong with that scenario 🙂 Have a lovely week.

(Pin and lace sculpture by Aurelie Wozniak; Glassware by Sophie Villepigue)

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January Oranges

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According to ‘experts’, i.e some pseudo-psychologist who has made it all up, unbacked by any scientific data or research whatsoever, the second week in January is the most depressing week of the year. We at AlaraApothecary say ‘Yah boo sucks!’ to the second week in January. As far as we are concerned, it’s the second week in January and the British mind turns to summer holidays; hence the lovely images in today’s post.We laugh in the face of sub-zero temperatures and gale force winds, muttering the well-rehearsed names under our breath’ Maldives, Mauritius, Tanzania, Nairobi, Miami, Lagos, Galle……’

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I know that you lovely people out there will not forget those who cannot afford summer holidays and are really just hoping their next meal will come along. The ineptitude and downright wickedness which has resulted in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq is staggering. Never mind the second week in January, every week is a nightmare in some places. We are not depressed because we are warm and well-fed and comfortably housed. I am firm in my belief that everyone who reads this will try to help in whatever little way they can, because that’s how we roll at AlaraApothecary, and God bless you all for it. Rather than the January Blues, I wish you the January Oranges because as any fule kno, orange is the colour of joy. Pip pip.

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Happy New Year

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Well, 2015 was a humdinger of a year, wasn’t it? You know how at the end of a year your main thought is, ‘Thank God I don’t have to live through that again…..’ The year was an eye-opener to so many things I would never have believed to be possible, but then again, a lot of really excellent stuff like AlaraApothecary happened so I’m really grateful for them. Swings and roundabouts. It is much better so see things as they really are, no matter how disconcerting the picture is. 2015- year of emancipation. 2016- year of pure awesomeness. Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s feeling the fear but doing what needs to be done anyway.

In the spirit of celebration, I’m showing pictures of some of the lovely things that reinforced why I think a creative career is so worth pursuing. Just seeing this stuff cheers me up; knowing there are minds out there thinking up this gorgeousness. Not as useful as a cure for cancer or malaria I know, but then few things are. Hope they make your day a bit brighter too. So that this isn’t entirely given over to frivolity, I leave you with words of wisdom from the late, great, Nelson Mandela:

‘Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemies‘

‘It always seems impossible until it’s done’

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

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