I’ll Take This: Canal Boat in Little Venice, London

When I was in the UK in November/December, I stayed on the most delightful canal boat. It was cozy and snug and I loved every minute of it. The canals in London are filling up, which is somewhat of a problem, because canal boats and moorings are much less expensive than any London flat.

I saw a listing for a canal boat in the Little Venice section of London, which is close to Maida Vale, one of the very posh areas of town. Although someone was a little too enthusiastic with the HDR setting, you can get a good idea of its location.

Lots of bright bead-board wood in the forward berth, but I’d probably slap a coat of bright white paint on it.

Cozy fitted kitchen. The boat where I stayed had a great Ikea kitchen.

This looks like the aft berth. I am sure there’s a way to pull out something to make a full-size bed.

Nice bath and shower room.

All very ship-shape, indeed. The boat where I stayed was much larger than this. It was about 18’ wide and 50’ long, bigger than my first house!

This looks like it’s a public canal path. The side of the canal where I stayed was private and accessible only to the residents and their guests. The other side was public. I would also check to see if this is moored two abreast, since that could be a problem.

This canal boat is £155,000 ($239,000) with a £5,320 ($8,200) mooring fee. If you lived in the country, it would make a nice pied a terre in town!

Think Pink!

In the 1957 movie, Funny Face, there’s a great musical number called Think Pink. The character, played by the brilliant Kay Thompson, is supposedly based on Diana Vreeland, and proclaims that pink is the new colour of the season.

Suddenly, for some reason, I’ve become enchanted with the palest shade of pink. It may have been inspired by a beautiful Valentine’s bouquet with a pale pink David Austen rose in the middle of it, or that it is such a flattering shade for most people. My bedroom is painted in Martha Stewart’s Magnolia, which is no longer made. It’s got red, a drop of yellow and a drop of black, so it avoids being a sickly bubblegum shade.

It is the pale, pale ballet pink that I am thinking of.

When I saw this image, I thought it would be fun to go back and buy the huge linen tablecloth and make it into a sheet and then dye it the palest of pinks. Hopefully, it will be drastically reduced when I go back!

As one does these days, I started a Pinterest page called “Think Pink, Think Pink” after the song. How about this? It could stray over the line to orchid, but if it faded enough, it would be perfect.

One of my favourite summertime coolers is pink grapefruit sorbet from Wegmans. Since I only go to the “local” Wegmans once or twice a year, I stock up on it. It’s actually not even this pink!

This might be too much pink, but the wall colour is just right.

I love pale pink flowers!

What’s your thought on pale pink? Yea or nay?

Monogram Madness!

The Baltimore Junior League does a Treasures & Trinkets sale every so often, so I stopped by to see what they had. I had missed the preview party on Friday evening to have dinner with some friends in town, and Saturday’s unexpected snow storm kept me close to home most of the day. By the time I got there, late Sunday afternoon, most everything was picked over pretty well.

Except the linens. I love linens! Before I moved to the UK, I had a huge collection of damask napkins and tablecloths, which you could pick up for nothing at yard sales and thrift shops. Sadly, my collection was distributed to far corners, as it was impractical to take it with me. Clearly, the linens weren’t very popular with the shoppers – no one wants to iron or care for them anymore. Such a shame.

I sorted through the hundreds of napkins, huck towels, tablecloths, sheets and more, looking for pieces with my monogram on them. I wasn’t holding out hope for all three letters, but thought at least I’d find one with an M on it.

Some of the monograms were so interesting, I started taking pictures. Here are some of them.

O U J (Hard to tell!)

K M S  Love the little details.

A M S in classic Olde English

I know the first letter is an M, but I can’t quite decipher the rest. Any ideas?

E N B  Seriously wanted to get this for my niece whose initials are ENB, but B is her last name.

R ? L Another indecipherable monogram.

Here are a few single letters, all of which are so different.

The sale at the Junior League’s Wise Penny is on all week, and the linens are already 50% off!

I’ll Take This: Classic English in Baltimore

Guilford is one of the premier neighbourhoods in Baltimore, about 100 years old now, with stunning architecture, wide open spaces, and gorgeous gardens. I’ve written about it here, here and here. It seems like I’ve managed to take a picture of almost every house in the neighbourhood, except one. It’s situated a little higher than the rest and has a wall and some foliage surrounding it, so it’s hard to spot.

But it’s a fabulous house! It was designed by the famous Palmer & Lamdin architects of many of Baltimore’s most beautiful houses. It’s done in the English manor style, and was last on the market in 2005.

From the exterior, you can see the great brickwork in a Monk bond and Jacobean-style chimneys. The details in this house are a hallmark of Palmer & Lamdin. Ohhh, please tell me they don’t have replacement windows! I can’t imagine the architectural review committee approving that!

At the entrance, there is some beautiful wood work and iron-work.

More gorgeous old wood, especially the timbered ceiling.

Notice the small panel in the front door so you can check to see who’s there without opening the massive wood door!

Massive staircase with more beautiful wood. Although I might be tempted to lighten things up a bit… At least this side of the house, which faces west, gets a lot of natural light.

This room is to the left of the entrance, and then there’s a sun-room beyond that.

From another angle:

Here’s the sunporch, which looks like it’s got a fireplace backing up to the one in the room above.

The formal dining room:

The sitting room, with another fireplace!

Not a big fan of the kitchen.

My guess is that these are the stairs from the 2nd to the 3rd floor. But I can’t quite figure out that window placement unless it’s the top of the double-height window to the left of the front door.

I am guessing this is the master bedroom, and you can see the four-poster bed peeking out from the far corner.

Am I the only one who is bothered by the brown wood in the black and white bathroom? I know from experience that these houses had amazing bathrooms, so it’s a shame the original is gone.

Same bath? Different bath?

Another one? Do you think they got a good deal on the wooden pieces?

Here’s the rear of the house, with some detail of the gardens, the brick wall and what’s probably a big garage.

When you live in an old neighbourhood, most of the trees are old, too, and that makes for a great yard.

Here are some of the particulars of the house: 7 bedrooms, 7 baths, 7 fireplaces, 10k square feet, built in 1917, priced at $2.45 million. Details here.