kew.

i went on a research trip to kew gardens a couple of weeks ago to help with some of my print designs for work.. i made sure to go on a drizzly day so that everything was really fresh and dewy, making it hard for drawing but so beautifully peaceful that it was worth the wet bum and soggy feet. i'm sure i'm not the only londoner guilty of this but i'd never actually been to kew gardens (or indeed most of london's other 'attractions', deeming them too touristy to bother with) but there are reasons so many flock to kew's vast botanical space.. it is absolutely breathtaking (so good that i only got one third of the way round it so this may have to be done in parts..) my 'must-sees' are the glasshouses, including the 'temperate house' which is the largest surviving victorian glasshouse in the world and reminded me of the wild overgrown building miss havisham lives in, in great expectations... check the website here.

images © anna singleton 2011.

jil sander store, nyc.

so i've spent the last two days in new york for work doing client meetings but managed to find a couple of hours spare on monday afternoon to go and visit some of my favourite haunts. very well situated (opposite opening ceremony) is the jil sander store.  i last visited two years ago and obviously loved it then but was really excited to see the s/s11 collection - what with all that colour against all that marble.. it didn't disappoint. i've got this ongoing battle in my head about 'when i buy a house how will i decide how to decorate it'.. (will it be homely and 'lived in' or beautifully minimal..?)  and this just confused me further as i've decided that i definitely want an angular marble staircase and a wall of revolving slats.. if you're ever in new york then it's really worth a visit.

images © anna singleton 2011.

sandown pier.

have had the best week in the isle of wight with my boyfriend's fam visiting all the sights.. this is the end of sandown pier, which was suprisingly tranquil, home to an arcade and some pretty rad carry-on style 'stick your head in the hole' photo scenes (someone please let me know what their official name is?!) it was the most amazingly gloriously sunny day and i just wanted to jump in the sea. worth a visit if you're ever on the island and enjoy the typical seaside town arcade. which i do - a lot.

sandown pier, isle of wight. © anna singleton 2011.

beach front.

having a bit of a road trip round england at the moment starting with a visit last week to see me mam and dad in exmouth - was really nice to see everyone knocking about on the beach.
images © anna singleton.

icy landscape.

really like this and was feeling for a landscape shot.. image via haw-lin.

storage.

i've been doing some research for my photographer friend sophie's flat as she's asked me to help her out with the design for the interior. love this storage idea from designer dhiren bhagwandas. ticks both the 'minimal' and 'lived in/old' boxes. image via 'where they create'.

kitchen.

i keep getting confused as to whether it is fashion i should be doing or interiors, with places such as this inspiring me to do the latter. then again, the beauty of this kitchen is the lived-in clutter, which is near to impossible to create as it can only really come with time and use. although a great fan of the aesthetics of minimalism, i think when it comes to living and creating a home, a certain level of maximalism should be explored, especially in places such as the kitchen. (when i say maximalism i mean things such as displaying pots and pans and crockery as opposed to hiding them away in cupboards). this space belongs to chef and food stylist marlein overakker who lives in amsterdam. images via paul barbera of 'where they create', my favourite interiors website.

paris.

these photos from stuart pillinger (another talented friend of mine) make me want to go to paris so bad.. they're an interesting portrayal of a beautiful city and love the contrast between the chaos of the first image and the serenity of the second.
visit his website here and his flickr here.

white rail.

when i am older and rich and have built the house of my dreams (i like to hold on to the idea that this will happen one day), i plan on building a long dressing room with an industrial pole that runs down the entire length of the room, with my clothes running in colour order. it will also act as a platform for building new colour stories.. i know something this basic (and weird) shouldn't excite me but it does. a lot. i took these pictures for my friend lu's magazine called rosie which you will hopefully hear about in the not too distant future.
© anna singleton 2011.

where they create.

where they create is another beautiful website dedicated to giving you a glimpse into the worlds (or rather spaces) of designers/ artists/ bloggers/ architects (and so on).  its founder paul barbera,  an interior based photographer, set up the site as a visual documentation of the environments belonging to artists and creatives he looked up as he traveled for assignments. it takes on a rather voyeuristic approach, which is extremely appealing..

images via the website.

exhibition: wildlife photographer of the year.

'snowed in' by orsolya haarberg.

orsolya camped through winter storms in norway's dovre-sunndalsfjella national park to photograph muskoxen. on particularly cold days, muskoxen conserve energy by resting. it's then possible to approach them, but if you get too close and spook them, there is a real risk of being trampled. 'for two days,' says orsolya, 'the wind was so strong and it snowed so much that I couldn't even see the animals.' but the next day it stopped snowing, and the massive forms of muskoxen emerged from the landscape.

postcard from the natural history museum 'wildlife photographer of the year' exhibition - on til 11th march. text via the nhm website.

inside the wardrobe.

i find it really funny how fascinated we are with other people's belongings. don't know if it's a british thing with our incessant nosey-ness or if this is a worldwide hobby but i always find it amusing when friends come over and 'go through' my wardrobe and bookshelves. the coveted (which i have posted about recently) go further than providing images of people's belongings by also quenching my particular thirst for layout, more specifically how people arrange their wardrobes.  These images are from the wardrobes of fiona green, joanna hillman and mona sharf.
images via the coveted.

on the wall.

as much as i love a white wall, it's a great space to use as an interchangeable mood board - i can't take a decent enough picture of the bits and bobs i have up on the wall in front of my desk at the moment, so here are two lovely images i've found for the time being..

1. saga sig.
2. fiona green's wall, (associate fashion editor at flare magazine) via the coveted.

the coveted.

head over to the coveted - a 'behind-the scenes' website founded by Erin Kleinberg and Stephanie Mark, photographed by Jake Rosenberg.  it gives you a look into the closets of some of the more influential names in the industry and is one of the most inspiring sites (in terms of inspiring you to go out and make money, and lots of it).  this is elite fashion but definitely worth a look.

core of the cave.

seem to be doing one too many star themed posts so this is the last one. (for now) - i'm just really drawn to the colours. would be so good printed on velvet and mounted onto the ceiling of a car.

core of the cave nebula by greg morgan 2007.
image via sierra remote observatories.

ivory.

used these images a while back as the main inspiration behind my cos project and am still absolutely in love with them. have searched high and low but can't find the originals anywhere - these are via 'some required'.

balanced.

i want to live here, they've found a perfect balance of old and new and although light and airy it feels really cosy.  image via '16 house'

mountains.

images courtesy of haw-lin.

hackney road.

photographs taken in november. as you progressed further into the building it got colder and colder and there were pools of water lining the corridors from the condensation. things had been left in place for over thirteen years. strangely peaceful place.

clockwise from top left:

1. abandoned, 2010

2. peeling paint, 2010

3. stars, 2010

4. ceiling, 2010

5. chair, 2010

© anna singleton 2010