Living Magazine by Martha Stewart April 2013 Issue Review

For those of you who may not know, I am a magazine fiend.

One of my many subscriptions is Living by Martha Stewart.

I have a complicated relationship with her.

She is my hero / anti-hero ; my idol / my nemesis.

I take the mick out of her at times and have teased her on the blog as well.

But it is all in good fun.

I did go through the March Issue of Living but to be honest, there was nothing to share and it wasn't very inspiring and very "Martha".

This was the March cover without the verbage.

But she sure made up for it in the April Issue.

For a Living cover, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. 

Where was the Martha-esque bling?

But I must say she made up for it between the sheets.

There was so much to file for future reference.

Hanoi - Adieu.

I spent four nights in Hanoi and it is one of those cities where one week would not be enough.

I did fall in love with the city and I was thinking I would love to have a little pied a terre there.

I think if you would went there, you would want one too.

How about this apartment in this late French colonial in the inner suburbs of Hanoi?

10 minute drive from the center of Hanoi.

Situated next to a great school.

And a great view of the reminder of the victory of the Vietnam War.

No, it is not scrap metal.

It is the remnants of a U.S. jet plane that crashed into the lake during the Vietnam War.

It's left there because it's a morale booster.

Anyone?

Hanoi - part one

Vietnam.

I wasn't even meant to be here.

It was as a last minute as you could get.

You need a visa to get in and I got the 24 hours express one.

You know that saying - Wanna make God laugh? Make plans.

It was worse being Mercury retrograde - 

none of my travel plans were going to the schedule.

My meeting with family got changed and one of my friends who was meant to join me had a family situation arise at the last minute.  

I was going to be traveling alone a lot longer than I thought.

The jet lag was hitting me a lot harder than normal so I decided to make the most of my proximity and went.

I did it through the very scientific method of 

eenie meenie minie mo and chose Hanoi.

Jim Thompson - the man, the museum

I have so much respect for Jim Thompson that I thought his house which is now a museum deserved its own post.

Sometimes it takes a foreigner to see a native beauty regardless of location.  A local gets so used to an ambiance and style that it gets lost in daily living.  He was a pioneer in modern cultural fusion and in reviving a traditional craft before there was even such a concept.

He was an unwitting patriot for Thailand.

Jim Thompson is now a Thai brand.

But Jim Thompson was an American entrepreneur who came to Thailand as a military attache and was a trained architect.

Photo via theatreonline.com

Bangkok - the arrival.

 I left home with my travel essentials and

 return air ticket with four nights of hotel accommodation booked.  

The rest I would worry about when I got to Bangkok.

I was going to wing it.  
Been a while since I just went along and 
left things to whim.

Probably one of the best airport shuttles in the world.

Paddington station to Heathrow in 15 minutes.

No other city can beat that and I never take it for granted.

Since when did Heathrow start looking like 

Westfield shopping center?

Best thing about long haul flights - catching up with movies.

Finally got to watch Skyfall-

 sometimes you need to be in a situation where
you have nothing else to do for 11 hours.

Rachel Vosper - Part 2

Hello all, I am having a few technical issues while on holiday.

Will try to do a travel post but the internet and my equipment is not making it easy...

So here's one I made earlier!

I tried Rachel Vosper for the first time around Christmas time.

Shop exterior on Kinnerton Street,
one of the loveliest hidden streets in Belgravia.

I wrote about it in this post.

Shop interior,  I love her use of cornicing as shelves on the left.

I love and need candles around the house and was so excited to find someone to fill all the empty used candle jars with some new scents.

Travel packing essentials

I wholeheartedly agree.

I may have regretted clothes, shoe, jewellry purchases but I have never had one about any of my travels. 

Even some of those trips I may not necessarily want to revisit literally and figuratively.

I am writing this completely jet-lagged in Bangkok.

My iPad isn't cutting it so am in the hotel lobby at 3 in the morning and let me tell you - you want to do some people watching and possible blackmailing, this is the place to be.  
Pity I don't know these people because I would have lots of rope.
Anyway…

Sofa, settee, couch. Take a seat.

I was reading the New York Times and they did three different articles on the topic of sofas.

Rather pertinent timing because I am in the middle of trying to replace our sofa.

 I find sofa shopping harrowing - 
almost like shopping for a new pair of jeans.

  Its almost like getting a tattoo - 
there is a lot of commitment involved.

Last time I considered buying a new sofa was a few years ago.
A decision on my own would have been hard enough but to balance another person's opinion ( my partner's ) was just too tiring and causing arguments so I chose to keep what we had instead to avoid a full on blowout.

The first article was Analyzing the Couch.  
It discussed sofa price ranges and what the reasons were for that price difference.  It was an argument that transcended sofas and that applied to most things from sofas to shoes.

Last time I bought a sofa was in 2001.

 I was so proud of myself as I finally felt like an adult and 

it was not an Ikea sofa.

I felt very mature - as in matour - not machure, dahling.

I scoured the sales for ages but like an ex-boyfriend - 

it isn't something I would necessarily choose now.