If I Were A Rich Wo(Man): Cracking Crockery

Lovely Tableware Sets to Get Your Mouth Watering

There's something about January that makes me want to nest and clean the house. It's probably the stereotypical new year new start thing; it makes me do a massive clean out in January. The only problem is that I then get a huge urge to buy all new homeware.

Last week I was dreaming about new bedding, this week I've been looking at tableware sets.

I'm spectacularly broke this month so I won't be purchasing any of this lovely crockery, but I can still wish.

The Blue Set

There's something so classic about blue and white, in all sorts of homewares, not just dining. I like the delicacy of the design of the Blue Hand-Painted Ceramic set by David Pantling from Iapetus, especially when contrasted with the chunkiness of the pottery.

This teapot is amazing, very Alice in Wonderland.

I feel this is a mug I could have a proper cup of tea in.

Unfortunately the mug alone is £19.95.

Pieces priced from £12.50

The Ethnic Set

The Wanderer crockery collection from Creative Tops is inspired by travel and Far Eastern markets. I like that the dinner set is full of colour and you can mix and match pieces instead of having all the same shades and pattern. It's very eclectic.

The set isn't available until February 2014. The pieces are actually quite reasonably priced, but I'd want to buy them all, which would definitely set me back.

Pieces priced from £4.99

The Luxury Set

The Butterfly Home Range by Matthew Williamson from Debenhams includes a lovely peacock tea set. Including a teapot, cake stand, cups, saucers and more, the collection has a vintage feel and is colourful but muted.

The tableware range also has a slight Oriental look, with the peacocks and the detailing.

Pieces priced from £22.50.

The Cartoon Set

The Moomins, who doesn't love them? The classic cartoon is iconic and easily identifiable. Cloudberry Living has a fun range of Arabia Moomin Adventure tableware which I would love to have in my kitchen.

I like the limited use of colour; it highlights the main black and white images.

Pieces priced from £16.


That's all folks.

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Visit Ipswich, It's Not that Bad

Crossing under the Orwell Bridge means that you have passed from the pleasant, light Suffolk countryside to the dark mass of lost souls that is the town of Ipswich.

Look, you can see the darkness in the background; it's like Mordor.

Maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration, but my local town Ipswich is just...not great. The countryside around Ipswich (where I live) is lovely, filled with fields, rivers and woodlands. I'm not just saying that because I'm a bit of a hippy who prefers to waft about a field rather than pound a pavement. But even die hard townies don't like Ipswich; there's too many people and not enough to do. Plus the constant new builds and office blocks are suffocating the individuality from the town.

And it has the worst clubs ever, seriously, you should visit the town just to see how bad they are, teenagers don't even bother trying to sneak into them.

Our biggest claim to fame is that Ipswich was the home town of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey; Henry VIII's chief advisor. However, it didn't work out very well for him as he fell out of favour with Henry and only escaped having his head chopped off by popping his clogs first. It's been downhill for Ipswich ever since.

There's a bit of history for you.

However, I always bad mouth the place but I thought recently that it's my local town, the only one I have, and I should really start appreciating it a bit more. So, I passed below the bridge and set off on the perilous journey into Ipswich. I was armed with a camera round my neck and hoped I looked artistic, but I probably just looked pretentious.

It was a tough job, but I managed to catalogue some of Ipswich's pleasanter sites.

I visited the waterfront first, home to an octopus called Digby.

And these pigs.

There are also boats, lots of boats.

I made my way into town, stopping to look at the old buildings that are scattered between all the call centre offices.

Saw this Tweetie Pie Campervan.

Then I visited the market.

Before watching these men sculpt sand dogs.

I don't know why either but it was pretty impressive.

Next, I headed to the park.

Checked out my future home.

Then finished up with a spot of vintage shopping.

By the time I was finished I had actually surprised myself and I felt a little guilty for all the times I've slagged Ipswich off. I suppose beauty can be found everywhere. From now on I will love and appreciate my town.

Though I still like a good field.

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