Since moving into the mews house, I’m all about interior design and homewares. My bank holiday weekend is even going to be spent exploring the first steps of reupholstering furniture (must find a beautiful chair to start with!).

My inspiration has come from many places – mostly tips from my lovely friend Katie (check out her blog here) and from various hotels from around the world… namely the Firmdale Group ones.

Kit Kemp is the genius behind the Firmdale hotels, and I find them lush. All clashing prints and beautiful lighting, and so much attention to detail. Opening today is a new exhibition space at the Contemporary Applied Arts Gallery in London, of which Kemp has designed a room to illustrate the vast possibilities of commissioning art and craft for the home environment and how it can transform a room.

CAA Gallery

2 Percy Street, London W1T 1DD

Open 10-6 every day except Sunday, entry FREE

I’ve not yet had the chance to try this out, but it’s a great idea. Marky Market sources the best meat and fish from various markets around London, and then delivers it to your door. Prices are reasonable, and the produce no doubt tastes a million times better than what you’ll find in your local supermarket.

More info over at www.markymarket.com

An exhibition of photographs by Jason Bell has just opened at the National Portrait Gallery in London. It features British people who have swapped old blighty for that very lovable New York City (something I’d LOVE to do, if the visa situation weren’t so difficult).

Take a look at an audio slideshow from BBC News of Bell’s photographs.

Photograph © Jason Bell

Hear Jason Bell on BBC Radio 4 this Sunday 22 August, from 09:00 BST.

Exhibtion An Englishman in New York: Photographs by Jason Bell now on at the National Portrait Gallery until April ’11.

Want, want, want. I would probably get extremely frustrated trying to build it, but it’s very cool!

Available to buy at Lego.com from 1 October 2010.

I had a very London experience yesterday….

For the past five years or so, my fella has been getting his suits made-to-measure from Gresham Blake. So I joined him on his  visit to their London fitting rooms. Not only did I become a little obsessed with Gresham & Fal’s (the couple behind the fabulous suits) gorgeous pug dog, but I kind of fancied being a man for a day so I could dress up in all the fineries!

According to Quintessentially, high-profile fans of their edgy suits include Jimmy Page, Norman Cook, Nick Cave, Tracey Emin, Steve Coogan and Christian Slater. Nice!

Check out their ‘Off the Peg’ range in the Brighton store – 20 Bond Street, Brighton BN1 1RD – Ph: 01273 609 587

London taxis are world-renowned, but this is usually referring to the fact that drivers are knowledgeable, safe, and friendly.

Once in a while you get one that’s even better… and last night, the lucky one ferrying me and my curry coma back home from dinner at Lahore Kebab House (great food = amusingly unfriendly service. dinner for 4 = £55)  had Joan Armatrading on the stereo. I couldn’t quite remember what I was listening to… so I asked the driver, and not only got the song name, but the full story about how one of his mates played guitar in her band, and that she’s actually an exceptional electric guitarist. He was proper excited about my interest in the song. So there you go… enjoy!

It’s been a long while between posts on this blog… but all for a good reason! I’ve been busy producing a big event at work, so my days were reduced to wake / eat / work lots / eat / work lots more / eat / sleep – repeat. Not that I mind at all, it was the most exciting project I’ve worked on since I started at the BBC.

So, the context is – my team at the Beeb have a quarterly ‘knees up’ to share ideas, projects & new developments. The last one was a bit ‘death-by-powerpoint’, so this time, I suggested we shake things up a bit. The new rules? no powerpoint, a theme (this time = innovation), lots of opportunities for staff to interact &  feedback via social media and a working group of staff to pull together the content for the day. And it all worked out beautifully.

The meeting was a lot more open than usual, with staff encouraged to tweet or text their feedback while the event was taking place. We put a big plasma screen on the left of stage, and via the genius of Richard Morland and Steve Bowbrick, a hashtag for the day #amint and visible tweets, the virtual conversation kicked off and didn’t let up until well after the event. There were about 400 comments over the course of the day, and many more after the event had ended. Lots of people shared their thoughts, observations and links about innovation through our (very innovative) virtual live conversation.

Guest speakers included Vicky Williamson talking about having an #earworm (check out http://earwormery.com), Tom Taylor talking Newspaper Club, Alastair Dant on how The Guardian visualised tweets for the World Cup (waaay more entertaining to follow than the onscreen commentary methinks), and Michelle You talking all things Songkick. We also sent staff off to see how they innovate at Absolute Radio Labs, the Media Trust, and the Telegraph; and to talk about innovation with our friends from PhD, Poke and Somethin’ Else.

Thanks to all who volunteered their time & effort, especially Nigel Smith who came up with most of the suggestions and organised the guest speakers – I’m so pleased with the way things turned out. Read more about the event on the BBC Internet Blog.

Red Button masterclass with Jac P