Christmas Cheer

So after my very un-Christmasy post yesterday, I thought I really need to bring myself up to speed with the required spirit expected round about the eleventh of December.So what better way to do that than Ralph Lauren. Always so inspiring. It really got me into the red velvet,plaid and rich textures. Somehow not quite the same when it is beach weather outside. Nevertheless I closed all the curtains and subjected the Beags (Beagles) to a faux wintery experince. Ralph Lauren's Christmas Windows....................

My Ribbons ready for all my wrapping.

This year I have decided to wrap all my presents in beautiful fabrics. Not only does it look beautiful but it is good for the enviroment! So a win win for all. Also, I have discovered the most wonderful website gifts4good.co.za Every year SO much money is wasted on unwanted presents. Lets face we all have too much. This website enables you to buy presents for people not so fortunte on behalf of those who are. The presents are really uplifting items such as garden tools,compost,stationary, childrens' vaccinations etc. So for example my mother in law is passionate about gardening and I think she would be thrilled as part of her Christmas present I have donated on her behalf a set of gardening tools to a family. I am very excited about this concept.

Me, getting carried away in my pretend Ralph Lauren window styling.

The Beags getting into the spirit of things!

Ok,I'm done

Absolute Mayhem

So after overdoing the Christmas shopping, by overdoing it I'm referring to the actual shopping, mall tralling rather than any buying. And that is the problem you see. My body is aching from head to toe. This is a recent phenomenon since being married to Darling who has four sisters all who have husbands and children. My Christmas shopping is multiplied from one sibbling to thirty. Very relaxing. So off I go with my list with high hopes. I start in quite a relaxed fashion and touch,peruse, smell and fondle items in that shopping high. I am supposed to start with the sisters and go down the list accordingly. However, the seventeen year old niece is like a thorn in my thigh, a blip on my shopping list happiness. Seventeen! The coolness of seventeen. Oh the pressure. I keep saying to myself - pass,pass,pass on the seventeen year old for heaven's sake. Move on, you have a menagerie of easy ages to choose from, ease yourself into it. But no couldn't tear myself away from the task of getting the utimate best seventeen year old present of all time!

The outcome?

Not a sausage for a single soul. Well done four hours lost into Christmas oblivian.

If only this could be me - I would have some consolation at the end of day.

* A note on shopping from Mr manners

1. Never look over goos without any intention of buying them.

2. Should you find another person examining a piece of goods, do not take hold it - wait until it is laid down, and then make your examination.

3. Pushing or crowding at a counter, or the indulgence of personal remarks, handling the goods ina careless manner, or so roughly as to injusre them, lounging upon the counter or talking in a loud voice, are marks of bad breeding.

Hangover Tuesday

So after my fun filled champagne Monday I have now delt with Hangover Tuesday.

My posting is short today as quite tricky to type when I have spent most of my day like this:

A note from Mrs Pettiquette.
When one's owner insists on slipping into a champagne hysteria, not only is it embarrassing to witness, it is simply not tolerable when said owner cannot get out of bed the next day to walk you.
If this is the case, it is perfectly acceptable to chew anything you desire. Favorite shoes are most effective to snap ones owner out of their obsene state.

Blue Monday

It's official I have 'the Black Dog' It is bad........

There is no apparent reason for said condition but just one of those unexplained rare occurrences.

What to do! My eyes scan the room in despair and then Oh my, relief!

Of course, my little Savoy cocktail book. Heaven.

Ok, the world is not over and look they even have a cocktail for my exact state of mind

'Blue Monday Cocktail'

1/4 Cointreau

3/4 Vodka

1 Dash Blue Vegetable Extract

Shake Well and strain into cocktail glass

The Savoy Cocktail Book

Darling, do we have cointreau? Ummmm, no.

Oh, alright do we have blue vegetable extract? Ummm, have we ever had blue vegetable extract?

Suppose not. Damnation.

So it's worse than I thought. I can't even have My blue Monday cocktail.

The Darling, sensing it was about to become bad for him too, pulled the most wonderful surprise. We had one bottle of champagne left over from our wedding! Saved for a good or in this case bad occasion. Hooray!!!!

Bring on the Champagne!

And then, can you believe it The Darling revealed that Winston Churchill's favorite champagne was Pol Roger. The exact champagne we are drinking whilst also experiencing the 'black dog.'
It was all meant to be. Black Dog has run away.

A note from Mrs Mostess:

It is always safest to ask your guests what they would like to drink.

If they say they do not mind, it means they want Champagne.

The Savoy Cocktail Book

Doing It Properly

As procrastination is my forte, when it came down to sitting and writing my post today I immediately conjured up the necessary (unecessary) preparations before actually just sitting down and doing it for goodness sake!

What came to mind? Ian Flemming. Obscure I know, but I remember reading that when Flemming sat down at his desk at Goldeneye, his house in Jamaica on 17th February 1952 Casino Royale was born. He had already swum out to the reef that morning, as was his habit, before breakfasting on his usual scrambled eggs and Blue Mountain coffee. By lunch he had typed 2,000 words. At around five, after a siesta, Fleming returned to what he had written and reread it, making a few minor corrections before stowing the manuscript in the bottom left-hand drawer of his desk. Then as the sun began to set, he went out on the terrace to have a drink.

The following day he did exactly the same thing, and he stuck to his iron regime until on 18 March he hammered out the last bitter sentance. 'The bitch is dead now' and the book was finished. It was a thriller named Casino Royale, and it's hero was James Bond.

'James Bond,The Man and His World' Henry Chancellor

Now that is how you write in style.

Ian' Flemming's Goldeneye in Jamaica

Ian Flemming at his desk at Goldeneye.

Me at my desk at DOMINICO HOUSE. Well, actually not my desk but Darling's drinks table. I have hijacked it for today to be closer to the cool garden breeze on the sweltering day. More about my real desk tomorrow...... I think I will go for my afternoon nap now.

Day One

Why a blog The Darling Husband (Darling from now on) asks. Maybe you should start off by replying to your many long unanswered emails.


But you see this blog is essential because I am so so terribley flaky and unfaithful. A real dilettante. I have so many loves..........


My house, cooking, gardening,painting,designing,entertaining,riding*,excercise and sport,French,books and combing the world for beautiful things.


So, you see how could I possibly be faithful to all that!!!!


Instead I flit like a butterfly landing on each one for a fleeting moment before I'm on to the next.


I plant and nurture roses because I am so mad about them. Two weeks later I am the new Julia Child and so busy whipping, stirring,baking tarting myself into such a frenzy that the roses have recoiled in shame now they are a group of old 'has beens'. Just as Darling (husband) is getting accustomed to Haute Cuisine Chez Nous he comes home to absolutly nothing at all - or at best popcorn. "What's for supper?"


"Supper!!!, are you mad. Don't you know clothes only look good if you're pencil thin"


And so it goes on.


So I'm hoping this blog will keep my inspiration constantly fuelled and on the path of mastering the art of living well. I have employed a few doyenne's to guide me and pass down their knowledge. So without delay I introduce to you The Board of DOMINICO HOUSE:


Mrs Mostess, Mrs Married, Mr Manners, Mrs Pettiquette, Miss Potter, The Crafty Sisters and Miss Hotbod.

Here's to surviving the roses!

* A Note from Mr Manners

Before you all snigger at the connotations for the above mentioned 'riding' it is very non-U (non Upper Class) to use the term Horse - riding. U (Upper class) term is plain 'riding' From the non- U point of view the expression is reasonable, for to the non- U there are other kinds of riding (non -U to go for a motor -ride/U to go for a drive in a motor - car) But bicycle - ride is normal.

Taken from 'Noblesse Oblige' edited by Nancy Mitford.