Magic floors at My Marrakesh

My daily lunctime Interweb browsing has just brought me to My Marrakesh, which is the blog of Maryam, an American writer/personal shopper/human rights and democracy specialist living in Marrakech whose children have super-cool names (Skylar and Tristan) and who has nine peacocks in her garden.

And here I thought that a Westie called Boris and a couple of anonymous daddy long legs was exotic.

Sniff.

I have, unknowingly, been ogling her place for a while now. It turns out that the photos on AT of a doily-fabulous floor that I've been oohing and aahing over are of Skylar's bedroom (note to self: read photo credits in future to find fab blogs!), which was given a very pretty makeover earlier this year.

Love the way it juxtaposes the delicate intricacies of the lace with often industrial-feeling concrete:



Looks like it was fun to do, too:


The fabulous floors don't stop there, though: check out Tristan's room and Maryam's office:



Even the ceilings (in the rooms of Peacock Pavilions, the family's soon-to-be-opened boutique hotel) are fab and modern Moorish, and the whole blog makes me desperately want to visit Marrakech again... or at the very least tidy out my Moroccan-y downstairs loo. It sports a souk-found mirror that looks like a sister to this one on Maryam's blog and is easily one of my favourite travel finds:


Images are via Apartment Therapy & My Marrakesh.

Yeh, yeh. It's another shoe post.

So I finally got around to trying on those tribal numbers from Topshop. The black and gold ones were loooovely, but ultimately common sense, the possibility of an impending lack of money (I'm thinking about taking a 2-year career break) and the weather prevailed.

I went to visit them last Thursday, which was just psychotic on the weather front in Dublin. It wasn't so much "sunny spells and scattered showers" - I may well have to put my foot through my radio the next time a Met Éireann head uses that phrase - as "glorious blasts of ah-there's-a-real-heat-in-it Mediterranean sunshine punctuated by sudden, torrential, thunderous downpours".

So on Friday, I swung by Penneys, on the lookout for a pair of Chanel-esque quilted cream ballet flats with black patent toe and string bow detail (admittedly, I don't even know if Penneys produce such articles) and instead picked up a pair of sensible (well, sensible-ish, they're walkable-innable) heels. They're black round-toe courts with an exposed platform and a terrifyingly high heel - and they're studded. And they only set me back €21.

Can I just say: swoon! Will take some pics later this evening and pop them up so y'all can appreciate the on-trend tough-but-glam not-too-pricey-for-the-CEC-and-possible-career-break fabulousity. For now, I'll just dreamily doodle them here on a scrap of paper and busy myself drawing little love-hearts around them.

*Happy sigh.*

Ex-shoes-me...

I should really, really not be looking at shoes right now.

Well, actually, that may be a little harsh.

What I should definitely not be doing is shelling out €182 on a pair of strappy sky-high heels at the end of the summer-that-never-was. (Regardless of how fantastic I think they'd look with some skinny jeans or how good an homage they are to the tribal numbers in the Louis Vuitton SS09 collection.)

Since I've no immediate plans to do that - and not just because I can't decide between the three colourways on offer - it's a-ok to go Windows shopping, I reckon!


These are Topshop's "Primal" heels. Me likey. They're so lovely that I'm considering leaving work early to go pay them a visit on my way home. They're €182 in the store on St. Stephen's Green, if The Indo is to be believed... or £120 + £5 delivery directly from topshop.com.

Think I'll be taking my chances on the FX rate remaining stable - £125 is about €146 at today's rate of exchange - and ordering online when I win the Lotto on Saturday night!

Il sigh...

Back to work today after a glorious week in Sicily.

Depressed doesn't even begin to cover it.