Wee Birdy

Top 10 London Christmas gifts

1. Fortnum and Mason biscuits

A tin of biscuits may be a bit of a Christmas cliché, but Fortnum’s Piccadilly Biscuit Selection, £13.95, is a particularly elegant option, with a pretty tin of butter biscuits in six different flavours (golden crunch, date & walnut, lemon curd, ginger, macadamia nut and chocolate pearl).

2. Colour-changing umbrella

I’m fascinated by this umbrella, which features a white London skyline on a black background. When it rains, the water turns the skyline a rainbow of colours. Genius. £30 from Squid London at Beyond the Valley.

3. Shepherd’s diary

Hand-bound in Shepherd’s London bindery in a range of decorative Japanese papers. The slim-line pocket diary is £19.50 and available from the Rochester Row & Southampton Row stores, as well as Liberty. 

4. Ormonde Jayne’s Tiare fragrance

Bypass the department store perfume box sets and head to Ormonde Jayne for the exquisite new Tiare fragrance, which features mandarin, orange flower and Sicilian lime in the top notes, with a ‘heart’ of Tiare, freesia, water lilies, jasmine, orris and ylang. £68 for 50ml Eau de Parfum.

5. Pigeon hankies

Brilliance in a hankie, by London-based designers Thornback and Peel. £18 from Liberty.

6. Alex Monroe bird ring

Wonderfully detailed and delicate work. Alex is a South-Londoner, too. £132 from Alex Monroe.

7. Grayson Perry Tate Modern scarf

Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry has turned his attention to the Tate Modern in this beautifully illustrated silk scarf. (Thanks to Kate Wilson of Little Doodles for the tip!). £63.61, from the Tate Modern shop.

8. Mimi leather purse

This 'Merlin' leather purse is by East London designer Mimi, and features gold foil stamping by Lucky Bird. £37, from Mimi.

9. Rococo Chocolates

I love Rococo as much for their distinctive blue and white packaging as for their delicious chocolates – and this box of rose, violet, lavender and geranium creams (so very English) is a winner for under a tenner. "Fiori e Cioccolata" 8 flower fondant creams, £9.95.

10. Mittens necklace

Toasty mittens to hang around your neck, £63, by Tatty Devine.

Wee find: Andrea Garland's natural balms

A few months ago I was mooching around Greenwich market and stumbled across Andrea Garland’s range of natural balms in vintage tins, compacts and pill boxes.

I really like her organic lip balm made with sweet almond oil, cocoa butter, beeswax and vitamin E, but she also does a terrific sore muscle rub and a body balm. The best bit is that she does refills at a fraction of the original price - so you get to keep the original pretty tin.

These days you can find her at Brick Lane’s Upmarket and Liberty in London, but she’s also got an online store here.

Birdy pick of the week

Quite a few of you have tipped me about Green & Spring's luxe range of organic body care products, which feature a delightful bunch of twittering birdies on the beautifully-designed packaging. The range is made in Britain, using flowers and herbs which are native to the UK, and are free from parabens, petrochemicals and synthetic colours and fragrances. You can pick them up online, or check out the full collection at Liberty.

Bird is the word: A week of giveaways

It’s day three of A Week of Giveaways at Wee Birdy, and Penhaligon’s has joined the blogiversary celebrations with a complete set of four fragrances from their limited edition Anthology Collection, at a total retail value of £380.

These new fragrances have been brought back from the Penhaligon’s archive, which has a long heritage of perfumery in Britain, dating back to the 1870s when William Penhaligon first moved to London from Cornwall and started creating fine fragrances for discerning gentlemen.

Since then, the brand has collected Royal Warrants from The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh, and has produced some of Britain’s most iconic and historic fragrances. The boutiques, meanwhile, still capture some of the old-world charm and sense of history of the brand, complete with dark wood panelling, glass cabinets, and collectable silver trinkets.

The four new fragrances from the Anthology Collection are the sharply sherbet Extract of Limes (1963), the subtly aromatic Eau de Verveine (1949), the playful Gardenia (1976) and the dark and heady Night Scented Stock (1976). 

For your chance to win the complete set of four fragrances from the Penhaligon’s Anthology Collection, valued at £380, simply leave a comment telling me about your favourite nostalgic scent. Don’t forget to include your email address so I can contact you if you win!

Entries close for all giveaways on Friday 24 July at 6pm (British Summer Time). Winners will be announced on Monday 27 July, 2009.

Thank you Penhaligon’s! If you love the look of these fragrances, you might like to:
- check out the Penhaligon’s website;
- read about their iconic Bluebell bath oil here;
- or visit one of their beautiful boutiques here.

My Secret London with Imelda Burke

In the latest instalment of My Secret London, I caught up with Marylebone's organic beauty queen, Imelda Burke, owner and founder of Content Beauty/Wellbeing. She opened up her little black book to share some of her secret London gems...

Best for a books?
Books are an ongoing obsession – our house is covered in them. We’ve got everything from art and photography books to medical encyclopaedias - it’s quite an eclectic collection. I go to Donlon Books for the hard-to-finds. It has the best photography and art collection and books on subculture. It’s now got two stores - one in Bethnal Green and one in Broadway market.

For books to give your brain a workout, I love The School of Life. Their faculty have read their way through thousands of books to bring you a carefully edited selection. They have the best categorisation of any bookshop I’ve been to. Shelves are organized in the following topics:

How to turn over a new leaf
How to know you’re in love
How to be green on the cheap
How to be more creative
How to enjoy your own company
How to make the world a better place
How to find pleasure in everyday things
How to understand your childhood
How to survive melancholy
How to find a job you love
How to think deeply about life
How to get on with other people

Charlotte Mann's hand-drawn walls at The School of Life.

Best for vintage?
The Peanut Vendor, a mid-century furniture shop based in Newington Green in Islington. It’s filled with wonderful, previously-loved pieces of furniture and homewares as well as design classics. Look out for G-Plan and Ercol classics.

Best for interiors and gifts?
Rob Ryan’s store on Columbia Road, Ryantown, would have to be my favourite. From tiles to prints, glassware and now cushions – we decorated the treatment room at CONTENT BEAUTY/WELLBEING with his ‘No other planet could be as beautiful as this one’ print.

Best for stationery?
I love a notebook and the best come from www.o-check.net. Their ‘Another Day, Cloudy Memory’ notebooks are sometimes available from twentytwentyone. Made from old-school heavy newsprint paper, numbered and fabric-bound.

I also love their cards, especially the ‘Spring Bird’.

Others I love are from the Monocle shop in Marylebone. Great linen-backed notebooks designed by the Monocle team in London and produced in Germany by Brandbook.

Best for kids?
Jabberwockie in Islington has the best clothes, gifts and shoes for kids. Great for presents, skincare and quirky Japanese ranges. Don’t bother with the mainstream.

Best for beauty/skincare?
That would be my own shop, CONTENT, of course! A selection of the best organic brands such as Dr Alkaitis and Pai Skincare and established near-natural brands like Ren and Nude. We also have one of the most extensive collections of natural perfumes and hold CONTENT wellbeing evenings once a month, which include food and wine tastings and tips for keeping healthy from our team of naturopaths.

Best London souvenir?
I think the best thing to take home from London is an appreciation for the diversity living in a large city brings and the energy it creates.

Best place to eat?
Saf vegan restaurant in Curtain Road.

Click here for a Wee Birdy map of Imelda's secret addresses.
Click here for more Secret Londons.