Let Your Flowers Do The Talking This Valentine’s Day

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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Every petal and leaf has a meaning, floral expert Shane Connolly tells Debora Robertson of The Daily Telegraph.

When is a bunch of flowers not just a bunch of flowers? According to Shane, favoured floral designer (or floral decorator, or flower artist, never florist… more of that later) for fashionable parties, gallery openings and the occasional royal wedding: when it’s a powerful totem loaded with hidden meaning…..

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Elle Decoration Country Champion Spencer Fung

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ELLE DECORATION COUNTRY - AUTUMN/WINTER ISSUE

With the rapid spread of urbanisation, more and more designers are working to bring nature into our lives, and one architect is Spencer Fung.  From handmade furniture to interiors using materials such as carved wood and hewn stone, his projects are fuelled by a commitment to the British countryside and the artisans whose craft it fosters.  We ask him to tell us more about the materials and makers that inspire him.

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In Residence: Inside The Homes Of Celebrated Architects, Designers And Artists – Alex Michaelis

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NOWNESS

Fusing functional design and family fun in the British architect’s London home.

London-based architect Alex Michaelis takes a boundary-pushing approach to sustainability as one half of design duo Michaelis Boyd. Best known for giving an eco-makeover to the London home of former Prime Minister David Cameron—which included installing a wind turbine on the roof—the pair have taken on the interiors of the monumental Battersea Power Station redevelopment project.

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Video Interview With Photographer Ali Bin Thalith

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YOUPIC

Ali Bin Thalith grew up by the coast in Dubai where both his father and grandfather were pearl divers. He spent much of his childhood either in the water or watching Jacques Cousteau films, since then he’s become a photographer, specialising in underwater photography. His incredible use of textures, colour and composition make his underwater images transcend simple documentation. Ali feels he is part of the sea and he happily swims with his camera next to the fearsome and the micro inhabitants deep below the waves.

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Michaelis Boyd: The Architects Bringing Battersea Power Station Back To Life

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THE TELEGRAPH

When Alex Michaelis and Tim Boyd, the design duo behind Michaelis Boyd, installed a wind turbine on David Cameron’s roof in 2006, they captured a mid-noughties zeitgeist for modern middle-class living.

But it wasn’t their £600,000 eco makeover of the Cameron family’s North Kensington home – which included the installation of a 660-gallon rainwater tank under the garden to provide water for flushing lavatories and washing – that made Michaelis Boyd a byword for boundary-pushing living spaces. In the previous decade, the pair had created chic interiors for the London members club Soho House, Somerset spa hotel Babington House and the Electric on Portobello Road.

Feature In COMO Stories Magazine

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COMO STORIES

The Pleasures of Eating Well: Nourishing Favourites from the COMO Shambhala Kitchen, gathers the most popular dishes served at the author’s COMO Hotels and Resorts in a single book, whether it be a salad, fish dish, raw juice or main. It is an approach honed over a 10-year period working with leading-edge chefs, nutritionists and Ayurvedic doctors who make up COMO’s expert staff and is featured here in COMO Stories magazine.

Mikkel Karstad: The Danish Chef On Borgen, Gordon Ramsay, And Cooking With The Seasons

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THE TELEGRAPH

The morning we speak Mikkel Karstad posted on Instagram a petrol-blue sea below ominous clouds. Water temperature, 1C, wind chill, -20C, according to the caption.

This is the Danish chef’s dawn swim, which he undertakes every other day in the Oresund strait, between Denmark and Sweden, after sharing the view with his 34,500 followers.

The rest of his feed comprises extraordinarily beautiful images of barley soup, ginger tea and blackcurrant-stained lamb (his latest dishes), and the occasional golden-haired child (he has four, aged between four and 16).