Great start, and Madeline Weinrib

So I forgot to post yesterday. Day 2. Well done, Bethany. Guess that I need to get into the rhythm. We'll say that's the issue.

Moving on. I am on the hunt for two rugs for our new place: one for the master bedroom and one for the living room. What I'd really like is a rug, or three, from Dwell Studio, but no one stocks their rugs in the UK. I don't think that I can manage carrying one back on a plane and seeing that many of our wedding gifts are still sitting in CT, shipping is not really an option. So onwards and upwards with the search.

The other day I came across Madeline Weinrib (when perusing Designsponge*'s 'Sneak Peek' of an amazing Brooklyn home that's given me lots of ideas for ours). I am probably behind the curve when it comes to design but, my god, these rugs are beautiful. The colours are so rich and the patterns are the perfect balance of delicate and bold. Exactly what I am looking for. I love each and every one. However, the prices are rather prohibitive... May have to devise a plan for a birthday or first anniversary gift. I don't think I'm going to find anything that I can live with now that I've seen these (unless someone starts stocking Dwell Studio in London?)

Susan Hiller at Tate Britain

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go on a private tour of the new Susan Hiller exhibition at Tate Britain. Even better, it was before the galleries had opened for the day. I first came across Hiller when I was in university and working as a copy editor on a book about memory in art. I've been vaguely aware of her work since then, but this exhibition gave me an entirely new perspective. It has been curated by Tate Britain's Ann Gallagher, who spent three years working with Hiller on the show.

The show brings together several major works that have never been shown together, and introduces them with a lovely, succinct presentation of her early work. I particularly loved the 'painting blocks' from the 70s: painted canvases cut into rectangles and sewn together into book-like blocks. Hiller was born in the US in 1940 but moved to the UK for love in 1970s. She's been working here ever since (hence her presence at Tate Britain). People make a lot out of her studies in anthropology and yes, many of the driving interests of that field do extend into her work, but the work is much more than an aesthetic anthropological study. Hiller makes art that is highly conceptual and rigorous but also personal, visceral, at times surreal and sometimes nostalgic.

My highlights of the show would be 'Dedicated to the unknown artist,' an early work that makes a study of British seaside postcards that depict scenes of bad weather, and 'Psi Girls,' a 1999 five screen video installation comprised of film scenes of girls with telekinetic powers in saturated color washes. But honestly, every work in this exhibition has the power to pull you in.

Getting started. For real this time.

I have tried to start blogging a few times, and I've always gotten stuck after a post or two. I've realised two things about those previous attempts. One, I belaboured every post. Editing, humming and hawing over word choices and waffling over topics. Two, I had no structure, and as much as I try to deny it, I do like structure. Even now that I'm working freelance, and from home three days a week, I am the most productive when I am in a routine and when I set myself schedules and goals.

So, this third try at a blog is going to use these learnings. I am going to post something interesting, tasty, new, inspiring, intriguing or beautiful each day. That's the only rule. It will be inspired by my day to day life - work, travels, reading, cooking and consuming - and it will find its own pattern along the way. I predict exhibitions, recipes, restaurants, designers, hotels. All the lifestyle arenas that I love. I think I've set out a formula that should work, at least for me as the writer. I hope that the blog proves to be of some interest and value to those readers out there. A little treat, let's say.