I was led astray today...
I'd been wanting to get Orla Kiely's book Pattern ever since it came out last year, but couldn't justify the £25 price tag, merely just because "I had to have it".
I met up with my good friend, Manda, today for a quick coffee and her beady eye caught site of it in the half price section at Hobbycraft. As she quite rightly said, I'd be crazy not to.
As I always listen to her, I didn't need much persuasion to grab it and pay for it before I could change my mind.
Since buying it I've hardly been able to take my eyes off it.
As you can imagine, being a self-confessed Orla fan, it is music to my senses. It is, as you would expect, every pattern Orla has ever designed, along with fantastic pages of swatch inspirations of all her ranges ever.
I am such a fan of everything Orla (yes, I would be quite happy to be seen driving around in one of her Citroen's) that my children can recognise an Orla design from miles away.
I apologise to anyone out there who may see themselves as the style guru of the 21st Century, but I'm sorry, you are wrong, it is she, Orla, who is the one and only Queen.
I haven't had chance to read all the interesting prose behind the Lady, but have dipped in and am mesmerised and can't wait to read from cover to cover. This isn't just a picture book.
Besides all the incredible photographs in here from swatch choices to billboard adverts to blogs depicting Orla usage in our own homes, this picture below drew most attention in our house, with comments of "Mummy, wants that one. No, she wants that one. But she's already got that one."
Whichever one that one is, there is always room for one more Orla bag.
Personally that one more would be the grey and blue, top left.
Which one would you choose?
And if you don't already have this book in your possession, i can not instil strongly enough the need to find a friend to lead you astray and acquire it pronto.
