The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

Nicola Malkin was one of the first people I ever interviewed and wrote about – as subjects go, she was a pretty interesting one! Nicola is a young artist who creates large scale ceramic jewellery  – giant charm bracelets, and completely oversized old fashioned stud earrings.

Since interviewing her years ago, when she had produced her very first charm bracelet, Nicola has gone onto create eccentric accessories for the likes of Vogue and many a celebrity fan. I’m loving her gorgeous and intricate new giant ceramic blooms… amazing right?

This weekend I headed back to Canterbury, town of misspent University Youth for my friend’s birthday. The highlight was heading to Whitstable and doing some of the most wonderfully kitsch shopping. We had lunch in Samphire, which has now become a regular stop whenever we go there. It serves amazing British food – I chowed down on Pork and Hop sausages with mash and braised red cabbage! Yum!

Then we went to the Clothes Horse which is this cute little shop that sells all sorts of jewellery, cute hair items and beautiful boutique clothing [got a wedding this summer – voila!]. Finally I headed to Harbour Books to start stocking up for upcoming reviews! It was an absolutely blissful day only mildly scuppered by the fact that the ‘nautical’ look I had decided to go for [don’t judge me, I get excited about the seaside] was not actually made for the high seas. I was freezing in my pumps and blazer. Perhaps I have turned into a crazy tourist rather than a hardy resident.

We then headed back to our old haunt Canterbury, which if I get drunk enough makes me feel like I am 18 again – and act like it. Unfortunately, nearer 28 my drunken antics are best left out of this week’s column only so much as to say that I have a recollection of dancing up Canterbury high street to my iPhone singing ‘I am the one and only’ by dear old Chesney Hawkes – phone music – not just for chavs eh?

To me Canterbury is a bubble – a magical time warp I can go back to and get inexplicably drunk and misbehave myself. This is odd seeing as Canterbury houses some of the most religious places in the country. Perhaps I feel that London is just too cool to behave like that? Maybe.  One thing I do know is that no matter how drunk I get I have gained the valuable ability to walk in 3 inch stilettos on cobbled ground while inebriated at University which is extremely impressive.  My parents would have probably liked me to have got a 2.1 instead. You can’t have everything  and life skills are important.

Now to the review! This week I have picked an author that I began reading during University. I remember this quite clearly because I tried to answer a question in a seminar group based on a historical fact from her novels. Thankfully Philippa Gregory researches well [this gives you some insight as to why I got a 2.2] and I managed to blag my way through to studying Classics and Archaeology yet another day!
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Oh! I have never heard of such a treat, but doesn’t it just sing of spring? Blood orange butter is a compound of sweet butter flavored with the juice, zest and flesh of blood orange, a dab of honey and a pinch of salt. You can find more of these lovely images and the whole recipe over at The Kitchen Sink which recommends making up a batch of this to spread on biscuits to remind you of sunny days when they no doubt fade!

Oh, I’ve been waiting for these ever since I saw them at Maison et Objet – new Donna Wilson ceramics!

How great is this big Meg face plate?! Donna also has a brand new blog which is so great if you’re a fan, she features all sorts of behind the scenes stuff like photoshoots and Donna working on her fabulous quirky pieces…

Sweet new teatowels from Rockett St George…

Good morning all, I had a big shoot yesterday and a very early start so I’m easing myself slowly into the rest of the week – yawn! So some sparse but sweet posts from me today, a mini recipe, some cute products and a historical romp of a book review [my favourite kind!].