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

Summer makes me feel so much better about life, the early sun means I can get up early and go to bed late and not mind.  I’m sporting a mahogany tan which is far superior to the one I got in India – it seems my skin likes tanning in British sun more than foreign sun.  This is Summer is actually how a great British Summer should be except for maybe that the World Cup is on.

I have no genuine interest in the World Cup as I don’t support football yet I feel the need to watch England games just like everyone else – except the Germany one where I went shopping and enjoyed near personal service in every shop I went to – brilliant. Now I have World Cup, Wimbledon and general sport watching fatigue being one of the boys means I now have to sit around whilst they dissect every match in detail and spend the whole time in the pub looking over your shoulder at something else.

Well at least you can read a book if you aren’t interested,  I have been  lugging War & Peace around for quite some time now as I am deciding it will be my own sporting feat by reading it. Hopefully I will have more success than England.

If you are going on holiday or not you will still want to escape the madness and head to the park in the sunshine and you’ll need a summer read to do so.  This week I have selected for you a couple of brand new releases worth snapping up before the other WAGS do. Lauren x

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

This book is set in Jackson Mississippi in 1962 and follows the story of 3 women from both white and black backgrounds.  Minny is a black woman with a sassy mouth and wonderful cooking, Aibleen is a black maid raising her seventeenth white child and grieving the death of her own son and Miss Skeeter is a white woman home from college trying to find out where her favourite maid has gone. The three friends push the boundaries of acceptable friendship and this stunning work is really a classic in the making.  This text is old ground but it is so beautifully written you will get caught up in the emotions very quickly.

The Legacy – Katherine Webb

You’d be forgiven for rolling your eyes at a book which starts with the same plot of ‘sisters inherit large stately home and discover long lost family secret’ and this book is in short another one of those. However this book is miles out of any of its counterparts leagues. The characters are absolutely fantastic and the outcome is anything but predictable. The story follows two Sisters Beth and Erica Calcott who inherit their family manor home from their cold grandmother Meredith. They start searching for answers to the disappearance of their cousin Henry who disappeared from the house one summer holiday. Their search weaves back through time and into the Wild West of America following the story of their Great Grandmother Caroline an American heiress.  Beautifully told both historically and as a storyline snap it up for a summer treat.

Isn’t this beautiful woody home in Amsterdam the perfect summer hidey-hole?

The farm, near the Wadden Sea belongs to Ina, a teacher at the Design Academy Eindhoven who creates collections of textiles and her partner Matthijs a designer of exhibitions, renovates old homes into contemporary farms like the one they live in.

I love the dreamy, light-filled space accessorized with wood furniture and naturally hued woven textiles  that feels like there’s no barrier between you and the outside.

Courtesy of Marie Claire Maison

Sweet and sometimes surreal tokens from Thé Dansant [meaning Tea Dance] two ‘merry’ Belgian sisters who decided to open up an online-shop together.

Sometimes they find vintage objects and other times re-purpose them by adding whimiscal touches with packaging or customisation like hand painted vintage objects and these delightful vintage spoons in glass test-tubes, waiting for their special place in your home.

Apologies for going ‘Awol’ last week, the work life and partying balance had gone way out of balance leaving me sobbing into my Weetabix in the morning with tiredness.  Life balance is definitely something I should learn to have more control over now that I am the big 2 and 7 this week and officially in my late 20’s. Late in any walk of life is never good except for maybe when you are fashionably late therefore I am dubbing my new age as the ‘fashionably late 20’s’ – whatever makes you sleep a night I hear you cry.

One thing that is a highlight of my birthday is it gives you ample opportunity to work out who your friends are, those who send the cards, buy you lunch, organize things for you and attend all birthday functions. The mark of a good friend is if you can overcome distance, time apart, petty squabbles and other halves. This week has defo been a game of two halves with friends – those that really should turn up to events and pull out a the last minute citing excuses that, well, to be frank are rubbish, to those who genuinely surprise with gifts and time spent thinking of ways to make your day. You all know who your friends are and what their weaknesses are when you meet them but it can take long time to find out your best friends.

At the weekend two of my good friends got engaged and I am genuinely pleased for them, although impending spinsterhood for myself seems to set of some alarm bells. It seems like sunshine, champagne and crap football brings out the best in people. So this week the column is dedicated to my friends with the top 5 friendship books which remind me of them:

Lauren x

The Three Musketeers

‘All for one and one for all’ has to be the motto of friendship, the first book in the series following the exploits of these four inseperable friends is world famous. Porthos, Athos, Aramis and D’Artagnan have to be the most solid of friends swearing never to cross swords with each other and no matter what the political difference (which in the later books heats up considerably) that friendship and each other come first.

To Kill A Mockingbird

The friendship of Scout, Dill and Jem is stuff that GCSE paper questions are made of and their friendship set against the hot southern summer, racial tensions and depression is a slice of humanity which is played out perfectly against the sad and moving story.
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Anorak the the design company well known for their hugely popular Kissing Animals Collection, are re-inventing the
traditional storage trunk. Hand crafted in Britain by one of the country’s oldest and most established makers, the
trunks are perfect for travel or storage, and come in two different sizes.

Tuck Box, the smaller trunk is available in Anorak’s kissing rabbits print. Traditionally used for boarding school kids
to store their eatables in, this re-fashioned classic would be perfect storage for toys, knitwear or crafts.
Steamer, the larger trunk is available in both the kissing stags print and the kissing rabbits print.