Lizzie Allen at Habitat

Tally up my design crushes over the last few years and I've probably spent the greatest proportion lusting over the illustrations of Lizzie Allen. With rolls of her wallpaper costing over £300, it's something I'm leaving off buying until I accomplish my life plan of winning the lottery.

Hooray for Habitat then, as they've worked with her to produce a range of products at prices that I can afford alongside my lottery ticket. To add to the high level of win in this collaboration, the range is based around London and Paris: two of my very favourite places.

Here's the London beaker which costs just £2. It's made from melamine so clearly has picnic potential, but you could use it to store something like make-up brushes or colouring pencils too.

Here's the pretty Paris beaker. I love the collage like effect of the illustration.

The line of people on this tray are just brilliant: city gents with their papers, overstuffed waiters, Chelsea pensioners. All this for only £12.

The range includes a number of other trays and dishes and some tea towels to dry them all up when they are done with. There are a couple of ceramic items too, such as this patriotic teapot. Perfect for Jubilee celebrations if you like that kind of thing, otherwise just perfect for a nice cuppa. It's £35 and the most expensive thing in the range. I want it all please.

Eggless Easter Ideas

It's Easter in two weeks and that means two glorious four day weeks and lots of chocolate. I promise there will be an eggscellent egg round up later in the week, but first here is a little run down of the cutest confection on the shelves right now.

These li'l guys are sweet, aren't they? The handmade chocolate sheep are covered in mini marshmallows to make them fluffy. They're £27.99 from Choccywoccydoodah.

Oh, how adorable. A little cocolate chicken coup! It's also got bunnies (eat them first so the chickens are safe). £9 from Hotel Chocolat.

What a handsome fellow this gentleman hare is. He's got a cravat! He's handmade in Rococo and he's very fancy indeed. Him and his whiskers are also quite fancily priced at £37.50.

You're going to need to buy some little eggs to go with this chocolate hen. She's £8 from Madame Oiseau. But I bet you make clucking noises as you break her beak off.

Or you could just buy me some Cadbury caramel bunnies - just £1 for three packs at Sainbury's. They're brilliant and I would like 24 packs please.

Digital, floral Joy

I can't get enough of Joy right now (not just because they're stocking the Domestic Sluttery book). Their spring and summer collections are utterly gorgeous and I have to walk a different way home because otherwise I go past Joy and accidentally spend all of my money. I've had a sneak peek at what's coming up and I want everything.

I want this digital floral skirt most of all. I've been sitting patiently waiting for it to arrive. (By patiently, I mean just spending the last week refreshing the Joy homepage). The print is friggin' divine, the length is perfection and it's just £39. Joy, you spoil me with your summeryness.

Oh, and just a quick heads up - there's a gorgeous dress in the same print hitting the shops very soon.

Sluttishly Simple: Lemon Spaghetti

Did you enjoy the fabulously sunny weather this weekend? We do love the good weather here at Domestic Sluttery and when we are not donning pretty dresses and sexy sunglasses we want quick simple meals like this. The fragrant fresh basil is a wonderful pairing with the punchy lemon. Lemon Spaghetti is simplicity at it's best. 

I did not add cheese to my version of the pasta and it was just the right amount of creaminess for me, but I believer that cheese lovers might disagree with me. However, I was very generous with the coarse sea salt and black pepper. The boyf liked it with an extra drizzle of olive oil too.

Lemon Spaghetti (makes 2 large portions)
You will need:

• 200g wholewheat spaghetti
• 3tsp fine salt
• 2 lemons
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tbsp single cream
• coarse sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 handfuls of fresh basil (roughly torn or shredded)
• large handful of fresh parmesan (optional)

Make it!

• Drop the spaghetti into a large pan of boiling salted water. Cook until al dente, drain but set aside about 200ml of the water.
• While the pasta cooks, zest and juice the lemons.
• In the pasta pan heat the olive oil, cream, lemon zest and 100ml of the pasta water. Once the mixture is boiling return the pasta to the pan and stir in the mixture. 
• Add the lemon juice and toss the spaghetti. If you want saucier pasta add some more pasta water, a little at a time.
• Stir in the basil, sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper and serve.

Divine Drinks Dispensers

Most summery dinner tables look like this: Six glasses of red wine, two bottles of red, three bottles of white, some glasses of bubbly leftover from the early birds and enough glasses for water and/or Pimms and lemonade. Suddenly, there's nowhere to actually put your dinner. The salad bowl ends up on the lawn with the cat trying to nibble at the rocket and all of your nice not-really-for-outdoors things get broken.

That's why these drinks dispensers from John Lewis are such a good idea. Instead of having wine bottles and pitchers and bowls everywhere, you've just got one snazzy drinks dispenser on the go.

You've got two choices - you can go for the curvy glass dispenser which is £60 (best for non-clumsy folk) or choose the much cheaper acrylic one for just £16. That one is very garden friendly. The best thing? Now you've freed up more table room, you've got space for more food.

Etsy Pick: Lil3birdy

For saying that I'm not overly fond of actual birds, I'm quite in love with them as illustrations. I particularly like these ones by Lil3birdy. They're drawn by Clare Shields and feature on cards, notebooks and coasters. Like this set.

I'd quite like these little fellas on my coffee table. They're £11 for the set of four.

Although they're cute, I also quite like the haughtiness of these owls. You get all five postcards for £3.

I'd get some plain frames to customise to display them in. They're too nice to send to people. I would be very happy to send this birdy cake card though. Much cuter than four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

The card costs £2.50 with postage costs starting from 79p depending on the item. Tweet tweet!

Petite Girl Pleasures: Sailor Playsuit

So Kat's been showing taller ladies all the pleasures of the high street, which is ace if you're approaching 6 foot. But if you, like me, are 5'4 on your tiptoes, you'll be on the look out for spring clothes that flatter your frame, rather than swamp you in fabric.We don't need ruffles, large prints, boxy blazers or voluminous skirts. We also don't want a disappointing petite range, or to have to shop in Gap Kids.

Playsuits are made for petite ladies. Do not fear them. If you're too tall, they tend to dig into an intimate part of the anatomy. They're excellent for picnics - no chance of flashing your pants as you lie on the grass eating hummous and strawberries. Just remember to leave plenty of time to strip off if you need a wee.

This playsuit from Sugarhill Boutique is reduced from £65 to £45.50 on Asos. Ignore the model's slightly 'real doll' pose and check out the fitted waist, gold buttons and flirty open back (pop a cardy on if you're not keen on it). If the sunny weather continues, you'll be wearing it to the park every weekend.