{*Scream* Habitat's Christmas collection}

Yesterday was the press launch of Habitat's Christmas 2009 collection. Held in a mirrored room littered with bright, twinkling lights, amongst neon celling hangings and brightly coloured wreaths; it sounds like 'Bright Lights - Big City' is going to be quite a collection. We promise to bring all the pictures very soon.

Yikes, we've just gone against our promise not to mention the C word for a few months. In the name of interiors journalism; are we forgiven?!

Christmas collection teaser from Habitat

Image: Habitat.co.uk

{A double dose of inspiration}

Have you just finished reading the latest issue of Country Homes & Interiors? Feeling a little like you've lost a friend? Fear not, as Bright.Bazaar has just discovered a fantastic blog called Country Days. A daily blog about the home and work life of none other than Rhoda Perry, Editor of said magazine, it provides insight on Rhoda's 'double' life. With tales from her working life in London and family life in the Sussex countryside, Country Days is both interesting and inspiring.

Rhoda recently shared her childhood memories in the post 'Granny's Attic'. Like Rhoda, I have many fond memories of my time spent at my Gran's house: playing cards by the open fire; chatting late into the night; and rushing into her room first thing in the morning to make her some fresh coffee. Situated down a tiny country lane; breached on both sides by the wild flowers of the countryside, her cottage still stands today. As I'm decorating her bedroom on my next visit, I feel it would be wrong not to include something from the new 'Granny's Attic' range by John Lewis. Thanks for the inspiration, Rhoda!

Granny's Attic bed linen from John Lewis

Image: countydays.wordpress.com

{New season excitement}

There's a buzz of excitement over at Bright.Bazaar towers. Why? Well, it's one of our favourite times of year - the start of the Autumn/Winter season. Soon all the main stores will be unveiling their new collections for the coming season.

Often, with the new season, comes a whole host of stunning catalogues: a modern, slick and inspiring offering from Habitat; a bumper issue from Ikea; and more recently, great value homeware offerings from most of the supermarkets. All these, along with countless other lifestyle stores, are soon to be bursting at their autumnal seems. Full of items perfect for making our homes cosy and relaxing; preparing us for the colder times ahead, the A/W collections are always our favourite. We're wondering if the new collections will borrow from the catwalks. Often crossing over in their trends, the interiors and fashion world tend to mirror one another's key looks. These Vogue pictures suggest we should expect glossy, velvet, jewel-like colours. The fashion mag advises sticking to teal, berry and Sapphire colours to obtain the freshest look for our wardrobe. Well, if anyone should know what looks good, they should! We think these colour's look great, so here's hoping for a similar theme in interiors this season.

From top: Christopher Kane, Bottega Veneta.

Images: Vogue.co.uk

{Craft/friends/thank you}

Thanks to all Bright.Bazaar followers over on Twitter, who have congratulated me on being the guest crafter for the Guardian's Making Time website. I really appreciate all your kind comments and generous words. After all, without all your inspiring blogs and tweets I would be without so much fantastic inspiration.

So, as a little thank you, here are some extra shots from my dining table photo shoot...

Images: Will Taylor

An extra special thank you must go to my lovely friend, Perri Lewis. Perri used to be my Editor back in our student newspaper days and the person who first inspired me to get involved in writing and journalism. She now writes regularly for the Guardian and has her own craft blog, which you should check out for a great mix of accessible and quirky craft stories/projects/pictures and more!

{Look.Book//Dining rooms}

We're going to be launching a brand new feature soon called Look.Book. It will focus on a different area of interiors each month; a virtual scrapbook to devour at your leisure. We're hoping to have a function to let you add your own finds to the monthly Look.Book, too.

Meanwhile, to celebrate being this week's guest crafter over on the fantastic Guardian Craft site, we thought it only be right to feature some gorgeous dining rooms. These yummy shots come from the website of our favourite interiors mag, Living etc. Although it may only be July this elegant and sumptuous candle-laden table is getting us a teeny bit excited for Christmas. Ok, so we promise not to mention the C word again for a month or two, but we just couldn't resist when we saw this. To redeem ourselves, here's a pick of our other favourites.

Images: Livingetc.com

{Lego builds and thrills}

Lego sofa. Image: Apartment Therapy

Ah, those trusty coloured bricks. For years they have been the comfort of many a child and, to be honest, probably an adult or two along the way. Yes, Lego certainly folds a fond space in Bright.Bazaar's heart - I remember all those years building Lego airports, trucks, islands, cars and many more. However, I never imagined anyone building a whole house out of the little plastic cubes. Well, Top Gear's James May is going to do just that and as we've not had a chat about all things architecture for a while - why not check out this great blog, which features 20 famous skyscrapers made out of, you guessed it, Lego. Brilliant! Oh and if you fancy harking back to your childhood, then you can volunteer to help James build his Lego house here.

{A sale to end all sales!}

The Bright.Bazaar team has been away for a couple of weeks on a lovely summer holiday, but now we're back, with batteries recharged and cylinders ready to go. Landing back into drizzle at London Heathrow was a touch uninspiring, but when greeted by the news of homeware sales at Next, John Lewis and Habitat we were all soon beaming with glee once again!

Our pick of the summer sales has to be from high street retailer, Habitat. Their 70% off sale not only covers an extensive range but there's also a further 20% off all sale prices in store now. Bright.Bazaar hot-footed straight down to the local store and here are our favourite finds...

OMK Dining Chair, £23.76

Bailey large borosilicate candleholder, £8.40

Kilo long low table, £7.20

Photographic floor lamp, £30.96

Daisy De Villeneuv rug, £83.44

All images, habiat.co.uk