New bits!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Mine was spent carving pumpkins, (not quite as spectacular as the ones from my last post) constructing costumes, visiting friends and finished off nicely with a mammoth roast dinner with family for pre-birthday celebrations, as I'm spending the big '24' next weekend with the fella in a weekend at Centre Parcs! Can't wait!

A couple of exciting new winter-y inspired bits added to my Etsy shop you should know about:

Illustrated Christmas Cards! In sets of five or sold singularly, these feature a hand-painted snugly knit on a quality, FSC approved 325gsm card stock with envelopes ready to pop in the post. Blank inside for your own message/ words of wisdom/ poetry and love!

Plus, these beauties are flying! Pairs of microwavable pocket warmers, made with dust-free British-grown wheat, Rosemary essential oils, British tweed and my feather screen-printed linen on the backs of each. Heat them in the microwave for 1-2 mins and pop in your pocket or on those aches and pains for instant comfort!  I've already taken mine on a  nice few walks in the cold and they've been ultra snugly- these will make great Christmas pressies...

Get them in the shop here! X

Dates for your diary and halloween inspiration...

Oh, how time flies! It's quite horrifying how the weeks are speeding by. I'm getting ready for a nice busy (whisper!) Christmas, so thought I'd share a few dates coming up where I'll be showing my wares...but before we can even start to think about Christmas properly, here's a little inspiration for Halloween! 

Autumn is my favourite few months (nothing to do with my birthday coming up!) and these are great; will definitely be trying out one or two of these beauties...

Beautifully styled at Martha Stewart living

 Dates for your diary....

Christmas at the Castle

19th November 201, 10am-4pm

Hatherop Castle School, Cirencester

 Enjoy a great day's shopping and discover inspired and original Christmas gifts with over 40 selected stall holders, mulled wine and mince pies in the festively decorated cafe. In aid of Helen & Douglas House, a local charity providing hospice & palliative care for children and young adults.

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Christmas Crafts

18th November 2011, Bingham Hall, Cirencester

Christmas gifts sale in aid of Duke of Gloucester Playgroup

7.30pm

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Little Buckland Gallery,

Little Buckland, Broadway, Gloucestershire

5th-6th November 2011 (running alongside the exhibition 22nd October-6th Nov)

 

I'll be showing my work including special handmade gift ideas for Christmas on the last weekend (5th-6th November 2011) which will see the exhibition transformed into a craft spectacular!

Support British crafts people this Christmas and give something totally unique to last a life time...

www.littlebucklandgallery.co.uk

 

I have an events page on my website where you can always find out where I'll be heading....x

Decorex round up

Firstly, thanks to everyone who's voted for me in the Dorset Cereals Little Blog Awards. There's still  a day or so to go if you'd like to vote, it would mean a lot to me- love a bowl of Dorset! But seriously, it's great that people are bothering to read my ramblings; I'm not sure why people blog but it somehow makes sense of everything I've been doing (and is a fantastic distraction from doing the accounts). Remember, you can also 'follow' on the left side bar to hear about new products, competitions & events I'll be showing at...

I've been doing zombie jobs today after a manic few days in London helping the company I print for, Rapture and Wright showcase their wares at Decorex, an international interior design trade show held at The Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Absolutely. shattered. There were some great ideas on show and plenty of interesting people to talk to, so I've left feeling quite inspired. Though I work mainly in textiles, inspiration for us creatives can come from each and every spectrum of design. I wizzed round and took a few snaps of my highlights for you to see:

 The wonderful, British Rapture & Wright who showcased their three new graphic prints Feathers, Zig Zag & Berry (below). We hand screen-print Peter's beautiful designs onto Scottish-woven linens in Gloucestershire, offering a bespoke service and something rather special... (biased, me?!)

Other must haves included...

Love this chair at Luke Irwin

 Amazing relief tiles from Brussels based company, Emery & Cie

 

 

These British-made cisterns by Catchpole and Rye would turn an uninspiring bathroom into the talking point of the house! Love them.

 

Golran's beautiful re-purposed and re-invented rugs

 Andrew Martin's vintage and retro inspired interiors. Need that tapestry upholstered sofa!

I'm going to take advantage of my newly inspired thoughts and hopefully make full use of them- excited to get back to my evening ceramics course and have been meaning to have a go at a friend's wedding invites for ages now! Where do the weeks go?

Have a lovely weekend and do something different- be inspired! x

Back to work!

Hope everyone's had a nice weekend? I did a show at Beyond France's Textile Tea Party and met some lovely people whilst Lavinia's Tea Party did a great job serving tea & cake in the garden for Women for Women's charity (it's dangerous when your best friend is in this line of work...too.much.cake!) 

It was a nice gentle ease back into work after a relaxing week off in rainy Cornwall (though as you'll see from my photos, we had the odd blue sky!) I'm busy in work for the next couple of weeks as Rapture & Wright get ready to exhibit at Decorex, and I'm off to London with them at the end of September. Quite exciting, I've also enrolled on an evening ceramics course so it's back to college for me! X

 

 

 

Beyond France's Textile Tea Party

 

 

Who doesn't love Cornwall?

To DIY for...!

Morning!

I'm having a nice (kind of) productive couple of weeks away from working at Rapture and Wright as they're insulating the barn we print in. With the heaters on to dry the ink and in this heat (sometimes) we all forget how cold it gets out there so hopefully it'll be lovely come the winter!

I know it's a little late now as kids will be going back to uni/ college/ actual kids go back to school but I thought I'd share with you some online DIY project gems I've been meaning to do myself. There's some incredible design blogs out there. I save all of my inspiration in a folder, which I'll get round to exploring one day...some day! Perhaps there'll be time for one this bank holiday...?

Images TOP Honestly..WTF, BOTTOM Free People
 

Design*Sponge DIY projects

Free People
Honestly...WTF

I think these are all American sites...perhaps you've got some UK home grown favourites you'd like to share!

The Painswick exhibition came down on Monday and seemed to be a roaring success, I was very pleased with my little bundle of receipts and plan to take the winnings down to Cornwall for a week of roughing it in a tent. Bliss, so looking forwards to getting away!
Also made these to take down to Wales: White choc & raspberry blondies, blooming LUSH.

For the recipe click here.

On a business note, you can catch me at Beyond France's Vintage Textile Tea Party on the 9th &10th September. There'll be an open house full of fabric for crafts, vintage linen for upholstery, cushions and housewares, vintage tea party courtesy of Lavinia's Tea Party and several other makers including me! It also supports Women for Women charity, and will be a wonderful couple of days- pop in for a chat and a cuppa! X

Polka dots & circus rings

Thought I'd update you whilst some Guinea Fowl Aprons are drying! I'm half way though the Painswick exhibition now; things are going down well over there and if you still havn't been, there's still time- it runs until 21st August 2011. There's lots of things still running around my head after the Prince's Trust Business course I went on a couple of weeks ago, and I've been allocated a mentor I can use for the next couple of years...these people must have oodles of patience! 

 

For those of you who are local, do go and see this year's Giffords Circus. We saw it on Minchinhampton Common between the cows and golfers on Saturday evening; words cannot describe how much I love their work! Pure magic... (I'm sure I'll have to see them again before their stint ends in September!) We even bumped into the fella's boss coming out of the show, Pete Lord of Aardman animation- a man of good taste!

Today I'm almost finished on my run of Hungarian linen Polka dots for Beyond France- they're looking fabulous in a spectrum of vintage-looking pinks and greens. They will be available to buy as cushions at Maud's Vintage tea party & open house textile sale 9th-10th September in Cirencester, along with plenty of other lovely bits.

 Have a great week! X

Happenings...

Hello all! 
Things have been a little frantic of late, and ultra sticky in this hot spell of weather that's been cast upon us! Phew! My three week exhibition with the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen went up on Friday in Painswick, near Stroud and we had a lovely opening with wood-crafting legend John Makepeace, friends and family. It's definitely worth a little trip to; there's plenty of amazing and beautifully crafted ceramics, textile work, wood work and jewellery. Here's a peak at opening night:

The following day I held a stall over in Chalford, Stroud-way in a lovely old mill surrounded by crafts people and a few Alpacas for good measure. It was a nice, relaxed day followed by a nap (I never sleep in the day but feel absolutely frazzled in this weather / after exhibition-related decision making / open night wine drinking) and then caught the last Harry Potter film! Lovely weekend...

   

This week is mostly filled with a Prince's Trust business course I had enrolled onto at the beginning of the year, in the hope it would turn me into business woman-supreme! It's an amazing charity, with experts and advice I couldn't dream of affording. Luckily, my lovely friend Lavinia is also doing the week stint with me, fuelled with plenty of tea and biscuits- our creative minds have a tendency of wandering after 20 minutes of figures... It's fair to say you won't be seeing us on Dragons Den any time soon folks!

My problem is I want to do everything! X