happy couple (lovely dress)

This weekend we are celebrating my parents diamond wedding anniversary, married sixty years ago in 1951. I can't help thinking that my mum's lovely dress reminds me of another famous wedding dress!

london

There's no escaping the big event in London tomorrow and I have to say it has suddenly become quite exiting! There are lots of flags and bunting and plenty of guardsman action. Any excuse to dig out my vintage london books. Seeing London - I love the red elephant bus, the classic This is London, and a schools broadcasting book from the fifties showing Westminster Abbey decked out for the coronation in 1953. I am now off to polish my tiara!

mermaids

Margate was looking festive last weekend for the recent opening of the new Turner Contemporary art gallery, perched on the edge of the harbour and looking crisp and new in the sunshine. Plenty of mermaids to be found, shell ladies in Margate, Lucy and her cousin Flo on the beach and my mermaid cushion looking at home by the sea in my sister's lovely house in Broadstairs

three out of three

We had a gloriously sunny weekend in Broadstairs, the beach was looking stunning in its chalky seaside colours and I was able to fulfill my three wishes; flip-flops, sun screen and burnt sausages. (Well, actually I'm cheating, we cooked the sausages today in our garden in London)

new old books

It's becoming hard to find charity shop books that didn't start out life as 3 for 2 at the airport. But these two are little treasures. The first, Artists of a Certain Line by John Ryder, a pocket sized show case of children's book illustrators from the sixties, many of them unknown at the time but soon to become familiar illustrators of Puffin paperbacks. I also love its wood grain binding. And the second - Petunia's Treasure illustrated by my favourite Roger Duvoisin, the 'silly goose' finds some treasure and gets rather above herself in the farmyard.

I am off to the seaside for a couple of days, hoping to wear my flip flops, eat burnt sausages on a beach and use up some sunscreen - perfect! A happy easter to everyone!

in my beautiful balloon

 

My ballooning screen-print is ready to go! Available now in my Etsy and online shops.
I was originally inspired to make this print when we were woken early one Sunday morning in our sleepy Spanish village by what sounded like a fire breathing dragon outside our window. An enterprising local firm had started selling hot air balloon rides, launching from the nearby riverside and complete with Catalan breakfast involving cava and cake. I am now experimenting with another colour version of the print, not sure what yet, maybe a hot pink/orange/brown combo as everything is getting a bit blue and grey at the moment, any ideas?

launch report

The bloggers were out in force at Libertys for the Decorate launch yesterday evening (there must be a collective noun for a bunch of bloggers, what could it be?) Like news-readers it was a surprise to see that they had legs or even heads and bodies! These events are all about making connections and as I am the worlds worst networker I was very glad to have Lucy, my homegrown 'PR assistant' with me to stop me from hiding under the table. I was very happy to meet among others Rebecca, Alexis, Kate from The Fabric of My Life, the lovely chaps from Mini Moderns ( I really love their new Whitby wallpaper) and Will from Bright Bazaar which is a new blog to me and lots of fun.

up and away

I have just put some ballooning cushions into my shops. These are printed onto white linen in navy, smokey blue and olivey yellow with a navy linen backing. The colours are really lovely though I am not sure these pictures do them justice. I will have another go when the sun comes back out. These are really fun to print as the registration is easy, nothing needs to be too accurate - clever! Available in my etsy and online shop. A 40x50cm screenprint will be following shortly.

Decorate

I find it hard to believe that it is less than a year ago that Debi Treloar came and took these beautiful pictures of our house for Decorate, the brand new book from Holly Becker of Decor8 blog. I have had my copy for a couple of weeks now and it really is an amazing book, packed full of inspiring homes, images and ideas. I am still not sure how I feel about having my knick-knacks (so to speak!) on display for all to see and it makes me feel a little embarrassed but hey-ho, 99% of my stuff is pre-owned and well loved and just happens to have ended up here in this quite ordinary family home! I am going to the launch in Libertys on Wednesday with my lovely daughter Lucy, instantly recognisable by her bright red corkscrew curls, so if anyone else is going to be there please come and say hello!

bootsale finds

This studio pottery coffee set was my weekend find at the bootsale. It is made by Briglin potteries, probably in the sixties. Briglin was set up in the 1940's in the smart west end of London by two ladies called Brigette and Eileen, hence the name. Their aim was to produce pots for the home that were well designed, attractive and affordable and I think they succeeded. I have a couple of other pieces, the teazel jug and the kitty money bank. The excellent Pottery Studio website tells me this is now worth an amazing £75.00, however as with most of my stuff it is rather well loved and battered so probably not worth a bean but has a very nice smile!
Lots more pictures and infromation about Briglin is to be found on this ultra informative website www.briglin.com

hooray!

The sun's out and everyone's in a good mood. It always makes my happy when I can hang my prints on the line and dry my screens in the sun.

summer's here

Wouldn't it be nice - a complete summer wardrobe in a packet. Not going to happen! Maybe just the stripy dress, although its bound to have darts, and I remember coming unstuck with these in school needlework classes (those were the days!) 

passion for scarves

I spotted this beautiful book about silk scarves in our local bookshop and it is now on my wish list. It has just been published by Thames and Hudson and tells the story of the silk scarf with stunning images. There's not much that makes me happier than seeing a battered old suitcase stuffed with silk scarves three for a fiver at a bootsale or fleamarket. Most of my scarves end up stuffed back into a box back home but a few are transformed into cushions or curtains for my daughters bedroom (a real labour of love I won't be making many of those!) I love the bold patterns and colours of vintage scarves which is why this print dress jumped off the rails at me (half price in the sale at good old Dorothy Perkins - bargain!!)