29.4.12

spotted









































Bingo! Twister cushion in pink with the latest colour palette in this months Elle Deco, no doubt if I were more clued-up I would be tweeting this. I have at least worked out how to make my blog images bigger (thank-you Fran, though I haven't yet worked out how to get them the same width) ...next stop social media!

On the subject of tweeting I spotted my happy birds print making a tiny appearance in the same issue. Along with my favourite logs I think they are the star of the show. This image was taken a while ago when our house was used for shoot and for a couple of days we had the luxury of carpet underfoot. I have to say we found wall to wall barcode a bit hard to live with. Not my chair by the way, although I do have a quite a number to choose from.


27.4.12

new cushions






My new cushions are ready to go. The chair is new as well, it's not Ercol, more Ercolish but it is very pretty and useful none the less, and it was a bargain. The cushions are called Twister, printed in grey and yellow with smokey blue or dirty pink onto smooth white linen with a grey linen reverse. I have just put them into my etsy and online shop.


22.4.12

inspiring book
































I have bought a new computer and I am just about getting to grips with the new system and software, discovering just how much things have moved on in the five years since I last upgraded.
Life was simpler when it was just books - 'How to wrap five eggs' is a favourite from my childhood. This classic book about traditional Japanese packaging fascinated me. Everything about this now rather dog-eared original hardback edition, the content, design, photography even down to the print quality and the matt paper inspired me to want to design even before I knew what a designer was. I don't think an app would do that!



20.4.12

easter break























































We turned our backs on Catalonia and took a short break in the far south west this Easter. And the wind was definitely in from Africa, this wild and beautiful area of Atlantic Andalucia lived up to its reputation as the windiest corner of Spain (the right sort of wind, happy kite surfers!).  It was easy to see how the wind influences the landscape, new windmills stretch across every hillside, the pine trees are squat and rounded, the sand blown half way up the hillsides to form Sahara like dunes (as my husband pointed out not unlike Ogmore in Wales where he used to play as a child, just substitute the view of Morocco for Port Talbot steel works and there you go!)

We stayed in Vejer de la Frontera a classic Andalucian hill top village, the sparkling white streets literally swept clean by the wind and the houses closed and secret. The sparse black and white of the architecture was perked up by fragrant orange trees and tiled courtyards filled with plants, spiky or succulent to survive the chilling winds and scorching summer sun. Vejer was recovering from its Easter festivities so was very quiet during the day, just the occasional burst of Flamenco from iron barred windows.

Our home for the week was one of Vejer's most atmospheric houses tucked away under the castle walls in the oldest part of the town. This very special and beautiful house owned by photographer Christina Wilson and journalist and broadcaster Robert Elms is in parts over 1000 years old, a tiny maze of whitewashed rooms, cobbled hallways and ancient steps built around a courtyard, simply furnished with great style and charm and plenty of Spain based reading material, six days was not enough!






17.4.12

tiles







We have been on a little trip (more about that later) and when I return from a few days away I always want to change the house. I tend to drift between the simplicity of Scandinavian design and the organic, artisan quality of the Mediterranean. These concrete floor tiles fall into both camps. From Swedish company Marrakeck Design they come in lovely cool colours and can be arranged in any number of pattern combinations. Of course we have no where to put them, I would like them on the kitchen wall but we have to keep changing the colour for photographic shoots. This year it has been olive green, blue, back to olive and now this grey which I may keep for a bit. The colour is called 'nothing makes people happy' from my favourite eccentrically named paint shop Colour Makes People Happy.

7.4.12

easter eggs



When I retire to the countryside and keep chickens I would like them to be good enough to lay eggs that exactly match my melamine egg cups, like these beauties from East End Farm, Cholsey.
(n.b unless you like your eggs to be like rubber, do not use the Heston Blumenthal method for soft boiled eggs - rubbish!)

A happy Easter to all!

6.4.12

happy birthday florence

It's my niece's 21st birthday today, happy birthday Florence! (This Florence isn't her obviously, it's a bubble bath bottle from a boot fair)

3.4.12

spring cushions

Some samples cushions made up in the slinky design, the colours are a spring palette of grey, olive, dirty pink and smokey blue. We will sit on them for a while and I hope to have a batch in my shop sometime after Easter.

Will they sell? I don't know, it is so difficult to predict what will be popular. I am very fortunate that I can print and make up a small run of cushions to test the water. Unlike wallpaper where we gambled on a serious print run, luckily sales are doing amazingly well. Silver birch is the most popular (we are into the second print run with this one) followed by moss yellow and then woodsmoke, exactly as predicted in my mini-poll last summer, you know your stuff!

2.4.12

while the sun shines




I love it when I can hang my prints out to dry! I made this new screen last week, a repeat pattern inspired by the simple pleasure of the Slinky toy - the height of amazing new technology when we were kids. I am experimenting with colours here, finding it hard to get away from my favourites. 
I am also busy with a lovely new illustration project, one a month for a year, should be fun.

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