show time

clementine&bloom, lampshades and cushions. spann&willis, cards and prints

one must dash, posters

Claire Gaudion, silk scarves

I was a little bleary eyed after three days of Spotted at Top Drawer and very thankful to see daylight again. My sun-topped towering stand worked really well, and was quick to install thanks to the full dress rehearsal at home. It was a long three days but well worth doing. I met so many people and made new friends. Fellow Spotted stand mates kept each other going - hooray for us all! clementine&bloom, spann&willis, stormy knight, one must dash, mes leather, Claire Gaudion, Amy Allwright, Jessica Hayes-Gill, Stephanie Davis.

In a moment of collective enthusiasm a group of us signed up for Launchpad at Pulse in May this year. I woke up the next morning thinking why why why?! but in the words of my lovely daughter  'do it mum!'

Modern day out

It was a frosty day, flocks of geese were grazing on the playing fields and Hogwarts style lights hovered over the impressive array of Mid-Century furniture in the fabulous '60s setting of the Christensen Hall at Dulwich College. I was hoping that my corner at the Mid-Century Modern show on Sunday would look cool, minimal and edited. As usual, it ended up as a bit of a market stall. I can't resist piling on products old and new. 

Lucy stepped in as my lovely assistant and we had a busy day, made all the better by friendly neighbours Mark from mini-moderns (all on his own while Keith manned their Christmas pop-up shoppe in Columbia Road) and Julia from Winter's Moon, it was great to catch up. What amazed me was that at an event full of cool hunting mid-century types our best seller was the roddy the owl print, it seems everyone still loves an owl.

spotted!

roddy&ginger has been spotted! twice a year style journalist Charlotte Abrahams hand picks 10 new design brands to showcase on her stand Spotted at Top Drawer, and this year we have been selected for the January show. Our first small venture into the scary world of the trade show, huge exitement and smiles all round.

On the subject of events, we will be upstairs at the Midcentury Modern show this Sunday 2nd December. As always it will be a fantastic leafy south-east London day out for lovers of mid-century furniture and design and an opportunity to shop for Christmas with some truly amazing contemporary designers. Free parking, fab food and a chance to poke around the architectural wonder that is Dulwich College. All the details here.

Cyber-monday 15% sale continues today in both my shops, heres the code WEEKEND15

in print

roddy&ginger has turned up in an eclectic selection of magazines over the last couple of months, Country Homes and Interiors,  Kitchens Bedrooms and Bathrooms, with nice autumnal styling by Alison Nicholls and a lovely little piece among the patchwork and pom-poms in Mollie Makes where I am mysteriously described as 'veggie grower'. I feel a fraud, can two courgettes and a couple of kilos of potatoes be described as veggie grower?

owl pie.....

...not really! Tinkering with my blog header is a very good distraction from real work. I am retiring my owls, they are ever so popular but have been around for nearly five years, time for a change I think. For now they are in their hole while I decide what to do next.

a good nights sleep

My cure for insomnia, sleep like a log with these log pile pillow cases (I couldn't resist!) They are hand printed in a smokey grey onto lovely 300 thread count pure cotton percale and are for sale now in my etsy and online shops. 

in fashion

  

Yes, it's me - hanging around with the high heels and handbags in this weeks Grazia mag. As usual I am feeling a little embarrassed but my daughter (who knows about these things) tells me it's all good PR.

the lucky winners!

I had a fantastic response to my giveaway - 70 entries! I really enjoyed reading the comments and felt quite embarrassed at times as they were so lovely. So I decided to select two winners, all the entries were folded and placed into roddy's Auntie Dill and the winners were picked out by the lovely Lucy.
And here they are - congratulations to Evita and Littlemithi!

roddy&ginger giveaway!

I thought it was about time I held a little giveaway on my blog!  So here it is... I am giving away a roddy or pomegranate tree cushion (maybe one of each if I gets lots of entries, hope I do or I will feel a little foolish!) They are both available printed onto natural linen and I have also listed the pomegranate tree cushions printed onto lovely crisp white linen. You can see the range here and here. To enter just leave a comment on my blog, let me know your favourite and I will pick the winner from a hat next Monday. I am really looking forward to your comments! (and if you want to mention it on your blog that would be lovely x)

love letters

I couldn't decide between these two lovely vintage Olivetti typewriters when I saw them in the charity shop so I bought them both. I love their morris minor colours and the red button and the ding! Anyone here under the age of twenty is fascinated by them. I think they are just amazed by letters coming out of a such a primitive mechanical object.
I couldn't find an exclaimation mark key which shows that the overuse of this particular bit of punctuation must be a very modern thing!!
As it says on the last image, I am going to do my first roddy&ginger giveaway next week so please come back and take part!!! details soon.

leaving the nest

Last weekend we took the lovely Lucy up to Newcastle and left her there which seemed a strange and unnatural thing to do. She starts her fashion course at university this week and is currently well stuck into freshers week. Newcastle is an amazing city with a lively nightlife, home to the shortest skirts and highest heels I have ever seen!

Before she left she decided to have a tattoo, which I was not pleased about. But the choice was entirely hers and she loves it, well I suppose no one else will have one quite like this! She very sweetly says that her only fear was that roddy&ginger would be so successful it would be like having the Boots logo on her back, I told her not to worry!
Her twin brother has chosen to study art closer to home so the nest is not quite empty yet!

back to school for roddy

There was a lot of owl action in the woods in Wales, it was quite magical to listen to them hooting to each other in the dark just above our heads. Everybody loves an owl and there are plenty of lovable owl cushions around (my favourite at the moment is this one from from Robin and Mould ) However, maybe there is room for one more so I am working on a big roddy cushion and hope to have it in my shops next week. In the meantime I have put a little roddy pencil case in my Etsy shop ready for back to school.

fabrics galore

Every now and then our house is used as a location for photo shoots (well, we do have two hungry teenagers to feed!). As we have an abundance of props it is often used for vintage and retro pieces. Just lately it was used by BBC Homes magazine for a feature on vintage fabrics and our house was filled with a heady selection of glorious textiles from the '50s and '60s. Our ercol sofa was elevated from it's normal use of dumping ground to glamourous prop, festooned with beautiful vintage fabric cushions from Jane Foster . A couple of roddy&ginger cushions crept in so I have put them back into my shop.

2 cushions in one

I have just put these daisy bird cushions into my etsy shop. Two cushions in one! pink or teal bird on one side and lemony lime daisy pattern on the reverse.

big cartel shop

I am really bad at updating my website so I am thinking of switching my shop to Big Cartel and spent this morning setting one up. It's not connected to my website yet (thats a bit more complicated!) so nobody will be able to find it and I still need to design the header, but I have stocked it with cushions and  prints including this new happy birds print and launched it - hooray! It's here  if you want to take a look.

new images

Two exciting parcels in the post today, one beautiful Poole casserole dish that I won on ebay and a disc of images from photographer Heather Lewin. Heather and I spent a very busy day last Friday photographing roddy&ginger products for my website and publicity. Heather was brilliant to work with and the shots are lovely, I can't wait to use them. 

the fabric of my life

One of my favourite blogs is the fabric of my life a wonderful daily oasis of inspiration and soothing images collected and written by stylist and vintage magpie Kate Baxter. Kate is celebrating her first blog birthday and she has been hosting a series of giveaways. This week I'm really delighted that it's the turn of roddy&ginger. You can win one of our happy bird or mermaid cushions, take a look at Kate's blog here, answer the question - what is your favourite vintage find? (tricky one!) and have a go!