city mermaid

I was up in town early this weekend to start a course in web design, it's the time to see London at its best, before the crowds. I have walked across Trafalgar Square hundreds of times but never really noticed the mermaids - and very lovely they are too. With the giant ship in the bottle on the 4th plinth its all very maritime. I also walked through Cecil Court off St Martins's Lane. It's the place to go for antiquarian bookshops including Marchpanes which specialises in children's books. None of them open as it was too early but there was lovely stuff in the windows. They won't be charity shop prices but I shall go back next week.

Brian Wildsmith 2

After my lucky find in Wales I dug out my other Brian Wildsmith illustrated book. A beautiful edition of the classic A Childs Garden of Verses published in 1966. I was brought up on these poems, they are all so familiar and comforting. These illustrations sparkle with life and colour, just amazing!

musical inspiration

Vintage record sleeves are a great source of colourful inspiration, it is always worth digging through the piles of Des O'Conner and 80's rock albums for classical titles from the 50's and 60's. I found a stack of them in the charity shop for 50p each and picked out these three. I love the bold shapes, colours and no nonsense typography. La Traviata is so pretty she is going into a frame. Now I need to look out for a vintage deck so that I can play them!

let the sunshine in

We have a very persistent window cleaner who has knocked on our door every month for the last 5 years. Finally, I have had our windows cleaned! In honour of Holly from Decor8 blog who is coming next week to photograph our house for a new project she is working on (how exciting is that!!) Even in our leafy part of London it's quite grimy out there so what a difference it made - the sun streamed in, now of course I have to clean the insides. The little table is a present from me to me, I very rarely buy new furniture, so nice not to have to paint it, sand it or re-upholster it.

come on england

I am not a great football fan, my husband is Welsh so not too interested and my son can take it or leave it. But there is no escaping it at the moment. This little badge was England's mascot from the glory days of 1966, it belongs to my brother and comes out every 4 years, it hasn't brought us much luck so far - maybe this year!
.....maybe not!

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.

Brian Wildsmith 1

I found this book in a charity shop in Wales last week. A fantastic counting book first published in 1965 with beautiful bold illustrations By Brian Wildsmith, my heart skipped a beat!

day trip

This sewing box was a surprise win on ebay for £1.99. I didn't realise that it was buyer collect until I had won, so it involved a day trip to the Kent coast this week. However I managed to combine it with a visit to Whitstable to drop off some roddy&ginger to Frank, tea with an old college friend and a scout around the seaside charity shops which turned up a splendid globe, some vintage Summer reading and a delicious dish which I think is Norwegian. I am not surprised the sellers were unwilling to post the sewing box, it is truly massive with a wingspan of nearly five foot when fully opened out and will double up as a handy coffee table!

roddy&ginger in print

Our house was photographed recently to be included this cute Japanese book, A Girly Interior in London styled by Emma Cassi and published by Editions de Paris. Emma photographed my studio and some of the more girly corners of our house, notably my daughters bedroom which is quite full on girly (I wish I had removed that mattress from under the bed!). It's all in Japanese so I have no idea what it says but it looks lovely.

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.

elegant dish

This is the lovely Poole pottery dish that arrived in the post yesterday. Poole is another English seaside town along with Rye that is famous for its pottery. Producing tableware and studio pieces in the 50s and 60s in elegant modern shapes and colours. I now have two casserole dishes - not really a collection!  I can't decide if these are marrows or melons but it makes me want to go out and draw some vegetables!

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. 

colourful covers

I discovered a basement book shop in Crystal Palace. A cobwebby underground space with tens of thousands of old books in tottering towers. The low ceiling  and the chain smoking owner gave it a Dickensian atmosphere which is just how secondhand book shops should be. There were corners of the shop that had not been disturbed for years, one row of books was propped up by a small rock hard loaf of brown bread. I staggered out gasping for air with a small stack of unusual books. Here are just a few; a german book about goldfish, a british ramblers guide, a cute japanese story book (flying pants?!) and a series of books about India with beautiful bold cover illustrations.

Kate has selected a winner for the roddy&ginger giveaway over on her blog. Congratulations to Tonya Henehan, there will be a happy birds cushion in the post! And thank-you to everyone who entered.