trendy string

How can string be fashionable? I don't know! But I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered 300 metres of the stuff from ebay (at a bargain price from a butchers supplier). So consequently everything was tied and wrapped with trendy red and white string this Christmas, even the cake.

happy christmas

I bought this tiny little copy of A Child's Christmas in Wales for my husband who was born and brought up in the Welsh valleys. It was published in the 60's and has charming woodcut illustrations by Ellen Raskin.
This poetic description of a child's Christmas is best read in a Welsh accent which he can muster very well after a few seasonal sherries. To the evocative descriptions of front parlours, snowy landscapes and presents, useful and useless he would add fond memories of the smell of his mam's festive cooking, she really knew how to punish a brussel sprout. Dear Marian, we will all miss you this Christmas.

I am now off to drink sherry, decide which end of the turkey to stuff and wish a Happy Christmas and thank-you to every one of my blog readers x

it's cold outside

And inside too as our boiler has broken down, so hats and mittens are essential wear inside and out. We have finally had it fixed today so life is getting back to our toes. I have just about posted all our Christmas orders, hoping that the snow doesn't hold things up too much; but I am afraid there may be some delays. These snowy images are from my collection of 1960's illustrated books - Momoko's Birthday with lovely watery illustrations by Chihiro Iwasaki and a poem from Robert Lewis Stevensons A Child's Garden of Verses which just captures a winters day and is beautifully illustrated by Brian Wildsmith.

lovely neighbours

One of the best things about doing a sale is meeting the other sellers and I was very lucky to have lovely neighbours last weekend, a good number of them from leafy south east London. I was tempted by the softest knitted characters from sally nencini, and the coolest dressing up clothes from i wish i was a... (mainly for kids but these super-hero cuffs would make a boring Christmas party outfit look just a bit more super) But, last of the big spenders I spent my profits on these delicate vintage paper fans from winter's moon. They took me right back to finding one in my Christmas stocking along with a cellophane fortune telling fish and a shell that grew paper flowers when you put it in a glass of water. We were easily pleased in those days!

Also nearby were beautiful dresses and pyjamas from helen gordon,  lighting from helen rawlinson and vintage kids chairs from molly meg.

a bit of a mess!

A busy weekend at Cubbyhole Kids. I have never been very good at editing so I piled my table high and I have to say it looked rather overstuffed! I came back to a weekends worth of orders and my sewing machine decided to have its annual festive breakdown so once again my trusty old Singer has come out of retirement. Still sewing a fine straight seam and smelling that peculiar Singer sewing machine smell. I love it, this is one machine that won't end up in the All Saints window display!

Christmas cracker

This weekend I will be venturing north of the river to take part in Cubbyhole Kids, a brand new two day designers Christmas sale where I will be in very good company - with over 25 stall holders including Bellieboo, Helen Gordon, Sally Nencini, Molly-meg, Helen Rawlinson, Heart Zeena, I wish I was a..., Noodoll, Ella & Otto and many more. Christmas shopping, cakes, mince pies, mulled wine, children's snacks and entertainment, what more could you want .. free entry of course!

It's on 11-12 December at
Abney Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street
London N16 0AS
Opening times Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 11am-5pm.

Hope to see you there!

log-tastic

My new log-pile cushion is ready to find a friendly fireside home, printed on white linen with a cosy wool flannel reverse. In grey and olive it makes a great pair with the pomegranate tree cushion,  Also available in chocolate and teal with a chocolate linen reverse. You can find it now in my etsy and online shop.

Don't forget to use my christmas shopping codes:
CHRISTMAS10 for 10% off in my etsy shop
BABYSTYLE for 10% off in my online shop

seasonal fun

The snow is starting to melt here and will be gone by tomorrow so I thought I'd get this little book in quickly, published in the 60's it has some really lovely illustrations of seasonal fun.

Don't forget to use these christmas shopping codes in my shops:
10% off purchases in my online shop quote BABYSTYLE
10% off purchases in my Etsy shop quote CHRISTMAS10

And the last posting dates for christmas from the UK are
6th December Australia/New Zealand/Everywhere else
10th December USA/Canada/Eastern Europe
13th December Western Europe
21st December UK

discount for christmas

First, I want to thank everyone for such supportive and incredibly useful comments on my last post. With your help and the help of my lovely neighbour who is French and a lawyer I will be sending letters/emails to Monoprix today and I will be very interested in their response.

Meanwhile, winter has arrived and we are almost snowed-in here in leafy southeast london, this is the view from my studio. However, I am still making it to the post office even if I have to sledge! So orders will still be posted. I have discovered how to do discount codes, so to help my blogfriends with their Christmas shopping I have introduced special discounts in my shops till Christmas. In my online shop until 24th December I  am offering a 10% discount in conjunction with BabyStyleFile which is a very useful shopping guide for design loving parents, just add the code BABYSTYLE when you purchase. And for a 10% discount in my Etsy shop until 21st December just add CHRISTMAS10 in the coupon code box when you checkout. Hope it works!