harvest

yes, I am a veg grower! at last we have something worth eating from our allotment. We are very proud of our harvest, even though the carrots gave up trying to get through our stony London clay and curled up into tight little knots, some of the courgettes could not decide whether to be yellow or green, and the squirrels stole all our sweetcorn. We even have London honey from the allottment beehives.

tent london

Images from this years Tent London show, Lucy in the press office, copper dishes and textiles on the 100% Norway stand and beautiful handmade rugs at Node. The rugs are made in fair trade workshops in Nepal where all the proceeds go to teach the employees literacy and craft skills and support a school and orphanage. And on the subject of thoughtful products, the lovely chaps at MiniModerns launched their new range of paint, containing 90% recycled paint gathered from the leftover cans we take to the dump, brilliant!

shopper

for all you triangle fans out there, this shopping bag from Ikea hits the mark. It was the yellow trim that did it for me, a perfect match our moss yellow logpile wallpaper in the hall.

design junction

It is the London Design Festival, the week when London is crammed with too many events to possibly see. Yesterday I was in town so I looked in at the big new show on the circuit - Design Junction in Holborn. It is free to get in and showcases an impressive collection of furniture and design brands some familiar, some new. Themes among the newer brands seemed to be wood, ply wood, pale wood, turned wood, copper details, recycled materials, ceramic, coloured cable, and lots of tables that were a bit like the table that you just saw in the stand next door.
The star of the show was the venue, a vast decommissioned post office sorting house. Three floors of exhibition space, the ground floor rather gloomy but all changes on the first and second floor where the sorting equipment, conveyor belts, over-head tracks, shutes and slides still hang above your head looking ready to go at any moment.
I found a corner of calm up some metal stairs in the Klaus Haapaniemi stand where the richly detailed, folklore themed textiles from Finland provided an uplifting contrast to the industrial surroundings and crafted austerity of much of the design on offer. (Also a bar and masses of seating, wearing new boots was not a good idea)
On the whole, definitely worth a visit if you want to go west rather than east. Tomorrow, I will be heading east to Tent London where Lucy will be manning the press office. My home grown PR girl has moved on to more exiting things!

nature table

I picked up this hairy acorn in the park yesterday, never seen one like it before, what a character!

A good prop for Logpile trays and mats which are now in my shop along with the rocking horse tray and cutting mat.

libra

This months illustration for Red magazine - yes, these are my kitchen shelves. Happy birthday libras!

bark cloth

I have got hold of a roll of cotton barkcloth, so it made sense to me to print some log pile!

I don't really have the space or equipment for printing meterage of fabric as my print table is long and thin, so it is quite a slow process. The fabric has a lovely textured, vintage feel and soft finish but needs a lot of squeegee work to get a good even colour which I don't mind as I always feel that I am having a bit of a work-out while I am printing. When I use up my stocks of linen logpile cushions I will have the next batch made in the barkcloth. I am also thinking about having meterage printed for me, could be next years project, I will keep you posted!

delivery

The first batch of trays and cutting mats arrived in the post this morning. Rocking horse in olive and Logpile in black and silver birch. The trays are 28cmx36cm, a great size for coffee and cake or breakfast in bed. I will be putting them into my shop over the next couple of days.

in my shops

City windows cushion in black now in my etsy and online shops.

The white chair is a new junk shop purchase, it's an old school chair painted matt white and very sturdy. There were eight available but as I have an embarrassing amount of vintage chairs I just bought the one, and on a strict one in one out basis I now have to choose a chair to go. I might get rid of an old deckchair from the garden, or is that cheating?

black and white

I have had a break from printing for a while so getting back into it with something simple, City Windows in crisp black and white. A limited edition will be in my shops soon.

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?

spain 6 ...drinking

We have a new bar, ok it's a shed down by the river and while you are drinking your mojito the mosquitos are making a meal of your ankles but it's a welcome addition to the sleepy village and there are great views.

spain 5 ... shopping

fantastic tomatoes, local bread, red espadrilles, dip dyed wrap from the market (now an all over grey colour, should not have put it on a hot wash) back to school books, spanish paint brushes with copper trim, really looking forward to painting round corners.