summer palette

Colours to make you think of summer. Silk scarf from the flea market, paint colours by Siecle from Colour Makes People Happy, shoppers snapped last summer in Girona.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

favourite colour

I have been out of London visiting friends and family lately, these lichen covered trees and vintage copy of Forever Free were found in Oxfordshire. I love that mossy yellow.

my melamine

The collection is growing, I can't get resist the simple lines and the orange and off pastel colour palette.

sunny skies

The sun is out today and the end of January is in sight. Looking at these pictures taken last year makes me want to escape the January blues to Spain. On the plus side I am designing packaging for a range of tasty puddings so I am eating my way through pots of chocolate souffle, toffee pudding and apple crumble, all in the name of research.

Valentines offer - until February 14th there is 20% off Lovespoons print in my online shop when you use this code at the checkout: LOVINSPOONFUL

colour makes people happy

Colour makes people happy, I can't argue with that! It's the name of our local paint shop run by Simon March who sells a range of eclectically named family friendly paints from Holland under his brand name of Siecle. This inspirational shop and extensive workshops are so long that the front door is in yummy East Dulwich and the back door in trendy Peckham. Simon displays his fabulous range of colours on painted wooden clogs and among other attractions he has installed a huge spinning paint splattering machine so that you can make your own giant paint splattered painting. The colours for my wallpapers are selected from the Siecle range so that you can match walls to woodwork.

mellow yellow

The moss yellow wall paper has arrived and is in my shop now. Although this came last in my mini survey
it's my favourite and a colour that crops up all over my house. Very difficult to photograph and describe, is it an olivey yellow? or a yellowey olive? or the colour of unripe quinces or ripe pears? It's a mossy sort of yellow so that's what I have called it.
It is best seen as a sample which are available if you contact me here.

local colour 2

I can't stop photographing fruit and veg, fantastic colours.

local colour

This region of Spain is rich in colour, houses that are not built of local stone are painted in a patchwork of earthy tones. This shop in our local market town sells loose pigment by the scoopful in dusty plums through to terracottas and brights that remind me of the powdered paint we used in primary school.

p.s. it's my birthday today, I am always in Spain for my birthday which means I don't have to celebrate it at home so it appears that I am not getting any older, which is fine by me!