Smalltown is here!

I have just taken delivery of a batch of Smalltown wallpaper, and it's in my shop now. Available in three colours - hastings a charcoal black, margate a shell pink and camber a sandy yellow. You can find it here in my shop.

smalltown progress

I'm taking a break for a couple of weeks and while I am away production will be going ahead on my new Smalltown wallpaper. I will be coming back to colour samples and then rolls should be ready for mid September, can't wait!

These are some of the images from my shoot with Heather Hobhouse earlier this year, we had a lot of fun propping these, my collection of house shaped shelves is growing!

wild west

I have always thought that the Logpile wallpaper in woodsmoke would make a great feature in a boys bedroom so with this in mind I gave it a bit of cowboy style. Here's the result, starring my vintage rocking horse - I knew it would be a useful prop one day. Great photography by Heather Hobhouse who as usual reigned me in from my eagerness to over prop. I was ready with the log hooks, cowboy hats and wigwam which she gently managed to avoid using!

We also shot the new Smalltown wallpaper and cushions ready for a launch late summer - exciting!

catch up

Its been a couple of weeks since exhibiting at Pulse, busy ones, so I have just now found time to catch up with a few pictures of my stand. The lighting was not good so the pictures are a little stark. 

Most of my stand was made up from my kitchen furniture with the addition of a set of Ikea wall shelves, and looking round the exhibition made me realise how the majority of displays incorporated a piece of kit from Ikea, where would we be without them! 

The new Smalltown wallpaper and textiles collections went down really well so production is under way. I hope to have the wallpaper and teatowels by August. The cushions are hand printed so will be available a bit sooner - as soon as I find time to update my shop to be honest!

Deadlines

I was more than a little surprised and delighted to see that roddy&ginger was selected by Katie Treggiden in the Pulse Preview booklet as one of her three to watch at the show this year. Katie is the official blogger for Pulse and you can read my interview with her here on her excellent blog Confessions of a Design Geek.

So with only a couple of weeks to go before it starts I felt I had to get cracking on some printing. Yes, it's late in the day but there is nothing like a deadline to get things going. I have spent the week mixing colours, printing sample fabric for cushions and lengths of my new Small Town wallpaper. Most exiting of all I  found some log hooks at the local and very charming Alexandra Nurseries in lovely Penge.

If anyone is going to Pulse, details for registering are here, it takes place on 12-14th May at Earls Court and I will be on stand LP36, would be lovely to say hello!

in print

I have finally got my hands on January's edition of The Simple Things magazine. And here's a full page of my Logpile wallpaper, photography by Heather Hobhouse and still looking good. The new shopping editor for The Simple Things is Will Taylor aka the delightful Mr Bazaar of the exuberent and colourful UK blog Bright Bazaar, thank-you Will!

Now I need to find a copy Frankie magazine from Australia. They requested an image of my mermaid cushion a while ago and judging by the amount of mermaids flying off down under (yes flying mermaids!) it must have been published in the last edition. Thank-you Frankie!

This image of the mermaid cushion was also by Heather from our first photo shoot together three years ago.

day out

Day out with Lucy in Islington, we dropped into the Country Living Christmas Fair at the Business Design Centre... blimey, festive overload! we stayed long enough to seek out the Treefall Design stand where Manda McGory has used our Logpile wallpaper as a back drop to her sweet and charming collection of homewares and beautiful, simple hand made children's clothing range (pictures taken on my phone, sorry!) It was lovely to finally meet Manda.

Enough of jingle bells and reindeers, we walked as far as the serene and thoughtful Folklore shop via twentytwentyone, bought a 21st birthday present handbag at Whistles, some flouro printing inks at Cass Art, checked out the vintage clothes shops in Camden Passage (beautiful but expensive) had lunch in the Elk in the Woods, and tried to see the Old School print exhibition at Smug. Roped off again, better luck next time. We also spent ages in Penhaligans identifying our signature scents. Daughters, fun but expensive.

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.

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!

Hei

Keeping in the Scandinavian theme I have been sending parcels to Finland this week, my wallpaper is featured in this months edition of the lovely Finnish Deko Magazine - so Hei! to anyone reading this in Finland. As I am such a huge fan of Scandinavian design, it's a real thrill to be featured here. Deko is a beautifully styled magazine, like looking through some of my favourite scandinavian blogs, I wish we had a version here in the UK. It's the December issue, so a bit of Christmas is creeping in here but I have no complaints when it looks like this!

and pepper

I was digging around looking for my other Let's Read and Find Out books and I came across my old copy of Mrs Pepperpot to the Rescue. I loved Mrs Pepperpot! This children's classic by Norwegian writer Alf Proysen was published in 1963, illustrations by Bjorn Berg.

a bit of trumpet blowing

Is this a bit show-offy? I don't know, but we have had some fantastic mentions of our wallpapers in Octobers Ideal Home and November issues of House Beautiful, Grand Designs and a full page in Elle Deco - wow! I feel well and truly launched. It's all down to Lucy, home-grown PR girl - every home should have one!

Also lovely mentions on Bambino Goodies, Bright Bazaar, Woodchip and Magnolia and Design Milk where I am renamed Ginger - I like it!

To celebrate, I am doing an October offer - 10% off the price of wallpaper from my shop. Just use this discount code octoberoffer when you order (ends 31.10.11)

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.

it's here!

Wrapped and ready to roll, the first two colours of Logpile wallpaper have been delivered and they look fantastic. I organised the label printing from afar so unable to proof read it comes complete with minor typo. Well, I think 'anging instructions' adds a bit of South London flavour!

Lucy, my home grown PR girl has found time in an incredibly busy summer holiday to organise press releases and hi-res images - all the stuff that usually lurks at the bottom of my to-do list. Our first mention is in the Ideal Homes mag October issue, exciting!

The wall paper and cushions to match are in my shop now.

keeping warm

Getting used to being back home, trying to find all the things I put into a 'safe place' before I went away, eating giant vegetables from the allotment, keeping warm under beautiful welsh blanket found in local vintage store and catching up with last months Elle Deco (the one with the embarassing front cover… I speak from experience and always wipe our 'quirky wall feature' clean after teenage parties)

And, great excitement! the first batch of logpile wallpaper has arrived, I hope to have it in my shop by the 1st September.

giveaway winner!

Thank-you for your lovely comments, overall the runaway popular colour was most definitely silver birch, followed by moss yellow with woodsmoke just behind, so very useful information when I order my first batch. I agree, it's very hard to decide, my favourite on the roll is woodsmoke which is a really lovely smokey grey blue colour but on the wall and in the pictures I'm with the majority, I prefer silver birch.

I couldn't work out how to do the random number picker so you will have to trust me with the time honored hat method. And the winner of the logpile cushion, picked out from roddy's aunty dill by my son is Rebecca from Little Tree who favoured the moss yellow paper. You can uncross your fingers now Rebecca! (I have left a message in your comments)