pandora pocket

New Collection

Liberty have their new collection in for Winter 2009. I managed to snap a couple of sneaky pictures of my favourites for you Josie but this is the best I could do. The man who measured out my necessary purchase said samples of the whole collection would be on the Liberty website in a month, once the whole collection is in store.

I think the paisley with faces on is a little freaky but the one I bought (third from left) makes me very happy every time I see it. Look away if you are broke.

 

Liberty

I knew it would be a good idea to meet Julie in Liberty. The plan was to hand over the newly stitched bedding set and cushion for Joseph over coffee and a bacon sandwich in the lovely tearoom there. I had neglected to mention that there was a sale on and within ten minutes of the doors opening one of us had a new pair of shoes and jacket and the other had a bundle of fabric wrestled from the old ladies frantically rummaging at the remnants table.

 

Julie even had time to point out a fantastic book that she thought I might need, which of course I did. Not only are the images in this book a fantastic inspiration but I have loved reading about the history of my favourite shop. Written by Anna Buruma who is the archivist at Liberty, Liberty & Co. in the Fifties and Sixties: A Taste for Design is definitely a new favourite.

 

I love this post by Nikalas Catlow about children's book illustrators; especially the envelopes by Satoshi Kitamura.

Portmeirion: Love and Peace

Work didn't call yet. Or if they did, I must have missed them which would of course be a terrible shame.

Instead I have been able to spend a couple of days with Josie on her brief visit to the UK which mainly consisted of trips to Liberty, Bridgewater, Liberty, John Lewis, Liberty again and Small White Company, interspersed with tea and cake breaks (at Liberty). We found a beautiful range of ceramics by Portmeirion called Love and Peace (in Liberty), which neither of us had ever seen before and immediately needed to own. On our return (to Liberty) 3 days later, we discovered to our horror that not only has Portmeirion discontinued this line but someone who obviously still has a job had selfishly bought most of the stock. Lucky for us they had left the odd piece or two like this sugar jar which handily doubles up as a plant pot...

 

Just finished sewing the buttons on 8 of my traditional birthday dresses. My favourite part of making these is choosing the fabrics in the first place. Still a couple more birthdays to create for before the painters come and steal my craft room away for ever.

    

Thanks Josie and Andy for fantastic Buffalo hospitality and see you in the autumn with Merlin.

Thanks shrimpers (and Marsh) for the fantastic East End Villains 40th birthday knees up.

Thanks Little Jim and Hoon for giving the (boxy but safe) Volvo a good home.

Thanks Redshaws for the silver beast.

Lazy

I've been a bit lazy. Maybe more than a bit. Over the last month, I have been doing a lot of visiting my dad interspersed with sleeping, watching crappy movies in front of a crackling log fire, plenty of eating and absolutely no blogging or crafting. It's been bloody lovely. But a little bird in Buffalo has been tweeting in my ear, so here are a couple of things I actually left the house for in December...

Christmas opening on Columbia Road and the Rob Ryan shop

 

Ice skating at the Natural History Museum...

 

... and pints of beer afterwards

 

Santa's express at Selfridges

 

Spoons in Cranleigh

 

and Caroline's 40th

 

Phew that was exhausting, I need a lie down.

Christmas at Habitat

This weekend, as Donald, Polly, George and I fought our way through the determined crowds of shoppers on Oxford Street to enjoy a leisurely viewing of Osbert Lancaster's cartoons and rooms filled with armour at the Wallace Collection, it was very apparent that December is imminent. The Christmas fairs are all starting this week, and I am hoping to make my annual pilgrimmage to the Swedish Church for a hot dog and a glass of glogg this weekend, in addition to selling wares of my own this Saturday at the Christmas craft fair taking place in Cranleigh village hall from 10am until 3.30.

One of my other favourite Christmas traditions is to head to Habitat for their special Christmas shopping evenings - one of which is happening this Thursday at the converted New Gallery cinema Regent Street store. If you email your contact details to habitatshoppingevent @hf-uk.com by the 19th, you'll get a 20% discount voucher for the weekend. I'm loving some of their new stock, especially the Peony collection...

 

Auburn Studios

 

Josie has opened a new shop called Auburn Studios over at Etsy.

She is selling a pattern to make your own travelling art show like the one in the picture and a pattern to make your own moleskine cover. She also has a heap of beautiful hair accessories and plans for much more besides. Make it a favourite - I have.

Another favourite of mine at Etsy is Mister Rob (Ryan), whose tiles I would happily line my house with and whose shop - Ryantown - I plan to visit one Sunday very soon. I used to love going to Colombia road on a Sunday back in the days of Betnal Bean.

Christmas at Muji

 

Spent rockets from Guy Fawkes night have barely hit the ground and already Christmas carols are ringing in my ears as I sip hot frothy milk in a well known coffee drinking establishment. Time to gaze wistfully into shop windows and covet. Starting with Muji...

     

The tiny wooden circus is so very very cute, as is this wooden tree decoration and their fig candles rock. In fact there is nothing in Muji I would not want in my house. How can a shop be so brilliant? I know I'm making pretty much all of our Christmas presents this year - the Drurys have been well and truly credit crunched - but I might need more than a satsuma and a handful of walnuts to put in David's hand crafted stocking as it dangles from the fireplace.

thrift

 

 

one of my favourite passtimes is rummaging in charity shops. I seem to have amassed a small library of books, an entire wardrobe including a 1970s diane von furstenburg dress for £5, various pieces of furniture and about 120 cups and saucers. had I gone home to visit my parents yesterday I may have added to this stash, as it usually entails dragging my mum around the charity shops of cranleigh. it just so happens that chris evans' clumsy removal man took the wrong box of belongings to one of these very shops and I could have potentially secured a signed damien hirst spot painting for a handful of beans.

I will have to console myself with the slightly dampened joy of finding these three franciscan woodlore bowls from 1954 for $6 in phoenix last week. and maybe muse upon the idea design sponge posted about making lights from mason jars - a much cheaper option for our kitchen than the tom dixon beat and stout lights that I would have been able to afford if I had found that spot painting. (yes our kitchen has been finished for nearly a year and we still have bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling.) (and actually I would have had to phone up chris evans and give him his picture back.)

it seems I'm barely home before I have to leave again - josie I'll be posting this pattern for you from seattle tomorrow... let me know when you get it and we can have a transatlantic girly style wardrobe sew-off.

san francisco

    

two days break from the incessant rain in london. two days in san francisco equals enough time to ride the BART for the first time ever, wander round the shops of valencia/gough/market streets, and immerse myself in a book.

Valencia, home to little otsu and numerous thrift/vintage stores selling furniture, clothes and old crap.

Market, home to Flax art store and Rare Device where I found amongst many treasures the new edition of lines and shapes and a splendid exhibition by betsy walton.

Gough, home to Rose and Radish and tartine, my favourite french cafe for healthy omelette and buttery cake lunch.

Eat, pray, love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, recommended by Josie and commented on by many. I read the first section (Italy) in bed at 3am (jetlag); the second section (India) over lunch; the third section (Indonesia) in starbucks. The author, in her early thirties, takes her life and shakes it upside down, trying to find things she had lost, and throw out (or file) things she no longer needs. she made me laugh out loud and brought tears to my eyes. I loved the descriptions, "Before dawn the roosters for miles around announce how freaking cool it is to be roosters. ("We are ROOSTERS!" they holler. "We are the only ones who get to be ROOSTERS!")" and I loved the insight into another life that bears the odd parallel to my own.

next?

print

had I been blessed with some birthday luck this weekend and won the lottery, I would have returned to the london original print fair and splashed out. I'm thinking ben nicholson, louise bourgeois, patrick caulfield and I quite liked the colour ladder by john plumb.

happy to see rob ryan as always (birthday tile I love you), and amazed to see the prices on a banksy.

and really happy to see copies of beasts of india (birthday book I love you too) and the night life of trees for sale through the rebecca hossack art gallery. I read about them both on a blog ages ago and was keen to rifle through the pages. bizarrrely julia rothman listed trees as one of her favourites the very next day.

orla kiely's new prints in liberty.

hennie print storage tins and bezelle print bed linen in habitat.

poster by lisen adbage, found through fine little day.