Peg it

Do you remember in Reception class, when you used to have a special peg to hang your clothes on in the cloakroom? Mine was a crocodile. Those little pegs helped everyone to feel important. They let everyone know that they had a particular place that was reserved just for them. They probably also helped children under 6 remember where they were meant to hang their coat, avoiding a giant pile on the floor, but that's besides the point. More than 20 years later, I still think that where possible, if you can make something beautiful, or interesting, then you should. Thinking about those little animal themed coat pegs makes me smile.

Now I'm a grown up, I probably wouldn't want gaudy little animal-shaped coat hooks. But I would like these, from Chocolate Creative.

The orange, red and rose flower coat hooks cost £15 each. Handmade in London, they were launched last year at the 100% Design 2011 fair. If flowers aren't your thing, then they are also available in beach and landscape designs.

How to cheer yourself up

Sometimes if I'm feeling a bit blue, I write myself little pep-notes and hide them to surprise myself with at a later date, which are supposed to make me feel better. Something along the lines of:

Dear Nom, 
In case you forgot, you're totally amazing and lots of people think you're SUPER COOL.
Love,
Nom

or

Dear Le Nome,
You're too awesome and busy to be confined to a relationship right now and there are plenty of years to go before your ovaries turn to dust, so really it's a GOOD THING that you're single and free.
Peace out,
Nombles x

This usually works, unless I'm really down in the dumps, in which case I'll probably just end up hating on myself for being such a loser as to write myself pep-notes.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that sometimes we all need a little reminder that we're great. Just a little something that you can look at and think 'Huh, yeah, I forgot about the fact that I'm awesome. Yeah maybe I am chubbier than my best friend, but actually, people still love me so it's not the end of the world.'

That's where this necklace from Finest Imaginary off of that Etsy comes in. It states the facts. Plain, simple. Capital letters. GOLD. Under a tenner. It's ticking a lot of boxes for me right now...

Lovely lino prints

The content of this post reminds me of a Year 8 art lesson, wherein a certain Mr. Lorimer attempted to teach a rabble of rowdy 13 year olds how to make a lino print. I managed to gouge a pretty distinct impression into the palm of my hand using a lino cutting tool and get an achy arm in the process, but that was about the sum of my efforts. So I have massive respect for anyone that is prepared to dedicate the time (and arm power, it's jolly hard work on the old guns) required to create a beautiful lino print.

Michael Torrence aka Tournesol Prints, has a selection of lino lovelies inspired by nature for sale in his Etsy shop. I really love this butterfly print, which costs £17.95, plus £2.95 to ensure it arrives at your address.

It's hand printed and hand tinted, which involves rather a lot of doing things by hand, if you ask me, and is undoubtedly worth more than the selling price.

I've always liked dandelions. I know that they're the scourge of English gardeners and before the French got their mits on the language they were called piss-a-beds due to their diuretic properties, but I love the delicate, fragile beauty of their seed heads, so I really like this print:

It costs £11.50, plus £1.80 postage, and is a smaller, A4 size.

An old boss of mine was a huge fan of lady birds, so she'd love the ladybugs lino print, which only costs £11.95, plus postage.

Butterfly Blossom

I recently spotted a lovely hand made card crafter called Butterfly Blossom, thanks to a retweet on Twitter. I haven't much time today to take you through all the pretty creations available on the site, but I do particularly enjoy this awesome mmm, cupcake card, which costs £3.50.

Butterfly Blossom is based in Whitstable, Kent and gorgeous custom cards can be made from as little as £3.50. You can follow creator, Natalie Love, on twitter too @ButterflyBlossm.

Fancy a cuppa?

Tea.

Glorious, marvellous tea. Every morning I have a cup of soothing, warm, wonderful tea. Sometimes I like to start with an EG (Earl Grey, duh), sometimes a Yorkshire Tea (it's good for hard water, which means you evade the accursed 'London Scale', that revolting scum that floats on the top of your brew and makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable). I always feel better about anything after I've had a cup. It's like totally affordable and not-illegal-when-you're-taking-it-recreationally liquid Valium. When I was wee, my Nana Rose used to make us tea in those 80s brown glass mugs, really milky with a sugar in, and we used to dip buttered toast in it whilst we watched Sky (old school Sky - it was ALL about the Rugrats, Sister Sister, or maybe Alex Mack).

Did you know that over 80% of the UK population enjoy tea?*  The remaining 20% hate it and will only drink coffee. Don't get me wrong, I love coffee, but tea? Tea is like that old cuddly toy that you've loved so much that he's become real, like the Velveteen Rabbit (mine were called Snugglebunny and Brian The Lion. They're still in residence at Bullivant Towers).

Anywho, the reason I'm chatting so much about tea is because of this brilliant designer I discovered on that there Folksy site I'm so mad on. Her name's Jess Broad, aka Cuppa Tea and Cake and if you're crafty like me, I'm sure you'll be as thrilled by her designs as I am.

Take for example this wooden wool brooch, which costs £5.

Jess illustrates her designs and then uses the magic of lasers to cut the image into the beech brooch. Which sounds pretty high tech to me.

I also took a fancy to this nice tea love badge, which is made by drawing directly on to shrink plastic. It costs just £2.50.

Like what you see? Why not pay her blog a visit, or follow her on Twitter. And whilst you're at it, follow me too!

*Don't call me on that, I'm not a Statistician and I have no actual money to put where my mouth is.

A feather for each wind that blows

I used to make jewellery, but I haven't made anything in years, since I got interested in photography. I do love looking at handmade jewellery though. Some of the time I look to see what kind of designs people are creating and to see if I think I could make the item quite as prettily. Other times it's for presents. If a design is really unique or beautiful, I love to make a gift out of it. When I give a lovely handmade gift I've sourced, I get a smug feeling, as if I've discovered treasure; plus it brings me a little added happiness that I've helped to support an artist.

Dear Oh Deer's designs, available on Etsy, are just such delicate treasures. I adore her range of feathery earrings, simple chains adorned with bewitching semi-precious stones and pretty pen and ink drawings. It's like she's been on a ramble in the countryside, collecting natural treasures and carefully taking them home to create something ethereal.

These red pheasant earthy feather earrings cost £15, plus £2 p&p. The red beads lift the natural brown colours in the feathers to make them bright and interesting, they remind me of little hawthorn berries. They'd look so pretty on ears framed by tumbling locks. It almost makes me wish I hadn't cut all my hair off two years ago...

The Valley in Autumn, creamstone bead necklace is quite simply gorgeous. I love fine gold chains, and this would look so dainty; if paired with a plain coloured t-shirt it would really dress up a casual look, it only costs £10, plus £2 p&p.

Finally I'm going to show you one of those pretty little inkings I was telling you about. Dianne has three owl pen and ink prints available.  I rather like this barn owl print.

I'm thinking that she must be selling them off once and for all, because the listing states that they cost but £3, reduced from £8. These A5 prints would make a perfect present for an owl fan; I know a certain person in particular who may well enjoy one, do you?

Angel Eden textile brooches

I really enjoy looking at things that have a sort of happy-hotchpotch-jumble feel to them; as if someone got so excited about prettiness that it just exploded out of their imagination into whatever it is they've lovingly created.

These brooches from the Angel Eden textile rage feel like this to me. At just £20 they're a brilliant way to express your individuality and love of craft.

This bluebird textile brooch feels quite romantic and uses vintage lace, charms and carefully chosen small buttons.

This is the Apple and Wheelbarrow textile brooch; I love the bright, fresh colours.

What I like about this green teapot textile brooch is that the jewelled flower has been 'rescued' from a broken necklace, and is stitched lovingly into the rest of the piece, complimenting the silver teapot and teacup charms perfectly!

Each unique piece is handmade in Derbyshire using a bespoke selection of sterling silver charms, vintage components and recycled textiles. If you spot one you like, you'll have to purchase it sharpish, as they come from a bespoke, continually developing collection!

If you'd rather make your own, they stock a range of craft kits, starting from just £5.50.

teasemade

I've mentioned before how I love finding handmade treasures; well today I have spotted the prettiest trinkets for you to peruse. 


Sami Teasdale, aka Etsy seller @teasemade, lovingly embroiders these quaint little accessories, which I am quite besotted with.


This snip scissors ring costs £10. The cool colours make for an elegant adornment to your index finger.

These polka love earrings are equally sweet, and a steal at £14:

Anyone who enjoys embroidery will find this pincushion brooch wonderful. The colours on the print and the delicacy of the design is truly delightful! The brooch costs £15.

I find this scissors love token brooch (£14) equally enticing. The stitching is so fine and the little balls of wool make me smile.

It appears that each item is a one off, as Sami uses limited edition prints in her work. Rather excitingly, there's also a sale on at present. 25% off order at checkout with the code 'TREAT25'. Well now that you know there's even a discount, how could you not?

Angelic paper decorations

These sweet packs of Paper Angels from Very Nice Things are quite simply, very nice indeed.

I think they'd look pretty as place settings at a Christmas table, on the tree, or just scattered about the house randomly spreading festive cheer about them in a tiny, angelic fashion.

They cost £10 for a packet of 7, and look, they come flat-packed, so you could either spend a happy afternoon making them all up for yourself or send them as little postcards to your friends! You could be the coolest of your friends with unusual Christmas cards AND spread crafty, festive cheer! Win.

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Lego lovelies

I love Lego. I think I inherited this from my mother, Rosebud, who used to get us big Lego sets for Christmas, but wouldn't allow us to play with them until she had built them first. Now my siblings and I have mainly fled the nest, she has an entire room set aside for Lego. Sometimes when I come home I find her sitting in said room, playing building the sets on the floor. She has ALL the Harry Potter ones.

Kookiemonkey on Folksy has made a set of 18 inch necklaces featuring Lego bricks for the bargain price of £10. Perfect little gift for the geek in your life.

I like this little Taxi  necklace, which is made with a vintage Lego brick:

This Fangs necklace has got me racking my brains trying to remember what set it came from originally:

And this vintage i-mac vs Pc necklace reminds me of the old Acorn PC we used to play on in Year 5 and 6 in primary school. There was this game with a turtle, I think it was called Logic or something and it came on floppy disk.

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Wreaths at the ready

Winter is coming...Sorry I've been reading Game of Thrones every spare second in preparation for the new series starting on Sky Atlantic in the New Year...yep, fully aware I'm a geek, but whatever, I love it.

Anyway, Winter is coming and now we're in November, we might even go as far to say, comfortably, that Christmas is coming too. I work in retail so I've been ramming it down everyone's throats in an official capacity since September, but it's in November that I start to feel wintry and want to start decorating. So here I am in an unofficial capacity, chatting to you about Christmas decs, because I actually want to. 

See here? This is The Christmas Button Wreath, which I've spotted on From The Wilde.

I love it. It's a From The Wilde exclusive and costs £25. Green and purple is a nice, unusual combo for Christmas, but I like it. It comes in lots of different colours too, if green and purple ain't your thing.

There's also this awesome Brussels Sprout wreath, which I've spotted on Not on The High Street for £29.

I feel this wreath will be received a bit like Marmite; peeps are either going to love it or absolutely hate it, but I think it's light-hearted fun. After all, what would Christmas be without the dear old sprout?

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Leather lovelies

Back in June I celebrated London Jewellery Week by visiting Hatton Garden Festival with my beloved buddy Ellie in search of some new pretties that I could croon 'My Preciousssss' over in my very best (which is, incidentally, pretty lame) Gollum impersonation. It was a wonderful way to spend a sunny Saturday, walking along a street full of British craftspeople, watching them create and talking to them about their work. I guess some people might not do the whole talking part (mon Dieu, you don't speak to strangers, this is LONDON), but me being me, I obviously did. And I enjoyed it too, so there.

It was on this delightful wee free day out that I met a jewellery designer called Amma Gyan; her brand of leather accessories and jewellery, Me, really stood out as beautiful and unique. 

These pretty turquoise and leather dot rings cost £30 and are lovingly crafted with soft Italian leather and gold clasps. They come in red leather (shown above) and plum. If you're not a turquoise girl, there's a gorgeous onyx black dot ring (shown below) and a pearl and tan version available for the same price, and for £21, a selection of gold dot rings.

There are two types of necklaces to go with the ring, if you like to be all matchy-matchy with your accessorisation, the dot necklace, for £56 and the Cleo, for £45.

I also rather like this Natasha necklace. I'm loving the way Amma has casually paired it with a white t-shirt in the picture. What a lovely way to dress up a simple white tee! Delicate yet bold, I think it's really pretty. It comes in white or yellow leather (pictured) and costs £85.

Amma is on twitter @MebyAmmaGyan and she also has an interesting tumblr style blog here too.

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Snappy ceramics

I've probably mentioned before something about my love for old school cameras. There is something utterly reassuring about using a proper film camera, a piece of kit that is older than me and doesn't require batteries to make it work. The pictures can be so satisfying, the anticipation of waiting to finish and the develop the film intense and most of all, there's that delicious clunk when you take the shot.  They also look seriously cool, all lined up in a little collection. It's amazing how inventive camera designers have been in the past, creating bodies that look completely different from each other.

I love finding objects created by people who seem to share my delight in camera memorabilia as much as I do. Nancy and Andy of Circa Ceramics on Etsy seems to be just such a duo! This little Lomo Lubitel plate, for example, is completely awesome - you choose the colour, they make the plate, print the design, fire and ship it to you! All handmade and costing just under £20 at the current exchange rate, plus £13 shipping (£7 if you're buying more than one) it's a perfect addition to any camera lover's kitchen!

Not a fan of the Lubitel and more of a Leica fan? What about the little Leica plate in berry red? Or my personal favourite, the Starmite, seen below in dodger blue!

If you're less of a camera fan and more of an audiophile, you might appreciate the little mix tape plate in avocado, or any other colour you might care to choose.

If you're looking for a just a little present for someone, Circa have a sweet range of magnets which cost just over a fiver. Designs include a Hasselblad, a Spartus and a Kiev - no I'm not talking about a chicken kiev, obviously, that would be absurd. 

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Marvellous millinery

We've talked before about my occasional need for accessories which do a small amount of communication, warding off potentially boring conversations and alerting people to my general mood. So I'm delighted to tell you I've found another Folksy Friend* in the form of Janine Basil, who's bringing comically verbose headgear to the aid of millions of speechless women throughout the MARVEL UNIVERSE. And potentially, this one too.

Check out this beautifully twinkly and ever-so-slightly aggressive BAM! fascinator, which costs £85. This is literally amazing. I would wear this A. to a comic book themed party where I could controversially go as The Text and mumble something that sounds vaguely intelligent about Roland Barthes and the death of the author, or in this case, illustrator, or A. wear this all the time. In my house. Outside the house. And whenever I catch my reflection in a in the mirror or window, just shout BAM! at myself. In the house this would be acceptable, my housemates find my mild insanity endearing. Outside the house, this might not fly, so perhaps I'd just shout BAM! in my head.

My other personal fave, because as you may have gathered from previous posts I'm a girl-geek-who-loves-the-chic (er, whatever, I'm speed typing on loads of coffee this morning) is the comic book inspired POW! rhinestone fascinator, which also costs £85. Man I so want one of these. I could pretend to be a superhero all the day long. And who wouldn't want that opportunity in life?

Moving away from the comic book theme, is the delightful Oh La Lah! rhinestone comic inspired fascinator, which again costs £85. I feel I could easily wear this with a nice pair of tailored black capris, one of my beloved stripey tops and black ballet pumps and you know, just have a totally French themed day. I'd eat tarte-au-citron and think about the Eiffel Tower and ride a bicycle and sigh wistfully and say 'oui' a fair bit, which sounds silly but really it's not.

The fascinators come as standard attached to headbands, but you can put in a special little request to have a comb or elasticated headband. Good old Janine's nice and obliging like that. Each rhinestone is carefully glued on by hand, so you know that she must be really quite skilled, a dab hand with the old glue-gun and totally deserving of our patronage.

If you're not into the rhinestones, or you're happy to speak for yourself she also as a lovely collection of crowns, bows and some hilarious zombie-themed 'oopsie-daisy-my-brain-is-peeking-through' headbands too!


* Well, strictly speaking, we're not actually friends, but I have emailed her to ask her permission to feature her work, so maybe, she'll potentially errr, like me for that? Maybe an internet friendship will bloom. Or maybe not. Who cares? This is getting awkward. I'm going now. Buhbye.


I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Take a seat

Do you have any objects that just completely epitomise a moment in time for you? Deckchairs remind me of a summery day, spent at my Nana Dorothy's house with my cousin Sally when I was about 7. Sally and I spent lots of Saturdays together there, so I'm sure it wasn't just the one day that we played with deckchairs, but this is the one day I'll always remember.

We started out by jumping off the patio, which had a bit of a ledge, over the dog daisies onto the lawn. But we got in trouble for that, because we kept accidentally kicking the heads off the flowers. So we set up camp in the garage at the back of the house with two hugely seventies deckchairs and a bottle of Sainsbury's apricot squash. The bottle had a green snake on it. It was hot and hazy, I wore a bowler hat and Sally a straw one. We played quite happily for hours and drank the whole bottle of squash. Although we got a bit of a ticking off a the time, my Nana found it hilarious and used to tell me the story over and over.

Deckchairs remind me of the happiness and safety of childhood. They're so benign, so English, so innocuous. British people have a tendency to want to manage every element of their environment; if we're to go to the beach, we'll take a picnic and towels and parasols and wind breakers and proper chairs, because we don't want to sit on the floor, that would be daft. I find it so funny that my Nana used to set out these deck chairs on her patio in her tiny, little garden, just to enjoy the sunshine. Because that's what we Brits do in summertime, we set aside time and we enjoy it, in the proper fashion.

There are a selection of wonderful deckchairs available, like these Caxton Rhode prints from Southsea Deckchairs, featuring vintage tattoo design, which cost £480 for the set.

I also love this Underground Deckchair, which can be found on art meets matter for just under £75.

If you are lucky enough to have someone to share a deckchair with, you might be interested in a Wideboy deckchair, for £109 from Deckchairs UK.

Presents for imaginary boys

So it's my imaginary boyfriend's birthday! He's *super* lucky to have me, bcause I'm uber thoughtful, kind, witty, intelligent, a great cook, creative, sometimes-independent-and-sometimes-endearingly-clumsy, fun-to-be-with, charming, great with parents, dogs and old people and most importantly, modest. I tick all kinds of boxes, if only you can push past the slight aura of weird that constantly surrounds me. Luckily, my imaginary boyfriend has achieved this zen-like state and he reaps the rewards at regular intervals (sometimes three times a night!).

To celebrate both his superhuman powers of indulging me patiently and the day of his birth, I've chosen a few trinkets to make him feel generally cherished and adored. Because he doesn't technically exist, my budget is completely unlimited, which is handy for not only making me look like an ace girlfriend, but also for the purposes of a blog post, wouldn't you say? Here goes nothin'.

For my imaginary boyfriend's study, I sourced him this limited edition Terry Pastor (oh, you know, the guy who did the cover art on Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory) Rayguns print from Pedlars. There's only 195 in the entire world and consequently I'm forking out £495 smackers for it plus postage, but my beau is totally worth it.

As soon as I saw this 1940s vintage Raeths 12" black slated globe, I knew he'd appreciate it.  Just like me, he loves a nice bit of vintage, but he has an especial liking for things of a military bent. Plus, because it's constructed from a handy slate material, I can use it to leave him endless endearing little notes such as 'I love you' and 'If you make me a cup of tea, I'll be the bestest girlfriend in the whole wide world for the entirity of today.' I'm not even going to tell you how much it costs, because it is of very little consequence for something so perfect. Okay it's £695. But what price are you trying to put on love and happiness? On the shining, joyful eyes of my grateful imaginary boyfriend?

Lastly, I was mooching around on Brighton Pod - you know, that awesomely fabulous online shop that supports UK artists? I've chatted about them before here - and I spotted something that is just the pièce de résistance. Get ready for it. This chair has been everso cleverly reupholstered by Kelly Swallow using a selection of rugby shirts! The Rugby Shirt Chair costs £1,200 and is made to order, so the one you receive (should you also be purchasing one for your imaginary boyfriend) will be unique.

Oh, Imag-Boyf is going to love kicking back on this in his snug, watching some sports, perhaps casually puffing on a bubble pipe, sipping a G&T whilst Fritz frolicks gaily on the hearth. I might even come perch on his knee for a bit and feed him some homemade tiffin bars and give him some kisses. But not for too long, because I don't cope well with the television getting more attention than me and I really can't be expected to pretend to be interested in sports for an extended period of time. Just sayin'.

Why I adore stationery...

Having nice stationery reminds you of that first week of term, where life is full of possibilities, like the possibility that this school year, you won't get hit in the face by a netball during water polo because you're not allowed to wear your glasses in the swimming pool and you're essentially dyspraxic, or that Corin Pratt won't kick you in the shins with his steel toecap Doc Martins because Rosie Repton told him that you fancy him. Love really does hurt. Anyway, having nice stationery makes you feel both organised and a little bit cleverer than you used to feel with your scratty jotter and your Tippex embellished pencil case.

This is why I take a simple pleasure in having nice stationery items. My old boss knew this about me only too well, which is why when she spotted this Nautical Fancier's Stationery Set on Pedlars, she thought of me 'instantly'. Delightfully, it's in the sale right now at £13.50. Presented in a lovely box (just the way I freaking like it baby), is a collection of 30 sheets of paper, 8 notelets, 20 envelopes and a notebook, brought to you by the Society Of Revisionist Typographers (SORT), all adorned with yet another one of my passions, nautical stampery. The anchor motif on the envelopes is probably my favourite.

Equally, when @presentcorrect started following me on Twitter this week, upon reviewing their website I began to let out high-pitched squeals of delight, which probably disturbed my housemates somewhat during their endless games of Fifa and CoD Black Ops. The Present and Correct website is full of clean and minimalist, beauteous things, created by the P&C team or sourced elsewhere, all of which I covet and desire, like the know it all pencil set, where each pencil has a friendly fact for you to wow your friends with, for the price of £11.50.






I also particularly like their rubber collection boxes, wittily titled the P&Correctional Facility, for £9 of your English pounds. See, six new and vintage rubbers come in this spiffy cardboard box for you to cherish and pretend like you never make a mistake.

Finally, moving slightly away from stationery, but still on the topic of AWESOME, would you look at this German Protozoa Chart, which has come from an actual German classroom, for £70. I would have that on display in my library or playroom, which doesn't exist yet anywhere other than in the world of Naomi's Forms, but let me tell you, when it does and I invite you over for wine, cheese and biscuits to show off my fancy pad, you're going to be so freaking jealous, you might just explode.

This post also guest features on superbly spiffing and awesome blog About Your Dress, run by the delightful @riaface. You should follow the blog, it's better than a white rabbit...

Blackwork

Have you heard of Folksy? It's a bit like US online craft market, Etsy, but about ten times cooler because it's UK based and we love supporting our fellow countrymen (and women). You can buy supplies, scrumptious handmade things from UK sellers, which are sometimes recycled, and also learn how to make something new in the 'Making' section, if you want to have a dabble. Or if you're terribly gifted and clever you can sell things yourself.

 

I often have a nosey round the website, searching for things-of-note and this morning, whilst doing just such an activity, I found this little delight from a fantastically talented Seller called Becky Hogg.

Becky is selling this spiffing Blackwork kit for £30, which isn't a huge amount to justify, when you consider that a generic, mass produced, hideous cross stitch kit like this one here can set you back £37.49.

Obviously I love the pretty design, but what I love even more is all the thought Becky's put into branding and packaging. It comes in a clean, minimalist cardboard box, with a colour printed pamphlet detailing how to learn Blackwork (in a lovely, non-offensive font too).

Becky says: "Blackwork is a counted embroidery technique in which decorative patterns are made up by a series of joined Back stitches on an even weave linen." 

This would be a beautiful, thoughtful present for somebody (like, for instance, me) who enjoys adding crafty feathers to their caps. You can find it here, but hurry, because she's only got four left. Happy shopping!