Make a tiny Party Hat!

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This is A4 and should be printed full size with no scaling.

Blythe Party Hats!

Sewing...

I always have loads of little scraps of fabric left over from dolly dresses and am constantly looking for new things to do with them. So last night I was inspired to make these little pumpkin-y pincushions. They are capped with hand made wool felt from Hay-on-Wye, which is incredibly soft.



A very good friend of mine sent me a piece of Kaffe Fasset Paisley in gorgeous festive reds. it adds beautifully to my other prints. These are my favourite fabrics by him, and they are for Liberty of London.

Bath Shops

A wintry saturday in Bath. All the Christmas lights were in and the shop windows were especially pretty.

Things I love about Bath:

The Raven Pub - best pies ever, with gravy!
Cath Kidston
Milsom Street shops
The buildings - who can resist all the Georgian loveliness
The Fashion Museum - for wonderful inspiration

beatengreen Vintage Boutique

http://www.beatengreen.co.uk/






This is a beautiful shop, full of eclectic bits and bobs, artfully arranged on old pine kitchen tables and rickety benches. Vintage fabrics, old glassware and bakelite radios nestle amongst vintage quilts and linens, along with retro 70's stuff and old toys. I loved this shop, I noticed it last year, but this year it is even more lovely, and the shop owner Kerry Knight has a really good eye for a nostalgic interior.

St. Ives...Medicine for the soul

St. Ives is one of my favouritest places in the whole world. I do not think this is an exageration at all. It is where I spent my honeymoon and it is the place I go once a year to replenish my batteries and take in some sea air. Cornwall is a bit like another planet really, stuck on it's own little spikey bit of the UK, difficult to get to, and slightly remote and weatherbeaten on stormy days. I heard a great phrase this time about the shop opening times. I was confused one morning that all the shops were shut at 10, and thought maybe it was a special day in Cornwall when shops were just shut, but was told that they went by Cornish time, ie 10-ish, 11-ish etc. So basically whenever people felt like opening. I like this though, and did not mind the idiosyncrasy.





As usual we went to the Tate and the Barbara Hepworth, not too keen on the artist in the Tate, but I love the garden of Barbara Hepworth's house and always love sitting there.

Recently seen..

Two really good shows at the Tate Modern at the moment. The Francis Alys in particular was great. Worth it for the Tornado! If you have seen this you will know what I mean, but if you haven't I will not spoil it for you.

New fabrics..

Selvedge Inspiration

Selvedge this month had a good article on Erica Tanov. I love her clothes! Her clothes are how I would like to dress if I was rich and very skinny. But alas I am neither, so the nearest I will get is the odd thing from Toast, when I go to Bath.

Hay-on-Wye

I love Hay-on-Wye. It is a strange little town, hard to find, because it is not sign posted very well until you are almost there, but it is lovely when you do get there. Loads of bookshops obviously, but I like the tiny little junk/antique shops that sell old french linens and welsh blankets along with vintage dresses and dusty chandeliers.



Husband and I always like to have lunch in this one particular pub, which is all rickety and old fashioned, with speckled mirrors and old maps on the walls.

Buttons

Some of my vintage buttons, I have a box of buttons that used to belong to my grandmother, and these ones are some of the ones I have found.

70's Inspiration

The seventies were the decade of my childhood: the most evocative time for me memory wise. My mum wore maxi skirts and boots, my dad wore paisley shirts and big belts, and I had green hot pants, and all those fabulous synthetic jumpers that gave you static whenever you took them off. Actually it surprises me that more children did not die of spontaneous combustion during the seventies; we had nylon sheets, brushed nylon pajamas and sparks would fly off you is you got out of bed in the middle of the night, not to mention the static hair!

But aside from that, I love the fashion of that decade, Biba, peasant skirts and cheesecloth, flares and platforms, it was great! It seemed like a really liberating time, men were having perms and wearing velvet, it was truly a much more sartorially experimental time than now.

Some of my other dolls

Una moof, Licca Jenny and unknown naked girl I call Godiva, Betsy McCall

Studio

I Love Paris

Who wouldn't?

Visited with my husband last week, and had a lovely time. We have both returned confirmed francophiles, and want to live our lives like parisiennes from now on. Paris seems so civilised, one can sit in cafes and watch the world go by, even walking through the streets is a joy because the buildings are so magnificent. The Tuileries Gardens were beautiful, little cafes under the trees and people drawing the statues, or just strolling through the gardens, looking elegant and summery. French women are so stylish and look so coordinated, it puts one to shame to think how lazy we can be in the UK (I speak for myself of course, though I do try). I love the attention to detail in almost all things, the food is made from excellent ingredients, the coffee is always good, and people say Bonjour, women's shoes match there outfits and the mean are groomed and cool looking. Fantastique!

Selvedge Inspiration

As you know I love Selvedge magazine and though it is expensive it is a fabulous resource for a fabric and textile addict like me. There is a brilliant article this month on Paper Artist Isabelle Borchgrave, whose dresses and shoes are wonderful. It boggles the mind to see how she makes paper so fluid and creates such amazing things. They have an incredible delicacy to them.

Inspiration

Embroidered card found in Oxfam



Lovely dolls by Jess Brown, seen in Selvedge magazine...

Crafy Goodness

I have a massive stash of Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which is possibly the most gorgeous yarn ever! I made it my mission to crochet a beret from all the colours over the Christmas Holidays and I pretty much succeeded. This is not all of them, as I have 15 balls in different colours.



Also over Christmas a new stash of fabric arrived. I have used some, but still have plans for the rest.



Went trawling the local thrift shops today and found a treasure. A box of embroidery threads, in loads of colours that will be perfect for my pinafores. I was told by the lady in the shop that they belonged to a friend of hers who died. She loved to sew, and I am glad that I can make use of them. I thank that lady wherever she may be and am glad to give her treasures a home.

Brazilian Illustrators

These fabulous artists came to me via a tiny paragraph in World of Interiors and I love their work.

Bruno Kurro


and Eduardo Recife

World of Interiors.....

The glossy magazine that is World of Interiors is like a naughty secret, like another type of glossy mag that one hides away guiltily. I cannot afford any of the things in WOI, it is not about people who live like I do, they are in a league of their own where one can contemplate curtain fabrics that are over £100 per meter, and french antiques are mixed with paintings by de Kooning and persian rugs.

I am though an addict, I have been taking this magazine for years and I have whole shelves dedicated to these volumes because I cannot throw any of them out. I love the pictures of chairs and the colours and the articles about strange and wonderful craftspeople or eccentric artists who have decorated their whole house with pictures of shells or something.

It is an inspiration for drawings, patterns, colour schemes and my own home in it's own modest way. So here are some of the lovely things that have caught my eye in recent months.