The shop is open

The Smallest shop is now open for business on Etsy. My website should be following shortly.

Exciting times.

British predator print

Recently I have been working on some designs for fabric which will eventually become a variety of products ... Look what arrived this morning - my designs on a big roll of fabric!!!

I am very excited!

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

I was lucky enough to be asked to be the guest curator at this years Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in manchester. To be honest I hadn't been to this event before but it is a regular feature in Manchester's cultural calendar and attended by over 6000 people. As you can imagine I was very excited about taking part.

My role was to curate The Great Northern Graduate showcase (GNG 2012) and I was keen to stamp my curatorial mark.

(A small rant - for me being a curator is not about 'picking things and putting them together', nor is it about being some kind of trend maker... a read in a blog once that someone had 'curated their window sill' ... madness. Being a curator is about standing between an artists work, or an object or idea, and an audience and providing avenues for that audience to investigate the work. It is much more than selecting it is about ideas and about thinking and being curious.)

I selected nine graduates all with work I fell in love with. I centred the thematics of the showcase around ethics, the ethics of making and of collecting, quoting the fabulous Vivienne Westwood 'Buy less, choose well...'

New Designers - Part One

I was at New Designers in London last Thursday for the first part of this epic graduate showcase. If I am honest I wasn't blown away, but there were a few interesting people. I fell in love with these pieces of furniture by Kay Rudge.

.... and in stark contrast, Joseph Hartley's ceramics stood out a mile. Joe didn't include this in his showcase, but I love his baguette holder, every French man should have one.

I will be back at New Designers this Thursday - then have the awesome task of putting together something outstanding for GNG in Manchester. This event has been curated by Kelda Savage for the past few years so I have some pretty fabulous shoes to fill.

Little fishy baby shirt

This is such an adorable shirt from Petite-Boutique, Smallest is a little bit big for it now. What a shame.

Nice stuff and pretty things

I need to get my head back into work mode... as you know I am not at the very start of my freelance career and hurrah I have landed my first job.

I am officially curator of The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair Graduates showcase. I am so looking forward to it... and am very pleased.

To help get my head back in gear I have been looking at pretty things and fell in love with this by Normann Copenhagen.

Last day at Storey Gallery

Its my final day at Storey Gallery. What an amazing space and fabulous organisation to have worked with. I will miss it terribly.

Who knows what the future holds, its exciting to think about the possibilities.

I have just noticed this is quite a grey looking post. How appropriate.

Found this design company on Kickan & Konkers today.

Lovely rainy Easter

We spent a lovely Easter weekend with our family. Smallest and I prepared by making Easter nest cakes... her first 'baking' experience... she loved it, probably because there was chocolate involved.

Instead of lots of eggs Smallest got this Molo rain coat to celebrate the wet season. It will also come in very handy when we go camping for my birthday this weekend. Thank you Nordic Kids.

Bye, Bye winter hello bunnies

The weather is unseasonable hot at the moment. Granted it is beautiful but a little spooky. Winter has well and truly left us and has been replaced by something freakishly similar to Summer. The blossom is out which is glorious, and we have spent a fair amount of time at the allotment this weekend (nothing is growing yet but smallest and her friend Harker have been having a great time on the lawn).

I have found these fabulous weather forecast earrings... perfect. 

And these lovely spring bunnies which I may have to add to my birthday wish list. Check out more of Huiyi's jewelry in her Etsy shop. 

Wooly Mammoth homage to Belle and Boo

Here is a small collage I have been working on for Smallest's room. 'Isla and the Mammoth' - It is a homage to Belle and Boo's Wooly Mammoth in the snow ...

Here is the Mammoth print by Belle and Boo, they have kindly allowed me to take a screen shot from their website... thanks guys. x

It's arrived

My beautiful Paumes book has arrived ... see the blog post about it here

So many fabulous shops, it makes me want to hop on a plane to Stockholm and do some shopping. It's been two years since we were last there, a visit is long over due.

Here are some of my favourite shops from the book:

Iris Hantverk - traditional crafted goodies

Morkarin - lovely, lovely looking shop. And their stock looks amazing too... I have noticed a few prints from Elisabeth Dunker aka Finelittleday

Moderna Magnus - sells vintage goodies... and lots of them. From the images in my Paumes book, this website doesn't really do the bricks and mortar store justice. It's like an Aladin's cave.

An obsession

I think I am becoming a little bit obsessed by Robin and Lucienne Day. I have blogged about Robin's work a lot recently, now its Lucienne's turn. I am enthralled and inspired by her beautiful patterns, and the lady herself. This is a great book, we have it in the gallery at the moment and I keep popping back to read through it.

Monday morning Angels

Monday mornings are always a little bit rubbish, after a fabulous weekend hanging out doing fun things Smallest's Daddy has to go back to work! We miss him when he isn't with us.

This Monday is particularly rubbish because we didn't get our weekend together... Sam had a big job on. I will post some images in the next week or so.

He is working very hard at the moment so I wanted to send some Angels to help him. I thought these Sonny Angels might do the trick:

There isn't a UK outlet but you can get them here. Maybe I should start a shop? I would love a shop....

Drafting table

It's a very rainy day here today. Smallest and I have been stuck inside. She seems happy enough playing with the washing, whilst I have been entertaining myself by looking for some 'small person' furniture.

I found this....

A beautiful children's drafting table and chair by Cheme Designs on Etsy. I would just love one of these for smallest.

Pop up

Some serious internet research is on the agenda this week. I am trawling the web looking at fabrics and thinking about my collection.

I found this japanese linen, this site, and this children's clothing site and this Irish linen.

Along with all the work related searching, I am coming across other very interesting things and making notes for Christmas presents.

I found this amazing pop up book on 'Once upon a fold'. I would love to get it for smallest but she would tear it apart... now who do I know that would love this?