Country Living Christmas Fair

We just got back from exhibiting at the Country Living Fair in Harrogate.

Usually I do shows with just my own work but Radiance needed a little boost after a very quiet summer (that's what we get when the sun shines a lot) so I thought we'd take the whole shop!

It was fun making a teeny Radiance and the stand was colourful and lovely.

SOOOO many people came, drawn to the lights...

and lots of them fell in love with my wallpaper.

We sold lots of things. Hooray.

And we gave away nearly two thousand postcards!

It was lots of fun. It always takes a lot of effort to get there and set up. How much stock to take? How are you to know when it's your first time? We have learned lots and we have had a little boost. People love my work. People love my shop. I have met lovely customers in person that I hadn't met before (so good to meet you Rachel Brown) and founds lots of lovely new ones too. I have also realised what a fantastic team I have to keep this show on the road. Thankyou so much Suzi, Matt, Emma and Dad. You have been and continue to be AMAZING! Thanks Lawes and Marcel for your essential van driving and loading too.

It was sad to pack baby Radiance away. Maybe we'll go back again next year :)

Lamps at Elmet Farmhouse

Today I have been up at the lovely Elmet Farmhouse in Pecket Well installing the lamps I made for Lesley Jackson.

 It took a little while because there was a lot of drifting over to the window seats to take in the dreamy views right across the hills. You just can't help it!

The living room is super cosy with lots of seats to curl up in. You can see Stoodley Pike perfectly framed by the mullion windows from that lovely Ercol armchair!

My Paper Meadow Floor lamp will enjoy living in there.

Upstairs, the comfy bedrooms all have my lamps in too

giving their warm, cosy glow.

The house sleeps six people, with one double bed and four singles. Looks really comfy.

Lesley has a gorgeous textile collection adorning the walls around the house.

I love how she displays is with the selvedge showing. They are little pieces of history.

As you can see it is a pattern rich house and soon my teal Paper Meadow wallpaper will be joining the collection in the upstairs bathroom.

I invite you to look at Lesley's lovely photo's of the house, inside and out on her brand new Elmet Farmhouse website. She has worked so hard restoring this old house and she is very excited that it is now open for bookings.

Fancy it?

Where Women Create Magazine

Ever since the lovely Beth Kempton introduced this gorgeous magazine to me back at the Do What You Love Retreat a few years ago I have longed to be in it.

Where Women Create is one of the best selling American magazines today. It's published by Stampington & Company and it's pages are full of delicious inspirational photographs about women from around the world in their studio spaces.

When I did the Hello Soul Hello Business e-course they ran an inspiring interview with their editor in chief Jo Packham and I was inspired to get in touch. BUT sadly I heard nothing back.

At that time I was still in my teeny 'back of the shop' studio and maybe that was why...

 But the Hello Soul Hello Business helped me to germinate the seeds of my dream studio space and a year later I was in it!

I contacted Jo again this time it was a YES. Hooray!

So I wrote a piece 

and Sarah Mason took some marvelous photo's.

She is in print too :)

It's the November, December, January edition and is on sale now in the U.S. You can place overseas orders on their website too.

Needless to say I'm super excited. I love it when dreams come true.

An inspiring afternoon with Lesley Jackson

I just love it when my work takes me to interesting places. Today it took me to the beautiful house of curator, writer and design historian Lesley Jackson who it has been an honour to meet.

Lesley got in touch because she wanted to use some of my lamps in her holiday home which she has been lovingly restoring up on the tops. She invited me up for a look. What a place! She has a passion for mid-century design and her house is adorned with incredible printed textiles, ceramics and glass. I was very happy to see one of my Tall Blossom lamps adding a glow to her living room. Lesley has printed textiles hanging like art on her walls and having a tour of the house was an education for me. I haven't paid the world of fabric that much attention until now, when I am trying to make fabrics myself, so it was so interesting to see and feel them and hear about their history.

Lesley has written soooo many books about twentieth century pattern, design, glass, furniture, architecture and her latest book is about Ercol. She knows her stuff. She generously sent me home with some books which I am going to devour.

We sat in her big bay window seat looking out at the rainy green view, sipping tea and talking.  It was like discovering a hidden world and only up the hill. I'm filled up and inspired. I want to make more patterns, to print fabrics, to contribute to the design books of the future....and to have a big sash bay window to sit in myself someday :)

The Egg Factory

These lovely people have been working reeeeally hard to open a co-working space in Hebden Bridge. It's called called The Egg Factory (it's in the old egg factory building) and they have turned it into a brilliant space for screen printing, workshops, sewing, crafting - you name it. It will be a space 'to hatch and incubate ideas'...

I will say no more and invite you to click here to watch their Indigogo video and find out all about what they are doing. They really are cute!

I've just bought my membership. I hope you feel inspired to support them too :)

The colours of the woods

 I almost didn't go for a walk to the woods this morning as it was so wet when I woke up.

But I needed to smell the air and see the little birds flitting about and laugh at the crazy squirrels making a dash for cover as I approached. So I went anyway.

 When I got up there the sun came out and the light was incredible. 

The rain had only made the colours burn more brightly.

Home Sweet Home

 I have been busy moving house. We have moved back to our small but lovely flat and it SUCH a nice feeling to be home.

We enjoyed living in the big house above the shop and having lots of space and big bedrooms each but it became a bit of a struggle. It was costing me too much to rent it and with Ffion off at uni and Euan away half the week at his Dads, I was rattling around in that big old house on my own too much AND I was becoming more and more frustrated at not being able to nest in it the way I wanted with it being rented.

To move from a big house back to a small flat I needed a mahoosive clear out so for the last few weeks I've been doing some serious cleaning, sorting, packing and ebaying. I have assessed my attachment to every single object that I own in the world and let go of soooooooo much (I can't go in Oxfam right now as everything in there was mine) and I feel so much lighter and brighter!

It's a fresh start.

I am unbelievably happy to be home. Everything feels right. I feel safe and comfortable. Everything has a place. It's easy to live in. It's cosy and warm. In hindsight it feels like we've just been camping in someone else's house and now we are properly HOME and we can relax. Ahhhh :)

The cats are happy too. Tomsk waits by the cupboard that I USED to keep his food in, even though it's now in a different place! They know where all the warm spots are...

...where the sunbeams fall.

So I'm nesting. Finding places for all the special and sweet things that I have collected over the years. These are Natasha Newton's painted Stones.

 Wire chairs by Mel Day that I fell in love with at OWL in Frome.

Cleo Mussi mosaic hands.

Jane Muir Snowbirds.

My print from Kyoto sits nicely above the fireplace.

 I'm happy to have my old computer desk back too. I've been sitting here today learning how to use Lightroom (photo software) so I thought I'd experiment with some pictures of my new home and share them on the blog.

I had been craving a comfortable light filled house full of plants and wood, with places for my special crafty things, a colourful kitchen for cooking and sharing, a space for my yoga. I've been craving a place to call my own again. 

I thought I needed to buy a new house to have that because coming back to the flat would've been going backwards BUT I have learned (hooray) that bigger is not necessarily better and going backwards is the new going forwards!