Colour testing Daisy Meadow

It's time to introduce you to my new design. 

Meet Daisy Meadow. 

Do you remember back in July when I was so inspired by the meadows on my trip to Norway? You  can read my Blomster post all about it. There were SO many wild flowers everywhere and my friends took me to meet an artist who painted wild flowers and had a meadow of his own. I made lots of drawings and took loads of photographs. I was so inspired.

I drew daisies, harebells, shepherds purse, stitchworts, grasses, pignuts and cow parsleys...

And here it is, six months later, engraved on a gravure cylinder and waiting for me at the wallpaper factory for production.

 The cylinder itself is a very beautiful thing.

Last week we went to the factory to colour test the design.

This is Roop, our assigned colourist for the day. What a guy. Incredibly skilled and a remarkable eye for mixing up colours.

Unbelievably all the subtle tones are mixed up using only these five colours!

Now I have the difficult decision of which ones to take to print.

I can only take three colours to print. Which ones should they be? I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Up close

I just treated myself to a macro lens. 

How have a lived without one for so long?

All I ever want to take photos of are the tiny details.

Now I can get up even closer

and say hello (i do find myself saying that out loud to lots of these tiny treasures) to the colours and the textures

and the dew drops.

and discover things that I may not have seen with my naked eye.

I can see I am going to have lots of fun with this.

Souk Cuisine in Marrakech

The day after our incredible trip to the desert we had another mini adventure. Yogascapes took us into the heart of Marrakech to have some Moroccan cooking lessons.

We met Gemma, a dutch lady with a passion for cooking who fell in love with Marrakech years ago and moved there to start her business Souk Cuisine.

What a brilliant way to be introduced to the souks - the crazy, bustling, colourful, head spinning markets where there is just so much to see but you can't stand there gaping because you might get knocked over by a moped or you might find you have purchased ten pairs of Moroccan slippers and a rug by accident!

We were each given a list, a bag and a partner with some money to spend and Gemma took us shopping. Let's see if I can remember what was on my shopping list. 

salt

marinated chopped olives

flour

tomatoes

sultanas

paper baking cups

mint

paprika

Gemma knew all the best shops and it was lovely to watch her so at ease in this environment chatting with all the shop keepers and the local characters.

The spice shop was my favourite. 

 I just love spices AND things in jars and this place had plenty.

We learned about how to identify real saffron and not be fooled into buying a cheap imitation.

I wanted to buy everything.

There were so many colours,

textures

and smells

We bought what was on our shopping lists and decided that we would find this shop again and come and do lots of shopping.

We bought our vegetables from the market.

I got in trouble with this guy for photographing his chickens. Sorry Mr Chicken man I didn't know you'd want paying for the privilege! Thanks goodness for Bong, my shopping partner who paid him off!

Then we went to the supermarket.

This little place was run by three young boys who were doing a fine job of flying up and down ladders to get everything on our lists.

It was only small but it really did have everything.

Then it was time to wind through the tiny streets to to Souk Cuisine headquarters.

We drank mint tea while preparations were made.

Then it was time to get chopping.

We'd never cut things up so fine before. 

We made so many beautiful dishes.

 Spiced sardines, seven mouthwatering Moroccan salads, 

two amazing tagines,  

stuffed vegetables, briouettes (tiny filo pastry parcels) and almond, coconut and sesame biscuits for dessert.

And then we all sat down to eat. It was a feast with new friends.

We all came home with a little book of all the recipes too. I have asked for a tagine for Christmas. Can't wait to cook up some of these dishes at home. I wish these guys could come for tea!