Tree Fall

We've got a photo shoot coming up for a big national magazine and the pure fear of so many people seeing just how unfinished our house is, has led to us finally tackling all of those decorating jobs that you simply don't do without a deadline.

One of those (many) jobs has been to paint the sitting room. I intended to paint it grey, but after one wall I had an overwhelming urge to paint it white. So I did.

One of the things I'm loving about the white is the way that the yellow in the room looks against such a clean back drop.

I have big plans to introduce a couple of new colours. But in the meantime, the yellow still does it for me.

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes about Lily. I am currently on my 30th straight hour awake with her and I'm a little tired (hence the short post), but she's in good spirits so that's a relief (it would be more of a relief if she would go to SLEEP, but that's probably me just being churlish!!). There are still spots appearing, but hopefully she'll be on the mend soon.

Orla Kiely

It's pretty well documented that I'm a fan of Orla Kiely. For me she's a huge source of inspiration and I have to admit that whilst I'm not massively label led, I do covet almost everything she designs.

I think most people recognise Orla Kiely's bags and home accessories, but for me it's her clothes designs that tip me over the edge. I would pretty much give my eye teeth to be able to afford a dress or two. Which is why I was so very jealous that Heather found this. Although it couldn't happen to a nicer (or more talented) person!

The Orla Kiely brand has been developed slowly but surely over the last 17 years and I think as a business model is truly worthy of admiration.

After graduating from RCA in 1993, Orla was commissioned by Harrods to design a range of hats. Followed swiftly by a collection of bags (apparently because her father pointed out that everyone carries bags but very few wear hats!).

A couple of years later she became a design consultant for Marks and Spencer, resigning in 1998 to launch her Debenhams range, which quickly became one of their most successful ranges.

In 2002 Kiely expanded her brand by teaming up with a Japanese distribution company and by the end of the year had concessions in shops in both London and Tokyo.

In 2004 she was nominated for Best Accessory Designer in the British Style Awards and also launched a new accessory collection in collaboration with the Tate Gallery as well as winning the Irish Tatler Woman of the Year award. And in 2005 her flagship store opened in Covent Garden and her online presence was established.

  

The combination of retro prints and colourways, that are reminiscent of the likes of Mia Farrow and Ali McGraw at their most iconic, have proven to be universally popular. Teamed with Kiely's ability to create her own immediately recognisable and now iconic Pear, Stem and Car prints, she is able to effortlessly produce couture pieces and every day home accessories and stationary apparently in the same breath.

 

Although pattern and colour are obviously hugely important to Orla Kiely products, for me its the attention to detail that makes it all so special. Anyone that has bought a simple notebook will know that the paper punched book mark, the graph paper and the back page pockets all make you feel as though you're getting a little something extra.

A part of the brands' success is due to a number of collaborations with existing brands. This allowed the distinctive designs to become recognisable to the mass market and immediately accessible thanks to an already established market.

Orla Kiely now has 16 flagship stores around the world as well as collections within many different world renowned stores (including Heals and Anthropolgie, and of course more recently, Target). She also has a successful online store that stocks her home accessories, clothes, bags and wallpaper ranges.

I don't think anyone could question just how popular the Dublin born designers products are and her influence is apparent world wide. It may not all be your cup of tea, but few people can't find anything they like. And she has achieved this despite still being a privately owned company and whilst sticking to her own vision of good design. And regardless of whether or not you covet an Orla Kiely bag, or even a Wottle, that's pretty impressive stuff.

Of course it's not just the big stores that stock Orla Kiely, one of my favourite online stores offers (amongst many other great designers) a great range. Oh and just in case you were wondering, they even accept Paypal!

And the winners of the great Lisa Stickley book, Made at Home (as picked by the Random Number Generator) are........

Comment 160 -

This book looks great and thanks for the review and offering the opportunity to win one. The photos look fantastic and inspirational-just what I would like. Thanks !!!

Posted by: Tanya | June 25, 2010 at 12:11 PM

Comment 103 -

Wow, how completely cool! I would LOVE a copy - Thank you!!

Posted by: sophie | June 24, 2010 at 01:40 AM

Comment 14 -

Jumping on the giveaway bandwagon - this looks like a gorgeous book! I've really got the sewing bug at the moment and am desperately in need of some simple projects that my juvenile and seriously un-nimble hands can manage!

Posted by: Bexando | June 23, 2010 at 12:15 PM


Congratulations Sophie, Tanya and Bexando! If you could all email me your address details I'll arrange for a book each to be sent out to you!

And thanks to everyone that left a comment. In the next few weeks there are going to be a number of other book giveaways, so if you didn't win today, all is not lost!

Lily choosing a Columbo dvd to work to... we have so much in common.

Although one thing we're not sharing at the moment is very spotty skin! Poor Lily woke up this morning with chicken pox. Which I think you'll agree, is no fun at all.

*don't forget that it's the last day to leave a comment to win a copy of Made at Home*

I love print and pattern but I also love natural, plain fabrics like linen, chambray and shirting (particularly pinstripe) and find it impossible to resist when I come across any nice bolts. I generally use them for dressmaking, or for cushions, but at the moment I'm loving screen printing on them too.

I'm beginning to wonder though if my complicated, messy life is starting to influence my tastes in fabric and decor. Today I found myself painting my living room white. I started off by painting it the same grey as the kitchen, but realised when I was half way through that I wanted it to look cleaner and brighter and completely refreshed. So I painted over the grey and now have a stark white living room. Which was not to be expected.

I'm going to sleep on it before I decide whether I love it.

Oh crap! It's all a little out of hand. Time to sort it out, I think!

It's been hot here and I love it. It's pretty unlikely that you'll ever hear me complaining about the heat. After spending my teenage years in Hong Kong it takes a pretty hot one to make me anything but happy.

Something else that I love is a really good, fresh salad and as soon as I saw Anna Maria's salad I knew that it would be perfect on a hot day like today. And it was. Especially with an ice cold glass of wine (although I would have happily gone for a bottle of Anna's Newcy Brown too!).

The other thing I love about the warmer weather is that we gain some extra play space in the form of our little backyard. It's a tiny space, but that doesn't stop me wanting it to look nice, so I've been cutting fabric to make bunting to hang in it.

Hopefully this great weather will hold out long enough for me to actually finish it!

Review and Giveaway

The more eagle eyed readers will have spotted that I posted this review over the weekend. I'm re-posting it because I'm excited to be able to offer 3 copies of the book to 3 lucky, lucky people. Just leave a comment and on Monday 28th, I'll pick three of you at random to receive your own copies.
I loved this book and think you will too, so I've made sure the giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere but please note that it's not available to buy outside of the UK yet. Which means that if you're oversea's and you win, you'll have a copy before anyone else - cool!!

The kind people at Quadrille Publishing recently sent me a copy of Lisa Stickley's new (and first) book 'Made At Home' to have a look at.

Let me start off by saying that I've been a huge fan of Lisa Stickley's work for a long time.

A graduate of both Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, her designs have long managed to combine both a beautiful vintage feel with a fresh, almost minimalist style.

Like everything else Lisa creates, 'Made at Home' is absolutely stunning from front cover to back. The feel, the type, the illustrations, the photography and the layout are all simple and completely inspiring. And it all so obviously says 'Lisa Stickley'.

The book itself has the feel of an old style school book, with lined heavy matt paper, hand drawn illustrations and pages for notes.

After starting with a number of pages that cover some basic but useful technical info (including a page of fabric definitions as well as how to insert a zip) the book is broken down in to chapters that cover patterns for each room of the home - Kitchen, Living Room, Bed Room and Laundry.

As well as including a number of very basic patterns (napkins, placemats etc) Lisa has managed to come up with a few slightly more unusual ones - my favourites being the 'Pin Tucked Cushion' and the 'Piped Cushion'. But to be honest the majority of the patterns are old favourites that can be found in many sewing books - tea cosy, apron, shoe bag, carrier bag holder, door stop etc. What makes this book different though, is that whilst there are few groundbreaking patterns (it is 'A Guide To Simple Sewing' after all), the way each and every design is presented is just so beautiful that it makes me want to make them all. Because whilst I may already have the ability to make most of the patterns, like everyone else I rarely get around to making for myself or for my own home. 'Made at Home' really does make me want to find the time though.

The only minor critism that I have is that there aren't enough actual photographs of the finished projects. Whilst the illustrations are lovely, I would have preferred it if there had been at least one photo of each design, rather than a few that are just illustrated. It's a pretty small niggle though.

Like the majority of sewing books out there these days, 'Made at Home' is aimed at the novice sewist and if you have more than a passing knowledge of sewing then you'll probably find that most of the patterns don't offer anything particularly new. But that said, the pure sense of style of the book makes it worth having and Lisa's beautiful, modern take on many everyday items really will make you want to finally get around to making yourself a new apron or that door stop that's been on your To Do list forever.

If you have space on your bookshelf, then 'Made at Home' is definitely a worthy addition. And if you haven't got space, you may want to think about making some.

Made at Home by Lisa Stickley published by Quadrille £16.99, out 2^nd July. Photography by Ben Anders.

*thanks so much but comments are now closed*

I've had one of those days in the print workshop today. I had high hopes that the relative successes of my last session meant that today would be equally as productive. But it was just one of those days where everything takes three times as long and is twice as difficult.

I've been trying out different fabrics and different colourways and because it's all trial and error it leads to lots of false starts and much washing out of inks and starting all over. Not that I really mind as I enjoy the process so much, but I do find it a little frustrating when my time is so limited.

It didn't help at all that my batch of inks were ruined by a faulty textile medium or that the workshop was so hot that the inks were drying almost immediately. So there wasn't too much to actually show for 5 hours of work. But believe me, I'm not complaining!

Especially as I was lucky enough to have two helpful visitors at the end of the day.

Bella even helped me wash out the screens. You see, if you wait long enough these kids actually become useful!

*thank you for all your comments about Cloth magazine. I have now closed them and the winner of issue 3 is -

Interesting review Manda. I haven't seen Cloth for sale anywhere, but I would be interested to have a look.......

..........BTW I'm 43 and I also consider myself too young for Sewing World!

Posted by: Kay | June 06, 2010 at 10:19 AM

Please drop me an email Kay with your address and I'll pop the magazine in the post to you!

 

I am tired, and I am a little sore. But I'm also really proud of myself, which doesn't happen too often. 

Today I took part in the 5k Race for Life along with thousands of other women, all of us running to raise money for and awareness of cancer research. And to honour the people we know and love that have cancer or have lost the battle with cancer.

I found the whole experience overwhelming. I don't know how many of those women felt the way I did, but I found it hard. Not the running, but the amount of loss that surrounded me.

You're supposed to wear a sign on your back that says who you're running for. But when I tried writing it this morning I just couldn't do it. It felt like too heavy a burden to carry on my back as I ran. It's too new and personal a pain. I struggled with every sign that I read that said 'for my mum'. There are too many mum's dying of cancer for me to bear. And too many fathers and sisters and brothers and uncles and for Godsake, children! At the moment I am carrying around an open wound. And so are too many other people.

The day was not sad though. I ran much better and faster (35 minutes) than I thought I would and it gave me a genuine feeling of empowerment. With a husband still without a job, a mother with cancer, a daughter with horrendous skin problems and another who needs weekly speech therapy and a cardiologist, it can be quite easy to feel anything but empowered. But this small achievement gave me a day of feeling that I had chosen to do something to help. And that I made a difference, no matter how small.

It also gave us all a day of fun and relaxation. We had a picnic in the beautifully warm sunshine, the girls learned to fly a kite and I sipped a glass of celebratory wine whilst sitting in the sun reading a magazine.

Thank you so very, very much to everyone that sponsored me and for being so generous, you too made a difference.

It's the 10k in October next then!