Friends,Hollyhocks and Cake...

Hello there....Yes i am still on the Hampton Court aftermath.. This time i would like to share with you some of the friends.. some new and some old we have met at the show and link to their websites. I was hoping to take photos of their stands but i didn't quite get it together.

Little Dye House

Jane (and Jane)...started in business around the same time as us designing and producing in the uk, beautiful garments for women and girls in the softest jersey pointelles, all hand dyed in beautiful soft colours using non toxic dyes.
Check them out as they are exceptional quality and so easy to wear. Lovely women too.

Beverley Hewitt Ceramics

We met Bev and her husband Steve for the first time at the show. They are a friendly kind couple, who minded our stand on the first morning when we got caught in traffic (us and loads of other exhibitors.. static for 40mins and only 5 mins drive away.. i walked 3 miles although it felt like 20 and then Alice caught me up in the car arghh.. hot , sweaty and not too chirpy.... thankfully most exhibitors are a good bunch and are always on the look out for each other and Bev and Steve were just like this.) Bev worked for Royal Daulton for many years and has now branched out on her own. They have a studio in the Staffordshire potteries and create all their own shapes which are then decorated with Bev's designs. Alice brought her individual teapot/mugs as thank yous for her mother and mother in law who had been taking care of the boys.

Daniela from Hope and Benson..

A lovely woman who along with her business partner Angela makes beautiful classic yet funky wool handbags. We shared the tea runs with her during the week. Danny also has her own fashion range and we hope to pop down to Bristol to visit her new store sometime.

Textiles at the Organic Farm Shop

This was the stand next to us. They sold organic linens which were block printed in India by a small workshop set up by owner Hilary. She has been passionate about organic, fair trade, and local produce for many years. Check out her website as she runs a farm, shop, cafe, holds courses, and rents out yurts. The farm is in Cirencester and looks well worth a visit.

Merrywood

Linda handmakes fantastic soaps which Alice always buys when we see her at shows . I brought some from her too this year as thank yous for all my friends who had been taking care of my girls after school. My favourite is 'cottage rose', a soft fragrance with geranium and palmerosa oils...divine.

Jane Hogben Terracotta

We love Jane and Edward and have been opposite them at Country Living Christmas for the last few years... it was through them that we met lovely Sally ( on my side bar).. an amazing photographer and beautiful person.. Her book is delightful. Janes's ceramics are beautiful too and the smell of her scented candles is pure heaven.. i have many! They were exhibiting large sculptures mainly and had a pitch outside braving the elements.. luckily the weather broke and the second half of the week was warm and dry.



This week i have been having fun with my girls, and with my cooking companion.....

The River cottage Family cookbook
by Hugh Fernley Whittingstall and Fizz Carr

we made this very yummy Victoria sponge after school on Tuesday...

I think Hugh is fab and i brought this book for the family at Christmas.. it really is so brilliantly written, he works through each basic ingredient, giving background info for greater understanding and showing how to use them in different receipes.( the choc chip cookies are to die for).
This cake was a team effort with my girls... it took a while to put together (as these things do when juggling each task between us and keeping it fair).. and whisking the double cream by hand was a little like torture but we got there in the end. I do not profess to being a great cook and i often lack inspiration and confidence, but i do enjoy the creativity of cooking and really try and inspire my girls to feel excited about it too. We were very proud of our cake and all had a piece for tea.. it really was quite scrumptious!

Hope you are all keeping safe from the rain..... we have our sandbags out just in case..
G
x

Darling buds

Here are some more photos of the Daily Mail's Darling buds of May feature garden;

Cottage garden.

Pig shed in the background.. complete with mum and piglets......

hungry piglets.

Traditional compost heap
( see side bar link for info on composting )




Lovely old morris van filled with produce from the veg plot.


Dahlias and lilies



the cutting garden.


Scene complete with garage and old Esso petrol pump..

and village shop with more overflowing flower beds.

I have still have some photos to share of other things from the show but will save them for now and let you enjoy the nostalgia.

Inspiring gardens

Hampton Court Palace taken from a bridge over the Long Water

I have finally come back to earth after last week and have rested and taken some time out. The show was great for us and we were really pleased with how it all went. It is a lot of work putting together a stand at one of these larger shows but it is well worth the extra effort. It all came together just as we had planned and the new range with all the fruit and veg fitted perfectly... We also received lots of lovely comments on the overall look of the stand too.

Apart from the very muddy, rainy start to the week and a drip on our stall (at least we were inside!), the remainder of the week was lovely and sunny. We also got a chance to look around and I thought i would share with you some of the gardens that caught my eye.



This is the small garden fom Alton Infants School , which is in the town where our studio is.

The garden represents a microcosm of the school grounds and has been designed for education and fun. As the Chinese proverb says, 'I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand'. The garden teaches the children conservation, recycling, organic gardening, plant and animal life cycles and caring for the world.
They won best small garden and a gold medal. They did have a chicken too but apparently only there for 'press day'.

Selborniensis

Another beautiful small garden was 'Selborniensis', I was drawn to this garden not realising it was created by two women from our locality. It is inspired by the work of naturalist Gilbert White.
I love the use of the apple as a screen, the relaxed naturalistic planting and the clay sculptures.

Best in Show was this fantastic garden;
The Growing Schools Garden - learning outside the classroom

designed by the lovely Chris Beardshaw. It illustrates how teaching and learning can take place outside the classroom and has been created with participation from children of all ages from more than 30 schools. This spider and web is fantastic and i expect we will be seeing them pop up in schools throught the uk!

The Daily Mail had a large feature garden 'The Darling Buds of May', and as you can imagine it was full of nostalgia and extremely popular. They even had a Pig with her piglets who liked to sleep in a row in the sun. Very cute!

And my favourite view was of the lovely lovely veg!

Other inspiring favourites were
The Torres Tapas Garden
The Giving Garden
The Smile Garden
The 'Chase' Secret Garden
Wildlife Garden in a Skip
and
Infinity

After all the rain we've had my garden is in need of lots of attention.. and now i have a few new ideas...i wonder if the kids would like to make a giant spider?

G

x

Show week

Hi again...
I am shattered tonight (thurs) so will just keep it brief ( if i can)and post some stand photos.

Shed door with handmade handbag, garland and applique apple curtains.

Flora ( gardener) dolls in presentation boxes.

Handbags and cushions

Apple and strawberry t shirts

Lemon drizzle cake and wellies (ours as it has been so muddy).

Alice and me (i) on Wednesday ( Alice's birthday).
Happy Birthday Al!

Today (thursday) has been a great day and everyone who came on the stand was lovely. The weather was so much better which i feel put everyone in a more cheerful mood... that and lots of Pimms! My sister and aunt came on a coach trip from Alton (where our studio is) to the show today. It has been great for Alton as a local infant school won a prize for the best small garden. There is also a Hampshire garden 'Selbourneiseis' which was designed bya local woman... i loved it. Selbourne is a pretty village just outside Alton where naturalist Gilbert White lived.
I have taken some photos and will post them soon.
Off to bed early tonight. The show is open 10 till 7.30 so its a long old day..i need rest.
Thanks again for all the supportive comments. Much appreciated. I will spend next week catching up on all your lovely blogs.
G
x

Countdown ....days 2 and 1

Saturday.....Day 2 in the countdown

Van all packed and ready to go ....off to the Palace!

Hampton Court Palace

Took wrong turning and ended up going in the main gate.... good photo opportunity though, before we turned the van around.


Finally found our stand space in the Country Living Pavillion. All stands are painted magnolia... but Alice seems to have found a mark on ours...
...so we'll have to paint it! That's Alice's lovely man there doing a spot of painting.

There's me doing a spot of drilling ( which i rather enjoyed)

Closing up for the night.

Shelves put up ( old roofing boards from our local reclaimation yard),
Stand painted ( we had always intended to do this), and stock ready to put up on Day 0 (Monday). Don't you love our high visibility vests.. rather fetching we thought.

Driving out through the palace grounds deer park... we saw lots of deer with their young.

Arrived home at 5.30 ready to go to our local carnival. Alice and her man were in it with their boys school. My little one was in it ... complete with zebra costume. It was a very wet one but come rain or shine we brits just get on with it.. great fun.

Sunday.. day 1 A family day, with last minute bits and bobs to finish.

Just a quickie...

Hi .. We are there! Will update with photos and final countdown tonight. Just to let you know our new website is up.. any feed back, spell checking etc would be greatly received. It won't be ready to buy online for another week. phew, i'm amazed we have managed to put it up. My extremely lovely man has been working so hard on this in his spare time. He has really earn't his 'lovely' title.
Well i'm off for the first day of the show now... thanks again for all your friendly and supportive comments.
here's to a busy day.
G
x

Countdown....Days 4 and 3

Just a quick post tonight as i'm tired and need to get up at 6am tomorrow....my bed is calling.
Yesterday was a chill out day. Catching up with household tasks.. like buying food, laundry..etc.. preparing for a week with me working long hours. The kids are excited as with both myself and my 'lovely' man back late they will be playing with friends every day after school and even having a few sleepovers. I also had a very early night, last night.. 9.30.. unheard of for me. I needed it as working a show can be exhausting.. on your feet all day.. long days.. chatting (well we are both very good at that).

Today was filled with final labelling, packaging and paperwork type things. Postcards have arrived and look good and the van is now packed thanks to Alice's 'lovely' man. (yes he really is lovely too). Tomorrow we leave early to go and set up and paint, put up shelves and get the space ready to display our stock.

Thank you everyone who has left supportive comments. I will leave you with some pictures of our fairie doll. We call her Isadora. Her dress is made from floral fabrics, mostly vintage , some retro , all with beautiful vintage lace trims. She has twine hair and and embroidered wings.

detail

Hair and dress detail



Retro, wildflowers Isadora

Isadora Fairie ( late 40's/early 50's floral)

I am away now to dream with the fairies....
G
x

Countdown.. Day 5

Arrived early this morning to the studio before Alice. Her lovely mum had only gone and swept the floor for us! Something we often forget in our haste to leave to go and collect the kids from school. And the table tops were cleared... which was great as we have one last lot of cutting out to do, which is now complete.
The post brought a proof of our new postcard which my lovely man ( he really is lovely... and he makes jam!) and I put together. It looked good so rang and ok ed them to go ahead and print. We had a brochure produced 18 months ago which is now out of date so thought a postcard reminder showing new products with our web address on would be good as brochures are costly to do and are a lot of work. Hopefully people who like our stand will pick one up for future reference.
It's been a finishing off day today really.... which is good ..but we want to make a few extras ...it's best to make as much as we can as you can never have too much stock. From our point of view the joy of what we do is that everything varies... it makes it interesting for us and stretches our creativity. Although at stressful times like this maybe we question why we do it , as working up to a big show hand making all of our products is tough, we do have so much fun and really do love what we do. Our stuff whether you like our style or not really is handmade with love and care. We are always striving to improve and perfect although the fact that we hand make and that we are humans and not machines give rise to gentle variations, textural imperfections... you know what i mean. ..giving that handmade quality, which we rather like. It's getting late and I'm rather waffling.. something i could win prizes at...
Sorry no photos today .. I started this post earlier, then bathed and put girls to bed , then supper..... a bit of glueing and sticking ( making my youngest's carnival costume) , taking a few photos.... and now I'm writing this on the laptop.. a very old one acquired from a friend but with no photos stored on it. My 'lovely' man ( must find him a blog name) is on the main computer where all the pictures are and has just informed me that he is killing the old website! ooh... new one not ready but soon.. hopefully....!
I'm off to bed now... night night.
G
x

Countdown.....Day 7

Hello, it's Day 7 in my countdown. It is exactly one week before the Gala Preview at Hampton Court Flower Show. Can't get off that rollercoaster now!
It does seem strange to be writing again so soon, so will just fill you in about progress today.

Picked up some knitted teacosies first thing from a lovely lady who lives in our village who has been kindly making some up for us. Then on to my mums who after a quick call to this morning said she would look after my 6 year old small person who threw up all over the landing last night! Poor little love. She woke up this morning full of beans as if nothing had happenened, but could obviously not go to school (just in case). She packed her colouring things, glue and scissors and was delighted to have nanny all to herself. I then went on to the studio.

Today i wanted to sew up some more flower brooches, many of which i had prepared some time ago. They are all different and each one is individually designed, from fabric combination to thread stitch colour through to final button finishing touch.

Threads chosen and ready to sew

I try and vary them as much as possible so most people can find a colour combination they like. So some are wacky and retro, some pretty and tonal and some simple and natural... and lots more in between.

A finished flower


Me and my summer brooch. I have 3 in different colours.

Alice has been finishing handbags today made by recycling various collected fabrics and giving them an Alice twist. Will try and photograph for you to see before the end of the week. We will only have a few but they really are special and we feel very original. A case of the fabric leading the design.

Our young friend A popped in today too and helped me prep some more flower cards.

A was one of our work experience students from a local secondary school last Summer. She is extremely talented and has a fantastic confidence with colour. She has just left school and is awaiting her results. We work with a scheme called Trident who organise work experience placements for year 10 pupils. We had 2 girls last year and are due another mid July. A very worthwhile thing to do and our way of giving something back to our local community.

See you on day 6.
ginny
x

Going slightly mad...

Well i really must confess i am already slightly mad but this week is just pushing me further into that crazy world of stress and tiredness.. a great combination. Alice said i should post a photo of myself. (as i have already put one of her up). Well i really don't ever look good in a photo..my husband always says i look better in real life as i have a very animated face.. maybe he is being kind. The ones Alice took yesterday do portray a kind of craziness and are also a little blurry ( a blessing maybe ). Well here goes....

Sewing on Alice's trusty Bernina. They are great old machines. I have one too from the 1970's . It was my mother in laws but i inherited it about 5 years ago. They really are fantastic.

We have finished our new shoppers and i can reveal some of our other designs...

My favourite are the peas

and the onions.

And here are the cherries.

We also have strawberries and carrots as well as the apples.
You can tell i have been inspired by my veg growing this year. We have had a lot of rocket and lettuce so far, along with the raspberries but are now waiting for the potatoes, carrots and onions. The dwarf beans are coming on well too thanks to the rain. And this is an exciting sight... the cherries ripening....

Just one week now to Hampton Court so if i can get on the computer (my man is doing our website most evenings) then i will do a kind of countdown.
So today, Sunday is day 8. and i will count down to day 0 ( lift off!) which is Monday 2nd July... our final dressing of the stand and then the Gala evening from 6pm.

Yesterday we brought the paint, some high visibility vests for the get in (very sexy) and sourced some shelving. Today we have been making more stock and i have put together a press release (awaiting Alice's approval).
Tommorrow,.. well tomorrow is another day with lots more to do!
until then...
ginny x