Snapdragon's garden

Katie's party

On Sunday it was Katie's 11th Birthday party.  Instead of the usual trip to bowling or the cinema she asked if she could invite the whole class and have a disco in the house.

Of course I said yes.

I bought wonderful paper decorations from Pearl and Earl so that we could make the space look partyish on a budget.  Mostly I bought paper streamers and sewed them together to make more impact

then we hung a wonderful bright pink pom-pom from the middle of the ceiling (I am SO in love with this it will come out for every party from now on)

I spray painted allium Christophii seedheads in zingy colours

and hung them in the windows

I made a cheese and pineapple hedgehog or 2

put out the food and drink

retired to a safe distance and let them get on with it . . .

All it needed was a bit of sun

Today is a special kind of day, a warm blissful day, more appreciated as it is coming into what seemed a determined Autumn.

We are amazingly busy this week - Valerie packed up almost 80 orders today - but I took some time over lunch to bask a bit and take some photos in the garden.

The garden in a sudden balmy spell is an odd mix.

Some things like the dahlias look as through they are meant to be blooming - others like sunflowers, battered by the wind and rain, look as though they have survived a battle

and have a special kind of beauty because of it.

The hardy annuals - knocked over beyond rescue in the winds and left to form windbreaks - have decided to bloom a late crop- twisting upright 6 inches from the ground.

and all the greyed and charcoal-ed seed heads look amazing against the bright blue of the sky.

It feels amazing to be outside, feeling the heat.

Bright and just right

I'm a bit fussy when it comes to things I drink out of.  I'm very particular about mugs and glasses and one of the things I was a bit fussed (some in the house would say over fussed) about was what to drink out of when camping - I hate plastic, am not that keen on enamel, wasn't allowed to consider anything breakable . . . .

Then we discovered these

melamine beakers from the Danish company Rice.

They are brilliant, feel just right and work for everything from water to whisky.  We found that they were SO right that they moved out of Dougal and onto our dresser.

We had intended to buy more when we were in Denmark but they were much more expensive than at home, so I put in an order for some from here.  They arrived yesterday and I am looking forward to arranging all the different colours together for Katie's birthday party at the weekend.

Now I need to find out about hedgehogs

Katie appeared at the workroom door about half an hour ago with the exciting news that a hedgehog was wandering round the garden.

We locked the dogs on the workroom and went to investigate.

The hedgehog is out in the daylight, has a slightly draggy back leg though it doesn't slow him down and is very very hungry.  He's been eating a lot of worms and Katie provided him with cat food.

I now need to find out why he is out in the daylight, whether his leg is a problem and whether in fact you feed cat food to hedgehogs any more.

On another note, Dixie took her spell alone in the workshop as an excuse to mount a daring raid on Valerie's box of dog biscuits . . .

New, new, new

Earlier in the week June at the Ealain Gallery in Drymen emailed me to say that people kept picking up my phone cosies and wanting them to be glasses cases - she thought there was a gap in the market.

We have had "glasses case" on our possible products list for a while now, so I thought it was probably about time that I did something about it.

We also have a number of gorgeously luxurious velvets in our fabric store, and I decided to try making velvety glasses cases -

with the meadow design on the front and space for a personal message and more seed heads on the back

It also gave me a chance to use magnetic poppers - which I can't use on the phone cosies as they can corrupt the phone.

and to play about with sewing the meadow design on different colours.

I put them up on the website last night and there was such a flurry of orders that I have been sewing them all morning.  I think my favourite at the moment is the very elegant black stitching on grey, though the cream on rich purple comes a close second . . . .

New chicken - new giveaway (bit bigger than intended)

Last week I re-designed the chicken herb cushion.

Made it a bit more complex, made it fit into the rest of the range a bit better.

I'm very pleased with the result, but it took a few false starts to get there and I have been left with a few chickeny bits and pieces.  One in particular is too nice to consign to the scrap bin . . .

So I thought that I would give it away - originally I thought I would just pop it up on Facebook as usual, but then I thought it would look better in a mount.

I couldn't find a mount the right size . . . but I did find a rather nice chunky wooden frame . . .

At which point I thought it shouldn't be a "first come first served" Facebook thing, but something on here that gives everyone a chance.

So, comment on this post - give me a positive thought as we head into winter (Hurricane Katia is presently blowing a hoolie outside) - and on Wednesday I shall chose a random commenter to receive the picture.

 

Stationery

What is it that is just so exciting about new stationery? Is it that "back to school" vibe?

Sometimes I suspect that 90% of my drive to grow the business comes from the lure of being able to order boxes and boxes of packaging and pretty things.

Today our new envelopes arrived

justified on the back of a massive mail out we are doing next week

and they are just so gorgeous - I am itching to pack things (and you don't hear that very often)

End Malaria - out now

I'm a business book junkie - I think it is incredibly important for business owners to think and learn about and properly engage with their businesses.  Probably particularly important for makers like myself.
Today a book has been published by the Domino Project which combines (amongst others) 2 of my favourite provocative writers - Michael Bungay Stanier (Do More Great Work) and Seth Godin.

that would be a good enough reason to buy it.  When you learn that at least £12 from each book goes to fight malaria - well really you should be buying a few and passing them about.

That is what I am doing and I am giving away 2 copies here - comment and let me know what makes your business great and at the end of today I'll randomly pick two people.

You can find out more about the book here and here

Wedding favours

Earlier in the year we were contacted by Elena, a Spanish bride to be, who had received one of our initial mirrors as a present and who wanted to give personalised mirrors to all the women who would be gathering in Barcelona for her wedding in July.

There were a lot of guests and much of June was spent carefully embroidering Spanish names onto pouches.

I have been desperate to know how it all went - and yesterday I got a lovely email from Elena saying how pleased they had been, and how all the guests loved the special gifts.

She also ordered more mirrors as thank yous to people who hadn't been able to travel to Spain.

It has spurred me on - for I have been intending to make a wedding section to the website for ages - we get masses of orders for hen parties, bridesmaids and favours, but I have never publicised the service - which is a bit dim really.

for there aren't many businesses which can produce such a personalised service - we can use bridal fabrics, match colours, embroider names and dates - at such an affordable price.

Something to get on with as soon as I tidy up the bright section . . . .

September morning

Is there anything nicer than a sunny September morning?  Mist below us in the valley, sun on our backs, wellies on against the dew?

These photos were all taken on my walk around the garden this morning - my delight is ironic as most of the flowers in these photos have been ruined from a cutting point of view by the heavy dew but their beauty is undeniable.

these daisies had their main flowering season in late May - we cut them back hard as they are horribly straggly and they reflower a bit in September

The other bonus of damp, dew filled mornings is the spiders webs

which seem to be at their best on the docks in the rough grass

it also gives the crambe seedheads one last chance to shine