Table Treasure
Wow, it’s the rainiest bank holiday ever here in the UK. However can’t moan too much it’s still a day off from work and a chance to snuggle up on the sofa in a blanket, with Nylon and Country Living - whilst drinking tea of course. I thought I would share my new table mats with you all, I had been looking for sometime now as I wanted something unusual (not store bought) and finally I found some at Grand Designs Live 2008.
They are by an independent tableware designer and maker called Jenny Duff and the artist of the designs is Gillian Blease. Jenny’s company, Jenny Duff Tableware is fantastic, she has so many beautiful designs and offers them all a range of sizes. The thing that made me smile the most about my new table mats was that I had searched London high and low for something unusual and Jenny Duff Tableware is based only 15 miles from my home town of Whitstable?! Freaky that I had to go to Grand Designs in London to find her, it just proves that the crafting community doesn’t really have a good support network here in the UK – local crafts can slip unnoticed, even from my hawk eye!
I just wanted to say a really big thank you to Holly over on Decor8 for mentioning my little humble blog in her ‘Happy Friday’ post …. and saying that she ‘couldn’t stop looking at’ it. I am extremely flattered as Decor8 is one of my favourite, and the best blogs out there!
Grand Designs Live!
I went to grand Designs Live 2008 recently and it was pretty amazing, I’m only sorry that I have not posted this soon. I have had it half written in drafts for nearly two weeks – that is shocking! I’m a bad busy blogger with no time to blog! Enough of that. There was so much to get inspiration from at Grand Designs I was in my element. There was three glorious halls filled with home, garden and design related things and I got to see Kevin McCloud film a scene for the live show.
The design hall was my favorite destination of the day – this was the place filled with soft furnishings and all the pretty trimmings that make a home. This was the True Love Always stand they had some lovely inspired bedding. They really have taken the concept of soft, relaxing bedding and turned it around in a really fun way that works.
I love this pattern, the horses are really cute and the rabbits were flocked and looked really luxurious. They were designed by Anorak, a cute design company. However they were pretty frosty at the expo and this really put me off. I got a stern telling off for taking a photo, almost like I had stolen something?
Now this stall was filled with so many lovely things the problem was that I can’t remember it’s name – urrhh, there were just too many to remember. However I do know that the plates in the bottom corner are by a designer I saw over on Design Sponge but I just can’t seem to locate the name – if anyone knows please put me out of my misery. All in all it was a great day out I got a few things for the flat but was very restrained – I will photograph and post them up soon.
Apologies for my delay in blogging , time is a premium of late. I have updated about me page to include some of the other ways you can keep up with me including my Twitter feed etc. It would be good to know if any other crafty design bloggers are on Twitter.