Susie Watson pottery is lovely and unique. It is so delicate yet so versatile. I first saw her designs on-line and then in the flesh within a little boutique I visit in Tenterden, in Kent. She designs pottery that is hand made and painted within Britain. Her website is lovely and includes all her designs and products that she makes (she also has a linen range). My favorite design has to be the Oscar range as it is all my favorite colours rolled into one; baby blue, pink and cream.

  This is the Oscar Conical tea pot. I have to admit i have a real thing for tea pot’s and this one is lovely. All her pottery is dishwasher and microwave safe so it looks good and is totally functional. The designs are great because they could easily be mixed with simple cream pottery if you can’t afford the whole range, or like to mix and match your pottery for a more shabby chic feel. It is great to support our British designers and Susie Watson is really flying the flag for us with her country, shabby chic inspired designs. All made in the historic pottery central of Staffordshire. Ace! 

I just had to write a post about this design. It seemed far too apt not to. This is the ‘Doll Tray’ designed by Thomas Paul a New York textile designer. As an avid russian doll collector I just couldn’t resist this tray, not to mention the fact that my Russian doll collection started the whole Doll Face thing to begin with. Anyway, the range is called Folk and is under the Melamine section.

These are the plates in the same range, they are so adorable and would look lovely for a picnic or simply up on the wall as art. The Thomas Paul website itself is very lovely and inspiring, check for your self here. I originally saw the bags that he designs on link on Design Sponge and decided they were lovely and I needed a closer look. These designs have gained much press and blog attention, even still they were too cute and fitting to let get away.

Due to my new day job (9.30- 6pm). I had a delay in getting my hands on my lovely parcel that was sent to me. Anyhow, it is here with me now and to tell the truth it was most unexpected. It came all the way from Salcombe in Devon and was sent by my best friend/ part-time sister of 10 years, Holly (or Flickr name Ho Bag!) She really surprised me with her amazing attention to detail on this one.

Ok, so back to the present, the shoe box arrived and it was lined with gorgeous Cath Kidston paper. All the presents were individually wrapped in lovely kitch paper with gingham ribbon bows around them. All my favorite colours featured I instantly felt so much happier, this week has been a bit stressful with a new job and all, especially an office one (with no Flickr, blogging or Facebook allowed!)

This was the main pressie, a lovely Greengate Selma milk jug. I have longed for this ever since I got my tea pot for graduation. I now feel complete, (apart from matching tea cups) as I didn’t have the jug at my tea party and it was sorely missed. Holly also took the liberty of slipping in some of the best cup cake cases I have ever seen! They are purple floral and rather large. They are made by the fab company Rice. . The website is so cute..especially the ‘Rice song’. Thank you Holly you are ACE!

I have a LOT of fabric stored away, and a lot that I love but I am not skilled enough to sew it in to anything good. So I decided the other day to revert back to type and stick to what I know best….sticking and gluing! I like to think this was a kind of sophisticated form of sticking and gluing though. I had some old sketch books left over from my school art days that had not been used and with their thick paper pages and solid binding I thought it criminal not to put them to good (pretty) use.

I couldn’t afford to get my hands on the Cath Kidston boating fabric so I improvised with this lovely vibrant boat pint from my local sewing shop in Whitstable. The floral is a lovely 1950’s print my Mum had been hoarding away for years. I wanted to put it to good use. They were so simple to do and turn out really effective. They look awsome on a book shelf or piled up on a coffee table (I love them next to my pride and joy greengate tea pot.)

I had a contrasting button badge handy so I just pinned that on to the tallest one, just the finishing touch. This is great for all of those like me who are not quite a dab hand with the sewing machine…x

This week has been so busy, but totally worth it. I graduated on tuesday the 10th of July at 7.15 pm. Due to the fact that this was so late in the day to take my mind off things I decided to host a much longed for tea party. I have been longing for a good excuse to dust off my lovely china collection and bake some cakes. I spent all day monday baking and made my first ever sandwich and loaf cake. Most exciting of all was the chance to use my new Greengate teapot that Miles bought me as a graduation present.

I put bunting up around the room and had the chance to use all my vintage cakes stands that I have collected over the years. Using my Laura Ashley tea cups was a big treat up until the party they had been decorative only. Crumpets and jam all round followed my various cakes and finished off with a chocolate sponge I baked for Miles’ birthday, he was 22 the next day.

All round a lovely day, all the girlies in my family together, well plus Miles… Then later, graduation in Canterbury Cathedral my mortar board was far too big and I semi slipped when shaking hands with the Chancellor (oh dear!). The evening was finished off lovely with a late dinner at Zizzi’s and home to rest. P.S thank you Miles for being the official photographer of the day. x

I thought I would post pictures of Miles’ office sign. This was made by myself..well, with the help of my lovely want-to-be carpenter father. It was a present for his new designated ‘office’ room. Much love was put into making it and the idea came from some other handmade door signs I had seen around. The scrabble tiles are vintage and I got them on ebay they came all the way from Ireland. They are quite hard to track down, and expensive. Then the back ground was the old faithful London A-Z, this too was my Pa’s he let me rip it up (thanks Dad).Now all Miles needs is to decide on a lovely place to hang it!

This is The The Zetter hotel in Clerkenwell, London. Miles and I stayed there in November last year. It was our little break before christmas. Not only is this post to say how cool this place was to stay but also that it was this place that sparked my passion for designer wallpaper. Every room is fitted out with gorgeous wall coverings, mostly by Cole&Son . The whole place was uber cool with knitted hot water bottle covers, painted original brickwork, rain style showers and Designer Guild chairs. It was so relaxed and friendly and really reasonable. The area was really nice too, all round winner.

So just wanted to share some of the amazing books I have found over the last couple of months. They just keep popping up and I can’t resist a good book. I am not a huge fan of fiction and tend to read more factual, artistic or biographical books. I know I am quite strange.

So the book that has really excited me lately is this delightful paper back by Black Dog publishing. It is Called ‘The Cutting Edge of Wallpaper’ by Cath Kidston, Jane Gordon Clark, Jocelyn Warner, and Neisha Crossland. It is so simple and totally focused around showcasing the designs and how wallpaper has evolved artistically throughout history. This book is actually Miles’ due to the fact together we have become obsessed with wallpaper. The is available from www.amazon.co.uk

I couldn’t resist but scan in my favorite page and design in the book, it is a hand printed design by Cole & Son It is called ‘FlyTip’ and is designed around the foliage of an urban jungle. The images is a little small, but it is based on bric-a-bac found on stalls in Deptford market in London. It has a kitch appeal with the pale blue background and floating cabbage rose heads and vintage style dolls.
This is a great interior design book not just for referencing but also for the fact that it provides real inspiration.Many of the featured artist all do more commercial lines which you can purchase.

This image is of Deborah Bowness wallpaper, she is also featured in the book. This original image was from www.fototiller.com/blog This is so lovely and unique. I just want it in my new home.

I have been a fan of screen printing for some time now, and when i found John Dilnot last year I was totally in awe. He is a British artist who specializes in screen printing. This picture is taken from a greetings card I bought today from Frank in Whitstable. www.frankworks.eu The cards are hand printed and have the best details like the build a birds nest plan on the back of them.

So this is the back of the card, it is so cool. The ‘how to build a nest box’ design plan. Dilnot’s nature inspired work is so simple, yet really effective. I have mentioned Frank in my ‘My Whitstable’ section if you want to know more, or want to have a little look at some of Dilnot’s other very cool art work then here you go. www.johndilnot.com

So this is my very own John Dilnot, that I have had for months now. It sits nicely on my wall in a lovely white box Ikea frame. It is called ‘Garden Birds’ and is my favorite by far. I couldn’t photograph it on the wall today due to the terribly dull and dark weather we are having in England this summer. My little old camera is just not up to it these days.