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Welcome to my Hovel

6 December, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

Inspired by Emma at The Gift Shed, I thought I’d show you around my new workroom.

It’s a box room off the living room which we started to call The Hovel* when we were students. It was my sewing room for a while, but it was always a little chaotic.

I had a ruthless clear out of sewing supplies before we moved back up, knowing full well that moving from almost a whole floor (attic and cellar in consecutive terraced houses) to a space about 5 foot by 6 foot (with a 10 foot ceiling) was going to be a challenge.

I’m currently planning a waist-height cutting table (you may notice that I do all my work standing up, once a Pilates teacher, always a Pilates teacher) and there will definitely be shelves in my future! In the meantime there is a gently ebbing tideline of flotsam and jetsam that I haven’t found a home for.

One of the joys of this flat is trying to determine the original uses for various rooms. Perhaps this was a cloakroom or wardrobe?

All links to inspiration workspaces and cut price, reclaimed or aspirational furnishings are more than welcome! I keep track of them on a Pinterest board called Workroom Delights, so please help me fill it. After taking these photos (at half past two in the afternoon) I’m starting to seriously consider a daylight bulb!

*I think it was called this because other, less enlightened landlords than the Lovely Young Man would offer box rooms as bedrooms.

Kissing Wookies

29 November, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

We had a very momentous milestone at Misericordia Mansions last weekend. I showed Dragon Star Wars IV for the first time. Lovely Young Man bought me a DVD of the originals (no digital nonsense) so I could be sure his mind wasn’t tainted by any foolishness. (For possibly the best parenting in the whole world, ever, go see this conversation that Shannon at Swingbug had with her wee boy. She may not know this, but I immediately saved a copy of that post when she wrote it and have read it repeatedly in preparation for my own difficult conversation with Dragon.)

I’m not sure our attempt was a resounding success. On the one hand he makes a fine light sabre noise, but on the other hand he said he wants to be ‘an armour’ (which means a Stormtrooper). I felt a little better when a friend of mine suggested that he could be Luke Skywalker in Stormtrooper gear (thereby gaining both armour and a lightsabre), since he is definitely a little short for a Stormtrooper.

I also get to premiere this piece on the blog. I made it last summer and took it to a craft fair where I had a great time spotting people as they got the quote (unsurprisingly there was a large teenage boy contingent).

I have all sorts of scenarios about the types of people who would buy this (maybe a cheeky marriage proposal) and where they would put it (by the fridge).

This one is going to be quite a wrench to part with, so I’m crossing my fingers that it goes to a loving home.

Click on the photos to visit my shop.

Christmas Gift Guide and Manifesto

26 November, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

Here’s my version of a Christmas gift guide, it’s a little unorthodox, so hold onto your (Santa) hats.

Don’t buy stuff!

I know, it seems a mite unusual coming from a person doing her level best to encourage you to part with your pennies, but there is almost no one on your Christmas list who needs stuff. We are very lucky.
Give doors that open.

Great, you think, so if I’m not giving stuff what do I get Aunty Jen? Not to mention the kids…

But stuff goes nowhere, it just sits about until you trip over it one last time and finally send it (hopefully) to the charity shop in the hopes that the giver won’t notice its absence and ask about it. (They never do.) Why not approach gifts as a way to open a door. So that what you give isn’t as important as why or from whom, or even who or how it was made.
Tell a story.

So find your favourite book at a charity shop or independent bookseller and (this is the most important part) tuck a note into it telling the recipient where you were when you read it or why you love it or why it reminds you of them.

Or explain that you want to support local or fairtrade or organic makers and get them a voucher or a veg box or a handmade widget. But tell the story!

So you can still buy earrings and socks and novelty hot water bottle covers as long as the reason isn’t ‘It was on 3 for 2 at Chainz ‘r Uz and I was desperate.’

I know this takes more effort and it may mean that you need to practice over a few years. But halfheartedly buying stuff for the sake of it almost never makes either the giver or the receiver happy.

Where do I come in? I like to provide the most difficult service of all. I’m here for the people who don’t even need fairtrade recycled hand-crafted widgets. Your mum with all the ornaments and kitchen gadgets she’ll ever use, or your friend who just buys what he wants (when he really wants anything, which isn’t often).

To them (but mainly you) I’m offering a touchstone, a portal, a wardrobe door which gives a glimpse of a time you shared, a book they love, a place they’ve visited and all the memories, associations and thoughts that will bring a smile to their face whenever they see their piece. (Plus, it’s handmade, reclaimed and I rarely employ children!)

Now, go forth and give!
(or contact me to order your personalised piece)

Christmas commission and posting dates:

Last date to commission a piece for UK delivery by Christmas:
this Friday 29 November

Last posting dates for stock orders:

USA/Europe: Friday 13 December
UK: Friday 20 December

Take a Memo

22 November, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

Before we start, here’s a small point of admin. The final commission date for UK deliveries before Christmas is a week from today – Friday 29th November. The last posting date for UK delivery is Friday 20th December if you are pondering stock pieces.

People often look at my work and comment on the patience that it must take to do embroidery. (I have to say that I find it requires less patience than herding a toddler, so it’s quite restful.)

Now it’s my turn to marvel at the motor skills that allow Keira Rathbone to produce these gorgeous pieces.

Hammersmith Bridge – Keira Rathbone 2009

Not sure how she did it? Here’s a hint!

My Weapons of Choice – Keira Rathbone

You can watch a video of Keira at work on the BBC website, it’s absolutely worth a look.

Not only does this make embroidery look like the easy option in terms of co-ordination, I’m super impressed that she works en plein air.

So if you need some typerwriter art in your life, please pop over to Keira’s website and shop.

(I feel the need to add the noise of the carriage return at this point, please oblige me by saying ‘ping!’ right….now.)

Admiring the Paint

15 November, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

I spend a lot of time in my other job trying to encourage people to listen to their bodies and be guided by the frankly astounding levels of engineering and design which have gone into the system that allows them to move, reason and sit on the sofa watching YouTube videos of cats falling off windowsills.

Sometimes this applies to me as well. We officially moved into our new old flat on Friday, Dragon woke us up on Sunday morning by being sick (by the way, what maternal instinct compels me to put out my hand at that point?) and the rest of the week was punctuated by frantic unpacking to allow the removals company to take their boxes back, frantic reshuffling to allow the broadband people to connect us to the outside world and the emotionally fraught task of trying to decide on categories to organise the CD rack by (do we need Folk Rock and Indie Folk? Yes).

By Wednesday evening it was pretty obvious that I was about to crash and on Thursday I managed to out-sleep the cat.

Hopefully things are getting on to a more even keel, but there’s still a lot of this going on.

Sweet Tooth Season

8 November, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

I’ve run out of apples.

I’m remarkably uncreative when it comes to autumn fruit. I quite like pears and plums and all of the other things I should be eating, but I only seem to buy apples.

Bloody Ploughman Apple – image from Keepers Nursery

I’m very picky, I like them crunchy and sour. Nothing with the word Delicious in the title and the funnier the name the better. Incidentally, I once saw a quite fascinating programme about apples; among the things I learned is that apple pips are like people, every one is different. So all the Bramley apples you buy are grafted from a single Bramley tree in Nottinghamshire which was planted in 1809. The tree is still alive, which is quite neat…

However, in the absence of apples I tend to turn to something a bit sweeter. Something brown sugary, maybe a little maple-y, a little gooey?

Sugar Pie from Sweet Nothings by Misericordia 2013

Buy your calorie-free sugar fix, click the picture!

Mmm, yes a bit like that.

So while I try to resist the real thing, you can buy yourself (or your sweetheart) a 100% guilt-free sugar pie. Or if you’d like to see the dessert menu (or the sweet trolley, which I think should make a comeback)?

Sweets to the sweet – click buy them all!

Dear Sir,

5 November, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

Even though I’m a child of the email generation (we were seriously early adopters, the perks and perils of academia) I like to think there’s a healthy letter-writer lurking in my soul.

Letterpress Cards from Rack and Ruin on Folksy

I must admit that my letter writing these days is mainly restricted to thank you notes (never start with the word ‘thank you’) but I do like to know what should and shouldn’t be done.

“If you write to a Queen, begin your first line within three fingers breadth of the bottom of the paper” – Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield

For entertainment of my (future) grandchildren I have saved a rather large number of letters received mainly between the ages of 13 and 18.

…I’ve just realised quite how excruciating those are going to be! Maybe I should get writing so I can also leave some more creditable evidence of my epistolary efforts!

Luckily, the BBC has helpfully compiled a list of 10 letter writing tips that you can use over email, even if your correspondence card collection is a little low!

10 old letter-writing tips that work for emails – BBC website

If your stationery selection is low, do click on the image of the gorgeous letterpress cards to do some shopping!

Ode to a Persimmon

4 November, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

Everyone feeling a little Monday? Me to…

Here, let me help.

That’s better.

It’s been a bit hectic around here, first my computer (Vesper Holly) decided to have an out of body experience (now sorted out by the ever-calm Lovely Young Man and the fact that my whole life is in the Clouds).

Next the aforementioned LYM casually suggested that we might as well get the kitchen redone now, since we were having to spend lots of money on half-heartedly patching the kitchen floor.

Hang on, I need another cat picture.

Ok.

We’re off to go speak to the kitchen-y folk, my Pinterest is full of other people’s gorgeous kitchens and I really, really just want to move into the flat before I decide to run away to join a circus for some peace and quiet. Please provide words of comfort and stories of happy kitchen sagas (or top tips) below.

Pressing Away

28 October, 2013 / Katy / 0 Comments

Among the changes and upheavals this year, I went vegetarian in June. The strange thing is that I haven’t been able to explain either to myself or anyone else quite why it happened.

I’ve always been a bit of a hippy and when I was a carnivore we were trying to reduce the quantity and increase the quality of meat we were eating. But I found myself avoiding it more and more without being able to say why until I realised that the way to become a vegetarian was to just stop eating meat (I know…but I’m new to this kind of thing).

Even now that I’m not a meat-eater, I can still hold a conversation like one. I cook meat for LYM and Dragon but I just don’t want to eat it. Sometimes I miss the emotional resonance surrounding certain foods*, but in the way I imagine a smoker misses the ritual of smoking more than the consumption of toxic fumes.

And then I read a post from the eloquent and perceptive Adult Beginner in which she discusses (among other things) a quote from Peter Fonseca in The Dancer’s Body Book By Allegra Kent

So many people just consume and consume and don’t put anything out. I think the answer is to be absolutely minimal in what you take in and prolific in what you put out.

That was it.

I have been feeling the weight of consumption and possession ever since Dragon has appeared, and it’s been leading me to get rid of things and finish projects and step back down the food chain a rung.

So go read AB’s post and then come and tell me what you think (no poo jokes please).

*Especially smoked salmon bagels and roast dinners.

Keep in touch!

Don’t buy stuff!

Give doors that open.

Tell a story.

Christmas commission and posting dates:

Last posting dates for stock orders: