hardaker and pope

tea for a princess

2012-01-24T19:29:00.012Z

I had forgotten how exhausting children's birthday parties can be! With Christmas and New Year out of the way our Baby turned 4 and the invites I had sent out before the holidays had promised a tea party fit for a princess - or 10 princesses and 2 kings to be precise.

I wanted the traditional afternoon tea party, baby wanted princesses and I thought the two were easy to marry. On arrival everyone was given an undecorated cupcake and an unmade cake box with the instruction to get decorating - they were to take the cakes home later as an alternative to squidged up chocolate cake wrapped in a napkin. I had ordered all I needed for the cupcake decorating from Nom Nom in Nailsworth. OK, I know in theory I should have been able to do this myself but it I would have burnt my own, plus I wouldn't have got beautiful presentation boxes and the necessary icing kit without hassle I knew I didn't need. Any way, I was busy making tea party stickers using rubber stamps (Sarah has stamps for every occasion - such a useful friend!).

Not only that, but with the cup cake baking out of the way it gave me time to concentrate on what I was really interested in. Creating a pretty tea party. I had a whale of a time making tiny sandwiches, miniature cup cakes and even (rather extravagantly but very successfully) quails eggs!

Out came the china tea cups and saucers - it seems mad to allow a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds loose on my china and pressed glass collection. However, they all seemed to know exactly how to behave: placed teacups back on saucers and stretched out pinkies as if afternoon tea was an everyday experience.

So while I may not be making much progress on the knitting am at least part way to becoming a

party animal!

birthdays

2012-01-18T11:19:00.000Z

we have a big boy birthday coming up, and i had to post a picture of these which i found whilst wasting way too much time on pinterest! They made me laugh out loud, they also made me sad that we don't seem to have Sesame Street on Tv anymore, how are a whole generation going to grow up without counting with the Count, or without knowing Burt and Ernie or Big Bird? anyway for all of you sesame st nostalgia lovers how about cookie monster cupcakes for tea!!!!

funghi to be with

2012-01-04T19:06:00.002Z

I know the Christmas cracker jokes should have been binned by now, but I couldn't think of another title for this post - Apologies!

You can't have failed to notice how this year the place is awash with funghi. I think the mild autumn has provided perfect conditions for mushrooms and the common is covered. One of our neighbours grew up in France and knows her lawyers wigs from her shaggy ink caps and informed me that, back in November, they had picked and eaten mushrooms for supper every night for 2 weeks. I've no idea what is or isn't an edible mushroom and while I love the idea of foraging and hedgerow cooking I'm not prepared to risk picking my own mushrooms. However all this funghi reminded me that as a child we used to collect mushrooms and make spore prints.

In my memory this has to be done early on a misty morning. So early one beautiful, misty Sunday morning my little girl, the dog and I set of onto the common with an array of plastic bags (to put mushrooms in and to cover our hands with as our little girl is a thumb sucker). Said daughter is rather curious about the Natural World and relished the opportunity to jump around searching for different species to add to her collection, preferably before the dog crushed them to smithereens. We returned home and carefully lay the mushrooms out on paper and left for a couple of days for the spores to fall out. Unfortunately I think little fingers may have fiddled and our patterns didn't come out quite as clearly as they could have done, but our little girl was pleased with the results and they were duly taken into school for show-and-tell!

I've since discovered that it isn't necessary to get up early on a misty morning to carry out this activity, however for me that aspect of the adventure adds to the magic!

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T19:23:00.006Z

Well it's the time for making resolutions and I've made quite a few this year. Along with the standard do more exercise, be more social, drink less I've got to get back into writing on the blog. But another resolution is to try my hand, and be successful at, knitting. While we had the builders in there were times when I was sitting around doing nothing, so my mother suggested that I take up knitting: you can take it anywhere, pick it up easily and be creative. So back in October I decided that I was going to knit my friend a lovely chunky, grey, woollen, scarf as her Christmas pressie.

I know that my attempts at crochet were futile but I did do a bit of knitting as a child, albeit wonky scarves, and I figured it would be like riding a bike and I'd pick it up again easily. While the actual stitches seem to come back alright so did my ability to make things wonky. I became the laughing stock of my weekly 'make-and-do' group as each week I returned with empty needles and scraggily wool from failed attempts. As it grew closer to Christmas it became very clear that my friend was not going to be receiving a chunky, grey, woollen scarf this year and off I went and bought her a huge bar of chocolate and a good book!

Anyway, not to be deterred, I now have a year in which to learn to knit and make this unwonky scarf. So, while I may not run any marathons and I may not become a party animal, next Christmas my friend WILL receive a chunky, grey, woollen scarf.

Happy New Year.

window dressing

2011-12-08T12:32:00.000Z

I was delighted when stockist Clare Laughland interiors in Farnham asked to use the big star fabric for their Christmas window display. (If you are looking for soft furnishings in that part of the country Clare and her team are fantastic,) It is particularly lovely to see it used in a wintery context.... a far cry from the baking hot day on the beach in Beer when Justine and I did the shoot!!

sharland and lewis home

2011-11-26T09:00:00.000Z

we are delighted to announce our friends at sharland and Lewis in Tetbury are opening their new lifestyle home store in Nailsworth today.
the shop is in the old days mill building right in the centre of town (opposite the post office and raffles wine).
Co owner Libs, has a great eye for antiques, but not in a precious way, she chooses pieces which would work well in any home. She has added some new wares in to the mix, and the store looks set to be a roaring success. When i went in to take some photos i was reminded of Baileys of old, when they used to be in the engine shed in Ross. where i think that Libs and Ali have the edge is that have a great eye for colour as well.
if you can't get to the shop they have a website here and they are both great at sourcing specific pieces for clients.

duck egg and red in a bedroom

2011-11-26T08:16:00.000Z

i am working with a lovely lady on a bedroom project this week.
there were a few key pieces to fit into the bedroom scheme, such as a beautiful red chair and contemporary dressing table, and the lady loves duck egg. so i have had a search for a little duck egg and red inspiration.

first there are some colour boards created by some clever users of flickr.
i really love looking at peoples colour boards. sometimes when i am doing custom colour ways for clients i like to have a bit of affirmation that i am not going off in a mad colour combination direction.
i think a little chocolate brown added to the duck and red combination could work, and definitely some of white.

and now some room ideas using our duck egg, raspberry and cream.

we start off with a more muted idea , with duck and cream as the main colours, dark wood for the bed and red highlights. we have got solid red here for the lamps and a cushion, and then some red and cream , and plain curtains. i love the chinoiserie style quilt in here, overall a gentle and calm room.

Gin keeping with a more gentle palatte, above we have very soft duck egg walls and lots of cream and off white, with highlights of stronger duck/teal on bolsters and cushions. i think with the addition of a couple of red and cream cushions in here, the red dressing table and chair would sit happily in this room.

duck with a tiny touch of red.

and now moving into a bolder more rock and roll version of the palatte!
i love the combination of the strong teal above with the funky scarlet toile curtains - a modern take on a classic design. the room is lightened by off white bed and the wonderful chinoiserie mural behind.

again stronger colours balanced by off white.

this room has a feeling of relaxed glamour. no red but you could easily accent a room that is mainly duck and cream with a few touches of red.

another take on toile in a contemporary setting.
what are your favourite colour combinations of the moment?
images from the following sources (if i have posted your image without crediting you please contact me and i will put that right, i found some of the images via google and they had no link)
simplifiedbee
the lenoxx
emily gilmore design
flickr
freehouse interior design
house in to home
karentusinski on etsy
interior design it your self
orangina dreams
studio ten25

visually beautiful

2011-11-21T13:44:00.000Z

caught

both sania pell and veronica from few things from my life have featured this cafe in zagreb called velvet

i love the scabbily chalkboard illustrations and, really really love the idea of revering that for a wall decoration and using a scratchy black charcoal pencil on white - it would be stunning on a feature wall.

golden room

2011-11-04T19:45:00.003Z

over the last few weeks i have had the pleasure of working with a lovely family on a custom colour project.
we have been trying to create a calm soft golden version of chinoiserie chalk.
so i have perused some favourite haunts looking for interesting images.

i think most of the images are from the enchanted home blog and some from the very beautiful paper mulberry blog , enjoy x

putting up pictures

2011-11-02T08:23:00.000Z

nice things come from sad things, something that makes mr h smile each day is a picture he inherited from his parents house, and after much humming and haaing we have had an art move around. we are lucky to have collected a lot of original paintings over the years, nothing valuable, just beautiful things from favourite artists. however hanging things is often a problem, family photos and paintings don't always sit happily together. so here is some inspiration form people who manage it effortlessly!!
all images via the lovely blog a few things from my life.

what are you making?

2011-11-01T06:54:00.001Z

a few weeks ago over on lobster and swan Jeska did a post on making a pinboard - well the post was inspired by pinks (its a lovely post as always from lobster and swan) anyway she asked the question 'what are you making? i have to say i seem to have a whole host of started but not finished projects on the go - which is making the studio mighty messy and somewhat uninviting! i did however finish this for a special little friends birthday.

here is a little detail, i used a plain canvas, and then a bit of paper collage using some vintage paper - old books painted with watercolour and some old maps, and then stamped the old saying on.

i love giving handmade and homemade gifts, but it is always a dilemma, as some people thing they are they cheap option, when really they are not because the time and thought that goes in to creating them is more costly than dashing out and buying something, what are your thoughts on giving or receiving a home made gift?

french style

2011-10-22T09:20:00.000+01:00

hello lovely people, long time no speak.........
too much has happened since i last appeared here, a lot of sadness and much upheaval, however here we are coming out the other side, still intact, and ready to start again!
we inherited some treasured pieces of furniture over the summer, and it has sparked in us a new vigour for finally sorting out our house. That combined with a brief trip to france in the holidays (more of that later),
has made me come over all brocante style!

Jo and i have always had a fondness for Baileys in Ross, however when i happened upon the divine website www.adeodata.com via the hoard (more from the hoarde later) I was totally hooked.

the website is truely visually beautiful and i would happily have anything from there in my house........if only there were room.............

where have you been to my lovely?

2011-10-09T16:33:00.001+01:00

Seven weeks ago the Pope family set off on holiday and gave the builders the keys to our house. The brief was to knock down a wall to make a large (ish) kitchen diner and it was thought it would take 2 weeks. Knowing that builders never get it quite right I organised 4 weeks accommodation with friends and family thinking that would be plenty.

The phone was quiet whilst in France so we assumed no news was good news. Oh, how niave of us! Our thoughtful builder thought he'd wait till we were home to break the bad news: the old lath and plaster ceilings needed replacing - upstairs and down, this in turn revealed hugely dodgy electrics and some not too impressive plumbing, the very beginnings of dry rot and a bad damp course treatment. In fact this has turned into a complete refurbishment project, thank goodness we only live in a 2-up-2-down.

That is why I've been so quiet. Living out of suitcases, with no internet and only an ancient pay-as-you-go mobile is not conducive to leading a normal life, and certainly makes it impossible to a) be creative and b) write a blog. This is also the reason we have been unable to coordinate our Autumn workshop programme, but do not fear, we do intend to get ourselves back into action for the New Year. Meanwhile I'm heading into the fun part of all this work - decorating and making our home a home again.

cherry picking

2011-08-11T08:10:00.000+01:00

I've been quiet on the blog front recently. The summer holidays are in full force and we're due to start building works any day now (well that's been the case for a month or so!). I'm desparately thinking of ways to stop the children fighting with each other and my sewing machine, bags of fabric, cases of paper etc have been stored away, along with most of our other belongings because of the impending chaos. My normal creativity has been hindered, but I am enjoying the opportunity to scroll the internet for fixtures and fittings and scouring the antique shops of Tetbury, the local brocante and Hollyanna's for new bits of furntiture.

Of course whatever is going on in life you can't give up food and at this time of year there is plenty growing in the garden. Boy and I had an hilarious afternoon recently collecting cherry-plums from a tree in our garden that has fruited so well this year we couldn't resist picking the cherries even though they were way out of reach. I had to scramble up the tree with a fishing net and once I'd caught a cherry on a far flung branch I'd use my old lacrosse skills to throw it down to boy waiting below with a bowl. We enjoyed ourselves so much we decided that we should move to the hills around Perpingnan and become cherry pickers for a living. For all our efforts the birds had eaten half of the cherries already and we ended up with only 15 (that is a bumper crop for this ancient tree)! We added to our own supply and turned them into a delicious cherry clafoutis. Now that the blackberries are coming out I'm tempted to do the same with them.

sweet paul and elephant ceramics

2011-07-17T09:19:00.000+01:00

the summer issue of sweet paul magazine features ceramics company elephant ceramics.
i have always had a love of blue pottery, so this article immediately jumped out at me.
i really love michele's fabulous test samples, and inky colours - redolent of indigo dyed linens.
there is an elephant ceramics blog too which is equally visually beautiful. enjoy

secret arcade

2011-07-16T13:53:00.000+01:00

i have been involved this year in a beautiful project called secret arcade, organised by the talented ladies behind the shop floor project.

this week i am the featured shopkeeper of the week, pop over and have a read!

weekend reading

2011-07-15T09:58:00.001+01:00

i was rather delighted to see we had been mentioned on Anna's blog she shops local. i follow anna herberts column in our local paper, she is cooking her way through Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking.

Anna is married to the talented baker Tom Herbert of Hobbs house bakery.
and her blog is a lovely read, as she combines cooking with motherhood.

a tenuous link i know but sticking with a bread theme i came across another website, weekend bakery
fabulous photography a real visual treat. also there are some fab bread recipes, both sweet and savoury.
however if you can't be bothered to bake your own head down to hobbs house for the best that money can buy

rose shortbread

sticky cinnamon buns

pizza dough with a poolish

grey

2011-07-14T12:55:00.000+01:00

I am totally loving soft greys at the moment, particularly when combined with warm whites. french grey has been my best selling colourway last month on the website.
the herringbone above is part of our new range of plain linens, and we are hoping to have some new limited edition product lines made from it soon.
all of our cloth is made in the uk, which we think is fab!

visually beautiful

2011-07-14T09:55:00.001+01:00

from the ikea blog livet hemma .
i am pleased to see this image as i am experimenting with photo wallapers at the moment!

sweet paul and summer seafood

2011-07-13T09:46:00.000+01:00

with a trip to cornwall with great friends planned - food is always high on the agenda.
one of the friends is a fabulous chef, so the plan is lots of seafood on the beach. as i have said before you can't beat a nice sustainable sardine! so when i saw these pictures in sweet paul summer issue, i had to share!

something fishy

2011-07-07T20:27:00.003+01:00

I know I go on about the fact that men are impossible to buy presents for and that I prefer to give experiences and make a small, relevant, gift to hand over on the special day, but I've done it again. To be honest I think I rather enjoy the excuse of having to make something, particularly if I actually have an idea!

So for hubby's birthday this year I decided that I would take him to a local fish restaurant that is supposed to be amazing and we've been desperate to visit since we moved to the Cotswolds 9 years ago. While I wasn't quite up to knitting an entire platter of fruits de mer I did at last have a purpose for the box from a tin of tuna I've been saving since our trip to Italy last year (because I liked the packaging - obviously).

Using my new found embroidery skills I machined some fishy scales, and then I used the dissolvable plastic stuff I've used before (here) to make some seaweed - that was really good fun!

Now hubby has a stuffed fabric fish in a box which he doesn't know what to do with but at least the enormous fruits de mer platter he had at the restaurant was appreciated!

Lemon Aid

2011-07-07T20:01:00.006+01:00

I've recently become obsessed with making homemade lemonade. On the few hot days that we've had this summer I've realised what a refreshing pick-me-up drink it is, and now that I've dug out the juicer element of my magi mix I've discovered that it's also a quick and easy thing to make with the children. Using the traditional method my mother-in-law told me I make up a sugar syrup (boiling water and loads of sugar) and add this to the freshly squeezed juice of about 6 lemons and voila. To make it into more of a 'treat' drink I add fizzy water and the children are in heaven. A perfect remedy for those tetchy toddlers!

Sticking with tradition, ideally it would then be put in a glass jug with a beaded fabric doyley and kept in the larder but since we were recently invited to a Mad Hatter's Tea Party I couldn't resisit the opportunity to take my latest obsession and to blend it with my love of the wierd and wonderful world of Alice in Wonderland with the tiny bottles and enticing labels.

storm in a tipi

2011-06-20T19:37:00.015+01:00

As I sit here typing it is slashing down with rain out side and I'm glad I'm in my cosy, secure, watertight home. Unlike the night of my brother-in-law's wedding. We were due to sleep in a fabulous looking tipi, but when the heavens opened and an immense thunderstorm erupted at 11.00 at night we were kicked out of bed by water, pouring in through the top. Thankfully there were pop up tents to hand and we ended up sleeping in tents inside our tipi! The children found this thoroughly hilarious!

Despite this mishap the wedding (for which I was making all that bunting) was beautiful. The setting was a rural country idyll, with chickens, geese and ducks running a muck amidst the wedding guests.

Right from the outset it was inevitable that this was going to be a beautiful wedding. Their shop Holly Anna is a treasure trove full of useful props and with their eye for detail I knew it would be a visual feast.

Talking of feasts, the food was impressive too. There was a constant, rolling supply of food and drink throughout the day, including this fantastic creperie. Obviously the children loved the chocolate and strawberry ones and quickly ended up smothered in the stuff.

And in keeping with the bride's colour theme (she loves pink, which is why she gets on well with our little girl!) we had even managed to source some pink Prosecco. Perfect for drinking in the dappled shade of an apple tree.

Guests danced the night away to an Irish band, and while we slipped off early(ish) to put the children to bed and for our storm in a tipi drama, the revelling continued, enhanced by the thunder.

garlands again!

2011-06-16T17:13:00.001+01:00

a happened upon this lovely post on decor8 the other day and thought i would share it.
jo and i sold lots of scrap bags at the vintage handmade fair, and something of this nature would be perfect to make with them.
i love the styling by sania pell (who we featured a few weeks ago).
for the full tutorial head over to decor8 here

inspired by chinoiserie wallcoverings

2011-06-15T16:58:00.001+01:00

yesterday i mentioned that we had hung our chinoiserie grande wallpaper in the dining room, but omitted to show you a picture!! the floor is not grey any more though, it is now painted with farrow and ball bone floor paint (not terribly hardwearing just in case you are thinking of using it)

this is the same paper in peapod

and these 2 are both custom colourways.

here are some more chinoiserie lovelies form across the world wide web!

images (probably) from de gournay, francie readman, fromental and probably some people i have forgotton (if one of them is you please do tell me and i will rectify the situation!)

sew happy

2011-06-14T19:50:00.002+01:00

HOORAY.

After months of swearing and cursing at my lack of sewing prowess the broken foot of my new sewing machine has at long last arrived and I have a fully functioning machine. I spent a happy afternoon fiddling with it and making sure it really does work and I'm so happy that I seem to have a machine that works with me.

It may seem a bit odd to invest in an ancient machine, but Sarah swears by them and I've really enjoyed the times I've used hers. I love this old clunking machine and it's robust Swiss mechanics and what's more I've had far more success at machine embroidery this afternoon than I think I ever had. I had thought it was just that I was completely rubbish at it, but it appears that in fact my old untrustworthy machine may have been partly to blame and hopefully, with a bit of practice, I'll soon be giving Sarah a run for her money!!!!

Anyway here's (hopefully) to many happy hours of stress free sewing!

visually beautiful

2011-06-14T16:53:00.001+01:00

i am loving wallpaper on a grande scale at the moment, in fact we have put our chinoiserie grande wallpaper up in the dining room in colourway aqua and pink, and it pleases me every day when i look at it!

i think the scale of this yellow floral mural is stunning - particularly paired with the simplicity of the rest of the room (i am sorry but i can't remember where i found the photo it has been lurking in my inspiration folder for months!!)

a place in the sun

2011-06-13T16:05:00.001+01:00

it is tipping it down in Gloucestershire today, not a ray of sunshine to be seen. I had planned to make some elderflower cordial for the school fete, but i remember reading somewhere you have to pick the elderflowers on a sunny day to get the best flavour out of them, so that little job will have to wait for another day.
instead i have done some armchair travelling and discovered this beautiful place, so i am dreaming of sunshine and wishing to be transported to the peacock pavillions in marrakech......enjoy
(ps maryam the owner also writes a very beautiful blog here)

a visual treat

2011-06-12T12:38:00.000+01:00

a visual treat for you today combined with a little weekend reading.
i find Leslie's blog a creative mint an inspiring place to visit, especially if i need a bit of a colour pick me up.
she also writes a column for decor8, anyway enjoy some creative eye candy.......

get a grip!

2011-06-06T19:40:00.003+01:00

You know how sometimes you see something and you can't bring yourself to buy it because you think you could make it yourself but then you never do, and you end up kicking yourself for not just buying it in the first place. That's how it usually works for me, but this time I did manage to make it.

I bumped into a friend in the supermarket and her little girl had some fab fabric flower hair clips in, so while I chatted to the mum I also scrutinised the clips and I when I got home I promptly had a go at making some of my own. They were so simple to make. I literally did a running stitch along a strip of fabric and pulled it tight to create the main flower, then added the button for the centre.

And my little girl was as thrilled with the result as I was!

Button up

2011-05-29T16:31:00.005+01:00

Now that the bunting is done I've been busy concentrating on making things for the Vintage & Handmade Textile Fair on Saturday. Still lacking a sewing machine I've had to create in a different way but I really enjoyed making these little packs of buttons. You know sometimes you have an idea and it comes together really well and it is really satisfying, other times (and more often for me) the idea goes to pot and I end up frustrated and cross. At which point hubby and Boy say 'Why do you do it if you don't enjoy it?' But I am enjoying it in a way, it's all part of the creative process!

Anyway, if you fancy a bit of a treat this weekend head to Chipping Sodbury, Sarah will be there (I'm at the bunting wedding!) selling our Scrap bags, buttons, bundles of lace and all sorts of things made in her delicious fabrics. Have fun.

bunting bonanza

2011-05-29T16:14:00.003+01:00

Phew, while Sarah has been busy blogging about bunting I've been busy making bunting. A couple of months ago my mother-in-law turned up with a huge bag of fabric because I had volunteered to make bunting for my brother-in-law's wedding. I had plenty of time and it is fairly simple to make so I wasn't too fazed by the prospect of producing enough bunting to adorn an entire yurt village. I set to cutting out triangles straight away.

However, I've had a right old saga with my sewing machine: it broke so I got it fixed and it promptly broke again, so I bought a new one which arrived broken, so I asked to borrow my mum's but she lent it to me without the foot pedal.... so with one thing and another I have been machineless for about 6 months and my creativity has been completely hindered. And now the wedding is next weekend so I had to borrow a machine for the evening and sew like mad. Hubby ironed the tape in half as I fed it through the machine and attached my triangles until, 50 metres later, we had run out of triangles and tape.

Hopefully next week I will be able to show you pictures of the bunting in situ, but I am afraid that, although it sounds a lot, 50 metres of bunting doesn't go very far.

sustainable sardinery

2011-05-29T13:35:00.000+01:00

anyone who watched hugh and jamie et al do their fish fight programme will know that we should all be eating more sustainable fish, indeed we should only be buying sustainable fish. i have not bought tuna since watching the programmes i was so shocked. I come from a fishing family, my maternal grandfather was a trawlerman out of Fleetwood and he was a great believer in sustainability (before it became a buzz word).

Sardines and mackeral are two perfect examples as they are prolific in our waters. They are also incredibly cheap and tick all of the nutrition boxes. i like them stuffed with a handful of herbs and chargrilled whole, served with a sharp zingy salsa, or a rhubarb or gooseberry compote, zipped up with a star anise, or a big dob of chilli jam.

garland obsession

2011-05-28T12:56:00.002+01:00

ok, so now i think i might have developed a garland obsession, and a quick scoot around flickr brought up thousands of them (actually there is no such thing as a quick scoot around flickr!!)

true beauties from lobster and swan on flickr 1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Untitled

clever crochet
1. wall flowers..., 2. wall flowers..., 3. Flower Garland, 4. Daphne..., 5. WImpelketten_gemischt, 6. Hakelgirlande_bunt

1. Hakelgirlande_bunt

paper circles
. Wimpelkette_bunt 1, 2. Häkelgirlande_rosa_3, 3. A study in French - Circles, 4. snips + snails garland, 5. Circle bunting, 6. DSC_1105

1. Gh_j2, 2. DSC_1110tris

1. DSC_1103, 2. Art Paper Garland, 3. paper garland, 4. Paper garland - butterfly

weekend reading

2011-05-27T13:28:00.002+01:00

london based author, stylist and designer, sania pell has launched her own very beautiful blog full of beautifully styled ideas.

i particularly love these shots of a recent exhibition called 'found' in london ( in support of the fabulous kettles yard)
the picture below reminds me of the painter elaine pamphillon and her beautiful still life paintings.

fabulous colours and beautiful styling - fits perfectly with our less is more ethos....
happy weekend

design inspiration garlands

2011-05-27T07:44:00.001+01:00

while we are on the subject of bunting and garlands, Jeska at lobster and swan posted this lovely 'how to' this week - in view of that that half term is starting in the pouring rain - it could be a great way to keep small fry and mummies busy for a morning!

design inspiration bunting

2011-05-26T07:44:00.002+01:00

bunting from flickr 1. Bunting, 2. Bunting, 3. Bunting, 4. bunting

i am full of design ideas at the moment, and finding inspiration in unusual places! i have a thing about garlands and bunting, and love theses pictures of it flapping against a blue sky..... i feel a wallpaper coming on.

1. Bunting from flickr

image via selina lake

image via 100layer cake

cup cake competition

2011-05-25T16:49:00.006+01:00

When we ran our cupcake competition last year one of the runners up was Lesley from Poppy Greens. Not surprising since she runs her own cup cake business. As well as creating her beautiful cakes, made with eggs from her own free range chickens, she also has a fantastic selection of vintage china for hire and produces bunches of wonderful country cottage flowers. For plenty of inspiration take a look at her gallery.

If inspired then you should enter her competition, she is offering a free place on selected workshops during June and July, but be quick the deadline is tomorrow!

beautiful

2011-05-23T12:58:00.000+01:00

i keep seeing this japanese washi tape everywhere , this is from uguisu and i want them all!!!

via Fryd+design

scrap bags

2011-05-22T15:27:00.001+01:00

jo and i have been busy making hardaker & pope scrap bags for the forthcoming vintage handmade fair

they are quite time consuming as we are both awful perfectionists and like them to be filled with the kind of delights that we love!!
anyway here are a few to wet your appetite and if you can't make it to vintage handmade (you should come it is a great day out - and a bit like being let loose in a sweetie shop) then contact us and we are happy to post them out.

the husbands just 'don't get it' they cannot appreciate little bags of loveliness and want to know the exact purpose for them....... we say they don't have to have a purpose, but their uses are endless ..................

dollmaking, scrapbooking, patchwork, little gifts, heirloom treasures, little pictures, cardmaking the list is endless, what do you use your little bits of fabric for? let us know in the comments and go into a draw to win one of our lovely scrapbags .

weekend reading

2011-05-21T15:27:00.000+01:00

a couple of lovely new (well to me anyway) reads this week, via sams notebook (i am so pleased to see sam back to blogging ) .

first up is what katie ate which is the blog of katie quinn a food stylist from australia.
filled with beautiful food photography and delicious recipes. I can't wait to try the salted caramel and hazlenut tart.

next up is photgrapher, author and stylist pia jane bijkerk .

her blog and musing have an almost ethereal quality,

her paris made by hand book was much blogged at the time of launch and i think her new book 'my heart wanders' will be joining my collection soon. happy weekend

wild garlic pesto

2011-05-16T09:38:00.001+01:00

i have been making lots of wild garlic pesto this year as the woods around our house are full of it, it is coming to an end now but if you can find it in a shady spot here is the recipe, an ammended version of a sarah raven one from the garden cookbook.

2 very big handfuls of wild garlic washed and blanched
50g of pinenuts or walnuts (i use walnuts as pinenuts seem ridiculously expensive at the moment!)
lots of olive oil (to get it to the consistancy you like)
1 small clove garlic minced
50g (ish) parmesan or pecorino grated
salt and pepper

squeeze the water out of the blanched wild garlic leaves in a seive,
put the walnuts in the food processor and pulse to break them up.
add the wild garlic, parmesan, minced fresh garlic and a couple of big glugs olive oil.
turn the motor on and pour olive oil in through the funel of the processor till you have the consistancy you like.
check for seasoning.

i have used it on pasta, under the skin of a roast chicken, on top of a chargrilled chicken breast, and dribbled over roasted peppers. it is really good.

ps do you like my spoon - a great charity shop find.........

weekend reading

2011-05-15T08:25:00.001+01:00

A couple of months ago i had the pleasure of being featured in period living in a beautiful article styled by the very talented selina lake ,anyway i think selinas style is so lovely that i had to do a weekend reading piece on her.

She styles for magazines all over the world and has written several books (including one of my favourites 'bazaar style), she has got a great eye and certainly made my products shine in the period living shoot.
lots of people think that being a stylist is a lovely easy fun job, but the amount of work that goes in to creating/propping and styling one shot is unbelievable , and it is quite stressful! so hats off to selina because she makes every shot look natural and beautiful. here is a selection of her work, but you can see more on her website and follow her blog here

FAB use of colour.

and she can make products from the most ordinary of supermarkets (in this case tesco) look fab!

and selinas etsy shop selina lake living is here.
enjoy and have a good weekend x

Any one for Tea?

2011-05-09T20:38:00.004+01:00

On our workshops one of Sarah's mantras is "Less is more" and last weekend we went to a wedding that epitomised this. A selection of huge galvanised and earthenware jugs were filled with masses of cow parsley and other wild flowers. Trestle tables were laid out on the street (which later became the dance floor) and bunting was in abundance. For the ceremony itself we sat on the long grass in their slopping garden (surrounded by bottles of prosecco) as the happy couple sat on a couple of old chairs under an apple tree and said their bit. Then we were told to help our selves to tea and scones.

Many of us along the road had been up baking dozens of scones that morning (they have to be served fresh of course) to supply the 170 odd guests. I decided that with my batch of 50 scones some jam was needed, so I took a jar of Bonne Maman and created a personalised label. It was so easy to do and would be easy to produce en masse for a huge wedding tea.

wedding madness

2011-05-03T16:21:00.011+01:00

I've talked before about how my grandmother used to make paper mache dolls and with all the recent hype and celebrations for Wills and Kate I've been up in the attic to sort them out. According to some fusty newspaper cuttings I've found from 1980 she started making miniature dolls with her grandmother's hair pins at the age of six. She was then inspired to make a Royal display for the Queen Mother's 80th birthday celebrations.
However a couple of years later she created Prince Charles and Lady Diana and their wedding party, followed by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, there are a lot of bridesmaids in this collection. Along with Royalty my grandmother's leanings towards the eccentric and kitsch can be seen in her models of Danny La Rue, Marilyn Monroe, Liberache, oh, and Margaret Thatcher!

I love the way the faces are heavily made up because Grandma herself used to spend hours perfecting her make up each morning. When she came to stay I remember sitting on the loo in the bathroom, watching her, fascinated as she went through her daily routine which included lots of rouge, bright red lipstick (to match her infamous collection of patented red shoes) and heavy green eyeshadow. And with all that make up there was a very distinctive powdery smell.

I think I've also mentioned before how I have strong memories of sitting with my grandmother making dolls clothes so I was intrigued to observe, and probably for the first time really appreciate, the attention to detail and the amount of painstaking work that went into making these. All the costumes have been completely hand stitched and lots of the embellishments have been added by Grandma - endless sequins and tiny shiny beads.

So now that they are out of the attic I need to decide where they should go next.

Give me Merci

2011-05-02T20:30:00.010+01:00

The extended Easter Break has come to an end and I am shattered. Not least because we had an exhausting Easter weekend in Paris, with the children. In glorious sunshine we explored the kitsch world of Euro Disney before spending a couple of days in Paris itself. Of course we admired the Eiffel Tower and wandered up and down the streets of Mont Matre but with weary children in tow it was hard to indulge ourselves too much.

However we did manage to visit Merci. A while ago it had a pop up shop in Liberty and ever since I've been desperate to visit. It was set up by the same people that owned Bon Point (one of my aspirational shops - if only I had the money to dress my children so beautifully) so I knew it had to be something that I would admire.

With the children shattered and all of us gasping for water we made a special detour to Boulevard Beaumarchais to see the shop that I have been coveting so. Before looking around we went to their Used Book Cafe. We sat at a low coffee table in a muddle of old comfy chairs under an understated chandelier and next to endless shelves of old french books, and sat envying the young chic couples enjoying their boiled eggs and toast in peace and quiet. While I had an Iced Tea to die for, hubby restored himself (a bit) on a stonkingly good cafe au lait, as our children fought over who had the most ice cubes and decided to see who could slurp their drink the loudest!

Thus partially revitalised I was let loose in the shop (while hubby entertained the children outside by the signature Fiat 500). It was a huge space full of beautiful white linens and cottons and fantastic baskets. I can best describe it as a cross between Baileys and Anthropologie everything seemed to be either natural or 'upcycled', either way it was beautiful. Unfortunately, conscious of the limits of my purse and my children's patience I came away empty handed.

However, if in Paris I would highly recommend scheduling a trip to Merci, allow yourself time to enjoy food and drink and don't take the children.

egg-stremely fascinating

2011-04-09T19:49:00.014+01:00

Phew, we have reached the Easter Holidays. As always the final week of term was chaos with our normal hectic lifestyle being exacerbated by the need to create Easter Gardens, Easter Cakes, Easter jars filled with sweets and, of course, Easter Bonnets.

I'm afraid I tend to err away from the traditional bonnet covered with tissue paper flowers and eggs. I have to blame my mother for this. I remember the 'bonnets' she created for us as children. The Easter Bonnet parade at school was a big thing. It happened in the Town Hall and we had to walk down a cat walk one by one, like supermodels! Mum's ideas were extraordinary. There was scrambled egg on toast made out of an enormous piece of sponge painted brown, with smaller chunks of foam piled on top and painted yellow. As you walked along the toast boinged up and down. There was Humpty-Dumpty-sat-on-his-wall, that kept sliding off the head, wall and all! The enormous boiled egg, made the year my sister was born. Mum gave the job of bonnet making to our Nanny who had never used paper mache before. She covered the balloon so thickly in newspaper and floury glue that mum confesses she was rather worried I wouldn't survive as my head wobbled under the weight. And the infamous (in our family) fried egg - akin to Little Miss Splendid's hat in white and yellow. Despite Mum's originality she complained we never won, apparently it was always the Bank Manager's daughter with the traditional bonnet.

I've convinced my children it's not the winning that matters, but the taking part and they are happy to sport their own variations. Inspired by the fried egg of yesteryear our Little Girl made a dainty Fried Egg Fascinator on a paper plate (using an old fruit bag as some chic netting) and Boy took a leaf out of Mr McGregor's garden and had Peter Rabbit on a cabbage on the top of his head. They may not have won, but they were certainly easy to pick out during the Parade.

heirloom treasures

2011-04-05T07:47:00.002+01:00

i don't know why I find embroidery a guilty pleasure, i think it is because of its time consuming nature and possibly because i was teased mercilessly by my then boyfriend (now husband) at university for doing a degree in it! Anyway these days I rarely have time for starting a large piece, however when i think about it huge statement pieces were never really my thing, I have always loved little fragments and funny shaped things. One of my all time favourite things i have made was this luggage label piece commissioned by Jo's husband for her birthday, it has the words from one of the readings at their wedding from 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin'. Anyway I thought I would show it to you as someone was asking me the other day what we do in our Heirloom Treasures workshop, and this is the kind of thing we do. We are running a weekday one and a saturday one this time round because we had lots of requests for a weekend workshop this time, and there are a few places left on both - thursday 16th June and saturday 18th June, each day costs £50 from 10-4 and includes all materials, lovely lunch and lots of tea, coffee and homemade cakes! You will learn hand and machine techniques and take away your own heirloom treasure at the end of the day. An heirloom treasure makes a fabulous gift for a special occasion such as a wedding or a birth, so if you have a special event coming up which you would like to mark, book a place and Jo and I will help you create something beautiful.
if you would like to see the labels close up they are on flickr here.

row, row, row your boat

2011-04-04T19:31:00.008+01:00

Like many men my brother is impossible to buy presents for. I've generally given up opting to give him 'experiences' rather than gifts. Thus as his latest present I have organised hiring a little wooden boat (like Ratty's) for him to row along the River Avon from Bath, with his girlfriend, until he reaches a particular point, at which I shall have a traditional picnic hamper stuffed with goodies waiting for him.
But for me it is not enough just to organise these things. If you are receiving a present I think it is always nice to have something to open, and hopefully something a bit more than just an envelope with a voucher in it. Thanks to Martha Stewart and a slight bit of artistic license I came up with this paper boat. I know its a sailing boat and doesn't have oars that's the artistic license bit!

It was squished into an envelope made of the sea part of an old map and when it was VERY GENTLY (as I bossed my brother) pulled out of the envelope it popped open and in the hull lay a bottle with a message in it. My message, which was an adaptation of Row, Row, Row your Boat, explaining what the gift actually was.

pretty things

2011-03-30T22:30:00.000+01:00

this week i have achieved a technological advance! due in no small part to a piece i read on Selina lakes blog about how to create photo collages in flickr, well you use a thing called bighugelabs and you can create lovely collages from your own images or your flickr favourites......i am sure it will be yet another thing to occupy my non existent spare time! unfortunately i seem to have lost the links back to the pages they came from! however most were from acreativemint on flickr and here is leslies lovely blog too!

lovely press

2011-03-29T12:30:00.001+01:00

we were thrilled to find this month that we were featured in Period Living April issue. A while ago the very talented and much blogged stylist Selina Lake asked for a few bits on press loan for a feature she was working on, and here are the results. The piece is all about how favouriet/treasured possessions can inspire decorating schemes.

Its a really lovely article with delicious colours, i love the splashes of fuchsia with all of the spring greens and yellows - takes it up a level from the pedestrian 'spring greens and primrose' which seems to be in every magazine! Selina's website is here and she blogs here. she has also written two lovely books called Romantic Style and Bazaar Style, both of which are fantastic. Pop back in at the weekend for a cup of tea and see Selina featured for Weekend reading!

air your dirty laundry

2011-03-24T19:28:00.005Z

Like birds on a telegraph wire I find something rather satisfying about cloths hung on a washing line. I don't mean grubby string vests on a rotary stand but linen sheets on a line between two apple trees or rustic Italian balconies laden with geraniums and laundry swaying gently in the breeze.

I also love the smell of washing dried on the line so I've been making the most of the good weather and using it as an opportunity to get on top of all my laundry. But the girls have wanted their own washing line for dolls clothes. We dug out all the tiny dolls clothes, but decided we didn't have enough so I had to make some more.

So here our little Maileg Mouse has crawled out of her match box and is wearing her new homemade-best-dress to air her dirty laundry!

All in a days work

2011-03-24T17:58:00.007Z

A while ago I was given an old piece of embroidery. I love the bright, bold flowers but wasn't sure what to do with the fabric. I had in mind to make it into a cushion but wasn't really sure where it would fit into the house. That was until the sun started shining and I realised that the best place for my cushion was outdoors on a garden chair. My next problem was a lack of garden chairs. I knew exactly what I wanted to create and outdoorsy, shabby chic look so started looking for old Lloyd Loom chairs on the internet. I soon realised I wasn't going to find what I wanted as cheaply and easily as I originally thought.

However everything came together today. Following a morning stroll with a friend, dogs and our baby girls we went for a coffee in a pub garden, where I spied 2 old wicker chairs waiting to be chucked. Ok the bottoms are going but they will last this summer so, after a quick word with the landlord, we loaded them into the back of the car and took one each. The other chair was nicer but too big for the spot of garden sun I wanted it for. I took the smaller chair promptly gave it a white wash with some watered down paint, despite expecting friends to turn up for lunch in the next 10 mins. As soon as the friends had gone I rushed to rummage through my fabric cupboard for the embroidery. A few whizzes of the sewing machine, the cushion was made and my vision was realised.

Now I just need that idyllic moment, lazing in the summer sun with a cup of tea or a glass of wine, just 5 minutes will do, please.

book of thank yous

2011-03-07T18:51:00.012Z

Having had a glorious day of sunshine it may seem a bit odd that my mind has gone back to Christmas. It's just that eventually I have sent off the last of our Christmas 'Thank yous'. I don't mean to sound ungrateful but from Boy's birthday thank yous from the end of November, then all the Christmas cards, the endless Christmas thank yous, swiftly followed by Baby's birthday thank yous, and 3 children who get bored of writing their name after 2 letters I have to confess that I find all the thank you letters become a bit of a chore. However I'm a true advocate of proper letters.

These days there is nothing better than a personal, hand written envelope dropping through the letter box and thank yous are always welcome (and, given the postal chaos this Christmas, one way of knowing for certain that a gift has been received!).

To alleviate the boredom I decided on a new approach. We created a little book, or rather a zine. One of my gifts had been How to Make Books by Esther K Smith where I learnt this nifty trick to make a book using one sheet of paper.*

Instead of writing 5 separate letters to family members we made one Book of Thanks Yous. Each of us having a page where we created something relevant to the gift we had received. It probably took longer than writing all the letters, but the children enjoyed it more so there was a lot less whinging involved. And hopefully the result is a thoughtful gift in return for all our Christmas goodies. Can you guess what the gifts were?

*These are the best on-line directions I can find. It may not look it but it is really simple and can provide hours of fun.

feeling green

2011-02-24T20:02:00.000Z

I have been doing various decorating jobs of late, and green seems to be everyones favourite colour. i was especially pleased with this custom colourway of chinoiserie chalk grande in an orangery, we matched it to farrow and ball cooking apple green, it will look even more delightful when the cream vintage linen curtains go up. i am really loving all shades of green at the moment .....it must be the breath of spring that was in the air for about 10minutes today, i think this neutral grey green is particularly lovely...

keeping on the straight and narrow

2011-02-24T08:44:00.005Z

It's amazing what you can do with a few straight lines!

The first day of half term Boy was engrossed in Harry Potter, Baby was in bed sleeping off a cold and our little girl and I had a rare opportunity to get out the sewing machine that we gave her for Christmas. Whilst I set the machine up (which involved a lot of hurrumphing as the bobbin is impossible to get in properly) I let Girl browse through one of Sarah's and my favourite books Sew Pretty Home Style.

Naturally she chose to make a Make up bag and so we adapted one from the book. Obviously I had to help her sort out the fabric and make sure everything was pinned in the right place, but then she was able to sew the whole thing together. All she had to do was sew a few straight lines.

And with those straight lines she was able to create this lined and trimmed pouch for all her beauty essentials - Not bad for a 5 year old!

the food of love

2011-02-17T19:48:00.010Z

On Friday nights, just as everyone else is opening the wine and celebrating the beginning of the weekend, I take an overexcited puppy, 3 exhausted children and a grumpy husband to Babara Woodhouse! It was something we agreed to do as a family when we got the puppy. So the children weren't too disappointed when I told them they couldn't go to the School Valentines disco because it clashed with puppy classes. And that, so I thought, was that.

Then we went into school the morning before the disco and one little girl was devastated as she found out that my (snotty-porridge-toothpaste-and-jam-covered-scarecrow-of-a) Boy was not going to be at the Valentines Disco. As the uncontrollable tears rolled down her face I felt like the worst mother ever, despite the fact that my own children remained un-bothered by the whole thing. I promised that Boy would make it up to her on Valentines Day itself.

So we decided to try making some Fortune Cookies filled with messages of love. To then be packaged in Chinese takeaway boxes. I made some for hubby, the girls both decided that boys are a waste of time and ate their quota there and then, and Boy wrapped his up beautifully for the devastated girl at school.

However, being Sunday evening I was rather rushed and we used dessert spoons instead of table spoons when adding certain ingredients.

Whilst I was really chuffed with the overall idea, I'm not so sure that these cookies were the food of love.

snowdrops

2011-02-16T19:59:00.006Z

Whilst the weather is trying hard to keep us in a wintry gloom the snowdrops are out. This year even our garden seems to have quite a few tiny bunches hiding in the corners, but I would love to look out over a huge swathe.

Today it didn't rain, in fact the sun was trying to come out so Baby, Puppy and I went off to find someone else's swathe of snowdrops to admire. Thankfully many gardens open to show off their snow drops and we're lucky enough to live near the Rococo Gardens in Painswick which is famed for it's displays. However we went to the National Trusts Newark Park, which is one of my favourite National Trust destinations. It's a manageable sized quirky house with fantastic views and a garden big enough for a really good game of hide and seek, but you couldn't get lost (I would be very happy if some one told me I HAD to live there!) and thousands of snowdrops. We were not disappointed, next there will be bluebells and daffodils and Spring will truly be here. Except I've just read a weather report for snow over half term!

learn to love your sewing machine

2011-02-07T20:00:00.013Z

Learn to Love Your Sewing Machine:

Make Your Own Cushion

Littleworth Hall, Amberley
10 March 2011, 10 - 4

If you are a little uncertain about how to use your sewing machine this is the workshop for you. We will teach you how to love your sewing machine, building your confidence and showing you tricks of the trade to help you with any sewing project. We'll spend the morning looking at techniques and after a yummy lunch you can put your new skills to the test when you design and create your own cushion cover. This workshop will cover the following:

understanding your sewing machine
button holes
zips
piping
applique
tips & tricks

The day costs £50 including lunch, coffee, tea, cakes and all materials. At the end of the day you will go home with a techniques file and a full set of instructions for completing or recreating your piece.

For further information about Hardaker and Pope workshops click here or contact us at hardakerandpope@gmail.com

spring has sprung

2011-02-07T19:07:00.029Z

Spring Has Sprung
Create your own Easter Picture
Littleworth Hall, Amberley
5 April 2011, 10 - 4

If you are looking for an alternative to chocolate this Easter why not create your own embroidered masterpiece?

During this workshop we will look at design styles and how to put colours together as well as basic hand and machine embroidery techniques (including applique) before setting you free to create your own piece of art. You don't have to stick to the Easter theme, these pictures make great gifts and are perfect as a truly personal present for a new born baby or birthday.

The day costs £50 including lunch, coffee, tea, cakes and all materials. At the end of the day you will go home with a techniques file and a full set of instructions for completing or recreating your piece.

For further information about Hardaker and Pope workshops click here or contact us at hardakerandpope@gmail.com

skirt in a day workshop

2011-02-07T19:06:00.013Z

Skirt in a Day
Littleworth Hall, Amberley
10 May 2011, 10 - 4

Jazz up your summer wardrobe with a skirt designed and made by you. Choose your fabric design and colourway from a selection of Sarah Hardaker Ltd designs which will be printed onto cotton especially for your skirt. During the day you will learn:

basic skirt design
how to insert a zip
trimmings and hems
pockets
embellishments

The day costs £55 including lunch, coffee, tea, cakes and all materials. At the end of the day you will go home with a techniques file and a full set of instructions for completing or recreating your piece as well as a truly unique addition to your wardrobe!

Please note: In order have time to print the material for your skirt we will need booking for this course confirmed by April 10 2011.

For further information about Hardaker and Pope workshops click here or contact us at hardakerandpope@gmail.com

Heirloom Treasures

2011-02-07T19:05:00.050Z

Heirloom Treasures

Littleworth Hall, Amberley
16 June 2011, 10 - 4 &
18 June 2011, 10 - 4

Great for beginners and back by popular demand - so this time we are doing two.

We will teach you basic hand and machine stitch techniques (including applique), look at design styles and how to put colours and textures together. Then show you how to make your own embroidered heart, keepsake gift tag or heirloom cushion.

The day costs £50 including lunch, coffee, tea, cakes and all materials. At the end of the day you will go home with a stitch techniques file and a full set of instructions for completing or recreating your piece.

For further information about Hardaker and Pope workshops click here or contact us at hardakerandpope@gmail.com

Hardaker and Pope workshops

2011-02-07T19:05:00.049Z

Further Information

Following the success of our 2010 workshops we are really excited to have our Spring/Summer 2011 programme all worked out.

Our workshops are not just about learning new techniques and methods. We want you to leave at the end of the day feeling confident in your new found skills and inspired. It is also important to us that everyone enjoys their day, and to that end we encourage everyone to work at their own pace and ensure that they relish the time they have to create in. It is such a treat to be given a whole (undisturbed) day in which to sit down and make things with like minded people.

All our courses are held at Littleworth Hall, in Amberley, and run from 10 - 4. We provide a simple but delicious seasonal lunch and plenty of tea and coffee, homemade biscuits and cake to keep you fuelled throughout the day, we feel it is the little touches that make these days special.

You do not have to bring anything with you and there are no hidden costs. We provide all the materials to complete your project (included in the price). You will go home with a techniques file and a full set of instructions for completing or recreating your project. Of course you are also more than welcome to bring any sentimental scraps of fabric, or buttons or trimmings you really adore to include in your project . We do have a 'pop-up-shop' so if we have truly inspired you there is always the opportunity to buy what you need to start your own sewing projects at home. This also carries some of Sarah's fabrics so if you've been thinking of placing an order it will be hard to resist the temptation!

We have a maximum number of 8 people per workshop. This enables us to share our knowledge (and tea making skills) easily and for you to benefit from individual attention of Sarah Hardaker. Sarah is an established fabric designer with over 15 years of experience in the textile industry. Having worked for Nina Campbell, Osborne and Little, Habitat and Harlequin she set up her own company 2 years ago. It is great to have her knowledge at your fingertips for a day.

Testomonials:

"Thank you Sarah & Jo for a luverly day! I arrived knowing very little and left much more confident and able to embroider french knots! I learnt loads and feel inspired to use my new skills as soon as possible."

"Many thanks Jo and Sarah for a great day - I came away inspired to tackle some creations on my own. I learnt a lot and feel a lot more confident about trying new techniques. Also felt very pampered with endless cups of tea and coffee, a delicious lunch and scrummy afternoon tea! May there be many more workshops!"

For further information or to book on one of our workshops contact us at
hardakerandpope@gmail.com

seville oranges

2011-02-03T19:56:00.000Z

since we moved from london to the country 10 years ago, there has been a gradual shift in my cooking. we are blessed with an amazing greengrocers nearby, (along with 2 butchers, a farmers market, a fab deli and fishmongers and a branch of hobbs house bakery - not bad for a tiny town , more of a big village!!!!). Anyway the shift has been towards a more seasonal type of cooking, I have stopped eating asparagus all through the year and instead gorge myself on it in may and june, the same for strawberries. It wasn't a conscious ethical thing, its more of a seduction by the greengrocer!! when the display outside is loaded with squeeky bright puple red cabbages, and stacks of local leeks, and scented piles of seville oranges I just can't bring myself not to cook them. my mother in law makes the most fabulous seville orange marmalade, I always buy loads of seville oranges in january and february, but never seem to get around to making marmalade! well this week i bought some, got the marmalade recipe, and then used them to make a version of a lemon tart!!! I have to say it was a great success - as the picture shows -there was only this sliver left the following morning - and that was only because it was wrestled from Miss B's grip on sunday night (I suggested that a third portion would render her with a bum the size of mine!!!)
recipe below

pastry
150g plain flour
150g softened butter
75g cornflour
75g icing sugar
zest 1/2 seville orange

blitz all this in a processor till it makes a soft shortbread type dough, chill then roll out between 2 sheets of cling film (a great tip!!) line a tart tin with it (chill again it allegedly stops it shrinking - pastry is not my strong suit and i never get it right!) prick the base, put greaseproof and baking beans over the pastry and bake blind for 8-12mins, remove greaseproof and beans and put back in oven for 3mins.

filling
zest of 1 1/2 seville oranges
juice of 2 seville oranges and 1 lemon
3 eggs
180ml double cream
160g golden caster sugar
1 teasp vanilla extract

whisk all of the filling ingredients together in a jug, put the tart tin on a baking sheet in the oven and pour in the filling (this stops it spilling everywhere when you are trying to manoeuvre a full tin from the worktop to the oven!!) and bake for 20-25mins till softly set with a little wobble. cool, dust with icing sugar and scoff!!

perhaps i will try marmalade later this week.............

love letters

2011-02-02T18:32:00.004Z

I can't believe that February is already upon us. Christmas is well and truly behind us and the next date on the calendar to put our minds to is Valentines! It's not something Hubby and I go in for in a big way, not least because our wedding anniversary is the following week (not that we do much to celebrate that either). However it's not a date you can get away with forgetting altogether and at the very least I try and make a card.

Last year the card wasn't that amazing but it was more about the envelope anyway. I discovered that if you send your valentines cards (stamped and addressed obviously) to the Lover Post Office, Lover, Salisbury they will duly send the card for you, with their own special Lover Valentines post mark. I'm telling you this now as you've still got time to make and send your cards this way.

flower power

2011-01-30T19:15:00.005Z

Last week I did something I didn't ever think I would do! After the debacle of snow cutting short Baby's Teddy Bear's tea party last year I decided to avoid entertaining at home for her 3rd birthday party. The problem is that there is not a huge choice of venues for toddlers parties in the middle of winter so I ended up apologising to the mum's as I invited 9 little girls to join baby at a soft play centre. However I do have to eat my hat slightly as, of course, the girls all loved it and it was so easy to organise.

Me being me I did have to have a few homemade touches though. Rather than use the invites provided I made my own. Baby wanted a princess pink party so I blew up a load of pink balloons, made some princess hats for them to wear whilst eating their party lunch, of course there were princess pink fairy cakes and I sent them all home with a flower lollipop. These lollipops were a huge success, even before the children realised that they were actually edible. I've been wanting to make them ever since I saw them in a Martha Stewart Kids Craft book Sarah brought me back from the US ages ago

To make them yourself:

Cover the lollipop in paper

Cut out 4 heart shaped petals (roughly 2 inches x 1 inch) and punch a hole in the V of each heart

Push the lollipop sticks through the holes and arrange the petals and glue them in place

mood board charcoal and grey with a hint of red....

2011-01-28T11:27:00.000Z

this weeks mood board customer is looking for a smart teenage bedroom for her son. but she wants something that he can grow with and something that isn't a blokey room! she was originally looking at the blue stars and semaphores designs, however i think we have ended up down a more sophisticated road! when we were talking about the stars fabric I asked her what colour she was doing the walls, and she told me either a very pale grey or shaded white, so i suggested looking at the possibility of charcoal fabric or natural linen.
Lots of people are put off using black and white because it can look harsh and stark. However used carefully as an accent in a mainly neutral palette it can be a stunning decorating choice. Above and below are 2 different boards using essentially the same 2 colours but different tones of them. Th board above uses a scandi grey white as the neutral backdrop, and below uses a more creamy tone for the neutral backdrop, and a very different (but both beautiful) look is achieved.

Our customer also wanted to introduce a tiny shot of colour and rather liked the idea of a vintage red, so my first stop was my favourite colour guru Katherine of Snippet and ink. Now I know these are two wedding boards and you are probably thinking why am I using a wedding website as inspiration, but inspiration comes in unusual places and Katherine has a great eye for unusual colour combinatons (if you are getting married any time soon, check out her lovely site as you will be filled with fab ideas).

anyway what i love about these two boards is that a little tiny accent of colour is introduced , yet overall the feel is neutral/grey (i think the addition of a tiny hint of duck egg is rather lovely too!)

well moving back from sophistication to teenagers , below are some ideas for 'boy - i -fying' your lovely sophisticated charcoal and natural room! a black and white collage or a black and white photo print wallpaper are two decorating solutions which offer impact as well as style

a chalk board wall is cool idea for a teen feature wall.

photo print roller blinds or wallpaper make a strong design feature.

my ideas for my customer were to paint her walls her chosen neutral, then go for natural linen curtains edged with a border of charcoal stars or scarlet if she decides on a hint of accent colour. then a roman blind in charcoal star fabric. i would go for white bedding and some of my favourite skinny oblong cushions in 2 different sizes of charcoal and scarlet stars.

for a smarter tailored look she could go for a battered vintage linen with 2 stripes of velvet ribbon in french grey and charcoal stitched down the leading edge and a charcoal star roman blind , introducing no accent colour at all,

then when her son is all grown up and moved out she can turn it in to a spare room by adding a pretty print in another shade of charcoal, such as a toile.

images from tinek, pottery barn, atlanta barlett easy elegance, snippet and ink, martha stewart
all fabrics available from sarah hardaker ltd (inc photoblinds and wallpapers)

weekend reading

2011-01-23T08:43:00.001Z

beautiful eye candy here, i found this lovely online magazine via 100layercake, a place i always visit when in need of a little inspiration! published by jeanette lunde and she also writes a beautiful blog here . i am sighing wistfully at this point as i dream of a house that doesn't have piles of 'stuff ' everywhere! (not beautiful stuff - general day to day stuff - like parts of a toy, and piles of filing and the box for a dvd - minus the dvd....and so it goes on... ).

Anyway then, I couldn't stop reading the blog, so you have ended up with a visual treat today because there are so many lovely pictures....aaahh another wistful sigh and some motivation for a clearout!!
enjoy x

i really love all of the white wood, with little shots of colour and pattern.

gorgeous calender

fabulously simple decor for a little girls party

happy weekend

interior decorating

2011-01-20T13:36:00.000Z

Many moons ago, I had the pleasure of working with the amazing interior decorator Nina Campbell. She is a truely inspiring lady, and possibly one of the best interior decorators anywhere. She sells her fabrics through Osborne and Little and uses them all the time in her decorating projects. Anyway over the last few weeks I have had a number of phone calls from customers who need a little help with their decorating choices, now I am no Nina Campbell, but I thought it might be quite fun to start a series of decorator mood boards for any customers who need some inspiration.

So we are going to kick off with some inspiration for a family wanting to redecorate their teenage daughters room. She had chosen the polka dots in denim, but her and her mum wanted something to work with them, and they didn't really want a girly girly pink room. So I suggested a Jack Wills type vibe (very loosley jack wills-ish, not an homage!)

I felt the room needed a nod to girliness without being pink princess, so i have introduced a dash of fuchsia for trims.

Considering I sell wallpaper for a living, i seem to often gravitate towards neutral walls. The great thing about a good neutral base, is that it is a fabulous blank canvas on which to hang accents of colour.

so going back to our teenage girls bedroom, I am suggesting a neutral wallcolour and then use the denim polka dot for a blind, and vintage linen curtaind trimed with a deep border of polka dot, cover the seam with velvet ribbon or ric rac in fuchsia, and stack a pile of cushions on the bed and maybe a couple of big floor cushions in a mix of polka dots, stars, and union jacks.

I am rather partial to a skinny oblong cushion at the moment, and I think they look particularly nice in pairs on a bed, so this young lady could have 2 polka dot ones with her initials , with a pairl of smaller vintage union jacks in front.

image credits sarahhardaker fabrics, notonthehighstreet, pottery barn, PBteen, Jack Wills, Jan Constantine, and Apartment Therapy

Birdie picture

2011-01-18T09:56:00.014Z

When we do our courses we hang up examples of our work around the room to inspire and show what you can achieve with your new found skills. Well yesterday I was approached in the frozen veg section of the supermarket (Monday morning shopping is always a very social affair) by a friend who had been on one of our courses and remembered seeing a picture she wanted to try and recreate for a new baby and I promised her I'd show it on the blog.

In fact I did a post about these birdies here but the photo isn't very good so here are some more to help anyone else who wants to make one of these birdie pictures as a gift. It uses a mixture of applique and hand embroidery stitches (including French Knots) so it should be a breeze for anyone who has been on one of our courses!

For those who haven't we've plenty more planned and are just waiting to confirm exact dates.
Any requests for a particular course please let us know and we'll see what we can do.

PS I'm sorry, the picture isn't much better than the original

escape to the sun

2011-01-12T12:55:00.005Z

Well, I don't know what has happened to the last month. For me the chaos of Christmas and New Year was enough to deal with and I was looking forward to the respite that January usually brings. However with baby's 3rd birthday on the Bank Holiday Monday and the arrival of an 8 week old puppy two days later the return to school has not brought all the free time I was hoping for.

One thing we have found time for is our New Year ritual of ignoring the dull, grey days outside and planning the year ahead and the various holidays we would like to go on! We obviously wont be going to Stockholm, Brittany, Prague, Istanbul, Geneva, Paris, Greece, Gozo and Morrocco this year. In fact we'll be lucky with a trip to the Lake District but there is nothing wrong with dreaming of the sun!

But back to reality and tonight I'm out to supper to celebrate a friends birthday and I've been asked to take some food, specifically this aubergine salad. It truly transports you to balmier climates and the aromas that fill the kitchen whilst you cook it are amazing. I love it for the fact it is far better made at least a day in advance, getting tastier every 24 hours and I often incorporate it as part of a huge meditarrenean style feast with a slow roast lamb and a selection of food from one of my favourite cook books, Falling Cloudberries, by Tessa Kiros (I did this for my sister's hen night).

Sarah and I were introduced to this recipe by one of our NCT group (we were very lucky to have had an NCT group full of good cooks!). It was originally a Delia Smith recipe, but I've adapted it to make it quicker to make, as follows:

You need:
1 aubergine
1 can tomatoes
1 onion
some garlic
olive oil
chilli
1 teaspoon of allspice berries
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
some fresh mint, flat leaf parsley and coriander

Cut the aubergine into small cubes, cover in olive oil and roast in the oven till cooked (40 mins to an hour)
Dry roast the cumin seeds and allspice berries (in a saucepan on the hob), when they start jumping around take them off and bash them into a powder in a pestle and mortar
Fry onions, garlic and chilli till soft
Add tomatoes, aubergine and crushed spices, then salt, pepper and fresh herbs
simmer for 5 mins then store in the fridge over night

Serve with Greek Yoghurt and flat breads and imagine you are somewhere else.

happy and sad

2011-01-10T13:37:00.000Z

Food is like an eternal panacea for me, i think sometimes I was born either in the wrong religion or the wrong country, I should be an Italian mama or a Jewish mother, because when it all goes horribly wrong I cook. the last few months have been a little bit like a sick comedy drama, where some mornings I have hardly dared get out of bed for fear of what horrors will befall the day. we have lost people really dear and had a roller coaster of a cancer diagnosis for my mother in law, just when we thought surely nothing else.... the dog died. The only way I have been able to carry on is to cook. my family and Mr H's have been stuffed with food..............When his father died I filled his mums freezer with tasty little portions of casseroles, pork ala normande - pork slowly simmered in cider, apples, prunes and creme fraiche. when the cancer diagnosis hit, I started filling everybody with antioxidant filled salads, toasted nuts and bright winter fruits, but mostly I have baked (and baked and baked). there is something so calming about spending time making food for those and with those you love.. i have baked Mr H'S favourite ameretti morbiddi - just like the ones we ate with his father in the little cafe bar up the road from the vicarage in Taormina Sicily. I took solace in Sarah Raven and baked Walnut bread, then spent a day tweaking it with dried figs and more nuts to make it even more delicious. I baked sticky toffee pudding , rich with squidgy dates and dripping with hot toffee sauce another favourite of the people i love most in the world. So you see, thats where i have been, I am sorry I have been away for so long.....but I have got lots to catch up on in hte next few weeks x
.

going crackers

2010-12-19T22:07:00.006Z

Whilst the snow has been a huge inconvenience (I can't get my car out in the week before Christmas....) it has also allowed me a lot more creative time. I had all these ideas floating around in my head I wasn't too sure when I was actually going to make anything.

Time at home is one thing I have plenty of at the moment and as we are all slightly feeling the effects of being stuck in for 4 days I've been creating the things on my 'to make' list in a desperate attempt to occupy the children so we don't all end up 'going crackers'.

I picked up some cracker 'innards' in the Hobbycraft sale last year and we've been collecting loo rolls for ages with a view to making our own crackers, but I never really thought it would happen. Unable to get out and buy some glamorous new paper we've had to improvise and raid the cupboards to see what we could find. An old Financial Times provided a great base wrap and then we selected bits of black, white and silver paper before decorating our own crackers. I then secretly stuffed them with the obligatory bad joke, hat and tacky toy.

We haven't been able to get out and buy a Christmas Tree so, again, we've improvised and have a rather odd, branchless tree from the garden strewn with a set of lights which are far too small and dense for our tree. Lying precariously on the few branches that do exist are our crackers. This really will be a Christmas that we'll remember!

whoppee! cushion

2010-12-19T20:25:00.009Z

Every time we have to give the great grandparents a present its a photo in a frame. Whilst I know they love having endless photos of their great grandchildren around their house I feel that it slightly lacks originality 7 years on. So this Christmas I decided to give the photo a little twist using one of my favourite tricks, transfer paper.

It's the same stuff I use for the letters on my bunting, and I promised to share the secret. It's really easy to use, just so long as you remember that you need to make writing and pictures into mirror images before you print otherwise you'll end up with everything back to front. I use T-shirt transfer paper. You create your image or text on the computer, print it onto the transfer paper then iron the transfer on to your fabric and voila.

Whilst I was already pleased with how the photo came out on this lovely tumbled linen I got from Sarah I was even more pleased with my appliqued label that I put on the back of the cushion to give it that added personal touch. I typed my Christmas message onto some calico before stitching it onto the cushion, but wasn't entirely sure if it would work. Using a reinforcement as my template I hand stitched a hole and then the thread through the label and I was thrilled by the rather naive result. I don't know why I just find it strangely satisfying.

Lets hope the grandparents do to!

a partridge in a pear tree

2010-12-13T22:30:00.012Z

I love to make my own Christmas cards. Don't ask me why. Since there are so many other things to do at this time of year it would be much easier to pop to the shops and buy myself a load but this year I really couldn't pass up the opportunity to use my new Partridge stamp, from one of our favourite shops, Paper Source (will they ever reach the UK?).

Then I remembered that I also have a lovely pear stamp and the theme was obvious. The great thing about rubber stamps is that the results are better if they aren't perfect so for a short while I roped in the children. We did have a production line going; one child gluing the graph paper trees, two stamping, but as I realised we needed far more cards than I originally thought they got bored.

I couldn't resist finishing them off with a little machine stitching. Sewing on paper is another thing Sarah introduced me to and I seize every opportunity to have a go. Like a lot of my work it was quite an organic process, I never really know what I'm going to end up with until I've finished. As our shelves are fast filling up with red and silver cards I was pleased with the fresh and untraditional colours.

I must admit having made them, written them, stamped them etc I was pleased to see the back of them all when I dropped them into the post box last night!

christmas stocking workshop

2010-12-13T21:32:00.011Z

I can't believe that another week has flown by. The weather has returned to its usual winter damp, greyness yet this time last week the conditions were amazing.

It was cold and bleak, treacherously icy and yet crisp, white and beautiful with Minchinhampton Common shrouded in thick, mysterious, fog (causing a slight problem for people coming to our workshops since they couldn't see to read the signposts). Heavy frost had completely covered the branches of the trees and they looked like something out of Narnia. It couldn't have been a more appropriate setting for our Christmas Stocking Workshop.

Despite the conditions everyone did manage to make it and they were welcomed in to home baked cookies and fresh coffee before sitting down to start a busy day of sewing. Sarah took centre stage sharing her expert knowledge and demonstrating some machine and hand stitching techniques, applique, covering seams, making pockets (the list goes on).

Through the morning everyone had the chance to try out their own stitches, and to create their own samplers, while Sarah wandered round sharing ideas and giving any help that was required. Since, again, french knots seem to cause a problem for a lot of people this was of great benefit!

While Sarah is the one with the know how I scurry around supplying cups of tea or coffee, cakes and biscuits and of course lunch. Since we both enjoy food as much as we enjoy creating we feel that the enjoyment of our courses can only be enhanced by the provision of plentiful, edible goodies!

The most popular part of the day seems to be the hunting through our scrap baskets; selecting colours, textures, trimmings and ribbons and pulling together ideas. People do enjoy a good rummage, but there is also immense satisfaction as an idea comes together.

As everyone is encouraged to move at their own speed not everyone went home with a finished Stocking, but for those that didn't finish everything needed to complete the project at home was provided in the file, along with handy tips and notes to help them on their way.

Do you know what I think people enjoy most about these days? The opportunity to spend guilt free, uninterrupted time doing something you enjoy. Add in a few new sewing tricks and the realisation that you can achieve masses in a day and that feeling is fantastic. And in the run up to Christmas such an opportunity is a real treat.

katie bonas furniture

2010-12-07T22:27:00.000Z

local lovely lady Katie Bonas is having an open day to celebrate the launch of her new website http://www.katiebonas.com/ . Katie is an expert in the field of painted vintage furniture and specializes in creating bespoke pieces for her discerning cotswold customer base. she sometimes uses my fabric too!!

anyway katies open day features her own lovely furniture alongside charlotte macey textiles, lolly and boo, amy jane interiors, and myself (ghastly weather and sickly children permitting!) details below for any of you local ladies ...

Launch Open Day - please join me for mulled wine and mince pies to celebrate the launch of my new website on Thursday 9th December from 11am - 3pm at the The Old Plumbers Shop, Yanworth, Nr Cheltenham, GL54 3LQ. Several other local designer-makers will also be joining me, so it's the perfect opportunity for a spot more Christmas shopping!

the arrival of advent

2010-12-01T19:17:00.016Z

This year November seems to have been a particularly hectic month for both Sarah and me, thankfully things have quietened down (for me at least) and I'm looking forward to having the chance to be a bit more creative in the run up to Christmas.

The first opportunity presented itself last night. I always find myself on the evening of 30th November exhausted having spent the day wrapping presents, baking cakes, making special breakfast, packed lunch and supper all in celebration of boy's birthday. And then I have to stay up late making an advent calendar for the children (of course I'm not quite organised enough to have done it in advance).

It's a tradition that started before children. I used to make hubby one, always steering well clear of chocolate (they are on a par with party bags in my view!). Despite the fact my children have personalised, chocolate calendars from Grandparents and tasteful, glitter-covered, traditional ones from Godparents I still have to make them one from me. I try to make something that develops into something else as we count down the days.

This year I've gone a bit mad with paper. I was trying to save a few pennies, trying to think of a theme that I could follow through all over Christmas and yet still had a traditional and decorative feel and to be honest, I am just a sucker for paper. Plus I had to find a use for the delicious green velvet ribbon I bought at great expense in Anthropologie the last time I was in London.

It's not like I need justification for owning it but this year I've certainly made the most of my label cutter, each day directing the children in what to make. I've provided scissors, needle and thread and buttons and bells. Old sheets of music, graph paper and pages from ancient books have been presented in glissine bags to help the children create a bird or a snowflake, a bell or a leaf to hang in place of the label they've removed. Hopefully by Christmas Eve we'll have a whole seasonal garland hanging above the roaring fire.

heirloom treasures workshop

2010-11-23T21:04:00.010Z

I'm sitting down with a large glass of wine feeling exhausted and elated by our first workshop.

Our aim was to give everyone an enjoyable, inspiring day in a relaxed atmosphere with plenty of good food as sustenance while they learnt how to make their own heirloom treasure. The morning was spent with Sarah giving ideas on design and colour palettes before she showed everyone some hand embroidery stitches and demonstrated machine techniques which they could practice before lunch. A large cookie jar was placed on the table and I scurried around ensuring everyone had plenty of tea and coffee to keep them going.

After a simple, warming lunch of Tuscan Butter Bean soup and fresh baked foccaccia everyone had the chance to design their own heirloom treasure, have a good rummage through our scrap boxes and put into practice the techniques they learnt this morning.

While Sarah and I have quite a distinct style we did not want the course to be to prescriptive, encouraging people to experiment. It was very interesting to see what different ideas and approaches came from the days work and standard of the work produced. It is amazing what you can achieve in a day, especially when you have a bit of direction, an expert (Sarah) at your finger tips and uninterrupted time.

By the end of the day some people were able to take home a finished piece. Others went home with folders bulging with samples and all they needed to finish their projects at home (with the instructions to send us a picture of the completed product in due course!). But hopefully everyone went home inspired, with new found confidence in their sewing abilities, and a warm glow.

Thank you everyone who joined us, and for all the positive feedback. We're really looking forward to our Christmas Stocking workshop on December 6th, with plans for more in 2011.

liberty birds

2010-11-21T20:42:00.005Z

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while will know that both Sarah and I have a thing about birds.

I also have a thing about Liberty Tana Lawn. It all stems from the Liberty Gift vouchers my Scottish Grandparents used to send me for Christmas. Whilst there was a small Liberty haberdashers in Bath what I really enjoyed was visiting the original shop. Although we had beautiful tana lawn smocked dresses handmade by my mother, they were for parties. For going UP to London we would wear our kilts (with their homemade calico bodices).

Once inside the flagship London store I was in my element. I loved the heavy timber beams and the atrium where you could look upwards and see everything on offer in the amazing emporium. I spent my vouchers on stuffed frogs and dogs, pin cushions, little photo frames, big photo frames - and they all had one thing in common. Everything I ever bought was Liberty Print tana lawn.

The nostalgic familiarity of these prints are what encouraged me to make my covered buttons and lavender cushions that I sell at fairs and I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to find that other people have the same affiliation with these prints as I do.

One such person is Kathy Hutton, I met her at a fair and instantly fell in love with her work. The combination of familiar tana lawn prints, birds, washing lines and screen printing is a killer for me!

butternut squash and chestnut soup

2010-11-15T19:33:00.007Z

Today was a beautiful winters day. We woke up to a hard frost which thawed into a glorious, crisp, clear, sunny day. Perfect for striding across the common rather than shopping in Sainsburys! This sign that winter is truly on its way led me into the kitchen at lunchtime to make one of my favourite soups. It has such a thick, velvety texture its irresistible and now I've enough to last me a couple more frosty days.

To make:

Soften 1 medium onion in a pan

Add a peeled and diced butternut squash, pour over some water (enough to soften the squash in but not too much water as the texture is part of the appeal of this soup) salt, pepper, some herbs and a stock cube

Add the secret weapon, a can of Merchant Gourmet's pureed chestnuts (available in most supermarkets). Bring to the boil and let bubble gently till the squash has cooked, then whizz in the blitzer to make smooth.

This is how I make it as hubby is vegetarian, then I add bits of bacon and pumpkin seeds as decoration. For those who do appreciate the flavour of meat, add some lardons when you are frying the onions it makes the soup taste even better

petit pomanders

2010-11-09T13:25:00.009Z

It's fairly hectic in the Pope household at the moment, along with the flurry of daily school activities in the run up to Christmas Sarah & I also have a couple of Christmas Fairs next week and then our much anticipated workshops. And whilst I feel like I've been working flat out my 'To-do' list is increasing by the minute. So it's probably not surprising that yesterday afternoon I decided to forget it all for a while and sat down with the baby to make some pomanders for Christmas.
I love the traditional colours and themes of Christmas but I also enjoy going mad and we've loads of bright coloured baubles that I tie to the tree with contrasting ribbons. I thought that this year it may be nice to go kind of 'citrus & neon'-ish in the kitchen (I wonder what colour theorists would say about such a combination in a room that you eat in). And while Christmas is still a while away pomanders are good to make in advance and hide away in a cool dark place to bring out again when it's time to decorate. Typically they are made with oranges, but I used clementines (which are really easy for little hands to push cloves into) and limes (which are really hard and I had to use a cocktail stick to help me). The fruit should shrink as it dries out so you need to leave a bit of a gap in between the cloves to allow for this. Tied with ribbon (secured with a pin) these should look lovely in a months time.

Fingers crossed!

turning toile on its head

2010-11-04T13:16:00.001Z

I had been looking for a pretty toile de jouy design to add to my fabric and wallpaper range for ages. So I thought I would ask an expert! the lovely Donna Flower came up trumps as always and found me a section of an old 18th century french wallpaper, so with some tweeking, rejigging and expert redrawing (not by me - people are not my strong point - they always come out looking like gnomes!) here are teh colourways of my new jardin toile.
It is a very beautiful design, there are none of the grizzly hunting scenes or ugly bits which often appear in traditional toiles, however when you look closely there is alot going on. I kept looking for an interesting garden name to call it based on some kind of pleasure garden- (there seems to be quite a bit of flirtation going on in the design!) however, when i started the business I swore to myself i wouldn't give any of my designs impossible to pronounce names, because it causes all manner of difficulties for customers and sales people alike, so even though 'tuileries' and 'medici' (well i couldn't call it 'boboli' toile could I!!) were strong contenders, I think I will keep it simple, unless any of you dear readers can come up with a better suggestion.....

the world in miniature

2010-10-29T19:26:00.004+01:00

I have always had a thing about tiny things! And as a child I really loved playing with the Dolls House my parents made me for my 10th birthday. In fact, it wasn't so much the playing with I enjoyed, as the Interior Decorating. Now that I have daughter's of my own I'm desperate to get my old Doll's House out, redecorate and 'modernise' the whole thing. Unfortunately I think I have to wait a couple of years before the girls will truly appreciate this. However a really good friend of mine, with the same obsession, is much braver than me and has decided to give her 2 year old daughter her childhood Doll's House (more for mother's benefit I'm sure!). Anyway. old habits die hard and I was quick to volunteer some Interior Decorating help. Whilst I've no idea of the size or style of the house I offered some fabric scraps, and then an idea developed.

In the summer I visited the wonderful shop RE (A fab shop hidden behind a petrol station in Corbridge, Northumberland. It really warrants a post of its own) and here I found these wonderful tiny french labels, about the size of a finger nail. I couldn't resist buying them even though I had no idea what I could use them for, in fact I loved them so much I had to buy Sarah some too. The thought then occurred to me that if I made a load of miniature brown parcels then I could use the labels on them.

I find it so exciting when an idea comes together, I decided that I would send not only mini rolls of fabric, with tiny brown luggage labels but a whole set of bedding too. The children happened to be playing together happily (doesn't always happen) and I sat at the sewing machine and made a tiny mattress and pillow.

I love the cotton sheets and pillow case that I edged, using an embroidery setting on my machine, and then I wrapped them up with ribbon and this tiny antique flower, and the blanket is made out of an old jumper. And then I couldn't resist making a set of 3 books to go by the bedside, Tiny Tim, Tom Thumb and Mini Mouse (well I wanted Thumbelina but my writing really wouldn't go small enough).

trick or treat

2010-10-28T16:25:00.015+01:00

I apologise for slightly changing the calming, serene tone of Sarah's recent posts but with Halloween just a few days away our house is going ghoulie mad! Back from a few sunny, relaxing days in Cornwall this morning we were stuck at home in the pouring rain. Thankfully I'd spied some creepy, chocolate fingers in the super market a while ago and, a few match boxes later I had a Halloween project.

Expecting the normal visit of Trick or Treaters on Sunday evening we have made some Trick or Treat boxes. Each visiting spook can choose their own box and discover for themselves what lies inside. The lucky ones will walk away with a chocolate finger, the unlucky ones will be subjected to an old joke - you know the one, where you put a hole in the bottom of the match box tray and stick your own (blood covered) finger through it.

A practical joke that is, according to Boy, 'awesome'.

pink pasta

2010-10-26T21:16:00.001+01:00

My great friend Heather from eggs, cream, honey posted a fabulous recipe for chocolate, beetroot, loaf cake, and it put me in mind about what an underrated vegetable the humble beetroot is. It was sarah ravens garden book that got me back into beetroot, childhood memories of ghastly vinegared stuff staining the plate and the palate had rather put me off. Anyway my kids are very keen on gino de campo's recipe for beetroot potato cakes with smoked salmon (though they like a fried egg on the top in place of, or as well of the salmon), and i am very keen on htem roasted with garlic and olive oil, then blitzed with greek yoghurt and feta for a vivid dip. But quite the most exciting thing we've done recently is PINK PASTA!!

Miss B and I made a basic pasta dough - I can't give you quantities just mix 2 eggs and tipo 00 flour till the consistancy is right, it should be firm and elastic, then add some pureed roasted beetroot and knead it in. It is gloriously streakily fuchsia coloured to start with, then softens to a beautiful deep pink. ~(I know the pasta machine ids the least used kitchen gadget - but it does keep children amused for a considerable time as it has all the requisite qualities for an afternnon in the school hols - messy, creative and edible!)

keep pushing it through the pasta machine till it feels right. we turned ours in to taglietelle, which was very popular for a girly tea!

magazines and weekend reading

2010-10-24T08:55:00.000+01:00

I am having an issue with magazines at the moment, I subscribe to various interiors glossies for work, but lately I have been finding them piling up without even opening them, partly this is due to time constraints - there never seems to be a minute free to sit and look at a magazine, but partly it is a lack of excitement. I am really fed up with seeing the same old same olds in every magazine. It would appear that if you pay for advertising then that also gets you oodles of editorial, whilst the concept irritates me I camn understand it, however it means every magazine is full of the same stuff. I want to see newness and quirkyness, i want to see British designers, and graduates who are just starting out being given some press, but most of all I want to see some variety, I really really don't want to see the same fabrics and wallapers from Sanderson, Designers Guild, Harlequin and Romo in every feature in every magazine. I am aware I am ranting now, but it has resulted in me cancelling my subscriptions! - the exceptions being Country Living because they often champion the smaller companies and use some quirkier suppliers for features, and selvedge because it is always beautiful.

ANYWAY.... I was thrilled this week when an email plopped into my inbox from a lovely lady called lynda felton, with a link to a new online magazine called COVET GARDEN. Every page is a joy, its an inspiring interiors read. Lynda kindly has allowed me to reproduce some of their fab photos here.

You can subscribe (free) online here and each month you will receive an e-issue.

Now i am happy to lose my subscription to the standard magazines becauser i think what is happening online is far, far more exciting. (while I am waxing lyrical about good online magazines SMALL magazine is another beauty that we have featured here before and also free subscription)

hardaker and pope workshops 2

2010-10-21T16:55:00.000+01:00

I am on a roll now with the delivery of 50 pristine cardboard folders today, I think i could get seriously carried away with the techniques cards!!

The idea is that for the morning part of our workshops we will spend some time learning a few hand and machine embroidery techniques and then mount them onto some cards which will complement the set of 'how to' cards which everyone will take home with them. - Obviously Jo and I were totally unable to just photocopy the page out of a book, they had to look appealing too!!!

places are filling up, especially for the heirloom treasures day, so if you want to book a place let us know by email (i say us, but Jo is the boss - because she is an admin wizard!!!!)

hardaker and pope workshops

2010-10-21T11:03:00.000+01:00

jo and I have been having rather a fun time going through our stash of treasures looking for exciting scraps and bits and bobs for our pre christmas workshops.

I can't seem to help myself but I keep gravitating towards all things natural. I think its since my English Home magazine photoshoot (more of that in the next few weeks) where i was obsessed with quails eggs, old pages of text and bits of linen.

we are going to provide lots of materials for people to make either an heirloom treasure or two (mini cushions or lavender hearts or a little picture) or a vintage linen christmas stocking.
send us an email if you would like any details and look for the button in the side bar which has all the information, keep reading over the next few weeks and you will see some examples of the type of things we will be making.

handmade

2010-10-16T15:29:00.001+01:00

I was searching for an idea to make for a baby girl, when i came across a picture of something i had made ages ago for Jo's littlest. Jo is a big fan of liberty tana lawn, so this is a great way to use those bits that are too small for clothes. if you want to make an elephant like this, or indeed a family of them would be sweet, then you need to cut a pattern out to the size you want your finished elephant. the pattern should look like a rounded m. Stitch 2 (or more) bits of fabric togetherto make a rectangle, i trapped an ear shape between the seam of the 2 pieces - you could use felt or 2 contrast piece of fabric. with right sides together draw round your pattern pieces and then sew together leaving a gap at the back for turning out. cut around your shape an discard the trimmings then turn it the right way out. press flat and neatly press the seam closed . stuff your elephant - you can use toy stuffing, or dried lentils or lavender. stitch up the gap trapping a folded over piece of ribbon inside the seam for a tail. finally sew a button on for the eye and a crochet flower (optional) for a girly nelly!!
these would be lovely to make from sentimental bits of fabrics - for example your childs old pyjamas or a special old dress.

hardaker and pope christmas workshops

2010-10-11T13:31:00.015+01:00

Join us on our one-day sewing workshops
in Littleworth Hall, Amberley, Glos.

Heirloom Treasures - 23 November 2010, 10 - 4

Great for beginners.
We will teach you basic hand & machine stitch techniques,
look at design styles & how to put colours & textures together.
Then we'll show you how to make your own embroidered
lavender hearts or a little heirloom cushion.

Christmas Stockings - 6 December 2010, 10 - 4

Learn how to make a beautiful Christmas Stocking
Using linen & embroidery, we will look at
design inspiration & colour palettes,
teach you some hand & machine stitch techniques,
including applique, before setting you free to create
your own heirloom Stocking.

A perfect start to the festive season.

Each day costs £35 including lunch, tea, coffee, cake,
as well as all materials.

At the end of the day you will go home with
a stitch techniques file & a full set of instructions
for completing or recreating your piece.

For further details or to book please contact us

hardakerandpope@gmail.com

High School Musical

2010-10-07T11:28:00.014+01:00

One of the problems of having children is that some times they want something so much you just have to cave in! This is what happened when our little girl turned 5 recently. She desperately wanted a High School Musical Movie party. I couldn't say 'No'.

I love a good theme and decided to go down the Stars and Stripes route. I like to have an activity underway when the children arrive to get them involved and help them to forget about their parents leaving them. So I'd cut up strips of crepe paper which the children put into bundles and made into pom poms, which they danced with during the film.

We put up a large screen with surround sound and created bill boards and a ticket office using some cardboard, painted red, and studded with fairy lights and as each child arrived they were given a ticket.

An intermission gave the opportunity to serve the birthday tea, which was literally hot dogs and by apples from the garden, much to the children's disappointment. Then we produced these American Style cup cakes (which Boy and I had spent the night before creating). They also each got an ice cream during the second half of the film (no wonder some of them couldn't sit still!).

They were all sent home with the obligatory party bag. I always go overboard with the cellophane, I figure the contents are largely irrelevant. But, since my guys are really into badges at the moment, I made each child their own shaker style name badge for that personal touch.

And bags of pop corn, of course!

visually beautiful

2010-10-04T20:12:00.000+01:00

when i saw this on tea for joy, i saved it. It keeps giving me studio envy! how is it so tidy!! one day i will show you a picture of my studio (it is sadly not visually beautiful!) what is your workspace like? send us a picture and we will have a little show and tell!

conkering the world

2010-10-03T20:53:00.009+01:00

There's nothing as satisfying as a good old family walk. However any one with young children will know that often family walks come with much moaning, need for wee's, falling in cowpats etc and I've mentioned before how we like to give the walk a focus in order to keep the children's minds away from all the thing they could think of to whinge about.

At this time of year there are so many wonderful leaves around that leaf collecting is an obvious task, but today Hubby and Boy started the family off on a quest for conkers. It's a great school boy game and we spent hours hunting for conkers to help Boy in the playground.

We each kept our own secret stash and once we had returned home (and cleared ourselves of mud) we had our 'family conker competition'. There were 3 rounds catering for the different needs of our three children.

1) The largest
2) The prettiest
3) The oddest shaped

Believe it or not each child won a round!

holly anna

2010-10-03T19:48:00.014+01:00

I've been hearing a lot about Frome recently. The name keeps popping up as an interesting, arty place and has made it on to my wish list of towns to visit. And today we went. The place is full of crafty/sewing shops (must mention millie moon , a haberdashers to die for!), places selling lovely vintage clothes and more modern and contemporary art as well. It was also the monthly Artisan Market, where delicious local food and crafts were on sale in the cobbled streets of the old town.

It is therefore not at all surprising that this is also the town that my brother-in-law and his fiance have decided to open their shop Holly Anna. And, after (an enviable) few months of scouring auction rooms and car boot sales, today was their opening day.

Having seen the back of their car after some of their early Sunday morning shopping sprees I knew that their shop would be full of things that I would fall in love with and I was not at all disappointed.

They've got a great eye and a distinct style. The shop has been put together in such a way that you want to walk out of the shop with the whole look rather than one individual piece.

Sigh....

I love the way they have used these old milk bottle tags - turn it over and find the price.

And I've been coveting a tailor's dummy for ages. Unfortunately our house really has no space for something this big that, for me, would be purely decorative. For now I'll just have to make do with this photo and dream on!

Suffice to say our Little Girl (who already thought that said fiance is the best thing since the colour pink) was so impressed by it all that she's come home and started to make her own shop!

The next Artisan Market will be a special Christmas one on 5th December and I'm sure it will be an event not to miss. Meanwhile if you are in Frome don't forget to visit Holly Anna.

B is for...

2010-09-30T19:46:00.011+01:00

Beatrix, Birthday & Bunting.

Baby got a last minute invite to celebrate her friend's 3rd birthday (I know that means I can't get away with calling her a baby much longer). With various school runs and wot-not I had little opportunity to get to the shops to buy a present, so decided that something home made would be just the ticket.

After a quick rummage in my cupboards I came up with: a piece of calico, some transfer paper (one of my favorite inventions), pink thread and bias binding and, hey presto, I whizzed up some personalised bunting. Every little girl likes a bag so one was made to match, and in went the bunting. It was finished off with a little badge made out of a couple of suffolk puffs and an old button.

lavender harvest

2010-09-27T18:33:00.004+01:00

We've had a couple of days of beautiful warm early autumn sunshine recently and it's given me the opportunity to head out into the garden and harvest our lavender bushes. As we live in a dry, vertical, sheltered sun trap lavender is about the only thing that actually flourishes in our garden, which is just as well given that I've taken to making lavender parcels for pin money.

With Christmas fairs on the agenda it makes sense to dry my home grown lavender and use some of it as stuffing and it is actually a therapeutic way to spend a late summer afternoon. But I'm also planning on making some things with a more seasonal scent for Christmas. Any suggestions on how to create a yuletide alternative ?

baking bread

2010-09-23T22:27:00.001+01:00

i love it when i discover an exciting local happening, and i was nearly beside myself when i saw a poster for 'fired up' -community baking days at Upper Grange in Stroud.

the poster said, 'from midday onwards bring your own dough to bake in the searing heat of the wood fired oven, all welcome, bakers,spectators and tasters.' now i am a big fan of woodfired cooking so off I trotted with a focaccia (delicious) and a potato bread (a not so super experiment).

The whole experience was a delight, the garden which the oven is in is beautiful with abundant fruit trees and vegetables (obviously i had to keep my veg plot envy under control!)

Upper grange is part of an educational trust (it is on lovedays mead off folly lane) and they are holding tHe bread baking days on sept 25th and october 30th,

In addition there will be an apple day on 2nd october which is a lovely family event where everyone young an old can pick and press apples.

anyway back to the bread..........what can i say it was fabulous, katherine had made a sourdough rye loaf which was delicious with a deep nutty flavour, i asked her only half jokingly if she might give a lesson in the mysteries of creating a sourdough starter, so watch this space and hope she agrees!!

so this coming saturday it will be on again, and what am I going to try this time? a fabulous woodfired pizza I think, dribbling with buffalo mozerella and scented with basil.

If you would like any further information or some contact details send us an email.

weekend reading

2010-09-19T18:53:00.002+01:00

i have spent a thoroughly enjoyable (and for once peaceful) afternoon perusing the pages of a new discovery babyccino kids - a fab website/blog with instant appeal.

co authored by a group of trendy mums, it features travel articles, crafts, recipes fashion and much more. it has a lovely international feel, and the layout is really clean and calm, i will be dropping by often for an aspirational fix (i say aspirational as i long to rid myself of clutter and be cool and neat and tidy - never going to happen!!!!) happy weekend.

perfect peaches

2010-09-15T22:21:00.001+01:00

I happened to come across a bag of what must have totalled 2kg of these delightful 'donut' peaches in our local greengrocers. They weren't perfect and so were reduced to £1 for the whole bag. Anyway not one to miss a bargain I had to buy them (and then think of what to do with them!!)

so ......peach and raspberry jam (equal quantities of chopped fruit and sugar, the juice of half a lemon boiled hard for about 4minutes then tipped into a sterilized jar).

and peach and strawberry pavlova using a big version of the ottolenghi merengues, we also had peach,parma ham, rocket and mozerella salad twice but both times it was eaten before i could take the photo!!!!!