4 Sleeps To Go!

Everything in my life has been on hold for a long time now and in four days time I am able to reclaim my life again. I have to admit I have had a ball being back in advertising, with some real challenges, but most importantly some great people and colleagues that I have worked with. However, now I am ready to get back to RedFish, my interiors, my vintage buying exploits, sourcing wonder pieces for people and getting Teacups & Pearls truly up and running (more on that another time). So my first challenge is to create and build a website for RedFish and Teacups & Pearls, and for this I have given myself three weeks. I am going to use this space to show the countdown and see if 3 weeks are possible. Let's see shall we?

My best friend T believes that if you think hard enough about something it will begin to happen. There is one thing just recently that has happened in this way, but I will save that for another post as the culmination of the thought is on Monday and I don't want to tempt fate.

The thought I do leave you with is that today at the market I bought 4 1920's pen illustrations of ladies head fashion and a sale poster scamp for Derry and Toms (which I will share with you when I find their full history). Derry and Toms were one of the largest department stores in 1920's London. They were rivals of Selfridges and Swan & Edgar attracting vast queues on their opening sale days and standing the test of time until they sadly closed on January 13th 1972. Most people would then have known the building to have been taken over by Biba with the amazing Rainbow Restaurant and the famous Roof Gardens, commissioned by Derry and Toms, and now owned by Richard Branson.

So imagine my surprise when I am part way through researching the history of the illustrations I had bought and clicked onto a blog I read regularly Ted and Bunny. Her latest post was about yellow and how much she would love to wear it but sadly cannot, as the colour does not suit, and the last time she had bought a yellow piece was in Biba in the old Derry and Toms building on Kensington High Street - weird, random, coincidence?

Spring has sprung

This weekend brought us two inspirational events - firstly spring, which seems to have rapidly disappeared as the week has developed, but also the 40th anniversary of Eric Carle's much-loved classic The Hungary Caterpillar, which was originally published in 1969 and every time I see the book or illustration I can't help but smile.

Eric's original idea came to him while he was working in his studio.

"One day I was punching holes with a hole puncher into a stack of paper and I thought of a bookworm and so I created a story called 'A Week with Willi the Worm'. Then my editor suggested a caterpillar instead and I said 'Butterfly!' That's how it began."

Eric, who turns 80 this year, is still very young at heart and receives some 10,000 letters a year from children who have read the book and as testament to great work has sold more than 29 million copies around the world and has been translated into 47 languages. It still sells on average one copy every 30 seconds. Which just goes to show whilst many fads come and go simple and inspirational work lives forever.

Admin Friday

image courtesy of

Judging by the insanely false smile this lady loves paperwork just as much as I do! Do you think she is taking dictation from her boss? And if she is, can you guess what is going through her mind - all captions welcome - keep it clean though please!

Friday, is normally an admin day and after much paper shuffling, filing and phone calls I was ready for a break, so decided to toddle off with a bag of goodies for the charity shop. Yes I was meant to be taking things into the charity shop - not bringing anything back with me! (keep it quiet though don't tell Mr S, he won't notice if I quickly wash them and find them homes).

But how could I resist these wonderful Le Parfait jars - I just love them and we use them all the time (can you feel a twinge of justification in my voice?!). There is something about the typography that makes me smile - I'm a bit of a sucker for great fonts and packaging...


So fonts and packaging that make me smile (believe me this is not even the tip of the iceberg!)

all of these items can be found at Labour and wait an inspiring place to step back in time and can be found just off Brick Lane

And the last purchase (thank you Ania x) was this sweet little jug - perfect for heart warming rich gravy....


So I leave you, hoping you have a wonderful weekend, let's hope it's as warming as this daffodil that has kept me sunny through all the admin - see you next week...