Rob and I: Cue Fanfare photo by Toby Farrow

A lot has happened in the few weeks since I last posted. Turns out that the Santa Dog gig I posted about below was probably the band's last... at least for the forseeable future. We've been through so much together as a four-piece and I feel a bit woozy about it all. However, since Red Ruby Rose has taken over my life the last year or so I've taken my foot off the band pedal and you can't sustain a band without a pulse.

The last month or so I've started songwriting again which has been a real joy but these new tunes have a different feel to them and so I felt it was time to try something different - more gentle and acoustic and a duo, with just me and my partner Rob (guitarist in Santa Dog). Lady fate turned her tricks and within two weeks of making this decision we'd been offered a two week tour of Northern Germany. I think this was the straw that broke the band's back... there are only so many plates you can spin at once without breakages.

So, in three weeks time Rob and I are packing our guitars, hopping on a flight to Germany and playing 13 shows on successive nights in and around Bremen and Hamburg. We are equally delighted and terrified by the thought of this... having never played so many shows without a break it may well be exhausting. Also it's a big chunk out of our usual routines so it's a leap into the unknown. However, we have always dreamed of touring more and playing music around the world so this feels like a really great step in the right direction. Our new little duo is called Cue Fanfare and there are some tunes on the myspace player.

In the 18 months I've been running my Etsy shop the longest I've been away is four days so I feel a little nervous about leaving it for two weeks but I'll have a laptop so I'm sure it will be fine.

Might mean I get to blog a bit more while I'm away from my sewing machine too :)

My band Santa Dog has been a bit quiet the last few months. We had a flurry of activity in 2006-8 that took us to some really fun places; playing in Europe and Canada and releasing our album on Japanese label Quince, but it's a difficult thing to sustain and all four of us in the band have needed to balance the gigging and recording side of things with our everyday lives. However, the need to make music is an itch that must to be scratched and it can't lay dormant for too long. I have felt a little guilty the last few months that my previous drive and musical passion has wained but I'm really happy that I've finally got some fire in my belly for it again. We've started rehearsing new material and are taking a slightly darker, melancholy approach to our pop sensibility. We've got a gig coming up this Saturday at Bristol's Cube cinema as part of indie-pop fest the Big Pink Cake and I can't wait!

After all my fussing and fretting yesterday, three lovely fabric parcels arrived in the post this morning. It's certainly made me a feel a little less hasty to banish all but my own fabrics (see my post below) as the new arrivals are real beauties and feel fresh and new.

I've been totally smitten with this fabric ever since I clapped eyes on the above picture in a recent edition of Country Living. It's such a clever design, contemporary but with a lovely retro flavour and the perfect balance of colours and shapes. The manufacturers don't state who actually designed it so it's hard to know whether it was one of their in house design team or a freelancer. I'd love to know as it'd be great to see more of their work. Either way I'm sure it will be an absolute best seller for them... it was out of stock twice before I got my consignment.

Several times recently I've started posts about copycats and then abandoned them. It's a tricky topic to broach but I've had a particularly unnerving experience this week so forgive me if I'm venting but it's the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back.

I make clutches, nothing original there. I even use some commercial fabrics so anyone can make what I make and that's no big deal. However, I've worked very hard to develop my own original 'house style' on Etsy - so it hurts me when new shops open up and quietly adopt said 'house style' as their own. I've toughened up quick and I'm not going to be a cry baby about it. Etsy is a warm and fluffy cupcake of a site and I still love it to bits but behind many popular sellers there are a raft of not very sisterly copycats chomping at the bit to get a slice of the action.

The trick of course is to stay ahead, ignore the rest and not get rattled. I'm still working on that last bit. Worrying about other sellers leads to negativity and sapping of creative juices - it's an unwanted distraction.

Without naming names or flinging mud, I was tipped off this week about a seller who was busily promoting to blogs and inadvertently including some of my bag photographs along with her own. One of the posts was a blog giveaway where over 300 people had posted, and of course they were all led to believe that it was one of her clutches when it was in fact one of my own. I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach. I should add at this point in the spirit of balance that she apologised to me and explained it was an innocent file mix-up. That's right, my copyrighted clutch bag photo files were sitting on her computer hard drive and accidentally got forwarded as promotional puff. Great.

All this has got me thinking some more about slowly phasing out all of the clutches I make with commercially available fabrics and only making my originals and maybe keeping some of the sumptuous silks too. I would miss sourcing all the lovely prints from eclectic sources but I love designing new fabrics and I feel I should maybe play to my strengths in this department rather than using commercial fabrics. This would also mean I could branch into other branded Red Ruby Rose products, something I've been thinking about for a while.

Talking of new designs, I have two new prints that I'm really excited about. I'm like a kid at Christmas when my latest fabric delivery arrives.

Scots pine by Red Ruby Rose

Both fabrics were inspired by my recent holiday in Scotland. Scots Pine was a 'stop that car!' moment as I kept seeing wonderful vistas of tree trunks in the roadside forests but could never find a good place to stop. The days were ticking by and I felt that if I didn't simply slam on the brakes and stop the car I'd never get my picture. Maybe the subtitle should be 'the clutch that nearly caused an RTA between an impatient photographer, three German bikers and Mrs McCloud from Achiltibuie who was taking her annual trip to Inverness to buy her M&S smalls'.

Secondly. 'Pink thrift' which is a simple and breezy print. Just looking at it takes me back to the salty sea air at Badachro.


Pink thrift by Red Ruby Rose

The time seems to have flown by since my few days in Scotland at the end of May. A combination of catching up with work and sunny days have brought my blogging to a halt again. Now if only I had a laptop and our wifi wasn't so sketchy it'd be a constant garden chicken-cam. Those cheeky chooks have started laying the tastiest eggs and a quick tea-break in the sunshine always means at least a half hour chook-watch.

It's nice to be spending time in the garden again. One thing I'd completely forgotten I'd planted last year was an assortment of poppies. To my delight they have come up as absolute beauties. I think I may have pulled a few up at their early stages thinking they were weeds but a few have battled through and their blooms are magnificent but fleeting, only lasting a day or two at the most. The seedheads will look lovely going through to autumn though and then I can dry them.

I've got a couple of new clutch prints coming soon, based on pictures I took in Scotland. I've based one on the pink thrift pictures and another on roadside trees, I'll post them here when they arrive back from the printers. It's always an agonising wait as I never quite know how they're going to turn out as textile prints. It's such a shame that this amazing print technology didn't exist when I was a student in the 1990's - my work has always been so influenced by photography and montage and the textile screen printing methods at college never seemed to quite capture what I was looking for. I should make more use of it now it's available.

What is it about working for yourself and not taking holidays? I'm not so good at taking a break - not because I'm a workaholic or don't enjoy putting my feet up but because I think there's an underlying feeling that as a self-employed person I already have my cake and thoroughly enjoy eating it. However, I think I'd begun to forget the value of switching off, recharging and getting a fresh perspective.

The last few days spent in Wester Ross have been idyllic. I'd forgotten how beautiful and haunting the West Coast of Scotland is and the combination of celebrating Robbie's birthday, visiting old haunts and exploring new places was intoxicating (and that's not even taking into account the heady malt whisky).

It's hard to capture the sheer majesty and scale of the West Coast. I took a few fruitless snapshots of landscapes but had more fun homing in on the little details like the drifts of pink thrift clinging to the rocky shorelines, beautiful and unexpected bog-dwelling plants and the intense colour of bracken after a rainstorm.

What the photos couldn't capture were the startling and delightful sound of skylarks, chirruping and twittering as they hovered overhead, the cuckoo that started calling at 3am and carried on relentlessly throughout the day, the swifts swooping along the beach hoovering up sandflies and other tasty morsels. They can't summon up the salty smack from the fresh scallops served at the Badachro inn , the refreshing pint of 80 shilling at the Glenelg or the genuine warmth and hospitality shown us by Trudy at South Erradale B&B. But, these pictures give a taster of a wonderful few days.

Thrift at Badachro

Thrift at Badachro with bay in background

Delicate star-like bog plants by the roadside

Bracken fronds unfurling after a rainstorm, rainbow in background

Cotton plant with backdrop of Torridon


An ancient iron age Broch at Glenelg

Ubiquitous sign with additional shot-gun holes - target practice.

Unfurling bracken frond


Underwater rock pool photo

Underwater rock pool photo

Sundew plant on peat bog at the wonderfully-named hamlet of Mellon Udrigle

Robbie at Red Point

The view from the road leaving Poolewe

Stunning road leading down to Lochcarron

Glenelg to Skye ferry point

Treacherous cove

striking window

Robbie at Red Point

mmmm, grass clippings, nom nom nom

My posting has fallen off a cliff. All my good intentions of daily blogging have fallen by the wayside since we got our chickens (always good to have something else to blame!)

I know that my intention in getting chooks was so I'd spend less time inside working and more time relaxing but this is ridiculous, I could happily watch them for hours, they almost induce a hypnotic state as I watch them spuddle round the back yard, chatting to themselves and going crazy for grapes (I think they'd mug a granny for grapes).

In honour of this new soporific state I'm even taking a rare holiday next week (sans chickens). Robbie my boyfriend will be forty and we're taking ourselves up to Scotland to revisit some old haunts. As we're both self-employed now it feels like a Herculean task to take time off - it seems like double the work before we go away and anticipation of double the work on our return but the break will do us good.

Our new chickens! They arrived today and are very beautiful and bird-brained young ladies. All seems to be OK so far although Corbett had a VERY loud fit of squawking at tea-time which I hope was just nerves at her new surroundings. Living in a built-up urban area I'm very aware that we can't upset the neighbours. So, lay some golden eggs soon my pretties and then we can bribe any dissenters.

Wow, trying to purchase one of knitalatte's beautiful covered crochet stones is akin to stalking down a treasury on a dial-up connection with a wind-up imac. I've tried about four times now.... Margie has even sent me tip offs as to when she's listing but it's either in the dead of night when I'm asleep (damn the UK time difference) or as in last night, gone before my very eyes.

Last night I even double-checked the EST time v GMT so I knew I had to wait up until 1am (or so I thought) so I pootled round the web, checked some blogs, visited the shop again at 12.30 to loiter and lo and behold I'd missed the party. There was only one left... all the others had been listed and sold. The only reason I didn't purchase the one left is it wasn't quite the one I wanted and I didn't want to deny someone else if that was their favourite. Needless to say it had sold by today.

I need to brush up on my time-keeping and detective work to bag one of these beauties.

I'd planned a humdrum day of pottering around and working today but the best laid plans and all that..... instead I spent the day walking round the Southbank Bristol Arts Trail and catching up with friends. It's the one weekend of the year when some of the braver local arts folk open their houses for the weekend and tolerate all and sundry having a wonderful snoop around at the art but more importantly their houses. As a self confessed window-peeper I find it's nice to have validation for being a nosey-parker for once.

Of course we supported the arts too, I picked up some ace cushions in mid century barkcloth fabric and some other bits and pieces..... and as every single house seemed to have been home baking for England it would have been rude not to have scoffed the cake and quaffed the tea on offer. Tomorrow I'll eat fruit.

pics: the best dressed doorway in Bristol

It's fair to say I've been like a bear chewing a wasp this week. Everything work and house-wise has been on hold until finally today my neck-strain eased enough to function again. Phew! I had a shuffle round the garden and finally checked on all the plants I recently planted or have been nurturing. Most stuff is fairing OK and just needed a really good drink.

The sweetcorn looks great, it's growing strongly and doesn't seem to have minded a few days of drought. Tomatoes were sulking but have perked up. Basil is taking an age to do anything, diva of the herb world that it is. Unfortunately the sad specimen below is what's left of a cucumber seedling. One sniff of that delicacy and the local snail population of South Bristol have descended and made a tasty snack of it.


The Ranunculus is a little windswept but still blooming - love that red against the yellow paintwork.


Geraniums need potting up, another job to add to the list.

The Anemones seem to have been avoided by the marauding munchers so far.

I'm going to be spending a lot more time in the garden this year, as part of a promise I made myself after spending the last twelve months in near-constant work mode. It's hard getting the balance right but hopefully I'm on the right track now. Bring on the sunshine!

I try and visit Katy Elliott's journal whenever I get the chance. She's a prolific daily blogger and her posts are always full of savvy design tips and links. Plus, it's great to see the progress she's making on renovating her beautiful New England home.

Her recent post about Scandinavian designers Bungalow led me to discover Lille Firma, a UK stockist of Scandinavian design.

These adorable casalinga birds caught my eye - striking wall wear and a lovely contemporary twist on the classic flying ducks.

I've become a recent fan of Mia Cullin's work - a Swedish designer based in Stockholm, her textiles are strongly influenced by geometry and assembled modules of pattern. She uses a variety of materials including leather, tyvek and felt to startling and beautiful effect.

This cushion is available at Habitat

I'm always delighted when Etsy sellers go the extra mile and so I was tickled to receive this vintage necklace from 5gardinias in the post today. It arrived so prettily packaged that I grabbed my camera phone to take some pics. (5gardinia's own product shot above).

Love the embossed paper and handwritten label tied up with postal string.

The bright pink tissue was a nice surprise...

Inside there was protective foam and gorgeous printed tissue paper. The actual necklace is gorgeous with enameled chain and and lovely detailing. Originally I had planned to photogram elements of it as the flexible plastic is similar to another piece I have that photographed like this:
But I think the plastic on this necklace may be too thick. However, I'll certainly give it a go as I love the design... it will hopefully end up as a textile print of some sort, as well as a favourite necklace.

Kathi at 5gardinias has a gorgeous shop of vintage treasures and top notch product photography too.
sweet jane flower necklace

cottage rose eclectic china stack

**edit** I've just discovered Kathi's other Etsy shop, via her blog she's a very talented jeweller too. I adore these earrings