Kew Fair this Saturday!

Galliers here. Well, we finally got our stuff together in one place and "mocked up" our stall for the fair on Saturday. See photos. Having purchased a lovely rosey red pop-up tent thingy on Ebay we finally got it out of the bag and set it up in my garden on a dry and sunny afternoon. Easier to set up than anticipated I am glad to say. A bit of "right a bit, left a bit" and wishing we were about 5 inches taller but we managed. Two wallpaper pasting tables covered with old curtains and all our hard work displayed on top.. didn't look half bad.. although the delightful rosey red glow of the tent did cast rather a strange shade on all the stuff... but then hopefully the punters will consider their purchases in the front in the natural light. The Rescued & Revived bunting looks rather fabulous if we say so ourselves, gives a jousting tournament tent look I feel. SO... we just now need a dry and pleasant day (not too hot though), and plenty of people to visit us. The Fair should be a lovely day out anyway, on Kew Green between 11 am and 6 pm, there will be a Pimms tent, food tent by Anthony Worrall-Thompson, a dog show, a Victorian Fairground, craft marquee and lots of stalls. There are also bands and musicians playing on a stage throughout. We decided not to go in the craft marquee but to have our own little tent outside in the fresh air. We hope to see you there! ALSO! stop press we have finally updated our Folksy shop - do take a look.

Tea Cosy Heaven

Yes, it's me, Botkin, it may have looked as if I left my shoes on the jetty in Florida and disappeared a la Reggie Perrin, but in fact nothing so extreme, I'm just here in Kew, ensconsed in a tea cosy making mania. It must be to do with life "out there" being totally strange and alien, and everyone seems in a jumpy frame of mind, and I absolutely believe there's nothing quite like a nice cup of tea ...... here's one in progress (now finished) there's more on the way ...... watch this space ...... Visit us at Kew Fete on Saturday 19th June ..... though if the world carries on like this I might just take to my bed under Sam's "Bed of Roses" - isn't it just so gorgeous - and not emerge until the world has sorted itself out. Adieu xxx

Our Bed of Roses in a Gypsy Caravan....

Finished "Our Bed of Roses" yesterday... looks a bit lovely... if I say so meself... I feel a Gypsy Caravan theme coming upon me... I aim to follow this through with some bolster cushions and bedroom wallhangings and other stuff with blowsy roses and bright and sometimes clashing colours...here are a few photos which do not do it justice - the lighting was all wrong, the green of the blanket looks a lot fresher and more that particular shade of green I always think of as "1930s green".. but you can get the overall impression. There is a photo of a tea cosy cover (unpadded) I made for myself in ticking - Victorian style. Also I photographed my bedroom muse Isadora - who is dressed rather in the Gypsy Caravan theme this spring.. in a bright chintz 1930s gown weighted down with a collection of necklaces and a silk corsage...Roxy has made two wonderful tea cosies "Builders" and "Bankers" which we hope to have photos of next week.. they have already had "first dibs" put on them by a friend of hers but she will be making more!....

Stitching til our fingers bleed...

Galliers here. We are now fully paid up stallholders to be at both Kew Fete on Kew Green 19th June and Barnes Fair on Barnes Green 10th July. Now we just have to make stuff to put on them!...... I am halfway through another "skirt-into-bag" - a lovely bit of magenta cashmere with handfelted flowers beads and embroidery... also into a bedroom "comforter", or small bedquilt, which is from a lovely faded 1930s green "Swando" brand blanket appliqued with bits cut from a vintage cashmere shawl and the words "our bed of roses" in soft red canvas.... two things in production... managed to sew through the tops of BOTH my index fingers yesterday in my efforts to push ahead... so literally "stitching till my fingers bleed"!... luckily no drops of blood on the fabrics so thats ok. More haste less speed... or something like that. Roxy is steaming ahead with her tea cosies. We have a page in the local free magazine "Living in Kew and Richmond" devoted to us this month ... "A day in the life of Rescued and Revived".... how exciting!... my friend Pippa who publishes it kindly offered to put us in and drum up a bit of interest for our stalls, she is also a mover and shaker organizing the Kew Fete. Few photos of my on-going items to show you. Also a photo of a mosaic for my garden which I started at least 2 years ago and finally finished - just needs the back and edges waterproofing and it can stand outside and brighten up a gloomy corner. More photos of items for sale when they are finished which hopefully when my savaged fingers heal up will be soon...

Spring is finally Sprung....

Galliers here.....Our early spring break on Siesta Key obviously put us in such a laid back mood we came home and did almost nothing for about six weeks.... but are now full of good intentions to plan and make... here are a few photos of a couple of little projects I have managed to undertake....a beautiful old baby blanket dredged up from my Pa's houseful of the flotsam and jetsam of life.... the moth have had a feast and moved on... it has been lovingly laundered in soapflakes and dried on the washing line and lived to tell the tale of... Spring!... Hare in Foxy in the Springtime - I thought I would back it with some vintage cotton and it could be a little wallhanging for a nursery, motheaten but still beautiful I think. The label is lovely "Swando" registered by the Institute of Hygiene, so that's alright then. The other photo is a shoulder bag made out of a pink tweed skirt I got at a jumble sale ... I took the zip out and sewed up the gap, cut the whole skirt in half across the width and put a seam across the bottom, edged the top with pink velvet ribbon, created a strap from some wonderful vintage black and white striped hessian upholstery webbing (charity shop find) and more pink velvet ribbon, stitched a turquoise flower on the front. The flower was made last spring in a period of "let's make felt" where we felted beautiful hanks of wool into flowers with strands of Angelina (heat fusible shiny rainbow coloured fibres) mixed in and handsewn beads. We made smaller ones for corsages but I made 3 large flat ones in various colours which lend themselves very well for stitching down onto cushions and bags. Final touch to the bag was to make a couple of ribbon ties one with a wooden bead from a 1970s necklace and the other a tiny toe-ring of tiny pretty dangly bits! I am rather pleased with it myself, I have another little bright magenta cashmere skirt to make into a bag too, so there could be a run of these. We have already booked our stall at Barnes Fair in the summer July 10th and are in line to have one at the Kew Summer Fair on Kew Green in June. SO we better stop procrastinating and start stitching! It was my birthday this week and I received today from my friend Mairead the most beautiful handtied bunch of amazing flowers (see photo) including pink lilac, purple clematis, sweet peas, deep pink peonies and more... her shop is called Rebel Rebel and is in Broadway Market in Bethnal Green.

Blimey, I think she can do it!

A successful posting, so I shall carry on a little. Rescued and Revived spent a week at the beginning of February in sunny Florida - how lucky are we?? Chilled out, laid back, at least one bit of sunshine everyday, we mostly pottered on the beach in our pjs every morning picking up shells - watched the pelicans, shags and gulls in the lagoon behind the house and generally reeeelaaaaxed. Danced a couple of nights away in the front room and Galliers now officially has the best ipod music ever. Bought trimmings and stitching gadgets and the odd "must have" fabric at Joanne's - a supermarket of all things stitch - never seen anything like it in my life, and that's the truth guvnor. Oh happy days! Needless to say Botkin's suitcase way too small so things had to be left. Here are my beach shoes on the jetty (look at the texture of that ageing wood...) just waiting for my return ......

Botkin here - I am rubbish at this. Think I'm publishing a photo of a Don't Panic teacosy, but not at all sure. This one, has stamped on the back "Have a Nice Cup of Tea and Plan your Revenge". Currently its on display at Monica Boxley's shop in Church St. Twickenham. Pay the shop a visit its a little cornucopia of wonderful handmade things. I shall try this one and if I succeed I've lots more to report!!! Toodlepip x

We are in gear for the New Year

Right! Happy New Year to all, Galliers here. The photo is of Botkin and Galliers at their mate's 50th birthday party on 2nd January in the Coxswain Bar at Ye White Hart, The Terrace, Barnes, SW13. We danced, we drank, we did NOT fall over, we embarrassed the teenagers! Yippee. We are v. close to finishing another "Lie back and think of England" blanket - the same as the lovers blanket EXCEPT... it is a wallhanging .... and very beautiful it is too, destined to hang on the wall of The Breakfast Club in Hoxton, East London. It was commissioned by the owner who saw the original hanging in all its glory at Coralie and Kristie's Christmas Cooler last month. We are so looking forward to going to eat brunch there and sit underneath it... sigh! .... This week we are going to be making bedpost baubles for Valentines Day - little heart shaped pouches made from tweed, fine black leather, lace, silks and satins, to hang from the bedpost and keep your rubber johnnies in (now I bet you've not heard that name since you were at school! - or was it just me???) - they will be embellished with the phrase "Something for the weekend Sir?" and possibly Madam too. Its brass monkeys weather at the moment so hope you are all keeping warm - teacosies! ... that's what Botkin has been working on a lot recently - lots of lovely quirky teacosies - soon to be photographed and put on here. Keep warm out there.

BUST Christmas Craftacular

Galliers here.... (now that Botkin (Roxy to those who need to know) has decided to get involved with blogging we need to differentiate between postings - so please note these are our sign-ins). Today we went up to Bethnal Green and had a wander around the BUST Christmas Craftacular in York Hall. We were not picked to attend this - so it was interesting to attend as punters. My favorites were: Jazmine Miles-Long - Ethical Taxidermist (www.jazminemiles-long.com) - her beautiful creatures preserved in their deathly loveliness for ever can be seen in the accompanying photos - I was very keen on the handsome crow but I would not have been able to bring it home - it would have been banned by my nearest and dearest, shame... she is very talented, clever and need I say, brave! - they are all "roadkill or died from natural causes". Also Corinne Bannister - www.bannbee.etsy.com who makes handmade undergarments - very lovely - very covetable - Botkin bought some flowery knickers but would not pose with them for a photo!.... (but see photo of Corinne and her stall). Also Andrea Garland - andreagarland.co.uk - a fabulous use of pretty and entertainingly worded old tins and pillboxes. She makes delicious natural face, body and lip balms and fills the tins with them - also larger tins such as the Noddy and PC Plod one pictured - as travel kits with tiny potions wrapped in a vintage silk hanky... so clever and so original. I bought after much deliberation - so much choice of container! - a little round gold tin labelled Hollywood La Bonita with lip balm in. AND you get a voucher so you can post the tin to her when its all gone and she will re-fill it for £5!! love it.

Breaking News

Botkin here - very new to this, so I hope i shan't b**** it up - but very very excited - because back here in the 21st Century - we've sold "Lie Back and Think of England" - it will be remade as a wall hanging and is apparently going to hang in "The Breakfast Club" in Hoxton. I am on a mission now to find out where the phrase originated and will let you know!

Other news - I'm stitching tea cosies - check out "Don't Panic" in our Folksy shop, and another's in the pipeline, or at least up in my stitching space - the loft.

Tomorrow B&G are off to BUST's christmas fair at York Hall, Bethnal Green. Currently loving anything "East" - must be the time of year!!!

I'm coming over all 18th Century.....

I am steeping myself in the 18th Century this week, fired up by the lady I am in the throes of making, in fits and starts!.... I have been looking at portraits of women of the time and the costumes and the wigs.... did you know for instance that the women's wigs were powdered with a mixture of ground starch, flowers and orris root (which is a fixative used in the past in pot pourri)and was often coloured lavender, pale blue, or pink... but they used mostly their own hair with added bits, if you could afford it human hair, or horse hair (although mostly men's wigs were horsehair).... the colours would only have been used for parties and balls, not everyday... that's alright then... I fancy a bit of a Marie Antoinette revival myself... I would love to swan round Sainsburys in a big powdered wig, smallpox patches and a big embroidered dress.... I am so bored with walking into all the shops and seeing endless re-hashes of the 1980s - been there already, done it, did'nt like it much... why is it back? every 3 years it gets trotted out, then the shops are full of neon hoop earrings and stonewashed denim (that was NEVER a good look).... ahem... I digress.... here are a few photos of my latest recreational stitching (I have put dolly divine on hold, got a bit bored) a nice domed glass frame which had a manky old print of venice in it, bit of calico with wadding in between and I am stitching an 18th C. lady on it... from the sketch I did from a postcard... also two recent cushions using my handmade animal templates, I did a sketch and then copied it onto the back of a cereal packet and cut it out and then in bondawebbed fabric... voila!.. they are made from a lovely ochrey mustard linen tablecloth from a charity shop, there is a bear too but its in Kings X at the moment. VERY IMPORTANT NEWS!!!.... THE MAIN REASON FOR THIS BLOG TODAY.... is that Lie Back and Think of England lovers picnic blanket is now up for auction on Ebay all proceeds go to the Sue Ryder charity... so if you like it please bid it up! I would hate for it to go for tuppence ha'penny!... also lots of other lovely things from the Upcycle competition - "Ingrid" the lovely lovely reborn Barbie with a chest reduction (I know how it was done, it sounded painful!) is there, very tempted by her myself. Please look!!!

Upcycled away......

Well!.... have our little tiny shop on www.folksy.co.uk and entered our "Lie back and think of England" blanket into it beginning of November... very excited.... lovely to have stuff looked at and it was being judged by India Knight and Wayne Hemmingway amongst others.... BUT.... the competition closed on Saturday and I thought today "ooh, I'll have a quick look at the site and see what happened" and clicked onto the list of entries, saw Feltbugs there, and realised the blanket was missing!! clicked onto the shop listing for it...yep, it said it was entered into the competition and was NFS etc etc. then back to the folksy page and saw a tiny entry from someone on twitter saying 14 entries in competition not recognized including "this lush blanket"... (lush! how nice!!) ... so have since been informed that because I tagged the entry with Sueryder. (note the all important full stop that is what caused it not to be considered by the judges) and not SUERYDER or sueryder or Sueryder... sorry, your problem, not ours, you should have followed the rules... well! I thought I DID !!! ... the embarrassing thing is that this all because of a typo... and I was a legal PA, speedtyping secretary person 15 years ago... !! need to brush up my accuracy. Nothing I can do, competition is finished, tough titties. Would have been so nice to have had it looked it by the likes of the man behind Red or Dead, that was the thing I was excited about most I think... but not to be. Still, will double check every single detail of everything another time and not take it for granted that because it LOOKS like its all fine and dandy... it actually IS!! ........disgruntled of Kew.... AND mice have got into the drawer in my desk in my sewing room where I keep my secret stash of choclit!! and nibbled and shat and looks like they have been running and shitting in my little sofa in there too... so now I have to take the whole bloody room apart, open every drawer and cupboard and basket and box and take out all the fabrics and check for mice communes breeding in them!!! and we had pet mice a few years ago and let me tell you they breed faster than rabbits and are doubly incontinent, they literally run about trailing pee behind them.... as you can see its been a bit of a day today!... but I did win a handmade xmas cake and a voucher for a pedicure at the scout christmas concert raffle.... swings and roundabouts ay?!

Saturday night at 9 Caledonian Road

Kristie and Coralie's Christmas Cooler opened on Thursday 3rd December 2009 and yesterday was the "opening party". Roxy and I went along with her partner Jules and daughters Eisha and Bee and friends. It was a horrid wet and miserable night and the Piccadilly line was jampacked mainly with young Europeans and their enormous suitcases coming from Heathrow! so we felt rather mangled by the time we arrived at the shop. Every seat in the main room was filled with people drinking cocktails and mulled wine and two tables of "makers" cutting and sticking things. The shop looked great (see photos)... and although K and C assured me that they have had very little sleep recently they both looked fresh as daisies to me.. (ahh! youth....) and seemed to be enjoying themselves whilst working hard. We met our bookclub friend Jane Cairns and her friends including the lovely Katya whose style is 1940s in a glamorous way, as opposed to tea-stained legs and a headscarf!.... she looked amazing and kindly posed for a photo, LOVE that hairstyle, and the dress and the shoes...... after a few rounds of mulled wine we left the young people to get on with it - the place was filling up. We were all hungry and took a chance on an Italian old-style Trattoria restaurant opp. Kings X station and it was very good, Roxy said it was like the Italian restaurants of her youth, murals of couples on terraces, vines, and chianti bottles... but the food was great, and the staff actually Italian!!..... on the way home we decided on a new sewing project.... will be attempting it this week and posting a photo.... - On a completely different note I stumbled across a wonderful blog today "spitalfields life" by the gentle author - he/she is attempting to post every day until 2037 and so far they are lovely, full of interesting people in the area and great stories and photos... do please google it and take a look, I will be following it now.