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?!