Happy Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm celebrating with these lovely little padded heart decorations which make pretty ornaments for a loved one. Each one is made from vintage kimono fabric and has a message of love on the front.

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday to all! It's a grey and rainy day here in London town, and I'm very glad to be working from home today. The weather over the weekend was gorgeous and I had a fab time catching up with good friends, doing a spot of dancing at Abigail's Party, and had a scrumptious lunch on the terrace at the Bingham Hotel on Sunday, overlooking the river Thames. I had to share some food shots of my starter of beetroot marinated smoked salmon and my very stylish Eton Mess dessert with a scoop of strawberry sorbet on top. Lovely colours and very tasty too!

On top of doing some fab outings, I was very busy on the sewing machine and managed to run up some lovely items. These included a trio of fabulous green clutch bags, some made from Japanese obi fabrics and one made from some of the gorgeous ikat fabric I bought in Istanbul. Green clutches are often the favourites with my clients (and indeed with me!) and I'm always searching for that perfect green. You can find them in my store here.

I also added to my padded decorative hearts collection, which have proven to be very popular. Each one is made from a vintage kimono fabric and has a hand written word or phrase sewn onto it. There is also a ribbon loop, so that the heart can be hung somewhere inspirational in your home. I'm also planning to make some of them into key rings or bag charms. You can find them in my store here.

It's now countdown time to the Bags and Bubbles event that I will be holding at my home on 20th October. Something that I'm really looking forward to! After that, I will be heading to Tokyo at the beginning of November to attend the International Bazaar at the Tokyo American Club. I can't wait! It will be a fab week of selling my bags, catching up with old friends and buying new fabrics.

Kimono hearts

I seem to have kimono hearts coming out of my ears at the mo!

It's countdown time to the Designers Makers Market I'm doing on Saturday 16th May and I am now refining the look of my stall. I have been making some pretty padded kimono hearts and decided to string them together to make a garland that will festoon the front of my stall.

I'm really pleased with it!

The garland looks really nice on my kitchen wall!

I used pretty shades of red, pink, cream and turquoise.

Each heart is made from vintage kimono pieces and is lightly padded.

I am now selling kimono heart decorations in my store.

They look really pretty hanging in a group from pussy willow branches.

You can find them here.

Weekend delights

I hope you all and a great weekend, mine was lovely!

I spent Friday and Saturday down in Devon with my good friend Sanna. She recently moved back to the UK after living in Tokyo for about four years, which is where we met. She is now living in a beautiful converted house in the depths of the countryside, surrounded by luscious rolling green fields and clean air. It was a tonic for the soul to spend some time there, catching up, eating good food and going for a very long walk - 14km in all!

When in Devon, one must partake in a cream tea and we certainly did that!

The cream was so thick, it was like ice-cream, all served up on a pretty floral tea set.

The local produce is all organic and tasty. This tomato was the size of two fists!

Fruit artfully arranged in a Japanese wooden bowl. It's amazing how well their Japanese furniture fits into their very English new home.

On Sunday I got busy making more padded kimono hearts.

Here's a little sample of some of them and they should be in my store soon.