organic cotton kids tshirts

My samples arrived! They are 100% organic cotton t shirts and are also fairtrade. The only drawback is the sizes only seem to go up to 18 months. Colourwise they do white, unbleached and red. Somehow I have managed to forget to order the red ones! They feel lovely and soft. No chemicals or pesticides are used on the cotton. I am interested to find out more on their fairtrade aspect though and how this works. I am really aware that I don't want to be printing tshirts for kids that are made by kids. Not right in my book.

The manufacturer is Mantis World and their website is http://www.matisworld.com/ The website on the label though is http://www.tenderlovingclothing.com/ but it doesn't seem to be working???

No chance to add any printing as yet. I have decided to stick with the littlechook name but go for FlockStars by Littlechook. I am thinking of having a second etsy shop for the vintage cushions and using the littlechook on for all the printed, organic cotton cushions, t shirts and tea towels. So far my designs have rabbits, squirrels and deer. I am about to add pigeons, woodpeckers and foxes.

That's it for now, off to eat chicken fajitas an drink pear cider for dinner.

Like mother, like daughter

Haven't had a chance to photograph my latest street find which is destined for the seven dials/carnaby street pop up shop but here it is.

I am developing a slight obsession with vintage suitcases and luggage. I already have a lovely silver steamer trunk which is being used to store all my vintage fabric cushion covers. I rescued this little beauty with Katherine's help. The outside is a lovely coloured tweed fabric but when we looked inside and saw the paisley patterned lining fabric we both said 'ooohh' and she was coming home with us.

My long suffering husband says I am corrupting a toddler with my magpie habits. I think it's all in the genes...

Katherine made a little bed for herself inside the suitcase this afternoon. She's been a bit off colour these past few days and possibly has chicken pox. We just have to wait to see whether her rash turns into the actual pox. I have calamine lotion ready.

So no nursery for her today and hence no new designs for littlechook. Hopefully I'll catch up on my new flower circle designs over the weekend.

littlechook in the Schmap Guide

One of my flickr photos was chosen to appear in the London Schmap Guide. It's an online guide and covers loads of cities/countries aswell as London.

It's a picture from the first artichokeltd gallery of Hush's work in Carnaby Street. His work is now selling for big money and he was asked by Banksy to appear in a recent show of street art - the 'Cans Festival' which took over a disused tunnel near Waterloo.

http://www.schmap.com/ Seems like a good idea but I find the site is very very slow to load.

Tonight I am trying to do some work on my neglected etsy shop but finding other design blogs far more interesting.

back home from edinburgh

Edinburgh was as gorgeous as ever. We had a fabulous time and managed to pack in visits to all family members both east and west coast.

We went for a walk round the city on saturday night finished by a drink in the lovely cafe royal. I had forgotten what a beautiful interior it has with all the old tiles and the leather seats in the little half moon 'booths'. We stayed in a really swanky top floor flat on Thistle Street a couple of doors away from my old flat which was a very strange coincidence. The flat looks as if it is up for sale too.

We didn't shop much unfortunately but I did get some pictures on penhaligons window on george street. their current display uses a backdrop of photographic wallpaper with old vintage books. They have some lovely old glass bottles too and bowler hats.

My Dad's 60th was a blast too. Great meal in Iglu then lots of family chat and general catch up. My cousins were nearly all there so we had a good blether.

We had lovely weather too and took Katherine to Princes Street Gardens to play on the swings and then walked through the gardens and saw the flower clock under construction. I used to go and see the flower clock as a wee girl so it was nice to show it to my wee girl (even though it wasn't quite completed). Edinburgh Castle looked really imposing in the sunlight and the set up for the Edinburgh Millitary Tatoo was well underway too.

It was lovely to be back in Scotland and it's inspired us to try to get there more often.

going to edinburgh

Off to edinburgh this weekend for my dad's 60th birthday party (happy birthday dad!)and on my list of things to do are:

buy vintage from armstrongs (I love this shop! Todays pics are my best ever vintage purchase naturally from armstrongs!)
have a pint of IPA in the Black Bull
visit the museum of scotland
see the new scottish parliment
eat lots of cakes, scones, tablet etc

Back to blog about edinburgh's general fabness next week.

Pulse 2008 day 3

Visited again today (with Katherine in tow poor mite) to have another look at the show. I thought the launchpad (supported by Liberty) was the best bit of the show and the designers showed fantastic creativity and talent. All these designers have studios or are members of organisations like Hidden Art, Craft Central and Cockpit Arts. Today's pic shows some of the work available from the hidden art online shop www.hiddenart.com

I am having a look at my fav's websites and will blog 'em all over the next few days.

After lunch I took the little lady to the park as a thank you for being so good at Pulse and we got soaked to the skin in the rain and Katherine fell in a puddle but she took it all in her stride as usual.

And I had a sale in my etsy shop too yay! I am not sure if I never noticed the gallery layout feature before or it is new but I much prefer how the shop looks in this layout. I am sure though that the ability to list items in terms of price, date added is new and it is a great addition to the site.

Pulse 2008

Spent the day at Earls Court at the Pulse 2008 trade show. It has exhibitors covering jewellry, gifts, home furnishings, bath and body, cards etc. It also has a launchpad section for new designers. It was intersting wandering round and seeing the types of products on offer from a variety of companies. My particular favourites were thornback and peel and snowden flood. There were alot of real 'cutesy' stuff which is not me at all and I did think it would be more 'design' led.

Afterwards we zipped up to Kensington High Street and went to Wholefoods Market which is just unbeliveable. Floors and floors of organic, fairtrade, fresh - you name it they have got it. So tonight we feasted on loive bread, manchego cheese and quince paste and I have hidden away some white chocolate with poppy seeds. Mmmmm