Etsy Made Local

Really looking forward to Etsy Made Local this Sunday - I'll be there with my super duper things and so many fabulous talented makers, great workshops and general festive fun. More details here - it'd be great to see you there!

News!

Two pieces of hurried news that, should things have gone exactly as idealised, would have been delivered earlier and better :)

Here are peeks of new designs in my new 'Botanique Electrique' collection - botanical illustrations, but updated in bright flouro or metallic foil finishes! These limited edition foil and Risograph prints are available now in the shop in many colours.

The other piece of news is... that we are going on an adventure around Iceland for ten days! So any orders placed from now on will be shipped on 21st May, apologies for any inconvenience there. And apologies for the massive show-offing spamming of instagram that I shall be doing of beautiful landscapes, whales (please!) and geothermal spas. You know... I'll be doing my best but I'd be surprised if quite a lot of boasting didn't creep in. You have been warned! See you back here in a couple of weeks for a photo round-up.

x

Springaling!

This weekend I'm excited to be at the Urban Makers East spring market in Mile End Ecology Pavilion (what a cool place to be!). There'll be loads of handmade goodies, a really nice little food market, great activities for the kids and loads of space to run around in outside. Plus, architectural practice Five Line Projects are showing their exciting Pinwheel Pavilion project (below). If you're local, come down and say hi!

I'm excited to be showing for the first time a new collection of prints that I've been working on on-and-off (very much mostly off) for nearly a year (!)... more to come when I've photographed them properly but here's a sneaky peek:

DIY beach hut: anti-January blues

Sometimes in the depths of January you need to be reminded of sunnier times that will come! While digging around in my laptop (an ongoing tidy-up project that never seems complete) I came across these pieces from a hand-made zine that I contributed to in my first year of university - oh! 8 years ago now?! It was all about trips to the Norfolk coast in the middle of winter. On a day like today a well-wrapped up trip to the wintery coast seems like rather a good proposition, but since I can't go in reality I thought I'd post these here so we can all go in spirit.

A perfect project for the kids, or the grown-up kids: click on the cut-out beach hut picture and right click to save the image (at least on a mac! It might be different on a PC.) Print it out on A4 paper, colour it in to your hearts content and then follow the instructions to assemble. Why not make a whole row, get some fish and chips in, play seagull noises and pretend you're there while reflecting that perhaps after all its better to have warm feet and the kettle in reaching distance...

Enjoy your weekends, my dears!


'Making Winter' bloghop:

On New Years Resolutions

It's that time when everyone is asking 'any news years resolutions this year?' It's unavoidable! Usually I don't really make any, but this year I seem to have a huge stack of personal wishes/changes that pretty much could all be put under the umbrella of 'be a better person' - you know, be kinder, do more exercise, feel more content and less dissatisfied with what I do, not envy the success of others and make myself feel down, take better care of my plants, eat less salt (oh, and sugar!)... Stay in touch with old friends properly, have much less clutter, get back on the yoga, throw myself into my study properly, be patient, do something good with the hoards of fabric in the cupboard... The list is almost  endless!

They do say it's best to have one or two achievable goals but I'm just gonna throw all of these into the new year and see what sticks. And if nothing does, I'll go back and read this article to make myself feel better.

Oh, and just one more: ease up on myself! :D And meanwhile, there are lots of exciting ideas in the pipeline for Super Duper Things.

Well. Thanks for reading my ramble. How about you? Do you go in for new years resolutions?

A Derbyshire Christmas

 Some pictures from our Christmas trip to stay in Buxton (in the Peak District) with my boyfriend's parents. Fresh air, misty muddy dog walks, great food, great company, many drinks and adorable old hotel furnishings. It was exactly what was needed! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas too, if you celebrate it. And now, on to the New Year!

Thanks so much for all your support this year, it means a lot! Stay tuned for exciting things to come in 2016...

Meanwhile I hope you all have a fantastic break and an excellent new year!

Louise
x

#theinstaexchange

When I saw the wonderful Sarah of Me and Orla announce an instagram Christmas gift-giving exchange, I pounced on it and signed up right away. I love love love the putting together, sending and receiving of packages purely for the reason of brightening up someone's day, or sending a little bit of pretty happiness (prappiness?!). And just look what turned up at my place yesterday! A great big box of total joy from talented German photographer Rona Keller, who got me 'to a T' - seeds for topping loaves, a load of fantastic herbal teas, homemade sugared almonds (my favourite) plus chocolates (already long gone), lots of Rona's lovely photographs and all fantastically wrapped and decorated. I also really appreciated the dried orange rings because I didn't have time to make my own this year.

All in all, a total win. Thanks Rona!

PS she has a totally beautiful instagram feed, if that's your bag. It so is mine. :D

Proper Christmassy dairy-free gingerbread biscuits

Ginger and cinnamon are, however much you use them all year round, undoubtedly the flavours of Christmas. And Christmassy baking is the one thing that really gets me in the festive mood! I was heading to a friend's this week for a bit of festive making, and as she can't eat dairy I thought I'd have a go at dairy-free gingerbread biscuits. Now most of the recipes I found online called for non-dairy spreads to just replace the butter, but I didn't want to buy a whole tub that we probably wouldn't finish. So I experimented with olive oil, and the results were pretty good, so I thought I'd share what I did.

Olive oil gingerbread and honey biscuits

Adapted from BBC Food

Makes: really quite a lot!

Ingredients: 

350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Olive oil
175g/4oz light soft brown sugar
1 free-range egg
4 tbsp honey

Method

1. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and pour into the bowl of a food processor. Add olive oil a little at a time and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. 
   
   
2. Lightly beat the egg and honey together, add to the food processor and pulse until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead briefly until smooth, wrap in clingfim and leave to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
   
   
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line three baking trays with greaseproof paper.
   
   
4. Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them. 
   
   
5. Bake for 8-10* minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for a bit to cool and then move to a wire rack until completely cold. Make icing by adding way less water than you think you'll need to icing sugar, pop it in a bag and snip a small hole in the corner. Ice away!
   
   You could always use half the dough, and keep the rest in the fridge wrapped well in clingfilm for a couple of days - I tried this and it came out fine.
   
   
   
   
   *I left one batch of mine in longer, and they weren't as good. Live and learn! 

We're off to my parents' for Christmas Part 1 this weekend, I'm really looking forward to getting away, seeing everyone and getting the festivities started early! Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are. And let me know if you try these!

Making some winter cheer (caution: foliage-heavy post)

Late last week, the to-do list was mounting, the weather was grizzly and the seasonal cheer was rather lacking in the house. So what to do? Take a break and faff around with lovely evergreen foliage, that's what! 

It turns out that you do get some funny looks picking up sticks in the drizzle, umbrella in one hand, on a grey street in South-east London,  but we urban foragers must find our nature wherever we can! Plus some beautiful trails of ivy from a neglected (no complaint) railway bridge and I was all set for a bit of wreath-making and a bit of decorating.

Now that I'm working from home a lot I do find the mess and all the STUFF in our flat (which I love, there are certainly worse places to be all day!) a bit overwhelming. So it was definitely a good thing mental-happiness-wise to have a bit of a clear up and add a little wintery prettiness. As we ramp up to Christmas I think I'll add more, there isn't quite the lavish abundance that I'd really yet... More is always more, amiright?

PS, it's not too late (if you're in the UK) to order gifts from the shop - you could have this fern print in any colour you like especially to make your loved-one happy. Just drop me a line to discuss custom colours for no extra charge!


This is a Making Winter blog hop, go and see all the lovely stuff at Silver Pebble's wonderful cheering blog for more.

What a week!

 

Above photo credit: Yeshen Venema 

 

It's been a very exciting week here in Super Duper land. I had an amazing few days at Etsy Made Local: London, met loads of lovely people, experienced Soho early on a Sunday morning for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed myself! I also particularly enjoyed wrapping up people's presents on the free gift-wrapping station run by the talented Shoshana - which surprised me a little as I thought I might crumble under the pressure!

So now, back at home, catching up on work and trying to stop my thoughts from straying to how much I'd like to start doing nice Christmassy things, decorating my teeny weeny tree and making mince pies :D Maybe at the weekend, eh? ...

Etsy Made Local: London

 

This weekend – well, starting on Friday night for a late-night shopping preview – I'm super excited to be taking part in Etsy Made Local's London event. It's going to be so good - loads of really talented sellers, beautiful displays, great food and drink, and free to get in. Plus a free gift-wrapping station manned by all the lovely makers, so its very possible that you could get all your Christmas gifts found and wrapped this weekend, leaving the rest of the month free for mulled wine, mince pies and relaxation!

Of course I would say this, but I think it's so much nicer to support small, independent creative businesses and give beautiful, thoughtful handmade things in this season of (sometimes) crazy commercialisation. Plus I would so love to see you if you can come and say hi!

http://www.londonlocalteam.com/etsy-made-local/

PS. You can still get 15% off everything in the shop until the end of Monday by entering discount code SDTBF15 at the checkout :D

Fridays are good

I've decided to get the festive feeling flowing with a little Black Friday sale - you can get 15% off anything in the shop with code SDTBF15 so it's a good time for a little handmade shopping - be they gifts for friends or for yourself!

Hope you have wonderful weekend, friends

x

Cosy week

Brrrrr! Dunno about you but that cold snap came out of nowhere here in the south of England... So I have spent a couple of days working from home dressed in ALL of my jumpers and a hat. Time to get cosy! I'm thinking mulled wine, pub fires, Tuscan bean stew and apple cakes. Yeeeaaahhh.

What's your cosy ideal?