My London Photo Diary

I wanted to post some of the photos I took while I was in London for Top Drawer last week. Some friends were kind enough to put me up for the week- and show me some cool places in London that I would have never found otherwise. It's a long post, but bear with me- it's all good stuff! So here's my London photo diary:

1. Setting off from Dundee train station early on Friday morning. Caught a beautiful sunrise behind the Discovery.

2. Six hours later- arrive in London and make my way to my Friends' house. They have nice tiles in their hallway!

3. Go out for dinner (Franco Manca Sourdough Pizza, Yum!) and then cocktails at an amazing half art exhibition/bar called Seven at Brixton. Had a Ginger beer and Basil Mojito- it was delicious. My favourite part was the room filled with faces!

4. Set up my stand at Earl's Court and then head for tea and cake at the delicious Yumchaa near Goodge St station. They have about 50 different teas and amazing cake. Despite the choice I opt for English Breakfast tea- but is a particularly delicious variety!

5. Having fun at Top Drawer with some of my Spotted buddies from the September show. They gave us champagne on the second day!

6. My laser cut print display stand- took a bit of figuring out but it worked out in the end- I'm proud of that!

7. An amazing cardboard tube shop called, Circus, in Brixton village- it was closed when we went- but it looked pretty fantastic from the outside!

8. One evening I sampled dinner at The Breakfast Club in Hoxton. I had a ginormous burger and delicious chips, that although less breakfasty that it's establishment's name suggests was still very, very good. My favourite thing about The Breakfast Club however would have to be...

9. The Toilets at The Breakfast Club. Firstly- the entrance hall to the toilets is painted entirely black, has a glitter ball and a speaker playing music- and is most likely the "World's Smallest Disco" as it says on the door. Secondly- the interiors of the toilet cubicles are papered entirely with 80's cartoon wallpaper. My toilet was papered in a Fraggle Rock repeat- it was awesome!

10. Despite getting in from our Hoxton adventure pretty late- I decided to paint my nails all fancy for the last day of the show. Yay for Zigzags!

11. A lovely painted "Bovril" building on my way to the tube station on my last day of Top Drawer.

12. After catching the train back up north I caught a beautiful sunset while passing over the river in Newcastle- Shepherd's Delight if ever I saw it!

And that's that! I had such a great time while I was in the Big Smoke this time round- it's so good when you have a London local to help you find all of the little hidden gems! I'd recommend seeking any of these places out- they're very good finds indeed!

Spotted Plus - Fun Times in London!

Well after all of the hard work and preparation- Spotted Plus at Top Drawer Spring is over- and was jolly good fun indeed!

I arrived back in Scotland late Wednesday evening after a brilliant 5 days in the Big Smoke. It was really great to meet up with everyone I'd met at Spotted back in September and to see their new work for 2012 (see Snowdon's new hand-printed "tweet" card above- it's super cute!) It was also lovely to see the new talent which Charlotte had picked out for the main Spotted feature- with my favourite pieces being Esme Winter's beautiful patterned papers and notebooks (pictured above) and Polaroid inspired ceramics by Just Noey (also pictured above).

For more photos of the Spotted & Spotted plus features at the show, check out my Flickr!

I had a great few days at the show- met some lovely people and arrived home to a really lovely review over on the Guardian House and Home blog!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to come visit me at my- including the lovely Zoe from Ladybird Likes...!

Nice to See You...

I've been working on some brand new cushions recently- and I am pleased to say that they are now here! My screen-printed Nice Biscuit cushion and Pink Wafer cushions are available to pre-order in my Big Cartel Shop.

I'll be launching them alongside my new Bourbon Biscuit Brooch at Top Drawer London this January 15th - 17th at Earl's Court, London. I'm catching the train all the way from Dundee to London tomorrow morning, so I'll keep you all up to date with my progress via twitter over the next few days, and while I'm at the show.

Spotted PLUS at Top Drawer Spring 2012

With the whirlwind that is Christmas and the festive season almost over I'm making plans for the coming year. Thank you to everyone who visited my shop this festive season- I hope that everyone who received a biscuity gift this Christmas was chuffed with it!

I'll be blogging a round-up of highlights from 2011 tomorrow- but until then I can't wait any longer to announce that I will be returning to Top Drawer Spring this January as part of Spotted Plus! While I was part of the Spotted feature last time around (see my blog post), Spotted Plus is a new addition to the Spring show. I've been invited to be part of Spotted plus alongside 5 other Spotted exhibitors from the 2011 Autumn show: Goodwin + Goodwin, Snowdon Design, Laura Spring, Bong & Rag, and Cutture.

I've been seriously lucky this month- and was awarded the Dundee Craft Maker's Award- which will be used to fund my attendance at Top Drawer this January.

The Top Drawer show mag popped through the letterbox this morning- and I'm very lucky to have had one of my Custard Cream cushions featured! I'll add a link to the digital mag as soon as it's released- until then there's a few snaps above.

If you're planning on coming along- don't forget to register. They'll give you a shiny show-badge to wear!