Lie Down I Think I Love You

Not a command I generally associate with handbags, that is until I stumbled upon a little shop on a birthday trip to Brighton where I found some gorgeous bags that spoke to me through their labels. However, Lie Down I Think I Love You is just a visitor to Brighton, their products are made in London and their ‘jewel-like’ shop you’ll find in Islington.

The bag that really caught my eye was in buttery soft pale blue re-worked vintage leather, large enough to hold all the useless crap that I insist on carting about with me and topped with a bright vintage scarf. It was less than half price in the sale so it soon became my birthday present.

Lie Down I Think I Love You have some real beauties of bags, like this Baby Bubble Pop at £255.

The scarves are interchangeable so you can change them to match your mood, the seasons or your outfit and there’s a lovely animation that shows you how to tie the scarf so it looks as good as when you bought it. Choose from a range of vintage scarves, all at £15, my favourite is the one with the cars…

This Hard Heart will make your’s melt, one side is patent and the other has been covered with vintage scarf fabric and will set you back £165.

They are more than I would normally spend on a bag if I’m honest, but the quality of workmanship is really good and I think they’re very unique with their vintage elements. Look out for their sales with most things reduced to 50% of the original price.

Wrapped Up in Typography

I came across this quote from typographer and designer Helmut Schmid,

“Typography needs to be audible. Typography needs to be felt. Typography needs to be experienced.”

I would like to add that typography needs to be worn.

Particularly in the form of these lasercut microfibre suede scarves. Wrap yourself up in this Lowercase scarf.

If you regularly overuse the ‘Caps Lock’ key you may prefer the Uppercase version, both come in black or white.

Can’t decide between black or white? The Helvetica scarf combines the two.

I love these, I’d spend ages looking at the letters and seeing if I could spot any words in there. Scarf wordsearch – you’ll never be bored on public transport again.

They are available from The Literary Gift Company for £48, the Helvetica version is 40cm longer and is £54.

There are also coasters in the same design.

Man’s Best Friend Scarves

I’ll be honest with you. I can see the appeal of dogs and I really love the idea of them, but when I’m faced with a real dog I’m scared. Very scared. I always have been and unfortunately think I always will be. It doesn’t matter what breed or what size, until I get to know a dog I will be scared stiff of it.

When I was a kid I used to beg our next door neighbour to let her dogs come and play with me in our garden and then I’d remember how scary they were and spend the rest of the afternoon at the top of the climbing frame too frightened to come down, while two shih-tzus bounced up and down below me. My brother would be rolling around on the floor crying tears of laughter at how pathetic and deluded I was.

Things haven’t changed that much. If I’m on my bike and I see a dog off its leash, I’ll get off my bike and push it along until I’ve passed the dog. My husband will cycle on, shaking his head in despair and calling out a gentle reminder that the toy poodle busily sniffing another dog’s bum isn’t interested in chasing me.

These Man’s Best Friend scarves by Lisa Bliss at The Graduate Collection aren’t scary at all. In fact these rainbow dachshunds couldn’t be scary if they tried. Look how sweet they look with their little stumpy legs.

The dachshund scarves are available with nine dachshunds widthways in mink or rainbow or with one big dachshund lengthways in turquoise or pink.

As the dachshund is long , the boston terrier is square and so is Lisa’s boston terrier scarf. Unlike real boston terriers you can choose from pink, yellow or green. I like that one head is picked out in a different colour.

Lisa’s scarves are 100% silk, manufactured in the UK and are £90 from the Graduate Collection who champion new and emerging designers in the UK. There are also six fox head scarves to choose from.

Until I can get over my fear of dogs, one of these beautiful scarves can be my dog substitute.

Beedazzled

Yesterday I saw my first bee of 2012. He was humming lazily round a flower, I hope he survives the cold snap. In tribute to the little fella here are some bee things I hanker after.

It started with the La Rochere glassware that I bought my mum one Christmas. I love the raised bee motifs on the sides. Actually I’m not sure she uses them, I may ask to ‘borrow’ them… The range is are available from John Lewis at £5-£35.

Then there’s the bee wallpaper I wrote about a few weeks ago.

For a wedding present we got this beautiful Laguiole cutlery in the multi-coloured jewel range. There is a little bee at the base of each handle.

The stainless steel version is pretty too and you can get a whole cutlery drawer full including cheese knives, salad servers, fish sets and carving sets. The sets are £27 – £50, while individual butter knives are £5.50 from John Lewis.

Craig Fellows’ silk scarves are beautiful, I particularly like his long Honey to the Bee scarf at £39.99.

If you prefer a square silk scarf, Runny Honey is also gorgeous at £79.99. This scarf is huge at 90cm square.

I’ve often wondered what bees do in the winter and Rory Dobner’s Bee in Bed mug has educated me. There are five more animals in the same Intricate range, all at £15.

I hope the one I saw is doing just this until it warms up again. Wasps on the other hand, can p!ss right off.

Not Just For Grannies

When I was six or seven my granny taught me to knit. I wasn’t very good at it and would just knit one long thing and because I always forgot how to cast off I’d end up leaving it unfinished. But my granny knitted really well and always had a bag or cardigan on the go and would knit us amazing things like Scooby Doo and Super Ted toys, she would put pencils in their arms and legs to make them straight which would often poke you when you cuddled them, but on the plus side could come in handy for some impromptu drawing. They lasted so brilliantly I passed them on to my daughter and even though she’s too old for them now, they can get passed down to the next baby in the family.

I was thinking how nice it would be to make things to pass down through the family or to give as special gifts for friends’ babies, so I Googled knitting lessons and the first one that came up was Mrs Moon who, it turns out, are just down the road from me. The beginners knitting patterns on the website looked so impressive that I booked a Beginners Knitting class.

Sisters Karen and Susan opened Mrs Moon in 2009 and they’ve got some beautiful pattern books and yarn. In the shop they display a few samples they’ve made from the patterns so you can see what the finished product should look like. They also have a really gorgeous array of buttons.

Karen led the beginners knitting class at the back of the shop and it was nice and cosy with me and just one other person so I got lots of one-to-one help with casting on, knitting, purling and casting off. I was very chuffed with the little square of knitting I had created and amazed at how it all came back to me, I had been convinced I’d forgotten the lot. So, full of excitement, I chose some yarn and knitting needles with the help of Susan so I could go off and knit a scarf.

I’ve been a bit under the weather this week but that means that I finished my scarf in just two sessions (and caught up on everything that I had recorded that I’m not allowed to watch if anyone else is in the room – One Born Every Minute, Masterchef etc.).

I popped back today for some red wool for a snood, I know it’s the wrong season but I don’t trust the British weather.

To be honest, when I mentioned that I was going to learn to knit I got more than a little teasing about it. I went along to this class thinking I’d be really rubbish and that it might be a waste of time but I really enjoyed it. I’m going to do a couple more easy patterns and then I think I’ll go along to another of their classes so I can make something a bit trickier. Karen and Susan are so friendly and helpful and got me really excited about learning something new. Pop over to their website and have a look, if you order online before 1pm they ship your order the same day.

To find a knitting course near you look at the list on the UK Hand Knitting Association website.

Have you got any knitting stories?