Khadi soap

My husband has just made yet another trip to India and returned in the snow. He bought Khadi soaps - rose water, lavender, fruit, jasmine and many others. (Khadi is the word for hand-spun and hand-woven cotton cloth in India and was the name given to the movement started by Gandhi to encourage use of Indian pure cotton in India during the British rule there before Independence. There are now many Khadi stores all over India selling a variety of hand-made items.) This rose water soap is handmade with only rose essential oils, glycerine and soap base. The label says (these are the exact words and spellings): "rose water soap helps in giving the coolness & freshness of the body by which tention & tiredness of the wholeday does not exit" (i guess they mean 'exist'!). So cute!

xmas wishes

wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Liberty for Target

I collected these images a while ago (in fact it was quite a long time ago as they're not even on the Liberty website anymore). They are relatively new designs printed on home wares and dining ware by Liberty for Target (in the US). I guess Target must have loads of nice designer stuff as I'm always coming across it on various blogs - why can't we get Target here in the UK? We're missing out!

all images from Liberty of London 

bedroom crates

 My son's desk was always a mess. So I found some wooden wine bottle crates in Costco and varnished the inside (so they would be easy to wipe clean). They work perfectly as shelving, which can be rearranged if necessary, as we haven't nailed them in place yet. They certainly keep his desk more tidy!

This is the place i found inspiration for this idea - real living magazine, Australia

more snow...

I thought it was exciting to have snow on Friday but yesterday this happened (see below) and there are no signs of it melting!

our back garden

sun and snow

This morning we had a mini snow storm - it was wild for a very short amount of time. Then the sun came out!

roddy and ginger

 This is a design company I've never seen before - Roddy and Ginger. Such a cute name! Her real name is Virginia and she's a graphic and textile designer based in SE London. She is inspired by the same things I love - folk art, houses and florals. She sells most of these prints, bags and cushions on her etsy shop here, and blogs about her work here.

all images from roddy and ginger

make do and mend

The promotion of the slogan 'make do and mend' started in Britain in WWII and seems to be making a comeback with world-wide recession digging its claws in. I'm all for it and was going to design my own 'make do and mend' poster when I found these cute posters, cards, book covers and even cushions (I love Mrs Sew and Sew)!

 sweet sweet life

 the sustainable stylist

lets buy it

craftzine

bold and noble

 mixed plate blog

make do n mend

 kidsknits

heraldic needlepoint

 flickriver

the lean times