Cattapilla Dreaming

I’m really pleased to be part of the Selvedge Spring Fair at the end of the month.   I’ve been busy making  new Vintage Print Summer Bags

 Vintage Print Cushions

and I finally went through my stash of antique embroideries and have now got some wonderful Antique Embroidered Cushions.  These aren’t on the Cattapilla Designs website yet but I’ll get them on as soon as I can.

These and more will be coming with me.

So if you’re able to get to London on 31st March I’d love to see you.

P.S.  I think spring may be coming!

Can’t believe it’s nearly a week since Showcase ended.  I had hoped to see a bit of Dublin city but the walk from hotel to the RDS in Ballsbridge was all I saw.  It was  tiring but a very successful show and Cattapilla Designs feels like it’s made a big step forward.  Setting up was relatively calm thanks in no small part to T’s calming influence and muscle power, and I was pleased with the stand. 

My bags were everywhere, on a mannequin in the entrance

 in the Trends Area

( my  bags in the Trends area – those are words I never thought I’d write!)

 in the Fashion Show and, best of all, in the Top 50 Best New Products display.

Lots of new customers, a good number of orders and a positive reaction to bags and cushions alike.  The tidy workroom of a few weeks ago is now a serious mess again  – well, after all, it is a workroom – as I get down to a marathon bag and cushion making excercise.  Luckily it’s too cold to do anything in the garden although I have noticed snowdrops, primroses, witch hazel and camelias all flowering with daffodils beginning to show colour.  If we get any sun soon I’ll try and get out but for the time being I shall be chained to the sewing machine!

We awoke this morning to the sound of a storm force 9.  We recognise the ferocity of the storms by the noise.  The house booms and shudders like a ship in heavy seas, the wind turbine roars and horizontal rain crashes against the windows.  I had to go up the road to feed the neighbours’ cats; it was quite scary.

I had intended to go into town but even if the big ferry is running it will be an unpleasant trip.  And if the ferry isn’t running then it’ll be one of the old lifeboats and clambering onto that whilest weighed down with shopping, followed by bouncing across the bay and then clambering off  in high winds and driving rain is no fun.   So instead I spent the afternoon playing with a new toy and reading a new old magazine. 

Our trip to the UK was great.  I was thoroughly spoilt, taken to a swanky restaurant and crazy hotel  – The Church Street Hotel, a little bit of Mexico in the middle of Camberwell of all places – and ate magnificent food and drank  fine wines.  I was showered with such generous gifts and spent time with some of my favourite people. Perfect.

  One of my presents was a camera.  As one who struggles with anything new and different, I hadn’t taken it out of its box until this afternoon.  But out it has now come and having attached the strap - which took longer than reading the instructions – it’s now awaiting its charging battery and a bit of a play.  Watch this space!

Another wonderful present was an original Vogue from November 1951.

To get this tiny waist

these had to be worn

and can you see what this incredibly glamorous picture is advertising?

At least one was allowed to be ‘not so slender’  in those days!

Isn’t this coat glorious? Look at those buttons.  Sixty years on and I’d love one!

And this?  From last March. Well, I wasn’t going outside again to photograph the rain! 

So.  We went to London.  And now we’re home, T with a streaming cold and me with a sense of relief that I don’t live in the city.  Normally London inspires and excites me but this time it did neither  -  it seemed too noisy, too busy, too  frantic and just too darned unpleasant.

But of course there were highlights.  No-one could fail to enjoy spending time with this one! 

 He’s changed so much since we last saw him in June and his constant chattering kept us laughing.  Thank you Joe.

The Chelsea Physic Garden was fascinating

Peter Jones was as you’d expect and knitting wool was bought!   I was suprised by how many small prep-school children were in the top floor cafe with juice and buns doing their homework.  Made me wonder if the state primary school children were around the corner in Macdonalds with burgers and chips as the bribe for their homework? 

The old Express building in Fleet Street was open for London Open House.

Brilliant.

I listened to the bells of St Paul’s and then went in for choral Evensong  which included the admission of eight angelic looking new choristers and an organ scholar.  Not a dry eye in the house!  Sitting in the main body of that great building, even with the organ thundering, brings stillness and calm.  I’m glad I went.

And now it’s autumn, officially.  And with it’s arrival begins the Bere Island Ferries winter timetable.  No more popping into Castletownbere on the 2.30 with just enough time to do a supermarket dash, and visit the bank and fish shop before  returning on the 3.30.  And the luxury of visiting MacCarthy’s Bar for a few pints of the black stuff is off, unless you want to start drinking mid-afternoon –  the last ferry back onto Bere Island is 6.30pm, 8.30 for special treats on a Friday!  

 I’d like to say a big THANK YOU  for all your generous encouragements to my last post.  And an even bigger thank you to the customer who loved the wool clutch bags so much she couldn’t decide which one to have – so she bought two!  Now that’s the sort of customer I like!!

Have a good weekend.

… telephones, computers, cameras never fail!  I seem to remember telling you last week that all connections were up and running.  Hah!  That’s what I thought!  More calls to eircom, more visits from Jim, the eircom techno wizard, and finally, finally, normal service was restored yesterday.

Meanwhile, another Craft Fair –  this weekend in Kinsale.  Then I think that may be the last, ever!  I’m wrecked.  From the preparation to the travelling, setting up, actual selling for two days, packing up and getting home late on a Sunday evening, then unpacking, putting away etc., etc., and back to the sewing machine the next day.  Life is too, too short to be this tired.  So the decision has been made.  Online shop, great.  Wholesale to shops, great.  Out and about selling – not great, not any more. 

So, for one last weekend, here it is!  

Thank you for your compliments on the new bags.  So far, they’re going well!  Cushions to follow soon.

Driving through Glengarrif the other day on our way to Bantry I made T stop the car to admire and photograph the hydrangeas that run along the roadside wall in front of the Eccles Hotel.

I shan’t attempt to describe them – they speak for themselves.

They still remind me of 50’s bathing hats.

When I first read the July Scavenger Hunt list I thought it looked pretty straightforward.  Last week I was in a panic that I wasn’t going to be able to complete the twelve photos!  It wasn’t as easy as it looked.  So here’s my contribution and thank you again Kathy at Postcards from the P.P. and have a great holiday!

Red White and Blue.   This small trawler sits in the harbour in Castletownbere dwarfed by it’s giant neighbours.

Flip Flops.  Comfy summer shoes.

Ice Cream.  Tricky to catch before it dribbled down his arm!

Strawberries.  Ours had finished before the end of June so a picture of one of my favourite 50’s fabrics.

A Flag.  This is the Green Schools Award flag awarded to Bere Island National School for all their green activities.

Fields.  Looking across the bridge from Valentia Island to the mainland north of Port Magee, County Kerry.

Celebration.  For those who wish to attend, the Annual Mass celebrated at the Holy Year Cross, Bere Island.  It’s a long climb up and when the clouds come down, not such a great view.

Sea Shells.   I have bowls of shells from the beach all over the house.

Stars.  Tiling on the walls of what used to be Harringtons Bar, again in Castletownbere.

Stripes.  On the slip in Knightstown, Valentia.

A Kite.  I thought about unwrapping the kite and trying to put it together.  Then I thought again!

Something That Makes You Happy (but not a person or an animal!)  Despite the gale force winds that tried to destroy them I am picking a bunch of heavily scented Sweet Peas every day and they always make me smile.

Have you seen August’s list yet?!

Where oh where are the days going?  Blogging is very low on the list of things to do and so although I do make time to read lots of those inspiring blogs out there, commenting and posting my own are too much most of the time.  Yes, it’s a busy time what with marmalade sales hitting new heights  and new winter stock to be designed and made for Cattapilla Designs.  And then there’s the garden.  There is always something to deadhead, plant out, thin, water, stake, rescue, dig up, cut back and god knows what else although daily harvesting for lunch and supper and flowers for the house is very satisfying.

But we did manage a night away last week, across the border to County Kerry.  We visited Kenmare and saw some perfectly posing cats

As soon as I got any closer this one disappeared off its perch

These two however didn’t move, obviously very used to being photographed! 

We discovered the Kenmare Lace Museum in a tiny room above the Tourist office. 

 This beauty is a Miss Moynihan modelling  her newly purchased Kenmare lace and Irish crochet lace numbers in the early 1900’s.  Fascinating stuff – have a look here.   Then through Killarney and on to  Kerry Woollen Mills for some lovely wool cloth, of which more another time, and round the Kerry Way to Port Magee.  This small fishing village gets its name from Tom Magee, a 17th century smuggler who made good although illegal use of the small bays and coves of the area.  The village boasts a good bar, restaurant and bed and breakfast, and a public loo that was runner up in the best loos in Ireland competition a few years ago!

Opposite Port Magee is the island of Valentia, which Bere Islanders don’t consider a ‘proper’ island as it’s joined to the mainland by a bridge! 

 Kerry has a much gentler landscape than Beara in County Cork and it was looking very pretty and neat on a calm, sunny day.

Glanleam House Gardens on Valentia are a real treat.  Facing out to the sea and lighthouse, the Victorian gardens are jam packed with vast Cypress trees, bamboos, cordylines and magnificent tree ferns.

 But the best discovery were the Myrtle trees.

  They were everywhere and looked fantastic with their small bottle green leaves and tiny white flowers contrasting beautifully with the rust and cream peeling bark.  They obviously love growing there next to the sea as the ground beneath was thick with seedlings.

I have to confess to liberating a few for future planting on Bere Island! 

Time off the island, however short, always does us good and with the added bonus of HOT sun, I got home ready for more marmalade making and sewing, though by the next morning the clouds had descended once more

 and plodding through dripping spiders’ webs wasn’t too appealing!

Thank you to all of you who took the time and trouble to comment on Orange Thursday.  Isn’t it strange how a spur of the moment idea can sometimes be so appreciated!

It’s the end of the month again and I’m not even going to mention how ridiculously fast this year is going!

So here’s my contribution to May’s sometimes easy and sometimes really difficult Scavenger Hunt.

A Butterfly.  I found this vintage embroidered butterfly at a vide grenier in France last summer and I’m about to begin the process of tranformation into an Antique Embroidered Cushion for Cattapilla Designs.

A Bicycle.  B’s bike which travels regularly between Whitechapel and Westminster.

A Red Door.  This red door belongs to the Tall House, 49 Cardinal’s Wharf, between the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern along the Thames in London.

Cartoon Character.  Love her or loathe her, Margaret Thatcher was certainly a character and this is a cartoon from March 1978, drawn by my father, Jon, who drew a sport and a political cartoon every day for years for the News Chronicle and then the Daily Mail before retiring in 1981. 

An Emergency Vehicle.  The RNLI Annette Hutton, moored at Casteltownbere, a reassuring sight to us Bere islanders.

Think Vintage!  Couldn’t resist this!   Along  Bermondsey Road, London.

Something Blue.  The first flower of the shortlived and beautiful hardy geranium Johnson’s Blue.

A Street Light.  Beneath Tower Bridge, London.

Texture.  The bark of the Stone Pine tree at Kew Gardens which is fire resistant!

A Sign of the Zodiac.  This was really difficult.  All that remained of a crab near a windswept beach on Bere Island.

Interesting Local Building.   The Bere Island Heritage Centre.  The  renovated stone building was originally Ballinakilla National School and has two modern glass and steel wings additions.

A Portrait in Black and White.   My father as a soldier aged 25 in 1938.

Thank you again Kathy for hosting this fun and sometimes thought provoking Monthly Scavenger Hunt. 

If you haven’t come across it yet, have a look here.

To all the generous peple out there who take the time to comment, thank you.  Some comments don’t come up on the relevant posts for some reason.  The link for comments comes  before and after the post.  So if you’d like to leave a comment, which is always appreciated, click on the comments link just below the post title or the comments box at the end of the post.  Thanks again. 

Our London trip last week was fun and busy.  The weather, hot and dry and windy, made a change from our recent vists when it was so cold.  We wandered around St Katherine’s Docks gasping in amazement at the ostentatious boats moored there.  Some older, less sleek sailing ships were more attractive. 

 Tower Bridge  looked sleek and bright after it’s recent redecoration and the Tower of London stood ancient and solid against the skyline.

Borough Market was too busy for comfort so after lunch at Tate Modern, overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral and the spires of the city churches, I dragged T to Waterloo to a knitting shop I’d found through the www.  Knit 1 London has a very good selection of yarns and needles - I was surprisingly restrained and bought only a couple of skeins of Fiberspates merino and silk.  It is indeed truly scrumptious!

The next day I made what is becoming an annual visit to the V & A with my sister.  There we saw the Cult of Beauty which didn’t disappoint.  Best bits?  Some Aubrey Beardsley drawings

 this delicious wallpaper design by Walter Crane and a screen which, at first glance , appeared quite commonplace.  On closer inspection however, the details of the qilding and fretwork are beautiful and then I spied some text written on the top panels.

  Designed by William Eden Westfield it was made by James Forsyth who gave it to Richard and Agnes Shawnessy(?)  Not sure of that spelling as the lighting was so dim and I couldn’t get any closer!  And then this verse

Nothing useless is, or low;

Each thing in its place is best;

And what seems but idle show

Strengthen and supports the rest.

I have since discovered its a verse from The Builders by Henry Longfellow, he of  Hiawatha fame.

Its a good exhibition and whilest I could have done with more textiles and furniture I enjoyed  delving into the Aesthetic Movement.

Then another lovely lunch, this time in one of the the V&A’s extraordinary dining rooms

 and a special gift from my sister – two of her paintings.

They are still in London as I didn’t dare cart them through airports and onto planes.  I look forward to getting them home, into frames and hung.

Art for Art’s Sake

Definitely!