Of cabbages, kings and thrift shops!

From "The Pleasures of Gardening" by Angela Stanford

I love thrift, or charity shops, the pleasure of going in and never knowing quite what I'll find, the thrill of spotting something special (well special to me anyway), knowing that I won't be charged the earth for it and the little I do pay will go towards supporting a good cause. We have 2 or 3 in Kingsbridge and I patronise them all. Some very wealthy people live, or holiday, in the South Hams and so there are often real finds to be had.

I search for vintage textiles, old shirts, pillowcases and blankets, all of which can be cut up and remade into DevonBears products as I adore patchwork and applique and have recently been moving back towards "painting with fabric" rather than watercolours, after all, fabric has always been my first love ....

Country Cottage Big Bag

As well as textiles I adore books of all kinds and was fortunate enough to come across a real treasure in Oxfam earlier this week. It's called "The Pleasures of Gardening" by an enormously talented lady called Angela Stanford - and my copy is signed by her too!! Sadly, after checking on Amazon and the publisher's website it would seem that the book is out of print, and I haven't been able to find anything out about Angela, but I would urge you to look for this book - it's wonderful. I love the way she combines beautiful detailed watercolours with flawless calligraphy and still manages to impart some useful facts. The pictures below (and the one at the top of this post) come from the summer section ...

Not that I've been in the garden very much this month. June was glorious, but July has been every bit as bad as the last two years and I don't think we've been promised much improvement in August. The fig tree at the top of the garden loves all this warm damp weather though and is busy creating its own rain forest, together with the hydrangeas which are romping away and the rambling rose which has rambled over everything creating a sort of jungle effect. I really must do some pruning - last night Ben woke me up 3 times convinced there were tigers at the top of the garden - and who knows, he could well have been right!!

Competition Time!

Hi everyone - I need help! I have a new product for DevonBear Designs which I'm anxious to put on the website, but I have a problem - I can't think of a name for it. It came about originally because of the Babychange Bag .....

The Babychange Bag

Which, as you can see, has a very long handle - to go on shoulder or over buggy handles. Now this is fine, but it left me with a long rounded piece of fabric that was too small for most projects, but too big to waste. Then I realised that the shape was very like that of the bottom of the Amie bag - but probably just a bit narrower....

Here's the Amie Bag so you can see the bottom ..

The Amie Bag

And I had an idea ... initially just for the nursery. What about making some sort of container to keep things tidy. So, basing the shape on the Amie Bag pattern, but making the interior from 12oz canvas to give strength and some rigidity, I made a pouch shape - then put a large brass eyelet in the back for hanging. (Love all that banging with the hammer - great for working off stress!) And this is what it came out like .....

The new product

And then I thought - but it will stand up too, and why keep it just for the nursery (although it will be good to hang over the end of a cot - maybe with a velcro loop?)

So I made more .....

And then I made one in vintage linen. It looks great hanging next to the Aga piled high with my vintage moulds.

I'm sure other people would find them useful too. And I want to put them on my website, but can't think of a name (got hung up on tidy pocket, which does what it says, but isn't very exciting).

So, as I said at the beginning of this post, I need help. Suggestions for a name for this product would be much appreciated.

And the best one will win a "tidy pocket" by any other name!! Please leave your entry as a comment - the competition will close on 31 August when I'll contact the winner and let everyone else know the name.

Thanks for your help.

Amy's accident - and a new idea!

Last weekend Amy was a competition at the village fete - "Guess the weight of the dog". Here she is wearing her special harness complete with bunting! She of course had a great time as the centre of attention, and I went along to act as her minder. I spent a couple of hours accepting people's twenty-pences and recording their estimates of her rather too substantial weight. This was great fun, especially as helpers received free cups of tea all afternoon!

You can see in the photo above that she stands with her bum very rounded and her back legs tucked under her at an angle. She also walks in a crooked fashion due to a spinal injury sustained in her earlier life when she used to do water rescue work. She has a huge jagged scar running all the way down her back and can't raise her tail - it's a very funny shape having been broken in several places. She does the cutest little wag of just the tip when she's really happy, and she isn't in any pain now (except on damp mornings) as she is on medication from the vet. She still loves swimming which is the best therapy of all for her.

Is this a happy dog? I think so!

Anyway, all that time spent contemplating the roundness of Amy's backside started me thinking ... and I've come up with THE AMIE BAG!!!

Note how perfectly the shape of the bag corresponds to the shape of the sleeping Amy. Do you think this is a legitimate design technique? Should I offer myself as a special speaker on design courses? Probably not ... but I still think the Amie Bag looks really good. Vintage linen too, so recycled - just like Amy! It will have its debut on the DevonBears stall at the Saltram Craft Fair next month, so I hope the customers there like it too!!