Friday 28 January 2011

Bits and pieces...

Started on a new wee series of a*r house softies the other day and had some awesome fun with out colour combo's... using scottish tweeds and tartans for roofs, irish linen for the house fronts, leather doors and our own cottons for their backs...

I am *loving* the unbrushed mohair roofs in pink and purple in this set... I may not be able to part with them!! ;)

Stay tuned for these, and the final few of series one to be added to the shop. FIRST, lots of little windows for me to embroider on first...

Happy weekend, everyone!!

Back in Stock!


A big box o' goodness arrived this morning, and we're delighted to tell you that these three sell out designs are now back in stock in the shop from today...

So nice to see them again after their first flying visit in December ;)


Happy Friday :))

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Abigail and Angus...


The other day we realised Angus has suddenly gotten HUGE and we needed some new photos of his rapidly growing self, so I held the fast moving scamp while Ryan took some snaps...

After loving his moment in the spot-light and being pretty good while I posed him forwards, he finally couldn't contain himself any longer and promptly whipped round and stuck his little tongue up my nose!

Of *course*, Ryan was on hand to capture the exact moment ;)

A@a*r

Saturday 15 January 2011

Weekend in Food...


* Carrot, Apple and Orange juice...

* Coconut Muffins (four ingredients, I kid you not - 1cup each of self-raising flour, desiccated coconut, sugar and milk (we used lactofree) - mix, spoon in to papers and bake at 180C for 20 mins)... like little cakier macaroons, soft as clouds and oddly lovely with a little butter (or for us, pure spread!) and tea...

* Cucumber, Celery and Apple Juice. Toast, cucumber, cheese, yoghurt... tea...

* Assam tea...

* We ate too fast to photograph it first... what's left of Miso Grilled Tofu with Sesame, Gyoza parcels and Edamame...


Bon weekend to you!

A@a*r

Friday 14 January 2011

On repeat...


We *LOVE, LOVE* Adele at chez a*r...

Her new single, rolling in the deep is on repeat here at the moment... so fantastic. We are so excited to be seeing her in concert soon! A little anniversary present to ourselves, if you like...

We kind of fell in love with her first album as our soundtrack ;)

Enjoy!

A@a*r

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Juicy Stuff!

Post Christmas, we treated ourselves to a new juicer with our pressie funds (we've both had a horrible run of bad health in 2010, and, although our diet is already pretty good, we wanted to up our vitamin intake naturally and increase our daily fruit and veg quotas! In short, it doesn't hurt to do everything you can!)... this juicer is not an ordinary juicer, though... oh no!

Most juicers work on a centrifugal system - which accounts for the warm temperature of the juice you end up drinking as the fibers get mashed and pulped to extract the liquid, and the foamy scum and their tendency to separate and discolour quickly... OUR juicer is a cold press, masticating single auger system which works the same way olive oils would be cold pressed. It makes sure ALL the vitamins and nutrients are pulled in to the juice in their purest form without destroying their integrity... the fibres are removed almost dry, and the juice can be kept for up to 2/3 days in the fridge, if you wanted - it's how BIG juice companies make their juice...

It's SOOO delicious! We're mostly having vegetable juices and just sweetening them a little with fruit...

So far, we've had Carrot, Apple and Ginger... Carrot, Celery, Mandarin, Apple & Orange... Cucumber, Celery and Apple and this morning, I had Cucumber, Celery, Apple and Grape. ALL DELICIOUS!!

What's more - we can make our own nut butters in this machine (amongst so much else!), and yesterday we made some healthy 'truffles' by processing a big bag of mixed nuts and dried fruit, rolling them in to balls (it comes out as a smooth paste) and then in coconut... so nice for a wee snack! Would be great for kiddies :)

Our machine is a VitalMax Oscar... and we can thoroughly recommend it!! Can't wait to try making sorbets in it using frozen fruit... it will be a fab desert option for Ryan, who can't eat dairy ice-creams! :)

A@a*r

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Pretty...


Just before the holidays, we ordered some new tissue for our abigail*ryan packaging... and we're loving the soft grey and pistachio together, combined with our a*r stickers to seal!

This is how we are wrapping our tea-towels these days. Hope you like the new packages as much as we do ;)

A@a*r

Monday 10 January 2011

Concrete Jungle...

Oh my! And what a lovely jungle (read, shop!) to browse through...

I have had Impure Vessels bookmarked for a while now, as the stunning, abstract forms of their hand formed and carved, one off, concrete bowls were something more akin to a modernist painting.

I love their colours, texture and patterns... they really would make the most fantastic object in the home, or, as suggested, a fantastic focal point in the garden as the most unusual bird-bath EVER!

In short... love, love, love them... hope you will, too.

Here is an interesting interview with Deborah Brackenbury who makes these lovely vessels.

Abigail@abigail*ryan

Saturday 8 January 2011

Afternoon delight...


A little moment of indulgence this afternoon at chez abigail*ryan...after visiting the oriental supermarket yesterday (and stocking up!) I have a fridge full of various delicious mochi, tempting and calling to me...

I had to give in ;)

Here - a black rice mochi with coconut filling, the green one is pandan mochi with red bean and a normal rice mochi filled with peanut butter. All so good...

We're all set for a week of scrummy Japanese dinners - sushi, steamed fish, miso soup, tofu, sesame miso greens... all sorts! That, along with getting serious on our new wii fit, and with a brand new juicer arriving soon - well, we should be the picture of health, shouldn't we?! ;)

Angus even loves munching on healthy things, too. Carrots are his favourite treat!

Abigail@abigail*ryan

Thursday 6 January 2011

Cube Marketplace...

The bottom photo is from thedelicious life blog! :)

CUBE is a beautiful cafe, cheesebar and marketplace located in Los Angeles, CA...

We are delighted to announce that our full range of abigail*ryan tea-towels are now winging their way to the States to be in lovely company amongst all the other goodies you can choose from!

If we ever make it to LA in person we will certainly be popping in to sample some of the gorgeous treats on offer - but, in the meantime, it's really VERY lovely to know our linens will be making the trip for us, and finding their way to lots of new homes...

Thanks so much to the team at CUBE!!

Abigail@abigail*ryan

p.s. you'll be pleased to know that our new teatowels that went out of stock SO QUICKLY before xmas (thanks to cube, terrain and you guys!) are away to print again... they'll be back in approx 3 weeks!

New for the New Year! Terrain...

The bottom two photos are by the lovely Joy of OhJoy!
Here are her original posts from when Terrain opened :)
The top image belongs to Terrain.

Hi everyone - we're back from our holiday break and ready to face 2011, full of new ideas and good things for abigail*ryan... Happy New Year to all!

First off, we're OVER THE TOP happy to announce that our abigail*ryan tea-towels will shortly be arriving with Terrain - a brand new Stockist for us!

Terrain has long been a source of inspirational beauty for me, when longingly searching through the loveliness to be had online. I have yet to visit in person, but if it's anything like it's sister company, Anthropologie, I'll be in heaven!...

We will be in excellent company, as I pretty much adore everything they stock - check out their garden, and home section... wow, right?!

Thanks so much to the team at Terrain (Jenn and Alexandra) for being so wonderful to work with! We hope your lovely customers will enjoy our a*r florals ;)

Abigail@abigail*ryan