From scraps...

Years ago, I bought a scrap of Lucienne Day fabric at Glasgow School of Arts Centre for Advanced Textiles... it cost me about a pound, I think, as it was just little bits and pieces and scraps and such, but I have been meaning to do something with it ever since as I LOVE it...

WELL - last night was the night!

A little bit of sewing later, and a bit of help from Mister Bell, and we have a new cushion for our sofa... I'm really delighted with it, and love the little bit of embroidery on the lucienne fabric...

Angus seems to like it, too.

:)

Abigail@abigail*ryan

Kitchen Nooks...

We did a little bit of shuffling this past week - moving all our cookery books off the shelves near the cooker over to some new shelves we hung in the alcove next to the fire-place...

We're loving our new breakfast reading nook! We have pushed the table up next to the shelves, now stacked with all our culinary literature, perfect for inspiring us over long, lazy breakfasts ;)

And now, in addition, we've got some extra space to display nice crockery on the 'free' shelves. Nothing like a bit of shuffling to brighten the place up, egh??

Finally got to hang our plate from Dublin, and our lovely pieces from Otchipotchi and Shan Annabelle Valla... the crockery on the small shelves is a lot of anthropologie, mixed vintage finds and le crueset...

:)

Abigail @ abigail*ryan

Chock a block!

A week of quilting will be commencing here at chez a*r from tomorrow... yeah, I know today is Monday, so we really should have started this week already, but we had a day out and about today running errands so we figure Tuesday is as good a day to start the week as any ;)

Above is my first ever quilt block completed...(what to make it into now?!) and number two, which is now almost complete as well.

Can't wait for the morning, now! ;)

Abigail@abigail*ryan

p.s. don't forget to enter our facebook competition to win a tea-towel!

Super Big Fun Competition!!

Who loves free stuff?

EVERYONE!!

Who loves abigail*ryan stuff?

EVERYONE!!

(we hope... :) )

So we thought we'd put those two little bits of awesome together to make:

MORE AWESOME THAN ANY ONE PERSON CAN HANDLE!!

(you'll have to "like" us if you haven't already...which raises the question- WHY?? ;) )

ryan@abigail*ryan

Piecing together...

We got stuck in to making some pieced patchwork last night... now I have overcome my slight fear of the sewing machine, I am whizzing away, too. Having a lot of fun combining our fabrics in to new combinations and making beautiful arrangements...

Today will be a whole day of this. So good.

Angus will look out the window and wish he was running around... he knows we will take him later ;)

Abigail @ abigail*ryan

Peg Bags, in the Shop!

Finally - even though we made these months ago, I have just managed to get them photographed and in the shop... I guess it's all the lovely weather, makes me want to dry my laundry outside!

Not only is it the eco-friendly option (saving you electricity on a tumble-dryer) it also makes your washing smell amazing!

Our peg bag is made from screen printed unbleached cotton, and we have french seamed all the edges and double stitched everything so the envelope style pouch will last you for years... we sourced vintage trouser hangers, and then hand sawed them to size, so you have a great hanging hook for on your line, or on a hook when not in use. Each peg bag comes with 10 old fashioned wooden pegs, which, I think, work the best... and look the best, too ;)

They come in two colours... inky blue, and turquoise... so, happy shopping - you can find them right HERE, for just £16.50 each. Oh, and there are under 10 of each available...

We hope you like them!

Abigail @ abigail*ryan

Trade Shows, Awards and Best of British...oh my!

Hi everyone - it's been too long, but we're back with some super news, and a whole host of happenings to share!

Where to start??

Well, first of all -you all knew we were preparing for our first Trade Show at Pulse London... well, it went really brilliantly, we had such a good time and were so pleased with our stand! To top everything off, and to our extreme shock, we won an award!

'Best New Launchpad Exhibitors at Pulse 2011' to be exact, and judged by the lovely Michelle Alger (of Britains Next Big Thing, fame), Buying Manager for Home at Liberty... as you can see by the huge smiles on our faces, we were not expecting it at all! Thankfully, I had been be-decked with paper eye-lashes from Paperself for the occassion...not that I knew there was GOING to be an occasion... handy, that! ;)

Ahead of going to Pulse, we had received some wonderful news after attending Liberty's Best of British Open Call back in April...when we had hotfooted it down to London for a few days to pitch our products to the buying team at the world famous store (and my personal Mecca!) - and a whole 3 minutes later - we just had to wait and see...

Delightfully, we were successful, and received an order for Cushions. It is certainly a career highlight for us, especially for me, as it has always been a dream of mine to have my designs sold in Liberty - so we are over to moon to be adding them as an official stockist. You can see some images of the Liberty Open Call on their facebook page... you might even spot me, looking utterly hideous in a photo, with our cushions in front, looking MUCH lovelier, thankfully... ;)

SO - we came home from Pulse to start work on our Liberty order, which was no small undertaking, but thankfully, after sewing our socks off (Ryan even roped me in!) they were all ready to head off in to the wide world at the end of last week...

That, really, is what we have been up to... so you'll hopefully forgive our silence! We have lots more to share shortly, including some new stockists added to our list so we will be profiling them... and other bits and bobs, too.

We will be back with those very soon. Happy Monday all, we've missed this space!

xo Abigail@ abigail*ryan