Wholefoods Glasgow aka Heaven!

This evening, ahead of scooting back home to Belfast tomorrow morning, we nipped to Wholefoods in Giffnock, Glasgow and oh-my we were not disappointed!

I had only ever been to one in California, and Ryan was a Wholefoods virgin but we have been taunted with tales from friends in London and Glasgow ever since it opened in the uk! Beautiful fresh, vibrant fruit and vegetables... Impeccably presented meat and fish counters, beautiful blue and green eggs from organic free range happy chickens! Really inviting produce, much of which was competitively priced, especially basics like artisan bread, milk and butter. We were wowed by the patisserie section, and spent a lot of time browsing the confectionery aisle. If we hadn't been getting on a boat tomorrow morning, we would have done a LOT more damage!

I think Wholefoods acts as an amazing example to other UK supermarkets, not only in terms of variety and quality of produce (where, let's face it, they are leading the pack!) but also with store merchandising and design - it's no accident the shelves are a very pleasing colour of matt green, the signage inventively and bespokely created from found objects, but all these things make the experience feel special and unique! The staff work hard keeping the store looking good, and many other supermarkets could take a leaf out their book...

Now all they need to do is open one in Belfast and my world will be complete! Please?!

A@a*r

Bloom...

Lisa Solomon / Poppytalk BOOK Giveaway...

Image courtesy of Lisa Solomon and taken from the Poppytalk blog!


Hi friends!


We wanted to stop in to let you know our lovely friend, and all round talented artist, Lisa Solomon had added 'author' to the list of her talents and achievements... her new book, 'Knot Thread Stitch' just launched and she is running a give-away over on the Poppytalk blog to celebrate...


Now, we are telling you all this not only because the book is AMAZING, and anyone would be super lucky to win one, BUT, our tea-towels are used in the book for a lovely embroidery project, and so, along with the book, you will also receive one of our Sycamore tea-towels in Mustard. 


We are also incredibly excited because Abigail's signature Sycamore seeds, embroidered on and embellished by Lisa, actually made the cover of the book! How cool is that!?


Lisa very kindly sent us a copy of the book, so we will be doing another post on it VERY soon, showing you our favourite bits from inside - but we wanted to get this little newsbit out right away, so you could all have a chance of winning your own goody bag!


Good luck everyone :)

On our table this past week...

Packing and stacking...

Some exciting parcels left a*r HQ last week, most notably, one for our first stockist in Australia!! Can't wait to share details when their site launches, till then... here is a little of what we sent!

Sycamore Mountain...

Last night we were very busy bees finishing off an order heading out to a new stockist... our signature Sycamore Scallop pattern Cushions in Coral & Seafoam and Heather & Olive, such pretty pale shades with a cheeky hint of neon. Perfect for Summer!

Courier will be here soon and then they will be getting whisked off, soon to adorn the sofas of lots of lovely new owners ;)

A@a*r

Our Engagement Shoot with Tarah Coonan...

When we were down in London, we were very lucky to be able to take a few hours out to attend an engagement shoot with our lovely and talented Wedding photographer, Tarah Coonan. Not knowing London too well, but knowing we wanted some greenery as a backdrop, Tarah took us to Regents Park, and it was just beautiful and a perfect spot for the shoot...


I think fate was on our side, because we got a few rain-free hours, and beautiful light, in what was otherwise a truly horrid week weather-wise!


These are some of our favourite shots, although it was pretty much impossible to chose just a few to share, and we want to say a huge thank you to Tarah for being so amazing to work with - we all had a lot of fun and it just felt like hanging out, we felt very at ease, which is not easy to do as we don't like having our photos taken normally! We can't wait to see her again in September when she will be coming to Belfast to shoot our Wedding. Which, incidentally, just happens to be exactly THREE MONTHS today! 

If you know of anyone who had just gotten engaged, is getting married, or has little ones they would like to capture - give them Tarah's details! She comes highly recommended from us!


all images copyright Tarah Coonan Photography.