Tuesday 21 December 2010

Happy Christmas

Han Picked will be back in January!

Mother's Atelier

I love these cushion-covers made from antique kelims, in Turkey, with their naïve pictures of camels, deer, ducks and people.

Nonnative

I am adding Japanese brand Nonnative to my extremely long list of men's labels I wish would do women's things. And having seen this picture, today, I realise I absolutely must aquire a pair of Dansko clogs.

Monday 20 December 2010

Eribé

Scottish Fair Isle socks to wear on Christmas morning.

Blackbird Pottery

Mary and Tony Gibson's beautiful, English-made earthenware Cottage Garden range of mugs feature geraniums, honeysuckle and sweet williams. And very lovely they are too.

Thursday 16 December 2010

Petersham Nurseries

Excitingly, Petersham Nurseries, one of my top five shops in the world, has launched an online catalogue of the eclectic, beautiful things they stock. I love their mix of luxury and scruffy - from Astier de Villatte wine glasses to rusting garden furniture; and from the finest Italian stationary to stacks of zinc buckets. I pretty much want it all.

Vila

I love the colours of these shirt-dresses, with rolled-up sleeves and sweet bow belts, from Scandinavian label Vila. The added bonus is that they're only £30 each.

Blodwen

Blodwen is an endless source of inspiration - I covet pretty much all of it (for example this and these) - but it's the heirlooms section that I love most: amazingly beautiful, very rare vintage Welsh quilts the like of which I can only dream of owning.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Alison Capeling

I'm sure they wouldn't be impossibly hard to make yourself (and I do have acres and acres of hessian left over from our wedding tablecloths), but for those not craft-inclined, Alison Capeling offers these ready-made door stops, perfect for beach huts, for £20 each. You fill them with stones (or shells).

St Eval candles

For 12 years St Eval have been making their very beautiful, handmade candles from a farm on the north Cornish coast. While many other local businesses have floundered and unemployment in the area has soared, they continue to flourish, using the kind of candle-making methods I remember seeing at Ironbridge when I was a child: "pouring, dipping and drawing", it's called. Their antique marble collection is lovely (I like the idea of Bedruthan blue), but it's their range called English Hedgerow that I'll be buying: rustic little terracotta pots with evocative scents like bluebell wood and wild gorse.

The Cross

The wonderful Cross finally has a website, and although it's rather sparse and non-transactional at the moment, there are a few tantalising things on there - like this teal silk dress by new-to-me London label East by East West (no website, but also sold here and here) - plus a blog about their buying trips and new finds.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Ruth Cross

Talking of woollies, knitting supremo Ruth Cross will make you this beautiful dress to order, for £230, in any one of seven colours (although I think the colour the model is wearing is the nicest). I love the thread-through belt. It's completely hand-knitted lambswool, and one-size-fits-all.

English Weather

Gohar Goddard's nicely named label English Weather specialises in the kind of cashmere jumpers I'd wear to shreds (if the moths didn't get to them first). Really, really good quality (with a price to match) and warm as toast - designed for English weather, in fact. Her children's line, Spinning Tops, is equally delectable, and for sale at Couverture, but nowhere online.

Monday 13 December 2010

Capucine dolls

This a weird thing to say, I know, but Capucine dolls have really good dress sense. They're made from vintage fabrics and cashmere, and are stuffed with lavender - designed to hang in the most fashionable wardrobes. I love their chunky cardigans and woolly tights. Available exclusively from Browns.

Pictures via Smudgetikka.

ASOS Marketspace

Sarah Hunnam's weekend in Norfolk, as posted on ASOS's Marketspace, looks lovely. I must track down that butterdish, top right, for my own breakfast table.
These beautiful photographs are by the talented lady behind Wellies and Vogue - thank you for pointing that out, Lynne!

Friday 10 December 2010

Kaufmann Mercantile

Ever since Chelsea blogged about Kaufmann Mercantile I have struggled to do anything other than peruse the wares in this extraordinary online shop, selling things that I didn't know I needed, but now feel quite bereft that I don't own: like wooden snow shoes, canvas tool rolls and harvesting baskets. They ship to the UK for free if you spend more than $225, and from $20 otherwise, which I think is exceptionally reasonable.

Via {Frolic!}, and, originally, Handmade Charlotte.

Retreat Home

After (probably too many) posts about blankets and woolly things, here's a pretty and rather practical tray with lovely cork handles - and some jam jars of flowers - to remind you what spring feels like. Available soon from Retreat Home.

Tinsmiths

I am longing to visit Tinsmiths in Ledbury - a one-stop shop for all the kinds of things I love. I know I'd be in my element there, but for now I’ll have to suffice with their lovely online shop, stocking beautiful things with function: rope doorstops, Harris-tweed cushions, willow baskets, and much more besides.

Thursday 9 December 2010

Peak Princess

From her sewing room in the attic of her cottage in the Peak District (with its pastoral-idyll view), Lissa Cook makes the most adorable clothes to order - for babies, children and adults - all in crisp Liberty print. It's a proper cottage industry, as it really is just her (not a single employee) and so everything is individually made by hand, by Lissa herself, in whatever print you like. Her blouses for women are lovely, but I think the baby rompers and bloomers might get my vote.

Klaus Haapaniemi

These exquisite, earthy-hued Scandinavian throws, with designs featuring rabbits, blueberries and acorns, are by Finnish designer Klaus Haapaniemi and Swedish artist Mia Walleniusto. I love them.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Nicola Levy

Snuggly things with tassles, for little people, from the lovely Nicola Levy. Sold here, and directly from her Oxfordshire studio.

Mark Hearld for Tate

I think this might be my favourite Tate designer collaboration ever. It's from Scottish artist Mark Hearld, whose work is inspired by the British countryside. The range includes bowls, plates and cups produced for Mark by Burleigh, lovely hardback notebooks, and a set of utterly charming greetings cards that are the kind of thing I love.

More dungarees

Absolutely The Best Outfit Ever. Besides the overalls, which I obviously love (I'm wearing these ones today, in fact), the tucked-in hair, man's watch and red nails make it for me. Her name's Emily Eisen.

From Turned Out by Maya, via My Favourite Color is Shiny.

P.S. Dungarees purveyor extraordinaire, Freddie's of Pinewood now stock my favourite shape in delicious charcoal corduroy. Sold.

Tuesday 7 December 2010

fforest

From Swedish fire-lighting kits and axes, to woodlander socks, Reindeer pelts and Welsh blankets there is an awful lot to be smitten by in this brand-new shop from the people who run fforest, the world's most romantic campsite.

Polish pottery

Hand-painted, heart-strewn, Polish pottery is what I want for Christmas.

The Reefer Sail Company

I think these crabbing and mackerel-fishing kits for children are completely brilliant.

Monday 6 December 2010

Short wellies

For December walks by the river, short wellies are the thing. These scalloped-edged ones from Aigle are pretty, whilst Ilse Jacobsen make gum-boots you can lace around thick socks. My friend Matt (aka Anonymous) suggested these Tretorn beauties - which I have to admit are practically perfect in every way. These ones, too, are very nice if you don't have an irrational aversion to Hunter, like I do.