Not For Squares

As a child I was, like most chil­dren, a massive Enid Blyton fan. Massive.

The highly inform­at­ive Enid Blyton Soci­ety list all the book jack­ets and I found the ones that I actu­ally read. And the memor­ies came flood­ing back. So I thought I’d share them with you.

My all time favour­ite books were the Faraway Tree adven­tures, where I spent many a happy hour hav­ing fun with Moon-Face, Mis­ter Watzis­name, Silky, and the Sauce­pan Man. I ima­gined feast­ing on Pop Bis­cuits and Google Buns and slid­ing down the slippery-slip that spir­als down inside the trunk.

And of course I can’t for­get the Fam­ous Five…

What’s your favourite?

I used to live in Scot­land. At the very top. In the High­lands. With views of purple heather clad hills and the wild north sea.

The air was cold and clean. Whisky was pure single malt. Made in the vil­lage where I lived. And ven­ison was a staple.

So I thought I’d revel in a little bit of Scottishness.

The first is ANTA. Their fact­ory shop was just down the road. And I fell head over heels in love with their hand­made tartan stoneware.

Everything from ANTA is made in Scot­land. The woolen yarn used for their car­pets and tweeds is sourced in the West­ern Isles and is woven in the Bor­ders. The oak fur­niture is made in the High­lands and some of the wood is homegrown. ANTA was cre­ated by design­ers Annie and Lach­lan Stew­art. And this is their amaz­ing home.

The second bit of Scot­tish love­li­ness is Papa Stour. An online mar­ket­place for all things hand­made in Scot­land.  Papa Stour embraces art, crafts­man­ship and design in its purest form, like this bone china pod…

or this hand­sewn notebook…

or this lambswood baby blanket…

Slainte Mhath!

Received an inter­est­ing email last night that said,

“We’re fans of the work you pro­duce and would like the oppor­tun­ity to include it for pub­lic­a­tion in a new Rock­port book, entitled 1,000 More Greet­ings.  We found your Love col­lec­tion on Design*Sponge and thought it would fit well in the book.”

Sounds good to me!

Out­side In