blossom & bill

I've hankered over these for quite some time but at last we have the fabulous 'Blossom & Bill' trays by Isak in the shop! Love them! These coated birchwood trays are designed by graphic designer Sandra Isaksson in Sussex (and are made in a small factory in Sweden where they have a strong tradition for such things).

And if that's not enough we also have Isak's laminated coaster sets and their multi purpose lidded cups/jars. The oak lid of the cup also fits snuggly as a coaster when turned upside down. Ingenius!

trays are £25 (and come in a printed tote bag), coaster sets £12, and lidded cups/jars £8.

caledonian canal & loch ness

Out cycling at the weekend.

on the caledonian canal

on the back road behind inverfarigaig and loch ness

at the top of the corkscrew (a series of steep hairpin bends) at inverfarigaig. overlooking loch ness

inverfarigaig on loch ness. having a wee nosey...I lived in that house when I was very small...it's now up for sale!

lovely pigeon

Just arrived, and giving off a definite retro vibe, are some lovely button brooches & hair clips from Kirsty @ Lovely Pigeon. Each one has been hand-stitched together and backed with felt, and comes individually named (with names such as georgie, florence, & mabel) on a hand-written card.

Prices range from £8 for a pair of hairclips to £10-£30 for the brooches.

my rob ryan calendar

I forgot to show off the calendar I got from Rob Ryan's shop Ryantown when I was in London in January. It was supposed to be for my counter in the shop but since I make a habit of knocking over my tea (which I've just done again 5 mins ago) I've decided to keep it safely at home!

sunlight on closed lids

Also newly in are a selection of cards from Edinburgh based Kate Holliday - better known as Sunlight on Closed Lids who I met when I was down in London recently - and her and her cards are indeed a ray of sunlight! Longing for a bit of sunlight on my own closed lids at the moment......that, and the end of multiple cardigan wearing in the shop!

kate seaward

A little parcel of goodies has just arrived from illustrator Kate Seaward aka I Like Pens. We already have notebooks designed by Kate for Lov-Li so it is great to have some of her other work including notebooks, cards, badges & mirrors.

Prices start at £1, and go all the way up to £5.

burns supper....czech style!

As promised, a few pics to show what those crazy Czechs get up to on Burns night. And since I've pinched a few pictures from their website I'll start off with The Rebel Pipers, an all Czech Pipe band, featuring our good friends David Neckar & Veronika Neckarova, who did a few sets throughout the evening.

As well as the usual haggis, speeches, poems & songs to celebrate our national bard there was plenty of dancing and I have to say they were pretty darn good at it. Out of the 60-70 people there there were only about 5 Scots, and as I was without a stitch of tartan on I did feel a little under-dressed (or bizarrely....under-Scottish!), especially as I'd been told earlier in the day by a Slovak that I didn't have a Scottish accent....eek, how damning!

My multi-lingual partner Ken was asked to do the 'Address to The Haggis'and then 'The Immortal Memory' (a wee run down on the life & loves of Robert Burns) which he decided to do in Czech - to which he got many laughs (and some of them were intentional!). Below is a picture of his notes which were scrambled together about an hour before. I'm afraid just looking at them made my head hurt.

The event was organised by a Brno based group of Scotophiles called Skotský pes (that David & Veronika again) which translates as Scotch Dog - they also do an annual Scottish Ball and St. Andrew's Ceilidh....the mad things!

www.skotskypes.cz

www.rebelpiper.cz