cycling in islay & jura

A few pics from our wee cycle/camping trip to Islay & Jura last week. Despite the much wetness, damp camping, brain freeze, and looking like a midden for 3 days, this is what made it all worthwhile.....

waiting for the ferry at Kennacraig

the 8th century Kildalton Cross

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Islay is all about the whisky so of course we had to visit some of Islay's eight whisky distilleries (and Jura's one).

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Debbie's cafe in Bruichladdich

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Finlaggan

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Port Askaig

looking over to Jura

The Paps of Jura coming into view

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ferry over to Jura

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the walled garden at Jura House

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Had a really nice time, lovely scenery and met some lovely people (between the wetness). The final night we gave up on the camping and got a room in the Port Askaig Hotel.....

.....but just to show you it ain't all glamour this was our first night's camping. Tent put up in the dark in the Kennacraig ferry terminal carpark. Four tent pegs and tied to the car!

robin and mould

I try not to act on impulse (too much) when looking for new things for the shop but that all went out the window when I saw these screen-printed owls & cushions by Amy & Christian from Robin and Mould. And they certainly don't disappoint - beautifully made and even more lovely in real life!

Everything is hand screen-printed in their Wiltshire Studio using water based inks on a heavy linen/cotton mix. The owls come in either mustard yellow or teal (with teal or purple felt wings & feet) and are printed on both sides. The 'dream big little one' cushion comes in teal with a pure linen dark navy blue backing.

Come and see them for yourself!!

owl £20, dream big little one cushion (with pad) £24

mini mcghee

Had a great few days in Islay earlier this week (despite the damp camping and midges) but now back to a bit of catch-up.....

We now have some lovely woollen baby blankets by Mini McGhee here at boo vake. Mini McGhee is Glasgow School of Art graduate Nicola McGhee who, after a time in New York as a designer for Gap, has returned to her roots and is growing her range of contemporary baby blankets & nursery accessories. All are made in Scotland from supersoft pure new wool making them that bit special - and as such, Nicola is especially keen that they be handed down to future generations (and it says just that on the label!).
grass/grey baby blanket & pink/ruby baby blanket, £42

a little interlude (aka a day off)

The wee shop will be closed on Tuesday 21st next week. Back open as normal on Wednesday.

perthshire open studios

On Sunday we headed off to visit a few of the studios/workshops open for this year's Perthshire Open Studios. In the end we only managed a tiny bit of the orange and blue routes (as the area covered is so enormous) - which luckily included the workshops of woodturner extraordinaire Angus Clyne (no 84) and nearby sculptural ceramicist Shona Leith (no83), both of who do the most amazing work, and are lovely people to boot.

Beyond POS, for those wanting to benefit from their expertise, Shona holds regular ceramic classes at the Birnam Institute and Angus offers woodturning tuition in his workshop.

POS runs all this week and continues into next weekend (some are open in the evenings too). For more details check the website, or pop into the shop and pick up a brochure.
ps. Special mention also to boo vake favourite Ceri White (no75). Well worth a visit!

donna smith

These are some of the fabulous new brooches, purses and notebooks we have in from Shetland designer Donna Smith.

They are beautifully made in 100% wool felt with great attention to detail - what we've come to expect from Donna. Really lovely.

brooches £9, purses £20, notebooks from £14-£20 (with removable Windsor & Newton hardback notebook inside)

new shop designs!

Apparently life began for me on Monday (why do I still feel about twelve?!) - and to mark this coming of age I decided to ask much admired designer & printmaker Alison Hardcastle to come up with a design especially for boo vake. The brief was pretty loose (one colour, simple shape, orange or turquoise) and in the end I found it so difficult to choose just one of Alison's designs I went for two!! And here they are! Hope you like.

Over the next wee while one or other of these designs will be popping up on our signs, postcards, business cards and other shop paraphernalia. Thanks Alison!

the 'things i like' book

Resurrecting the old boo vake 'take a hint!! 'service we now have the 'things I like' book! Aimed at all those customers who are forever buying all their favourite boo vake things for everybody else but whose friends/family are frankly clueless when it comes to them.

And it works like this - you write down you favourite boo vake things in our wee book and we just carelessly leave it lying around the shop for anybody to see! Yep, that could be your partner, friends, family, workmates.... Who knows, it might just work!

And if you're a bit further afield but would like a page of your own you can always get in touch (mail [AT] boovake [DOT] co [DOT] uk) and we will fill it out for you!

new(ish) things

Now that August is out the way (and more importantly the boo vake computer is no long in danger of shutting itself down in the middle of writing this) time to get back to showing off some of our latest offerings. First up some of Alice Melvin's delightful Cut Out & Dress Peg cards. Sailor Peg is currently hanging out in our window, ever hopeful of a last gasp of summer in his rather fetching swimsuit.

Also from Alice we have some of her really lovely little booklets of bird stamps.

And still with lovely paper things - new cards from printmaker Alison Hardcastle.

And again from Alison - a little bit of positive thinking in the shape of 3 fabulously packaged mini screenprints in an optimistic theme.

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More Alison Hardcastle news next week. We've been doing a bit of collaborating.......!

cards £2/£2.50, bird stamps £4, mini prints £20