It's less than two weeks now until the big PKAVS extravaganza on the South Inch. It will be a day of music, dance, food and drink with an arts & craft show, children's craft workshops, trade stalls, pipes & drums, a polo game, animal & reptile corner, bouncy castle type things and more thrown in! The headliners for the day are the fab Red Hot Chilli Pipers - worth the ticket on their own. My partner Ken will be running a musician filled beer tent with help from other Inveralmond Brewery guys and will be doing a beer tasting at some point too.
Just in (and long awaited) are the new Sukie wash bags, cosmetic bags and pencil cases....well you can do with them what you like! They come in lovely screenprinted organic cotton and with a waterproof interior with various pockets. You can also match them up (if so inclined) with the newly arrived Sukie Agenda -which is a great undated diary and notebook with lots of extra stickers, postcards, note cards and bits - perfect for the student year.
Wash bag £25, cosmetic bag £23, pencil case £12, agenda £13.50
Also this weekend is the North Fife Open Studios event where you can meet artists & makers on their own turf. The event this year takes in Saturday, Sunday and Monday so perfect if you're looking for something to do this bank holiday weekend . Details of participating artists are on the website.
If you're in Perth this Saturday then you'll find it all happening down on George Street! The Victorian Fayre (in aid of CHAS) will be filling the length of the street with entertainment galore from 10-4. You can get raffle tickets (1st prize £250) here at boo vake or from other outlets such as Lickwid or Pretty Things
I've just got a new camera so have been taking a few snaps in the shop to try it out. So far the results are looking a lot better than from my old one so hopefully I'll get some new pictures up on the website soon! This is a postcard from Donna Wilson.
I took a wee detour after my brewery duties (see below) to take some pictures of the new Inveralmond Brewery which is being built not far away. Still a lot to do but I think they are hoping to move in about August time. And I'll stop now before I become a brewery bore!
Over the weekend I had the job of looking after the beer at The Inveralmond Brewery while eight of the guys were off on a 3 day trip to the Czech Republic. Oh what responsibility! So whilst they were 'holed-up' in the depths of the Budvar Brewery my tasks were to take the gravities of the beer and set the coolings and hot water. I've done this before (under the watchful eye of my partner Ken) but this was my first time on my ownsome. Luckily getting to the brewery for me involves a very pleasant cycle journey along the Rivers Tay and Almond, and the weather at the weekend here in Perth was just glorious so I think all in all it worked out pretty well.
We've just received some fabulous botanical paper-cut lamps and candle-covers from the very talented Hannah Nunn. I met Hannah at last year's bctf (although I'd seen her lamps a couple of years previous to that) but it wasn't until I was looking for a 40th present for a very good friend that I finally made contact again. Happily my friend loved her lamp and the upshot was that I put an order in for the shop straight away.
The candle-covers are £15, and the lamps range from £56-£68.
If you are as big a fan of Donna Wilson's work as I am you'll love this! Donna's new book 'The Knitted Odd-bod Bunch' translates her fabulous creations into hand-knit patterns - 35 of them! Even if your not into knitting, just looking at the pictures is enough. I got my copy from amazon but I'm sure you can get it from lots of booksellers.
A few of the new designs we have in from Titimadam, who are London based designers Tiina Hakala & Adam Rowe. From the left: the Snowwhite mirror necklace (in walnut & mirrored acrylic), emma the horse necklace (in walnut), and fanny the fox (in thick clear acrylic). We also have galatee the goldfish, erno the lion, yaseed the unicorn, and a cuckoo clock necklace where the cuckoo is making a get-away! Small walnut brooches are £6 & necklaces range from £12-£20.
More print, this time scarves and badges from Orkney designer Kirsteen Stewart. We have 2 styles of scarves, both are printed on cotton voile but the ruffalo scarf on the left has a grosgrain ribbon edge on it to give it that ....well....ruffalo effect!
scarves from £25-£29 and badges £2.50
Just in... a collection of bags, teatowels & aprons by Glasgow designer Gillian Kyle celebrating some 'icons'of Scottish life! In Gillian's words her work has '...a distinctly Scottish theme and a large dash of humour.' Featuring such Scottish treasures as teacakes, plain bread, scotch pies, and some well known varieties of porridge oats, soft drinks & lager! Oh...and for the dog lovers there's a westie too!
Prices range from £6 for a small shopper (great for posting), teatowels £7, large shoppers £12, aprons £12, and the large glitzy teacake canvas bags at £15.
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! 
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! 
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. 
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!
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!
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.
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!
A collection of goodies from illustrator Gemma Correll ready to hit the boo vake shelves! Thanks Gemma.
