Tent London: Part Three

Hot on the heels of my last post, here are the rest of my picks from Tent London ...

Tamasyn Gambell has designed a series stunning graphic interior fabrics that have a vintage and art-deco feel to them. She has teamed up with with Førest London, who import mid-century Scandinavian furniture, to re-upholster some key pieces of furniture with her fabrics. For Tent London, Tamasyn  was commissioned by Ercol to create a bespoke contemporary fabric for the iconic 203 Windsor armchair. Needless to say it was a much admired piece of the exhibition.

I had to do a double take when I saw 'George' on an exhibitors stand. George, for those who don't know, is a bit of a favourite in our household. He is a rather loveable children's book character from the book 'Oh No, George' by Chris Haughton. I know it's probably rather shallow to judge a book by its cover, but when I bought this book some time ago for Arthur that is just what I did. The illustrations use such a great colour palette and that sold it to me. Of course, the story is great too and it is one of Arthurs all time favourite bedtime reads. If you're looking to buy a great kids book, you can't go wrong with this. Anyway... so there was George at Tent, amongst some rather stunning rugs. It turned out that Chris Haughton is also a rug designer too. 

Before he became involved in books Chris was active in fair trade and has been a supporter and designer for the fair trade company People Tree for many years. In 2010 he took 8 months off to to re-connect to fair trade and find ways his design could work more directly with the fair trade groups in Nepal. Images of his rug designs became popular on the web and were featured in many blogs. Designers were emailing to ask if they could design their own rugs and buyers were emailing to ask if they could buy them. Node was set up to help facilitate this. Node works with some of today's leading designers and illustrators, converting their images into the highest quality hand-made fair trade carpets. 

One of the highlights at Tent was 100% Norway: a showcase of the countries best contemporary design. As a huge fan of Scandinavian design, it's always an exhibition I'm keen to see. There were several pieces that more than appealed to me this year, but these little wooden birds by Lars Beller Fjetland for Italian company Discipline won me over. Each one is made from old table or chair leg. Now that really is taking recycled products to an altogether more stylish level, don't you agree?

Tent London: Part Two

I can get a bit overwhelmed at Tent London, much like a kid in a sweet shop. I see so much product that I love, want, or am just in awe of. There is some real talent out there. Our press office was really busy but I'd take in various products as I walked through the exhibition en route to grab a coffee or run an errand of some sort. I'm sure I missed so much, but here are some of the products that really appealed to me: a 'Buttercup days Pick of Tent London' if you like ...

We've known Zoe Murphy since she first launched her designs at one of the very early editions of Tent London. Since then she has gone from strength to strength. Zoe creates imagery inspired by her seaside home town of Margate and uses it to print onto and restore recycled interior product. I love her use of colour and retro pattern. In her designs Zoe references the unspoilt retro charm of Margate which I can recognise having spent many occasions there myself as a child. My uncle and aunt owned a wonderful imposing Edwardian guest house along the front. At key times of the year, namely Christmas, all the family would go down and stay; uncles, aunts, cousins and my grandparents. Though I haven't been back for probably near on twenty years, I do get a wistful nostalgic feeling when I see Zoe's designs.

Rachel Powell's retro Woodstock print really appealed to me. In the lead up to the exhibition all the exhibitors fill out questionnaires for us so we can learn about them and their products for the purpose of writing the press releases and relaying the show content to the press. In Rachel's questionnaire she wrote of how one of her many design influences were Lundby Dollhouses. Intrigued I googled 'Lundby Dollhouses'. Wow! How did I bypass them during my childhood? Needless to say, thanks to Rachel, I now find myself frequently searching Ebay for cute little retro Lundy kitchen units, bathroom suites and suchlike as I'm thinking of making a Lundby style dollhouse for Lily one day soon. 

Ahh, the wonderful Mini Moderns: where to start? Well, they are a client of ours and have been for sometime now and during that time more and more of their fantastic products have made their way into our home (the wallpaper above is in Lily's bedroom). If ever two people totally get my style, Mark and Keith are them. We have a mutual appreciation of Biba, 70's Habitat, Kate Bush, old Crown paint catalogues, retro biscuits, the graphics on 60's penguin book covers, Manhattan Transfer, the pleasing effect of multi tonal blues placed together and cake. They're the sort of people I could take away on holiday with me. Very good company. They've just created a range of coloured paints in that contains 90% recycled content, made up from waste paint that has been diverted from landfill or incineration. How amazing is that?

Tent London: Part One

Regular readers of the blog will know that a couple of weeks ago I had a spell up in London with my 'proper job' hat on. Every year, at the end of September, David and I decamp to London to run our pop-up press office from Tent London, the UK design event we have been working with for the last six years. It's an event we spend a huge chunk of our working year on. This year we did the PR for two shows; Tent London and its sister show Super Brands London. We tirelessly worked in the run up to the show with the organisers and exhibitors to get valuable press coverage, which pays a huge part in getting people through the door. At the event itself we worked from our press office meeting new press contacts, forging new relationships and catching up with old industry friends. It's hard work, but wonderfully social.

Every year we have a different creative team design our press office space. It is always a surprise to see the results. This year was the best year yet: drawing inspiration from the De Stijl movement, Memphis design and contemporary street art, CurtisMcEvoy, the London-based creative stylist duo bought a mix of high impact colour and pattern to our onsite Press Office. It made for a very happy place to live over those five busy days.

I did find a few spare minutes to nip round some the exhibition (it was vast!) and take a few snaps of some of my personal highlights which I shall share with you in another post. So watch this space ....

My World's Biggest Coffee Morning

On Friday I took part in the World's Biggest Coffee Morning to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. It was the first year I had ever done it. In previous years the date, 28th September, often fell during our time at Tent London. But this year it didn't so I had no excuse and signed up for it. Macmillan's is a worthy charity so close to many people's hearts. I did my part in memory of my father-in-law who we lost to cancer nine years ago. He loved cake, so it seemed very fitting indeed.

I held the coffee morning in my home and invited a real mix of people; friends, school mum's, neighbours, even our company accountant. The turn out was amazing and everyone was so very supportive. A local catering hire company provided me with china cups and saucers, cake forks and plates free of charge and my local florist made up three beautiful jugs of fresh flowers for the table. So very lovely.

Of course I did all the baking: Chocolate & Beetroot, Orange & Almond, Courgette Cake, Lemon Drizzle, Toffee Apple Cake and Chocolate Brownies. Thanks to everyone's generosity and appetite for cake I raised £235.00, and that isn't including a few yet-to-come text donations.

Thank you to everyone who supported me - I'll be doing it again I'm sure.

On The Back Foot + A Belated Happy Birthday

That's where I've been most of the last week; on the back foot. New routines coupled with our busiest work period always makes September a busy month in our household.

The children are now back at school and playgroup. The've settled nicely into their new routines. Arthur is now doing four mornings a week meaning I have an extra 4 hours a week in the office; barely enough but over a week or the month I hope it will make a positive difference to our ever-demanding workload. 

Next week is a biggie for our business as the London Design Festival kicks in. We handle the PR for two of the festival's biggest events, Tent London and Super Brands London. We've been working tirelessly since May with the exhibiting designers and show organisers to create as much coverage on the events as possible. During the event David, I and the whole team decamp to London for five days to work from our pop-up press office housed in The Old Truman Brewery. It's five, long, tiring, busy days but also five days full of buzz and celebration. It's also our key time of the year in which we can meet industry colleagues, old friends and hopefully forge new relationships and work contracts. We're also rebranding and changing our company name (more of that at a later date) and we'll be setting out the seeds to that change at Tent London and Super Brands London, which is kind of exciting too. In a nutshell it's a pretty important five days for us.

It will be a strange feeling staying up in London for those days next week. My parents will be down to care for the children and keep their busy little schedules ticking over. I know that Lily and Arthur will adore having Nanny and Grandad to stay and look after them, but I'll really miss them as I am so not used to not having them around.

Finally, I want to say a big, albeit belated, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful brother who became another year older at the weekend. He may (or may not) appreciate the photographs above. We must have been around 6 and 3 in these pictures, but I love them; they really make me smile. 

A Little More Charilla

Whilst in Charilla we took frequent trips out in the car to explore neighbouring towns and further afield places. The local town, Alcala La Real, was barely a ten minute drive away. It is a beautiful town with a fascinating history. It was first inhabited during the stone age and played an important role during the Roman and Moorish occupations of Spain. We visited the impressive Fortaleza la Mota one day and spent time in the town on many evenings too. The kids played in the central park and visited the local toy shop for Spainish playmobil figures and I shopped for local ceramics and cake tins (yes cake tins; I found some beautiful shaped ones that were just a couple of euros each) and picked up any provisions for the next day. We had a couple of meals out, but more often having cooked and eaten supper at home we would amble into town for an ice cream pudding at one of the roadside cafes.

We stopped off in Madrid too on the way back for a couple of nights. Although the polar opposite of Charilla it was a fascinating and charming city we wouldn't hesitate going back to.

Oh, and the flying? Arthur took his first ever (rocket) voyage in his stride and Lily simply loved every second of it. We were lucky that on both our outbound and return journeys we had lovely clear skies so  could see the land way down below us. As we gained height, Lily asked where we were flying over, England? Brighton? The Sea? What Sea? France? Spain? Once up in the huge white fluffy clouds she asked 'Where are we now? Is this heaven?'

Charilla

Well, here we all are back safe and sound from our holiday. We had a lovely time. Truly lovely. Charilla, the little village we stayed at in Spain has certainly won our hearts. It was proper Spain, without a trace of commercialism. It was just the olive trees, the views, the mountains, the heat and the lazy days. It took the children a few days to adjust. It was hot; really hot. During the days it would reach 110F whilst still holding its own in the 90's at gone midnight. Lily and Arthur had to learn to take things slowly and have a midday siesta so that they could stay up late as the locals did sitting outside their home on a mis-mash of chairs with their little dogs chatting until the early hours.

Despite the change of scene, climate and all, they still saw daytime sleeping as some kind of punishment when they had done nothing wrong. They got into the groove eventually I'm pleased to say. Arthur managed to have a midday nap (as did David), whilst Lily and I indulged in the quite time to read (James and the Giant Peach) or do some cross-stitch in the shade.

We stayed in the most charming casa owned by our friends Michelle and Bill. A designer and a photographer by trade, I knew it would be a stylish abode that was sensitive to its surroundings and history. From its tiny blue window shutters and it basic cosy kitchen to the stunning view the top terrace offered, it was a real gem of a place that really helped us feel we were away from it all. Arthur called it his '20 house' as opposed to his '30 house' here back home; a sure sign of affection. Although none of us can speak a word of Spanish we managed to communicate through actions and gestures with the locals who all made us feel most welcome in the village.

I really felt at home in my little Spainish kitchen. We were surrounded by fantastic locally produced fruit and veg. As much as staying in a hotel and eating out a restaurants each night would be lovely, I really couldn't do it for very long. I love cooking and even more so when surrounded by all this wonderful produce. The kitchen had just 4 gas rings on which to cook; basic but fun. It meant quick, simple food, which is all you need in such heat when you have such great ingredients to cook with. My regular lunch was a bowl full of thickly sliced juicy tomatoes layered with capers, salt, pepper and olive oil eaten with some freshly baked bread. It tasted divine. We visited the local market which had amazing produce stalls, but even the supermarkets were full of seasonal fruit and vegetable and local seafood. Ready meals were extremely hard to come by. They put our supermarkets to shame. From such basic ingredients we ate like kings. Happy days.