The cats

I've finally got around to booking a holiday for us. As usual I'm not very organised so it's all slightly last minute. We go on Saturday, so then I had the panic of what to do with the cats. We always used to send them on holiday to Jan in Four Marks, but she closed her cattery a while ago and last year we were saved by Alex's friend, the lovely Daisy, coming to feed them every morning and evening. Unfortunately Daisy is a very busy young lady and I didn't feel I could ask her this time.

So the hunt began for a new cattery.

Of course lots are booked up, but I did go to have a look at one which is quite close to us. Oh my goodness, what a depressing place it was, I felt so guilty at the thought that I may have to leave them in such a place. But there was another cattery to visit, the bad thing about this one is that it's about 20 minutes away which would make for a very unpleasant journey with 3 howling cats in the back of the car. But I was so relieved when I saw the place, it's just fabulous, I want to go to stay there myself. I suppose it's the equivalent of a 5* boutique hotel, with gourmet menu, extremely friendly owners, gorgeous views and I can even check the cats on web cam.
So now I can go on holiday without worrying about my lovely cats.

http://www.mews-cattery.co.uk/

On to the Design Museum

The Design Museum was certainly a hit with the students, I even had to drag some of them out, we just loved the sparkly lights.




Christopher Kane's dress still looks fabulous despite a few loose threads hanging from the hem.

I loved the idea of renovating old park benches by adding inlay to make them more attractive. An old, disused railway bridge in New York has been turned into a modern looking green space.That famous Stephen Jones hat from his V&A exhibition.Sugra, check it out on the Internet so you can hack your stuff too, it looks amazing. The wonderful, rotating pandas.

http://designmuseum.org/

A fun day in London with the 1st years

Yesterday Gayle, Liz and I took the extremely well behaved 1st year textile students to the Grace Kelly exhibition at The V&A and the Brit Insurance Designs 2010 at The Design Museum. We had a great time and although the students seemed to enjoy the V&A, maybe Gayle, Liz and I enjoyed it more.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

Alex moves out

The sunshine can make anything look lovely. I assure you Alex's halls of residence didn't usually look this nice.

While inside we're nearly ready to go.

New Designers

Wow if you're debating should I, shouldn't I go to New Designers then say yes. The work is really wonderful and inspiring and all of the students I spoke to were so friendly and informative about their work and of course justifiably proud.
Bucks New University has won the award for best stand with a fabulous display of students work that blends together so well. Do make sure you check out the textiles there by Lois Norman, they're just to die for, so much lovelier in the flesh than a photo can do justice to.

I was also drawn to the work of Jade Marczynski who won a Selvedge award for excellence in textiles. She is great to chat to and had been inspired in her work by talking to people who had war time memories. This doesn't mean her work was dark or solemn but instead consisted of wonderful embroidered imagery and quotes in beautiful fresh colours which had a fashionably vintage feel to them. She even let me take her photo.

http://www.newdesigners.com/