Summer Wish List

London-based website Blog and Buy Sale aims to shine a light on independent designers and makers creating great products and selling them online. They do this in a number of ways, including interviews and daily blog posts and have just launched this year's Summer Wish List, showcasing a host of products they think you should know about. I'm chuffed that they've selected TILEWATCH to be included this time round, along with I Like Local favourite Fun Makes Good with a range of placemats and coasters. Other highlights for me are some of the more triangle-oriented products on show: a tote bag designed by Kirsty Thomas for tote touters Totes Amazed (pictured above) and the Spear Luin brooch by London-based architectural students Triptych Designs (below). There's plenty to browse through in BBS' Summer Wish List, all linking to each designer's online shop. Happy hunting!

Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts

On the recommendation of my friend Fiona I attended a day of workshops at Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts two weeks ago. Recently moved into a new building on Blair Street in the Old Town, Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts is an organisation providing space and facilities for artists and designers in Edinburgh while also running a series of workshops and courses in various printing techniques, bookbinding, ceramics and more. This particular day ECC was offering a menu of six different workshops over the course of a sunny Saturday and for a pretty reasonable price you could come along for the day, take part in four of those workshops, have all your materials provided and be filled with tea, coffee and food at regular intervals. About 30 of us participated for the day and it was a great opportunity to try new techniques, revisit old ones and make some cool stuff to take home.

TILEWATCH Pre-Christmas Postage

A quick note for those of you looking to get your hands on a copy of TILEWATCH before Christmas: you'll need to get your orders in quick!

Delivery within Ireland: Final postage is 19 December, so orders need to be in by 12 midnight on 18 December (that's tomorrow!)
Delivery to the rest of Europe (that includes you, Portugal and the UK): Final postage is on 18 December, so orders need to be in by 2pm on 18 December (again, that's tomorrow).

You'll find more info on the project here, and you can place your orders over here. And finally, Happy Christmas / Feliz Natal!

TILEWATCH Print Edition

Buy the TILEWATCH print edition here!

Some of you may have noticed that the more time I spent in Lisbon this year, the more obsessed I became with the city's patterned tiles. First that obsession manifested itself in an online project called TILEWATCH where I collected 250 photographs and drawings of ceramic tiles over my six months in Portugal. Well my tile-inspired endeavours didn't stop there, a printed project is just off the press! The print edition of TILEWATCH takes the form of a tile-spotting trail that brings you on a tour of two of Lisbon's central neighbourhoods - Alfama and Mouraria - highlighting a number of tiles along the way.

Looking After Things

Partly because of a conversation I had on Saturday with Aisling from Raindrops on Kittens, and partly because it's been a long time coming, I spent this bank holiday Monday polishing shoes and altering clothes. Above left is my Favourite Pair of Jeans Probably Ever that I'd recently worn a giant hole in. Now they're patched up and ready to face another season. The campers are now freshly waxed, and the brogues are whitened up to a dazzling degree. Below is a pair of jeans that needed taking in at the waist, and while I was at it, I thought I'd shorten them (cue a hemming lesson from my mum). Lastly, the sandals needed some gluing in parts cos the straps were coming apart (I really need to stop buying shoes in Topshop - they cost quite a bit and yet always need repairing so soon after buying them...)