Happy New Year... and love to all!

There are only a few hours left until the new year begins and I want to send all my SPD friends and my family lots of best wishes for a very Happy and Peaceful 2015. 
I was so busy in the 'posh gift shop' that I didn't have time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas here on my blog. Below you see a stary image which I have designed, it could be considered 'christmasy or fireworky' whichever is your mood and that will do for all of the festive season.

 
The Christmas sales went very well but we are very tired and a little relieved that it is all over. I was determined to record more of the action in the 'posh gift shop' this year but it is impossible to take photographs or indeed write blog posts when the big rush is on. I looked at our storeroom this afternoon and it is completely empty, every single present that was wrapped and stored has been retrieved or delivered to it's rightful owners, and, hopefully every gift was appreciated and enjoyed to the full.
Now I just want to have a quiet New Year and contemplate what 2015 might bring, I wish everyone a lovely evening and hope that next year brings exactly what you wish for whatever that may be! 
Love to all. Dawn x

The Posh Gift Shop

Do you remember the 'posh gift shop'? I used to talk about it quite a lot here on my blog. Throughout the year I help out there on a regular basis, however, when the festive season begins it becomes a full-time job! 
Back in June the 'posh gift shop' had it's sixtieth Birthday and we celebrated in style. Two generations of the same Italian family have sustained and nurtured this business through thick and thin. It is not a secret anymore that it's days are numbered. The gloomy Italian economic climate is the last straw and I think that 2015 will see the end of the road for this local institution. Many clients and customers will miss it greatly when it finally disappears.  

For the last month we have been unpacking new stock and pricing and shelving everything from glowing nativity scenes through to truffle slicers, you name it and we have it! Over the last two weeks one by one the windows have been decorated, the fifth and last one is shiny and new, filled with tantalizing gifts for all the family. 
So Monday 1st December is the big day... from then on we will open everyday until Christmas... our official Christmas marathon will be underway. It's not always enjoyable, it is sometimes funny, sometimes annoying, and you have to hope that you don't get any colds or flu halfway, it's not easy to communicate when you have lost your voice!

So will this be our last Christmas? I have a feeling it will be, and after 20 years of 'helping out' through the Christmas marathon I am going to make the best of this year and try and remember all the good bits. As a rare treat you can see a photo of me in one of the windows, but of course, I'm not for sale!  

News from the 'posh gift shop'

The festive season is finally in full swing and we are rushing around in the 'posh gift shop' selling lots of useful, fun, nice and not so nice gifts of every kind imaginable. This year we are a little understaffed so it's hard work but we still find time to joke and smile. The traditional competitions are all underway for the sweetest client, the rudest client, the most ridiculous request, who spends the most, and, who spends the least wanting of course all the trimmings like beautiful gift wrap and a free bag!

 
Some of my Keka cases are in one of the five windows, I am still hoping to sell them ALL! We have already sold our last singing snowman who has spent the whole of 2013 in a cold storeroom waiting for his moment, we are happy he has gone to a good home. The old lady who comes in every year to buy all her Christmas presents for NEXT YEAR!!! arrived today so the world is still as it should be :) I still have to wrap up an ironing board but as a substitute I have already wrapped up a hat and coat stand so we are still in practice. 
There are still 9 days left to go, for us each day that passes is always worse than the last because the clients become more and more frenetic and demanding. Some are convinced to have seen 'this or that' in our windows last week at 'that' price and we don't have the heart to tell them that we have never had an item like that in stock! In the run up to Christmas all is feasible and possible... even the impossible. 
Looking forward to Christmas Eve when things begin to calm down and everyone is at peace that finally what they still haven't bought they won't be able to buy because the shops all close in half an hour. Then just when you think you are safe you see him coming 30 minutes before closing time to buy 2 gifts and he is without fail always, ALWAYS, our last customer!

Kekacases update. Available to buy in Turin!

Probably you already know about my licensed Kekacase designs but I will just give you all a little update on recent developments. Firstly I have received some finished cases and am amazed by the quality of the product and the reproduction of my designs. The colours are wonderful and the cases finished beautifully. Finally the cases are sturdy and shiny and fit perfectly on the device. Also I particularly love the insides where my name is printed... soooooo exciting, see photograph below :) 

One of the advantages of helping out in a 'posh' gift shop means that maybe you can persuade the owners to stock some of your Keka designs to sell to the public! 
So we have chosen four designs and five devices and are selling a selection of them with our Christmas gift offerings this year. On the first day we sold two so I am hopeful that they will be a great success! You can see the four designs available at the 'posh' gift shop in this post (I apologise in advance for the poor photography but I am so excited and wanted to share this news with you all). Check out the whole collection of cases for the family of iPad, iPhone, Kindle and Galaxy smart phone devices directly on the Keka website.

P.S. Spoonflower news, my design Autumn Carpet was placed 27th out of 380 entries with 220 votes in the final voting for the Fall Leaves contest... needless to say I am very VERY pleased with the result. :) 

A Month in The Life of - ME!

On Sam Osborne's blog you will find many a designer and pattern maker who are sharing a month of their life with words and pictures. It is a feature that she will be posting in the first week of every month and if you are a slightly nosey person (or just curious) you have a great excuse to get a small insight into the everyday life of other creatives.
A couple of days ago it was my turn and this is what I came up with.

 

“So here is my month in numbers… 7 days skiing, 5 Saturdays working in a gift shop, and, 16 days working long hours freelancing in a studio in Turin. That left me a whole 3 days to do exactly what I wanted (although of course skiing is counted as holiday time so I can’t really complain)! So this ‘hectic’ month has come to an end and do you know what? I enjoyed myself. Looking back I managed to make and post 4 Efuto envelopes to various worldwide destinations, visited the cinema twice, and made lunchtime trips to Ikea and a fabulous exhibition. I uncovered a great 70′s tablecloth at my mother-in-law’s (in mint condition), met up with a long lost friend who I hadn’t seen for 14 years, and won 100 euros on the lottery, BIG SMILES. On the work front I had an interview for a new ‘surface pattern’ related job and received my first ever contract to license some of my designs. My month was positive, pleasant and interesting. Not quite enough pattern time for my liking but I passed many a doodle evening with my sketchbook and am looking forward to the near future when I can develop all my new ideas into colourful patterns.”

My March highlights...

• 5. Happy to finish my handmade Mother’s Day card, as I live away from home it is a very special day for us both.
• 9. In the gift shop where I work on Saturdays we had been waiting for all the 50′s related gifts to arrive. It is always fun to see new products and have new things to sell.
• 12. My time spent freelancing in Turin is made extra special by this wonderful dog who is part of the team. Not very good at using Photoshop but is excellent at sleeping.
• 21. I was so inspired by this exhibition by Gianini and Luzzati, fabulous animations made using collage and cut and paste stuff, SUPER!
• 22. This is not exclusive to March but my favourite bread shop which I visit a couple of times a week, definitely worth a mention.
• 23. Is it sad to say that I was so happy to win 100 euros on the lottery, well it doesn’t happen every day does it?
• 25. I met up with a friend and her family who I hadn’t seen for 14 years, so nice to realise that you just pick up where you left off.
• 27. Nice find at my mother-in-law’s, a vintage tablecloth in super condition.
• 28. A week late but FINALLY spring arrived in my garden!

It was a very interesting process to do, choose a photo for everyday of the month and pick out 9 highlights. I had imagined my months to be all the same and just full of rushing about. However this makes me realise how interesting time can be... everyday has a moment of happiness or inspiration and it sure is worth focusing your time on the positive moments... it is an exercise I should do more often.
Thanks Sam!

You can catch up on the whole series of A Month in the Life of... HERE!

The last "posh shop bulletin"

We have finally made it to Christmas Eve (all with sore throats and temperatures)... Just waiting now for the last customer, there is always one who comes in at 7.30pm and still has to buy a couple of pressies!

Now looking forward to three whole days of rest to try and get back to normal.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2012. XX

Snowman and friends

Only three days left and afraid to say I'm completely and utterly tired and fed up of "posh gift shop"! It happens every year, I start off full of good will and Christmas spirit. Then it sort of dwindles into a strained smile with a sigh of relief every evening when I can tick off another day on my calendar. I know it is because my feet are aching so much and my brain is in total confusion... can't wait until it is all over.

Our singing snowmen are almost sold out, there is only one left and I feel quite sorry for him. He is pictured here with friends (who I'm pleased to say "don't sing"). I hope he finds a buyer before we close our doors on Christmas eve, I can't bear to think of putting him back in his box until next year!

Christmas panic!

Only seven working days left until Christmas. The novelty of selling and wrapping gifts is beginning to wear off... we are now only counting the days left until the big day. Now working (rushing around!) from 8.00am until 8.00pm. No lunch hours because taken up with errands... like, replenishing dwindling wrapping paper supplies and such. It seems impossible but we have already got through 2 packs of 5 kilos... that is a lot of paper!

Christmas Marathon

Christmas in the Posh Gift Shop is really taking off. We are now 3 days into our Christmas Marathon with only 24 Working days to go! I already have aching feet and am fed up with singing snowmen. Trying to concentrate on important things, like not getting a sore throat and losing my voice (difficult to serve clients), and... to wrap up every gift as if it will be your last so they all come out wonderfully.

More of the same... Gift Cards

More of the same you might say, however my illustrations look good on Gift Cards too, so they are now on sale in Turin at the 'posh gift shop'... and there are loads of them!

The main reason for this post is to let Flowerlady know that I have already posted some to her. Meanwhile enjoy a couple here.

I'm moving on to better things. Watch this space for more OWL drawings.

Twelve cups of tea with me!

Back in July 2010 I posted two illustrations inspired by an exhibition I saw on LENCI CERAMICS. I have continued to work on a series of illustrations which have evolved from these first two drawings. The twelve final illustrations have been positioned onto porcelain mugs and I love them. I would like to have a nice cup of tea in every one of them. I am only posting six here for you to admire, two from each colour way. If anyone is interested in seeing all of them just let me know.

I am also printing up some gift cards using my favourite drawings from this collection, they will be sold exclusively in our gift shop in Turin.
I can now concentrate on a series of cards which have been neglected because I have been working solely on the above illustrations for a couple of weeks. Strangely the new project involves flower illustrations... I think I'm becoming obsessed!

Swarovski Black Cat

This lovely Black Cat brooch is for sale in "posh gift shop" in Turin.
It is made by Swarovski and costs a mere 70.00 euros. If somebody does'nt buy it pretty soon I might be tempted...

N° 1 - Carpeted Bathroom Scales

... and the winner of my TOP FIVE is a pair of bathroom scales covered in carpet! 

As you can see they are by far not a normal pair of scales but a perfect result of function and design. I think it is wonderful to have the soft, warm, and non slip surface to stand on when you are weighing yourself. It is also quite original to have the possibility of seeing the needle go round the dial, which in turn, takes up a whole three sides of the scales. This has the strange effect on me of trying to make the needle go further round like the "test your strength" machine at the fairground! It would be a good idea to review the design concept of these scales, they would be a sure hit in the gimmicky world in which we live. I obviously searched the net for bathroom scales which touched on this concept, but I found nothing.

They were Made in France by Terraillon, have a patent dated 1979, and are in perfect working order. They measure 34cm by 34cm, and stand 9cm high, quite a monument to have in your bathroom but well worth the comfort. I also have the original box (very dusty) which claims "avec lecture panoramique", and shows three other available colours. This makes the find even more interesting. 

Unlike all the other TOP FIVE objects which I will be keeping for various reasons, I'm afraid I don't have room to keep these scales in my bathroom. So I think they will eventually end up on Ebay... any offers?

N° 2 Vintage Christmas Ornaments

It is just the right time of year to post these lovely blown glass vintage Christmas baubles that I found in dusty boxes. Truly wonderful, very old and VERY FRAGILE. They seem to break by just looking at them. I took some very quick photographs of a few of them but there are so many I need to take more time and catalogue them, I also need to find a better way to present them as I had to invent a couple of backgrounds to disguise my bad photography skills! I do hope you enjoy them anyway. Some are incredibly elaborate and moulded into strange shapes, others are painted using bright colours or covered in glitter. There are also some surprising characters too like the cat with a cartoon face or the snowman being hugged by a little boy. Yummy!  

N° 3 Wallpaper Borders

These gorgeous borders are very old but I can't really put a date to them. They certainly deserve 3° place as they are quite unique, the colours are fantastic, the paper lovely and chunky just like real paper used to be, and they are all embossed. Roughly all are about 2cms wide and some have silver or gold shiny bits! What a great find.
I immediately wove some together to make a pattern. I hope to do some "fancy bits" with them and post them here soon.

N° 4 Fruit Tree Pruning Booklet

This great find is I’m afraid not in very good condition. It is a text manual used for agricultural training, dated 1965 (fourth edition). By the title of “La potatura degli alberi da frutto”, roughly translated as “How to prune fruit trees”, it measures 15cm by 20,5cm, and has 166 pages. It has a 4 colour cover with black and white internal pages, 12 chapters and 66 illustrations and cost a whole 800 lire, that is 0.41 euros or 0.34 sterling! The illustrations are beautiful although very technical and precise and are all reproductions of original drawings done by the author, A. Calzecchi Onesti. It was very hard just to choose two or three of them to post here.

N° 5 Frog Money Box

This funny little frog moneybox is quite sweet in his own way. Made of papier mâché with a high glaze finish, 15cm tall, Made in Germany, and I think of late sixties design. He reminds me more of a Toad than a Frog, probably because of his size (I frequently see toads in my garden which are nearly as big!). He is very ugly and seems to be sulking but has lovely swirly designs on his tummy and back and flowers for eyes. In my book any animal which has flowers for eyes can’t be all that bad. My only criticism is his size, if he was a bit smaller and was just a frog instead of a moneybox as well he would be perfect. So with a little help from my computer I have created three little cousins for him, one orange, one sky blue and one purple, at about 7cm tall they are much more appealing.

Beware of spiders 2

The saga continues… we are now into the seventh week of the grand clear out! (It is also the reason for my extremely quiet blog.) The whole exercise has proved to be harder and more time consuming than expected. Now that all the spider-ridden black holes have finally been investigated the only remaining problem is disposing of all the rubbish in the correct recycling bin, easier said than done! 

No hidden treasures have come to light (unlike the amazing discovery made in London and sold at Christies) so we are almost resigned to the fact that our marathon will not yield any great financial benefit. The removal van is booked for Saturday so you could say we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

As mentioned in “Beware of Spiders” I have decided to post a TOP FIVE of the most interesting and/or useless items found whilst sorting through mountains of rubbish. Just give me a couple of days to sort out photographs and one by one the chosen five will feature under my NICE label. You will discover that they have nothing to do with spiders but are just objects which have caught my eye for some reason, it also means they have been saved from the recycling bin and will live a second life in my collection of cherished “interesting” rubbish at home!

Beware of spiders

Over the last month we have been emptying a large flat with 3 cellars and 2 outhouses which has always been used as a warehouse. There was a slight hope of finding some forgotten family heirloom but we quickly discovered it was full of 40 years of family rubbish and spiders! Although I don’t suffer from Arachnophobia it has been a trying experience. How we come to be doing this is a long tale and not very interesting, however halfway through the job we are coming to the end of our strength and patience. So why am I writing about it here, I don’t know, I think just to get it off my chest. When we are finished I could post a top ten of the most useless items we have discovered just to prove the utter worthlessness of all our hard work. Having said that I am secretly pleased with a couple of strips of original 50’s wallpaper and a few old, old, I mean OLD, Christmas decorations, but nothing to compensate for sorting through piles and piles of junk. There is one Black Hole left, a disused cellar that hasn’t been opened for about 20 years. When I peeped in I saw a big wooden chest in the corner, we could be lucky but meanwhile I am too preoccupied with the spiders to get excited about it!

One-off Gift Cards

I found some lovely flower stickers the other day. They have a raised foam circle in the centre which makes them stand off from the backgrounds. In a couple of days I whizzed up these little gift cards (60mm x 90mm), the nice thing about them is they are all one-offs, I managed to make twenty cards with the stickers I had, when I returned to buy more they had sold out... no more stickers no more cards! 

If and when I open an Etsy shop these are the type of things I would like to sell, but for now I am content selling them in a very posh gift shop in Turin.