Chatiryworld

Farewell Habitat

When I was a kid (and teenager, and, er, adult), one of my favourite things to read was the Habitat catalogue.  Living in Orkney my family relied on catalogues to do a lot of our shopping, and whilst we couldn't afford most of Habitat's range, we still got the catalogue to dream over.  We had a few bits and pieces that had been given as gifts but I longed to live in a house that looked like it belonged in the Habitat catalogue.  We moved to Yorkshire when I was nine, and now that we lived a 30 minute train ride away from the Leeds branch, could actually go in and see the items for real.  Occasionally I saved some of my pocket money to buy bits and bobs for my bedroom, or little christmas gifts.  When I was 11 I finally got some Habitat curtains, to be followed not longer after by a matching duvet cover, I felt so sophisticated.  I also loved that, as well as being members of Greenpeace, my Granny Pip and Grandpa were fans of Habitat too, I had cool grandparents!

At some point in the late 90s I felt that Habitat changed.  The catalogue that I had always eagerly anticipated started to disappoint.  Instead of wishing for room sets from Habitat I turned more to the Ikea catalogue.  I suspect I wasn't the only one.  Instead of lots of good classic pieces interspersed with something a bit different and more innovative, it started to feel too 'designy', like it was trying too hard.  Although there were some items I would have happily had in my home, most of it I didn't have a particularly strong opinion.  They also seemed to moving to out of town stores, useless for a non-driver.  The Leeds branch that I had grown up with closed to move to the bright lights of, er, Batley.  We laugh at the taste of the 80s now, but I actually think the 80s were a really good decade for Habitat.

Despite this, I was really sad to read that they are having to close all their stores outside London.  I have bought quite a few things from their Edinburgh store in the past few years.  I can't afford their furniture, even if I wanted it, but they do a good line in accessories: crockery, bedlinen, towels, lighting and kitchen stuff.  A lot of it is still good classic design, some of it a bit more 'out there', but I think a lot of people are willing to experiment a bit more when it comes to accessories.  I love the Our Crowd lamp for example, it's my favourite lamp in our home (and I love the Moon light too):

I went into Habitat the other day, hoping to get their Tenby notice board for our kitchen, but it seems like the rest of the country had the same idea as it's even sold out on their website.  I got a few bits and pieces for the house as part of the closing down sale, but the whole place felt overwhelmingly sad.  It wasn't helped by the extremely ugly and garish closing down signs all across the shop, even over their outside signage.  I presume their liquidators had made them put them up but it just seemed like the final insult to what had been a great brand, Habitat stood for good design after all.  I'm really not sure what the Home Retail Group will do with the company now, especially since Argos has got to be my least favourite shopping experience (indeed I haven't been in one for several years).  I may well keep an eye on the website, but it feels like a shop that was set up by Sir Terence Conran to share his ideas on good design, just won't be the same.

Oh, and if you do go and grab some bargains in the closing down sale, do take a minute to wish your sales assistant well, won't you?

Scented endorsement

I've mentioned before that I'm a member of Method's People Against Dirty, in the past few months they've sent me a couple of freebies to test out, that I hadn't got round to reporting on until now.  This was partly because I wanted to keep them until we got to the New House.  Well, we're here now and using them.  First of all, the peppermint vanilla washing up liquid, a scent combination that I honestly couldn't imagine and thought sounded a little bizarre.  Well, actually it's really nice, the mint is fresh and the vanilla adds a gentle balance.  The packaging is nice and sleek and it looks good by your sink, if you're bothered by that kind of thing.  I don't think I am but I have to admit it looks a lot nicer than other washing up liquids I've used.  It's fantastic at cleaning, combined with the Very Hot Water coming from our taps, it makes light work of any burnt/baked on bits of food.  I believe it was a seasonal special, thanks to Google, so I'm not sure if it's ever going to be available in the shops.

Another nice product that Method sent us was their waterfall handwash, a scent I hadn't tried before.  I'd used sweet water, which was a lovely gentle scent but not enough to get rid of the smell of raw onions after you've been chopping them, and also French lavender, which is enough to overpower eau d'oignon, and which we regularly use in the kitchen.  The waterfall scent also seems to work on getting rid of powerful food smells on your hands and is nice and fresh.  I prefer lavender but would happily buy waterfall if lavender wasn't available.

Thinking about this post in my head got me thinking about the other cleaning stuff we use around the house, and also about making the house smell good.  This house smells so much nicer than our last one, no matter what we did it still smelled a bit damp, and the internal kitchen and ancient rug that needed a good shampoo didn't help matters.  Nor did what amounted to raw sewage sitting around the stairs just below the flat when there were problems with the building drains last autumn. 

Anyway, this house is much nicer, the new carpets and most of our furniture being new helps enormously, as well as the kitchen having a window to open and a door to shut, hurrah!  I strongly believe that the best way to keep your house smelling nice is to keep it clean and to open the windows often, all the scented candles in the world can't replace that.  (Incidentally, Offbeat Home did a good post on reducing smells in your home, if you want some good tips.)

Pretty much all our cleaning products are by Method or Ecover, I particularly love Method's range of scents.  We use French lavender in the kitchen, eucalyptus mint in the bathroom, peony blossom on our clothes and lemon ginger on the floor.  They are good at cleaning too, no point having nice smelling products if they don't actually work. 

Although I said that I don't think that scented candles alone make your house smell nice, they can help (but clean and open your windows first!).  We tend to use natural wax ones, which are much cheaper than they used to be, depending on the brand.  Shearers do ones that you can pick up for a few pounds in Waitrose (less than on the website I've linked to) and TK Maxx seem to have a few different ones at reduced prices (having gone for several years without a TK Maxx handy, because in Edinburgh they are all in retail parks outside the city centre, I was pleased to discover one in Kirkcaldy town centre).  I've also bought some online from A Lot of Candles in the past.  Aveda lavender are my absolute favourites but they're expensive and not always available in their shops.

I've got mixed feelings about reed diffusers, some I've used haven't smelled much of anything beyond the first few days.  I'm using some from the White Company at the moment, they were going cheap on the reduced shelf hidden away in their Edinburgh store because one of the lids was missing.  We've got Verveine in the hall which I love and Flowers in the bedroom which is a little bit sickly.

Although I dislike most spray air fresheners (and plug-ins, yuck) there are some nicer (but more expensive) sprays available.  At the moment we've got Neal's Yard frankincense and clove one in the bathroom, which was reduced in their January sale.  It's kind of citrussy but slightly christmassy, as you might expect from the name.  I also sometimes use an aromatherapy lavender one from Boots in the bedroom, again, because it was going cheap and I think I found it at the same time as we had the sewage problem in the stair at our last place.  I don't think aromatherapy is particularly effective but there's a lot to be said for a pleasant smell making the world seem like a better place.

I'm now aware that I've made myself sound like I live an incredibly charmed life and spend all my spare time and money on home fragrance and swanning about Waitrose and the White Company, but I'm afraid I don't.  Sometimes I do glamourous things like pick out bits of food that are clogging the sink, and occasionally I buy those really cheap nasty artificially flavoured crisps because, well, just because. 

Stripe Mania!

I love stripes, I think babies and small children look especially cute in them but I haven't worn horizontal stripes for years because the Style Police tell us they are unflattering.  Last year I decided I didn't care about that (I mean, I'm not a slave to fashion or style by any means but not wearing horizontal stripes was one thing I took notice of) and bought myself a couple of stripy tops.  This one was in the sale at The White Company last year.

The other week Holly from decor8 blogged about Stripe Mania, she and a friend were wondering how many other bloggers were enjoying wearing stripes.  And so a #StripeMania party was formed on Twitter.  Here's my contribution, shivering on our balcony.  To see a parade of bloggers in stripes, go and have a look at Holly's Stripe Mania board on Pinterest.  (As an aside, I'm on Pinterest too, but haven't said anything about it as some of my boards are a bit empty, but I do love somewhere I can collect Lovely Things online.)  If you love wearing stripes, why not join in too?

Edinburgh independent shopping guide

I've been meaning to do this post for years, yet have never got round to it until now.  Here are my picks when it comes to Edinburgh's independent shops, completely, totally and utterly biased towards my likes and also where I tend to go.  For example, I rarely go to Stockbridge anymore as we don't live in that part of town, so whilst it does have a fair few independent shops I don't feel qualified to report on most of them.  You might also like to look out the books The Edinburgh Independent Shop Guide (2006), The Locals' Guide to Edinburgh (2009) and The Civilized Shopper's Guide to Edinburgh and Glasgow (2008).

Some of the shops don't have websites, but I have placed them all on a handy Google map for you.

View Chatiryworld Edinburgh Guide in a larger map

Morningside/Bruntsfield/Tollcross

Jonathan Avery - Nice home shop that sells a load of well-known brands like Emma Bridgewater, Green Gate, Burgon and Ball etc.

Ian Mellis - Excellent cheese shop with a small selection of other foodie items.  If you have a recipe with a cheese you can't find, then they're very good at suggesting alternatives.  Also has branches in Victoria Street, Stockbridge, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St Andrews.

Bohemia - Find Gillian Kyle goodies here, alongside a small selection of women and children's clothes (Dr Seuss babygros anyone?), jewellery and more home goodies.  Note that the shop is small and the website carries a much larger range.  I love popping in though, they also sell Selvedge.

The Edinburgh Bookshop - Quality indedepent booksellers who also put on top events, we've seen them present Robin Ince and Phil Jupitus.  They have a loyalty card scheme...

Falko Konditormeister - Amazing German bakery where we got our wedding cake from.  There are some tables available if you can fight the rich students and yummy mummies for one.

Clementine Designs - Even more home/interiors, they have a good selection from Poppy Treffry.

Coco of Bruntsfield - Chocolate!  Very small shop with a couple of stools if you want to stop for a hot chocolate, full of delicious varieties of their own chocolate bars. 

The Bay Tree - loads of nice cards and wrapping paper, also has a branch in the city centre on Hanover Street.

The Spider and the Fly - Fabulous little shop recently relocated from near the Grassmarket, they sell lots of crafty goodies from a variety of different makers, as well as magazines like Oh Comely.

Lupe Pintos - Tiny Mexican deli full of foody goodness.  They got us hooked on Mr Vikki's chutneys and relishes.  Also has a branch in Glasgow.

See also Morningside Shopping article from The List and Tollcross Traders Association.

West End

Studio One - An Edinburgh institution for Nice Gifts.  It's a basement shop that becomes a bit of a Tardis as you step through more and more rooms filled with items for the home, toiletries, gifts, children's books and toys and some gallery items.  Has shops selling furniture in Morningside.

Paper Tiger - Owned by Studio One, this is where you go for cards, wrapping paper, stationery and further gift items.  Also has a branch on Lothian Road.

Frontiers - Not-scary boutique where you can find clothes by Odd Molly, Saltwater and Seasalt, amongst others.

See also the West End Village website.

Princes Street/New Town/Broughton Street

(Not actually going to include anything on Princes Street as it is all just the big chains, it's just included as a geographic indicator.)

Bibi's Bakery - Delicious cupcakes at only £1.50, huge variety.  Also has a branch in St Andrews.

The Scottish Gallery - Ok, so I've only ever bought a magazine here, but if I had money to burn I would buy a lot more here.  Often has work from St Jude's.

Inhouse - Interior design shop, expensive furniture but downstairs you can find more affordable accessories from around the world.

Henderson's Deli - Small selection of organic fruit and veg, alongside their own bread and snacks.

Jenners Food Hall - Jenners is now owned by House of Fraser but another Edinburgh institution, Valvona and Crolla run their food hall.  The main Valvona and Crolla shop is not far away at the top of Leith Walk, they also run Vin Caffe on Multrees Walk.

Fruitmarket Gallery shop - Mainly books and magazines on art and design, with a nice selection of children's books as well

Concrete Wardrobe - More crafty/design stuff, and another outlet for Selvedge.

See also New Town and Leith and Broughton Street shopping articles from The List.

Grassmarket/Old Town

Helio's Fountain - Waldorf/Steiner books and toys, some of the stuff is a bit too hippy dippy for me but good for children's presents.  Lots of beads and some craft materials too.

Hannah Zakari - Lovely new shop selling, yes, you guessed it, craft and design stuff.  Jon got me a cool cloud brooch there and we're waiting for them to get some more of these prints (but framed) in stock.

The Red Door Gallery - One of my favourites, I strongly believe that nearly all my friends and family's presents can be purchased from here and nearby Analogue Books and Hannah Zakari.  Full of lovely things you see on lovely design blogs, like the Lines and Shapes books, Present and Correct wall planner, Rob Ryan prints, Alice Melvin goodies and the Martha Goes Green book.  It's tiny but I love it.

Analogue Books - If you like design and typography this shop is for you.  They also put on small exhibitions and sell lots of interesting magazines.

K1 Yarns - Lots of yummy yarns and knitting books and magazines.  I got the yarn for my wedding shawl here.

Anta - Beautiful tartan pottery and textiles in muted colours.  I'd really like one of their small bowls (because I can't afford anything else).

The International Newsagent - Pretty much what it says, a newsagent on the Royal Mile with probably the best selection of papers and magazines from around the world.  If you're quick you can pick up Marie Claire Idees here.

Peter's Yard - Swedish cafe and bakery, their cakes are gorgeous and their vegetarian sandwiches are a step up from your usual egg and cress and mozarella and roast vegetable panninis.

Moleta Munro - Continuing a Scandinavian theme, lots of lovely design goodies here.  They also own a stunning Dualchas house on Skye that you can rent out.

The Old Children's Bookshelf - Secondhand and antiquarian children's books, you'll pretty much always find a much loved tome from your childhood here.

See also Edinburgh's Grassmarket.

Causewayside

Earthy - Great green/foodie/eco shop with a fabulous cafe called Yum (Jon says this is a crucial point).  They have big stacks of cookery books on the tables for you to read, then once you've found something you want to cook you can buy the ingredients.  Also has some garden stuff.

Design Shop UK - More designy goodies, they had a small Moomin exhibition with lots of lovely things for sale last year.

Craft House Concept - Are you getting bored of design shops yet?  Well it's my list and this is what I like!  Interesting and sustainable craft and design from all around the UK. 

Stockbridge

Sheila Fleet - Beautiful Orcadian jewellery along with other crafts from Orkney and Shetland.

Patisserie Florentin - Yummy French patisserie and cafe.

Please feel free to recommend more of your favourites in the comments (recommend your own shop if you like, but please declare that it's yours, the internet will like you much more if you do).  There are loads more independent shops in Edinburgh but I just don't go to them all and/or don't know about them.

 

Festive shopping guide

Every year I read lovely gift guides on lovely blogs and always think about doing my own.  But I don't because, er, I'm a bit lazy.  But this year I am going to do another sort of guide that I've often considered in the past: gifts made by my family and friends (some 'real life', some online).  So here we go:

First up, one of my dads, Hugh Leishman.  He's an excellent woodturner and made this little bowl for our wedding rings at our wedding ceremony.  If you're not lucky enough to win one of his spurtles from BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House over the next few Sundays, you can always buy one from him, contact him via his website to buy one direct (or something else lovely like a bowl or chopping board).  You can also buy some of his work from David Mellor (bread boards and spurtles, both at bottom of pages) who has shops in London and Hathersage,  and Twice (bread board and spurtle) who have a shop in St Andrews.

Still keeping it in the family, paintings from my lovely husband are available at Jon Nagl Art. Whether you like Scottish landscapes, still life or naked people, there's something there for you.  I don't want the landscapes to go, but I'd be happy if I knew they were going to a good home where they would be loved.

My friend Rachel makes beautiful bonnets and waistcoats for babies and small children at Up Wi' The Bonnets.  I've got a waistcoat on order for one of our little pals.

I've known Nancy through blogging and a shared love of Clothkits for a couple of years now, earlier this year she started selling her lovely goodies through Etsy at Nancy's Home Shop.  Whenever we manage to find a new home to live in I may have to treat the pegs to a new bag.

Elizabeth of Merlin Stained Glass and I used to live in the same halls at university, since then she's been learning about stained glass and makes some lovely pieces.  The milky colours of this piece remind me of Orkney sunsets.

Carolyn Waweru and I were at school together in Ilkley, she now lives in Hong Kong where she makes and sells jewellery in her spare time.  Don't let the distance put you off, she will post around the world.  I love grosgrain ribbon and never would have thought it would look so great in necklaces.

I blogged about Turquoise Bay Jewellery a few months ago, Joanna has made loads of pretty pieces in a variety of colours, so you're bound to find something to match an outfit.

Juliet Wilson is not only a fabulous wedding celebrant (she married us, hurrah!), she also makes gorgeous items from Harris Tweed over at Harris Tweet.  Love those stockings!

If I've forgotten anyone, I apologise profusely, I appear to be suffering from some kind of sugar hangover after going to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner last night and my brain is even less with it than usual.  Please send me a pissed off email and I will rectify the situation.  If anyone else does a guide like this, please let us all know in the comments, it's great to be able to support friends of friends.

Facebook is great

I got to know about Turquoise Bay Jewellery through a friend on Facebook, the jewellery is by a friend of hers.  I realised recently that I couldn't remember the last time I had got myself some new earrings so when Joanna posted her new collection on Facebook, I decided to order some.  I'm trying to buy more from small producers/makers so this was perfect, and it was supporting friends.  When the package arrived it seemed a bit too big to be holding some earrings, opening it I discovered a lovely surprise, the matching bracelet as well.  I don't often wear bracelets but this is exactly the sort I like and have admired.  Thanks Joanna!

I've also been promoting my friend Rachel's new business on Facebook too, Up Wi' the Bonnets.  She's selling some gorgeous baby bonnets made from pretty vintage fabrics, and is working on some cute tweed waistcoats for the boys.  Through that, Amber (who I have know virtually through blogging for several years but we have still not managed to meet up) of Studio Boo noticed that the bonnets would be great props for her baby photo shoots so I think they're plotting something now, I think Joanna's looking into that too (I'm losing track a bit).

And all because of Facebook, helping to bring friends of friends together.  Yes, it's got a million and one annoying apps, you need to be careful with your privacy settings and there are people who use it for nasty things, but if you use it wisely, Facebook can help lead to all sorts of great things.

Summertime Hop!

I'm going to the Made in the Shade Summertime Hop, are you?  I'll be helping out again only this time for a bit longer.  I also have instructions to bring back cake for Jon this time.

Kitchen goodies

I'm not sure how long I've been lusting after a KitchenAid mixer, I remember wanting one when I lived in Leeds but then I also remember hanging around the kitchen department in Coles/John Lewis in Sheffield before then, so let's call it ten years.  But yesterday morning, thanks to a combination of gifts of Amazon vouchers, dull survey vouchers, Amazon Associates payments and a belated wedding gift, we got a shiny red one:

It's so lovely!  And shiny!  And most importantly, has so far made beating sugar and butter together an absolute dream.  I was the first one to use it and I made a marble loaf from Dan Lepard's Exceptional Cakes :

I'm really looking forward to seeing what else we can do with it, we've already got our eyes on some of the attachments, but they will require some more saving.  I'm keen to see how pizza dough done in the KitchenAid compares to that done in the Magimix, I've got that down to a fine art now.

Another lovely thing for the kitchen we received recently was this Heal's tea towel from my sister Martha, I have a fascination with doll's houses (and I used to love doing christmas shopping in Heal's in Manchester) so this really appealed to me:

Around and about

I don't seem to have written a 'proper' post for a while.  I went on a very quick work visit to That London last week which was good, I managed to see a couple of people and make my annual pilgrimage to Muji.  Even though I wanted to get several items from their In A Bag range, I managed to restrain myself and only came away with the tea set.  I also got to experience Whole Foods for the first time, hope to return sometime for a proper look as my sister Ellen and I sped through to go and find a bite to eat in the cafe.

I'm knitting several presents at the moment too, looking forward to being able to blog about them, I'm very proud of one of them in particular.  One the subject of presents, I went to the Magpie Market at The Lot here in Edinburgh on Sunday and picked up a few little things.  Lots of interesting crafting going on.  I've decided that when it comes to most of my immediate family and presents, I don't really need to go anywhere other than the fabulous Red Door Gallery and Analogue Books, which are handily near each other.  And near K1 Yarns...

Right, back to the knitting!  Hope you are all well!

My Place and Yours: My Collection

This week's My Place and Yours theme is My Collection.  What do I collect?  Well, I'm not into collecting for the sake of having a collection, but I do like nice ceramics, so here's a little collection I've gathered over the years.  Most of them are Scottish, with the exception of the jug in the bottom-right, which we got from White Doll Arts in Fowey on honeymoon, and the vase on the bottom left which is by Karin Eriksson.  The bowl in between them is from St Andrews Pottery.  The bowl above Karin's vase is from Highland Stoneware and the blue vase to the right of it is by John O'Groats Pottery.  At the back, the dark blue striped vase is from Crail Pottery, the starry bowl is from South Lissens Pottery in Fife and the blue/white vase is from Bay Pottery on Skye.

I'd like to get some pieces from Tain and Anta potteries, any other recommendations? 

What flexitime was made for

I opened the front door on Monday morning, already running a bit late for my usual bus, and was confronted with this sight.  I decided capturing a few photos was worth missing the bus for, so scampered back inside to get my camera, breathlessy half explaining to Jon what I was doing and losing a glove on the way.  As well as this photo I got another two, and of course missed my bus (I later found it from a colleague it was early anyway).  But what's the point of flexitime if you can't use it for nice things like this?

Speaking of nice things, Yorkshire readers may be interested to know that there is a Rob Ryan exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (apparently there's a Clothkits workshop going on too but it's sold out).

Whippet Grey

I'm sure I've blogged about Whippet Grey before, a company who sell Lovely Things.  Their website used to be like a pop-up book, it isn't any more , but still looks great.  There are loads of websites and catalogues out there selling Lovely Things, Pedlars, Handpicked and Not on the High Street (although an awful lot of their stuff is available on the high street nowadays) spring to mind. All places I love (apart from this tshirt which is just awful), but Whippet Grey seems to have the edge. 

Although there's several items I've seen elsewhere, like the ubiquitous Keep Calm and Bugger Off I'm Sick Of This Poster Carry On poster, most of their stock comprises of some really beautiful and unusual things.  This card tree of life would make a great present for an imaginative kid (or a 30-something knitting librarian).  I love this apple holder, if only we had a garden with an apple tree...  I'm also rather fond of the handcarved birds.

Whippet Grey may be on the pricey side but it's definitely quality over quantity here.  I'd much rather receive a small gift from a designer-maker than something big and mass-produced.  I don't mean that I wouldn't be grateful for the latter or that I don't like it, but I think people shouldn't worry so much about a small craft item looking like they've hardly spent anything. 

Finally, Whippet Grey recently went on a sourcing trip to Flanders, one of my favourite parts of the world.

Hugh in Country Living

One of my dads, Hugh, supplies online goodies shop Twice.  In this month's Country Living one of his chopping boards is featured in the Emporium section, unfortunately he's not credited but he is on the Twice website so that's a good thing.  I went to the Country Living Fair in Glasgow last year but as it was a Saturday and it opened late due to a power cut it was ridiculously busy and quite overwhelming.  I'm giving it a miss this year but might return next year - on a week day.

This is the bowl that Hugh made

with the yeast sponge that Jon made

that becomes our delicious bread.

Our wedding gift from my mum and Hugh was this amazing wooden bowl for Jon to make bread in, as he had read it was best to make bread in a wooden bowl.  Hugh has also made a lovely page on his blog with images of the bowl and our wedding.  We have great families.

Unecessary items

Barbara Trapido is one of my favourite authors.  I got The Travelling Hornplayer free with a magazine about ten years ago and read it on a trip to Orkney.  And loved it.  I don't know why I had never read any of her work before as my mum is also a big fan.  But that's beside the point here.

I collected up her other books, mainly through charity shops as I was a student at the time.  I don't own Frankie and Stankie because I just didn't enjoy it as much as the others.  Anyway, today I was reading the latest posts at Design*Sponge, and discovered that artist Alice Stevenson has illustrated the covers for the latest editions of Barbara Trapido's novels.  They're lovely and I want them.

But that's ridiculous and goes against my ideals of trying to spending less, especially on totally unecessary purchases.  I already own them and though they might be a bit battered they're battered because I love them.  When I see my copy of The Travelling Hornplayer I not only see a novel I love but it also reminds me of a great holiday.  I wouldn't get that with a new book, however attractive.

So I won't fritter away my money on them.  I might reread them though, especially since my sister Ellen quoted a passage to me at the wedding.  But those new editions are pretty aren't they?