Ysolda Teague

Reading the latest edition of the alumni magazine from Edinburgh University, I discovered that knitwear designer Ysolda Teague studied on the same course as me! She graduated with her MA in English Literature 8 years after I did, however, but I too remember knitting in my lectures while no doubt my fellow students thought 'who's that granny over there?'.

I had completely forgotten about the option to study printing and making books as part of the course - tutorials held deep in the basement of the library. My own degree was combined with French, so I had fewer options to choose from, but my favourite module was 20th Century Feminist Fictions - we watched and critiqued the Alien films, great fun! As part of my French course I studied the linguistic development of babies and children, so it was a pretty broad brush approach to each subject. And of course Edinburgh was a wonderful place to live, work and study.

To find out more about Ysolda Teague, visit her online at http://www.ysolda.com/ - there are PDF patterns to buy and download for free, too. Unfortunately it looks like they are all knitted in the round, which I can't do, and you have to go through the knitty sign up process to access the free patterns, but fun to look all the same.

Looking back

I'm home alone today, and doing a little bit of work on our huge family archive of photographs. Here are a couple of photographs from our travels in the last couple of years that I thought I would share with you...

At the moment I'm looking thorugh photos of our trip to Vancouver Island in 2009, and admiring some of the quilting exhibit at the Sooke Heritage Museum, which was a lovely little spot to visit not far from the house on a lake that we rented for a week. I have a number of sewing projects on the go at the moment, and this little wagon is encouraging me to get a move on! It's part of a larger quilt to illustrate the history and scenery of Vancouver Island, which was 'discovered' just over 160 years ago, with much indigenous history prior to that.

One of my Christmas presents was a negative scanner so I can digitise my old fashioned analogue snaps, which is a project I can see taking quite a while...

Happy New Year!

Aaargh, we've had no internet for the past week and I'm itching to get my shop back up and running. So here it is, with a soft relaunch, and more new ideas and a big sale to come once I have a little time to get organised.

Happy twenty eleven!

Reindeer food

I read about this nifty little trick on a parenting website and thought it was worth sharing here. My niece is coming up for three years old and I thought she might appreciate it!

Don't tell the little ones, but it's just a box with some cat biscuits in the bottom! I've also heard of people doing this with oats mixed with glitter, but I thought my sister might have a bit of explaining to do once that didn't disappear from her tiny front garden overnight...

Not your typical snowy scene...

I had to grab my camera while we were snowed in last week to show you photos from our street, while it was unusually quiet in the middle of the day.

Look a little closer...

The rabbits usually live in the field next to the cooperage (those pointy-roofed sheds in the background, whiskey fans!), and that cat is the hardiest domestic animal I've ever known - at the time of taking this photo it was minus 11 degrees C. Plus it's tried to eat my ginger cat twice in the six months since we moved in!

Brrrr

It's cold here! I hope it's warmer where you are... and if not, that you're wrapped up warm with a nice mug of cocoa.

Most Haunted

So here in detail are some of the products I've splurged on over the last couple of years at Haunt. I was introduced to Haunt when Erin was Etsy's featured seller for a weekend. Being a bit of a fan of seller interviews anyway (have I mentioned my Answers on a Postcard zine...?), I'm always a bit of a sucker for the products associated with the featured seller interview, especially when Etsy focuses on established rather than new sellers.

It seems as though Erin's friendly and down to earth interview chimed with many Etsy shoppers, not to mention her beautifully presented products with intriguing descriptions, and sales went through the roof. Literally. In the space of a weekend, Erin made something like 3000 sales. This is not an exaggeration. Enhancing the luxury problem at hand, I joined in and made my first purchase - it was a biggie! In late 2008, I decided to stock up the hunting lodge I had rented for my hen weekend with Haunt products. With 3 bathrooms and 12 guests, I splurged on 3 soaps (Raspberry Honey, Corsair and Pan), 3 sugar scrubs (Mintleaf & mocha, Spiceberry and Marzipan & Shortbread) and 3 glossing oil sprays (Bourbon Vanilla, Empire and Orange Blossom) - I also asked Erin for sample sizes of 12 different soaps for my friends' goodie bags - these included Bittersweet, Pumpkin Lavender and Turkish Cocoa.

I like to break down the three different types of scent that Haunt produces into three categories, Fruit-y, Cake-y and Haunt-y. The fruity scents, like Orange Blossom, The Old Cider Mill and Spiceberry are clean yet warm fragrances, with a zesty but warm feel. The cakey type ones you feel like you could eat then and there in the shower, especially the ones with a pumpkin flavour to them. I like to keep a tupperware with a bar of Pumpkin Lavender soap in my overnight bag for work trips, as it's such a warm, comforting and homely scent. I am also very impressed with the Coffee Fiend flavour haunt scrub I have on the go at the moment, it's the next best thing to having an actual coffee in there to help me wake up.

The fragrances that I'd describe as Haunty like Corsair, Pan and the newer Burying Tree and Witch-Wife are a really unusual blend of botanicals that are somewhat indescribeable - in a good way! They're so different to anything else I've used in the past, and can sometimes take a little getting used to. For ages I really wasn't sure about the sample of Sword and Lion as a fragrance, but now I'm tempted to buy some glossing oil in this scent if it's available in the next Haunt sale.

Now I realise I've spent a lot of time talking about fragrances and how good these products smell and make you feel, but I've said nothing about how well they treat your skin! The soaps are amazing, they are lovely and chunky and wash down nicely, holding their shape and never cracking or drying out. And of course they do the same to your skin, most of the time I don't need to moisturise after using them. The sugar scrubs are a revelation, I'd never tried one before and the mix of sugar with natural oils does wonders for any rough patches you might have - and with the weather we're having in Scotland at the moment (-19 C yesterday at my house!), they are sooo handy. I don't tend to use moisturiser as it just sits on my skin and takes up time I don't have in the mornings, but the dry oil sprays sink straight in, soften my skin without making it feel greasy (unlike moisturising lotions). I don't use lip balms but have bought Haunt Lust lip balms in the past for friends and my husband, who suffers from dry lips and has found it works better than reliable high street names. There are more new products in the latest Haunt line which I can't wait to try out, if they're anywhere near as good as my old favourites!

Speaking of which, the next Haunt sale starts this evening! Previews of new products in brand new packaging will be up on the new Big Cartel Haunt shop from 9pm UK time, and the shop will open at 2am our time. It's your perfect opportunity to pick up a little present for yourself, or to add to your Christmas gifts. If you're catching up with me later and you've missed out this time, hop over to Erin's blog to find out about future sales. They are few and far between, and I promise you, all the fuss is worth it!