Our last week in Abbot Street

Our shop in Abbot Street will close at the end of Sunday 20th July, 2014. For many reasons (too many to list here) it's the best decision to take, and we're really looking forward to putting lots of effort into our website and making it look exactly the way we want.

We are currently having a sale in-store, partly as a way to thank all of our lovely and wonderful local customers for shopping with us since 2010 by giving them the chance to snap up a few bargains and also to give us a chance to move forward and make the online shop completely new and fresh. It will be much more exciting to start with lots of new brands and products, and as we are creative people at heart, we can't wait to style and photograph new looks for the website.

We'll miss all of our regular customers, we have come to know them well over the last few years and we have been genuinely touched by the efforts some have gone to for us, buying the most lovely gifts we are incredibly grateful for.  We hope to work out a free and perhaps same day delivery service for customers in Glasgow's southside as a thanks to the support we've had.

We will miss our beautiful shop, but we are also looking forward to enjoying the rest of the summer and indulging in some new creative endeavours.

May Day!

It's the 1st of May, and even though the sun may not be shining where you are, it surely soon will. Our thoughts turn to longer evenings, trips to the seaside, ice cream and sea breezes.

If you're on our mailing list (subscribe via our website now if you're not!) you'll already have been sent our favourite Red, White & Marine Blue picks for spring and a fabulous Bank Holiday weekend 15% discount code. (use MAYDAY at checkout for all orders over £25 - valid until Monday 5th May )

You can view the online version here : 

Moorish Nautical Tile Wallpaper by Barneby Gates : Click here to view

Hirondelle Gold Mugs - Limited Sets available

It's been a while since we've had these Hirondelle Gold Mugs, but they still remain the most popular piece of kitchen & dining ware we've had. Although they are beautiful, their popularity is also owed to Celebrity Big Brother who used them throughout a series a few seasons ago.

We have a few sets of four mugs, slightly imperfect, in that they may have a lighter coating of gold at the base or a few pinhole size marks on the metallic coating etc. They are still quite gorgeous and the little flaws are not at all immediately apparent.

We have sets of 4 for £25, available with £4.95 courier delivery within the UK

Tattooed Eggs for Easter

If your children like to eat the eggs after they've been rolled, it can often get a bit messy when the inks or paints run in the wet or dewy grass and while it won't do them much harm to eat a green-tinged egg, it does look horrible. We've come up with a fun and much cooler alternative to painting eggs for Easter.  This is a good thing to do with children but definitely worthy of a breakfast table for adults too! We love how these have turned out and they hardly took any time at all.


You will need :
A pack of our Circus Tattoos,
Hard boiled eggs (we chose Clarence Court's Duck Eggs because they are larger and a beautiful, almost translucent white colour)
A cup of water
Scissors
Paper towels.

Next, decide on what your first tattoo will be. We went for the smaller ones in the pack, because it can be tricky trying to get the tattoo onto the curved shape of an egg.

 

Cut round the shape of the tattoo - instead of sticking to the guidelines on the reverse of the sheet, we found it better to cut closer to the actual design. Remove the plastic covering, place face down onto the egg and dab with wet (not soaking) paper towels until the tattoo has fixed and the paper comes away easily.

 

 

 

 Keep working away until all your eggs are decorated with a wonderful tattoo! You'll also be left with lots of tattoos too big to use on eggs, and we think they'd be ideal for decorating pieces of wooden furniture too (if the children don't want covered in them of course)

 

 

5 drinks to keep you toasty

It's freezing today, so we've picked our favourite hot drinks to keep you toasty until spring decides to rear her pretty head.

1. Vogue has described their dark chocolate as ‘heaven on earth’. Here it is in an apothecary style jar, ready for you to whip into a delicious hot chocolate. Or pour it straight into your mouth. We’ve heard both are entirely acceptable.
£10

2. This roasted, ground coffee comes from a small producer in Tuscany. We even know the owner’s name of the ‘coffee garden’ in Ethiopia where this is grown, harvested in November and December, washed and sundried on trays. Perfect as an after dinner coffee.
£7.95

3. Rochester Dark Ginger. We love this in any form. Straight from the bottle, warmed with a dash of dark rum, and especially made into two cocktails; The Dark & Stormy (in a highball glass with ice, rum and lime) or The Big Mac (over ice with bourbon, amaretto, cranberry juice and raspberry). Some have even been known to add it to green tea to give it extra kick.
£4.50

4. This Parisian tea brand’s best selling tea worldwide is ‘Detox’. With the weather we have here, we’re glad Kusmi also do something as soothing as Caramel. Ideal to go with a slice of hot apple pie on a cold day.
£12

5. There can’t be anyone who doesn’t love Prestat’s chocolate. We have their boxes and bars, and now the hotchocolate, in a two-piece box. Even the Queen Mother shunned other brands to keep Prestat in her bureau drawer, and Roald Dahl wrote about their truffles. No cupboard should be without a box of their drinking chocolate for late night suppers and anytime cheer-ups.
£10

Just when you thought Paris couldn't get any better...

Alain Ducasse with pastry star Christophe Michalak and designer Patrick Jouin have created a   Parisian kiosque dedicated to sweets. The "choux d'enfer" concept serves little choux buns or "chouquettes" at 3 for 6 euros (or the quantity I'd be inclined to go for, 10 for 17 euros).

    (image : fastandfood.fr)

    (image : M+O)

If only this concept would open a little closer to home,  it would make breakfast choices very simple...

Find it (or make a detour to visit) at : The intersection of Rue Jean Rey and quai Branly 75015 Paris (or Métro Bir-Hakeim - the one for the Eiffel Tower)

We're now open 7 days a week

We've resisted for quite a while, but for several reasons, we've decided to open 7 days a week. Lots of people were confused by our Monday & Tuesday closing, and those who only ever passed by on those days thought we had closed down entirely. We're making some changes to the interior, as well as a few 'behind the scenes' things going on, so we do need to be there seven days.

We've also changed our Sunday opening times, so the new hours for the week will be :
Monday to Saturday : 11am to 5pm
Sunday : 1pm to 5pm

There may be days we need to close, and we might get so exhausted we'll re-think it entirely, but for now, we are a 7 day a week kind of shop. We hope you'll make use of our new days!