I love STEIFF

My (growing) Steiff collection!

The Oak Room Shop

Stable Yard is an exciting, new retail destination in the grounds of Hatfield House, the home to the 7th Marquess of Salisbury and a mere 21 miles north of London in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Besides being a beautiful getaway treat for families and grown ups alike, the units assembled here offer a unique and interesting experiencing, purveying products you'd be loathe to find all in one place.

One shop in particular is bound to take your fancy, as it did mine, and that is the Oak Room Shop. A visual treat to behold, if only for its spectacular furnishings and beautiful interior, the shop houses something for everybody, including those special bits and bobs you'd have usually to travel far and wide to see in a single sitting.

Check out their website, to go live soon, at www.theoakroomshop.co.uk

and follow them on twitter: www.twitter.com/oakroomshop

and facebook HERE.

Belle and Boo Wall Stickers!

Belle and Boo, being perhaps my favourite producer of beautifully illustrated and designed greeting cards and paper accessories, now produce amazing wall stickers! I've seen other wall stickers of late, such as from the French company Djeco, but these REALLY take the biscuit!

Today's, nay this weeks, preoccupation and consumption of time

Paper produce presently pondering: Nella

An individual design led publishing company, Nella was established in 2005 by husband and wife team Belinda and James Reynell. Visit the website HERE for a more complete and comprehensive guide to their unique and original world!

Product: Seasonal

Product: Noah - 'a range of fun creative lino cuts appealing to all ages' - £2.50

 

Models are (actually) super-cool...

A Hungarian Shadow Theatre Kit

Made by the amazing Budapest based company Manufaktor, whose other wares include fascinating, handmade, rod-marionette puppets - check them out at the source: www.manufaktor.hu

A complete do-it-yourself paper shadow theatre which, equipped with a simple reading lamp, effortlessly allows fantasy and tradition to function within our reality! The theatres architectural aesthetic, drawn from Art Deco and Turkish influences, provides nothing but a sublime backdrop for the possible adventures to be had by the famous characters from traditional Turkish shadow theatre, such as Karagoz and Bebe Ruhi. A true homage to Turkish puppetry.

Check out this product HERE on Etsy!

That which consumes my time today....

Palabra del dia: Solpar - to blow (con la boca/viento)

Palavra do dia: (um) Empecilho - obstacle, blockage, hitch, snag

Latin word of the day: Oculus, oculi - eye

Focus on: aeromancy

"the wreckage of vast sundowns predicts in sulphurous aeromancy havoc to be..." from Robert Malise and Bowyer Nichols, Fantastica: being the smile of the Sphinx, and other tales of

imagination.

The prediction of future events based upon weather conditions devised and practised in medieval times. There are actually several types of divination that can be placed under the umbrella of 'aeromancy', such as austromancy (divination drawn from observing the wind, while nepthomancy rests upon an interpretation of the clouds movements). ceraunoscopy (divination whereby thunder and lightning are interpreted) and also meteormancy (divination by meteors and shooting stars)

The 16th century German alchemist, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, did note aeromancy as one of the four methods of elemental divination - geomancy, hydromancy and pyromancy complete the set and are discussed in his work 'The Philosophy of Natural Magic'... in fact I am intrigued to the point of purchasing a copying through amazon.co.uk right now!

...also Focus on: Couverture & The Garbstore

188 Kensington Park Road

Nottinghill

London

W11 2ES

Telephone: 020 7229 2178

Couverture and Garbstore each have their own website, click away!

Oh! What delightful stationery: Cavallini & Co.

Available NOW at the amazing 'The Oak Room' at Hatfield Park's Stable Yard, Hertfordshire - an outstanding range of Cavallini brilliance perfectly, and practically, located under one exposed beamed roof! Contact info@oakroomshop.co.uk or telephone 01707 257175