If Father Christmas slipped one of these knitted tails into my stocking I would be the happiest girl in the world.

I will take the wolf. From here.

Buying (but not for me).

Reading.

Watching.

Jumpsuit finishing.

This will be the last of the ‘look at my new logo’ posts I promise. I wanted to share my new business cards with you, in fact they are my first ever set and I adore them. Haven’t managed to give any out yet being a shy and retiring creature, I am just waiting for someone to ask me what I do so that I can hand them a card. Adam hand drew the logo type and we decided on the drops of colour at the last minute as my other ideas for a motif didn’t really work. The drops reference our new home, it rains a lot up here, the colours were inspired by one of our favourite books, Little One by Anne & Paul Rand. Love that book, there it is below.

Still working on my pieces for Plush You LA, should be ready to share them with you at the weekend. While I work I think about the direction I want LL&O to go in. I would like to design a winter collection of creatures, be a little more focused.

While I am here I want to share these lovely notebooks from Pumpkinsputnik over at Etsy. I also fell in love with these amazing Tea Cup Bracelets I saw over at the always inspiring Melissa Loves.

Available from Stay Gold Mary Rose. I do wonder if they might be in danger of smashing if you wore a few of them together? If I had my bricks and mortar shop I would rush to stock both of the above. I can dream huh?

Hello, hello, hello! It has been a while since I posted some Etsy finds here, a good way to begin easing myself back into blog land. I have just finished a bunch of work for a pop up gallery and boutique which will be opening here in Edinburgh at the weekend. As soon as I have some images I will reveal all! Keeping half an eye on the deadlines for Plush You LA and an upcoming show in the UK, busy, busy, but so nice to be making some new creatures, wolves are featuring heavily as you can see above. What’s the time Mr Wolf?

Time for Dancing Bears by Alice Gabb.

Vintage alarm clock in an edible colour from Space Jam.

Porcelain Squirrel Brooch from Sarah NcNeil.

The nicest bag I have seen in a long time from Every Eskimo.

I would love to add Dreaming in Yellow to my collection, from Cathy Cullis.

Hmmm, stolen kisses with Antoine Doinel, swoon! Cool tote from I Miss You Already.

These guys would look spiffing in my hallway. From Two String Jane.

Oh, it is nice to be back. Lou Lou & Oscar has undergone a little refresh while I have been away, new logo and bits and bobs. I am not quite ready to share the results with you yet but watch out all will be revealed soon!

So today is the day to announce my big news, it really isn’t all that exciting, except for us! We will be leaving the island and moving to Edinburgh, Scotland in 3 weeks time-yikes! I can’t tell you how much I long to be back in the city, it is so beautiful here but we haven’t thrived, I will miss the sea, but hey, Edinburgh has the seaside too. I don’t think we could have picked a more perfect place to finally grow some roots. So, we are bound for Morningside to the south west of the city centre. I am looking forward to taking you on a walking tour of our new area, just look at the view over the rooftops.

Being in Edinburgh will allow LL&O more room to grow, craft fairs galore and less than a hour to Glasgow and the Craft Mafia gang, not forgetting my sister for essential Ishi-sitting (only kidding Ali, kind of!). Did I mention that Morningside has its own craft fair once a month! Plus, oodles of charity shops/thrift stores. I am a little in love with the flat we will be renting, I have only seen it in photos, Mr A has seen it with his own eyes though. Lots of light and ooh parquet flooring, I have every room planned out, this is the fun part. I will be busy packing up and making work for a show in May. The LL&O shop will go into vacation mode for a few weeks while we transition, no internet connection for a little while I expect. Wish us luck kittens, I will be back a little later with a tiny shop update, fingers crossed.

Images above from The Good Machinery & Artquirk over at Etsy.

So I managed a shop update today and listed the handkerchief wall hanging (amongst other things) you see at the top of the post. Really it is my favourite so far and I would love to keep it for myself. My Nanny (by Nanny I mean ‘Grandmother’, not the Mary Poppins kind) was fond of the old adage ‘cold hands, warm heart’, she used this expression often, whenever we complained that our digits were freezing, she also had a store of more acerbic sayings in her verbal arsenal, my favourite being “mutton dressed as lamb!”. Nanny would use this phrase to describe women, usually just a little younger than herself, who had obviously made a bit of an effort with their appearance. The last thing my Nanny would do before leaving the house was look in the mirror, pat her hair, dab her face with a little powder (I distinctly remember the smell of her powder puff) and apply lipstick, she had a wicked ‘mirror face’. I am cast in a similar mould to Hilda May Tulett, you wouldn’t catch me out and about without my slap & I suck my cheeks in when I check my reflection! Inspiration for another wall hanging, oh for sure- thank you Nanny.

It would have been nice to insert a picture of my Nanny and Grandad here. When I left my mother’s house under a big black cloud 22 years ago I took very few family photos with me. I have one photograph of myself as a baby, one as a toddler, one of my mother when she was much younger and a wonderful image of my Grandparents looking super sharp in the 1960s. A couple of my brother and sister too. These precious images have disappeared somewhere inside this house. I have looked but to no avail, I am hoping that they will turn up in the huge spring clean I have planned for next month. Sigh.

I have been doing a lot of thinking this week, really I owe the thanks for this synaptic kick start to another, you know who you are! Not *over* thinking which has so often in the past lead to inertia, the beginnings of an awareness, increased consciousness, less lazy work, maybe a story. I have been learning in public this past year, unaware that this is what I have been doing, there will be developments I know.

And, compromising all of the above, I lazily listed some lavender sachets today too, they are nice and pretty, smell good, keep the moths away, that’s it! A question of economics, another path of obsessive rumination, related of course to the above. Yes, they had to go, destined as gifts I think.

To take the taste away, below is a clip from Béla Tarr’s film Werckmeister Harmonies (Ishi was almost named Béla, I confess for Lugosi as well as Tarr!). If you haven’t seen this film rush to do so, it is one of my favourites, it repays the viewer a thousand times, the antithesis of lazy, a dialogue, an engagement. Be patient and you will see, I hope.

Oh, and I am behind with emails again, that old tune I’m afraid. Coming soon good people, you also know who you are!
XXX

The little piece above has made its way into the shop at last. Said shop is looking sparse, perhaps a touch sad, a case of what you see is what you get. I am happily working away on some exciting projects to come, meditative stitching, thinking, evaluating, then hot headed, verging on the riotous. Funny but I remember feeling a little like this when I gave up smoking in my early thirties, oh and I loved to smoke, it was hard, I felt itchy as if a wolf were trying to break through my skin. Did I ever tell you how much I love Jacobean revenge tragedy with its malcontents, floridity, extremity, yup lycanthropy occasionally too. I don’t know but have a feeling that some new work is gelling, many and varied fragments are moving together, revisiting texts, pieces of poetry. This is a good space to be in right now.

Ignore the title, this post has nothing to do with nonsense or balderdash, I just like the sound of the word. This post has everything to do with The Poppies, a virtual awards ceremony to celebrate the handmade community, over at Poppytalk. Click here to nominate your favourites. I have voted in some of the categories but I am not finished yet, it is so hard to choose! Here are my nominations so far, do add your voice to mine if you agree.

Margie Oomen of Resurrection Fern
Nicole Licht of Astulabee
Jessica Marquez of Miniature Rhino
Belinda Kemp of Gretchenmist
Julia Pott
Lizzie Stewart

and the nominations continue:

Mathyld of Encore Petite
Diane of Hibou Caillou Chou
Maya of Designs Maya Made
Maria of Psarokokalo
Regina of Every Eskimo
Melissa of Acts of Kindness

There is just enough time left to nominate if you haven’t already, quick, quick!

Here is a peek at a bit of embroidery work, I have some others along similar lines in (slow) progress, I thought they might be nice for Valentine gifts but I’m not sure if they will make it into the shop in time.

I can’t stop looking at Elisabeth Dunker’s blog Fine little Day. I think it is the light.

Hello Polar Bear! I am working on a top secret project and immersing myself in the Arctic, really a boundless source of inspiration. I have been studying A Naturalist’s Guide to the Arctic written by the ecologist, E.C. Pielou, so that my fanciful imaginings and magical projections about the polar region are tempered with a dash of natural history. I have a head full of patterned ground, tundra polygons and ponds, not to mention the plants, birds, mammals, fish and insects.

Can it really be a year since I stitched my first Polar Fish Boy? I wonder where my armchair expedition will take me this time!

Continuing the polar theme I received two wonderful mini books for Christmas by the illustrator Jackie Bos, pop over to Jackie’s Etsy shop and marvel at I Heart The Arctic .

I like the collage above by Lizzy Janssen too, it is named Land of Shine.

Of course I couldn’t get away without including some work by Diane of Hibou Caillou Chou! Diane’s work is influenced by Inuit culture and the Great North, poetic lines indeed.

The Polar Bear Plate by One Blackbird caught my imagination as well.

Happy New Year everyone!

I am so ecstatic to have Paulina of Lemmikkiapina at LL&O today, a truly lovely anniversary treat. I am a little lost for words about Paulina’s work, the images really speak for themselves, better than a list of adjectives, where would I start: sublime, heartbreaking… you see what I mean! So, let’s meet Paulina and lose ourselves in her beautiful world.

Tell us a little about yourself, the media you work with and your creative process.

“My name is Paulina Temmes and I’ll be 34 years old this December. I live in a small village in Southern Finland with my partner and my old grey striped cat. I grew up in Helsinki and I studied textile art there at the University of Art and Design.”

“I started making dolls and writing and drawing little animal stories when I was about 20 years old. Most of my older dolls were made from modelling clay, but lately I have concentrated on sewing soft sculpture animals. I love loosely woven linen, paperlike organza and vintage fabrics with signs of their age. One of my favourite materials is little stones and pebbles found everywhere.”

“At the moment I’m working at home and sewing my animals full-time. I rarely draw any sketches before I start sewing. By the time the animal’s face and body are ready, I usually know his character and how he should be dressed. Usually my animals turn out to be quite melancholic and peaceful.”

From where do you draw your inspiration: music, books, people, nature etc?

“I always find inspiration from animals: my own cat, neighbour’s horses that graze just behind our garden fence, the rabbits that come to our garden at night, a patient dog waiting outside a grocery store.
Lately I have drawn inspiration from old mechanical toys and books about medieval embroidery and outsider art.”

If you could talk briefly about the background to one of your pieces which would you choose and why? Please tell us the story behind the piece.

“This monkey holding a garland of forget-me-nots is very dear to me. I made him for a small exhibition I had in Helsinki a few years ago. I think he looks very calm and quiet, a bit like a statue in an animal cemetery.”

Lemmikkiapina Shop

Thank you so much for joining us Paulina, it has been so wonderful to learn some more about you and your creative process. It is my dream to give a home to a creature from Lemmikkiapina next year, keep your fingers crossed for me, they fly so fast! Do you have a favourite from Paulina’s shop? I would love to hear which you would choose, it was hard enough to select the images for this post, *everything* is so beautiful. Sigh!