Kate's visit, eating & re-organisation

We have been busy as bees all week at Sumptuosity Towers, the new layout for the studio is working well (much easier for me to sweep the floor, etc!) and we have been trying new methods of organisation in regards to the sewing, making up and packing of the orders. Sophie has proved to be John's 'Mini-Me' and is always cracking the whip! John has also been busy with the website (it is not unlike the painting of the Forth bridge...) and has now grouped the Mirrors and the Bookmarks into relevant subject areas. This means that whether you are looking for flowers or fashion you can immediately go to the area that you want to look at. We have now finally decided to put Sophie's beautiful embroidered Alice in Wonderland pictures for sale on-line. The greeting cards are now firmly established and so we are now in a position to let them go...although to tell you the truth I shall be sad to see them go as they are lovely!

What is this I hear you cry all work and no fun at Sumptuosity Towers??? Don't worry, as usual we have had a number of pleasant diversions this week. On Thursday we were visited by a lovely student called Claire. She is currently studying illustration in Cumbria and wanted to visit Sumptuosity Towers to see what we got up to.... After swearing her to secrecy and making a blood oath (....only joking!) we demonstrated our various skills, including free-hand embroidery, being silly, drinking tea and even let her have a go on the sewing machine. Basically, I told her exactly what Naseem Darby told me all those years ago - just have a go and don't worry about anything!

On Friday, we were visited by our mate Kate from Oakwood Aromatics. She appeared as if by magic the second that Sophie said that she was going to make the three-o-clock cup of tea! She and Phil had been busy at their stall with 'Made in Yorkshire', but she still found time to come and see us (which is always great) and even better she had brought a rhurbarb tart for us all to eat. John had just popped out to do the banking but I was good and made sure that we left him a piece....no honestly I really did!

I am really looking forward to our long weekend in Oxford - this is to celebrate our wedding anniversary and not to do with the business....although we do have a stockist in Oxford that we will be visiting while we are there! Don't be too sorry for us, as it is the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and I am absolutely desperate to visit again as it must be nearly twenty years since I was last there...as a small child obviously.... (ho ho ho). I am hoping to get some more natural history inspiration for embroideries. I'll keep you all posted...

3 B.T.'s

1: Sophie and I went to Space 109's 'Gorrilla Cafe' for our tea yesterday. It was wonderful veggie food and a great arty/musical atmosphere - it reminded me of the sort of fundraiser I used to go to when I was a teenager living in Forest Fields in Nottingham... we also both ate a piece of Lemon Meringue cake..... fabulous!
2: Kate and the Rhurbarb Tart - always lovely to see her cheeky face at Sumptuosity Towers.
3: Re-arranging my bookshelves so that I can fit more on....

Bye for now,

Love Ruth xxx

Busy busy busy - but still time to be silly...

Hello There,

I know I keep saying it but we really are busy here at Sumptuosity Towers. The new 'shop' area is working very well (see picture) and I seem to be jumping up from my sewing machine every few minutes to welcome people into the Studio, so many people are busy with their Christmas shopping ! It has even inspired me to go on-line (well you didn't think that I would get out of the Studio did you???) and start my shopping.

We had a very mad week last week and did indeed stay late on Monday and Thursday. On Monday we sent John out to buy Chips and on Thursday we all had a Chinese take-away (not Barbara for those of you who know my big Sister). It was fortunate that we have had another ten kilo bag of lavender delivered so that there weren't any possible smells remaining of food in the Studio! So much work and such long hours means that we have had plenty of time for our usual philosophical debates - last week it was about how we all loved 'flumps' (marshmallow type sweeties), how many it would be possible to eat in one go and of course who would be able to eat the most. John and Sophie were both convinced that it was themselves...fortunately we didn't put it to the test! Sophie's boyfriend is very healthy and would probably be horrified at the amount of cake and sweets that we are eating at Sumptuosity Towers at the moment - he would probably think that we were a bad influence... don't think that he reads this blog so we should be safe....

Mind you nobody works late on a Friday ('POETS' day, as we used to say at Allsopp's Print Finishing Factory), although late in the afternoon the lovely Jo from Space 109 - the community arts project on Walmgate came in to ask us about the progress on some embroidered badges of their logo... I had promised her some badges a while ago but it had gone to the bottom of the work pile. I still managed to make some up in time to deliver them to her in our local that evening. She telephoned today to say that she had already sold them and wanted some more for this Friday morning. She is a nice woman and Space 109 is such a good project that I shall somehow magic the time to finish the order. I'll get John to take a photograph of the design and put it up on the next blog.

3 B.T's

1: Christmas decorations and lights are going up all over York and they look very pretty.

2: The staff in Cafe Rouge had a table seat for us on Saturday night, when we went to celebrate John's birthday. Lovely atmosphere and great food. plus we could look at the world as they walked past the window.

3: We had a telephone call from Kelmscott Manor and fingers crossed we should be doing some interesting work with them in the new year - just as well I purchased that bag of William Morris Indigo-resist dyed scraps of fabric (late 19th century)...

Bye for now

Love Ruth xx