Saturday 19 October 2013

A Celebration of Love













We are sisters who like to celebrate, any excuse and out comes the bunting, garlands, flowers, lanterns, balloons and the family box of bits and pieces to make a magical party setting.  Weddings for me are the ultimate celebration, as weddings are all about love.

The planning and sourcing of all the detail and decor is part of the joy. From the writing of the invitations to the making of each place setting.  With Weddings in mind we find...
Wish Boat Invitations, Paper Lanterns to hang or warp around jam jars, Honeycomb Paper Balls, Pom-Poms, Fabric Confetti, Paper Garlands and Flowers, Stars, Birds and Hearts.  Cake Stands, Candelabras and colourful plates. For the walls, chairs, tables, place settings and any place to adorn with something that expresses your dream for the day.

To dress the flower girls and young bridesmaids the collection of Tutu du Monde dresses and headbands bring a timeless and ethereal wave of the wand.

We will be showing our Wedding collection at the Mells Wedding Fair this weekend:
Sunday 20th October from 11am, at Mells Tithe Barn in Somerset.

Come along to the fair and you can also pop next door to the wonder that is Mells Walled Garden
Emma at This is Your Kingdom has just written about this special place



Happy Glowing Day
x

Friday 18 October 2013

We're 3!



It's our 3rd Birthday! 

Each year we get a little giddy about growing up and bambino goodies has been there right alongside us the whole way getting giddy with us too. They've shared our Makeries and shown you some of our favourite pieces, they've brought you exclusive offers and this weekend they've got another fantastic offer for all their readers with 25% OFF in our boutique!
Head along to their awesome website to get the discount code..... 25% off starting now, ending midnight 21st October!
What are you waiting for .............GO!

Autumn Falls



A new season and new colours.Autumn is the mellow season with colours drawn from nature we see gentle tones of copper, greens, oranges, reds and golden yellows. Slow walks across crisp wet ground, rainy days with hot chocolate and sumptuous fabrics to keep us warm. A softness blankets the days and we cosy up in the hushed calm of the season. The boy's, girl's and baby's dressing room's are now full of warm woollens, delicate tulle, alpaca, fleece and cashmere. Imagine and play brings new ideas for indoor play, and decor brings a selection of perfect blankets for snuggling under, soft lights and luxurious pieces to embellish the season. 

"Autumn is a second Spring, when every leaf is a flower" - Albert Camus 

visit the boutique here

Thursday 17 October 2013

Wovenplay - for the Everyday Artist & Adventurer.





Wovenplay has arrived at Sisters Guild!

Founded in 2007 only a year after the arrival of my first daughter I feel as though we've grown up alongside Wovenplay. We've loved these pieces of playfulness since the first time our own children refused to ever take them off. Obscuring the line between clothing and costume, it's a collection we've handed down from one child to the next, one dream like adventure to another. 

Katherine Edmunds the founder and designer of Wovenplay creates a line of clothing and accessories for children that manage to successfully combine dressing up costumes and everyday wear in a fun, unique and dreamlike way. An imaginative collection that carries the notion of childhood and its innately imaginative spirit, Wovenplay is about adventure, expression, individuality and fun.

Each pieces is hand sewn, hand dyed, hand printed and finished with such beautiful touches you'd think the fairies had sewn them. Not surprising as Katherine has a background in art, textiles and traditional French dressmaking. Fabrics are coloured in natural or low impact dyes, packaging is recycled or biodegradable and production is fair trade, so though Katherine may not be an actual fairy she's certainly friends with them. 

With a quality of colour and texture and such care to every stitch each fanciful piece of Wovenplay feels as though it belongs to another time, another world. And, indeed they do, made for the world of our children a vibrant world of freedom and imagination, 'for the everyday artist and adventurer.' 

This season introduces a new collection of 'Aventuur' pieces; including the cowboy, pirate and knight, A new collaboration with Jess Brown and playsuits and accessories that'll knock the daydreams back into you.

See the collection here




Wednesday 16 October 2013

House Doctor Dk - Optimism and Exuberance
















House Doctor Dk gives a daily vitamin boost for a more stylish, more inspiring and more personal home. Believing in mixing up elements rather than matching them House Doctor brings a collection of  luxurious interior accessories and furnishings to help you create your own unique and personal space.

Established by three siblings; Rikke Juhl Jensen, Gitte Juhl Capel and Klaus Juhl Pederse, the family run interior design business boasts 35 passionate in house designers that are the resident House Doctors. Always with their fingers on the pulse, they have long been known as the trend leaders of the industry. Their renown relaxed and effortless style is seen in all of their effortlessly chic collections. 

With an emphasis on natural materials, wood, metal and glass House Doctor mix these timeless elements together with contrasting hues, neon brights and the luxurious shine of copper.

The latest collection draws inspiration from the optimism of the 1950's and 1960's. The exuberant dynamic shapes of the 1950's alongside the Scandinavian colour trend has since become a firm and timeless favourite of all interior designers.  The Scandinavian colour scheme's influence of nature and the modern cubic and curved forms of the 50's give beautiful contrast. The revolutionary 60's saw technological advances enabling flexible varieties in the design world, think polished metal, moulded shapes, sensual forms, heavy yet weightless. With colours inspired from India and the mediterranean we see deep green and coral. Together these elements explored give a relaxed sophisticated and effortless style. Timeless.

House Doctor has long been a firm favourite of our own interior style and we thought it about time to share it all with you. 

See the collection here

But a word of warning: House Doctor DK products are very habit forming and may cause rapid heartbeat - even in small doses.




 House Doctor DK available from Sisters Guild 



Sisters Guild

Monday 14 October 2013

Monday Makery - Fabric Light Garland



I've had the idea of making a knitted garland of christmas lights for a while and still not taken up the knitting needles. I wouldn't know how or where to begin and my knitting skills, just about matching my crochet skills, means I can either make a long scarf or a thin tube like strand. So, until these skills improve (it'll probably be my children who end up teaching me) I've adapted the idea to suit my capabilities. All the skills required is a little cutting and sewing which suits me and the lazy weather feel of this weekend just fine.

Here's what you'll need:
  • cotton fabric or felt
  • needle and thread
  • card, pencil and scissors
  • miniature wooden cotton reals ( I found these at a little craft shop but have since found more here). Alternatively you could use a large cylindrical bead.
  • ribbon or embroidery thread or bakers twine
  • fabric stuffing



Here's how:
  1. Draw onto card a template of the light bulb shape. Be a little more generous in your size as you'll loose some of width when its padded out with stuffing. Cut it out.
  2. Use your template to draw the same shape onto the back of your fabric. You'll need 2 pieces for each bulb. Cut out your bulb shapes.
  3. Pin the pieces of fabric together back to back, so the outsides are in fact facing each other and sew around the edges leaving the top part of the 'bulb' open with enough space to fill with the fabric stuffing. 
  4. Turn right side out and fill with fabric stuffing. It helps to use the end of a pencil to push the stuffing inside.
  5. Take your measure of string and tie a knot at the ends. Place the knotted end inside the top of the bulb and secure it in place as you sew along the final edge.
  6. Now, thread on the wooden cotton reel pulling the string and pushing the cotton reel over the top of the fabric so it holds firmly in place. You're ready to hang. 
You can either make a garland with the bulbs, string them along fairy lights, hang from the tree or even use them to decorate the gift wrapping. I love the spotted versions we made and i'd love to find some striped red and white fabric and create a matching set, or perhaps some really fab neon colours. 

The girls have since used them to decorate the home of their Maileg mice and bunny families so perhaps I'll never get to use this set for our Christmas decorations maybe I will have to learn to knit after all!


Happy Making

sisters guild . com

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Make Christmas - Shape Sticks


It's getting to that time of year when we begin to think about Christmas, well, I do at least. The planning of Christmas is perhaps the very best part; It's almost unbearable countdown with a faint sound like a drum roll getting louder and louder as the excitement builds. Can you tell its my favourite part of the year? 
Each year we like to create a few of our own Christmas gifts, decorations and treats, it feels good to get creative in the festivities and children love it more each year as it symbolises the getting ready, the countdown to the festive season.  It brings us all together in a far better way than traipsing the shops for gifts could. Children love being creative and appreciate those little homemade touches that friends and family make too.

We made these shape sticks last year and they were and still are a great hit with the kids.  The only thing that's changed is that we now have an extra bag full of coloured sticks too. This idea is so simple to make with very little needed to complete it. Vanessa Brady of 'Tried & True' blog even has a free printable for you which includes the 'shape sticks' label and 4 activity sheets which you can even laminate!
A truly great stocking filler which can be altered to suit the age of the child by creating more complex activities, shapes and pictures to design. I think they make great party bag favours and class gifts too.
If you're not planning on creating these for a gift for your own child its a really great construction kit for children to make on their own before giving it as a gift or for themselves.


This year we'll be bringing you a huge abundance of free printables, gifts ideas, craft ideas and decorating designs in the countdown to Christmas. And, with all the great feedback we received last year and because you've all asked for it again we shall be bringing our advent back. Each day from the 1st to 24th December we will open a door to give you special discount codes for the boutique, free activities, printables and much more. We will feature them all on the blog and our newsletter too so be sure to sign up in anticipation of the festivities.

Countdown the days to Christmas with us here. 

sistersguild

Thursday 3 October 2013

Free Wall Art

perhaps, no, absolutely my favourite free art printable I have ever found. Found here and a copy already sent to my favourite printers to enlarge ready to frame.

With an empty wall in the reading nook i've been on the search for some great free printable wall art whilst I toy with what might go there. These are the favourites free printable art i've found. 
Now no longer a blank wall waiting to be filled its full of inspiring and pretty images that we love. Put up with washi tape, we can change them and keep adding more. A few are already firm favourites and so are being framed, some have moved from one place to another and some have been made into note cards, but we love each and every one and hope you do too.


i love the colours and texture of these 6 feather images found here

1. here 2. here 3. here


as above here

I love the colour and grain of this precious stone found here





I love these 3 vintage circus animal prints. framed separately they'd make a great wall feature


all these (except no:6 - see below) and many many more can be found here though these are a little girly there's so many more to choose from.

 glass jar here


here's 6 more


I love this diamond graphic here 


and still more.......

...if you like typography try these fun and happy printables here
this 'i am loved' is so pretty here

Happy Printing!