Will Perform For Cakes

It's always nice when your Etsy picks tie in with your general demeanour. It's Friday afternoon; a time for dreams and schemes and cocktail-making and dancing around your bedroom....and also for cute, slightly ridiculous plates like this pretty specimen by Jimbobart.

I'm not the biggest mouse/rat (which is it, biology A-star types?) fan but the sentiment of this £22 side plate can overcome even that.

Come Friday pm, you'll get more out of me if you bring me a cake too. Just sayin'.

Royal Wedding souvenir plates for Shelter

I'm unashamedly gripped by Royal Wedding fever - I can't wait to see the dress, the vows, the guests, the tears, and most definitely the flag-waving. Hurray for bank holiday patriotic fever!

The souvenirs though, have been terrible. Up 'til now I honestly haven't seen anything that comes close to my treasured Charles and Di souvenir cross stitch sampler, and that I rescued from a Sue Ryder shop.

Then I saw this wonderful series of plates on House to Home, which Living Etc had commissioned from nine designers to mark the wedding. All profits go to the housing and homelessness charity Shelter, which the couple would be rather pleased by.

A Right Royal Booze-Up by People Will Always Need Plates

Lovely! Such a nice change from that engagement picture writ large over mugs and flutes.

To Love and Companionship by Rob Ryan

These are my two favourites, but have a look through the other seven. I think I might just have found my perfect wedding souvenir.

You can get your hands on them by sending a sealed bid (at least £30) to [email protected] before midnight tomorrow.

Design Porn: Roelofs & Rubens

I'm a little bit in love with Roelufs & Rubens today. Not least because I like saying their name rather a lot. It's fun. But their modern take on the traditional blue and white china was always going to make me giddy. I love modern blue and white china. It's everything that makes me happy about simple design. These are my favourite pieces at the moment:


This 'fragile' bowl is £14.


In case you weren't sure where to put your dinner, this 'there' plate will help you out. It's £12.


I'd love to have these robot tiles in the Domestic Sluttery HQ bathroom. They're £5 each.

Design Porn: Lou Rota

I love customised vintage furniture. There's something lovely about turning something old and battered into something modern and fresh, without losing any of the original design. And Lou Rota does this very well indeed. Here are some of my favourites:


I wouldn't normally suggest bugs on dinner plates, but somehow this works.



This chair would look great in your kitchen.

I'm already a big fan of Lou Rota (since discovering her ooooh ten minutes ago) and can't wait to see what else she comes up with. I'm even more excited to find that you can buy her stuff in Liberty. And in a rather wonderful little shop called Caravan, which I can't wait to check out.

Design Porn: Andrew Tanner

His latest designs just popped in Lifestyle Bazaar and Elle Decoration are telling everyone to watch him. Andrew Tanner is making a bit of a name for himself. And it's easy to see why when you feast your eyes on this little lot from the Designed in England website:


This nifty little bowl uses wallpaper designs from Cole & Son. Genius idea.




This collection is called 'A Stitch in Time', inspired by an old textile archive.



But it's the silhouette pieces that are really attracting the attention. This cut-out lovebirds motif is my favourite.

Elle Decoration might be right about this guy.

DIY illustrated skirt from Clothkits

Clothkits! Fun and funky clothes for you to sew at home. My mother informs me that these were really big in the 1970s - basically the Clothkits peeps send you the outfit with the sewing patterns already printed on, plus everything you need to make them.

Now Clothkits have teamed up with hot designers like Rob Ryan and Annabel Waterman to produce some truly gorgeous pieces.

This trellick skirt features an illustration by People Will Always Need Plates, comes in a variety of fresh colours, and can be yours for a snip (literally) at £34.50.