One of the many things I love about trading at markets, especially our regular Duckpond Market, is the opportunity we have had over the years to meet some truly amazing people. Sometimes as we make the monthly pilgrimage from SE London to NW London third Sunday of every month, it’s only the warm and welcoming atmosphere [...]
Today I came into work a little bit later as I had an appointment this morning. Making my way to the station it felt like such a spring day, lovely and warm and a clear, blue sky. I sat down to wait for the train and started checking emails on my phone and suddenly became aware [...]
Well I can’t believe we’ve made it to 1,500 likers at Facebook!! It kind of started out as a whim a few mornings ago and I never imagined it would take only a few days to make up the 300 shortfall that we had at the time. I’m truly touched by the support of fellow [...]
Yesterday evening, I wrote a post about celebrating 10 years of living in London, how much it’s changed me and how much I love the city. I know everyone has different opinions about such things – life would be boring if we all thought the same! So imagine my surprise when having plonked myself onto [...]
One of the many things I love about trading at markets, especially our regular Duckpond Market, is the opportunity we have had over the years to meet some truly amazing people. Sometimes as we make the monthly pilgrimage from SE London to NW London third Sunday of every month, it’s only the warm and welcoming atmosphere of the market that gets us out of bed! Our fellow marketeers are friendly, supportive and incredibly talented, and I’m thrilled that Silke, another Duckpond regular, has agreed to write a guest post for us! Silke trades as Dakini Leathercrafts, making all her own products to sell and as you can see from the images below, she has quite some skill. Over to Silke:
Handmade Kindle cases by Silke of Dakini Leathercraft
I started my business by accident! I began making handbags after being inspired by a family relation. The thing is when you make products you have to either give them away or sell them. I soon realised that my hobby was costing me money which I needed to recoup if I wanted to continue. From that my business grew and today I’m still designing and making new products specific to orders from my clients.
I work with Vegetable Tan Leather as well as other, softer leathers in the form of suede, calf, Italian leather and upholstery leather.
Primarily I make handbags, although I do make other, smaller leather products including leather (veg tan) belts, kindle cases, iPad cases, folders and much more. I am always looking for new ways in which to use leather in new products. I’ve recently starting using hair-on calf/cow skin which looks lush! (sorry no other word for it!)
I gain inspirations from fashion markets, seeing what’s trendy at the moment and recreating that in my work. There are endless handbags wandering the markets so I have plenty of inspiration seeing what potential customers carry with them, drawing quick sketches of the ideas I like so that I can recreate or include in my own designs.
As I personalise my products I usually get specifications from customers who provide me with additional inspiration and designs. At the end of the day, its all about what the customer wants and I do my best to ensure that they are satisfied with the outcome as well as the knowledge that what they are getting is a one off, personalised design!
Handmade bag by Silke of Dakini Leathercraft
I would definitely recommend hot-footing it over to Silke’s website Dakini Leathercraft, and you can also keep up to date with her activity via Facebook. Thank you so much to Silke for guest posting for us and here’s to many more in 2012!
Follow DaisychainBaby on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to guestpost for us, email linsATdaisychainbabyDOTcoDOTuk. Our clearance section lives here
Today I came into work a little bit later as I had an appointment this morning. Making my way to the station it felt like such a spring day, lovely and warm and a clear, blue sky. I sat down to wait for the train and started checking emails on my phone and suddenly became aware of raised voices nearby. Looking over, I saw a young woman on my side of the fence on the station platform, and on the other side of the fence in the carpark a young man (I say young, they both looked anything from 25 to 40-ish).
It quickly became apparent that they were arguing about money, or rather he was shouting and she was trying to respond in a calm and quiet manner. He was asking her to give him the f***ing money, calling her the word that we all hate as well as every other name under the sun and went so far as to actually spit at her through the fence. Aside from wondering what on earth she was even doing talking to him and not walking away, the thought that was going through my head was: do I do anything? He kept screaming that she owed him this money and he wanted the card as well and if she touched anything of his again he would f***ing kill her. All the time he was trying to lunge through the fence at her, fortunately she was standing far enough back that he couldn’t reach. After about 5 minutes of him threatening to come into the station, she gave him what he wanted, he disappeared with one last ‘c’ word and she went up and over the tracks to the opposite platform.
Should we mind our own business?
It’s stayed with me for most of the day for many reasons: thankfully I don’t see this kind of thing too often so it shocks me when I do; it made me realise how DAMN lucky I am to have a loving and supportive husband, friends and family and to not find myself caught up in any situations where anyone would even speak to me like that that I actually knew; and mainly, because I couldn’t help wondering what I would have done if it had got worse.
My thoughts were that from our side there was definitely safety in numbers – the station was manned by TFL bods, as well as some burly looking maintenance guys fixing the signs and several passengers. Would I have been brave enough to intervene by myself if it had continued, and not just in this situation but in any where someone is under attack? I always like to think I would, because I’d want someone else to come my help if I needed it, but when push comes to shove would I protect a stranger over myself? Are our reactions different when a woman is involved versus two men? What would YOU do?
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Well I can’t believe we’ve made it to 1,500 likers at Facebook!! It kind of started out as a whim a few mornings ago and I never imagined it would take only a few days to make up the 300 shortfall that we had at the time. I’m truly touched by the support of fellow Facebookers, those running small businesses and just genuinely showing their support. These are tough times we’re all going through and it’s great that we can all help each other!
SO! To the goodies! I wanted to let everyone know what is in the prize and there just isn’t enough space on Facebook to right it all down. Before I start, I should add that everything we have is either organic cotton or ethically sourced. It should all last really well so long as they still fit of course! Also, I like colour as a rule. I consider some things unisex that the rest of you may not, but I don’t really do SAFE! So enjoy, here it is!
Our bumper unisex baby giveaway!
-Turquoise pixie style hat by Pili Pala. Size 6-12 months.
-Red & White striped bandana bib by Little Green Radicals. One size
-Citrus Spot bandana bib by HipHipBaby. One size
-Handknitted green shoes by Daisy Dumpling. Size 0-3 months
-Handknitted green hat by Daisy Dumpling. Size 6-12 months
-Handknitted green mittens by Daisy Dumpling. Size 6-12 months
-Muslin with turquoise elphant print by Aden & Anais. This is HUGE!
-Red short-sleeved tshirt by Pili Pala. Size 6-12 months
-Red & navy leggings with yellow trim by Pili Pala. Size 6-12 months
-Turquoise trousers with turn-over cuffs by Pili Pala. Size 3-6 months
-Moomin tshirt by Green Eyed Monster. 0-6 months
-Purple leggings by Little Green Radicals. 0-6 months
-Denim shorts by Green Cotton. Size 3 months
-Sleeveless blue star print vest by Green Cotton. Size newborn
-Sleeveless green stripe vest by Green Cotton. Size 3 months
-Orange & purple vest by Green Cotton. Size 6 months
Well that’s it! To enter, you need to go to our Facebook fanpage and find the original note I wrote about the giveaway on the wall. It should be the one that has all the comments. All you need to do is LIKE the page, then once you find my wall entry, LIKE IT, SHARE IT, and LEAVE A COMMENT ON IT!
The winner will be picked by one of those good randomiser thingies on Thursday evening at 8pm! ENJOY! x
Follow DaisychainBaby on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to guestpost for us, email linsATdaisychainbabyDOTcoDOTuk. Our clearance section lives here
Yesterday evening, I wrote a post about celebrating 10 years of living in London, how much it’s changed me and how much I love the city. I know everyone has different opinions about such things – life would be boring if we all thought the same! So imagine my surprise when having plonked myself onto the 7.36 out of London Bridge, after a quite acrobatic half run, half skidding slalom to make sure I caught that train, I started leafing through today’s Evening Standard and came across an article by Lucy Cavendish called “Forget the countryside, I want crowds and the thrill of London again“!!! Someone has climbed inside my very head! Well not quite of course, because I’m not hankering to return to the city after having thought I’d prefer the country, but everything that she writes about London is exactly how I feel and so similar to what I wrote yesterday. Her words:
“I want smog! I want cars! I want clogged up road, high streets heaving with people. I want action! Life! Cafes! Every time I walk through my village, I wonder how I ended up living somewhere so tiny, somewhere so small that you can’t open a car door without all eyes swivelling round to watch you.”
Evening Standard journalist Lucy Cavendish on High St Kensington as she writes about her desire to return to London *image courtesy of Tony Buckingham, www.thisislondon.co.uk"*
This lady could be ME! Apart from the fact that she is a proper journalist and I was only a pretend one for 5 minutes, aged 22. She continues:
“London is calling me again – and its lure feels irresistible. Even though when I left the city and all my friends said helpful things like ‘”You won’t last”‘ and I was incandescent with fury at their assumptions, I have to admit the experiment is over [sic] I enjoy the anonymity. I like how large the city is, how there seem to be endless possibilities, opportunities. It’s exciting”.
YES YES YES! I’m not alone in my slightly obsessional love for a dirty, expensive place. I love Lucy Cavendish, who finishes in part with:
“I love the diversity of London [sic] I want to feel alive, vibrant, mentally stimulated, all the things I feel I have lost touch with by living in the sticks”.
I don’t know what’s more spooky, that someone has emulated my thoughts so precisely, or that those thoughts should appear in a newspaper the day after I’ve put my own love down in a teensy blog. What’s EVEN more weird is that the photo of the journalist above is taken on High Street Kensington, which for my first 8 years in London was my local shopping street!
It’s not the first time something weirdly coincidental happens – I can often be humming a song and turn on the radio to meet that same song in the right place, or talking with Mr DCB about a random film I want to watch and turn on the TV to find it’s on that night. I’m sure he must think I’m really a witch. So there you have it, today’s rather freaky co-incidence. Maybe I’ll play Euro Millions this week…
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Or should I say “Lan-dan-er” in my best faux-”dan saf” accent! Today marks a little milestone in my life, as I celebrate (or commiserate depending if you’re a country lover!) 10 years of living in London. See that? An entire decade! I’ve never lived anywhere that long before. As I approach my 32nd birthday, so much has happened since I squish-squashed my whole world into the smallest room flat you ever saw in Earl’s Court aged just 21 and the scariest thing of all is how quickly the time has gone.
I don’t really remember the conversations I had with my parents when I told them I was moving here, but I do remember Mum saying I’d be lonely. Pah! Loneliness is a small town where unless you were BORN there, you’ll never truly be accepted. Loneliness is not a city of 9 million people, all coming and going, at least not to me anyway. I’ve always felt welcomed here, that anything goes and no-one judges you for how you look, what you wear and best of all, you won’t get idle tittle-tattles gossiping about you on your visit to the supermarket. I love the hubbub, the smells, the noise, the chaos. So it’s expensive (stupidly so), I’ll probably never be able to afford a house and if you believe what you read in the papers you run the risk of being stabbed every time you step outside you own front door. I should say my second most favourite place in the whole world to live would have probably be New York. As you can see, hand-on heart I’m a city gal.
I loved Earl’s Court the minute I stepped out of the underground and onto the crazily frenetic Earl’s Court Road. Having moved to London fairly soon after graduating to study a pgDip in Journalism, I wanted to live near-ish to where the course took place in Bayswater, but didn’t really know London at all. So I looked at a map, saw something that looked vaguely nearby and spent the next few months getting completely befuddled by all the different underground trains going into and out of Earls Court station. My flat was, to put it kindly, appalling. I’m writing this now in the spare bedroom of my current home, and my whole flat was not much larger than this room. It had one of those platform beds with a ladder up to it, no oven with just 2 hob rings, water that was so terrible you couldn’t even filter it and the tiniest shower room which I shared with my slightly eccentric lady next-room owner. It wasn’t even a shower, just a cupboard with a dribble, and she used to take VERY infrequent showers with the light OFF!
A flat of very similar size to mine, just much nicer! *image courtesy of The Mirror*
Despite the downsides to the “flat”, it DID have a balcony and I have the most amazing memories of my time there, as my fab BFFs and tweeters @ajlangley, @dan_martin and @dinabehrman would certainly attest to. There was A LOT of wine drunk in the flat, a crazy amount of people crammed in some of the time (I think the record of people sleeping over was 5, like sardines we were). Most importantly, it was mine, albeit rented. My step out into the big, wide world and I was PROUD. As the journalism fell by the wayside in my quest to pay bills and support my then-boyfriend, I took up a job which I still do to this day. Next January will mark 10 years in that job. Yikes. I’m a bit of sticker once I get my feet under the table!
Leaving Earls Court I moved slightly west to Olympia which is at the non-posh end of High St Kensington, and then onto Hammersmith where I moved into a beautiful flat with the man who is now my better half, Mr DCB. In 2010, after much crying from me, I said goodbye to my West London life and we moved south of the river (shock, horror!) to Forest Hill which is where we are now in a lovely (still rented) little Victorian terrace house. And despite my initial fears, I love it here too, just as much as I loved West London.
In the decade that’s passed in this brilliant city, I’ve studied, worked, loved, lost, made amazing friends, partied, married, set up a business, become a Samaritan and a part-time market-trader! I’ve changed and grown as the city has changed and grown with me and as I have my faults, so too does the place I call home. Yet it’s the place that’s supported me, held me when I’ve been down and picked me up by its very verve and relentless energy. I’ve learned so much about people, about myself, about life whilst I’ve lived here and I could spend every day if I had the time discovering something new here. I would defend London to the ends of the earth. Maybe, just maybe, that’s because I’m a Londoner.
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