The Perfect Tea Towel: Sam Wingate

As you might have noticed (since I have been banging on about it since bloody November) I have moved house. 

I've given up my beloved South London to come to the East. It's a bit of a change moving from a cosy two bed maisonette to a huge basement flat and sharing with five (soon to be six - cos it's really not that much different once you get past four...) people. And I'm liking it - lots. We've got loadsa room and moving in with lovely friends to a fun bit of town is rather nice indeed. Also (I'm sure you'll be relieved to hear) the cat approves. 

Anyway as the official inauguration of my auspicious move to the East it seems only fitting to dedicate this week's Perfect Tea Towel to my (far too much talked about) move. 

So I've picked this excellent hand-printed tea towel from a local East End designer/maker Sam Wingate (who I saw talk last year at the first Crafty Fox Talks about his creative journey as a designer - very inspiring indeed for anyone starting out in the creative industry).

Sam is an illustrator with a great eye for the grit and grandeur of the East End, who included this Royal Oak Tea Towel design in his hand-drawn East End Pub Crawl Series. Also I spent New Year at this very pub natch.

p.s. I'd be interested to meet up with other bloggers/twitter pals in my new yard - so hit me up if you want to arrange a Hackney tweet up!


Royal Oak Tea Towel, from Sam Wingate, price £12.50  

Mondays are for Mugs: Kühn Keramik

As spotted on my trip to Maison et Objet, these Kühn Keramik mugs are superb ceramics with often subversive or strange (and occasionally unnervingly sweet) slogans and intriguing (and sometimes a little disturbing) imagery. 

Here are some designs that caught my eye from a great collection of nicely misleading and misdirectional mugs for your cuppa:

MO14

I had a snoop around a design institution this weekend: Maison et Objet, Paris - arguable the most revered and on-trend home and interiors trade show in the world. 

And what did I find in eight halls of design inspirations? Erm...a cat lamp (I know - I really should have my Snooty Interiors Professional Membership Badge revoked). But in my defense it was a beautifully designed cat lamp and I did catch a few other inspiring bits too:

The cat lamp in question (am I forgiven?!) from Eno Studio along with...

These animal hangers that are rather nifty too... 

The raw edge wood look was a show fave, this is from a brand called La Loue who make contemporary furniture from wood from the Loue Valley. 

I had my eye on this little set up from Ligne Roset...

Maison had put on some beautiful trend exhibitions including: this amazing lighting displays, a futuristic theme (including a fantastic gold spacesuit), cyber aquatic trends (which I couldn't *quite* get my head around - too many fish bones for me...)

Along with (my favourite) Creative Territories, talk about the best bathroom tiles ever...

 Many marvellous mugs from Berlin's Kuhn Keramik...

The best use of sequins goes to the ever colour confident Jonathan Alder...

We fell for the very cool, whimsical illustrations from Rosie Wonders (along with perfect pegboard on the stand - I need some of this in my life/room!)

I might have even got a Rosie Wonders tattoo (fake I promise Mum!)...

House Doctor's stand was packed with consistently simple and lovely homeware pieces as ever, I'm already deciding where I'll put that mint green tray table...

And who could pass Andrew Martin's stand without wanting a piece of this Batman artwork (or at least just the neon bats...)?!

It was extra nice to visit some of the ace brands that I work with in my day job at Maison this year too - Anorak (keep an eye out for the giant kissing rabbits on their stand)...

And Thornback & Peel and their excellent new geometric sardine tin print... 

In Paris I also had a chance to see Centre Pompidou...

The ceramic wonders in the Astier de Villatte shop (love the orange segment plate!)...

 This griffin...

And this rather grumpy looking merman/sailor...

Finally here's your intrepid Parisian designer explorer about to fall asleep on the Eurostar after 100,000,000 miles of traipsing the halls of Maison (numbers might be slightly over exaggerated due to tiredness...).

Mondays are for Mugs: Damn I'm Good

I'm thinking positive for 2014. And this excellent 70s vintage mug has just the right message for my new year ;) 

Damn I'm Good Mug, from InividJuli on Etsy 

Moving

After five years in our lovely flat it's time to move on. So me, the boy and the cat are packing and heading on to ventures new...

The bedroom shelves are bare (wardrobe last to be packed obvs)...

We have already packed up the ubiquitous Ikea Expedit bookcase (usually seen with an Ikea hack for the telly)...

 We're bringing *all* my books (many more not in shot)...

 Precious vintage Babysham glasses still to be carefully wrapped...

 There's a few of these...

Oh and quite a lot of bikes too...

And this guy...has no idea...

The Perfect Tea Towels: SALES

Hitting the sales for tea towel bargains? It's all rock and roll here at Daisy Fay HQ. So here are my best finds of perfect tea towels that'll save you pennies:

Home Slice Repeat Tea Towel, from Heal's, price £7 (was £10) 

Chinoiserie Tea Towel, from Anthropologie, price £8.95 (was £16) 

T Tea Towel, from The Calm Gallery, price £7.20 (was £9) 

Tidal Tower Blue Tea Towel, from SCP, price £6.75 (was £13.50) 

Tala Vintage Inspired Icing Syringe Tea Towel, from John Lewis, price £10 (was £5) 

Lucky Day Tea Towel, from Kiss Her, price £6 (was £11)