Oh, where to start?!

Well, as you can see, the poor old Twice Diary has suffered somewhat in the past few months - things have been so busy, one way or another, and I just haven't had time to post. So, a bit of an update on where it's all at - getting busier and busier is the answer! I have spent alot of time and effort putting together the start of a range of traditional homewares for the shop - these are all items which are at home in any traditional style house and our aim is the find the very best of them to put on the website. For instance, we have started working with Hugh Leishman, a master wood turner who also supplies David Mellor's wonderful kitchen shop in London. We have come up with a really beautiful breadboard, based on an old board that was my mother's - and the result is a really wonderful thing - solid, simple lines and with a quality that means it will last for ever - and (a really important feature of so many things at Twice) it will just get better with time. Hugh is also making fabulous garden dibbers for us and, something which I have wanted to stock since I started, porridge spurtles. Ours really have to been seen to be appreciated - really thick, solid handles and simple lines with no fussy patterns so that they clean easily.

Next, I've stocked cork bath mats - these have been a runaway best seller - it's extraordinary how many go! Of course, if you've ever used one, you'll know why. And I'm expanding the wickerwork that we sell - so now there are sweet little egg baskets to go alongside the shoppers we have had for a while.

On the Vintage Originals front, I am expecting the Aromatic Trivet to be the new bestseller for Christmas (and, yes, we really are thinking about that already!). It is such a simple idea, but works so well. We take our natural Scottish linen, quilt it and put in a patch of vintage fabric for decoration and then - fill the padding with spices! This means that when you put your hot pot on it out of the oven, the spices heat up and the smells fill the kitchen! And unbelievably you can put it through the wash and it still works. I tried these out at the Ripley Castle Fair and people were buying two or three at a time ready for Christmas, which bodes well.

At home, we are coming to end of the school holidays - everyone is growing up rather fast and our eldest has just become a teenager and is off to her new senior school next week. Everything they say about them being babies only yesterday is true - can't believe we've got here already.

We had a great sadness a couple of months ago when Edie, our beloved Lucas terrier (who you may have noticed in some of the website photos), was run over. We had had her since 1996, and the children had really never known life without her, so it was shattering. However, with immaculate timing, her daughter Molly had a litter in July and so last week we took delivery of the sweetest thing you can imagine - known now as Pebble. I am posting a photo so you can all go aaaahh!

Anyway, glad to be back on the blog - I'll try not to let it go so long this time!

Best wishes

Caroline