Phew! Off and running ....

Well, just a quick post today before I set off for London first thing in the morning. As I speak, the large van is parked outside with all the stuff from yesterday's sale falling out of it and not even remotely ready to leave tomorrow morning. Somehow things always work out though, so I'm not in the panic that I really should be.

I've had two great sales so far - I had a wonderful time at Camphill near Bedale in Yorkshire. Best ever day for sales - which is great and really gives me a good feeling going into the big fairs later. I think the new products that I've got in for this Christmas are just what people want and that is great. The Aromatic Pot Rests are just brilliant for presents and they went incredibly well on Thursday. And then yesterday I was at Duntreath Castle near Glasgow for another good day. I was next to a really lovely lady called Karon who creates the most wonderful Christmas decorations you have ever seen. I bought a little hand-sewn Christmas pudding which I am thrilled with. It will be this year's addition to the tree. I am putting a link to Karon's company, Dream Acres, on the side bar. Have a look - I'm sure you'll love it.

So, back to the packing and planning to leave at about 6 tomorrow morning. Really looking forward seeing everyone who's had a ticket for Spirit or Country Living through Twice. Don't forget - we're on Stand G115 at Spirit and Stand T12 on the Gallery level at Country Living. See you there!

Caroline

PS I've put this photo of the Nativity Christmas tree decorations that we've got in stock because I just love them!

Beginning to feel a bit Christmasy .....

It really is that time of year again - it's funny how it seemed slightly premature when I put together an email to all our Twice customers about Advent Calendars about 10 days ago - and now, just days later, it feels like Christmas is just around the corner. It must be all the leaves on the ground, or the frosts, or something - but whatever it is, it has also brought the six weeks that I've got ahead of me into sharp focus. I will be doing twenty days of Christmas fairs and sales between 30th October and 5th December. This is a big step up from last year and I'm really not at all sure how I'm going to manage it, but I am feeling happier with the amount of stock that there is to sell and very happy with all our new stock. One good sign is that I have actually slept quite well for the last three nights which definitely hadn't been the case for weeks beforehand.

So, next Wednesday the campaign starts with a trip to the Camphill Christmas Fair at Bedale in North Yorkshire. I'm really looking forward to this one - it looks a beautiful house and there are some really great companies exhibiting. It will also be the first chance for me to see how our new Christmas decorations and Advent Calendars go down with the customers - I am so pleased with them but the proof of the pudding is in the buying. Then I'm off to Glasgow to the Duntreath Christmas Fair near Blanefield. Again, lots of really good companies showing. The really big push starts the week after when I leave early doors on Monday morning to drive down to London to set up for the House & Garden Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia which runs from 7th-11th November and then straight into the Country Living Christmas Fair from 14th-18th November at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Phew! 10 days of showing and 6 days of setting up and taking down. If I'm still standing at the end of that, I'm off up to Aberdeenshire on 21st November and then it's all move to Hopetoun near Edinburgh for a three day sale there. That segues nicely into a two day fair in Perth and then there's a bit of a break until I go back to Yorkshire for a sale in a private house there.

It will be exhausting but it is always really lovely to hear feedback from customers and to see old customers who so often come and seek me out. And, hopefully, by the end of that we will have sorted out loads of Christmas present problems for people and put lots of little presents into stockings!

The picture on this post is a close up of one of the fabulous advent calendars that I have managed to find in Germany. They are really traditional and right up my street - lots of glitter, lots of angels, reindeer, Father Christmas and general proper Christmasiness!

I'm going to sign off now and finish labelling stock for all those fairs.

Caroline

PS. I was very excited to see our little covered notebooks featuring in Country Living this month - lovely to be in the magazine again and thanks to all the readers who've visited Twice since.

Did you know about Not On The High Street?

About three months ago I was approached by a web company called Not On The High Street saying that they had seen some of the Twice designs and they wondered if I would like to become a 'partner'. I have to admit that I had never heard of them so, of course, straight onto Google - and what a find! NOTHS is a one-stop-shop where small creative businesses (like Twice) can all operate under one roof, making it possible for customers to shop from many separate shops in one shopping baskets. It's a really clever idea and gives small companies access to a much bigger audience than could realistically be managed on their own. Anyway, I decided that it would be great for Twice and my shop on their site went live on a couple of weeks ago.

It's been really exciting so far - and I've been contacted by the Daily Mail and the Guardian to feature our products. Wow! Anyway, it's a fantastic website for anyone looking for something a bit different and well worth knowing about - so here's the link: www.notonthehighstreet.com

Unbelievably beautiful in Perthshire at the moment - the trees are all turning - it really doesn't get better than this. The apples are au point and I feel a bit of crumble coming on for Sunday lunch tomorrow.

Caroline

A warm welcome to Nigella's spurtle swappers!

I have been in communication lately with a lovely lady called Brenda about our spurtles. It seems that there is a very active chat forum on Nigella Lawson's website (www.nigella.com) and one of the topics of conversation is ownership of spurtles. Happily, Brenda found the lovely spurtles at Twice and put in an order. Frantic emailing ensued because although spurtles are small and light, our mailing cost was nearly as expensive as the spurtle. This is a constant problem for mail order companies, because you really need to have one-size-fits-all mailing charges and this means that you lose hugely on heavier orders but small orders are expensive for the customer. Anyway, Brenda and I chatted and I came up with the idea of 'Spurtle Post' - a lower charge for people buying spurtles! All went well, until customers ordering things other than spurtles started opting for Spurtle Post too! I might well have done if I was them - much cheaper! - but a nightmare for Twice. So, sadly, Spurtle Post bit the dust but we've made up for it by dropping the postage cost on all small orders to £2.00. So, hopefully, that keeps everyone happy.

I'm thrilled though that the Nigella forum has found us - it's really fun to be involved in your swapping. And I would hope that the spurtle measures up too. I spent ages finding the right one to go with and was really pleased to find Hugh Leishman, master wood turner, to produce them for us. Some of the Nigella forum have also seen these spurtles at David Mellor, who Hugh also produces for - and that should tell you something about the quality.

It's getting very very busy here now - children all back to school at last (not that I don't love having them home, but you know ..... ) and I am putting my mind to the gargantuan task of making sure the stock is all ready for Christmas. Fairs start for us on 31st October and run right through to 5th December - my feet won't touch the ground but it will be great to be out there taking all our gorgeous things around the country.

It is beautiful today, and was yesterday - where was this weather when I had three stir-crazy children under my feet? It's not fair ;-) !!

Caroline

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

Double whammy!

Ooooh! What a great day! Not only is it 20 degrees outside, with a whole long weekend of bank holiday and sun coming up, but Twice is featured in two magazines that hit the shelves today - our gorgeous little Lavender Hearts are on the "Things We Love" pages in Country Homes & Interiors and the website is featured in "Webwise" in BBC Homes & Antiques. I can't tell you how fantastic it is to see things which I have taken from the very first stages of sourcing the fabrics or china right through to the final product, sitting on the pages of a glossy!

The Sugar Bowl Candle pictured in Webwise was the very first one we ever made - it's a beautiful piece of Minton dating from about 1895. It has spawned many more and they were one of our best sellers at the recent Country Living Spring Fair. The editorial says that you should expect 22 hours burn time - but as we had one burning from the first to the fourth day of the Fair (until someone spilt it over some rather beautiful patchwork quilts and three covered baskets - whoops!), I would say you can expect at least 22 hours!

I am just about to put our wonderful childrens' Patchwork Quilts on the website. These really are heirloom pieces and were launched very successfully at the CL Fair. We take a piece of original patchwork and back it with vintage blanket and then edge the quilt in the wonderful natural Scottish linen that we often use. The quilts are then packaged with full details of the date and country of origin of the patchwork. Each quilt is, by definition, one of a very limited edition and, like everything that we do, can't be repeated. What I love about these quilts is how different they all are - and how anyone looking at them is completely drawn to one rather than another. Great Twice!

So, it just remains for me to wish you all a very Happy Easter - enjoy this weather!

Caroline

Phew! That was quite something....

So, I am no longer a Country Living Fair virgin - eight days ago we set off for London in a rather large van, and two days of set up, five days of selling and two days of breakdown later, it's over! We arrived back in Perthshire last night, having been on the go since 7.00am when we loaded the van and then struck out for the North through the new winter. As it had been 20 degrees on the day we arrived in London, hail and snow was really quite a shock a week later!

The fair itself was great - I met so many people, both fellow exhibitors and visitors, who were really enthusiastic about what we are doing at Twice. We have made many new friends and certainly put our products to a far wider audience than ever before. To be honest, I'm so tired now that I can't really sum it all up - I think that will come later - but I am thrilled that Twice really stepped up to the mark. The stand looked fantastic and, from the reactions we heard, definitely had a "wow" factor. Thank you very much indeed to Antonia, Emma, Sally, Jane, Joa and, especially, James, for all your help both on and off the stand during the fair - couldn't have done it without you.

During the course of the fair we ran a prize draw to win one of our wonderful deerskin tote bags. The bags are named after my daughters, Silvie and Eleanor, so it was only fitting that they should pick the winner - here is Silvie pulling out the winning entry. Congratulations to Michelle Mulberry of Epsom, Surrey - a delicious Silvie Tote in bitter chocolate deerskin with a vintage French ticking lining will be winging its way to you shortly!

The Country Living bandwagon rolls on to Glasgow next week, so best of luck to my friend Lisa from Primrose Hill Interiors who will be exhibiting - I'm sure it will be great.

Caroline x

London here we come!

Well, the nerves have really set in now - two weeks and counting until the Country Living Fair. This time in two weeks we will be driving down the M6 in a trusty Transit into uncharted territory. Minor angst trying to work out stock storage for the Fair - a) there is very little storage when you get there, b) we have discovered that I can't drive the transit due to an unfortunate little issue of an 'IN10' (Driving without Insurance) on my driving licence (don't ask - husband forgot to reinsure car, man drove into back of me, I had to produce insurance docs at police station - whoops! not insured! - 6 points and £250 later, marriage just about got through it) - anyway, the upshot is that I can't hire a van for five years, so husband is having to drive there and back. He will then have to leave the van at Heathrow while he comes back home to look after the children while I'm away and then pick it up when he comes back down the following Sunday to help me pack up, and then drive me and (hopefully very little) stock back to Scotland. Anyway, all this means that I won't have the van near me to act as a warehouse for stock and just a 1m x 2m space on a floor at the Business Design Centre - so, if any of you come to the Fair and find Twice on Stand G1 looking slightly empty, you'll know why!

We're just put the finishing touches to the stand infrastructure - this picture shows the first dress rehersal. Very pleased with how it all looks. In the forefront are our wonderful new Cot Quilts, which we are launching at the Fair. I am so pleased with how these have turned out. I have been thinking about them for ages - I wanted to find a way to use vintage patchworks in a different way - and this really works. We take the patchwork and back it with vintage blanket and then edge it using the fabulous Scottish natural linen that we use whenever possible. I think they will be a real heirloom piece - each one is very much a limited edition, with no more than two in each patchwork - I know I would have been thrilled to have been given one for any of my babies!

It's a glorious day in Scotland - I really feel we are through the winter now. It is light when the children go to school and light when they come home - it's always such a good feeling when we come blinking out of the dark into proper daylight - a palpable feeling of having got through it again! And the first daffodils are just about to come out.

Caroline

Twice in Country Living - well, once, but Twice, if you know what I mean!

Great news - our hugely popular Sewing Rolls (a pile of which are shown in this photo) are in the March issue of Country Living. Subscription issues hit doormats this morning - and, already, the response has been fantastic. The sewing roll featured in the magazine is in a particularly pretty raspberry red floral French cotton dating from about 1910 - and we lined it with an apple green vintage blanket. One of the prettiest so far.

As you may know, we are exhibiting at the Country Living Spring Fair in London in March, so it is especially heartening to have made it into the magazine just before we exhibit. Really looking forward to it (although, as it is the first time we have exhibited outside Scotland, also more than a little nervous!) - and if the reaction to the magazine is anything to go by, it will be a very exciting time for Twice.

Not as miserable about the Scottish weather as I was in my last post - have realised that there is good snow in the Highlands and, if the temperature doesn't rise too much before Wednesday, I am off to Glenshee to ski with Ellie (eldest daughter) who is on half term. It's possible to be on the slopes in under an hour from here - and when it's good, it's very, very good (and, yes, when it's bad, it's HORRID!).

Caroline

Beautiful shoe bags need beautiful shoes ....

As you may know, Twice makes the prettiest and most luxurious shoe bags available! Using soft, vintage blanket with an applique pattern in one of our gorgeous vintage prints, and closing with ivory satin ribbons, our shoe bags will keep your shoes in the utmost luxury. But do your shoes deserve it? They will when you get to know one of our great Scottish secrets and a great friend to Twice - Helen Bateman. Helen is a highly talented shoe designer with a very loyal following through her shops in Edinburgh and Inverness. Luckily for the rest of the country, her shoes are also available through her website at http://www.helenbateman.com.

One of the really helpful things that Helen produces is her Basics Collection - a range of classic shoes and boots which don't change, so that you can always replace that favourite staple in your wardrobe. I'm just about to replace my kitten heel black suede ankle boots as the current ones have been worn to death - and I love the fact that the new ones will be just the same.

So, check out Helen's website and then you know where to get the shoe bag that your new shoes deserve!

It is really miserable here today - horribly cold with non-stop sleety rain - and none of the snow that we were promised. Only one thing for it - a roaring fire and a good film!

Best wishes

Caroline

More is more!

This is such a good example of why I LOVE doing this! I have just taken a delivery from a dealer who specialises in French fabrics. Amongst the haul was this particularly pretty blousy floral curtain. While I was scanning it into the archive, I discovered one of those wonderful little idiosyncracies of these fabrics - in order to get a little extra length into the curtain, whoever made it all those years ago (this fabric is quite hard to date, but I would put it at somewhere around 1950) has added a lining to just the top 1" of the curtain - and this, as you can see from the photo, is in a really pretty cotton paisley. This illustrates so well our new motto for 2007 - "More is more"! - in other words, given a fairly neutral background (for example, the wonderful neutral Scottish linen that we often use) the more patterns and colours you put together, the better they can often look.

For those of you who are interested in following our fabrics through to their final incarnation, the archive number for this on is 152-07 - this will eventually be put on the label of any design made in this fabric. Do get in touch if you would like more information about this or any other aspect of Twice and our fabrics - email me at info@thetwiceshop.co.uk.

Best wishes
Caroline

Happy New Year!

Firstly, a very Happy New Year to all our customers, friends and to the small army of fantastic people who help produce our wonderful designs (you know who you are!). This picture is quite obviously NOT Scotland, but we are shrouded in fog and frost and so I thought I'd put this one in because it's what I would like it to be like now and it makes me feel great just looking at it!

As you might imagine, November and December have been extraordinarily busy months for us - so much so, that I'm afraid the Diary suffered from neglect. We exhibited at sales across Scotland and had a great time meeting customers new and old. We completely sold out of our Cup & Saucer candles - I always thought they would be a great seller, but the demand has amazed me - and it is wonderful to know that there are so many people out there who love our quirky candles as much as we do.

So, into the New Year and it promises to be a very busy and exciting time for us. Firstly, there is an enormous amount of legwork to be done to re-stock our china lines. And, secondly, we are getting ready for our first major foray into the South! We are exhibiting at the Country Living Spring Fair in March (14-18) in London - this means lots of work but I'm sure it is going to be great to take Twice to a wider audience.

Hope to see you there - and again a very Happy New Year!

Best wishes
Caroline

History in the making .....

I have just finished putting some wonderful new cushions made from homespun linen onto the website and it occured to me that, like many of our finds, you might be interested in finding out a bit more about it.

All of these linens would have been made at least 50-100 years ago all over Central Europe. They would have been woven at home by the women of the household, who would spend their evenings weaving these amazing rolls of linen. It took the average weaver 1 night to weave 60 centimeters ( 24 inches) of linen. The full story of how they were produced defies belief in this day and age, when we just go out a buy any fabrics that we need - the linen would have been grown, cut and dried. It would then be put in water (maybe a pond) and left for three months in order to soften it for spinning. It would then be taken out, thrashed, combed and finally spun into linen yarn. This would then have been woven into these rolls of linen fabric, to be used as sacks or maybe cart covers. Many of these rolls were woven to be part of a marriage dowry and would therefore have been stored away carefully. This is one of the reasons that we can find them still unused after all these years.

Most of the linen has coloured stripes down the centre - a decoration that would have been added by the women weavers - who would have had to dye the yarn themselves to achieve the lovely colours that we now see. Reds, blues and greens are found and even purples and ochres. It can be difficult to know their exact country of origin, so unless we are sure of their provenance, we will stick to "European". The cloths can also vary from a fairly smooth linen to the wonderfully rough hemp linen of these cushions.

Whatever their history, they make extremely versatile and useful cushions. We have red stripes in stock at the moment and are about to add a navy blue striped cloth. Available, of course, from www.thetwiceshop.com!

Best wishes
Caroline

Fascinating Fabrics

I thought you might be interested to hear how we find and process the wonderful fabrics that we use at Twice. The first port of call for us when we are trawling for fabrics is antique fairs and auctions. Then we also work with dealers in the UK, on the Continent and in the States who specialise in antique and vintage fabrics. The variety of fabrics available at Twice is so wide that at any one time there will be gorgeous English chintzes that you might recognise from Granny's curtains to vintage Provencal prints to turn of the century American patchwork. One of the attractions of the Twice range is that it is so eclectic, but there are many fabrics that don't quite work for us, so we have to get the right feeling from a fabric before we will accept it.

Once the fabric arrives back at Twice, it is washed and ironed in our laundry - in addition to making sure that all our fabrics are clean and fresh when they get to you, this also means that we know that these old fabrics can withstand washing. If it struggles at this stage, then it won't make it any further. It is worth pointing out, however, that these are old fabrics which have already been used for another purpose before they are made up by Twice - it is likely that some signs of their previous life will remain after washing, but they will only be small and are part of the fabric's character.

We then review the fabrics to see which of our designs would look best in a particular pattern and we consider what uses it will be suitable for - for example, if it is a more fragile fabric, we will use it for products that will not need regular washing or take hard wear and tear. Every effort is made to ensure that fabrics are up to the job.

The fabric is then made up locally into the chosen design and finally makes its way to you from our headquarters here in Perth.

We've just added a few new designs to the range - drop into www.thetwiceshop.com and look at the Covered Baskets and Sugar Bowl Candles - both vintage Twice!

Best wishes

Caroline

"Houston - we have lift off!"

I can hardly believe that I am actually able to write this but, finally, after an enormous amount of work and effort on behalf of Twice and our wonderful website team (Kevin, Katie, Simon and Rob especially) the Twice webshop is open for business! I would like to send my very great thanks to everyone for doing a truly brilliant job.

It's a very good feeling to have got to this stage - we have all been working on the website since the beginning of the year. It's been a pretty long pregnancy and even if delivery is slightly overdue (I had hoped for the beginning of September) I hope you'll agree that it's a bonny baby!

There's a taste of what you will find in the shop in this photo. We will be updating the webshop regularly with new versions of our existing designs and introducing a steady flow of new designs to tempt you. You can use the link on the right to visit the shop - we look forward to welcoming you very soon.

Best wishes (and a huge sigh of relief!)
Caroline

Southerly gales ..... of laughter!

One of the reasons we moved to Scotland was for a better way of life, an escape from the hurly-burly of urban living - and, I suspect rather typically of new country dwellers, we have entered into the whole "Good Life" thing with gusto - to the extent that some of our friends in the south have started referring to us as Tom and Barbara! So I thought this photograph would give them a good laugh! These are puffballs collected this afternoon from under a bed of nettles - I'm sure a professional mushroom hunter would be quite used to finding them this size but we were amazed!

I was lucky enough to have inherited an Aga with the house and one of the very best things about it is that we can put mushrooms and other fungi on the warming plate at night and have delicious dried mushrooms by the morning. Last year we managed to dry enough to last until this autumn and this year I think we will beat that and be able to give some as presents at Christmas. The smaller puffballs are really good if you fry them in oil and butter and add a bit of garlic and whatever other herbs you have around - it's a bit like tofu which means that it laps up other flavours that you put with it. I don't think we'll be attempting to eat the ones in the photo though - at little long in the tooth probably.

From a Twice point of view, doesn't the Mug Candle look great!? They will soon be available at www.thetwiceshop.com in our For The Home section.

Best wishes
Caroline

A warm glow .....

We've just finished a batch of our wonderful Cup & Saucer Candles and I really wanted to put something about them in my diary.

The first thing I wanted to explain is why we use soy wax and not the usual parafin wax. The reason is basically that soy wax is 100% natural and doesn't give off that slighty chemical smell that you get with most candles. As with all our products, wherever possible we will take the environmentally friendly option and for candles, this is it. Soy also has a longer burn time than parafin wax - you can expect anything up to 14 hours from our cups. In addition, it is much, much easier to remove from anything - including our beautiful vintage china. So, once a candle is finished you can pop the cup in a low oven (80-100 degrees) to melt any remaining wax and then wash it as normal. The downside of soy wax is that it is much harder to get a perfect finish - but we think a few imperfections in the wax are a small price to pay for all the advantages.

The second thing, which isn't obvious when they first start burning, is how they become more beautiful as they burn down - at night the flame starts to glow through the china and it becomes quite magical on a dinner table - the only sadness is that it is at its best just as it nears the end! Oh well, you'll just have to get another one!

We will have a whole section for candles on the new website, which should be going live sometime during September. When it does, have a look at the 'Candles' section of www.thetwiceshop.com to see our fabulous creations!

Best wishes
Caroline

Mussels on Mull

I thought it might be nice to give you an occasional flavour of life in Scotland and this picture does just that. We have just spent four glorious day staying with friends on Mull, one of the largest islands off the west coast. The west coast is unbelievably beautiful, with its mountains, rivers, beaches and wildlife, and somehow it doesn't matter if the weather is lousy (which is was while we were there) - we all just got on and did the things we would have done anyway, just with the addition of waterproofs!

We ate fish that we had caught in a local loch, we sat on white beaches and searched for shells, we bicycled for miles and, almost the best thing for me, we picked mussels from a local beach and ate them that evening for supper. Unbelievably delicious - even with the crunch of the tiny little pearls in each of them. This picture shows our mussels being washed ready for cooking - which was as Moules Mariniere - just onions, white wine, cream and fresh parsley. There is nothing better than good food and good company - and we had both!

Back in the office now and we have just had a great day doing a big photo-shoot for the launch of the website, so we are all waiting to see the results with huge anticipation. Hopefully the photos will be ready very shortly.

Best wishes

Caroline

Vive la France!

I had a wonderful 10 days in France - which was partly a holiday and partly a scavenge for Twice. We were based in the Ardeche which is a truly beautiful and comparatively empty part of the South of France. Days were spent exploring mountain rivers, where we discovered the deepest, clearest rock pools, some bigger than a normal swimming pool. Absolute bliss!

On the scavenging side, I had some success too. I managed to find lots of old mattress tickings, which is what we use to line our leather tote bags. They are now back at the workshop, where we have been unpicking seams sewn in string that must have been hand-sewn 70 or 80 years ago. These tickings are great for us - they are basically one long piece of fabric that was then folded over end to end to cover traditional horsehair mattresses. The covers are now sold by dealers without their filling and we grab them and then unpick them - ending up with nearly 4 metres of fabric each time. They are washed and ironed in our laundry and then go off to Glasgow to line our bags. One of the things I love about these tickings is their integrity - they are strong, simple and have had a genuine working past.

Back in Scotland, we are enjoying this gorgeous weather and also the fruits of the garden - courgettes, beans, beetroot, spinach, peaches and cherries - delicious! As I write, the children are out picking raspberries for the freezer - and probably quite alot for their tummies! As one said last week - "Ten for me, one for the basket!".

Best wishes
Caroline

New Sewing Rolls

When I started Twice last year, I already had a long list in my head of products that I wanted to develop for the company. The way I work has always been to create things that I would like to have in my own home or to replicate and improve things that I already know and love. Our sewing rolls are just that - a Twice version of a sewing roll that belonged to my husband's grandmother. She always had it near to hand, filled with sewing basics and ideal for taking with her when she travelled. The Twice version is slightly larger than the original, mainly because we wanted to fit in a really good sewing kit. We use vintage fabric for the outside and our twist is that we line it with vintage blanket, which makes a perfect built-in needle case. These are heirloom pieces that should be with you as long as ours has been with us - currently on it's third generation! The reason I am writing about them now is that a particularly gorgeous batch have just been finished, using vintage German household linens. These fabrics are so pretty and have a pretty story to go with them. In the late 1800's, new fabric printing processes meant that it was suddenly possible to have patterned bed linen. In Germany families started not only buying the new patterned linens, but also taking their existing white bed linen to the printers. A mass of incredibly pretty patterns in pinks, blues, lilacs and reds sprang up. As time went on the patterns became more and more intricate and multi-coloured. They are also wonderful to work with and lend themselves perfectly to our sewing rolls.

Not only do our rolls make a wonderful present (teenage girls particularly like them!) but I think it is a thoughtful touch to leave one in a spare room for guests to use. No more fumbling around for safety pins at the last minute!

I am off to France for the next couple of weeks hunting out fabrics and china - I hope to report back on lots of exciting discoveries! Until then -

Best wishes
Caroline