Snowman collage card

Snowman collage card by Michela, aged 3

This card was made by my little girl all by herself at a local crafty/arty workshop. The only help she got was with the glue gun. Happy Xmas everybody!

Beautiful and useful

Wooden book handmade in Switzerland, inside pic

Wooden book handmade in Switzerland, closed. It was bought for less than £1 at charity bazaar

William Morris once said: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. I got to know William Morris better while working for a period home magazine back in the 1990s. Before that epiphany it was just a name in contemporary social and art history, decades after the Impressionists, which were my favourites. Finding out about Morris also coincided with my switch from Impressionism to the Pre-Raphaelite movement. I still love the Pre-Raphaelite artists and really relished the costume drama Desperate Romantics (and various books about them). 

I had the good fortune to live opposite the William Morris Gallery for a few years and was a Friend and regular visitor - until I moved out of London. Aside the beautiful tiles, furniture, books and textiles, there is Pre-Raphaelite artwork in the upstairs gallery.

Slippers made of wool with extractable insole/support. Bought from a shoe shop in Cambridge for £13 (during sales)

But back to the mundane... This is a pair of beautiful and useful slippers, more functional than the wooden book but not less attractive....