Made in Britain

Ever since 1921 when Harold Stanier (my grandad) began our family business, just about everything New House has made has been made in Britain.

The only time we go overseas it's usually to Sweden. This is because there are few world-class specialist manufacturers of roller-blind fabric, and because we feel so comfortable with our Swedish chums at Almedahls-Kinna when we talk design. Many of our homewares come from Almedahls too.

However we'll always have as many items made in Britain as we can, and the other day I was with Jerry in Gloustershire, who hand-makes our wood child safety devices. Jerry didn't mind me taking a few pics :

 

 

 

 

Gardeners secret weapon?

Flakes of snow were coming down as I dug my beds and pushed a few hopeful seed onions and broad-beans into the cold spring soil. All of us at New House are gardeners, but this was not the best gardening weekend.

Normally, I can't dig without a pot of tea by my side, but as I was cooking Sunday lunch I had a glass of Italian Proscecco with me.

Could this be the perfect gardeners cold-weather wine? It's low alcohol (so you're unlikely to dig up your good perenials in error) and it's best kept chilled. In today's temperatures my usual pot of tea would have swiftly turned to a luke-warm brew, but the Proscetto remained fresh and sparkling :

Glass of Proscecco - the gardeners friend?

Broad bean seeds shivering and waiting to go in.

They are in the mud now, but my village chums will say I should have planted them when there's a Full Moon, a New Moon, or maybe even when the first Hedgehog of Spring does a little dance in a ra-ra skirt. Meanwhile, my seed potatoes are staring through the window, chitting, and waiting for their turn.... 

   

Telegraph Sam

While visiting the Blind & Curtain Friendly Forum event on Monday, I spotted BT's finest in training, learning how to climb telephone posts.

 

Rather them than me!

Friendly forum

Melanie & I went to the Curtain & Blind Makers Friendly Forum event near Stone, Staffs and it was a good day out.

This 'pop-up' exhibition was born out of the lively Friendly Forum Facebook page where interior designers wanted to meet up for a real chat.

 Lunch was provided and many suppliers took space. There were also tables provided labeled 'blinds', 'curtains' or whatever, so if you sat down, you had some idea what conversation you were about to get into. 

Is this is the exhibition of the future? It was a pop-up exhibition where like-minded people got together (at minimal cost) and enjoyed each others company. I think the Friendly Forum is onto something...

One of the good things about New House is where we are...

New House has been in the rural county of Herefordshire for years, and it's had a big influence on us.

Our 300 yr old buildings are not the most convenient, but because of this we developed all our little blind pulls and homewares as they are small and easy to handle amongst our well-loved steep staircases and old wood floors. Time moves slowly in Herefordshire too, so New House always looks to the very long-term, with our contemporary designs often rooted in slower, more traditional ways.

We live and work here, but there are some great places to visit, and on Saturday I went to Ludlow.

Ludlow is one of Britain's prettiest towns, and is so vibrant with an amazing culinary scene.   

My poor photos don't do the place justice.

 

After tea in De Greys, we then went to the Ludlow Food Centre where you can watch cheese being made and 80% of the food sold is local.  

 

   

Granley Blinds new showroom in Cheltenham

I was going through Cheltenham today and checked-out Granley Blinds lovely new showroom :

Granley is one of New House's oldest customers and an important cornerstone in Cheltenham's retail scene just a stone's-throw from the Art Gallery. If you've got a blind and live in Cheltenham, then you've probably bought it from Granley Blinds as these people are real interior blind experts! :

 

 

 

Granley are in Clarance Street, so visit if you can!

Flirtatious tea towels

I'm sure there was no wind until I put Charlotte's new tea towels on my washing line and tried to photograph them. 

We sell quite a lot to garden shops and a keen gardener myself, challenged our amazing illustrator Charlotte Farmer to create some cunning flowerbed or allotment-themed designs for Spring. Charlotte certainly dug-for-victory and came up spades with wheelbarrow loads of designs. Today I've been trying to get some pics.

They hang great on the line (until you point a camera) and then the flirty little devils move in every direction like the Can-Can

I did get get them still when I moved my line into the orchard - but it was the end of the day, the light was going so I may try again tomorrow!

 

However I did get some good ones of Marianne Westman's reissued 1950's classic Frisco, and Charlotte's Royal Tea mug :