It's nearly here!

We've been busy busy busy! Trade orders and web orders are now all packed and gone. We've had festive fun in munich, two great days at the St Georges hall winter arts Market and now just Lark Lane Christmas eve market then it's time for rest and wait for Santa and his reindeers. We've had also festive winter picnic at camp and furnace, the best venue in Liverpool, sat drinking mulled wine on hay sofas by a campfire with brass bands and fake snow. Camp and furnace rocks! More proper blogs on last few weeks along with some festive pics to follow. We are also moving premises in mid jan which has worked out well timewise after the Christmas rush. Hopefully moving along with our favourite artist, Sophie green, so we still get to admire her Beatles superlambanana art! Merry Christmas one and all. Little satsuma xx

A little (lots of) help from my friends

I had a lovely day at allerton road farmers Market. Sold lots and had a good natter to lots of people. It's what it's all about! Having spent last night in the satsuma studio from 5.30 til 11pm - packing orders and preparing for today, I have to say with Fiona dewar and mr William brown I'd have never been ready for today. Good friends are hard to find, and last night I was grateful for two smashing ones. Xx

All you need is hug....Borneo Orangutan Article...



By Fiona Rogers and Anup Shah

I often get sent links to articles on Orangutans and this one is spectacular. If ever anyone wanted to see how similar we are to them just read this article about Fiona Rogers and Anup Shah's trip to Borneo.

Orangutans will copy people washing their clothes in a river, they will take another piece of washing and start washing. They jump in canoes and head for the best fruit on the other river banks.

We should leave them be and promote eco tourism that benefits local communities. You should read about the achievements that the Sumatran Orangutan Society are making with their replanting program too - let's hope mother nature will beat the greed of these palm oil and pulp companies.

Click here to read the full Article

Festive Indoor Winter Market, Liverpool, 3rd & 4th December - come on down. ho ho ho

ST GEORGE'S HALL...CHRISTMAS SHOPPING..WINE...MINCE PIES......

If you've never been before...why not?? It's great and get's you a in real festive mood.

So why not spend some time here, amongst local makers and producers, hit the mince pies and grab a glass of red away from the commercial high street craziness on mian street.

Savvy shoppers ahoy! See you there.

Ooh and also Sophie Green, who I share an Arts studio with in Liverpool will be there too with her fabulous artwork including Prints, Original Drawings and Paintings plus the obligatory SG Cat Badges!

Paintings, photographs, prints, sculpture, textiles, knit wear, clothing, cards, vintage prints and photographs, ceramics, jewellery, glass, handmade beauty products, accessories and much more!


BUY HANDMADE - BUY LOCAL - BUY BEAUTIFUL

A café will be setup beneath the beautiful antique organ serving a range of food and drink throughout the day, and a programme of free musical performances will take place in the historic Crown Court Room, plus another little historical surprise we're not telling you about yet...

Winter Arts Market

10am - 5pm

Sat 3rd & Sun 4th December 2011

St George's Hall, Liverpool (opposite Lime Street Train Station and Queen Square Bus Station)

A modern chimney sweep's toolkit

Ok so you may have seen my post on saving the Jackdaw out of the chimney. And I was pondering on what we used to do it:

2 butterknifes - now recycled
1 mop handle - since disinfected
1 sheet (egyptian cotton) - since donated to the vicarage shed for rags

Move over Bear Grylls! :)

Sunny chops.....the new member of the satsuma family

I'm still chuckling from Saturday that Chris (my friend's husband) thought I'd named Little Satsuma as I was called Jane Satsuma....which to be fair most people tend to call me these days...amongst other things!

Anyway TJ, my house rabbit who I got in September 2010 was getting miserable, so we snippety snipped him and began a quest to find him a nice girlfriend who was about the same size as him....most rescue centres were innundated with boys...because people keep the girls for breeding, which upsets me. When you see how many of these little furry chaps are in rescue centres no-one should be breeding anymore - it's wrong.

Anyway so we found a little girl on RSPCA website rehoming search - she was called Lolly and was in North Wales, Bryn y Maen, and I went to see her one weekend in February. She had an awful start in life and been taken out of a house with many other animals. I don't know what had happened to her but she was very timid and very beautiful. I loved her as soon as I saw her, she was like TJ but black.

I passed all the checks and was allowed to get her two weeks later, when TJ had settled from his snip. She had been sharing with another little chap called Frankie (just paired the day before I saw her) but he has a new mate now thank goodness as I felt awful, I'd have taken him too if I hadnt had TJ.

It took 3 weeks to bond them, most of which I spent the evening in the hallway whilst they fought for domination, then one day I came home and TJ had done a super high jump over the boundary fence to go see her....and now they are inseparable.

I firmly believe that pets should not be left in the garden and forgotten about.....treat them with love and affection and you'll get hours of fun and entertainment with them.

The picture is of Lolly's first summer trip in the vicarage garden...she took a while to come out and was very scared, but half an hour later she was eating grass, throwing herself around and kicking here legs in the air. I think it was the first time she'd felt sunshine on her little chops.

All any creature needs is loving care and freedom. Mine live in little beds, well Lolly actually ate her first three beds as she destroyed everything when she first came to live with us, and they are, I hope, happy as larry...whoevere larry is! xxx

Throw those curtains wide...

I downloaded spotify again today, not had it for ages, but I heard a few bands on various radio stations to and from London, and so I'm listening to them.

One of my fave songs ever though is Elbow's 'One Day Like This' from 'The Seldom Seen Kid' album. what I love most well in fact I love lots...it's super cheery, uplifting and you can still here his accent when he sings which I love.

One to play when it's a bit pants outside and you fancy a blast of cheeriness!