Toilet twinning – a world first from CORD!

I read over the weekend that 40% of the world’s population has no clean safe place to go to the loo and that every day 5,000 children under 5 die needlessly from diarrhoeal diseases. So today I have twinned my little room at home with a toilet in Burundi!!

Why not follow the link and find out more for yourself – I will post a picture of my certificate when it arrives!

love Lucy x

Pulse-London 2009

I thought those of you at home might like to see how we made our 1m x 2m  space  at Pulse look…….

What you can’t do with a cupboard from Emmaus, a few pots of paint, 3 rolls of wallpaper and lots and lots and lots of tape!

No photos of me because I was driving the camera – tee hee, but I can confirm that the skirt was worth the effort (see last post) and looked great – thanks Helen.

Have a good week everyone.

love Lucy x

HI HO HI HO, it’s off to work I go!

Things have been a bit frantic here for the last few weeks.

My first ever trade show starts on Sunday and I have been making and checking lists for weeks now.  Last night my mission was the absolutely essential task of altering a perfectly good skirt to make it ‘just so’ in time for the week end – perfect madness, but absolutely typical!

I am proud this week end to be announcing the launch of my new ‘Brighton Rock’ collection that I have been working on for most of the year so far.  I shall be taking it to Pulse at Earls Court to see what the retail buyers think of it……watch this space!!!

I have also been giving my website a jolly good spring clean and adding the new ranges – do take a peek – www.lucywallis.co.uk

Have a great week end.

love lucy x

COLOURlovers & FUNrings

As time wasters go, the internet really does come up top trumps! I do not yet have a facebook addiction, though many of my friends are at the stage of needing a 12-step programme to combat their addictions.  For myself I have been toying still with ’shall I? – shalln’t I? – shall I? – salln’t I?…’ for many months now. If I do, more humble pie to eat – “been talking to imaginary your friends all evening? nothing better to do? more photos of people you lost touch with for a reason? etc, etc”.  If I don’t…..? What is there to lose? What is there to gain?

Anyway, I did find this marvellous website for colour lovers yesterday evening and had the most delicious feeling that I was falling into a wonderful web of intrigue, beauty and colourful pleasures – www.colourlovers.com .

I really have no idea yet what it is all about, but it is a feast for the eyes to be sure. Why not go and enjoy a happy half hour, or ten? I shall be back myself when I have finished my ‘list’, tidied up all the mess I have made today, cooked the dinner, done a jewellery making party…. maybe tomorrow!

I have also introduced a range of FUNrings to my etsy shop. New designs all the time – cheap and cheerful – guaranteed to brighten your day without breaking the bank.

Why not buy one for you and one for a friend?

love Lucy x

HOT NEWS: ‘Make Jewellery’ Magazine

Hot off the press!

The first ever edition of  ‘Make Jewellery’ magazine goes on sale tomorrow at a store near you, and if you turn to page 54 you will find my ‘pearls of wisdom’ and beautiful photos of my lariats!

enjoy!

love Lucy x

Tall Stories

I hope you will enjoy this as much as I did this morning; I was nearly crying with laughter and it really set me up for the day – there is a delightfulness in the gullibility of youth that is lost with age and should really be cherished. A world where everything is as it is described, where the incredible really takes place everyday on a street near you. Maybe too much Pippy Longstocking – if there is such a thing!

I was walking to school with my daughters and one of them began telling me about a girl in her class who had sprained  her ankle so badly that she had to spend the night in hospital and have a day off school.

“oh dear”, say I, “how did that happen?”

“she loves dogs and goes around picking up dogs and takes them all out for a walk. She had twenty dogs and one of them pulled her over and she sprained her ankle”

“twenty dogs?”

“yes, twenty dogs”

“what, all in one go?”

“yes, she really is dog mad”

At this point I think I am about to go into orbit and am struggling to keep my composure!

“Imagine for a minute what that would look like. One small girl and TWENTY dogs. Even if they were dashunds, that would be quite some sight!”

I carry on in this vein for a little while longer and then decide to let sleeping dogs lie (as they say), that is until I see the girl’s mother walking towards me.

I enquire after her daughters health and she looks at me as if I have just landed from Mars.

“she’s fine, I think”

“did she not twist her ankle?”

“not that I know of, maybe she did it in school. She never mentioned it, it was probably nothing much”

“Oh, glad to hear she is fine”.

Hilarious!!!

I hope your day has moments that are as funny.

love
Lucy

Sneak Preview!

Well, it looks as though spring has sprung and our long, cold winter may be on it’s way out – hurrah!

The snow was fun and our new found friends on the West Wing have kept us company on many a winter evening, and have been a welcome and enriching addition to our lives.  What a marvellous programme!

Anyway, enough of that! I have been a busy bee working with polymer clay,  a new media for me  and have a little sneak preview for you….

The new range will be launched in London’s Earl’s Court at PULSE 09 at the end of May and will be available on my website from then.  I will be making  selected pieces  available on my etsy shop so do shop there if you want to be ahead of the game!

Back to the bee hive for now….see you on ETSY.

love Lucy x

New Etsy Shop OPEN!

I have opened myself an Etsy shop today to offer for sale some of the one-off designs that keep things fun for me, as well as some of the staples.

Do pop along and have a browse – more things to follow.

enjoy!

Love Lucy

Sunshine after slush

Oh what a beautiful morning! Glorious sunshine after snow (days off school and sledging were fun for us southerners who are not used to such magical visitations) followed by slush, sludge, torrential rain and general greyness – I hear that Roald Dahl felt that February was a month to count the days off until it was over and I know what he means! 30th January marks the end of our family’s ‘birthday season’ – 5 birthdays between October and January, with Christmas thrown in, leaves me counting down to the start of British Summer Time, when seed planting can begin in earnest.

I visited the lovely Green Tree Gallery in Borde Hill, Haywards Heath today to talk with Jules, one of the owners and also a painter of beautiful works, about a forthcoming exhibition – watch this space! If you are near by it is really worth a trip – a treasure trove and with ample free parking.

We also heard today that I have passed the selection procedure for Pulse 09 and am very much looking forward to launching to the retail trade there in May of this year. All very exciting…..

I am working on some very new things, but all too top secret to reveal even a snippet at this stage – I mention this in case you wonder what I have been up to in the silence! Whilst my non-revelation does not help you at all, it does tell you that I know that you know that I know something you don’t and that you know that I will tell you just as soon as I have something concrete to show you. Hope this helps!

I also checked out the new Spring Collection at White Stuff and found this fabulous jacket in my favourite colour.

There is (as usual) plenty more that I like too, but that will do for starters.

love, Lucy x

Happy Obama Day!

Yesterday on the train back from London the evening papers were declaring it to be ‘blue monday’. Christmas a month gone, New Year’s resolutions dead in the water and credit card bills landing on our mats. The weather too gave us nothing to be cheerful about.

Today however is a day of HOPE, a historic day.

Happy Obama Day!

With anticipation and expectation running high, there is a precious hope that change may come and that a great nation may once again be all that it was supposed to be, at home and on the world stage. My hope is that my people too will rise to do great things in troubled times and sow seeds of hope and change where ever we go and whatever we do.

Human beings though have had a habit all through the ages of falling short, and I am sure that this administration and this people will be no exception.  I want to trust that we and they will rise up again when we fall, say we are sorry when we are wrong, and keep striving to understand more than to be understood.