Salty Dog at the Whitechapel Gallery

In search of culture, knowledge and wisdom for my small-child ravaged brain, last week I went to the  Whitechapel Gallery's First Thursday.

I love First Thursdays.  The ritual of the galleries of the East End of London opening their doors to their neighbours just adds to the buzz of excitement that fills our streets these days.  I don't normally go in to the galleries as the Cool Factor inside is way too high & subsequently fills me with fear, but I like to stare in wonder at the beautiful people spilling out onto Redchurch Street as I wander up to Albion to buy a late night choccy brownie.

This evening's trip was part inspired by the larger of my 2 small rioting children, as she recently came home from nursery with a postcard of what looked like a peeled tree trunk dipped in gold following an inpromptu trip down to Whitechapel with one of her awesome (there simply is no other word) teachers.  I was intrigued, and also a bit disturbed that my 4 year old knows far more about the latest exhibits in our neighbourhood than I do. 

Time to redress that balance. 

I fell in love with the Peeled Golden Tree, more commonly known as the latest Bloomberg Commission by Guiseppe Penone called Spazio di Luce.  Rachel Whiteread's Tree of Life is quite simply beautiful, and the video showing how the facade came to life is fascinating.

In a bid to be grown ups, my pal & fellow Mummy-in-need-of-a-break-and-culture and I popped up to the bar for a sneaky glass of wine where I was ridiculously excited to find these awesome Salty Dog crisps.  There is a no photography rule at the Whitechapel, so this is my only memento from my evening of culture, but pretty fitting for a doggy kinda blog!

We wandered home, me with an empty bag of crisps and a dog eared postcard of my Peeled Golden Tree.  We stopped at the Albion Cafe to look at the stacks of beautiful tins and yummy delicacies on their shelves, leaving with a ridiculously delicious salty caramel tiny tart to nibble as we watched the last of the Redchurch Revelers go about their cool ways.

Lovely.

Note To Self: Must Try Harder on the Culture.

http://www.saltydog-grrr.com

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org

http://www.firstthursdays.co.uk

www.creatureclothes.com

Dog Poo!

I was ambushed this morning while walking my dog (in a nice way...).

A lady came running over to me as I picked up my pooches poop, and asked if she'd just seen right - had I just picked up my dog's poo?

"Yes" I said.  I had.

She then thanked me.

This has never happened before.  I was expecting a morning tussle and some verbal over dog ownership in the city.  But she had just thanked me.  She. Thanked. Me.

Wow.

Has the doggy-doo situation got so bad that people who pick up their dog's poo are in the minority?  Just one unpicked poo goes a looooong way - especially when it's being walked down a pavement.

The situation has got particularly bad recently.  It seems that no London street is without the mark of unresponsible dog ownership, and the parks are pretty grim too.  All of this was brilliantly covered by Ben Fogle, a man who knows his dogs, in his article for The Telegraph a little while ago which you can read here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/pets/9834755/Dog-owners-foul-behaviour-stinks.html

So following Ben's lead I have tweeked our Emergency Treats Pouch which is part of the range we make in collaboration with Ben - the Fogle & Pole Vintage Collection (he's the Fogle, I'm the Pole).  The treats pouches will now come not only filled with bone biscuits, but with some poo bags too.  

What goes in... must come out... and then be picked up.

www.benfogle.com

www.creatureclothes.com

The Dog Bed Cover, road-tested by Barkarama!

www.barkarama.co.uk have just road tested our latest product, the Dog Bed Cover.

It seems they liked it!  Check out what they thought - www.barkarama.co.uk

The Dog Bed Cover was a product borne out of the invaluable feedback we receive from our customers, combined with our continuing efforts to be as environmentally aware as possible.

It seems that lots of us have an old duvet sitting unused in our attics / in trunks / under beds / stuffed down the back of wardrobes.  We wanted to make use of these duvets... so we created the Dog Bed Cover.

Why lug a new dog bed home when you already have an unused quilt squirrelled away that you could use for your pet's den?  The dog will love it all the more as it doesn't smell of a factory, but smells of their home. 

You are reusing and recycling goods that you already have and minimising the unneeded manufacture of brand new materials.  You are saving money and reducing CO2 emissions by cutting unnecessary shipping.

It's a winner all round!

The Dog Bed Cover costs £38.50.  It is fully machine washable & fits a regular single duvet.

There is currently only one design, but the range will be expanding very soon.  Expect some gorgeous prints for summer, all in limited editions for you to collect.

www.creatureclothes.com/dogbedcover

www.barkarama.co.uk

Photography by Nick Stevens www.picnick.co.uk

St Valentine - patron saint of people with epilepsy

Today is one of my favourite days of the year.  St Valentines Day.

St Valentine is the patron saint of people with epilepsy, so he's my patron saint...

... and I love him.

So lets celebrate some epilepsy things...

First... the amazing Epilepsy Society who do so much work raising awareness and researching epilepsy.  Finding ways to make living with epilepsy better.

This week River Island are supporting Epilepsy Society by sending out a purple "Everyone Knows Someone" wrist band with all orders placed on their website, helping to spread awareness about the condition and support the fantastic work of Epilepsy Society.

Second... awareness.  I talk about my epilepsy a lot.  I think I get pretty boring about it, but my theory (and I'm sticking to it!) is that the more people who know someone who has epilepsy and isn't ashamed of it or what people might think, but who proudly talks about it and shares it, the more understood it will become.  

Also it is for practical reasons.  My seizures are triggered mostly by a line up of usual suspects - stress, not getting enough sleep, low blood sugar, nerves, alcohol, anxiety, maths/numbers, filling in forms... but sometimes they just happen for no good reason whatsoever.  The more people that know I live with the condition and what to do if I have a seizure, the more people can help me if I have one.  But more importantly, with 1 in every 20 people in the UK having a seizure of some sort during their lives, the people that I talk to will also be able to help other people in their time of need.

So today lets celebrate love, life and epilepsy.

http://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/

Photo Diary of our Spring Fair set up

I am exhibiting at Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham this week.   Creature Clothes haven't exhibited here for at least 8 - 10 years so it's very exciting to be back.

We will be at Spring Fair (a trade only show) until Thursday 7th Feb.

Here is my camera phone diary of set up...

Our very basic, very tiny space in the Design Lab.
Stage 1 - picket fence is in place!

my trade show box of tricks...

mountains of samples to squeeze into our space

"Our" issue of Vanity Fair... the highlight of our 2012 media coverage

The electrics go in...

The Easy Dogs get bandana'd up with our new Slip on Bandana designs

I always start with the central focal point of the stand - for this show it was the top shelf, Vanity Fair and new product

The Easy Dogs get tethered to the fence by their lovely stripey fabric leads

Our new Slip on Bandana packaging gets pride of place at the front of the stand alongside Emergency Treats Pouch & Valentines Key Tags

Bone Babies and Fur Friend Fleecy Blankets go in (top tip for a show: classic Oscar The Grouch style trash can or drums with lids make a great display plinth and are essential for storing coats in!)

And we're done!  Somehow, this took until 10pm on Saturday night...
The grey walls weren't ideal for us, there isn't enough light and the positioning of our sign isn't ideal (I tried to pull the sign off and place it higher, but it wasn't shifting...) but this was part of the package for the Design Lab and creates an excellent over all look and feel of continuity between the Design Lab exhibitors.  I love the half width side walls and the white display plinths and was thrilled to be using our picket fencing again - it creates a fun, doggy, outsidey kind of look.
Overall, I'm very pleased!

The Fido Awards Ceremony!

A one-of-a-kind Creature Clothes hand painted dog collar for each Award Category

The Fido Awards were held at The Cinema Museum this weekend and we were delighted to be involved.  So involved that Stolli and I ended up on the stage giving out the prizes!!  VERY EXCITING!

And a giant glittery bone for one very special dog...

I arrived at the very beautiful Cinema Museum in Kennington on Sunday morning with a red suitcase full of the hand painted dog collars that I had made as the principal awards for the event, and one giant Best In World diamante bone.  Stolli my dog came with me as our "Security Detail For The Awards" proudly wearing her K9 by Igloo security T-shirt (Stolli and K9's Mr Binks go way back...).

I'm ready to head up security!

The red suitcase, full of awards

Mr Toby Rose - Master and Hound of Ceremonies, and Stolli and I on prize giving duties in the corner!

The audience gathered... the dogs sniffed each others bums... the suspense was building....

First off Rom Com Rover was awarded to Australian film Red Dog.

Next up came Historical Hound - presented by The Time's chief film critic Kate Muir and won by the wonderful Uggie for his role in The Artist.  It was collected by Uggie's biographer Wendy Holden, who was also on hand to sign copies of Uggie's book - Uggie The Artist - My Story

Blockbuster Bowser was presented by actor & animal ambassador Peter Egan (who Stolli took time off from Security Watch to have a hug with and fell asleep on...).
The prize collar went to Bonnie in the fantastic film Seven Psycopaths.

Peter Egan and Stolli - she fell very much in love with Peter!

Comedy Canine was scooped by Smurf who played Banjo in Sightseers.  Smurf himself was in attendance to collect his prize collar with the films director Ben Wheatley.  He then stunned everyone with his amazing handstands on stage.  This is Smurfs second win for his role as Banjo - he already scooped the Palm Dog Award earlier in the year.  Congratulations Smurf!

Sightseers director Ben Wheatley, pondering his win 

The Sightseers winners make their speeches while everyone falls in love with Smurf

Smurf models his new Comedy Canine prize collar

Smurf steals the show

Mutt Moment was presented by Richard from Right Said Fred and went to Frankenweenie.  Hooray!

Me, Richard Right Said Fred, Wendy Holden (representing Uggie) and Peter Egan

The TOP DOG PRIZE - Best In World - went to the inimitable Uggie who very kindly sent us this fantastic picture.  Thank you Uggie!

The inimitable Uggie with his Creature Clothes collars and giant Best In World bone

What a crazy, fun, mad day.

WOW

The Making Of... The Fido Awards Ceremonial Dog Collars!

The Fido's are coming to town this Sunday December 9th and I can't wait!

Awarded to the most outstanding performances by dogs in film, this 6 category contest is organised by the same mad genius who brought you The Palm Dog Award from Cannes (I salute you Mr Toby Rose!).

After the success of our Jubilee Palm Dog creations (that turned up in the hands, mouths and round the necks of Cannes' thespian finest) we were once again asked to create something fabulous for the winners in each category at this year's Fido's.  the categories:

Comedy Canine

Historical Hound

Rom Com Rover

Mutt Moment

Blockbuster Bowser

Best In World

 A challenge... but an exciting one.

Here's what I got up to...

My notes from our initial meeting, outlining the categories and the colour & feel for each category

Prepping the collar blanks at our beaten up leather working bench.

Cracking open the Swarovski Crystals and heating up the crystal gun...

Paints, studs, logos, categories... the board is set to get creating.  The start of a long night.

We decided that hand painted collars were the best way forward.  I first painted on the lettering freehand, then outlined it in a second colour to bring that Beano/Viz/Cartoon-y vibe.

3 down... 3 to go!

I was worried at this point - the Mutt Moment collar looked very wobbly (too much coffee methinks).  The moment it was outlined it became my favourite of the lot.

A rare moment of quiet concentration!

Painted, outlined, studded, sparkled, buckles fitted, dee rings riveted and we're ready to go!  We can't wait to see who ends up taking home these one-of-a-kind collars

Check back in tomorrow to see the finished awards... and log in on Sunday to see the winners!

www.thefidos.com

www.palmdog.com

www.creatureclothes.com