The time has finally come and we are very pleased to announce the winner of our first Craft Club mission is Katie McLurg!
She raised the modest tulip to new heights alongside lilies and roses in this beautiful wheelbarrow arrangement. Choosing to do away with the traditional patterned origami paper, she’s opted for country-vintage style with brown paper and old newspapers, for a gorgeous result!
To say thanks for her wondrous efforts, we will be giving her an annual oh comely subscription. Thank you also to everyone else who entered - we very much appreciated your contributions.
Keep an eye on Katie’s Folksy store, Potting Shed Crafts, for hand-knitted accessories, a forthcoming collection of summer dresses and, thanks to her newly discovered origami talents, maybe even a couple of charming paper bouquets for sale.
And so we march onwards to the forthcoming oh comely Issue 16, featuring a tutorial for making your own cute notebook, using Japanese stab-binding. We look forward to releasing this into the world – and remember there are free subscriptions at stake here, as well as crafty pride and respect of course.
Come forth oh season of sunshine! We long for the smell of suncream and the freedom to wear flip-flops! And if the sun’s rays ever last long enough for us to call it summer, we’d also wish for something beautiful to protect our bonse with. Enter The Brim Label’s summer collection of hand-made printed hats. Their vintage-explorer style makes them just as perfect for jungle trekking as they are for wandering to the local pub in. We like this floral number (namely Vintage #10, £75) and the nautical navy stripe (also £75), especially. Both are made using salvaged leather and cotton, and there are never more than 10 hats made in one print.
The sprightly upstart to London's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the Chelsea Fringe, is happening! Celebrating all that's green and garden-bound, here are the events we're most looking forward to over the three week, alternative garden festival.
Ally Capellino are running two nights of flower arranging this week. The gatherings are free; all you're to do is bring along a jar to fill with flowers and book a space. Drinks also provided.
Squint is playing host to a pop-up shop curated by the Balcony Gardener in their west London garage space. They'll be displaying a Museum of Terrariums, in and amongst Squint's characteristic patchwork furniture.
And, if you've ever fancied knitting a caterpillar (or even a slug) pass by the Veg Knit-Along at Battersea Flower Station. Fran will be giving free, garden-themed knitting classes every Sunday during the Fringe.
In Issue 15's Pretty Lovely pages we spoke to designer Anna Kreeger about her leather bag label M.Hulot. She told us all about her love of hard saddle, vegetable tanned leathers that oozed character and how the throwaway culture of the High Street inspired her to create a characterful collection that is made to last.
If we had a bag by M.Hulotwe would want to wear it everyday for ever and lucky for you, Anna has kindly given you the chance to do exactly that by giving us a beautiful green and tan Strapped How Clutch to give away.
To be in it to win it, write in tofree@ohcomely.co.ukand tell us about the possession that you'll never throw out.
You can read the full interview on page 20 of Issue 15 which is in shops now.
This collection of short films, Cupidity, captures winsomely the optimism of being young and falling in love.
Kismet Diner is the tale of a waitress in Brooklyn whose beautiful singing voice goes unnoticed only by the good-hearted and good-looking regular who seems oblivious.
Beauty and the Geek is set in Instanbul. A pair of teenagers who catch each others' eyes across the backs of their gardens bond over vinyl records in a local junk shop until they are separated by the girl's strict mother.
(You can watch all four videos below - just select on the 'more videos' tab.)
Cornetto have made a collection of four, set in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Istanbul and New York, all starring up-and-coming teen actors. Each short film is broken into four acts, to mimic the act of eating a Cornetto. You can watch the other two here.
They'll brighten your day and make you smile. In fact, they might even make you feel as if summer is finally around the corner. It may be grey outside, but change is in the air.
The post was sponsored by Cornetto, who've been associated with love for fifty years. Also, with ice cream. Sadly, this did not mean that free ice cream was delivered to the office.
Emma Cocker’s stitched illustrations stood out this week because they have a wonderfully dated and nostalgic feel.
She has created the kinds of scenes that make you wish you were a kid again, holidaying at the seaside. On her website, Emma says that she likes to "create pieces that surprise and question", and who are we to argue with that? Her collection does combine taxidermy with knitting after all.
Alongside her illustrations in the collection you’ll find a treasure trove of gentlemanly foxes, salty seadogs and giant knitted life buoys. Find her stall at The Palace Art and Craft Fair at Fulham Palace this weekend, or buy her work from Atelier.
Is it Tuesday already? Well I guess that means it’s time for Five Questions and a Song, the weekly column where we pester musicians with a quintette of questions and ask them to share one of their tracks for your listening pleasure.
Today we’re talking to California-based folkster Nataly Dawn. Beginning her recording career as one half of You Tube indie darlings Pomplamoose, the talented songwriter released her first solo album, How I Knew Her, earlier this year. Nataly took to Kickstarter to help fund the album, reaching her target of $20,000 in just three days. By the time it finished, the campaign had raised a total of $104,788 from her fans. Get a taster for the album below with ‘Why Did You Marry’.
Nataly is spending this month playing throughout the UK, so there’s a few opportunities to catch her playing tunes from the new record: www. natalydawn.tumblr.com/tour
Her show at the Scala tonight is all sold out but good news London readers! We have a pair of tickets to give away to tomorrow’s show at the Slaughtered Lamb. To win, write in to dani@ohcomely.co.uk with your name and contact number, and tell us your favorite thing about Wednesdays. Competition closes at midnight tonight.
Photo: Nataly Dawn
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I started off in Southern California. Moved to France at the age of 10 with my missionary parents. They were working with French churches, and later my dad accepted a professorship at a Theological Seminary in Brussels. So religion has always been a big part of my life. Fortunately, my parents are both loving, intelligent people and they decided that while I was in these francophone countries I would attend Lycées Français. So I divided up my time between my conservative church (where I was viewed as dangerously liberal) and my French school (where I was considered far too conservative). Most of my friends were not at church, so they were the ones who weaned me off of bad Christian rock and onto good British bands. Upon graduation, I went to Stanford, where I continued my "liberal" education, all the while guarding my faith in God and good music. Sure, I wasn't going to church anymore, but I still believed in...stuff? Anyhow, I met Jack Conte, with whom I formed the band Pomplamoose. We've been together ever since, happily living in Sonoma California, amidst the cows and wine fields, making music and videos in our home studio, when we're not attending to our cats, Cleo and Slater. Cleo is miraculously 20 years old, and Slater enjoys cuddling when he's not digging through garbage or torturing field mice, but I digress...
What do you do when you're not making music?
Well, most of being a musician is not making music. That's about 2% of your time, if you’re lucky. Most of my time is spent on email, social media and video editing. Blogging, tweeting, random projects, etc. But mostly email. When I'm not staring at my computer screen, I like to do yoga (which I'm very bad at) and cook delicious meals (which I'm pretty darn good at). The yoga makes up for all the eating, except for the fact that it doesn't.
What is the best thing to bring along on a long tour?
A yoga mat. Sitting all day is the worst. I mean, we're talking 5 to 10 hours in the car every day. So I bring a yoga mat to stretch in my room. It keeps me sane. Instead of having to take pain meds every day, I stretch.
It makes my stage banter worse. Aside from that, I find that the fear of failure just makes me work harder. Because my ultimate fear is that I won't be able to keep doing this. And I can't let that happen.
What can you tell us about this song?
I grew up in the church, where it was very clear what was expected of girls from a young age: virginity until marriage. Which usually meant getting married young. Too young. Occasionally you'd get lucky and end up with your soul mate. But that's rare. Usually you either end up having babies and sticking it out, or you get divorced and suffer the shame of that choice. I've seen it too many times, and I just wish that there were more people out there - especially in the church - telling girls that they don't have to get married young.
Today we present Deborah Bowness’s indulgent wallpaper designs for trompe l’oeil with a twist. From chairs, to lamps, to books; Bowness is responsible for all kinds of fakery which might come at a cost, but makes for an unusual alternative to the boring old ‘feature’ wall. We’re particular fans of her tinted frocks collection, allowing you to display your new dress safely and permanently on the wall without the impending worry of spilling tomato soup down it.
Wallpaper drops start from £185, view the whole collection on Deborah's website.
