birdies

The early bird catches the jewellery.
Becky Crow's silver and copper pheasant earrings

Tatty Devine's etched leather brooch £24

Family Tree's mini bird brooches - Japanese rice paper encased in resin and perspex £8 each

Antoinette's perspex 'rubber duck' brooches for £5 each

Buddug's enamel brooch £30

Music satchel / case / bag to put your sheet music in: Cambridge Satchel Company, Matt Fothergill, Mimi

My daughters' tootling on the recorder hardly justify splashing out on music bags, but these are nice - and could be used as work bags, if only for flat-ish things.
Cambridge Satchel Company (so popular that your Christmas order must be with them by...erm... tomorrow) says a laptop computer could fit into theirs...yours for £73.

Cambridge Satchel Company - (chic and more interesting than black) navy music bag

Matt Fothergill's music satchel is more pricey (£149) but leather looks softer and stitching looks nice.

Matt Fothergill music bag

The one I want is Mimi's Beau, new for AW10 and inspired by a music bag, and costs a lot more than I can find in the girls' piggy banks (even though the going rate for the Tooth Fairy is £1 per tooth; there has been massive inflation since the 1970s). £360.

Mimi Beau bag, music satchel inspired, lovely tan colour

One can dream.

snow's on the way - more blankets needed

Well, if not snow, then colder weather... time to get cosy with some lovely blankets.  Jen Jones, a leading expert in Welsh blankets, has an on-line shop stocked with iresitable blankets, quilts, and tapestry bedcovers.  Blankets cost between £60 and over £100.

Cumbrian Wool makes blankets from undyed natural wool ranging from white-grey to dark brown / black from sheep in the Duddon Valley.  The blankets are made in two sizes (the smaller 'lamb' and the larger 'ewe') and two different weights, and a changing selection of designs, of the stripes and checks sort. They make excellent presents (eg. wedding presents), and support small scale 'cottage industry' to boot.