Lily Inspiration: Wools, plaids and TWEED

This winter I visited a piece of my husband's family past, Tonedale, in the Southwest of England. His great ^6 grandfather, Thomas Fox, began the first ever Twin Vertical Woolen Mill (twin meaning they produced both worsted and woollen fabric, and vertical because they did the whole process: took in the wool and sent out the finished cloth). In seven generations, twenty-nine members of the family worked in the factory. It is now sadly empty, but much of the history lives on through stories and artifacts.

Like these awesome sample books Ben's uncle showed me dating from 1909-1920. Knowing my love of everything fabric related, especially plaids and wools, he knew I would be ecstatic!

One of the pages containing tweeds and pinstripes!

The nearby family house is still owned by the family and is rented out for meetings and parties. Here is a picture of the Tone Dale House in the summertime.

On a somewhat tweed-related note, Smoking Lily is a friendly supporter of the Tweed Ride Victoria on May 7, 2011. The ride is raising money for Bikes Without Borders, aiming to help send stretcher-bikes to the African nation of Malawi.

Sign up today at http://tweedridevictoria.com/

Vancouver Update: The Flaming Lips at Malkin Bowl

Guess what Trish and I and some friends did last night! We partied with The Flaming Lips!

Photos: The Flaming Lips at Malkin Bowl

Here's a video filmed from our vantage point last night. Wayne's wearing a strobe light, so the usual warning regarding strobe lights should be headed, and you should also beware of the uncontrollable joy that will ensue. My cheeks still hurt from the ear to ear grinning I did all night.

We danced and laughed and sang and sang and sang and...... After all that uplifting spiritual connecting with our friends, and the band, and the universe in general, it's amazing that we were still able to get up and brave a big day of fabric shopping today. We found gorgeous silk dupionis for tea cozies, vivid oversized prints for little girls dresses, pink plaid wool with deers for skirts, as well as amazing new tooled leather for wallets. The last 2 days rocked!!

New fabric for the Aprons

I just order new fabric for the apron skirt.  The fabric company had sold out of the striped navy but they had a couple of good alternatives.  Here is a sneak peak at  what's on order.  The new aprons should be restocked in about two weeks. Yah!