Old Rectory Diary

What is a fair price for a fair product?

2012-03-14T08:04:00.010-07:00

Currently the textile industry is facing challenges at the coalface; shops are having to pare back on the amount of stock that they carry; consumers have far more choice with the advent of discount stores and websites; In general the worldwide shift away from abundant consumerism is no longer a choice for most in the west. That said I have great belief that smaller businesses and brands will fare well in the future. Mass production will catch up with the bigger cheaper brands; there is a glut of at-a-glance-bargain-priced last season's styles filling up the discount stores' rails - great for the typical shopper who doesn't care for this season's shade of canary yellow, seemingly good for our household budgets but our grandchildren will not thank us for the long term knock on effects that today's consumer society will leave as a legacy. This selling model is a testament to the fact that there is still overproduction of goods in the world - a quandary for any manufacturer as we(the consumer) all want to buy cheaper goods, or do we? Cheap production equals massive minimum production runs which is why big brands can firstly afford to sell to discount companies and secondly have so much surplus stock. It's a daunting scenario as retail has bred consumers who are addicted to shopping in sale or discount outlets. Middle and lower priced brands have fallen for the trap of short term discounting at the expense of long term viability, ie; if you cross this threshold of discounting you can never go back. Once you become a discounting brand, that price tag becomes the only relevant price that the consumer cares about - the RRP price(above the discount price) becomes only a selling gimmick in tricking the customer into assuming a big saving has just been made by making that purchase. What we want for our brand is 'a fair price for a fair product' and to spend our energy communicating this to our customers; A transparent understanding of our design and manufacturing ethos is part of what we want to share with our customer. Your feedback is important.

On a visit to a Tibetan refugee camp in India we met with fair trade weavers. Gorgeous hand made rugs can be commissioned - by no means a cheap product but priced in accordance with giving a fair living wage to workers.

Deflationary Spirals

Nothing like the instant rush of scoring a bargain.. Recession puts choice and options into perspective; need to get somewhere- we look for the cheapest option, not the most comfortable or scenic one. I am guilty of the parody of thrift. Groupon is a buzz word -tempting! But I know that basing my life around Groupon offers is undermining the viability of those businesses. By saving money we are deflating the world; Good on the one hand - cheaper essential items and so on and so forth but eventually we will all deflate ourselves out of a job. As we say, deflation is great until it happens to us and our pay or jobs have been cut.

So remember when you're buying something, you are buying it from a person and that someone, somewhere in the world has made it. The price that you pay needs to reflect a true cost and needs to give that person a living wage - One day you might be that person.

Workers live and educate their families at the Tibetan centre. A communal feeling of good work ethics and sensible husbandry of the land is felt throughout. I bought into what I believe to be 'a fair price for a fair product'.

Happy Valentines Day

2012-02-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

Hand printed cushions from Old Rectory

I'm guessing you've arrived at this blog via our new website - Really hope you like it; We are currently test running the site and we will have an official launch very soon - Maybe St. Patricks Day. Please keep revisiting and we will keep you updated.
Since Stephanie's trip to Bubble Trade show we have been as busy as bees. We launched one new product in our 'Sketch Book' print range - a baby All-In-One; A gentle complimentary piece to our 'Sketch Book' Blankets. This good quality organic piece will hit the shelves and our website in May.We are really looking forward to offering this All-in-One as part of a giftset as well as a stand alone piece.

Our new All-in-Ones available this May

So, we are well into the swing of the mid-term break. Ah, so many plans; I asked the twins to name two things they'd love to do over the holidays - a trip to a toy shop, a cinema visit and please, please mummy, can we have breakfast in bed! Ahem, not in keeping with my idea of embracing the fresh air, getting on top of the garden and planning this year's vegetable plot, although breakfast in bed sounds very appealing. So like many other juggling Mums, I shall have one eye on ''Un Monstre a Paris' and the other on my IPhone Mail. Enjoy the break.

Summer days

2011-08-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

Loving our sweet peas....... It took me all of about 15 minutes to plant out the seedlings on a rainy afternoon in June. They were the last 2 trays left in our local garden centre which I grabbed unashamedly. By most gardeners accounts I was late planting them - no matter this year with our delayed warm weather luck was on my side. With our new business and a very demanding thrill-seeking toddler in tow the Old Rectory garden has had to take a back step this year. I've missed the obsessional side of growing our own veg. In fact I feel like a bit of a traitor, have to apologise to the lettuces that have gone to seed and the gnarly radishes but other delights in the garden have come true and given me the botanical high that marks the summer. We did manage to get to our strawberries before the birds; potatoes have been blight free which we are enjoying with every other evening meal; The tomato cordons are laden with fruits - I'm sure about to ripen any day and I've not seen so many plums on our trees before...but our sweet peas have won my heart this year. Right now I'm sitting amid jugs of freshly cut bunches which we are able to replenish every day and give in abundance to friends - a 15 minutes well spent back in June.


Old Rectory's Greenhouse

Mum's screen print - Chinese Medley

Looming large every August bank holiday Monday is the Tinahely agricultural show. With only a week to go, the tempo inside the Old Rectory studio goes up a few notches with the flurry of creations coming from family members - This is our mother's terrain which she oversees every year. If you are related to her and can cook, hold a pencil, grow flowers or hold a dog on the end of a lead then your 'in'. With entries from 'Best hand writing' to 'lego creations' to 'best bunch of sweet peas' to' 'best screen printed tshirts' to 'you name it...' there is something for everyone, no excuse not to enter so the boys had great fun designing and printing their own tshirts. They also get the run of the studio and experiment with 2 colour prints or foiling - lucky them! A great day out for all the family. Money prizes all around which is incentive for every child and adult to enter! Check out the show for next year www.tinahelyshow.ie.

1st and 2nd prize tshirts.

Our Italian student Corinna, wearing her basketball inspired print.

Children's print workshops were up and running during the month of July. As well as Old Rectory hosting a workshop in the Mermaid Arts centre in Bray we ran a couple of morning sessions at our studio. Children who had attended our workshops last summer came back for more this year which is a great sign, a couple of them were even wearing their tshirts which they had created last year - such a rewarding activity for children to create your own fashion and get durable wear out of it. We had a really enjoyable time welcoming Corinna, an Italian student from South Tyrol (German speaking part of Italy) into Old Rectory life during July. Corinna came on leaps and bounds with her English, joined in the summer mayhem of kids on holiday and even got to do some printing for herself and her family back home. She now has the bug and went home inspired to re-design her bedroom and maybe do some printing herself. Hopefully we will see her again next summer.

July print workshop

A quiet couple of weeks on the manufacturing front gives us time to finalise the details to our new website. The nitty-gritty of developing a comprehensive website is huge. Postage and packaging is tricky from Ireland due to our geographical position. All do-able but trying to find the best price has been slow. Anyway, we are very excited about launching the new site and doing a small advertising campaign for Autum '11. James's photography is gorgeous, it really reflects the ideals of Old Rectory brand. Another couple of weeks and it'll be up and running....

Joanna printing with her twins


Wosley clutching our first bunch of Old Rectory grown carrots

Flee to the country

2011-07-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

Helping with the sheep dipping at Ballard Farm

We are incredibly lucky to be living and working in 'the Garden County of Ireland'. On one side we have the sea, on the another side we have the Wicklow hills and within an hours drive north we're in the metropolitan buzz of Dublin city centre - It really is an incredibly beautiful county. Anyone thinking of holidaying here with or without children will not be disappointed.
Last Sunday we spent the afternoon at Glendalough; we wanted to show our Italian student some sites that the tourist guide books would recommend. Glendalough is a peaceful and beautiful valley that houses an early Christian Monastic site; a million visitors per year visit the great round tower along with enjoying the walks around it's two famous lakes. I have visited Glendalough countless times as a child and adult, and with each visit I learn something more about our Irish heritage. Nestled in the valley stands the ruin of St Kevin's chapel, named after St Kevin who was reported to have sailed into Brittas Bay and walked the route to Glendalough past our house. We assume he was well looked after by the clans of Dunganstown nearly one thousand years ago, as we now have a St Kevin's lane leading down to St Kevin's church (was attached to our Old Rectory during it's former ecclesiastical days). Strategically situated at the edge of the Old Rectory land and looking down over the valley towards St Kevin's church lies a very large granite rock, stories retold over the years have said that this is St Kevin's rock, maybe a place where he sat and contemplated the peaceful countryside of Dunganstown and took a breather before continuing his long walk towards Glendalough.

Stable management class at Pony Camp

10 Things to do in the country with your children

1 - If you are thinking of holidaying in the country-side and you'd like a more hands-on experience with rural life, try and book a stay on a working farm where children can be included in daily farm activities. - collecting eggs, picking vegetables or fruit, feeding pet lambs, horse-riding and generally mucking in with the husbandry of the land. Children learn so much about the natural sciences and love the practical side of doing jobs in the outdoors.

2 - Pony-camps and pony treks . Many of the stable yards now offer summer camps. Growing up in Wicklow our local pony camp was THE highlight of my year. Lots of fun, very social and gives children confidence around a large animal but do be sure that your child is equipped for the level of the ride that they are put into - nothing worse than loosing confidence instead of gaining. Pony trekking can be geared towards real beginners and is a wonderful way to view the countryside.

3 - Beach combing. We have just embellished a mirror and a couple of IKEA photo frames with drift wood, shells and other interesting finds. Need to allow a bit of mayhem on the kitchen table but worth the customized mirror or photo-frame in the end. Without the crafts-side it's just fun collection stones and storing them for a rainy day.

4 -Unplug the television - we try and do this for a month every year. Just have to make sure Wimbledon is over and a few other essential viewings. The children know it's not a punishment as we replace arguments over watching the television with time spent planning a camping night, whittling with wood, completing an outdoor pet project, playing tennis- things that they really enjoy but that we don't seem to have time to do during the rest of the year.

5 - Paddling in streams. Gather up a simple picnic and seek out a shallow stream. If the sun is shining spread out a rug under the natural awning of a tree and enjoy the simple fun your children will get from stone hopping, racing sticks and looking for stream insects.

Old Rectory boys playing at the stream

6 - Visit an agricultural show - every county generally has one over the summer. They are great fun. Good old fashioned competitions to watch or get involved in! Our children have been designing their prints for the 'printed tshirt' competition at the Tinahely Agricultural show.

7 -Picnicking - on a beach, in a field, by a forest (beware of the midges) so many choices.

8 - Biking - This does depend on where you are but if you're near any forestry trails and have older children, this is just the ticket to wear out energetic legs.
9 - Learn how to start a camp fire and build a shelter. Goes without saying that adult supervision is essential on this one but children will love the preparation involved of finding kindling and wood; organizing what to cook with and what to eat. If you don't fancy the palava and damage limitation of this one, I have just heard about camps that are run by EcoadventureIreland, www.ecoadventureireland.ie, involving camping and survival skills for 9 - 14 year olds.
10 - Book your children into a screen printing workshop, grab a good book and go and lie in a hammock under a tree for a whole three hours - Ah bliss!

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside.

Crafts Day at The Mermaid Theatre

2011-07-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Old Rectory participated in the Mermaid Theater's Craft day. In the morning I ran a 2 hour workshop - DIY; Print your own fashion, for 7-11 year olds. With my very able assistant Corinna, we got through 9 original paper cut-out designs (all created by the children) and had a wonderfully energetic time screen printing the designs . The children were great and couldn't wait to wear their own designed t-shirts.

The majority of schools do not have access to screen-printing facilities that would cater for today's class sizes so children can feel a bit daunted when trying out a new medium that they've never heard of before. Even as they are drawing and doodling their design's I can sense they're not totally convinced that this isn't any other generic art class; It's a tricky end-result to grasp before getting to the actual screen printing stage. For children who've never screen printed before it's good to push ahead with one student's design quickly and therefore have him/her demonstrate the print to the rest of the class. Once the children see what they can achieve with their drawing or cut-outs a wave of excitement and focus prevails. Children love the physical aspect of printing and it's great for instilling confidence in children who might not feel overly confident in drawing or painting. The most effective prints are sometimes the most simple drawings - Dots, squiggles, abstract shapes, anything goes.

Children making bunting........

The whole day made for a great family day out. The theater space provided a cornucopia of local crafts and designers displaying their products and trade. Visitors could try their hand at beginners millinery, felting, weaving, crocheting, edible necklace making, bunting making, there was even a knit-a-thon taking place all afternoon under the warm sunshine. We offered up rubber stamp printing on small tote bags. This simple but careful skill sat nicely alongside our printed clothing which we had on display. Lots of flyers were taken away so hopefully this will drive potential customers to our website and stockists.

......to be used by the Bray community for local festivals,

It was very encouraging to be amongst other like minded designers from the Wicklow area. I shall be checking out the Yarn Room workshops in August with my children. I still think knitted cardigans and booties would sell very well alongside our printed baby clothes. I've kept all of my children's knitted booties that they had as babies - they are completely delicious.

Felting workshops run by Joanna Kidney

Tomorrow we are doing the photo shoot of our spring summer '12 collection - very exciting. Our location couldn't be more local seeing as we live in the most gorgeous rolling countryside. Keep a check on our website for exciting updates and our new site layout.

Surviving Ryanair with kids - not so eco friendly

2011-06-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

Biding time in the airport with a travel trunkie

After experiencing one of those horribly hostile Ryanair journeys en route to our manufacturing partners in Portugal, I decided the time was nigh to purchase a new wheelie suitcase which would abide by Ryanair's strict carry-on luggage requirements, after all - Ryanair are not going to go away - they are omnipresent; 'If you can't beat them join them', as they say. Recession of not, they fly us at Old Rectory to Porto direct from Dublin and this is where we print hundreds of metres or fabric and have our children's clothing made. So with the bitter taste still fresh from paying an on-the-spot €30 fine for a carry-on-bag which I could have wedged in the metal box given half the chance, but at first hesitation was growled at to 'PAY FINE NOW, PLEASE'; and still wallowing in extreme annoyance of being told my liquids bag was bigger than the regulation one which I then had to purchase, without further adieu I decided to discard my old trustee bulging red case for a slimline Samsonite - gosh this trip was costing more that I'd bargained for. Check list for the future; tick 'no' to pretty much everything when booking online; add one of those very useful hand held luggage scales to this years Christmas list if there's a fiver to spare on each trip - pay for priority boarding and enjoy the ride - wishful thinking I'm sure but no harm in dreaming.

So when my husband and I decided to book a last minute flight to Spain and decamp by a pool for one week with our 5 children, it was with fear and trepidation that I agreed to fly with Ryanair - the first time ever for us to travel Ryanair en masse. I was breaking my secret cardinal rule that I'd never travel Ryanair with the children....

First off, with two hours to spare we checked our one bag in successfully; air hostess was very cordial and friendly; no hidden surprises, bag was under 20 kilos.

Next up, get through the scanners - not too bad; requisite de-belting, buggy folding, body frisking, older boys already impatient at my lagging behind as I must put back on belt, shoes, watch, hair slides, bangles etc.

Quick trip to the pharmacy to get a pack of nappies for the toddler. Shoot, no nappies in boarding area. They have a tight-fit pack of no. 3 nappies on other side of scanner but can't go through that palava again. No bother, we've already decided that we'll ask an unsuspecting parent very sincerely if they have a spare nappy that they might give us; with that idea settled on we relax and make our way to the food lounge.

Feeling the first 'travel high' we get slightly carried away and treat ourselves to the waiter-sevice-restaurant - just like the good old days, 'even thought we could do a bit of plane spotting from a comfortable looking corner booth but this we realise is an optical illusion on our behalf - we're looking onto a roof and storage area.

I announce gleefully that the Eggs Benedict look delicious (can't see them anywhere, only on the menu and in my mind's eye), which prompts the twins to order these also. Kind of know they might be disappointed after my building them up but feel the boys need to make small choices for themselves etc.

After half an hour of hauling the toddler off the middle of the table and deciding that the kids should avoid the piles of hollandaise sauce smothering the eggs (thinking travel motion and heavy sauce might not be the best combination) I finally admit that I wish we'd found a McDonalds - my 11 year old thinks I'm bonkers and cool at the same time.

En route to gate 107 I get diverted and admire/try on sunglasses, promising to meet others at the gate in a few minutes; I have to admit here that I embark on a purchase; a half price pair, guaranteed to protect sensitive eyes and reduce hay-fever symtons; a practical pair my husband would be proud of - he might even borrow them so I have every good reason to purchase. At this stage, my phone's buzzing, visa machine being sniffy with my debit card; shall I bottle out now and say I don't want to take them; card goes through; I have to leg it unashamedly all the way to 107 without stopping; the new wheelie is suddenly aerodynamic.

Greeted at 107 by inconsolable 5 yr old who is convinced we will be separated on the plane as we have missed the priority boarding slot - don't like to tell him that he's probably right but we put on our best weary-parent faces and don't encourage him to stop crying. Well here's the happy part of the story, with out any prompting from us, a really friendly air hostess confidently inquires as to how many of us there are and endeavors with success to seat us all together.

Truly Scrumptious is packed to the rafters with sweets.

Rewind to the not-so-long-ago days of halcyon travel when all was calm and convivial up in the skies, I would have brought books, colouring pencils, games and snacks galore for the children on board but now a sharp nibbed pencil could cause you mortification at the gates. Sure this time, we hadn't even a spare nappy for the toddler, I think we knew we'd never ask a stranger for one but twas worth pretending we would just to enjoy our meal. No, all I really had to hand for the boys were 2 Michael Morpugo books for the older lads and some sweets from Truly Scrumptious - an amazing nostalgic sweet shop in Wicklow, that's packed to the rafters with jars of every type of sweet - old favourites and new flavours - a regular haunt for every young dweller and visitor in town.

Truly Scrumptious Lollypops

Our sweets tasted all the more better for their clandestine journey on board. Scrolling through at least a years worth of photos and videos on my iPhone with our sticky fingered toddler, who only wanted to see about five photos of the same thing repeatedly we managed to stay sane and I decided that Ryanair wasn't that bad after all.

Bubble London, June 2011

2011-06-25T16:40:00.000-07:00


Beasties print for boys - spring/summer 12

This time last week we had just finished a day of air travel, taxi rides and the setting up of our stand for Bubble trade show. Our day had begun with a 4.30am alarm call to catch the 8.10am Ryanair to Stansted. What with parking, checking in large bags, faffing about trying to balance each checked in bag to nothing over 20kg it still felt like we were rushing to the gate with only time for a coffee to share whilst queuing to board. How and ever, on landing at Stansted airport we were met by Stephanie's husband James, who'd been in Portugal for a couple of days overseeing events with our manufacturers. Now with time to spare before our taxi transfer to Islington we regrouped and caught up on Portuguese news over lattes and croissants.

Old Rectory stand - Bubble London, June 11

With one trade show behind us, this time we were far more organised with our packing; For example, far fewer garments were brought along this time. At our first trade show we had made the assumption that interested buyers might want to take a sample garment away with them - this is not the case. We cut down on our paper(broshures, business cards etc.) and did away with our bespoke table and chairs brought by land and sea last time - an extravagant luxury.

It was great to see familiar faces again and share the anticipation of what the next two days were to bring. Overall the stands looked great; maybe a sign of the times but brands are going that extra mile to be noticed - selling children's clothing is no walk in the park right now. Green Baby who won best standout competition created a stand worthy of a Chelsea Flower show entry with a garden shed, wheelbarrow, scarecrows and a fun collection of potted flowers in baked beans tins.


Sping/Summer 12 butterfly dress

Our Beasties wallpaper, which I have a huge soft spot for showed off our new spring/summer print for boys. Our girls butterfly print can be seen on our new girls dress above.

Not forgetting our reason for being at Bubble, which is business and potential sales it was a busy 2 days. Contact was reestablished with existing customers and new ones made. Order forms were filled out and business cards hopped from hand to hand. Second time out at these trade shows brings a new level of business acumen to Old Rectory; Delivery of our first collection is out with customers with a few teething problems experienced along the way - nothing that can't and isn't being sorted out but enough to merit a longer forward order time on Spring Summer 12.

While the cat's away the mice will play!

Meanwhile back at Old Rectory my eldest son James was busy indoctrinating the younger boys on 'bow and arrow making'. Scary, the one above, he's getting a bit too good at the velocity - this photo was sent to me whilst at Bubble away from my brood. You can imagine my angst as to whose eye this arrow should land upon - thankfully no ones.

With a young family in tow, you're always gonna hit the ground running on return from abroad. Since arriving home, there has been much planning for our spring/summer '12 photo shoot, unpacking, delivering stock and planning for the next two months ahead.

Kids holidays and work - I'm looking forward to blogging about that. Lots of mini adventures.


Wolsey and first delivery of Old Rectory clothing

Whilst taking rocking chair 'timeout' with my very grouchy coldy 19 month old who along with a green snotty nose is sporting a boxer style paper stitch above his right eye - steri-strips are a fantastic invention with 5 boys, I have read, back to front this fantastic and comprehensive magazine, Angels and Urchins. This issue is offering lots of advice and tips on summertime with children, ie - family holiday travel reviews(I'm already planning a caravaning holiday in France on the advice of one such candid review), what's on, days out, book reviews, website reviews et al. What I really like about this magazine it that it's advertising pages are organized into categorized sections, nothing is haphazard, so much easier on the eyes and head when there's such a vast array on offer for parents. Angels and Urchins will definitely feature in our marketing plan.

A candid and comprehensive parenting magazine

Old Rectory clothing featured in Angels and Urchins magazine

A fun day out

2011-06-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

Mum's Victoria sponge cake

Nothing like a deadline to focus the mind and get things done - OLD RECTORY garden party 2011! After a busy week of mulching flower beds, lawn cutting, baking and generally prettifying the studio we offered up a saturday afternoon of tea, sponge cakes, sample sale and an array of children's crafts. Grown ups enjoyed mingling and shopping whilst the children delved into some some jewellery making, clay painting, stamp printing and having their faces painted. The sunshine lured us all onto the courtyard with copious cups of tea and Mum's delicious sponge cakes. This is the fun part of launching a range of children's clothing - an excuse for a party in the sunshine!

Paula from Uccelli Jewellery stringing some creations with the girls

Children painted clay moulds

Like all parties, the fun is in the planning as well as the partying. Reasons for having the party were to show our range and sell samples as discounted prices, this is the reality of thinking up a children's clothing brand - we have to move stock, sell and create space for new stock. Another reason for the party celebration was to give us a firm date on which we would start selling online - the time is nigh, we are selling at www.oldrectory.ie. We also love our studio and where we work, it's a pleasure to share it with you on a sunny afternoon in June. Planning was fun; a bit like thinking up childrens' birthday parties but for boys and girls (I have 5 sons and my 11 and 9 year old definitely don't want girls at their birthday parties right now!). Mum thinks nothing of baking for large social gatherings- years of parish fetes, children's parties and fundraisers, even my boys request 'Didi's cake' at their birthdays - so I admit I didn't worry an iota about food. Stephanie and Luca did a fair amount of gingerbread making and eating so hats off to the bakers. We managed to install a working kitchen into the studio in time for the party, which was always the plan but previously on the back burner. This has transformed the space and will make easy the cooking preparations for any future print workshops

Kitty in Old Rectory top with Coco

Paula Boyle, an NCAD college friend of Stephanie's came down from Co. Armagh with her eye catching range of jewellery. Paula, founder and designer of www.uccellijewellery.com focuses on strong colour combinations in the use of fused glass, laser cut perspex and fine wire silver to create an expressive collection of bold pieces. The combination of her talent and the sunshine converted non jewellery wearers into jewellery wearers. I am loving my necklace.

Pirates in waiting


Future Old Rectory model

Our first delivery of clothing will be going out to the shops next week - can't wait. This will be truly exciting. But we got a precursor of the enjoyment gained from seeing people wanting to buy our clothes at the Garden party. It was such a feel good factor selling face to face and getting feed back from customers. We will have to resist the temptation of stalking our stockists and interfering in the selling process. I'll take umbrage if our darlings are at the back of the shelves!

Painted butterfly

Busy at the craft table

I love the fact that children enjoy disguising themselves as butterflies, pirates, bugs, robots or what ever else takes their fancy. Our face painter Rosie was inundated with eager children lining up to be someone/thing else for just a few hours. So much fun and imagination.

'Thrash the rat'

When we were growing up our local parish always used to have it's summer fete in the most picturesque field overlooking Brittas Bay. Held during the August bank holiday weekend it would attract locals and hoards of holiday makers from the caravan parks. My favourite games at the fete were the Greasy Pole and Thrash the Rat. With such a strong memory for these games I can only guess that I was quite a tomboy during those years, or else I was at an age of which games that attracted boys where even more exciting for us girls; A bit confusing but one way or another we used to love pummeling/or be pummeled by our opponents off the Greasy Pole with old pillows and thrashing the rats that were dropped down the drain pipe. Thrash the Rat was my Dad's game at the parish fete so we reinstated it in all it's pride and glory at the garden party and glad to say it's still as popular as ever. The Greasy Pole will just go down in history as a wonderfully risky game which we parents would have heart failure over today!

Stephanie and Luca in Old Rectory owl

Shop till you drop girls!

Notes for the next party - Plenty of tea and cake. New stock. More interior accessories for sale. Pyjamas for the big brothers and sisters(in the pipe line). Can't wait for Paula's new collection of jewellery. Loving the mixed collection of cups and saucers, keep an eye out for more at car boot sales etc. Be a bit braver in enticing a bigger crowd through the doors now that we've cut our teeth on first party. Another sunny day please. Greasy Pole - maybe not!

Wrapped in soft organic Old Rectory blanket

Printastic!

And So to Print..

2011-05-25T02:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a sneak preview of photo shoot by Leanne Lim-Walker featuring Old Rectory pyjamas, which will be featured in Rock Paper Scissors Magazine - a brand new British childrenswear magazine, which celebrates Nostalgia, childhood and design/culture. The June issue will be out very shortly and we are

delighted to have our night time range showcased in it.

Old Rectory pyjamas - Rock Paper Scissors Magazine

Meanwhile we are eagerly waiting the arrival of our first production run of Old Rectory clothing from Portugal - any day now! We will be hotfooting it to Avoca, Pearl, Hide and Seek and many others to savour the atmosphere of selling on the high streets. Meanwhile the kids at Old Rectory are wearing the clothes. Don't forget if you'd like to visit the print studio and buy some samples come along on June 4th for tea, cakes and garden entertainment.

Farmland print top on Wolsey

.....showing elbow patches.

New school term well on the way

2011-05-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

Children are all back to school. As usual there was the last minute rush the night before of finding a wayward school tie, HB pencils and the frantic sewing of name tags onto aertex shirts - a cool relief from the schools' ubiquitous polycotton, yippee the Summer! Speaking of cotton, we are on the look out (talking global, not local) for a type of liberty lawn cotton for boys shirts and girls summer dresses. With the internet awash with leads and informative cotton specialists, there is a tendency to become paralysed into inertia with regards to with whom and where to begin this search. Our mother will be making a trip to India in September to visit a school near Darjeeling that she is currently involved with. It would be great to link up with a community based project in that areal that farmed and produced fair trade cotton as we really believe in supporting sustainable farming where ever possible - Mum might be encouraged to oversee some Old Rectory business during this year's trip. If makes sense to find the right Indian cotton with our family links to the country

Comfortable kids wear by Old Rectory

I'm sure I heard on the radio that April was one of warmest months since records began or something to that tune. True or not, Old Rectory kids were thrilled to be outdoors, mostly heading off on Bear Grylling garden expiditions which I have to say generally involve some homemade catapults, bows and arrows and rucksacks full of my missing kitchen utensils With the older boys in full charge they build small fire pits, set up traps and tight rope walks with the attitude and gait of men real troopers. Cooking up bacon butties is really a decoy for playing with flints and fire- I have tasted these butties and all I can say is they are smokey and warm - not hot and succulent! To 'Bear Gryll' in our house is a serious and all consuming passion for the boys. I found a party planner website called georgeandshaky.co.uk that now offer Bear Gryll style parties for kids. They are based in UK and seem to be doing very well for them selves judging by their testimonials and fun web site. In saying that we did manage to get through our party season (4 kids birthdays within 6 weeks) feeling less like we'd been steam rolled by a bus than in previous years. We kept things very simple - pass the parcel, musical statues and a treasure hunt for the younger ones. For the older ones - football, a more cryptic treasure hunt, game of flags, ninja improvisations, lots of chocolate cake and not TOO much 'free fall' for the last half hour before pick up time.

Wearing Owl print top.

The good weather was a great incentive to get out into the garden and plant out seedlings. The potatoes have come through are being continually earthed up. A large bed of carrots and marigolds was prepared. Hugo is taking a keen interest in the green house tomato plants and the new Lupin plant, chosen and planted by him. Sweet peas are waiting for a home made tipi to climb up which I thought would be a great project to do with the older boys if i could get my hands on some willow

Clay modeling at Ballard Farm

With time away from busy school schedules the Old Rectory studio was used by some of the children who conjured up dragons and rockets - printed onto Tshirts. Do check out our special offer on printing workshops - Book a friend/family member on with you and get 50% off cost of 2nd place. We think this is a great opportunity to learn how to screen print with your child. We still have 2 places available on our workshop on June 11th and are hoping to put up a couple of more dates over the summer.

Hugo screen printing in the studio

Prints in progress and a Royal ceremony

2011-04-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

Lilac in bloom at the Old Rectory

There is so much to be inspired by at this time of year. The garden is bursting with blossom, rhododendron flowers and trumpeting tulips. The azaleas are zinging; bees are buzzing around the scented lilac and and the stately beech trees offer gentle green canopies under our glorious April sunshine. The children are enjoying just simply playing and being in the garden; collecting worms for the terrapins, building moats around the herbaceous border and acquainting themselves with the world of bugs and garden beasties - Childhood bliss and plenty of fun - inspiration for our next collection of prints which will be shown at Bubble this June. Although, time is of the essence - I think we have about 6 weeks until Bubble which will fly in. There is much to get through over the weekend if we are to get our sample prints over to Portugal in time to sign off on lab dips and new garment styles - summer t-shirts for girls and boys and a fun and versatile ribbed cotton dress.

What better time than now to design for Spring/Summer 2012 as summer fever is everywhere - it gives an energy and vigour to our design process, albeit a little bit frantic. Gardens in bloom are sometimes psychologically hard to enjoy as you know they're going to be over all too soon - thoughts like 'next time I see that bloom we'll all be a year older, things might be different then, all is well with the world now - live in the moment etc.' push their way in. The only answer is to take a photo on the iphone and sally forth with the jobs in hand - romantic gardens do that to you as you get a bit older!

Prints in progress

Without wishing to directly use my children as product research tools, I briefly described to them today what Stephanie and I plan to put on our next prints. I have to be very subtle in asking what they think as one of my children in particular doesn't like to see disappointment in my face(which he is very quick to pick up oneven if I'm trying my best to hide it!) So I wait for the opportune moment when no one's picking an argument and I casually throw out the question that if they were to design a cool top to sell to the shops what would it be like. This kind of market research on one's own kids is a bit biased and warped as the answers that I get back are very predictable to their individual personalities. Themes range from Butterflies to Guns but I am glad to say that Beetles and Dragonflies did get a mention which is where we're at right now!

Wedding bells sing!

On a fashion note - I thought Kate Middleton's wedding dress was incredibly beautiful. I don't think there was a single detail in it that jarred with her presence and the essence of the day. My favourite image of the day was of Kate and Prince William leaving the Abbey in their 1902 carriage flanked by red and gold cavalry. The colours and sheer sensory elegance were all but too much. Raise a toast to the Happy Couple!
As for the Mother of the Bride, equally as elegant as her daughter. Do check out Carole Middleton's company www.partypieces.co.uk, which has had quite a bit of media coverage since the announcement of her daughter's engagement. It's full of useful tips on throwing children's parties and has some very insightful parenting blogs.

Old Rectory Garden party - June 4th (Save the date!)

2011-04-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

Come to our party

Launch of new Irish children’s clothing line – Old Rectory

The launch of Old Rectory, an Irish children’s organic clothing line will take place on Saturday June 4th, 2011 from 2- 6pm at the Old Rectory, Dunganstown, Co Wicklow.

The collection is designed by sisters Joanna and Stephanie Sloan, who will host a garden party and sample sale at their Wicklow print studio. Tea, cakes, children’s entertainment and print demos will take place over the afternoon. This event will benefit the Jack and Jill Foundation.
(Please see website www.oldrectory.ie for further details and directions)

Bird house pyjamas in sizes from 6months to 7 years.

With Spring in our step and the garden coming into bloom, we have been inspired to host a garden party to celebrate the launch of our online children's clothing shop. So come June our online shop will be live! Our afternoon garden party will include a sample sale of Old Rectory children's wear, quick demo's of How to Screen Print, demos of Willow Weaving, Drawing and some Gardening Tips along side servings of home made cakes, tea, fresh juices and some good old fashioned fete-style games for the children. Our clothes are 100% organic and we have chosen a ribbed cotton that is luxuriously soft as well as durable. Our samples have a few minor differences to our actual production run due to hit the shelves in June; thus is the nature of designing and developing clothes - we are always seeking to improve and experiment a little further. So don't forget, when you become a loyal customer of ours do give us lots of feed back - we want to make sure these clothes work on a practical front as well as looking gorgeous.

Swallow blanket and baby grow

Stephanie and I have been ruminating on the design of our gift boxes - the final look is there in our mind's eye.....it's just putting all the design elements together and carefully choosing a colour, size, final material.....gosh lots of stuff....on that note, back to work...

March round up.

2011-04-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

March daffodils

Along side preparations for the launch of our online web site and getting press releases out - oh yeh and battling with technology, what I would do for a young techie geek! I'm know I would do what I am doing right now in a fraction of the time if only the computer would do as I say...does that ring familiar to anyone out there? Growing a business with the necessary reliance on today's technology is a huge learning curve and very time consuming.

However, after what feels like a wasted morning trying to burn a screen printing tutorial onto a DVD and sending out group emails, neither of which my vintage desktop is liking, hopefully I'll successfully post this blog, get outdoors and clear my head of file sizes, attachments, et al.


Hello blue skies

For me March is always a bit hectic as we are in the middle of a run of birthday parties for the boys. Also, suddenly the garden needs digging and preparing for it's own spring/summer collection of fruits and vegetables. We planted 2 more plum trees in the orchard (just because I love plums!), more raspberries and 50 strawberry plants(plenty of strawberrry and ice cream eaters here). I'm not sure if the strawberries will fruit heavily this year but I am going to give them a bit of extra encouragement with some of Prince Charles's Highgrove organic potion which my mother was talking about. The snowdrops were stupendous at Ballard farm and we, at the Old Rectory have enjoyed hosts of golden daffodils fluttering and dancing under Wordsworth's lonely clouds.

The last of the snow drops at Ballard Farm

Half of our chitted potatoes were planted. The rest are sitting in the garden shed - I can't decide as to whether to plant the rest in the old pig paddock or give over that space entirely to sweet corn as it is sunny and sheltered on 3 sides- what better place to try our hand at producing heaps of those succulent cobs.

Little helpers getting the potato patch ready


Potatoes planted

At the studio we ran a workshop for Enable Ireland in March. The students were great and went home with printed t-shirts to show to their parents and friends. There was comaraderie and rivalry amongst the students as their true passions for premier league football teams and an infamous vampire became apparent in their screen print designs!

A visit from Transylvania


Is Chelsea the best or...


Man U?

Emma Tamplin, a professional life couch and founder of www.attractinlove.com, took the studio space for a weekend and gave a much in demand workshop in the Law of Attraction and How To Find Love. This workshop helps men and women understand how to use their intuition alongside Life Coaching and N. L. P. in order to draw them to what they want and need in life and love. Emma, a great friend of mine, also lives in Brittas Bay and we hope to welcome her back to the studio in the near future.

Emma Tamplin at the Old Rectory Studio


March workshop Our 1 day workshops are a great way of sharing our skills as print designers with students who want to develop ideas and interpret them onto textiles. As well as tutoring and meeting new people we also get to show our new clothing collection to fresh eyes and beg for their honest opinion! So far, reactions have been really positive and encouraging which is a wonderful boost for Stephanie and I. On tho the next thing - our minds are buzzing with ideas for 3 new prints for Spring/Summer 2012. Just walking around the garden and country side is giving endless inspiration which, with time, discipline and an artistic hand will hopefully lead to our next collection.


Student's work - a beautiful tote bag


Drying the prints

Pulling a print

Over the next couple of months you should see some refreshing changes and updates to our studio web site. We want to make it a bit more lively so we are going to add a short movie clip showing a quick Step by Step guide to screen printing. Our little sister Louisa is Director of this project and I look forward to seeing what her choice of music is for the sound track!

Lifting off the screen

Bubble, London 2011

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We made it. After a busy and intensive few months Old Rectory's debut kids clothing range was launched at Bubble Trade show in London.


James setting up Old Rectory stand.

The accumulative late nights and early mornings didn't make waking up to the 5am alarm call on Saturday morning very easy - although once in the car and on the way to Dublin airport, we breathed a tentative sigh of relief that not much more fretting could be done. Our garments, trade stand props and brochures had traveled to the UK by car with James at the wheel. We were to meet him at Islington design centre where it was all happening with hammers, lots of velcro, wonderful brand imagery and helpful trade event organisers. By the end of the day, our feet were weary but our stand was fresh and buoyant - ready for business!


Pyjamas, tops, blankets and hats With no idea as to what to expect, we were really chuffed at the feedback and reception we got from the show's attendees. Clothes aside, we were honoured to be awarded alongside Frugi, in 'Most Creative Stand'.

Stephanie and Joanna

Running twice a year, Bubble in a great opportunity for kids fashion buyers to see what's out there and a chance to order for next season. As it was our first time to show our collection, there was an added air of excitement and anticipation from more established fashion labels to check out 'the new kids on the block'. A great sense of support and encouragement was shared amongst everyone we met which gave the whole show an energetic positive vibe.

.
Hugo and Senan find entertainment with the Bubble-man Our range has two very distinct design styles. One being more graphic and using two colour print, See our swallow print below. The other is our animal sketch series which is inspired by early 20th century scrap books belonging to our Grandfather, Dr. Wolsey Sloan.


Newborn nightgown - swallows

The two trading days went very quickly with never a dull moment. Lots of chat with interested buyers and fellow trade stand holders. Order forms were filled in, badges scanned and lots of business cards exchanged whom we look forward to doing business with and creating new ranges for in the future.


Stephanie

Our pyjama sets come with their own printed bag - these proved to be quite a hit and the smaller sizes with romper style jersey bottoms are my personal favourite - my 14 month old looks so cosy and stylish in them. Our little feature of adding a baby animal along side mother animal on the baby's pyjamas tops is very cute.


Pyjama sets with bags

Our colour palette stood out at being quite retropective, that coupled with the strong graphic prints gives our baby gowns, grows and bags a hint of nostalgia.


Babygrows and night gowns A big leap of faith was taken when building the stand, as we hadn't pieced it all together back in Ireland. Time was tight and many other jobs were just as pressing. However, it all came together and complemented the range - something we would be interested in working with clients on if they felt a display design was required in showing our clothes,


Our tree with blankets So now to following up contacts, placing a production order and a busy lead up to summer with workshops, gardening and designing. Till June 19th 2011, see you anon.


Baby sleep bags

Count down to Bubble Trade Show - burning the midnight oil....

2011-01-14T05:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, the countdown panic has set in and isn't budging till we get to the show. On returning from the first of this new term's morning school run, our Monday 'to do' list was drawn up and since then it has felt like we've been running a marathon hitting all the walls that runners talk about - challenging but not insurmountable!

With emails and phone calls rallying faster than a Wimbledon final between ourselves and our manufacturers we are crossing our fingers and toes for the arrival of our sample collection early next week. Everything of importance is now illuminated. The procrastination has stopped. There is a pep in our step. With endless courses on time management, it's seems only possible to manage time when you've a big looming deadline - working all hours just to get the jobs done.

Stephanie has been hard at work finalising swing tags, business cards and trade show invitations - again lots of design decisions to make when trying be informative, brand savvy and very friendly all on a 10cm x 6cm slip of card! Our shopping web site template is practically there - again just waiting on the clothes, honestly it'll be 'all right on the night' as they say. It's touch and go as to whether we'll get a whole new photo shoot done next week but I'll keep you posted and document the mayhem. if we don't get our new collection photographed we have enough images to get us to the show and the photo shoot will have to happen in Februaty. Although...top of our wish list is to receive our collection by Wednesday, do a photo shoot Thus/Fri, spend the weekend posting up photos on the web site et voila, we will have really reached a much looked forward to milestone in the business.

Tools down and time out.

On Thursday morning I was offered a chance to speak about our business on East Coast Radio. Armed with some printed accessories to talk about and a fair amount of adrenalin(first time on radio) I found myself in Declan Meehan's studio loving the chance to wax lyrical about our print range and general optimism for the future. Getting our name and brand out there is going to be a huge part of 2011. Which leads me on to another part of our list - social networking? There is no begging the question as to whether we go down this route, the answer is an emphatic yes, so please if you come across us on Facebook please press the 'like' button and spread the word. Hopefully the pandemic effect of 'you tube' will work for us too.

As I write, I am also thinking ribbons, boxes, coat hangers, printed tote bags, 1950's style occasional table to serve as functional prop at trade stand - need to go and source all these. Is this where business/pleasure becomes a bit blurred. I will source a table that works for the show but it will also have to look good in our sitting room! Oh yeh and accommodation in London - now that's the fun part!

'How many times do you want me to play peekaboo?'

Snow school and other stuff

2010-12-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

I have just deleted a half written post which I typed up late last night...Wow it was negative. I must promise myself never to update our blog after watching a double RTE news session (kids insisted on getting the weather update at 6pm and 9pm to see if schools would open today - this meant my sitting through all the depressing headlines TWICE, the melancholy of it all was actually nearly soothing), followed by Primetime and the odd flick over to Gift Grub wallowing in incompetent Irish politicians going down, followed by Newsnight and then a bit Vincent Brown to top things off - What was I thinking off! It must have been the warmth from the fire that wouldn't let me escape the awful inertia; not even to make a cup of tea or two. The whole meaning of 'wallowing' hit a new stratosphere with me last night. My blog started off something like this 'The winds of change are thrashing and banging off walls of doubt that won't come crumbling down.., I can't even go on. Spare myself the morto!

Thankfully today is a new day. The sky is laden with snow - light, fluffy big and small dots are falling, falling and the schools are not role calling, calling.....

Studio in the snow

Last weekend's workshop had to be canceled due to the snowy conditions. Let's see what the weather has in store for us tomorrow and then we will make a decision about this weekend's workshop. Such a pity to have to cancel the Christmas Card and Gift Screenprinting workshop - so many ideas and plans and last year these Christmas courses really exuded festive cheer and warmth.

Specs and lab dips for OLD RECTORY collection.

However, studio life is busy. As you may have gathered from our homepage we are launching a range of children's clothing, simply call OLD RECTORY. Our ambitious launch date of November 15th has been and gone but we are getting there one step at a time, There are 6 strong print designs on their way to 'strike off' as I write. The screens are opened and hundreds of metres of natural organic cotton are soon to be transformed into the USP of our product (excuse the Enterprise speak - that means our Unique Selling Point) - our Print. It's a competative market, the kids clothing business, but we are so excited to have got this far in the production process and with due diligence, hard work, patience and lashings of luck we will present our range at Bubble - http://www.bubblelondon.com/ this coming January 30/31.

It's been great fun so far creating our prints, Without wishing away time, I can't wait to have the finished collection in our hands ready to present to the public. Of course, the list of to do jobs is longer than all the arms and legs in this house, but each step of achievement is a far cry from the head lock paralysis of back to back current affairs programmes on RTE.

Sample' Garden' print

Una Sealy's life drawing workshop

2010-11-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

'A garden on the Coast', by Una Sealy

On Saturday morning we welcomed figurative artist, Una Sealy to the studio. Sahoko was unexpectedly called else where and Una, her colleague kindly took the helm of tutor for the day. Una and Sahoko are fellow artists at the RHA in Dublin and it was our privilege to learn from Una her unique perspective on life drawing. Una's teaching and drawing is full of vigour, colour and energy and she directed students in finding scale, dimension, weight and much much more in their drawings. A busy and stimulating morning was kick started by a series of quick sketches to ease tension, shed the shackles of everyday demands and let the mind flow; followed by our model striking longer poses which our students interpreted though the medium of a rubber onto an already charcoaled, blackened sheet - a very useful exercise for an artist as you're working from dark to light instead of the more assumed light to dark.


Rudiments of scale

After my job of preparing and serving up vegetarian lunch was complete, I decided to join in the afternoon session of drawing - a bit rusty and inhibited would be an understatement in describing my life drawing skills at the moment, but very quickly the mental 'to do list' of everyday life faded and my minds eye focused on our model's pose. Well, that's it, I'm determined now to get back to some drawing, so much so that I rushed into Hopkins Toy Shop yesterday and bought a blank canvas for my next painting - it's going to involve a Georgian window, the view down onto the valley and our vintage Silver Cross pram; I'll let you have a peep when it's finished. We really enjoyed Una's visit and hope to see her again, maybe even for some landscape classes in the early summer months of next year.

'Carpet City', by Una Sealy

Kid's Print Club

2010-11-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning we ran a kids print workshop for 3 fabulous student's from Enable Ireland. Owen, Adrian and James designed and printed their own unique t-shirts and also got to see the workings of the dark room and the screen wash-out area. Our hens, horse and baby guinea pigs were also given a 'show and tell', by The Old Rectory resident boys - always good for a distraction when artistic expression becomes too intense!

T-shirt colour choices were carefully considered - it was only James who was temporarily disappointed with having to settle with yellow as we didn't have a red t-shirt in his size, this was soon forgotten when he lifted his screen to get a first glimpse at his cosmic scene of a rocket and shooting stars. Genuine surprise, broad smiles and delighted 'wows', were the boys reactions to their great work - well done, and I hope boys, you enjoy wearing and showing off your own groovy. wicked and deadly tops!

Cool t-shirt prints by Adrian, Owen and James

Meanwhile, I printed up a couple of gifts for friends. Very simple and quick designs, inspired by the last of our autumn days - gathering chestnuts etc. Red squirrels are getting a lot of attention right now as the grey squirrels get the bad press. The reds have been in serious decline in Ireland and Britain for some time due to the loss of their natural habitat(trees) and competition with the greys which are bigger and stronger.

Currently an endangered native Irish species, the red squirrel deserves to play the lead role for a while, especially with that tail! - a design to take further when I have the time.

A couple of gifts

Family time in the studio

2010-11-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Aunties and cousins travelled from as far as Australia to gather for a reunion at Ballard Farm. Given that our family is of a modest quantity, the presence of noise, laughter and fun was evidence of a really good time. Whilst the men took to the golf course the ladies stole a morning at the studio; of course this turned into a day as nothing starts in a hurry after a long session round the kitchen table the night before! After overcoming the fear and dread of 'original' design, we all got the creative juices flowing and had fun at the print table.

Maureen and Stephanie pulling a print

No pressure, even through we're all going to take a photo of your print.

Auntie Maureen test ran the studio for wheelchair users and was very pleased with the space and the ease within which she could move around.

Stephanie and Auntie Maureen - pleased!

There's something so exciting about lifting you first screen and realising your very own creation. Each and every print that comes through the studio carries something unique and special to that person who created it.

My Godmother Patricia and Auntie Frances creating their own teatowels

So who ever said teacher doesn't have pets?! No pressure on James and Cuan, but they did us proud at promoting our 'Kids Print Workshops' at the Tinahely show. They were delighted with their 1st and 2nd prices and have now got commissions from their twin brothers to print up a dragon and space scene for them also.

James and Cuan scoop a 1st and 2nd for their printed t-shirt designs at the Tinahely show

Coco is delighted to join our print sessions. She know to keep a low profile and can make a cosy foot rest whilst taking an afternoon nap under the table.

Babies and dogs are welcome too - I think!

Introduction to Screen Printing

2010-10-20T05:03:00.000-07:00


Madge, Melissa, Clodagh and Ruth, wonderful students at our latest textile printing workshop

Last saturday the studio was again buzzing with ideas and fantastic prints on our 'Introduction to screen printing' workshop. None of the students had printed before but there was no shortage of energy and beautiful work created. Its always lovely to see such fresh ideas from a new bunch of faces and the excitement at seeing a first print revealed.

Designing for screenprint

The morning was spent designing our artwork and preparing the screens and the afternoon spent at the print table.


Some of the beautiful prints created.

Life Drawing with Sahoko Blake

2010-10-12T06:39:00.000-07:00


Sahoko Blake's workshop

As well as being busy during the week with the logistics of endevouring to launch our 'kids range' of clothing, weekend life at the studio is dynamic and happening.
Last Saturday our sunlit space was fizzing with creative spirit and energy under the relentless and inspiring tutelage of Sahoko Blake - what ever the artist's equivalent of 'writers block' is, Sahoko can draw you (excuse pun) out of that state and get things flowing again or simply teach a beginner the rudiments of observation and interpretation through an array of mediums. What ever your standard is or reason for attending her workshop I promise you, you will sleep well that night after a thoroughly stimulating day.
As for myself, kitchen antics were all go throughout the morning. Lunch was served up to well earned appetites and included a cursory gesture from the The Old Rectory vegetable garden - the summer yields of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuces are winding down but not gone yet! Don't worry, we won't leave you hungry - plenty of potatoes, fresh eggs, leaks, chard, cabbage and other delights to fill their space.

Many of our students have commented on and enjoyed my ' Broccoli and almond soup'', so I'd like to share this recipe with you. I call this 'my' recipe but actually my sister, Louisa, who is a stalwart of vegetarian cuisine, passed it on to me.
During the summer months when broccoli is in abundance in the garden, this is a very handy soup, although it is generally during the colder months that we feel like preparing soup, anyway full of goodness and warmth share it with your family and friends any time of year.
Like all recipes you can alter quantities or suit your particular tastes when seasoning but if you stick to the following measurements I don't think you'll be disappointed - that is if you like broccoli!

You will need -

30g of butter
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
225g of potatoes
75ml of white wine
900ml of vegetable stock (not too strong)
2 heads of broccoli
75g of blanched flaked almonds
A handful of chopped parsley (optional)
Salt and pepper
Cream/creme fraiche (optional)

To garnish (optional)

Toasted almonds
Chopped parsley

Method

Peel and roughly chop potatoes. Slice onion and chop/crush garlic. Measure out stock and roughly chop broccoli heads into individual florets (include a generous stalk with each)
Now heat up a large saucepan and melt the butter. Quickly add the sliced onion and soften. Be careful not to let it burn - continious mixing insures it won't stick. Add the chopped or crushed garlic and mix, again it's important not to let the garlic burn.

Then add the potatoes, stock and white wine

Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes,. Now add the broccoli florets and cook for around 8 minutes. Try and catch the broccoli before it looses it fresh green hue and gives that boarding school lunch smell!
Whilst the pot had been simmering I would have lightly toasted the almonds on a tray in the oven (about 5 minutes, depending on temperature of the oven). I cook on an Aga, so the top of my Aga toasts the almonds in 5 minutes maximum.

Now add about 2/3 of the toasted almonds (and cream if you like - I don't) to the pot which has been removed from the heat.

Blend in a food processor and return to the pan to season with salt and pepper. Gently reheat.

To serve ladle into bowls. You can garnish with some chopped parsley and the left over toasted almonds. A small teaspoon of creme fraiche into each bowl is delicious also but not essential.

(on one occassion making this soup for family, I omitted the potatoes and just added torn up brown and white bread into the mixture in the blender - this gave it the thickness and consistency that the potatoes offer - it was equally as delicious. Basically, I was too lazy to go out to the garden and dig up the potatoes.)

Bon appetite

Porto, Portugal - September 2010

2010-10-04T15:06:00.000-07:00