Trophy Wife

It must be nearly spring as I went outside last night, to a gig - imagine that! Me, outside, at a gig! I went to see a band called Trophy Wife at The Cellar in Oxford. The band are from Oxford, and I learnt last night are signed to Moshi Moshi - which is pretty good going! Their headline set was short and sweet as they only have a few songs at the moment, but what they have is incredibly well put together, and definitely worth a listen. They are currently touring to promote their new single 'The Quiet Earth', so if you get chance go and see them live.

Tea Towels, Life, and the Oxford Comma

Firstly, hello! It's been a while, but for good reason. I'm hoping to revive the blog - but before I do, I thought I should probably explain my absence a little bit. As you might already know, my other half and I own a business called ToDryFor.com selling tea towels with design by some of the best illustrators / animators / graphic designers around. We were very quickly running out of space, so went on the hunt for business premises. We found an awesome little shop space not far from where we live, which we managed to get! The last 4/5 months has been spent setting it up and getting used to the life of shop owners. This has not left much time for anything else!

We called the shop Comma because Sally is a grammar geek, and we filled it with wonderous objects - mostly made by the individual artists that we were already working with. Our sign (see photo above) was painted by the incredibly talented Ben Javens, and we have a wall mural in the shop by the one and only Gemma Correll! It's such an amazing place to come to work every day. Here are some pics...

Open Doors

So it's a bit late posting about an event that took place over 2 weeks ago, but I figure this is one for the diary next year. On the 12th-13th October this year Oxford Preservation Trust organised Oxford Open Doors - an event that spanned our amazing city, and opened normally closed off places to the general public. We met some awesome people that day - even getting a private guided tour of Christ Church Cathedral by one of the super friendly cleaners! It's incredible to think what's hidden behind those enormous walls, and it was a real privilege to have a sneak peek at just a small portion (so thanks OPT)! The pictures included here are just a small collection of those I snapped - see what you missed!?

Candles in Christ Church Cathedral

The St. Frideswide Window by Edward Burne-Jones in 1858. I was told that the window was originally designed for a bigger space, but was shrunk to fit this window (hence why it is so colourful and busy). In the bottom right, above the death bed of St. Frideswide is a depiction of a flushing toilet - a new invention in those days.

The small green door in the Cathedral garden allegedly meant to have inspired the small door that Alice travels through in Alice in Wonderland.

The massive Jabberwocky Tree in Christ Church Cathedral gardens - said to have been the inspiration for The Jabberwocky Poem by Lewis Carroll. You can just about see the pillars in the background used to support the tree!