There's definitely something fishy going on

We're very proud of Oz this week - he passed his obedience course with flying colours and received his first certificate.  

Oz's story began for us in an RSPCA rehoming centre near Weston-Super-Mare; he was a loving but bouncy, energetic dog who needed more space than his previous owners could give him - reluctantly they had put him up for adoption.  In a parallel universe 100 miles away in Devon, Hilary and Nish had begun to look for a new companion for Bill and the other animal residents at Oakwood after their beloved Pearly died.  As if it was written in the stars, their path took them to Oz (via Banksy's Dismaland rather bizarrely - see September's posts for more of that) and a new chapter began in all their lives.

Which leads us to the fish. Not the obvious choice for a dog retrieve toy admittedly, but when you think about it, they are just the right shape.  And we do have an abundance of rivers round here, teeming with the real life versions which must have been in Hilary's subconscious when she created her own little shoal.  They're stuffed with scrap leather so are unbelievably good for chewing and tugging and generally throwing around as Bill and Oz will tell you.  We also think they look rather lovely just plonked in a basket.

As for Oz, his new found confidence and transferable skills have led to a promotion at work - here he is making a few amendments to the website.

Cheesecake heaven

Regular visitors will be expecting some kind of rain-related issue in this week's blog post.  Not wanting to disappoint, we can confirm that we did indeed get wet dashing over the road to the florist to take our Mother's Day photo.  Not only that, the lovely Liz of Changing Blooms was just about to whizz off to the wholesalers, so in true hjh style we only had about 2 minutes to take the picture.


Anyway, it was an easy task as the flowers were gorgeous and we even had time to choose our fantasy bouquets for when someone realises that they absolutely must buy us a bunch.

Back in the workshop Nish delivered the most spectacular baked lemon cheesecake which we all pretty much inhaled straight down.


empty tupperware!

They say time and tide waits for no man but here in Chulmleigh Nish's cheesecake definitely waits for no woman as yet again it disappeared before the camera had a chance to come out.

We may not have a Prêt or an M&S foodhall handy but we have something so much yummier - surely we can persuade him to audition for The Great British Bake Off - we hear there are a lot of practice bakes required...

Unsurprisingly, we're all quite full now.  

Happy despite the never ending rain

It's STILL raining!! How is that possible? We are, however, extremely happy in our workshop because a) we have the Archers on, b) the bakery hadn't run out of sausage rolls after all and c) we are not running around in the freezing rain on the next windy hilltop like the farming husband doing ovine midwifery.  Yes, it's that time of year again and lambing has started.  Welcome to the world tibby lambs!

No photos of them yet due to the monumental amount of mud/horizontal rain between the yard gate and the shed but we can report that they are very cute and are all doing well.

So instead here's Hilary and Rosamund busy and happy with some fabulous new silver leather shortly to appear in the shop in the guise of gorgeous totes.  We quite like January after all! 

Oz's modelling debut

Oz: "I won't get out of my basket for less than 10,000 bonios"

Oh the glamour. Being January it's been raining and is still raining, it's the kids' first day back at school so Susan hasn't had time to do any kind of a blow-dry (although given the above it's probably just as well) or polish her boots and Hilary needs to post the backpack to Sweden in about 10 minutes.  And our ever-glamorous cabin-crew friend Helen is in Mole Valley trying to buy sander belts and so isn't around to don her fabulous Toast coat and jump elegantly in puddles for us.

And then Oz wanders in, the rain stops for 30 seconds and Hilary makes it to the Post Office in time.  We're sure it's just like this at Mulberry!

Happy new year everyone - 2016's going to be a lot of fun!

the finished homepage!

Radio 4 comes to Chulmleigh

What an amazing few days! On Friday 4th December Hilary appeared on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour to talk about her work as a leather designer-maker.  The feature was the final one in a series of interviews with three women who listen to Woman's Hour from their workshops.

The lovely Sarah recorded the interview for the BBC in the workshop which meant that Hilary could demonstrate how the sewing machines worked and show her the different techniques involved in creating a bespoke bag as they chatted.

After the interview was broadcast we considered trying to be really cool about the whole thing - but to be honest, that's just not us - and anyway, it was WAY too exciting!!  And we're so glad that all our wonderful friends thought so too - thank you to everyone who has contacted us since the programme went on air with all your good wishes.

And now it's back to the workbench to get the festive orders finished and ready for posting with the help of Mr Bublé in the background...it's definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

ps we're working on getting the podcast onto our website, but in the meantime, if you're browsing the Woman's Hour website and come across the episode from 4th December Hilary's on at 32.52 minutes!

hilary johnson handmade goes to Dismaland

our version of Where's Wally...spot the hjh handbag.  And no, it's not the yellow one

So, it's a random Wednesday just  after the schools have gone back, you're not at work today and hours of housework stretch endlessly ahead of you.  Yawn.  Then you get a phonecall.  Can you get to Weston-Super-Mare by 11am for a couple of hours of satire and witty art appreciation?  You betcha.  2 hours later and you're being accused of hiding illicit items under your poncho by a fake security officer in front of a cardboard scanning machine, whilst your sister sniggers like a ten year old behind you.  And it's just started to drizzle.  Welcome to Dismaland folks.

Banksy and his artist mates are geniuses.  If Dismaland was a Venn diagram it would have circles labelled shocking, snortingly funny, entertaining, thought provoking and top of the class clever.  I'm no art critic, but if any of the above are on the tick-list of what constitutes successful art then they've got it nailed.

And weirdly, when you leave you still feel like you're in there - you're half-expecting to see satire and irony in the ordinary.  The poor bloke selling buckets and spades 50 metres along the seafront must have had some very strange looks these past few weeks.

There are only a few days left of Dismaland so if you're one of the lucky people who get the remaining tickets you're in for a very interesting experience.  

Best not to wear a woolly poncho though.

We love cricket

Josie and Susan on the Wildling stall at Somersault

Well, in true British styley we got EXTREMELY wet at Somersault the other week, but also in true British styley we put on our wellies and jolly well got on with it.  A lot of fun was had by all and we came home soggy, but glittering thanks to the gorgeous gold tattoos applied by the gorgeous Josie of Wildling.

The only rumbling we can hear now though isn't thunder but Hilary's sewing machine (along with the constant background noise of combines, forage harvesters and tractors) as we build up stock for our stall at Chagford Show on 20th.

And talking of shows, we had a cracking time at the North Devon Show last week.  We know agricultural shows seem to feature quite regularly in our blog, but Susan is married to a farmer and despite her high-heel rebellious tendencies (comfy practical footwear isn't always mandatory in the countryside) we do end up going to quite a lot of them.

nicely cut jacket

This year's show saw Adam Henson from BBC1's Countryfile judging some of the livestock classes (although knowing more about tailoring than the competitive merits of different breeds of cattle it was the rather well-cut jacket he was wearing that caught our eye rather than his skills as a livestock judge).

And cricket? As we write this the England team is wowing us with an exceptional display of bowling against Australia in the Ashes.

Wet weather stoicism, dodging sheep poo at agricultural shows and the unmistakable voice of Henry Blofeld.  British summer at its best.