"And when darknesss lifts and the room is bright I'll still be by your side for you are all that matters and I'll love you to till the day I die"

Enough of The Smiths, so, I received an email off ‘Amazon’ earlier today with lists of suggestions for Valentine’s Day. But to be honest, it made me loose a tad more faith in the internet as ‘personally recommending’ things. I’m pretty sure my fictitious, nonexistent partner would love a box set of X-Men Cartoons, an Iphone adapter and a car battery monitor....  I digress.

Valentine’s Day is upon us, six days to be exact and we’ve got so many wonderful gifts in the shop for you to pop in and gaze in wonder at. Hand crafted, homemade, one-of-a-kind shopping was most definitely made for this time of year and I can’t think of a better way to express love, fondness, giggly courtship than with a stunning item from us at Landbaby.

Please, please, please, for the sake of my sanity and your relationship, don’t settle for a Boots 3 ‘4’ 2 gift set or a Next voucher. Y our partner and the rest of society deserves better than that and I have the perfect, modestly-priced rundown of ‘Our Valentine’s Landbaby- Loves’ for your sweetheart (or just for you, if your single and Bridget Jones & a bottle of Vino aren’t doing the trick)...


**Paper Butterflies....
Now, if you’re a keen follower of our blog, or just pop into the shop on a regular basis you’ll know that the ever-so talented and unique ‘The Aviary’ are now a treasured part of the work in store with the stunning exhibition of intricate prints we have on display (come in and take a wide eyed look, it’s jaw droppingly beautiful!).


But for Valentine’s Day, we can’t think of anything prettier and delicate than these stunning little paper butterflies. As expected with work from The Aviary, these come brilliantly packaged and are perfect to put inside that tear-jerking Valentines card, attached to pin-boards or if you’re feeling extra creative why not string them together as an alternative to bunting? I’d be very impressed to be served breakfast in bed with these strung across a doorway!
But then again, they are also a brilliant alternative to the conventional-oh-so-boring scattered rose petals. Imagine these trailing upstairs, as part of wrapping for a gift or on a table for a nice home cooked romantic meal.

You won’t break the bank or someone’s heart with these fluttering lovelies!

**Porcelain Key Pendants....

 

from our recently-blogged Katherine Lees (remember the exquisite Frozen Charlotte pins!?...) we have these delicate porcelain and silver Victorian-inspired jewellery. With Katherine’s work, for me, the excitement lies in the history and attention she puts into her creations. It was said that in Victorian Britain, the key was symbolic for status and suggested a woman had secrets locked away- and it’s this attention to detail that makes these pendants such a perfect Valentine’s gift; a mixture of tradition, beautiful crafting and the guaranteed smile on your other halves face when they open this stunning handmade, thoughtful gift.

Alternatively, get them the Next Voucher......





 

**Solid Silver Rings....that are a less gut wrenching alternative to the ol’ engagement ring.

I remember BUG’s work in the shop at Christmas time and I kid you not, I have never seen a more happy lovely lady than when her husband bought her one of BUG’s pieces of jewellery. If I remember correctly, she loved these brushed silver pieces because they were unusual and mainly, NOT ON THE HIGHSTREET and I really think that is so important for Valentine’s Day- a gift that is handcrafted and in limited supply, it really makes the thought extra special and extra appreciated!


These rings are so delicate, natural-looking, subtle yet striking (and I really don’t know how many more adjectives I’d need to say how lovely these are!). Admittedly they are slightly more expensive than the other items on our ‘Our Valentine’s Landbaby- Loves’ but you get what you pay for.... handcrafted, solid silver and most importantly, made with so much attention to detail and care.




**’I Love You’ card...

by littlegreenshed. Don’t worry, Alan Titchmarsh isn’t going to be lurking behind a display cabinet when you pop in to the shop (heaven forbid). But littlegreenshed have really created a Valentines Card unlike the others. Personally I get a little bit tired of seeing Bears holding hearts, garish colours, high heels, footballs (and other gender stereotypes) on the front of your bog-standard grettings card yet this one is perfect; doing away with all the glitter and in-your-face images, these are beautiful designs to house your most treasured thoughts to your loved one and would look stunning framed and put on a bookshelf or somewhere similar.

psssst, we do have other Valentine’s Cards in for your perusal and admiration too, mind!



**Cupcake Teacup Trio....

Without wanting to sound too grouchy, I am getting a little tired of picking up tea cups in shops and finding a whopping candle popped in the centre. And I must admit, I thought the same when I first saw these. But, oh the folly of youth! These are REAL teacups with REAL cakes inside them. Coming wrapped up beautifully, in a range of different cups and cakes, these are a great affordable Valentine’s gesture. Which the object of your affections can use, and reuse with a lovely pot of tea.
Now can you say that about your sweet delights, Mary Berry?


Just a quick side note, these are available to order through us so send us a message on facebook, twitter or just pop in, we’re friendly enough!




**Paper Roses...
made to order, our delightful paper roses make a great alternative to your usual bunch of flowers. And what’s even better, they last 397594375945 times as long! Attached to a rounded wooden stick, the paper roses work really well on your romantic dinner table, propping up the side of an office desk or even sitting comfortably on a mantel piece.


And as with all of our other Valentine’s recommends, they are handmade with the love and attention of our very own Claire Bates. Like with the Cupcake Teacup’s just pop in, drop us a facebook message etc and we can sort you out with as little or as many as these paper pretties as you like

“He tore the mantle from her face, and the cold stars o'er it shone.
Then quickly to the lighted hall her lifeless form he bore. Young Charlotte's eyes was closed for ay, her voice was heard no more.
And there he sat down by her side, the bitter tears did flow”....

Frozen Charlotte pins; new pieces we have in the shop that are both eerie and beautiful. We’re super excited about these.I wandered into the shop when these stunning little pins were being delivered. At first glance, they just looked like small imitations of the classic ‘Jelly Baby’ but alas how wrong could I have been!
On closer inspection the Frozen Charlotte pins are, without sounding too much like Gok Wan, subtle and classic with a fascinatingly morbid history to them.

The Frozen Charlotte doll gets its name from the eerie cautionary folk ballad which tells of a girl who refuses to wrap up warm on a cold winters night travelling to a New Year’s Ball and freezes to death on the journey. There are very, very few versions available of the ballad online, but here’s a link to one I stumbled upon on youtube. (Unfortunately it’s just a young lady in her room with what looks like excellent storage facilities, but you get the idea....)

The Victorians used the Frozen Charlotte doll as a lucky charm and keepsake; putting them in Christmas Puddings, children’s bedrooms and some even used as toys for bath play. But please do not use your Frozen Charlotte pin as a substitute for a rubber duck; they are much too pretty and delicate for that! And for this we have the amazingly talented Katherine Lees to thank, whose current projects are all heavily influenced by Victorian designs combining intricate, delicate craftwork and stunning pale yet interesting colours & tones.

You can check out and keep up-to-date with Katherine’s work here
OR pop into Landbaby, we have bits and bobs of Katherine’s work in the shop and it is really complimented by our lovely new flooring, pale walls and other gifts and trinkets we have in at the mo’.  Personally, I absolutely love my own Frozen Charlotte, mounted on a small decorative card with a small bio of the history of the pin, it makes a beautiful gift for both men and women and with Valentine’s Day on the horizon, need I say more!


Images are courtesy of Katherine Lees Wordpress blog

The Aviary @ Landbaby.  Saturday 26^th January- Saturday 2^nd March

Landbaby is proud to host the latest exhibition from the extremely talented and very unique

Victoria Foster

aka  The Aviary. Collections of stunning work with snippets of history, folklore and original beauty, intricately designed to create not only exceptional gifts but also stunning pieces of art.


For further information pop into the shop in the bluecoat or send us an email: landbabyliverpool@googlemail.com

Slumber, Youth and young remain.
Free from sorrow, fear and pain.
Wander not to Death’s domain....

 

We know, we know, it’s January not the 31^st October, but there’s no way we could avoid telling you about the weird, wonderful and outright sinister ‘‘The Soldier’s Rest’ . A brilliant combination of Welsh haiku poetry and embroidery, ‘Soldiers Rest’ was a very unusual piece for the Liverpool Biennial 2012 held within Landbaby itself. Whilst it’s wonderful to be have so much contact with independent artists and all you lovely customers, it’s equally great to be able to transform the shop into something interactive and engaging with the wider Liverpool creative and arts scenes. And ‘Soldiers Rest’ has allowed us the chance to do just that.

Claire Bates, the very talented owner of Landbaby created all the embroidery pieces for the exhibition herself, using some ingenious imagination deciding to embroider, not with your standard 50 pence market thread, but with human hair! In doing so, Claire really enhanced the eeriness of the accompanying poem by the well regarded & wonderful Rebecca Sharp, who you may recognise from the Whale Song piece earlier on in the year! Oh, and it's definitley worthwhile checking out Rebecca Sharp's website(http://www.rebeccajoysharp.com/ ) if not to marvel at how extremely talented she is, but to also find links to her other work and upcoming events. She is a truly inspirational writer whose work has been called "fascinatingly complex" by Neil Cooper of Herald Scotland. What more could you ask for!


Together they created a fantastic piece for the Biennial drawing together traditional elements of the ghost story and contemporary crafting. Without a shadow (or a ghost) of a doubt, the exhibition attracted some well deserved publicity with several features on the piece itself and Landbaby being produced in Liverpool’s home grown Seven Streets publications...
http://www.sevenstreets.com/liverpoolbiennial/biennial-radar-landbaby/ 
But that wasn’t all, ‘Embroidery Magazine’ published a stunning several page spread on Claire’s ingenious way of crafting, a real cherry on the cake for us at Landbaby as it meant that more people could see how wonderfully hard Claire works in making the shop beautiful .

If you missed ‘The Soldier’s Rest’ exhibition and are weeping profusely at how wonderful the show sounded or you managed to come and enjoy it during the Biennial, fear not, we have another exhibition coming your way on Saturday 26^thJanuary which will be showcasing the work of the excellent ‘Aviary’. I assure you, this is one not to be missed!  (and we'll be posting about The Aviary at a later date too, so keep a beady eye out for that).

 

New Year, New View;

Despire the terrible play on words above, 2012 at Landbaby was a fantastic year with so many amazing artists’ work in the shop. There’s been an astoundingly absurd amount of textile wildlife; crocheted foxes, badger greetings cards, owl cushions, and of course our stunning wall mounted deer head! Some stunning brushed silver jewellery, bearded men cushions, the obligatory bunting...the list is endless.

We ended the year on such a spectacular high with our facebook ‘likes’ going through the metaphorical roof and so much attention from the creative media with features in Seven Streets ( don’t worry, more said about this in a later post) and a great o2 ‘Loving Local’ piece which you can check out here

à
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_U2Om9ImDfE&noredirect=1

A bit of international recognition never goes amiss either- Vogue named us 35/100 of the best shops outside of London (http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/favourites-of-vogue/2012/8/shops-outside-of-london/gallery/1#./35) describing Landbaby as “great niche shop to find alternative presents”. All of which is of course true- you’ll find gifts for any age, either genders perched on a shelf, in a cabinet or being unpacked when you pop in for a gander. With the much appreciated recognition from Vogue, our influx of post- out orders online has made us very happy, and hopefully a lot of you keen customers too! If there's anything you'd like to say about your pretty purhcases or how much you love the shop, drop us an email (landbabyliverpool@gmail.com) and we'll not only love you forever, but we'll get it out there on one of our blog posts.

So, we’ve just moved into 2013 and not only did the Mayan’s get it wrong, but so did we. We thought Landbaby couldn’t get any better, but how wrong we were! Only 20 days into the new year and already we have 3 features in some of the best craft magazines you’ll find, a stunning new floor in the shop (come in and take a look, without your kitten heels on mind, we don’t want any damages!) and bloody brilliant new work lined up for your delectation; digitally printed landscape cushions, curious little Victorian style pins, mountainous treasures, beautifully folded paper to name but a few. It is wet-your-pants exciting in Landbaby at the minute with all exciting work coming in and new displays in the shop. Keep your eyes peeled for regular updates on here for features on new artists we love, trends we're getting into and generally just love for all things handmade, interesting and inspiring!