Grumpy Dog....

As in any office environment, occasionally working together for too long can cause niggles and gripes, and it is no different here at Ochre And Ocre. We are busy preparing for our big Autumn show this week, The Spirit of Christmas, which involves lots of boxes everywhere, shelving, and general chaos.
Those of you who have been following my blog, will know I share my office space with a lady of advanced years, who is prone to grumbling when the phone goes, teetering at the top of the stairs when you are trying to take an order, and generally making sure her presence is felt at all times.
This week is no exception, but for once I have to see her point of view, as the office has been over run with gift sets, and cardboard boxes, making it very hard for Gert to make it to her "desk" under the window. I know that the sight of all these boxes does tend to unnerve her, trauma from seven house moves in six years, so I have made a concerted effort to clear her a pathway across the office this morning!

I also promised you some pictures of the beautiful Malvern countryside around here, in all it's Autumnal glory. The one morning I remembered to take my camera out with me, it was very frosty, but the light first thing is so warm, and golden, if I time it just right there is often a beautiful sunrise over the Cotswold Hills, hard to capture on film, but lovely to watch as I climb the Malverns.

Autumn

Apologies, I know this poor blog has been sadly neglected as of late, but in the Ochre And Ocre world lots of Autumn fairs have been keeping us busy.
We are very excited to have received our new sample colourways of Isabella And Madelaine, ready for the Spring launch, and we are just starting to pull together the props for our forthcoming photoshoot.
Once again aided and abetted by the talented photographer, Rachel Spivey, we will hopefully be working our magic to turn a kitchen showroom into a homely, chic kitchen.
On the home front, the Autumn harvest has been done, our giant pumpkins are picked, the last of the marrows despatched to willing recipients, (I don't think I will put in quite so many Courgette plants next year!), and the apples are picked ready for storing. All around us on the Malvern Hills, the trees are starting to turn their leaves, the fern has been cut down, and the smell of bonfires is in the air, as people tidy up their gardens before the winter. I promise I will get out there with my camera soon, so I can post a few pics of the beautiful scenery around us, but for now I must get on with making Lavender Hearts in preparation for the photoshoot!

Julia Mitchell Distinctive Floral Design

To coincide with the start of our special feature on floral table decoration in next weeks newsletter, I wanted to give you the full background to Julia Mitchell of JM Distinctive Floral design.
I met the lovely Julia through my local WIRE group. Julia did the beautiful flowers for us on our recent shoot at the gorgeous Ettington Park Hotel, but she has dealt with far more illustrious clients than Ochre And Ocre!!

OO: Tell us briefly about your business?

JM: I have a team of florists who are all trained to the same level and we provide 'fabulous flowers for happy occasions'.  I did the whole 'life begins at 40' career change and became a full time florist six years ago.

It can be cold, stressful and exhausting but I love it!!

I have a workshop rather than a retail premises and only provide flowers for weddings and events. No two weeks are the same and no two weddings are the same.

I work mainly within Warwickshire and the Cotswolds but have recently created the designs for some fabulous events at Blenheim Palace. I have also worked at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons

which was an amazing experience.

The majority of work so far has been weddings and we create everything from the bouquets and buttonholes to decorating the inside and  outside of a church as well as  stunning table designs. I  only take on one event per day and always deliver and oversee everything myself. I have to make sure that everything is perfect before myself and my team leave a venue. I will never be able to grow my empire as I am a complete control freak!

OO: Any famous clients?

JM: Depends how famous! This year I have created designs for 'Strictly Stars' Anton du Beke  and Erin Boag. They have held several dance breaks at The Wroxall Abbey Estate, and I created the table displays for their Gala Dinner. As a huge Strictly fan myself I did also create a bouquet for Erin so that I could have my photograph taken with them both!

Apart from that lots of prestigious corporate clients but no one really famous.....yet!!

OO: What is your favourite flower to use as a table decoration?

JM: That's a tricky one. It sounds quite boring but I adore roses. They come in so many different colours and sizes now, I never tire of using them. Apart from that my favourite more unusual flower is gloriosa. It's a very delicate flower in a very striking colour combination of bright pink edged in yellow. It expensive but looks great with just a few flower heads floating in a bowl surrounded with candles.

OO: How do you decorate your own table at Christmas time

JM: It depends how busy I’ve been in the run up until Christmas!

I’m actually much more particular about my door wreath than my table as this usually goes up at the beginning of December. For the last couple of years I have used a floral foam ring as the base for

my wreath rather than the traditional moss base. This gives a more contemporary feel and this year I will be using massed hydrangea heads with just a few roses and fresh herbs such as rosemary. It will of course be finished with a large bow and a hint of Christmas sparkle.

Getting back to the table, probably a large hurricane lamp with a circle of flowers around the outside in rich reds and golds.

OO: What should you think about when planning table decorations? Eg height... / fragrance...

JM: I only ever do table centres that are either really low or really tall. So many clients say that they don’t want tall because they have been at events where the flowers are straight in front of you. I just don’t understand why florists create designs like that.

The tall designs that I create are at least 70cm high from the table, they create a real ‘wow’ when guests walk in the room but are totally out of their eye level when they sit down.

If it’s a large room then what’s really ‘on-trend’ at the moment is to have half tall and half low designs. This ensure that you still get the wow as guests walk in but you also have more colours low down when everyone is seated.

I love using fresh herbs in designs, rosemary is a real favourite for both it’s colour and texture. Also this year I created the designs for a marquee wedding that wanted a real ‘country feel’. In addition to the rosemary, I also included mint which looked and smelt amazing.

In the run up to Christmas we will be sharing Julia's tips for different table decorations through our newsletter, and website blog. If you would like to receive a copy of the Ochre And Ocre newsletter just drop an email to customerservice@OchreAndOcre.com and we will add you to our mailing list. 

Autumn Fairs

Ochre And Ocre are about and about a lot over the next few months, attending lots of shopping events and Christmas Fairs. We know nothing beats actually seeing the quality of the product up close, so if you are in the area, it would be great to meet you at one of the shows. Please let us know if you need anymore information regarding location or times of any of these events.

24th September; Macmillan Coffee Morning at Hatton Village Hall, Hatton, Warwickshire

28th September Travelling Souk at Micklefield Hall, Hertfordshire

1st October Worcester Hunt, at Worcester Rugby Club

5th October Travelling Souk at Frome Valley Vineyard, Herefordshire

7th October Travelling Souk at Lyford Grange, Oxfordshire

12th October Travelling Souk at Delbury Hall, near Ludlow, Shropshire

13th October Talk at Kingswood WI, Herefordshire

18th October Travelling Souk at Gunthorpe Hall, Rutland

3-7th November Spirit of Christmas at Olympia

10-11th November Shipston Home Nursing, Warwickshire

15-16th Travelling Souk at Southrop Manor, Gloucestershire

19th November Cotswold House Christmas Shopping Fair, Chipping Campden

20th November The Croft School Christmas Fair, near Stratford

22-23rd November Travelling Souk at North Hidden Farm, Hungerford

27th November Save the Children Christmas Fair, Leamington Town Hall

6th December Charity Lunch & Shopping, Hockley Heath, Warwickshire

We will be taking our new Christmas Gift ranges, along with an edited selection of our Organic Cotton table linen, kitchen textiles, and pure beeswax candles. As space is limited at some events, if you are coming to see us at a particular event, and particularly wanted to see something, or want to get a particular size Organic Cotton table cloth please drop us an email, and we make sure we have it there to show you.

Autumnal Feel

September is a real transitional month -every year there is talk of an Indian summer, and whether it happens or not I don't really mind, because I really love it when the trees start to change colour, and the landscape turns to that lovely soft Ochre palette, and I can finally pull out my long boots and opaque tights!
There have been some fantastic mushroom rings, growing just outside our gate on the common. I'm not brave enough to see if they are edible - they certainly don't look or smell like the field mushrooms we used to eat for breakfast when I was little.

For Ochre And Ocre it's all about prepping for the upcoming shows. Extra dates seem to be added on constantly - we start slowly in September with 2, 6 in October, and 9 in November. I've worked out I have 8 days at home in the office in November! Trying to "guesstimate" likely sales is a dark art, I know I have spoken about before, just how many sets do I need to make up in advance?
It will also be interesting this year to see the response to the new brochure, and whether it brings in a new type of customer, or are we just diluting our existing customer base? 
I'll let you know at the end of the season!

Birthday Celebrations!

The excitement is building at Ochre And Ocre HQ, as we approach our 2nd Birthday next week! We launched the website two years ago in pessimistic times, the recession was looming, the press were critical, but we were optimistic, wet behind the ears, and ready for a new challenge. Fortunately we survived - and having learnt a huge amount in two years we are looking forward to our third year of trading.

In the past year we have added over 32 new lines, with our lovely new British Collection, exclusively designed for Ochre And Ocre by Lindsey Joyce. Our new brochure is printed and awaiting despatch in September, a huge thank you to Rachel Spivey for some beautiful photography. We have also added some more gifts and hampers, all with that chic Ochre and Ocre twist - making it easy to find a Gift solution.

Not content to rest on our laurels work is already underway for new additions to our range next Spring. Samples are being finalised and photoshoots planned.

We have over 20 shows this Autumn, including attending the huge Spirit of Christmas in London for the first time. We will post the dates and locations nearer the time for our Autumn shows.

You can now also buy Ochre And Ocre at a select range of lovely independents, including the gorgeous homewares shop Tinsmiths in Ledbury, the green Herb Farmacy in Hay, Kettles in Dunkeld, and GreenDays in Crieff.

So if you would like to join us in a toast, please raise your glass to

" Ochre And Ocre, Year Three...the adventure continues!"

Getting in a pickle with Delia

Those of you who follow my blog will know that we recently moved to the Malverns. A beautiful setting with lovely views - yes the house needs quite a lot of work, but as I said the views are stunning, and provide an easy distraction when trying to do any accounts.

We also inherited when we moved here a small orchard and vegetable plot - and it suddenly seems to be going into overdrive producing damsoms, plums, sloes, apples, courgettes......you get the gist.
Now I hate waste, so I decided to do my Good Life bit and make some chutneys, pickles and even ketchup. So over the weekend our kitchen has been a hive of activity of chopping, blending, stirring and bottling. As ever Delia has been the oracle, with her sound advice on sterilising, checking consistencies, and do's and don'ts.
We are now the proud owners of 6 large jars of pickled onions, 8 jars of Green Tomato chutney, 6 jars Courgette chutney, 6 jars Plum chutney, and waiting to be bottled the Plum ketchup. So I must apologise in advance to all my friends and family, as your Christmas presents will not be hard to guess! Just keeping my fingers crossed that they are ok when they emerge from their Black box in 3 months time.