Like many others I know I am all too guilty of being seduced by cookery books that are full of gorgeous beautifully styled images of the food. So I’m generally not a fan of books with no pictures but the “Can’t Go Wrong Cookbook” by Orlando Murrin may look like an unassuming little paperback from the outside but it’s full of hidden gems (sadly it’s out of print!).

Last weekend I discovered one of those gems in the form of a very tasty recipe for ginger cake. Basically just take a regular sponge recipe but use light brown sugar instead of white sugar and add a teaspoon of ground ginger to the mixture. Then ice with butter icing with a teaspoon of ground ginger in it too. It’s got just the right balance of sweet goodness and the warming winter spice.

In other baking news - I tried out a recipe for brownies from Inside a Black Apple and I can confirm that it is indeed the perfect brownie recipe (perfect but evil due to serious sugar over-indulgance).

Over the 10 week course we learnt to how to cut and shape sheet silver and wire, soldering and how to create different finishes like hammered or brushed silver. I don’t wear a lot of jewellery but I do like necklaces so I made 3 pendants.

They’re all far from perfect and not exactly the most exciting or different designs but I like them and it is rather nice to get compliments when wearing them - even if I’m thinking “please don’t look too closely at the dodgy soldering etc”.

I have so many ideas of things I would like to make now that I have a bit more idea what is possible but sadly no time to do another class just now but it’s definitely going on my “someday” list.

After spending a week in the big smoke, as well as meeting lots of customers, the following facts were discovered:

• Marram Studio handbag mirrors and fridge magnets do make ace stocking fillers (coming soon to the shop)
• Commuting is hell for someone used to a 5 minute walk to work
• It is not possible to have too much yummy Lebanese food
• It is physically impossible to visit London without having to visit Paperchase (or is that just me?)

Also in the summer I showed at the County Show. Now I’m just to going to admit from the start that I was pretty sceptical about this one. Normally handmade crafts aren’t the first thing I would associate with an agricultural show but I am clearly out of date in my thinking. First thing on a morning in August I packed up the car and headed off to Kirkwall to setup my stand in the Craft Tent.

It was a scorchingly beautiful day and after a quiet start the craft tent was packed. I had printed up some special “100% percent Orkney beef” t-shirts for the show and they went down a storm! It was a fun day and I’ll definitely be taking part again this year.

Just goes to show you should never be afraid to try something new! Massive thanks have to go to my great friend Eilidh for coming along to play shop, putting up with me worrying about getting everything set up in time and going on little excursions for steak rolls, icecream and sweeties!

After the taking the plunge in March and changing the business name to Marram Studio, I packed up the car at the end of May and headed on done to London to exhibit at Pulse.

It was a real adventure as it’s the first time I’ve driven down to London on my own (I know this may not seem like a big deal but when most of your driving is around a tiny little island - London is pretty scary!) and the first time I’ve done a show 100% on my own with no help. So after several hours putting up shelves etc here is the finished stand (apologies for the poor lighting - super strong spotlights and crappy overhead lighting does not make for happy photos).

The show was great, I met lots of lovely customers and other exhibitors and I’ll be back again this year from 6-8th June!

This is one of the many stunning views in Orkney - Skaill beach. I love the colours of the landscape and the very first leaflet I designed for the business showed my cushions sitting in the marram grass with the sea and blue sky in the background. Since then it’s become one of my favourite spots for product photography - although one does get the odd strange look from people walking their dogs on the beach, as I arrange cushions on the beach and photo them!

I’ve photographed some of my current cushion collection there this summer so I’ll have to get some images uploaded soon to share with you.

In amongst the marram grass there are also some rather impressive umbellifers which inspired my “umbels” design.

I love the sound of the word marram and so many of my designs are inspired by plants, flower and the landscape so it seems like a good fit. Hopefully this goes some way to help explain the new name and so far it seems to have got the thumbs up from most people I know and do business with.

Long time no speak folks! Well despite how things look here on the blog it’s been a very eventful few months for me. In the spring I took the big step (which I had been considering for a long time) of launching a new trading name for the textiles part of my business. Although I’m still officially Digitata Ltd, I now market and sell my textiles under the name Marram Studio.

In 2004, when I first started my business, I was mainly working on selling designs and less on making actual products but as the business has evolved handmade textiles have become an increasingly important part of what I do. Rather than continuing to try and squeeze everything into the one brand I decided to give the handmade range it’s own name and as many of my designs are inspired by nature I have renamed the brand after the Marram Grass which grows on sandy shores around Orkney.

It’s been a really positive change for the business and I’m going to be posting this week to fill you all in on what’s been happening here at Marram Studio in the busy few months since the change. Then I have lots of plans for Silkscreen & Scribble over the next few months so stay tuned!

I’m normally all too guilty of hoarding supplies (fabric, yarn, paper etc), which I plan use to make some fabulous item, that I never quite find the time to actually make. However, the ridiculously cold weather here in Orkney has spurred me into action and I spent a couple of evenings knitting this scarf (thanks to the lamp post outside my studio for being such a willing model!). As a left handed person who only knows how to knit right handed, I’m not much of a knitter because it takes me forever to finish anything but this was super quick due to the absurdly chunky yarn and it is so cosy!

Who knows maybe this will spur me on to hunt out my old knitting machine out of the loft and make some more things?

For those of you in Scotland, I have news of an exciting new exhibition (which just happens to feature some of my work)! Winter Warmth at the Park Gallery and Callendar House, in Falkirk, features the work of 56 artists and makers including some of my work. The show celebrates the 500th anniversary of print in Scotland so there should be lots of exciting prints from art prints and handmade books to screen printed textiles and jewellery.

So if you’re in the area, the show runs until the 3rd January 2009 and is open Monday-Saturday 10-4pm. So pop along for an entertaining afternoon of culture, enjoy a nice cup of tea in the tea shop and do a wee bit of Christmas shopping (all work is for sale with something for all tastes and budgets).

My brother lives in the States so we don’t see him very often so it was great when he came over to see us a couple of weeks ago and it was his birthday while he was here so what better excuse to make him an extra special gift. He’s a really keen cook so an apron seemed the perfect answer but I wasn’t sure if he would like my regular aprons and like me he is a big fan of black so I decided to print some nice black cotton drill fabric with white knives and forks. I was hoping to be able to show it off being worn but my brother managed to squirrel the apron away in his suitcase and avoided being photographed wearing it, so here is my “Betty” wearing it.

For the moment at least this is one of a kind but I suspect it may not stay that way for long as I have already had some not so subtle hints from other family and friends that they would like one too!