Designer Desire: Sarah Westwood

Montage of Sara Westwood Sprocket illustrations

A couple of weeks ago, I was searching Etsy for a birthday bandana for Barley; he turned one-year-old on the 12th of August. I didn’t actually come across a bandana that I wanted – I eventually got one from Pets at Home. What I did do, though, was find the work of Sarah Westwood.

Sarah is a graphic designer who makes fantastic prints, notebooks, greeting cards, coasters & place mats, tea towels, badges and more. Most of her illustrations features her Weimaraner, Sprocket. Sprocket is often accompanied by a few of his mates;  Scoot the little bird, Sid the squirrel and Parsnip the hedgehog.

We’ll let Sarah herself tell you a little bit about herself:

My business as artist and illustrator started way back in 2005 and my work was completely different… My digital art didn’t start until I decided to do the Instagram hashtag theme #onehundreddays and I decided to do #onehundreddaysofsprocket and this changed the whole course of my work, a long with my inspiration. Sprocket was my dog and he is my muse. I love drawing his adventures. Sadly he’s no longer with us but we had him for 12 amazing years. My studio is based in Great Fryup Dale on the North York Moors. I use an iPad Pro to hand draw all of his adventures, if you love dogs then you should hopefully like my work. Sarah Westwood

I think I’m going to go and stock up on some of her Christmas and birthday cards. I know it’s Sprocket on the front, but I can pretend that it’s Barley!

Self portrait of Sara Westwood and Sprocket the Weimaraner

All illustrations: © Sarah Westwood

Price Points: Travel games

Travel games

It’s the long summer school holiday again. No doubt, many of you will be making journeys – both long and short – spending time with family away from home. A collection of easily portable travel games will while away hours en route as well as at your holiday destination.

We’ve chosen three that we’ve never heard of or even played before and that are suitable for all the family. We’ve included a real customer review for each game.

  1. P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game: £6.50, House of Fraser
    http://go.skimresources.com?id=29801X875054&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.houseoffraser.co.uk%2Fbrand%2Fbig-potato-games%2Fp-for-pizza—the-easy-cheesy-letter-game-791434

    Stack up your Pizza Cards and get ready to reach for a slice! Each round, players must think of a word that connects the letter to the category, then shout it out before anyone else. The speediest player wins the slice!

    Customer review: This is probably my favorite, quickplay party / icebreaker / family game of all time. It’s really appropriate for all kinds of groups and settings. It’s super fast to learn, finishes in 15 – 25 mins (depending on group size), and there are loads of ways to house rule a catch-up mechanic to help out stragglers (young children, etc.). Also it has great table presence!

    The box is also super cute and is small enough to take on trips, tucked into luggage.

  2. Rummikub travel game: £15.99, John Lewis
    http://go.skimresources.com?id=29801X875054&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.johnlewis.com%2Fjohn-adams-rummikub-travel-game%2Fp2621281

    Each game is as different as the combinations of moves you choose to play.

    The object of the game is to be the first player to go ‘Rummikub’ by using all of your tiles in ‘runs’ or ‘groups’ and by accumulating the highest score. Outwit your opponents with cool strategy and sharp moves. Use the Joker with caution… he can fire up the game, but if he is smiling on your board at the end of the round, you lose 30 points!

    Customer review: This Game is brilliant, imagine two sets of cards it’s like rummy, really gets you thinking, adding up and makes you want to win.
    Very light to take in a case on trips and counters small enough for fitting on a pub table.
    We were delayed for a day on a ship, played it all day, addicted.
    Our friends who played it with us went out and bought the full size and the travel size they enjoyed that much.
    Fantastic value game.

  3. Hive Pocket – Award-winning strategy game: £16.95, Amazon
    https://amzn.to/3QYMCKe

    Hive pocket is our wonderful award-winning game hive but much smaller and compact. Now you never need to go anywhere without hive again. It includes a nice draw string bag and also includes two expansions ‘the mosquito’ and ‘the ladybug’, both are wonderful additions that add extra strategy to the game. What is hive: hive is a Board game with a difference. There is no board The pieces are added to the playing area thus creating the board. As more and more pieces are added the game becomes a fight to see who can be the first to capture the opposing Queen Bee. The soldier ants battle to keep control of the outside of the hive, whilst the beetles climb up To dominate The top. Spiders moving into holding positions as the grass hoppers jump in for the kill. Keeping one eye on the hive and the other on your opponents reserves, The tension builds as one wrong move will see your Queen Bee quickly engulfed; game over.

    Customer review: My 11 year old now beats both mum and dad at chess and Japanese chess. Looking for new games is a challenge but this was a great find.
    A similar level of challenge as chess but with the added interest that it is something new and different and it’s great that it takes a lot less time to play so we can have one quick game or several if we have longer.

    Glad I got the pocket size, wouldn’t want it any bigger than this. The pieces are made beautifully, reminds me of an old mahjong game we had when I was young.

shop travel games

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Prices & links correct at time of publication.

Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
£16.95
Rummikub travel game
Rummikub travel game
£15.99
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
£6.50
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
£16.95
Rummikub travel game
Rummikub travel game
£15.99
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
£6.50
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
£16.95
Rummikub travel game
Rummikub travel game
£15.99
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
£6.50
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
£16.95
Rummikub travel game
Rummikub travel game
£15.99
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
£6.50
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
Hive Pocket – Award winning strategy game
£16.95
Rummikub travel game
Rummikub travel game
£15.99
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
P for Pizza – The easy cheesy letter game
£6.50

Selling your home is easier than you think

Selling your home is easier than you think

Will you be selling your home any time soon? If you are, but you’re struggling with how to make your home appealing enough to sell, then it’s a good thing that you’ve come across this post. Below, we’re going to be having a look at some of the ways that selling your home is easier than you think. Keep reading to find out more.

Declutter

One of the first steps in selling your home is making sure that your home is appealing and welcoming to potential buyers. This means getting rid of any junk and clutter that’s unnecessarily filling your home. When buyers look around your home, they don’t want to be bombarded with endless amounts of stuff lying around. They need to be able to envision how their own things will look in your property. If they can’t do this, then you could lose a sale.

A great way to declutter is to go through each room and sort your items into four piles. These piles should consist of the things you want to keep, throw away, donate and sell. Donating your unwanted items is a great way of providing others with belongings they need but can’t afford.

Storage

When you’re trying to sell your home, it’s important that your home looks neat, tidy and clutter-free. One way to ensure this happens is to make use of a self-storage lock-up. Packing all the things you know you won’t need until you move is a sure-fire way of clearing your home. Check out all the local ones to you for the best price.

Clean

Now it’s time to thoroughly clean your home, top to bottom. This way, your home will be sparkling and ready for people to come and have a look around. Would you want to buy a home that didn’t look clean? The answer is probably no, so it’s essential you take the time and ensure your home is spick & span. It may seem like an impossible task, but it’s easier than you think. Start at a single point and work your way through from there; for example, in the living room or kitchen. Once you’ve done that room, you can then move on and do another one, and so on. Don’t forget, allow yourself enough time so you aren’t rushing around and missing important parts. If the idea of all this cleaning is a tad overwhelming, get yourself some help; check here for more info.

Also, the floors will need to be cleaned. You don’t want to leave dirt, debris and dust on the floors for the new people to see. It should be easy to clean your floors depending on the type you have. If you have carpets, then this is slightly harder than wooden floors. You’ll need to vacuum first and then shampoo them. With hardwood floors it is easier to manage; simply sweep or vacuum, mop and then polish them.

Repairs

Another thing that you can do to get your home in the right condition for selling is to carry out any necessary repairs. This means going through your home with a fine tooth comb, and ensuring that everything is taken care of. It can be something as simple as a drain blockage or something as severe as problems with a leaky roof.

If you don’t do this and someone sees that there’s lots of remedial work needed, they’re going to be put off purchasing the property. Or, if someone wants to make an offer on your home, but they want to get a survey completed, then they’ll find out about all the problems then. It’s best to take care of them all before you put your home on the market, as it gives it a better chance of selling.

Pre-sale inspection

If you’re unsure of the repairs that need to be carried out, then it may be a good idea to get a pre-sale inspection carried out on your home. When you sell your home you’ll need this to be done anyway so you may as well get it done beforehand. If anything structural needs to be done to your home, then you’ll be able to get this done within plenty of time. It’s also great to have the record that it’s been carried out when you sell your home.

Curb appeal

We also recommend that you start looking at ways to boost your curb appeal. It’s a simple thing to do and shouldn’t take you a huge amount of time. You can do things like getting around to finally cutting the grass, planting some flowers around the edges to make the exterior more vibrant and pulling out all of those weeds that are hanging around.

If you want to go for something that requires a little more work, then you can look at painting the outside of your home. This is a bigger change than the others that we mentioned above, but it makes the home look far better than ever, with a fresh new look for the new owners. You can hire professionals to take care of this job if you don’t feel like it’s something that you’d not be capable of completing yourself.

Estate agent

In most cases, you shouldn’t be trying to sell your home on your own. Hiring an estate agent such as Robert Holmes will make everything a lot easier, as they’ll take over a lot of the process. They’ll tell you what you need to do in order to give your home the best possible chance of selling on the market. This might include fixing up some things, changing some rooms around so that they look bigger, and a range of other tips that you’re bound to find extremely helpful.

Having a professional on your side is always going to make things easier, so it’s something that you should do to eliminate some of your stress.

We hope that you’ve found this post helpful, and now see that selling your home can be much easier than you previously thought. You don’t have to make this complicated by adding unnecessary stress to the process, which is something that a lot of people do. Just make sure to keep yourself organised, and this will keep things so much simpler. We wish you the very best of luck and hope that you get the home sale that you hope for.

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Auction alert: Antiques, Collectables & General sale including jewellery

Bottle of Napoleon Sempe Armagnac

Eastbourne Auction will shortly be holding their Antiques, Collectables & General including jewellery sale. The online only auction starts on Wednesday 7th September 2022 from 10am. A humongous 2,454 lots will be available over the 3-day event.

There are a few of our regular favourites up for grabs; Troika studio pottery, Whitefriars studio glass and quite a few lots of various light elm Ercol furniture. One of my favourite items is the unusual Bernard Rooke vase.

The buyer’s premium stands at 30% inc. VAT (with a minimum of £2.40 per lot). Bidding is also available via The Saleroom and EasyLiveAuction. Please check each website’s additional charges.

We can arrange packing and / or shipping on your behalf for smaller non fragile items. We will email you a quote detailing the shipping method, and will ship when you have approved and paid for this service… For fragile and larger items we recommend Mailboxes Tunbridge Wells.

Troika St Ives Pottery cube vase

Lot 2: Troika St Ives Pottery cube vase
Hand painted with circles, 8cm high
Estimate: £50 – £100

Whitefriars bamboo glass vase

Lot 5: Geoffrey Baxter for Whitefriars bamboo glass vase
In indigo or pewter, 20.5cm high
Estimate: £80 – £150

Laurence Stephen Lowry - 'Level crossing with train'

Lot 15: Laurence Stephen Lowry – ‘Level crossing with train’
Pencil signed print in colour, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, published by Patrick Searle 1973, mounted, framed and glazed, 59cm x 48cm excluding the mount and frame
Estimate: £1,000 – £2,000

Oiva Toikka for Iittala, Finnish glass bird paperweight

Lot 27: Oiva Toikka for Iittala, Finnish glass bird paperweight
Paper label and signed to the base, 14cm in length
Estimate: £30 – £50

Square silver plated mirrored cake stand

Lot 55: Square silver plated mirrored cake stand
Relief decorated with grapes on a vine, housed in a painted wood box with brass handles, the stand 14cm H x 46cm W x 46cm D
Estimate: £40 – £80

Bottle of Napoleon Sempe Armagnac

Lot 121: Bottle of Napoleon Sempe Armagnac
Housed in a Baccarat decanter
Estimate: £40 – £80

Bernard Rooke, studio pottery vase

Lot 169: Bernard Rooke, studio pottery vase
Decorated in relief with fossils, impressed mark around the footrim, 13.5cm high
Estimate: £30 – £50

Soholm, Danish mid century style wall plaque

Lot 246: Soholm, Danish mid century style wall plaque
Enamelled with flowers, impressed marks to the reverse, 33.5cm x 33cm
Estimate: £30 – £50

After Eric Ravilious - British Pavilion brochure 1939

Lot 377: After Eric Ravilious – British Pavilion brochure 1939
Woodcut engraving in colour, mounted, framed and glazed, 20.5cm x 13.5cm excluding the mount and frame
Estimate: £50 – £100

Eight vintage Homepride Spillers figures

Lot 627: Eight vintage Homepride Spillers figures
10.5cm high
Estimate: £20 – £40

Set of six Ercol ash and light elm stacking chairs

Lot 791: Set of six Ercol ash and light elm stacking chairs
74cm high
Estimate: £200 – £400

Scandinavian mid century design plaque

Lot 909: Scandinavian mid century design plaque
Hand painted with a female and stylised birds, signed F Ruth, 37cm x 25cm
Estimate: £30 – £50