Hello World!

Alphitomancy is back!

Hello everyone! After a month in ‘holiday mode’, Alphitomancy is ready to come back into the light (or at least into the grey-white cloud cover) and rejoin the world.

I’ve moved north-north-north-north-and-to-the-west-a-bit to Reading, England. I’ve been in the UK for almost a month now, travelling around the place to say hello to family, go on honeymoon and set up the flat in Reading. Whew! What a month!

I’ve been to England many times before, but always as a tourist. My first impressions of residing in England are: forms, licenses, and having to say “Oh, I think that’s what we call…” because everything is slightly different. Also, apologising for not understanding a process or system and explaining that I’m Australian. Once those things stopped clouding my vision, I was able to see all the wonderful new things that are in my life now:

• I’m in berry heaven! Raspberries for £2 a punnet, blackberries, redcurrant tarts… It’s wonderful!
• Cheese is so much cheaper here than in Australia, and so much stinkier!
• People are really friendly, and will chat to you about anything.

We went even more north to Scotland for our honeymoon. If you haven’t been, put it on your list and make sure you write ‘Highlands’ next to it. It’s so worth going.

Just get to the fabric already.

Alright. In Beauly, which is west of Inverness in the Highlands, there is a fantastic shop that you absolutely must go into if you’re in the area. It’s called Campbell & Co, and is a family-run business founded in 1858 and run by the current family generation of brothers and sisters all above the age of 60. They are just gorgeous together, and I guarantee you have never seen more elegant ladies in tartan and tweed and wool.

The shop is stacked floor to ceiling with tweed bolts, and they have furniture custom-made to accommodate bolts of fabric,  huge cutting tables and the biggest, sharpest scissors I have ever seen!

Family-run business in Beauly, Scotland. Definitely worth a visit!

Tweed bolts stacked to the ceiling

They also make the clothing up for you, if you want.

Alphitomancy is back online

Alphitomancy will be brought back online on Etsy very shortly. New items will be appearing, inspired by my recent travels and my new surroundings! I’m so excited to get back to work.