Teatime at The Tea Palace

We just love these quirky tea gift sets from Tea Palace London.
This beautiful tin Book of Tea contains 4 sample tea boxes. Choose from the Classic Edition containing Assam Superior, Imperial Ceylon, Finest Darjeeling and Palace Earl Grey or the Herbal Edition with Organic Chamomile Flowers, Peppermint, Lemon & Ginger and Vital Apple; Both at £22.95
The Tea Palace also have gorgeous tea fragranced scented candles, and other fruit and herbal teas. Treat yourself and pretend you're having a cuppa with the Queen!

Still Fabulously Floral

The new rug patterns from design house Vanderhurd have a beautiful depth, and take strong inspiration from Mashrabiya fretwork. For us however, the Fabulous Floral range from 2005 still gets our pulse going! In particular Flower Power and Deliriously Daisy have a fresh quality and yet are still vibrant enough to create a strong feature in a room with a quiet palette.

Petit point rugs are also such a rariety with a contemporary design, it's always fantastic when a modern design house can explore traditional techniques.

Magno Radio

The Magno Radio has such a beautifully tactile design, I'm sure we'd be changing stations all day, any excuse just to twiddle those gorgeous wooden knobs!

The radio is crafted by hand in an Indonesia farming village, and for those eco-aware the timber is selected new growth wood and for each tree used, another is re-planted in its place.

Standard am/fm channels are received via the pop-up aerial and, believe it or not, the radios are also mp3 compatible.

Designed by Singgih Kartono for Areaware, it's available in varying sizes, starting from $200

Laser Quest

The delicacy of the Hidden.MGX vase is an obvious intimation of the flowers it is designed to play vessel to. It is also, however, a beautiful showcase of modern day crafting techniques being championed by Belgian design firm Materialise.

Made from Polyamide using Selective Laser Sintering processes, which basically scan a 3D model of the vase pattern and then fuse particles of nylon together to form the same shape - clever stuff!

The vase is designed by Dan Yeffet and can be seen as part of the permanent collection at Musee d'Art Moderne in Luxembourg. Recognition surely of the creative wonder these innovative processes can evoke.

Crafting with computers, would you recognise laser production as a modern craft technique?

Urbis Design's Outdoor Furniture

We love the sleek planter ranges from the UK's Urbis Design, and now they have transferred their clever glass reinforced concrete, moulding technique to a cool collection of Outdoor Furniture.
There are currently three designs, including the elegant Shell Bench above which has a certain air of the Tom Vac chair about it - not that we mind!

Yarn Storming, Making The World A Cosier Place A Stitch At A Time

Heard of Yarn Storming? Maybe not, but if the Yarn Corp Girls from Knit the City have their way you soon will, with their amazing woollen sabotage of an iconic London Telephone Box in July 09.

So what's it all about? Known as knitting graffiti it's a public display of creativity with the main aim to soften & beautify our surroundings, and it may just knit its way into a town near you.

If it should, enjoy it, knit happens!

Thanks to Knit The City for image use, Image ©Lauren O'Farrell

Give Your Room Its Own Identity

We are loving the new Identity range of Wallcoverings from Harlequin & Harris.

In particular the clean lines of Barcode would complement many room types, and the quirky Illuminate design would look fantastic in a study setting, featuring the iconic Artichoke lamp outline from Louis Poulsen.

Prices start from around £33 per roll at Wallpaper Direct

House of Bling!

The National Trust have a fantastic exhibition at Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire; "The House Of Bling".

The castle has literally been taken over by contemporary artists to create a stunningly elloborate showcase of work.

Each piece is installed within the rooms or grounds of the castle, with the aim to directly engage the visitors who will be able to get up close to the installations and even interact with the art itself.

Keen visitors can inlist as volunteers, perhaps as exhibition guides or to help install the artworks alongside the artists. Workshops are also running throughout, truely worth a visit!

From Sat 8th August to Sun 23rd August 2009

Lubna Chowdhary

We love the work of ceramicist Lubna Chowdhary. The vibrant use of colour throughout her work against the bold patterns make each piece a real statement. A particular favourite of ours, the Hot Plates as above, which are tactile and beautiful, yet wholly practical as a hot trivet for the kitchen and dining table.

Beat The British Summer!

Don't let them tell you this summer is a wash out, the sun will come out to play and when it does, make sure you are ready for it!

We have some great Outdoor Accessories at Soulful Toaster, perfect for BBQ's at the beach, chillin' in the park, or even just relaxing in your own back garden!

First Blog Of Many!

So, we have pondered the idea of creating a Soulful Toaster blog for some time... and, finally, here it is.

We aim to provide a source of inspiration for the latest and greatest products, design, artwork, events and generally, anything which catches our eye.

We hope you enjoy, and hope we do too!