Chelsea Flower Show inspiration

We’ve gone a bit floral here at Rumour Towers! And we’re all ready to celebrate the centenary of the brilliantly British Chelsea Flower Show and have put together some products inspired by the world’s most famous flower festival:

 

David Austin Garden and Home

We have new client news!

Well, for those that know us it’s not exactly new, but we are able to officially announce that we are working with the world famous David Austin Roses on the PR for their Garden & Home range.

We are very excited to be working with them – David Austin Roses is a family firm, and one of the oldest and most established rose breeders in the world.

The Garden and Home range was launched last year at The Chelsea Flower Show, and has been very well received in the press so far. The company is working hard at the moment planning their stand for this year – which is of particular importance as 2013 celebrates 100 years of The Chelsea Flower Show.

Their Garden and Home collection features beautiful ceramics using images of their English Roses, and toiletries using British rosewater harvested from their annual crops. Their garden tools and accessories (below) make perfect presents for the David Austin enthusiast.

The head office and rose gardens are in the village of Albrighton in Shropshire and are absolutely stunning – beautiful blooms as far as the eye can see during the summer months. We can’t wait to visit again!

posted by Ruth (@mrshorse)

Screen-printing with Thornback & Peel

Earlier this month we had some screen-printing fun at the Thornback & Peel studio. When Juliet Thornback and Delia Peel kindly gave a few of our blogger friends a masterclass in the art of screen-printing. Allowing a peek into the precision and care taken to make each Thornback & Peel product.

So Juliet, Delia and all the friendly T&P team kindly taught us about screen-printing, the very best way…by letting us print our very own cushion – just in time for Mother’s Day or Easter gifts. Or, y’know, just to take home!

Firstly we also tried our hands at printing cards as a trial run before cushion D Day. Beetles and Birds were printed on greetings cards as everyone honed their skills for pressure and precision.

We then all had the chance to choose one of T&P’s fabrics, to print with either a grey Rabbit or petrol blue Sea Bream. After much debating and a few last minute changes (the choice between polka dots sizes can be surprisingly hard!) we were ready to print…

We then got our hands on the squeegee (official screen-printing term) and got screen-printing, guided by expert printers Emma and Penni from T&P.

Everyone did a stirling good job at printing – we particularly loved everyone’s smiles as they saw their prints!

Rumour girls included – as you can see our Soph did a mighty fine job on her Sea Bream print.

Then Scarlet and Dan from T&P very kindly and speedily sewed up everyone’s cushions in record time. Extra big thanks for that!

The evening ended with a hop around the corner to Thornback & Peel’s new shop on 7 Rugby Street.

Where everyone had the chance to browse the full T&P collection while refreshing after a hard evening of printing with delicious homemade food made by the T&P team.

Meringues were very much enjoyed by all!

Thanks to everyone for coming along! And, of course, thanks to all the T&P team for letting us take over for a night, for sharing your printing skills and feeding the gang with such lovely food.

Here are almost all the finished products completed and resting happily in their new homes from: Alicja (We Heart), Miranda (Achica Living), Jessica (House & Garden), Katy  (The Lady), Lucy (Shiny Thoughts), Rosanna (Oh Comely), Will (Bright Bazaar), Tamara (Country Days), Kate (The Fabric of my Life), Alice (Home Shopping Spy) and finally team Rumour’s cushions too!:

Easter Giveaways

We’re happy to have Easter competitions coming out of our bunny ears.

If you fancy your chances of winning some lovely Easter treats then get clicking and enter these super competitions.

Click on the images for more information on how to enter.

And here is our Easter press alert with lots of great Easter goodies.

Mother’s Day gift ideas

It’s always good to have an excuse to make a mum’s day. So on Sunday 10th March what better way than to surprise a mum with these Mother’s Day gift ideas from our lovely brands? Take a look below at our choice of pressies for perfect for mums who like to slurp tea or scoff sweets, and just generally get spoiled rotten.

Valentine’s Day gift hints

As much as we pretend to bah-humbug about Valentine’s Day, we’re all a bit soppy at heart (really) here at Rumour Towers.

So if we find any of these Valentine’s gift ideas from our clients appearing on 14th February we’d be very happy indeed:

It’s 2013!

We’re well and truly into 2013 now. So far we’ve expanded our office into a new space (sad to not be sharing the office with Anorak anymore), we’ve been to a number of trade fairs (including Maison et Objet in Paris) and more than a few meetings.

2013 doesn’t have the same exciting ring to it as 2012 did so it felt like a slow start but on reflection we’ve got lots to look forward to and big aspirations for our clients.

Here are some of the random things we’re looking forward to in 2013 (without giving too much away and in no particular order)…

- Release of the Great Gatsby movie for Amy and Mel

- Glastonbury in June for Ruth (She was the first in line for tickets)

- More 10k races for all of us (in Bristol for Susan)

- New Game of Thrones coming out for Ruth

- One Direction at the O2 for Sophie (It was our birthday present to her last year)

- Many weddings and hen-dos for Sophie

- Getting super fit and healthy for Susan

- Ski holiday for Mel

- Buying a first home for Amy (and her boyfriend)

- A sunny Summer (fingers crossed) for all of us

- An Isle of Wight campervan holiday for Susan (yeah we’re all jealous too)

- Celebrating 150 years of the London Underground

- Chelsea Flower Show centenary (It will be our first time visiting the show)

- Many of our friends having babies and we can’t forget the Royal baby due this Summer (the media won’t let us forget).

- A new lunch/kitchen space in the office for all of us (You should have seen our excitement when we got our microwave for the first time)

- and of course all the fantastic new collections from all of our clients including some exciting collaborations in the pipeline.