Where is your desk from?

It’s a really old desk from some offices on Elizabeth Street, which were being cleared out when we moved into the shop. It creaks and groans a bit but has a perfect central drawer to hide my scanner. It has lots of lovely worn areas from age… I love it!

What things have you got on it?

I have a calendar (‘Pools, People and Purpose’) from Margaret Howell, a great card from my MD by Hazel Bee (my favourite card designer of the moment), a pair of vintage tiles with flowers and tropical fish on them and an old postcard of an indoor plant auction.

And the fish bowl?

Two goldfish, Ingrid and Marmaduke, have pride of place on my desk. They make me laugh and I find them quite calming swimming round and round in their bowl.

Do you have any specific stationery, notebooks, pencils you like to keep handy?

I always seem to have 2 or 3 notebooks on the go at any one time. I tend to use A5 journals, as these are very handy to carry with me (we have some rather nice ones in our autumn stationary collection coming soon!). I use black Bic biros often but much prefer a pencil (sharpened with a craft knife not a pencil sharpener) and rubber, and I have a very special pen my mum bought me for Christmas for signing important stuff (contracts & deals etc).

A favourite mug?

A Lisa Stickley ‘tremendously tall mug’ in old blue superstripe.

Have you found a good chair?

In terms of posture I probably have a very bad chair as I don’t really like the look of standard office chairs. At the moment it is a painted wooden kitchen chair with a bottle green leatherette seat. I found it in a junk shop in Bournemouth and carried it back on the train!

Do you have a view from your desk?

We have a small back yard space outside where we sometimes grow veggies in wooden crates. My office window overlooks this and it isn’t the greatest view in the world but is very nice when the sun shines.

What are you working on at the moment?

We are just signing off final samples for Spring 2011 – I always get excited when working on new collections. I have also been developing some rather nice hand towels for Anthropologie in the US and I also have interviews and PR events galore for my ‘House and Home’ collection for Debenhams, and Lisa Stickley for TATE. This week we’re working on my book launch, ‘Made at Home’. We are planning a rather fantastical party/ knees up/ bubbly event in the Clapham shop for the 1^st July (4pm – 8pm) where I shall be signing books and chatting to the folk who pop along.