Tourist trappings: why we all love a tacky souvenir fridge magnet

Miniature clogs, pretzel paperweights, tiny cathedrals… What do our kitsch holiday mementoes tell us about modern tourism – and ourselves?

There is a magnet shaped like Finland, a bottle opener adorned with Austrian edelweiss and an “I Dubai” mug that all come from the very same place. In Charles Zhao’s factory in Wenzhou, China, sentimental markers of places visited and sights seen are made, sold and shipped around the world. There’s a comedy apron that looks like lederhosen; an embroidered badge of Santorini; a keyring shaped like a London bus.

Fifteen years ago, Zhao gave up an “enviable civil service job” to start his company, Talmud. He began by printing promotional gifts – fridge magnets and coasters adorned with the logos of different businesses. But the promotional gifts industry is turbulent, Zhao says, “because the real big brands change their promotion plans almost every year”. He looked for something more stable. He turned to souvenirs.

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Castle life: what’s next for Escape to the Chateau’s Dick and Angel?

Eight years after taking on the renovation of a lifetime in rural France, are the Strawbridges still full of joie de vivre?

Do you know how sexy plumbing is?” asks Dick Strawbridge. “It’s not! But it’s so, so important,” he laughs. Actually, corrects his wife, Angel, “our thermal store is a sexy thing, it’s like the London Underground, but in copper. It’s really quite incredible.”

The Strawbridges and their bubbly banter need little introduction. Their smash-hit show, Escape to the Château, which has aired on Channel 4 for the past six years, has seen millions of viewers tune in to follow the couple as they set about restoring the 150-year-old Château de la Motte-Husson to its former glory.

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‘You do see a bit of Jackson Pollock in it’: the country pub with a striking Nicky Winmar artwork

In a new series sharing stories of artwork in Australian homes and businesses, Pat Furze shows the painting by the AFL great that has a special place in his regional pub

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You’d expect the walls of a country pub to be decorated with sporting memorabilia or old photos – and, to a large extent, Castlemaine’s Bridge Hotel, in regional Victoria, is just like that.

But on the wall, in the back room, hangs a striking abstract work of art.

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Editor Marisa Kashino took your questions about our new expanded home coverage

Marisa Kashino joined Jura Koncius on Thursday, Oct. 27, to talk about The Post's new line of coverage, The Home You Own, which features service-oriented stories about living spaces.

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An Autumn Tea

Hello everyone, I hope you are all enjoying beautiful October weather! We are still working on cleaning up after Fiona and also doing our fall garden cleanup. We have settled back into our home and have been working on some new projects indoors. However, we did take a few days off and drove up to Quebec City and enjoyed the beautiful fall foliage. Taking time out to enjoy an

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Melted Candy Cane Crafts For The Holidays

This roundup of crafts is all about the Candy Cane. This holiday candy is not just for eating, check out these DIY tutorials for using candy canes to create new and exciting crafts for the holiday season.

One of the hardest things with working with candy canes when it comes to DIY is actually opening them. I mean has anyone figured out how to get the shrink wrap off successfully? if so please share your tips below on the best way to open a candy cane.

Meantime, here are my top finds for crafts, some of these use melted candy canes whilst other tutorials just glue them together to form a wreath or holder.

Peppermint Candy Christmas Platter — CraftBits.com

Candy Cane Hearts — CraftBits.com

Fun (and EASY) Christmas Crafts to Make with Peppermints | Heavenly Homemakers

Candy Cane Candlesticks Craft – My Turn for Us

Melted Peppermint Candy Ornaments

How to Make Peppermint Candy Ornaments – An Alli Event 

Peppermint and Candy Cane Wreath – Sweet Pea

Table Centrepiece – Candy Cane Candle holder — CraftBits.com 

My top tips for melting candy canes are as follows, always use baking paper to help move the design around easily and it saves your oven pans too. I also invested in these heatproof cooking gloves. I use them for hot glue work as well.

I often get asked if you can melt candy cans in a microwave. Yes, you can microwave candy canes. Simply place your candy canes in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on 50% power for 1 minute, check then repeat. I find the melt time varies by brand so experiment until you find the right amount of time for your candy cane.

Broken candy canes are the easiest to melt and can be added to a double boiler to melt down, stirring constantly.

I popped my candy canes in the oven at  250F  for 10 minutes, checking every few minutes. This is where the heatproof gloves come in handy as you can press and poke the candy canes to see if they are malleable yet.

Candy canes are a well-known Christmas emblem. Their festive red and white stripes decorate houses and trees while their minty aroma tempts taste senses.

Candy canes are the most popular non-chocolate candy throughout the month of December, selling 90% of them between American Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to the National Confectionery Association, a U.S.-based organisation that represents the confectionery business.

Here is the

Legend of the Candy cane

Candy Cane Story

Jesus Gentle Shepherd,
this cane of red and white
proclaims the sweet love story
born on Christmas night

This cane, you see, when turned around
begins your name of Love
and now becomes a symbol
of peace proclaimed above
The lively peppermint flavor
is the regal gift of spice
The white is your purity
and the red your sacrifice

And so this cane reminds us
of just how much you care
and like your Christmas Gift to us
it’s meant for all to share

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Where all the birds have gone this year – a garden survey | Letters

Readers respond to a letter writer who was afraid that the hot summer had wiped out a generation of small birds

The paucity of birds in Mary Julian’s Hackney garden (Letters, 18 October) is perhaps a problem of the metropolis. Here in Newcastle on the day after her letter was published we enjoyed our usual great tit, blue tit, coal tit, gold finch, chaffinch, green finch, dunnock, blackbird, robin, starling, wood pigeon and ring-necked parakeet. The weekend before, we had wren, bullfinch, jackdaw, crow and a pair of long-tailed tits; and earlier that week, we had a greater spotted woodpecker and a couple of visits by the neighbourhood sparrowhawk.
Reg and Val Hall
Newcastle upon Tyne

• Perhaps the birds missing from Mary Julian’s garden have migrated five miles north-west to Crouch End. Our garden feeders regularly attract goldfinches, nuthatches, robins, dunnocks, jays, great tits, wood pigeons, blackbirds – and parakeets.
Judith and Malcolm Abbs
Crouch End, London

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How to turn up the colour on autumn’s amazing show | James Wong

Brilliant reds, yellows and oranges are the eyecatching hues of the season. Here’s how to make the most of them

Everyone has one of those seemingly indestructible friends. You know, the ones who run marathons in heatwaves, go sea swimming in the depths of winter, and whatever the weather somehow manage to have an enormous, earth-motherly smile on their face while doing it. So, when I was invited to the October wedding of two such friends, held in a gathering of tents in a Welsh forest, where the activities included lake swimming and outdoor log saunas, my poor, tropical physiology was braced for the worst.

However, from the moment I arrived, just as the leaves flushed their autumnal shades, I was overcome by their incredible uplifting power, made all the more intense by the amount of time spent around them – and so jaw-droppingly beautiful that I barely noticed the chill. We gardeners spend so much time fixated on improving the size and quality of flowers, fruit and veg, it really got me wondering what we could do to improve the drama of autumn leaves.

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‘I call it Afro-Aristo’: the reinvention of a Georgian worker’s cottage

An old London bakery built in 1750 is now an eclectic home filled with representations of Black womanhood

My interiors look was driven by a desire to celebrate our family’s dual Nigerian and Caribbean heritage,” says Kemi Lawson. Her new home is set in a Grade II-listed Georgian worker’s cottage on the northern edges of London. It was formerly a bakery providing goods to the estate of the Duke of Chandos and was built around 1750. Lawson lives here with her husband and daughters, and also runs her business from here – a home and lifestyle goods store, The Cornrow, a curated selection of items “tailored to a modern Black aesthetic”.

When the family bought the house, it had “good bones”, but was in need of an interior refresh. Lawson employed her passion for antiques and contemporary design celebrating African and Caribbean culture, styling it in a way that felt joyful and comfortable, but also confident and life-affirming. “I have two daughters,” Lawson says, “so I wanted to fill my home with positive representations of Blackness and Black womanhood.”

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What makes paint bubble and peel, and how can I fix it?

The most likely cause is moisture. It's important to address the underlying issue before you repair the paint.

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‘Bees get all the credit’: slugs and snails among 2023 Chelsea flower show stars

Royal Entomological Society to sponsor garden in effort to show importance of less glamorous creepy-crawlies

Stag beetles and hornets will be among the stars of Chelsea flower show next year as horticulturalists encourage people to welcome invertebrates into the garden.

Bumblebees and butterflies tend to get a lot of press, but in a 2023 garden sponsored by the Royal Entomological Society, less glamorous creepy-crawlies will take centre stage.

Don’t use pesticides. Massey says: “It’s about creating balance. Ladybirds eat aphids, for example, both are valuable in their own right, but it’s about being patient – if you get aphids causing a problem, don’t panic and spray them but know a ladybird will come soon and gobble them up. Create a garden that is attractive to all kinds of life.”

Embrace mess. “We don’t need to tidy everything up to the maximum degree … there has to be some kind of movement towards a looser, I suppose more patient style of gardening. Leave some leaves on the floor, don’t tidy everything up,” Massey says.

Welcome weeds. “Dandelions, for example, are a good source for insects and are actually a really attractive flower. Yes, they can sow seed everywhere but you can allow them to spread around and it creates less work for us and it’s very beneficial for wildlife at the same time.”

Accept and enjoy garden life. “Slugs and snails have been demonised but they are actually really important in breakdown of material and a food source for other types of animals that are more desirable, like frogs or toads. Be a bit more accepting of new sorts of life forms and maybe if you look at them closer, and you know more about them through things like science, they become more interesting and more fascinating and more appealing.”

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BEFORE AND AFTER

OK....so I have a small before and after for you today.  You might have seen on Instagram but I can give you a few details....and lets face it.....you like a pretty picture but in the end you want to know the why and how...am I right? A long time client wanted some things zhushed before having company.  Oh...and one other small detail....I had about 6 weeks to get it done! I already posted

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Where have all the garden birds gone this year? | Letter

Mary Julian wonders if the hot summer has wiped out the birds she would normally see in her east London garden in autumn

You report on a warning from the Royal Horticultural Society about the effect that the recent exceptionally hot summer has had on plants (14 October). But where have all the garden birds gone? We can usually see finches, jays, wrens, sparrows and robins in our garden, which is full of berries and seeds at this time of year. This autumn there are none. I fear the heat has wiped out a generation of small birds. Is this a problem in other cities?
Mary Julian
Hackney, London

• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

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How to get the most value out of your kitchen renovation

Expert advice on getting the best return on investment from your kitchen remodel, and making smart design choices that will add value to your home.

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African express: a dramatic apartment in Cape Town

Eye-catching artworks, bold colours and a fearless approach to design make for an inspirational home in the heart of South Africa’s oldest city

It was perhaps inevitable that sculptor Rodan Kane Hart and his partner, interior curator Maybe Corpaci, would treat their home as an experimental space. As much a home, studio and refuge, it is also a constantly evolving creative outlet for their ideas and collections of art and design.

On the sixth floor at the top of a 1930s building, originally built for a shipping company, the apartment is in Cape Town’s central business district. A polished granite plinth, ornate turret and richly decorated cornice speak of an era of opulence and prosperity. The black and white marble entrance hall leads to a teak-panelled shipping room, while arched doorways and parquet floors are found throughout. Rodan and Maybe were attracted as much by the grandeur – allowing Rodan to have his studio at home, as well as providing ample space for furniture – as by the period detailing.

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After Hurricane Fiona

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. As many of you know PEI was hit pretty hard by Fiona in a way we have never seen here before.   This is the first time I have had internet since Fiona hit 3 weeks ago. We were at our cottage for the storm and I have to say it was a bit scary as the winds shook our little cottage for hours on end. It didn't make for a good night's sleep! When

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‘It was unloved and used to mop up paint spills’: resurrecting a rejected Florence Broadhurst print

In a new series sharing stories of the artwork in Australian homes, Clare Delaney shows the used drop sheet that’s been given a second chance in her lounge room

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Ten years ago, when she turned 30, Clare Delaney was given a $250 gift voucher from her siblings to buy a piece of art.

She wandered into a shop in Sydney licensed to sell prints of the famed Australian painter and wallpaper and fabrics designer Florence Broadhurst.

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Want affordable vintage home items? Here’s how to thrift wisely.

Virginia Chamlee joined Jura Koncius for a chat about thrifting for furniture and home accessories.

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Common reasons your houseplants are dying — and how to help them

Got a sad-looking monstera or a droopy snake plant? Here are eight common ways you may be killing your houseplants and what you can do to save them.

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11 Easy To Follow Macrame Leaf Tutorials

These tutorials are all for Macrame Leaf or Leaves, but they are commonly referred to as Macrame feathers too. The same technique is used for making both the leaves and the macrame feathers. You can use the same tutorials to achieve the same look.

A type of cloth called macramé is made by employing knotting methods. The square and several “hitching” styles—combinations of half-hitches—are the two main knots used in macramé.

There are a wide variety of natural and synthetic macrame fibers you can use to create macramé in fact one of the tutorials below uses a dollar tree mop head .

I have included some video tutorials for those of you who are more of a visual learner and some written tutorials for those who like to follow along in old school print style crafting techniques (yep that is me)

How to Make a DIY Macrame Leaf/Feather (Using a Dollar Tree Mophead)  

DIY Macrame Leaf Earrings Tutorial – Craftsy Hacks 

Aleene’s Original Glues – How To Make a Macrame Leaf with Fabric Stiffener

DIY Macrame Tutorial: How To Make A Large Macrame Feather/Leaf

DIY Macramé Leaf 

DIY Macrame Tutorial – 3 Ways to Make Leaves/Feathers

DIY Macramé Feather or Leaf | How to Make Rope Knot Ornaments : 8 Steps (with Pictures) – Instructables

DIY Macrame Feathers – Easy Step By Step Guide – Decorhint – Decor + DIY

DIY Macrame Feathers/Leaves – Simply Ummiby

 

So who invented Macrame? Many believe the term “macrame” comes from the Arabic word ​migramah​, or “fringe.” is is believed that the first known “macrameers,” were 13th-century Arabic weavers .

The earliest forms of macramé can be found in the carvings for Assyrians and Babylonian cultures.

Macrame was also really popular in the 70s, my mother used to make macrame owls and plant hangers. She used to sell her Macrame wears at the local craft markets and even created some macrame vests using leather fringing.

 

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6 strategies for creating counter space where there is none

Professional home organizers share cheap and easy ways to declutter and maximize counter space in small kitchens and bathrooms.

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John Sutcliffe obituary

My brother-in-law John Sutcliffe, who has died aged 78 of cancer, managed to construct a career and a life around his passion for colour and for the domestic design of earlier centuries. Unusually for an interior designer, in his later freelance commissions he did the work himself, mixing the paints to his own palette of pigments and applying them in a wide variety of finishes. He also made important contributions to the Farrow & Ball range of colours.

John was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, to Holman, a shipbroker, barrister and founder member of the conservation organisation the Georgian Group, and Sheila (nee Frowd), a writer. He went to Winchester college and then to St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read first architecture and then fine art, graduating in 1965. His first main job, from 1968 to 1973, was as the East Anglian historic buildings representative for the National Trust, based at Blickling Hall in Norfolk.

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Passion project: the passive house that raised the roof on sustainable living

A family home constructed on derelict land in Melbourne sets new standards for a hard-working eco house

The overlooked plot that Marc and Felicity Bernstein-Hussmann ended up building a house on was deemed unfit for construction use by their local council in Melbourne, Australia, and so they faced extreme hesitancy from any bank to lend for development. Despite this, they pushed on with plans, even moving into a motorhome for four years while they went through the planning and saving process for their new home. Their tenacity was rewarded when both the council and bank U-turned, and their dream became a reality.

But what started life as a wedge-shaped piece of derelict wasteland – situated next to a 10-storey apartment block, double-storey housing site and a busy train line in Coburg, Melbourne – has been transformed by the couple into a modern passive house.

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‘I’m proud of us in the picture’: a family portrait captures laughter in lockdown

In a new series sharing stories about the artwork in Australian homes, Alice Gage shows the painting she commissioned for her husband’s birthday

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Alice Gage’s family portrait originated as an idea to celebrate family life post-lockdown.

“Like all families, we went through a lot during Covid – when the pandemic started our daughter was three, and our son was only five months old, so we basically spent his first two years in our back yard,” says Gage, who lives in Sydney’s Arncliffe. “It was really hard, but there was a lot of joy in it, too. David built a treehouse. We pitched the tent and had fires. We cooked a lot outside.”

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An expert answered your questions about how to get the Modern Farmhouse look on a budget.

Amalia Graziani and Jura Koncius took questions about how to get the modern farmhouse look at home, without spending a fortune.

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6 big answers for home buyers now that interest rates are soaring

With high interest rates, buying a house is more complicated. We have answers about refinancing when rates go down, cashing out stocks or retirement accounts, and how much house you can (really) afford to buy right now.

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Tropical plants in Europe don’t need ice cubes – whatever social media might say | James Wong

The increasingly popular idea that tropical plants should be watered with ice cubes doesn’t transfer to the European living room

About 10 years ago, I went to a truly amazing horticultural show just outside Amsterdam. It was an exhibition by the very best houseplant growers of their newest creations all displayed on ultra-glossy stands. Right at the centre of the event space was what looked like an enormous music video set with theatrically oversized 1950s-style fridges on podiums. Between these were huge faux ice sculptures, and metre-high martini glasses filled to the brim with plastic ice cubes, all in Miami Vice lighting in shades of pink and blue. You might wonder what this all had to do with horticulture, until I explain that pouring out of all these props were the most immaculate Phalaenopsis orchids with a giant neon sign saying: “Just add ice”. The idea was that the easiest way to water orchids is to simply add three ice cubes to their pot once a week and presumably, by extension, demonstrating how simple these plants were to care for.

More than a decade later, the message of this campaign still echoes over social media, magazines and in overheard conversations at garden centres. But where does the idea that tropical plants should be watered with ice come from?

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A designer’s Paris home showcases styles and periods working together

The elegant home of Samantha Hauvette combines 1930s touches with a 1970s vibe and a patinated modernism

‘Mostly my home is about catering to the ‘Aperol hour’,” laughs Samantha Hauvette. “There are comfortable spaces and cushions in the living room where you can sit on the floor and gather friends together and low tables that you can stick snacks on.”

What you will actually find on entering the Paris home she shares with her husband, Swan, and their three children, Achille, May and Gaia, is the richness of Barbara Hepworth-inspired curves – and a paean to Ricardo Boffil’s Brutalist architecture and Donald Judd’s furniture. Hauvette is one half of the French design studio Hauvette & Madani, whose magpie approach to design deftly weaves references from the 1930s and 1970s to create elegant interiors with a patinated modernism.

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