Twee Art // The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes

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 It's been a quite a while since we gave you a tour around Twee Towers, so we thought that it was high time that we shared some more of the art that we have hanging around! We've recently added new prints to our studio by English illustrator, Alan Aldridge.

For those who haven't heard of Aldridge, he was one of the key graphic designers of the mid-century and during the Sixties & Seventies it would have been an extremely difficult mission to escape his kaleidoscopic, vaudervillic (is that a word? if not, it's being coined right now) creations. His CV is simply ridiculous; he was made Art Director of Penguin books, bringing surreal, pyschedelic sensibilities to their Science Fiction titles, he famously won a drawing competition with a slightly manical Savildor Dali whilst waiting an airport, and to top it all off, designed artwork and lyric books for the likes of The Beatles, The Who & The Rolling Stones. Phew.

We first discovered Aldridge's work a few years back upon buying The Beatles' illustrated lyrics book (if you don't own, you must!) and recently, Lauren invested in The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes as a gift for James' Christmas, completely unselfishly we might add.


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His style is an illustration of the Sixties, defining the age through an LSD fuelled carnival of surrealism, imagined dystopias and fantastical explosions of colour! Leading visually rather than textually, Aldridge's work tells a multitude of stories. It takes intertextuality to the extreme, toying with perspective and layering reference over reference, to the point where it bends your mind and hurts your eyes. At once, both graphically bold and artfully intricate. Just how we like our art!


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So yeah, it's safe to say that we successfully brightened up & revitalised our studio with a little help from Aldridge's prints, and just in time for Twee Towers' year anniversary!


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Much love,

L&R xx

DIY Love // Fabric Wall Decals

Happy Sunday Sweets,



Rhi here today, bringing you a quick DIY post. As I mentioned in Little M's Room Tour the cowboy theme is one that I had been planning for a long time ahead of our move to Twee Towers, and I have been gathering coordinating fabrics and accessories since he was just a few months old!

Among my cowboy fabric stash was some beautiful bandana style paisley that I wanted to keep for something special, this morning I decided the time was now and I was going to use them for some awesome fabric wall decals. This is such a quick and simple DIY and it looks amazing, perfect way to really individualise a child's room and make it their own!




Step 1: Iron out your fabric and draw out your shape. You can use a stencil to help you with this. Cut it out and iron again to ensure it is flat!



Step 2: Boil up some water. Put 1 tablespoon of cornstarch into a bowl and and 2 tablespoons of water to make a paste. Gradually add 1 cup of boiling water stirring as you go.

Step 3: Wet your fabric through with the mixture (we did this in the bath as the sticker was quite big, can use a tray for smaller decals), use a sponge and soak out the excess so that the decal isn't dripping.



Step 4: Smooth decal onto the wall, starting in one corner, smoothing out with a dry sponge as you go.
If you have these sorts of frayed edges use a paint brush dipped in the mixture to smooth them down and hide them.



and finished! The opposite wall in M's room is bare at the moment, so contemplating a much bigger decal and/or a wild west town scene of some sort... Will be sure to show you whatever I decide to do with it!

Much love,
Rhi & Little M xx

Oh Christmas Twee, Oh Christmas Twee

Eee, day has arrived twee-ettes & twee-gents, we succumbed to our overwhelming excitement for Christmas and put up the Twee Towers Christmas Tree! Yay! Well, we might have actually put the tree up a couple of nights ago as we couldn't wait a moment longer, we think we heard the baubles calling our names, but now we can let you have a proper glimpse.

We'd like to take a moment to thank our mothers, for bestowing us with a keen eye for precise positioning and unfaltering perfectionism. It was worth all the times that you undone our own creative work, lovingly but obsessively re-arranging the bauble after us after as, taking with us invaluable tips on the art of the tree. So would you like a look sweets...?

In choosing the colour scheme we were hugely influenced by our mood board for our first men's collection, 'He Dressed in Black' and searched out decorations in forest green and gold with a hint of purple. We wanted to keep the colour scheme quite traditional to keep it looking quite classy whilst allowing us to special trinkets and unique DIYS.


The musical theme was created quite by accident, we didn't realise how many music related pieces we had picked up until we started putting them on the tree... funnily enough, exactly the same thing happened when the lovely Zoe designed our blog - incorporating subtle snippets of Beatles lyrics into the page! How cute is the gold sparkly treble clef decoration!


Our very own handmade paperback DIY baubles - stand out perfectly on the tree for a little extra quirk, we think!


More musical notation decorations, placed between pretty bows, acorns & sparkly green and purple baubles!


Antique keys!




Twee Towers' DIY Beatles lyric baubles!


Our twinkling Tree. We got the seal of approval from Little M in the morning as he gasped a sleepy 'WOW'.






We made an eclectic window dressing with a few bigger baubles, acorns and couple of antique keys, tied with ribbon in olive green, mint green and gold!




For the centre-piece of the fireplace, we collected a few cute christmas ornaments and arranged in glass vases.


We also made these sweet smaller versions in jam jars filled with glitter.

Mr Bagshaw's peter pan collar card DIY also makes an appearance on the fireplace!


You can re-create our collection of paper christmas tree cones in just a few easy steps... 1. Use something spherical to draw around for the perfect circle shape in a few alternating sizes on to your chosen paper (depending on the display you're hoping to achieve) 2. Split the circle in to thirds and cut out a third to use for each cone. 3. Fold the paper round to make a cone shape and glue in place using PVA 4. Decorate as you please! We used a mixture of glitter, buttons and sparkles for ours!
We're loving turning to Twee Towers in to our own winter wonderland! Hope you all have a lovely weekend sweets. Remember, to check by tomorrow to win a beautiful piece of jewellery for yourself or as a gift for a loved one... we're honoured to be hosting a super special giveaway for the fabulous Eclectic Eccentricity! 'Citing.
Much love, L&R xx

Twee towers Tour // Twee Touches

This past week at Twee Towers we've been sprucing the house up and giving the place a fresh lease of life for the new season... We thought we'd share some of the little touches we've added, and some you may have not spotted when we did our Twee Towers Tours before...

Little M & The Boss got some treats lately - A lovely Hot Air Balloon plaque for the Playroom door from Purple Panda Crafts for Little M. Brucey's bowl could not be more fitting for one that rules the roost such as he, regally and emblazened with his nickname, 'The Boss'



A lovely picnic blanket used as a rug ties all the colours in the studio together and brings a bit of cosyness by covering the stone tiles.




Some things new - somethings missed! We've put a 'I only loved you for your Record Player' print in the living room from our Ex Boyfriend series in the Living Room and a Sundae glass of buttons that we'll be using for the collection is a pretty feature on the unit in the studio. We missed showing you our scrapbook style framed instagrammed pictures - great way of displaying your favourite instagrammed photos! And no idea how we managed to forget showing off this Beatles Music Box, a beautiful gift from Lola to Little M on his Christening day. Best Godmama!



We've set out a sewing corner in the studio now so we're always ready to go in the evenings and make pieces for the collection (and the many vintage alterations we've been putting off for ages!)




Finally - we love the new curtains in the living room, they've added so much warmth to the room, it was lovely having that space open and fresh during the summer months but it feels so much toastier in the evenings with the windows looking all dressed and lovely. We've started to add touches of pinks and adding to the vintage florals with cushions on the sofa, breaking up the cool blues and greys.
The war of the Worlds record has been sitting proudly as a feature in the fireplace ever since our Space Edition of the After Dinner Dance Party reminded us how much we love Jeff Wayne's musical masterpiece!

Hope you like our little Twee Touches :) There are more sweet little Autumn/Fall things to show off - as well as a super exciting Halloween feature week next week - oooh exciting, we love this time of year!

Don't forget to check out our wishlists of more things we want for Twee Towers tomorrow!

Much love,

R&L xx

Twee Towers Tour // Rhi's Bedroom

Last but not least - time for a quick looksie round Rhi's room before we bring the Twee Towers Tour to a close.

Pretty, bright and fresh was the look I was going for... I've always had such cluttered busy spaces in the past, so for a change I wanted something much more minimal and simple. With bright colours and striking graphics, with sweet girly touches from beautiful throws and pillows and colour pop frames... My room is by no means finished yet, a few touches need adding and furniture makeovers (pine chest and bedside stool beware, you'll be meeting my good friend 'paint brush' very soon...) - and I'm saving for an Eames style chair to replace the archaic wicker one I've had forever... but hope you enjoy having a little nosey anyway...






The Dressing table, I keep some of my future reads on here to keep me excited about what I've got coming up next. 500 Days of Summer is one of my favourite films so the alternative graphic movie poster was one of my favourite Etsy finds. I painted the geometric triangles in watercolours a few weeks ago when little M and I were having an art day....





Little M's Masterpiece... I'm not one of those Mama's who constantly brags and boasts about every single little thing their little one does... BUT, M is quite clearly an artistic genius...



My beloved feature wall, I've never seen a prettier shade of orange. Makes me so happy every time I walk into my room. (say "Hello" to the boss, chilling on the end of my bed there!)



Do you want to hear something slightly tragic? Ever since I left home at 18 I've been on a mission to find the perfect bedding, the search proved fruitless for nearly 5 years, until at long last, this summer I found the most beautiful white bedding with crochet detail in H&M! Dreamy! Etsy'd Chevron cushions break up the girlyness a little and the coral throw was a lucky TK Maxx score!



The obligatory chevron print as runs the theme in Twee Towers. Alongside it a quote from my favourite song of all time, 'America' by Simon and Garfunkel and I photoshopped a classic Bridget Riley Op-Art piece from the 60s to tie in with the colours of the other prints.



There are always books on my bedside stool, whatever my latest read is. I'm starting The Great Gatsby tonight. Ooh and I love my Laurence Llewelyn Bowen lampshade, I bought it about 6 years ago but its always tied into my homes no matter how they've been decorated!



I'm responsible for about 99% of the decorative frames dotted about Twee Towers... Can't.stop.buying.them! The 2 pictures on display, pride of place on my window sill are of Little M at just 4 weeks old, dressed as a leopard (N'aw!) and one of my favourite pictures of my Daddy & I from when I was little. The sill also houses an array of trinkets I've collected over the years.



I was lucky enough to bagsy the room with the ensuite bathroom, I've not done anything exciting with it yet to be honest, just hung a picture from a Moomins book (love!) and put all my prettiest cosmetics and perfumes out on display!



All that's left to show you is a sneaky peak in my closets! I have 2 and since ticking off the colour-coordination goal on our AW list I now have 2 incredibly organised 'Pastels and Lights' and 'Darks and Brights' closets. So I can easily choose from which ever hue happens to be taking my fancy that day.

Well... That's all for the Twee Towers Tours folks. Have you enjoyed them? We hope you have! Now that you've had a sneaky peak at all the nooks and cranny's we'll be starting some new features... and sharing some DIYs once while we try and add all those little finishing touches!

Much love sweets.

R&L xx