Summer Sale

exclusive

The heat has gone to our heads over at Ashley Thomas HQ  we are offering huge discounts for a limited time only.

You can now get 30% off everything online at www.ashleythomas.co.uk until the end of the month. All our products are handmade and printed in England. From greeting cards to notebooks, fine china mugs, handmade tea towels and cushions.
View the full range now and get your
exclusive discount with this code:
Summer16

My Travels: Miami

South Beach
In part two of my epic adventure to America, we flew into MIA for a few days before hitting the road for the final part of our holiday. We stayed on South Beach near 2nd Street. It feels more residential at this end of Miami Beach. The middle is a little crazy with tourists and people partying, which isn't my thing anymore really. It was very different than I imagined Miami to be. I guess I was expecting it to have a posher vibe about it, I thought it would be full of models sipping cocktails is super cool bars, middle aged men in supercars, I guess a kind of St. Tropez feel. But it wasn't like this at all. It was a bit run down really, I guess years of being a party town has taking it's toll. The sunsets over the harbour where break-taking, the colours are unbelievable, my photos really don't do it justice. The beach is just perfect with silky soft white sand, tall palm trees and adorable wooded life guard stations. I loved all the art deco buildings too, it's like stepping into the 1920's It's just a shame that many of the beautiful buildings are now cheesy bars and tacky souvenir shops! Miami is the perfect gateway to The Florida Keys so from here we hit the road on Highway 1. An unbelievable road built over the ocean, connecting sleepy islands together (The Keys). I'll be posting some inspirational photos I gathered of Key West in my next post, so stay tuned.







My Travels: New York

First timer guide to New York
I've recently returned from an epic adventure to America. We did a little tour of the East coast, New York, Miami and the Florida Keys. I took so many pictures I'm going to split each location into a post. So today I'm starting with New York.

I've always dreamed of going to New York from watching scenes in films and TV shows most of my life. So many amazing things are filmed in NY. From Friends to Sex and the city, Ghostbusters to I Am Legend and a countless number of other films that are shot there. It's such an iconic, historic city and a must see city of the world. As I turned the big 30 this year I wanted to escape and celebrate/commiserate in a far away land so what better place to do it than New York!

As a first timer to New York I was desperate to cram in as much as possible into our 4 nights in the big apple. I've put together some snaps of our favourite spots. We did a couple of walking tours from this Lonely Planet book, which was great as we saw so much of the city just walking around. She didn't disappoint with iconic looking streets of West Village, the bright lights of Times Square, humorous signs, and interesting street art. An absolute highlight was the circle line tour around Manhattan island. I'd totally recommend getting an Explorer Pass which gets you a discount of multiple attractions in NY.

 
Walking across Brooklyn Bridge was really nice and you get amazing views of the city from the across the bridge.

 Another favourite was The Top of The Rock. The views of the city from the top of this skyscraper are breathtaking. We timed it around sunset to make the most of the views. I'd heard stories of tourists queuing for hours to get up the Empire State building so we decided to do the Rockerfella centre instead, and I'm so glad we did as we went straight up the lift and the top wasn't over crowded either. I'd recommend this as a must do if your planning on visiting NY yourself.

We visited the Museum of Modern Art on our last day. Here's a couple of favourites from their collection. Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe. And Vincent Van Gogh's portrait of Joseph Roulin.

There are some beautiful natural areas of NY too, central park being the most famous. We cycled around this but it was so much busier than I expected! Maybe because there was a charity race on and it was a Sunday so there was alot of runners, cyclists and dog walkers. We also walked on the Highline which is an old railway which has been converted into a garden space. It was also a great way to get to the Meatpacking district, which was one of my favourite areas on NY. Full of artisan ice cream shops, lovely garden style eatery's and great bars.
We also paid our respects at ground zero, which is such a beautiful memorial. It's a very moving place and so much bigger than I ever imagined. I was moved more than expected in NY actually from the memories of the horrific scenes of 9/11 to the history of the immigrants coming over in the 1900's to make a better life in the land of opportunity. It's a surprising, mesmerising and intriguing city and we just scratched the surface. As our tour guide said on the boat tour around the island, you need a year and 1 million pounds to explore it properly.

Rhubarb & Almond Crumble Traybake

baking
There's more rhubarb in the garden than I know what to do with at the moment. And there is only so many rhubarb crumbles you can make! So I've adapted this recipe which is a take on the classic crumble but is a cake style traybake.
It has a biscuit base, fruity cake middle and is topped with crumble and almond.

You’ll need…
250g butter
225g caster sugar
100g ground almond
365g plain flour
2 eggs
2tsp cinnamon
1tsp baking powder
10 sticks of rhubarb
50g almond flakes


To make…
Chop the butter into cubes and put into a large mixing bowl along with the sugar, ground almond and 200g of the flour. Rub the butter in using your finger tips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Put half the mixture into another mixing bowl and set aside.

Add 140g of flour and 1tsp of cinnamon into the other half of the mixture and mix well. Roll together to form a short crust style dough. Add a  splash of water if you need to.
Grease a medium sized, rectangular baking dish and press the dough down into it using the back of a spoon. Bake for 20mins at 180oC.

Chop your rhubarb into short pieces, put into a baking tray, sprinkle with sugar and ginger and a splash of water and add this to the oven for 15mins.

In the meantime make the fruity cake middle, take the 2nd half of the breadcrumb mixture and take out 4 spoons of crumble for the topping and save for later.
Using the rest of the mixture add the eggs, the remaining 25g of flour, 1tsp of cinnamon and the baking powder. Mix until a smooth.

Take the biscuit base out of the oven and top with the cake mixture, add the rhubarb pieces and bake for 20mins more.

Add the remaining crumble and bake for 15 more minutes.
Leave to cool completely, slice and enjoy.


Grow your own

baking
 

Spring has sprung, and so has the rhubarb in my garden! Rhubarb is such an easy fruit to grow. 
It's unbelievably low maintenance and arrives all by it's self every spring. 
We have a huge, well established patch in our garden so we give alot away to friends and family, as there is too much to use ourselves. 
Now's the time to take your first of many cuttings, we get about three a year from May to September. I'll of course be baking in the following few weeks to come so watch out for some recipes using this yummy versatile fruit. 

If you want to have a go and growing your own fruit & veg rhubarb is the perfect fruit to start with. Here's my top tips on growing your own..

I'd recommend getting a young plant or crown rather than seeds from your local garden centre. Plant in the autumn and leave for a year to establish the plant. Your patience will pay off I promise! Allow a large area for the rhubarb to grow as when it becomes established it really does need alot of space.

In the following May your plant should be ready to harvest, the beautiful red stalks and large leaves will spring up the moment you turn your back. Cut the rhubarb at the base with a knife and cut the leaves off as these are poisonous. Cut back any limp stalks and allow the rhubarb to start growing again ready for the next harvest in July.

After the growing season cut back the rhubarb the the crown (base) in the autumn or winter. 
Removing any leaves, stalks. The rhubarb will be dorment during winter, so it really is a feast and famine situation. However it freezes really well, so even if you have too much during the summer you can bake it all and freeze any extra you have.

I always roast mine as it brings the sweetness out of the rhubarb. Chop it into 3-4cm pieces, put in to a baking tray with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar add a splash of water and a teaspoon of ginger and bake at 200oC for 15-20mins.

Norfolk Getaway

Travel


Last weekend we took a little trip to North Norfolk, we were very lucky with the weather as it's been a bit hit and miss lately. But the sunshine was out which made the seaside the best place to be. It was super windy but there's really nothing better than filling your lungs with the sea air! It was Bertie's (our little sausage dog puppy's) first trip to the seaside and he absolutely loved it. He spent the weekend digging and sniffing in the sand, dipping his toes in the sea and playing watchdog for our little beach hut which we hired.

When I discovered you can actually rent a beach hut for a few days I was so so excited! I love traditional beach huts, they are so iconically British and the huts at Wells-next-to-the-Sea didn't disappoint. The colours and detailing are so beautiful! I took far to many photos but these will come in handy for a project in the future I'm sure. I found this amazing website where you can find beach huts for rent daily (Around £25 a day) and also weekly rentals, which I highly recommend www.beach-huts.com They are little adverts and you can get in touch with the owners directly for all the details and prices. 

I finally put my new beach towels to use too. They really came in handy when walking on the beach, just throw them down on the sand and enjoy the views. They really are beautiful quality and print is so lovely and crisp considering they are a fluffy toweling. The designs are hand drawn by me in my studio at Welbeck. There is a deck chair design and an ice cream van design to choose from, I couldn't pick a favourite so I got both!

Beach Towels £20 from my At Home with Ashley Thomas collection 
exclusively at Debenhams.com
Picnic hamper £25




Picnic Collection for Debenhams

Ashley Thomas at home
Picnic season is finally upon us, after a beautiful sunny weekend it's really kick started positive thinking about the summer ahead. I'm planning lovely trips to the Great British seaside and picnics in the local countryside here in Derbyshire. I've ordered in my picnic basket ready for alfresco dining on warm summer evenings after work. So I thought I'd feature a bit about my picnic collection for Debenhams today and post these dreaming photos from the SS16 catalogue. This years collection is bigger than ever and includes everything you need from pretty melamine to vintage style wicker baskets. As all my collections for Debs this range is limited edition, we are all ready working on next years range. So get yours whilst stocks last. Shop online here...

 
Four person picnic hamper, £90

 
Melamine from £10
Here's a little insight into my sketchbook for this collection.

Sunshine & Ice Cream

British sunshine

We've had a beautiful weekend here in Derbyshire and we celebrated with a BBQ, a gorgeous walk in the Peak District, ice creams and pints of shandy, heaven!
Bertie had his very first swimming lesson too in the little stream below Burbage Edge. Very entertaining, I'm not sure if he likes water or not as he was a bit of a wimp after a few minutes.
But he's a very natural swimmer and I was bursting with pride when he took to the water for the first time on Sunday.
He was totally spoilt by the ice cream man with his very own free ice cream cone! Watching him tuck into this ice cream was one of the highlights of the year so far. He actually ate the whole thing! What a greedy boy.  Love this photo of him, which totally captured the moment.

Heart Shaped Picnic Hamper

Ashley Thomas at home


I thought I'd share an insight into the development of my picnic collection for Debenhams.
One of my favourite pieces is the heart shaped hamper. Lined with my S/S16 ditsy floral print this hamper comes with everything you need for the perfect picnic including; 2 x ceramic plates, 2 x stainless steel knives, forks and spoons, 2 x plastic glasses, 2 napkins, 1 x corkscrew, 1 x condiment set. Above is a sketchbook snapshot of the hamper, a watercolour version of my ditsy print and the final product which you can now buy Exclusively in Debenhams.


We're all going on a summer holiday...

Ashley Thomas at home
This time of year, for me is full of hope and optimism with plans of getting away to sunnier climates and daydreaming of exploring new corners of the world. Packing normally fills me with dread. I have no idea what to take and normally pack way too many clothes and don't end up wearing half of it!
I've put together this holiday checklist to help with packing the holiday essentials, to help take the stress out of it all. And here are my top tips on the perfect packing...

Less is more, with clothes you will not wear as much as you think, so pack for half the time you are going. You can always wear something twice or team it up with something else to make a new outfit.

Roll don't fold, most of the time you will not need to worry about ironing things when you get there if you roll your clothes instead of folding. And this saves so much space too.

Always put toiletries in a plastic bag or washbag, if it explodes in your suitcase this is a mess that will take forever to clean up and will take the joy out of arriving at your destination.

Take two pairs of sunglasses, they always break on the first day for me so take a spare to save you searching every local shop for a new pair.

Don't stress, you can probably buy items you forget when you get there, it's always hairspray for me! 



Print this holiday checklist to help with packing the essentials.



Beach towels exclusive to Debenhams