Bunting, buns, and bric-a-brac!

We're super-excited about attending next weekend's 'Market Day' at The Magdalen Arms. Open between 11am-4pm on Saturday 31st March, it's going to be a bunting-bonanza! There'll be craft stalls, jewellery, contemporary arts, cakes, and even a lady selling homemade jam. Delicious!

We'll be there running a Comma bric-a-brac stall full of vintage curios and bizarre bits 'n' bobs that you know you don't need but you can't live without...

(We know you want the weird action man...)

We hope that you can come along and say hello, but if you can't make it (sob!), there are more Market Days scheduled for later in the year!

New Issue of Ride In Stock

Issue 6 of The Ride Journal has arrived at Comma! It's looking beautiful as usual, full of personal essays, photographs and illustrations that celebrate and explore the power of the bicycle. Here's a sneak peak of what's inside...

The magazine has grown - it's now almost 200 pages long, and the question is more, "what's not inside?" This issue's got riders in the cold, from Alaska to Oslo, and riders in the heat, from Nullarbor desert to Mallorcan mountains. There are complete beginners and weekend warriors, plenty of pros, a Guinness record holder, a world champion, and even an Olympic gold medallist. There are pieces to inspire the head, the heart and the legs. There's even a rider being chased by a police helicopter. Basically, there's something for most people.

Now excuse us, we're off to hop on our bikes...

New work in store from artist John Dilnot!

We've got some great new stock in from artist John Dilnot - a selection of seriously beautiful cards, badges, and prints to brighten up the cold Autumn days. John is a respected artist whose nature-inspired work has appeared in a number of major public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Library, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and we're thrilled to have some more of his work in the shop...

Pretty new things!

John's amazing "fly paper" badges

Just three of many striking mini-print designs...

Close up of "Moths", one of seven new vibrant, nature-inspired screen prints

Amelia's Magazine comes to Comma!

Last week we were super excited to welcome Amelia Gregory of Amelia's Magazine to Comma. She came to talk about her brilliant new book Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration. She also treated us to an insight into her views on green fashion, current trends in illustration and using social networking to its full effect.

We were also lucky enough to be joined by the lovely Anna from local Oxford company Custom Made and Caroline of The Good Biscuit Company.

Anna ran a workshop teaching everyone to make the most amazing button rosettes and Caroline helped keep everyone happy with her gorgeous handmade biscuits. Our favourites were the Chewy Pistachio ones.

We were also thoroughly spoiled by our sponsors Juicology, who supplied us with exotic tasting juices, Dr.Hauschka who supplied luxurious samples of their lotions and potions and Oxford-based independent ice cream cafe G&Ds who created a special edition ice cream flavour called Amelia's Ice Cream Dream (otherwise known as raspberry with dark and white chocolate chips...delicious.).

As you can see from the pictures it all went down pretty well.

Massive thanks to Amelia for coming to visit and helping to make it a great night and also for letting us use her lovely pictures for this blog post!

If you missed the night but are interested in a copy of Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration or her previous book Amelia's Anthology of Illustration don't panic! We have signed copies of both books for sale in Comma now. Pop in, say hello and pick one up.

Royal Wedding window (and a few fondant fancies)!

Not that we needed an excuse, but we just had to buy some jam tarts and fondant fancies for our Royal Wedding window display!

Even Kate's getting in on the act (let's just hope she's still going to fit into her dress)...

Love it or loathe it, it's nearly the 29th April and that means one thing; a free day off work and a lot of pomp and ceremony. Congratulations Will and Kate - have a fun day tomorrow x

PS - we're afraid we're now all sold out of our limited edition Corgi Royal Wedding tea towels. If you managed to get one, we hope you enjoy drying your dishes with the most regal of dog breeds!

Lots of shiny new things!!

We're constantly getting lots of lovely new stock in the shop, and thought it might be fun to show you a few of our latest arrivals!

First up, cushions! We'd like to introduce you to Olaf Owl and friends; surely the cosiest critters to snuggle up with in front of the box?

Now that summer is on its way, why not burn your friends' retinas with our new super-bright neon satchels?

We've got so many new cards we're finding it difficult to fit them all on the shelves...

Walls looking a little bare? Why not fancy them up a bit with some of our newest prints?

That's only the tip of the iceberg really, as we also have new stationery, zines, books, homewares and tea towels in stock. Woop!

At some point this year we intend to create a proper website for Comma, but until then we'll try and remember to keep posting about new bits and bobs as they arrive.

No diggity...

You've got to bag it, bag it up!!