Jessica Seaton is one half of a creative entrepreneurial team – the other half is her husband Jamie Seaton. Working alongside Jamie’s designer’s flair, they have (mostly!) enjoyed their long working relationship and wouldn’t have it any other way. Together they have founded two companies – J&JSeaton and Toast.

Having started in 1997 making just a few pyjamas, Toast has now spread its own particular interpretation of no-nonsense fashion into a full range of clothes and accessories for women and men, plus home products in the House&Home collection. The ranges are sold in regularly published catalogues, online at www.toast.co.uk, at nine stand alone stores and, from Spring 2011, in selected John Lewis stores.

JESSICA'S FAVOURITE SITES

The Moth - A New York based story-telling organisation that produces my favourite podcasts. They attract both big names (high profile actors, prize-winning authors, White House staffers, singers, song-writers, comedians…) and unknowns to their story-telling nights around the US, but the rules are the same for both: get up on a stage and tell a real-life story with no notes or prompts in front of a live audience.  They record them all and the best make it to the podcasts. They serve as easy, funny, sad, laugh-out-loud and sometimes thought-provoking company on our 30 mile commute to work each day.

Remodelista - An interiors and design blog that offers masses of inspiration in a way that makes it seem achievable, rather than a long-distant dream. It can be a little addictive though.  

The Quietus - An intelligent, independent music site that offers a carefully considered selection of reviews, interviews and opinion on new music of all genres. It was recommended to us by a composer friend and has become a great source since. I particularly like that they’re not afraid to write longer-length pieces – something that is rare online now, but that I think will become increasingly common as more and more people consume content through the internet. 

Toast Travels - Our own online magazine/blog that I had to include! We started it a year ago to share our interests and enthusiasms with our friends and customers. Our short postings and longer features extend beyond clothes and homes to art, literature, film, travel, music, food… My favourite so far has been the film we are showing on the site at the moment about the modernist house La Ricarda, and its origins emerging as it did out of the rubble of the Spanish Civil War.

Google Reader - The only way that I can keep up with all the websites and blogs that I need for work is to use Google reader. This collates all blog feeds in one place, so I don’t even have to remember all the blog names and addresses that I need to visit – I must follow thirty or forty at any one time.

Walkit and Cycle Streets - Jamie and I visit London every one or two weeks and used to get the tubes or taxis from place to place.  Now I try to use the Boris bikes or I simply walk. These are my tools for finding the best routes from place to place - brilliant inventions both.

1 March 2011