I asked the stars

Stardust

 

constellations  

I came across these on pinterest earlier and had to share. Ive always loved books, especially ones where you have to lift flaps, and change the orientation of the book itself. Its exciting! I thought these were really sweet, I like how small they are, you could easily put them in your pocket and take them on adventures! Also I like books with holes, so I can peep through them. Allowing light through the surface trasnforms them from flat objects into more sculptural pieces which occupy a different kind of space than a tradtional book format: and it ultimatley makes them more magical!

Landland

LANDLAND is a very small graphic design & illustration studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota that was started by Dan Black, Matt Zaun & Jessica Seamans in early 2007. The Landland studio doubles as a fully-functional screenprinting shop, mainly focusing on producing art prints, posters for touring bands, and the occasional record sleeve, t-shirt or book project.

Here are some of my favourites, I love the colours, and the lines, and the colours (again) and the sense that Ive seen these places, yet they are also unfamiliar. I think the world, my world, needs more of this in it.

rings for your fingers...

Ruth Tomlinson

Fabrice Schaefer

 

Enric Majoral 

 

Daniel Dicaprio 

Els Vansteelandt

Find a new rhythm ...

 Filigree Imprint Side Plate @ Anthropologie

Splash Tableware collection at Libertys

 Blot Ceramic collection @ Habitat

Fun and colourful tableware collections from John Lewis 

Turquoise side plate rootsfarm (etsy)

For a while we seemed to be over-run with minimalist, monochromatic and matching tableware. Encouraged to project sophistication through how we present our food, did we forget to have fun with our entertaining? I recently blogged about the beautiful weather diaries collection from Marimekko, and thought I'd go in search of other tableware which felt like it had been touched by a human beings.

In these days which grow darker and colder, I want more and more to take pleasure in the everyday; such as sharing food with friends and family. So as the weather changes, and the nights grow dim, I want to hold onto those carefree colourful summer evenings and what better way to keep this alive than conversation around the table. Our physical relationships to people and the world are not meant for straight edges and matching colours, but for overlapping and interweaving with marks and movement. We shift in different rhythms and beats, so why shouldn't our dinnerware reflect our human tendencies, so be bold, mix it up a little.

Happy Ten

 

My beautiful daughter recently turned 10 and I wanted to make her something really special for her to remember her double number day- we both love making so much and often spend our rainy days creating creatures and filling them with dried beans. During one of our recent making sessions we looked through a quilting book together and talked about how much we loved hand made quilts. I'd never made a quilt before though always wanted to, I instantly wanted to make one for my girl seeing how excited she was when we looked through the quilting book together. 

I was apprehensive about making one as I don't think my seeing skills are the best and the idea of following a pattern was a little frightening. So I decided I would just make a repete pattern of squares. 

It was important to me that the colours and patterns reflected my daughters eclectic tastes- I wanted it to be beautiful but also playful. I chose colours in shades of blues, pinks, purples- and offset this with orange and turquoise. I've put some pictures of the quilt below- I was really pleased with the result and my girl loved it equally as much which was perfect. Now I've made one- I think I'd like to try something more complex. 

This is the quilt before I layered the

wadding and sewed the back on. I used a quilting book called - Material obsessions- it's lovely and has great practical advice- if you are interested in quilting then I'd highly recommend it.

Into the wild

Its been ages since I blogged about anything, which doesn't mean I haven't been doing much, in fact its been quite the opposite. Things have been super busy and I have a million photos to download it seems. However I stumbled across the new Marimekko - Weather Diaries collection and had to share. This collection is all of my favourite things: line, dreamy transitions, and beautiful colour ways. The collection inspired by Finnish weather patterns was designed by Aino-Maija Metsola. Over a period of several months, Metsola documented changes in weather to create these beautiful and transient surfaces. I want all of these pieces for my home.

With Autumn on its way and the change in colours in my garden I feel more inspired to be outside than ever. Also I recently watched Into the Wild- if you haven't seen this film already then put it on your to watch list. I was really moved by this film, which is purposefully slow, allowing you to really absorb the thoughtful dialogue. In some way Marimekkos' weather diaries reflects some of the feelings of the thoughts I had about this film and the wilderness. Beautiful and touching.



Listen to me: Cloud Control: Dojo Rising

Grass Windows

Being the romantic that I am, I have been looking to the blue skies to find all the answers to my questions. I realise however, that I have no answers but I do have more questions. Which is perfectly acceptable if not a little exhausting. I have also been watching lots of Woody Allen films, which seems to be fuelling lots of unusual inner dialogue. These things have been filtering into writing for some silkscreens I intend on working on this summer. I'm looking at the world through Doigian filters, dreampop flash and Iron & Wine lyrics (Grass Windows) 'Like we finally saw the colours of the world'.

I hope the sun stays, I like the shimmery yellow in my eyes and there's just something about bare feet on warm grass that will always make me feel like an excited child on caravan holidays in Dawlish. 

These are the real treasures of life.

Present&Correct

I love stationary, I like sending real mail, I like receiving real mail, I like the visual language of post, stamps and hand writing. Maybe its that we see less and less of it, but there is nothing like waking up to a surprise someone has chosen and taken the time to send to you. Its wistful and romantic, I know. It conjures memories of excited birthday mornings, waiting for letters from pen pals in France (does anyone have those anymore?), and hoping to god I can decipher the mystery of a different language. Letter sending is timeless, and it says so much more than a sign off 'sent from my iphone', don't you agree? I found some ultra cool geometric inspired stationary from present and correct. I love everything about this site, its clean, fresh and oozes school-day-vibes; passing notes to your best friend about what tazzo's and marbles you were going to swap at play time, chocolate cake and custard and the sound of twanging wooden rulers on your desk.