An invitation...

An invitation to shop...yes please!
It appears that there has been an amazing shopping opportunity right here in Sydney that I have been missing out on! I'm talking about Magnolia Square - a "pop-up" event that brings together incredibly talented people to sell their goods to eager purchasers like myself. including homewares, stationary, jewellery, clothing and food.
I could truly go on and on about Magnolia Square - but alas I have no time this week .... so make sure you pop over here to find out all about the next Sydney event at the end of November.

Be sure to check out the list of retailers here too. Here's a little sampler of the types of stalls we can expect.

 Berlinski - web, etsy, blog

 

Just Smitten - web

 

Red Berry -  web,

 Lox + Savvy - web, blog

 

scissors, paper, cake - web

 

Find out more about the lady behind it all Nic MacIsaac in this interview over at Living Creatively and for even more info check out the Magnolia Square blog - Snippets

OK so who's coming with me?

{all images from Magnolia Square}

Kitchen colour

This week will be a series of short and very sweet posts as I have a bit of a shortage of time...
Today I would like to show off how Kris from Kris's Color Stripes blog (which i blogged about here) uses her colour pallettes.

 {Pomegranate}

She has created a series of Kitchen Prints featuring fruit and veg in a quaint and colourful way.

{Watermelon}

{Apple & Spice}

You can check them all out in the etsy shop. What a nice way you to add something pretty to your kitchen!

Ode to Tord

I am positive that nearly everyone has seen at least one piece designed by Dutchman Tord Boontje.

His Garland Light has to be one of the most famous pieces and it's certainly a favourite of many interior designers and stylists. I was flicking through the brand new Christmas issue of Real Living magazine (you should check out their amazing 230+ Christmas Gifts under $200 - amazing!)... anyway one item featured is the Thinking Of You Vase by Artecnica and designed by Tord Boontje.

 

How incredible are these vases! They come as a flat pack and you assemble them yourself around a spare jar or vase. Any potential Santa's out there - this is high on my wish list for Christmas. :-)

{ Images all from DeDeCe Plus}

You can pick them up in Sydney from DeDeCe Plus for $45 - $55 each.

For a truly beautiful time out, visit the Studio Tord Boontje website. It is a beautiful escape.Be sure to check out the Installations sections.

The image above is from a Winter Wonderland installation at the Swarovski Crystal gallery in Innsbruck, Austria. Crystals + Tord Boontje = heaven!
Happy Weekend!

Summer Loving

For Sydney-siders yesterday was a quick blast of Summer and even though the temperature has dipped a little today I still want to show these amazing artworks I came across yesterday.

This is Sea Dunes by Cathy Nichols  and it is by far my favourite ever beach painting. As a pattern-aholic I love the detail in the surfboards. It is an original painting on wood that you can purchase in Cathy's etsy store 

Cathy has created a series of surfing artwork and these are not the typical surfing images which tend to have a masculine feel. Each has an element of pattern and colour which makes these a celebration of summer I would like in my home. The best part is as well as original art there are prints of each available in her shop

Off Duty

 Beach Day

Check out the entire surfing collection and get some yourself some Summer loving!

Pretty embraced

What better way to embrace the pretty than with the new Elizabeth Arden Pretty perfume campaign.
It has leapt out of the latest InStyle magazine as a brilliant spread full of pretty pink flowers, a vintage lounge, a dreamy tulle dress and red heels.

I've also found a great behind-the-scenes story from the photoshoot for the campaign over at Talking Makeup. Mark Vincent, Vice President Creative Director at Elizabeth Arden talks about the inspiration behind the campaign: "The idea for the TV was to capture that sweet, personal moment between a woman and a mirror when she pleasingly sees that she’s pretty-and how being pretty affects everything around her.” Check out the TV ad here. I love the paper flowers growing out of the walls. So beautiful! It's so good every now and then to get totally carried away with girliness!
I have also been taken away an a side trip of paper flowers thank to the Diane James Home blog. I particualrly like the Channel image...and then there is this...

My talented sister-in-law, Silja makes handmade cards and she recently send me this beautiful package of sweets from Finland. I love the flowers and the colours are soft and pretty. You can see her blog here, but it is all in Finnish!

a world of colour

As a visual designer there are days when I believe there are not enough colours in the world. Today I'm sharing one of my favourite inspiration blogs: Kris's Color Stripes. With every visit a whole new world of colour combination possibilities opens up to me. It's especially helpful when having a colour block!
The very talented Kris lets us have a look into her colour diary where she uses photographs and objects to create colour pallettes. Not only have I discovered previously un-thought of colour combinations, I have been inspired by Kris to look in all sorts of places for colour inspiration.

 

 

 

{ all images from Kris's Color Stripes }

Would you have looked in these places for these colours? If you are after a specific colour, you can use this blog and use the menu at the right to find pallettes with specific colours.

So head over to Kris's blog for a dose of creative colour inspiration.

A bright start

I'm enjoying the explosion of colour going on around as Spring gets down to business. My favourites are jacaranda and bougainvillea. We have a vine of deep red bougainvillea across our homes front entrance that is jam packed with flowers right now and there are a few jacaranda trees beginning to flower close by too.
In ode to this, I have gone hunting for floral colour today and here's what I found...

The 2 colourful photos above are from a Flickr gallery by Frozen Lotus. I love a good macro shot of flowers. The yellow flowers are so delicate and almost paper like.

While more muted in colour I love the feel of these flower photographs {above} by Rebecca Simm.

 

..and then these as well by Cathy Rojas's portfolio on Behance.

Flowers make such good photography subjects - colour, texture and all the wonders of nature that you only get to see close up through a camera lens.

Hope you enjoy this bright start to the week!

A tasty suprise

I may be a bit slow on learning this, but look at these beautiful faces...

It has come as a very tasty suprise to me that these are the artworks of Poh Ling Yeow, best known to most of us as the runner up in the first season of Masterchef.
Isn't she an amazing artist! I have Lisa over at The Red Thread blog to thank for this lovely little revelation. I read about her long admiration for Poh's work this morning. As a long time fan she knows a lot about Poh's style so have a read over here and learn a bit more about some exhibitions and the artist's style.

 

 

These are a few of the images you can browse through on Poh's website

 

 

Absolutely stunning! Make sure you take a peek yourself

{All images from Poh Ling Yeow}

Pretty pins

I've had my eye open a little lately for some pretty bobby pins to hold back my hair. I have been unsuccessful so far. There is far too much bling going around and I want something sweet but not too little girly!
To my delight one of the blogs I read daily, Oh, hello friend also has an etsy store associated to it which sells really pretty bobby pins.

 

These vintage hair pins are just what I am looking for.... now I just have to choose which ones I want!

I also adore how they are all packaged.

oh and I can't resist adding this totally cute umbrella pendant...

and again check out the wrapping ** swoon!**

You must, must, must visit the design website, the blog and the etsy shop.

This is one talented lady who I feel really in tune with. Have you looked at her blog - it just embodies (embraces!) the prettiness that I strive to spend a few minutes with every day. Love it!

Best of all I get to share my little find with you! :-)

Enjoy the journey because I know you will fall in love with the experience of Oh Hello Friend too!

Garland a go-go

I have noticed garlands popping up quite a bit in my pretty travels recently. With Christmas on it's way these are cute DIY decoration idea to spread the Christmas spirit throughout the house.

The garlands above and below are from the  Lobster & Swan etsy shop and are made from recycled paper and photos. I think the images themsleves are beautiful and it's no wonder when you start to look aournd the rest of the shop and find the beautiful prints for sale

......and for a real visual treat check out the blog record the day! What a creative way of collecting and recording all the fabulous 'finds' you come across every day. I definitely have scrapbook envy. I have folders of magazine pages but nothing like these amazing collages.

.... anyway back to garlands.

Here are few other finds from esty

{above} 'Butterfly Gladness Garland' by Royal Buffet

.. and check out her cool paper craft like this 'Wordy Butterfly Mobile'

 

{above} 'Paper Flower Garland' by Paper and Roses

 

{above} '12pc Nature Tags' also by Paper and Roses

There are too many to show here so go have a look for yourself at these stores;

Paper Stripe Studio

Kate Greiner

Art by Naomi

So garlands are up there on my 'try one day' list. Maybe I'll even give it a go this Christmas!

Outdoor Blitz

We are patiently waiting for the weather to improve so we can get stuck into our courtyard at home and "blitz it", ready for summer entertaining. We have a few ideas but my main aim is to add more greenery.
I have a found a few inspiring images on the Living Etc website. This has long been one of my fave mags and I have quite an archive at home. It is a British magazine but lots of newagencies in Australia sell it now. I am eagerly awaiting their Christmas issue which must be coming very soon. I love looking at European Christmas magazines. The images are always amazing. Hopefuly I can share some here in coming months.
But back to the Summer that is coming now (please). This set of images is from the Outdoor Space gallery. These are just a few of my picks - mostly chosen for the 'green-ness' of them!

  

 

  

There are galleries for every room in the house, so if you have a room you need inspiration for or just want to look through pretty images - Living Etc is a good place to start!