Impatient

Waiting, waiting for this perfect Kings of Leon silkscreen poster to arrive in our mailbox. It will go in the kitchen, I think. 

I can sew! (straight lines, that is)

I made a quilt over the holidays! It was the first time I had used a sewing machine, sent generously to me by my Aunt Debbie way back in October. It is not a large quilt, it's the size of a couch throw. It is pictured above neatly folded in half. It was fun to make & satisfying and now I spend a large chunk of my free time looking at cotton fabrics online for my next quilt, and the quilt after that, etc...

tiny warbler

Look how sweet these are! Handmade felted little guys by Vancouver's Kate Keeler, of Tinywarbler Designs. I found her through this article on the Canadian Home and Country website. How wonderful that this magazine is featuring talented Etsy sellers! I am trying to decide which magazine to ask for a subscription to as a Christmas present, since Country Living really isn't doing it for me anymore (I enjoy the website more than the actual magazine). I'm going to choose a Canadian one this time, and I'm thinking it's between Home and Country or House and Home right now...

100 Bits of the World

image courtesy of Sabrina Ward Harrison

100 Bits of the World is a truly beautiful and inspiring site. Check it out here. And isn't S.W.H's studio space lovely?

Monday Afternoon

Mercury glass hurricanes, lovely stuffed owl pillows (via Decor8), Smokestack poster.

Hooray!

My $15 kijiji mirror!

A self-congratulatory post

Pearls can be very hard to photograph, especially white pearls, and so I am quite proud of how these photos turned out. It's all about the lighting, you see, and since I have no equipment other than Jesse's old Sony camera that really doesn't take very good photos except for those of the extreme close-up variety, I have to wait for perfect weather in order to get perfect lighting.

Sunny

Fall is coming, and even though it is my favourite season, I could do with some more hot sweaty weather. Why did summer in Thunder Bay feel like it was only a month long? (Answer: because it was.) Anyway, I'm loving the sunny oranges and yellows in the handmade, vintage-inspired items above. From left to right: musical tags from Royal Buffet, budgie screenprint from Alyoisius, linen pencil cases from Cool Citrus Basil.

Petersham

Lovely imagery from the photo gallery of Petersham Nurseries in Surrey, UK. 

I'm loving that slightly dilapitated pink chair on the left, and I'd also like to sit down with lunch and a good book in that sweet cafe on the right. Speaking of, I picked up The Thirteenth Tale on the suggestion of one of CC's readers (scroll down to the bottom of this post to see all the favourite book picks) and pretty much didn't put it down until it was finished. I haven't enjoyed a book so much since The Time Traveller's Wife.

simple, shiny & black

New earrings for the shop this week!

Green

Find this print of bubbo's caligraphy here...

It's a garden party

These new ones will be up in the shop soon. Happy weekend!

Jess Gonacha

I keep trying to inject little bits of pink in to our decor without Jesse noticing, and this one would look perfect on the mantel above our fireplace.

Peonies, again

I recently bought these gorgeous birthday cards from EnfinLaVoila, and am waiting impatiently for them to arrive :)

I will be listing these and some other earrings in the shop this week...

tweet tweet

Cute little handmade, one-of-a-kind cards from the super talented Anna Ruby King of this etsy shop.

tasty suite

I would use this lamp decal by tastysuite to dress up an unused side table in my guest bedroom!

Everything Is

Love the bleeding colours in this print by Jen Renninger of pleasebestill. It's from the "365 series", titled so because the artist is making one new illustration every day for a year!! I really admire such dedication.

studio inspiration

photo courtesy of Heather Bailey

One of my favourite types of interiors to gaze at are the studios of artists. I wish I wish I wish that one day I might have a space that is even slightly as wonderful as Heather Bailey's in the photo above. See more of "The Sugar Shop" on the blog of this super cool fabric designer.

the art of displays

The work of photographer Trine Thorsen via decor8. I love the way these items are displayed on old shelving and tables, underneath artwork. If I tried to recreate this look in my home I'm afraid it would look junky or just not as nice. Ah well.

print love

"October" by Devon Kelley-Yurdin at Charming Wall Inc. It's one of the prettiest websites I've been to in a while!

Oh, Martha

Oh Martha, here are just four of the many diy clipart projects up on your lovely website that I can't wait to try myself...

clockwise, starting at top left:

personalized postcards

strawberry pin cushions

celebration banner

old-fashioned recipe cards

hooray for fuchsia!

photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings

This year I started gardening in earnest (we moved in too late in the summer last year to really get anything going) and I've planted sweet peas, anemones, and peonies that will hopefully all look like the picture above. Sadly I don't think the peonies will bloom this year, but that is normal, right? The anemones have little buds on them now and the sweet peas I grew from seed so they are still quite tiny. I have very high hopes for my little garden.

Monday Morning

A perfect way to start the week. This little book might be the cutest thing ever. It's made by Kaija, a master bookbinder in Finland who has an etsy shop called Paperiarre, which is Finnish for "paper treasure".

Fontaine Anderson

I love the themes, colours, and details found in the illustrations of  Fontaine Anderson.

You can look through her beautiful portfolio and purchase her art through her website.

I'm especially loving the bird-fish image above in the little violin player's dress! Have a happy weekend everyone!

Three things for friday

from some very talented Etsy sellers...

top to bottom:

duck egg thin jug by White Doll Arts

biscuit bunnies by Flying Star Toys

transparent butterflies by Clear Cut Crafts

the cardboard photo frames that I used for my layout are courtesy of Mandy Mystiques 

Anna Whitford

Sweet little purses from UK designer Anna Whitford, via Junebug.

Come Back Soon

Fine art photography of the Las Vegas landscape, available in StoopidGerl's Etsy shop. Very appropriate today because my sweetie is heading to Vegas for the weekend!

honeylux

Lovely vintage-y style letterpress coasters of the birds of northern california over at honeylux.

Mathieu Missiaen

Mathieu Missiaen is a 26 year old artist in Toronto who will take your boring leather shoes and paint them in to works of art. I can't stop looking at the pumps above! Here he is on myspace and on etsy.

November Moon

Look at these little sweeties! Cathy Cullis of Etsy shop November Moon handstitches these dolls from a pleasing mix of new and vintage materials, giving each a personality of her own and names like "Joy" and "Peony". Don't you especially love their little shoes? 

Valhalla Studio

Delightful vintage-y design from Dan Padavic of Valhalla Studios in Kansas City.

I like it too

Two of my favourite things: nerdy little boys and pirates. For real. 

Found at i like it too too, an Etsy shop specializing in unique handcrafted accessories made from repurposed materials.

you + me

How sweet is this hand carved linocut print? It's called You and Me and is part of a limited run of only 50 prints, by Arian of Boston. Lots more cool stuff in her Etsy store. 

Harmonie Interieure

The Harmonie Interieure website is addictive - full of beautiful product photography and plenty of creative genius. Below: Vinyl stickers from the Ornements 2008 collection and a limited edition poster titled "Imagination is more important than knowledge".

Paper Alligator

Love these cute earth friendly canvas bags designed by Louise Cunningham, an illustrator in Glasgow, Scotland.  They are available in her Etsy shop, Paper Alligator.

Jennifer Davis

Something else to add to my list of "next time I'm in Minneapolis"... visit Gallery 360 to see the works of artist Jennifer Davis.

Found via one of my favourite blogs, decor8.

Jennifer Davis also has an Etsy store and a blog.

vol.25

Lovely postcards and beautiful product photography by the talented Jessica of vol25...

found via design*sponge

one of my favourites

I've always really liked the range of colours in semi-precious spinel - pinks, yellows, oranges, and browns...

(These beads are for sale here)

aesthetic apparatus

I'm loving this screenprint by Aesthetic Apparatus - the tin man hand, the little moose, the fonts and swirls... I can't wait to stop by their store front the next time I'm in Minneapolis!

paper pinhole cameras

Really? Can it be? We can make cameras out of paper that work?

Find the above camera (and others) at the Corbis Readymech website.  Each camera can be downloaded as a free pdf pattern that you print on to "several sheets of good printer paper" and then put together using an illustrated instruction guide of only 14 steps.

(The happy film canisters above are just part of the instruction guide that I especially liked.)

Above is a dreamy example of an actual picture taken with the World Pinhole Camera Day Camera, courtesy of the Corbis photo gallery.

groundwork

These gorgeous prints of original paintings by Danna Ray are available in her Etsy shop Groundwork. The prints sell themselves (only $20!) but if you need more incentive, ten trees will be planted for each item purchased from her store through a clever collaboration with Trees for the Future.

intertwined

leaving

alpenglow