Road trip!

I deserve this little 4 day vacation - there, I said it! In the last month I have designed an entirely new collection for Cartolina, finished and launched the wholesale shopping site, renovated the cottage, done the taxes and moved my parents across the province - not to mention all the daily tasks around the studio - I'm exhausted just thinking about it! I am excited to be finished all the big jobs - cards are at the printers getting printed, studio work is finally all caught up and so we are off to the Okanagan(BC's wine country) for 4 days of relaxation - I can feel the sun on my face right now. So enjoy today's posts and I'll be right back here feeling relaxed and refreshed on Monday morning - see you then!

This is the view from Quail's Gate winery  -  some more pics from the winery right here.

Oh and I'll be tweeting as I go if anyone is interested  :-)

Combine your obsessions why don't you.

I seem to be on another heavy metal kick - this time I am combining it with another personal obsession - vintage buttons. These are all from Tipple and Snack's shop and you can get your very own rusty old Victorian buttons for as cheap as $6.99. Seems like a deal to me.

Get your craft on.

A few more wilidly creative ideas from the seemingly endless source at the Once Wed Project set on Flickr. I check these out quite often and always get good ideas. Not only does she have a great eye for colour and design but she can really put together great tutorials, don't you think? I love this first project  . . . .

Photography

Very pretty styling in these photographs by Trevor Dixon. Each one evokes a similar mood of calm, making me feel quite sleepy in fact . . . 

All in the details

Take a look at the details in this beautiful Dutch cottage. I love all the art hanging haphazardly on the walls and I like the deeply contrasting colours(you may have noticed that I am not a fan of wishy washy neutrals!)

This charming home is in Spijkerboor, Netherlands and the photography is by Hotze Eisma

Curiosities

Here are some amazing original French industrial furnishings from the 30s, 40s and 50s. I know that you all appreciate this stuff as much as I do - don't you wish you could just stumble over pieces like these in your local junk store? You used to be able to!

Random Objects

Really like the rustic texture of this metal work jewelry - there's a naive sense that it very appealing. From here.

Inspiration

I was thinking about why I find these Japanese and Chinese vintage tins so inspiring. I think it's because the designer of these tins faced the same design challenge as I do when I am designing cards  - fitting pretty imagery and a message into a defined (and confined) space. I have a lot to learn - these designers were amazing!

So here's what I can do with all my old tins. Put a glass jar inside and use them as vases for small posies - luv that idea! All of the above from High Street Market and The Fab Miss B

Catch up

Cafe Cartolina is a year old this week. And today when I started writing this post I noticed that I have 100 official Blogger 'followers' - I am so grateful - thank you all for visiting every day. Blogging has become one of my favourite jobs everyday.  And at this stage I would love to get some feedback from you regarding content. I am enjoying the way Cafe Cartolina has evolved over the last year. Basically if I love it, or if I find it inspiring in some way, then it will end up here - it's that simple. But if you'd like more Cartolina content then I'm happy to oblige! I have been very busy for the last month designing a whole new collection for Cartolina. I am excited to show you some new designs and we will have a big giveaway just as soon as all the loot is back from the printers. As many of you know designing takes a lot out of you everyday! I am very grateful for all the help I have at the studio - I don't have much time for any of the usual tasks around here when I have my designer's hat on and it's great to be able to rely on a few talented people who make my job easier. I am almost at the end of this design session - I'll get the files all off to the printer on Wednesday and then I am taking a few days off. We are heading to the Okanagan, BC's Wine Country. I am also grateful to fellow bloggers who share their content with the likes of me  - it makes it so much easier to bring you beautiful posts everyday (especially at times like this when I have very little time to spare.) Today I have some photographs from Kitty Shehan's, trip to West End Salvage in Des Moines. I discovered Kitty's blog when I started Tweeting - we obviously like all the same vintage treasures and I think you will enjoy them too . . . check out these awesome map drawers in the first image.{ Kitty are these for sale or are they full of more cool stuff?}

Kitty's blog is called Return to Bohemia and I think you will really enjoy it. One of the nice things about Twitter is that I have met some really great people over there(with great blogs) in the last couple of weeks. 

Florals 

Some super fabulous flowery new things from Anthropologie. I for one am very glad to see so many exotic and heavy florals making a comeback on the design radar - for obvious reasons  ;-)