Inspiration

Fun flowery stuff from Anthropologie.

Window Shopping

I can't remember where I first came across Winters Moon. Their site is so sweet. They sell refurbished and original vintage furnishings and collectables and also a nice selection of new handmade goods. Here are some of my favourite things from their site right now.

Check out these vintage address book pages - aren't they cool? Wouldn't it be fun to rubber stamp a hand made address book with the alphabet like this? And look at this cute little vintage caravan below - so fun!

Inspiration

I could look at this stuff all day - chromolithographs from the mid 1800s. I love the printing technique and the amazing colours that seem to pop off the pages. I love using this style of imagery on our cards because the saturation is so beautiful and the detail is incredible. Original plates from here.

Revisited

Oh my gosh this woman can do no wrong. You can't help but be endlessly impressed by the talents of Elsa Mora(Elsita). I was admiring these amazing handcast and painted pins on her blog the other day and I am humbled by her talents. These were headed for her Etsy shop but they seem to be sold all ready - surprise! If you are not familiar with the talents of Elsita you need to get over to her blog(I mean just check out her paper cutting - amazing!)

Found

I'm such a fan of this gals work. I love that these are made of wrecked old biscuit tins. She also makes really nice little pouches from vintage fabric. Little Black Rabbit from Seattle - nice!

Inspiration

One of the most popular posts we ever did here at the Cafe was about Galbraith and Paul - you guys loved the images of their studio and printing process. Today I am just going to feature some of their patterns but if you'd like to check out those pictures of their studio again you can see them right here. Enjoy.

Found

Doug has a nice collection of very old books - from the mid 1700s. He found most of them at an extraordinary farm auction that we went to about 10 years ago in a neighbouring town. The auction was the remains of a Swiss estate that had been left to the cleaner(basically the young gal was asked to clean up the house and in payment she could keep a few boxes of stuff in the basement.) Doug and I had been to this Thursday night auction quite regularly and picked up a few rustic tables and cookie tins and tools. But this night was different - the usual small crowd of locals showed to up to browse through the piles of farm equipment and Tupperware only to find ratty boxes of tapestries and paintings, engravings and volumes of old books. It was like a dream - Doug, who is the die hard junk collector, thought he'd died and gone to heaven and was hoping that none of the usual buyers would recognize the value of what we were seeing. The auction went well and we picked up quite a lot of beautiful things including this collection of small books. One of the tapestries which the auctioneer referred to as a 'blanket' sold for the extortionate price of $100 and later appraised for $20,000. Doug still talks about that auction . . .

This last piece was not at the auction but it was on my camera so I thought I'd include it here - I couldn't resist this piece from one of my regular dealers in Argentina - I don't think they could have crammed one more stamp or signature on that if they had tried!

Found

There's nothing like great props when you are decorating and I happen to think these are 2 of the best I've seen in ages. I'd snap these up immediately if I walked into a store and saw them - $30. Found at The Forgotten Attic.

Found

There are a few things, not many, that I have been known to buy purely for the packaging - and soap is one of them. I love the paper wrapping on this soap from Sweet Petula. I also like the fact that she has small soaps because those giant bars of hard soap last way too long, don't you think? I definitely don't buy items from every producer I feature here but I think I'm going to take my time and pick out a couple of treats for myself from the huge selection available right here.

Inspiration

An amazing selection of mid century fabric pillows from Midcentury Modern. Where on earth do they find such great fabric?

Inspiration

I was reading Urban Comfort's blog yesterday when I spotted a couple of great stenciling ideas - fabric, furniture and walls. I really liked the designs and noticed that you can download the directions and templates (originally published in Family Circle) from here. The coffee table looks great. Here's the link - have fun!