Inspiration - vintage fabric

Wonderful vintage fabric from this Tinsel and Twine Pinterest board.

Instant Collection

These vintage tiny tea cups are from Sushipot . I think they are amazing. An instant collection. So sweet.

Inspiration - oil cloth covered room

I spotted this room, covered from head to toe in oil cloth, at ReadyMade. It got me wondering what's new in the oil cloth biz(for instance I don't remember seeing this particular pattern, on the walls below, at any of our local oil cloth stockists. What I did find was Viva La Frida who stock some great designs and also some great saddle bags for your bike in very pretty, girly, yet durable, oil cloth.

Window shopping - Modcloth

These are sweet - rosey bed sheets from Modcloth - couldn't resist them. Oh, and they have some very nice summer dresses on sale right now too!

Inspiration

Every so often I catch a glimpse of beautiful, inspiring art on Doug's computer. (For those of you who don't know, Doug's an illustrator. He works for all the major US magazines, newspapers and publishers.) So I raided his stash of vintage posters files and picked my favourites for you . . . .

Inspiration - Vintage Wallpaper

Beautiful and inspiring vintage wallpaper from Suzanne at Raccoon Studios. The dotted texture around the floral illustrations on the first example are really interesting.

Window Shopping

Believe it, or not, these stylish numbers are available from Target. Good going Target, now hurry up and open a few stores across Canada!

New releases at Blanket

You may, or may not, know that Cate Hubbard is one of my best friends. She and her husband Martin are the brains behind Blanket - the super stylish and crazy clever pet tag system that is enjoying lots of success these days due to it's innovative system that enables lost pets to be reunited with their owners quickly and safely without tattoos or chips etc. Cate has just released her latest collection of pretty little tags and I'm excited to show you them here this morning. Cate was telling me that so many pet owners wanted pink tags so the latest collection is inspired by colourful candy and polka dot bikinis. I love them and so, apparently, do pet store owners who snapped them up last week when she debuted them on her super fun blog - Under The Blanket. If you'd like to know more about the clever online system that ensures your pets are returned to you quick as a bunny - go to their website - Blanket! Good job Cate - I love the new designs!

Sometimes when I'm working here on the blog I see something that catches my eye from a few months/years ago in the Linkwithin window and it still impresses me - like this pillow shot - love it - so inspiring. From Enhabiten.

Another Great Big Cartolina Giveaway!

As is the tradition around here, we have new product so we are having a new product giveaway! The prizes are fabulous - the 2 winners shall receive a full set of all our new goodies - cards, notebooks and pocket mirrors -yay! I love sharing the excitement every few months. So all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of the post - tell me who you'd most like to send one of our cards to. It could be your granny or it could be someone from history - anyone. I'll leave the giveaway open until Sunday at 4pm Pacific time. Now if, for some reason, you need to get your hands on some Cartolina loot before next week then you can always get yours right here from Modern Paper Goods - the whole collection at great prices and great service options.

One of the best things about designing and producing a product is that I can share it with friends :-)

And I'll have 2 winners on Monday morning for you :-) If you'd like to enter more than once you just need to blog or Tweet this post! Thanks for entering! Good luck!

Design Swoon | Louise Fili

Louise Fili is a design idol to many designers. If you are in the design business you will be very familiar with her work and especially her design books with partner Steven Heller. I never get tired of looking at her work but if you are not familiar with it - then voila, Ms. Fili . . . . . .

I love the 3 dimensionality of her book design and this Le Monde logo/signage below is one of my all time favourite pieces of identity design.

Dimensional type seems to be a specialty of Ms Fili's and this piece above is very impressive - totally evokes and era - love it!

Hope you enjoyed our little Fili retrospective. And I hope that I have inspired even just one person to seek out her work and her books - they have been a valuable resource to Doug and I for years - instant sources of inspiration. If I ever met her in person I would say, thank you Louise!

(Check out her design books on Amazon - right here.)