Eye candy

Let's look at a very girly interior this morning. I generally prefer a more bold decorative style but I am rather intrigued by all the cool stuff in this place. This home is in east London. They describe it as 'faded grandeur with french boudoir furniture' - sounds dreamy. Check out all the details - like the portraits. You can see more images if you like right here.

L'authentique

One thing I think Anthropologie does very well is making their products look interesting and authentic - "authentically interesting" I guess? I always feel that their housewares, especially, have authentic vintage references but I can never quite put my finger on what it is - Do you know what I mean? It's that je ne sais quoi that intrigues me - and everyone else too I suppose!

Eye candy

Here's another interior that caught my eye recently. Love these high ceilings, plaster walls and all the architectural detail, though I have feeling that the Moorish arches were added as a decorative feature fairly recently in the life of this property  -  looks really good though, don't you think, adds some exotic bohemia to the place.

Inspiration

Hand painted pillows from John Robshaw. I've been looking for some close up images of these pillows for ages. They really are fabulous .

Have great weekend everyone - I almost forgot to mention, if you are in Toronto Sunday through Wednesday for the CGTA Show be sure to stop by Booth 3571 to see what's new at Cartolina. And I'll have lots of new designs to show you next week - even some holiday cards - never too early for Christmas in the greetings card business! See you Monday!

Roll and Tumble

I saw these on Poppytalk yesterday - aren't they fun? These are handprinted posters and prints, painstakingly produced from lino and wood blocks. No mass production here! From Roll and Tumble Press. Great job - I really like these.

Parcel for you.

Here's a good reason to Tweet - yesterday I followed a link that the fabulous Delaney Gates had Twittered about and found myself flipping through the virtual tour book of the Parcel Store in Montclair NJ. Now if you like stationery stores then you need to get yourself over to Parcel and flip through that book - oh and their website is ridiculously cute.

Now's your chance to fill up your sad looking bookshelves with fabulous vintage pulp. Authentic French and Belgian books available in wonderful colours, textures and sizes - oh, and titles too ;-)

Illustration

Now I am not a skull and cross bones kind of a gal but my eye was definitely drawn to these bags because of the fabric design. I expect that one of my clever readers can tell me where this fabric comes from. I think it's real well designed and I'd love to know who the illustrator is - so if you happen to know leave me a comment below. These bags are available in lots of different fabrics - not just skulls and bones - at XcessRize on Etsy.

Treasures

Look what I found as I was trolling around Bella Lula's vintage treasures on Etsy. This elephant is fantastic(I had to call my lampshade making friend Linda first before I posted this to make sure she didn't want it!) And the vintage Scotty is wonderful too. This Etsy seller has got a way of making scruffy old found objects look so cool and interesting - and here I am trying to clear my house of so many scruffy old vintage things - I can't help it, I'm just a sucker for rust, pealing paint and a good old worn patina.

Random Objects

I'm not sure when I ran across this fun little suitcase of lavender filled sachets but fortunately I can remember where. Right here.

Inspiration

I find these floral craft supplies very inspiring. The vintage shapes of the flowers are perfect for developing floral illustrations from. The colours in the first bunch are wonderful - makes me want to pick up a pencil and start drawing - but I don't have time for that today - wish I did - do you?