Pattern

Fabulous colours and patterns from Designers Guild. I love to check out their site to see what's new. If you don't already have Tricia Guild's book, Pattern, I totally encourage you to pick up a copy. It's wonderful inspiration for any designer or DIY decorator.

Found

Good morning, hope you had a great weekend!

Oh you are going to love these - little felted dogs from The Work Shop in Edinburgh. You can buy a little kit to make your own dog(I'm so tempted!) I think these are absolutely brilliant and I found them at my friend Cate's blog Under The Blanket(she has lots of super cool products for your furry, four legged friends.)

Inspiration

Not only are these great photographs - beautifully styled - but they also have some great ideas that I haven't seen before - check them out . . .

Check out this headboard - this would be so simple to make with a sheet of MDF and an illustration(trace it on to the board with a projector like an Artograph) and paint.

Look at these 'bell jars' - they are not as they seem - one is even an upturned wine glass!

Taking an antique armoire and building cubby holes into it - I love this idea - and the bright paint colours - brilliant!

A plain duvet cover with coloured, crocheted doilies sewn onto it - looks like it's straight from Anthro doesn't it?

Simple stencils on a thrift store cupboard - fresh and beautiful!

Beautiful photography and styling from www.camillesoulayrol.com

Cartolina Sale at GreetQ

I want to tell you about a Cartolina promo on at GreetQ starting today. If you order $50 worth of Cartolina products, right now, GreetQ will give you a pack of 8 Cartolina glittered gift tags for free - a retail value of $6. That's a great deal! Click here to go to their site. Thanks Jen!

Just a couple of pix from our new Cartolina glittered collection - you can see more right here.

Road Trip

It's a short post today. I'm going to try to grab an extra day off this weekend and hopefully head off on a little road trip to visit my parents for a few days today. It's such a crazy busy time of the year for us here - but we love it and wouldn't want to be spending our time doing anything else! Don't forget, if you're a local, we have our Cartolina Open House next Sunday, the 15th, and we'd love to see you. We have a couple of very exciting things coming up next week - a great offer from GreetQ if you are considering buying Cartolina glittery holiday cards(more on Monday) and also a fun interview and giveaway over at a wonderful UK blog which I will post details of here next week too. Lastly, thanks for all your comments this week - it's been really fun reading and responding to them - makes my day! See you Monday - have a great weekend!

Three beautiful photographs from one of my favourite House and Home photographers, Canadian, Donna Griffith.

Inspiration

I saw this Etsy seller on Poppytalk the other day ( Dadaya ) and was so impressed with the originality and honesty of her work I just had to include it in today's posts. The felted mittens remind me of the Inuit mittens that my friend Michelle, who used to live in Labrador, wore every winter. They are just charming and they bring a smile to my face - are you smiling?

Window Shopping

I was so taken by these bags when I saw them on the Greet Q blog and then suddenly they were popping up everywhere. Really nicely designed bags that can be worn as a shoulder bag, or as a pack, from MIMS. The fabric choices are wonderful and the leather upgrades make the bags look like a million bucks. I am very taken by these and may put one on my Xmas list this year!

Window Shopping

Here are some fun paper goods from Etsy shop May Third. Love the vintage look - very nice.

Found

I ran across these on Etsy front page yesterday - very impressive I'd say. L'Alfabeto Italiano by Bibitty available in poster format or individual cards which I love.

Magazines

This month, thanks to Jennifer at GreetQ, our little Cartolina notebooks are featured in Traditional Home Magazine. I never realized what a beautiful magazine it is - gorgeous features, wonderful layout, nice quality paper. It got me thinking about magazines. For the last 15 years I have always subscribed to a great selection of home decor magazines but recently I let them all expire. I have been without magazines for a few months - and I've really missed them. I will hate it if more of my favourites go out of business because people like me are spending more time looking at online design blogs and e-zines than the pages of pretty publications. So yesterday I signed up for all my faves again, Style at Home, Canadian House and Home, Living, Sunset, Harpers and now Traditional Home. I also signed Doug up for Fine Home Building and Rolling Stone. I want to encourage you to buy more magazines, renew your subscriptions and encourage your friends to do the same - Doug and I can't single handedly prop up the industry by ourselves you know!

Covet

Back in July I bought some tourmalines and strung them together in a natural 'rainbow' like these and I love them. Saw these on Etsy yesterday, drooled over them and then decided that I would share them with you because I really don't need any more :-)

Pretty gem stones from Fabulous Rocks

Cartolina Open House

Come one, come all, to our annual open house on November 15th. We had great fun last year - lots of people came. We drank champagne and ate yummy hors d'oeuvres and everyone went home with Cartolina goodies at less than wholesale prices. It's a great way to pick up your holiday cards for a great price and a good excuse to socialize too! And if you don't already know we are located in south east British Columbia, Nelson to be precise! Email me if you need directions or any other info. Looking forward to seeing everyone there ;-)

Window Shopping

A couple of days ago, one of my faithful readers, Ali, sent me a link to this amazing site - Factory 20. I have spent way to much, of the little time that I have, on this site in the last 24 hrs! There are just so many amazing vintage treasures to be found, from furniture to mirrors to toys and bottles - it's quite staggering. You know, I always thought Doug should have business like this because he's so good at finding cool vintage stuff - but there's only so much room to collect stuff in the garage. Enjoy . . . . .

This is a bank - above.

This photograph(above) could have been styled by one of the best don't you think?

Love the fact that you can see the reflection of all their vintage stuff in these mirrors.

They have lots of vintage store fixtures and display cases - like these.