Found

These interesting things are all from Plumo. I think they have a very cool mix of styles in their catalog - for instance these candles look very late 60s Italian, the tea set almost looks like Chinese enamel ware and the bowls look handmade form Kashmir. It's a very worldy yet contemporary look - quite unique.

Window shopping

How can you not be inspired by these wonderful piles of antiquarian books? These are from an online antique store called Appley Hoare - they are quite pricey but we can window shop can't we?

The other thing that caught my eye at Appley Hoare were these beautiful framed prints.

Pink Pony

I ran across this when I was searching for vintage storefronts the other day for my Blog It Forward post(which I am still recovering from - longest post in the world!) So the Pink Pony looks like my kind of place - have any of you been here? Lower East Side, NY? Let's go! You know, I have been trying to get Doug to write restaurant reviews on Cafe Cartolina - he plans all our eats when we go to NY, Vancouver etc and he does a great job. He's a very good writer, good photographer and good wine drinker - that would make him a good restaurant critic, right? I think we should get him to be a contributor here at The Cafe! (he recently started Tweeting - you can follow him here)

"Perhaps one of the best places for an uptowner or out-of-towner to observe the hipster in his natural habitat, this tin ceiling-ed Lower East Side café is the quintessential Bohemian hangout." --New York Magazine - I think Doug could have written that!

Sweet stuff

These pictures are so sweet they might hurt your teeth - but it feels so spring-like in the last few days - I'm in the mood for pretty florals and wee chirpy birds :-)

All images from this sweet little blog

Inspiration

It was love at first sight when I first spotted the work of Rebecca Thuss. You've probably browsed through her work, in the past, on the pages of Living and Blueprint. These days she has a photography and graphic design firm with her husband - but you can see lots of her extremely inspiring work right here on her website.

Ephemera

Vintage ephemera can quickly become an obsession, as most of you probably know. One of my favourite places to get my fix is Bibliodyssey. The weird and the magical on paper - some jaw dropping pieces and some head scratching anomalies. Love these . . . .

Inspiration

There's a very odd, but very interesting, collection of treasures over at Bohemienne's shop. Love this little settee and the crinolin skirt. I've seen lots of pretty dresses hanging as decorations recently - great idea, have you tried this?

Board?

You may have heard me on Twitter - looking for organizational ideas for the studio. I have a large wall that I want to create an interactive notice board to keep us organized. We have distributors in 5 countries and I need to keep on top of each account. I don't particularly want a chalk board because I know that certain people will find it very hard not to embellish every note they write! So I had decided that a white board was the solution(yuck). But as I was browsing the Pottery Barn catalog I noticed a few good ideas including grouping a collection of small whiteboards together(below.) I think I might try that idea - but I like these boards too - I always fall for pretty over practical - must stop doing that!

I think this(above) might be the solution - a grouping of small whiteboards - it would keep the accounts organized and look better than one big, shiny, wobbly, white sheet - anythings better than that!

Found

I think these are so cute - pin cushion toppers - who knew such things existed - not me! But I love this idea(and I think my mother in law might love them too!) you can see more right here at Pinks and Needles.

Found

These pretty pillows are perfect for some spring redecorating - from Wendinskan!

Found

Some well placed patterns in unlikely places via Skona Hem. That's an interesting concept that I haven't seen before - a photograph of old school embroidery on a slick modern surface! I like it!

Found

A very pretty pair of vintage embroidery scissors from Luz. These are wonderful - cast steel - delicate but industrial. If I saw these is an antique store I would pick them up in an instant! {I must show you my antique paper scissors some time - they are very narrow and almost 18" long - sharp as a razor, tho they are probably 75 years old.)

$9.99 - steal!