A W E S O M E

Came across this guys blog of 1000 Awesome things.

It is indeed Awesome.

(he even has a book on the awesomeness)

B E L I E V E

I do love this book, and now this website...

'When I was litle I wanted to grow up tp be a firetruck'

So sweet and innocent when kids really believed they could be and do anything when they grew up.

B O T T L E

Ok so I'm a weeeee bit late with... I love but can't completely grasp the patience these artists have in order to create these wonderful little stop motion movies... Watch Kirsten Lepore's movie 'Bottle'

F U M I

Fumi Mini Nakamura is a very talented illustrator, I love the mix of people morphing with animals and the mediums used -mainly graphite and coloured pencil. Very beautiful indeed. Take a lookseeee here!

Oh K U R T

Xmas with Kurt... (Geiger)

W I L D

Walking to the British Museum today and found this in the middle of London?! Grapes growing up the side of a house?!

ALL I WANT FOR XMAS...

Starts with this... (honestly how on earth did you expect me to choose just one thing?!)

Nipped into Anthropologie the other day just to further cement the fact that they have amazing beautiful clothing, accessories and homeware I WILL NEVER OWN and came across these -totally within my price range too but alas there were no J's left. Alexa Pulitzer has come up with these great mouse pad note pads with gorgeous illustrations on them! BUY BUY BUY!

S A R A H J A N E

Had to have a Snowday today, absolutely no southern trains running due to the now less than sparkly snow, tomorrow could be interesting... Anywho you could say I had a few hours to peruse the internet and that I did. Whilst expanding my knowledge I stumbled across a very talented children's book illustrator Sarah Jane, the top illustration pretty much sums up my day!

Have a look at her Blog, she also has an Etsy store where you can purchase her adorable prints.

BIG B A B Y

Went for a bit of window/christmas shopping on my way home in Clapham Junction tonight, had a quick looksee in at Huttons (amazing little design store on Northcote Road), and instantly fell in love with these gorgeous pieces from a company called Big Baby Jewelry MUST HAVE! might have to treat myself to an early christmas pressie... they're acrylic pieces formed into girly designs I particularly love the cuffs and headbands, now to decide which one!

S is for S N O W F L A K E

GUESS WHAT! it snowed!!!! and boy did it! was a tad disappointed this morning to wake up to a thin layer of basically frost in the backyard -I was expecting snow castles and snowmen to be made at 6am...but alas other than a very tricky icy walk to the train station it wasn't really all that fun. BUT then I got to work about 25 minutes away from home where it looked just like a christmas holiday movie set! So much snow and it was still falling! Brushing aside fears of never being able to get home in the afternoon I embraced the weather and persuaded several collegues to snowball fight at lunch and persisted in trying to fashion a snowman...

G O G G L E me

Every now and then I google myself. Yip I said it, it's true, but everyone does it right?...right?....

Not suprisingly there wasn't a heck of a lot of stuff about me other than a couple of things from Uni and that I'm a qualified nurse some where in the US of A, belong in a high school band AND am on the honor role... shesh however do I manage it all...

But I must admit there was a part of me wishing there was maybe just a teensy wee bit more about plain ol' me.

Have decided this must change. Must show the world I am worthy of their gossip.

Try it, I bet you'll find something interesting! -your name not mine...

Happy Birthday!

Whoops, so I'm not particularly good at keeping up with dates and so not surprisingly I managed to let the first year anniversary of my blog go flying past with no hip hip horays or any type of celebration (-wait what was I doing September 1st this year?... hmmm anything remotely celebratory I could gloss over being a party for this? nope nada.)

So belated birthday wishes and all that to you dear blog, I have no idea if people actually read you or whether they merrily click on past to the next blog but I have faith in you! you keep me sane... well maybe not so much but it can't help to try right?!

(Vintage Birthday card found via Google)

Meet M O R G A N

So it's the weekend -okay Saturday night to be precise and yes I am indeed at home (What?! you're in London and not out partying the night away?!) no there is nothing wrong with me... it's just that well you see there may be this little itty bitty tv show that I swore I would never ever watch and well it turns out I may be ever so slightly, just a weee bit addicted to it.... it's X-Factor night!

However as you can see it does not quite hold all of my attention... okay well the ad breaks don't...

Moving on...

Meet Morgan. Morgans greatest ambition in life -according to her blogger profile -is to be Cinderella at Disneyland -she actually does have the face for it too, (although I'm not completely convinced this is her true ambition... each to their own though!) Anywho do go have a looksey at her blog, very entertaining!

M A R Y

I absolutely adore Mary Katrantzou. I'm a huge fan of digitally printed fabric for clothing especially when the prints/graphics are placed around the form with particular stategic care to placement rather than an all over repeat. Mary is a London native, 27 years old and has just won an amazing award as a young creative. Her Spring 2011 looks are based on photographs from the 70's by Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin -mostly interior/decor shots basing the room on the body, however I love her pieces with the giant chunky jewels and perfume bootle shapes wrapped around the body on beautiful stylised dresses. Very talented indeed, would love to get my hands on one of her pieces!

Y A S M I N E

Another Fantabulous (yes it's a word...okay maybe not), illustrator Yasmine Surovec. She has an awesome blog called A Print A Day where she does just that -posts one of her captivating prints daily. She also has an online shop where she sells copies of her beautiful prints and has weekly free downloads but not only that -she sells great digital kits so you can Do-it-yourself!
Have a lookseeee!
Also came across an interview she gave to Indie Fixx Here!

Darling T I N A

When in Melbourne a couple of years ago I came across an illustration in a magazine and took a photo because I wanted to remember it -have recently stumbled across this photo again and thought hmm I wonder what this illustrators been up to, and busy indeed has she been! check out some of her work!

Tina Darling.

B R I N G I T L O N D O N

SSSSSoooo have been in London town for a good 2 and a half months now and still completely loving it! Ok even though am nowhere near the career I want to be in and haven't travelled further than Brighton yet -am still loving it! AND am definitely one of those people who would rather be too cold than too hot, though I do believe I may have to eat my words on this over the next couple of months... it's only the begginning of Autumn and it's already very chilly indeed.It's quite fun though! Bought my first pair of mittens this week and a hot water bottle and a bunch of thermal socks! Come on Winter, BRING IT!
Anywho below are a few pics from my London (and Brighton) travels!

GRRRrrrrr at the Natural History Museum

Brighton Pier & Carousel

Macaroons! mmmmmmmm must have a go at making these!

H is for H A L L O W E E N

Noticed today that it is perfectly acceptable for a group of people in costume to walk down the main street but in singular -not so much...

T E X T U R E

Alice Brisland! some really beautiful images of collaged textures with hand drawn & painted imagery.

Stunningly Beautiful!

See more of her works here!

A L B E R T O

One more post for today! Honest!

Meet Alberto Seveso, completely amazing collages of illustrated shapes creating spaces of the body. Beautiful faces!

B E C

Beautiful, fantastical illustrations by Bec Winnel. Stunning pencil and pastel works -unbelievable skills I wish I could steal.

Oh Susie!

Came across a great illustrator today -Susie Wright who draws on her Scottish heritage, architecture and nature to create some amazing graphic designs. Am loving her birds! Her work may at first glance look a little crazy and all over the place sketching inside the lines but if you look closely it's all very precise!

Stylist! I missed you this week. I'm sorry.

Gorilla man gorilla man...

Am loving Caitlin Rose who hails from Nashville, Tennessee. She's pretty adamant in her youtube interviews that she's not pop or folk or anything associated and hates the word Indie... she prefers to see herself as an original country singer but... I kinda have to disagree a weeeee bit with her there. Her music is really great but I can't help instantly think she sounds like she belongs a little bit in the indie/folk category... I think it may be some of the lyrics she uses? Listen to Shanghai Cigarettes I'm playing it over and over.

Claire Scully. Nough said.

Okay so I have to admit I kinda stole this from a neato blog I came across So Much To Come Firstly because I thought it reminded me a little of a previous blog post I did on the russian musical film Hipsters with their great costumes and secondly because I love the remake of this song! (don't get me wrong -the original is great too but this one just has a little more modern punch to it).

Spray on Fabric! Crazy right?! Not so according to Manel Torres and Paul Luckham who have just unveiled their amazing new textile technology, fabric in a can! (actually just discovered it's been in the planning/making/ creating stages since Fabrican developed in 2000). Todays society is so future and instant product driven that you'd have to say spray on fabric was enivitable. This is a generation of forward thinking, constantly striving to come up with practical (some not so much...) and mass appealing products.

Still in the perfecting stages the product consists of short fibres, such as wool, linen or acrylic, mixed with polymers to bind them together. A solvent which evaporates on contact with a surface allows the fibres to be sprayed out of can as a liquid. Because the liquid is spray on it means you can create layer upon layer of fabric in varying textures. The fabric can then be peeled off of the surface it's been sprayed on then washed and worn all over again. The guys are focussing now on pushing the product towards other applications such as medical fabrics/bandages and interior applications such as upholstery.

-Cannot wait until this becomes mainstream enough for me to get my mitts on a can!

Some info borrowed via Stuff

M O R E !

MOre!!! Fabulous prints from the Fabulous Basso & Brooke!

These are some of their previous season prints but still pretty amazing!

Go here to see more!

Awwwww

Excitment!

Saw my first squirrel in London yesterday! Now am just holding out to see a fox!

(images stolen from google...)

Update! saw a fox today!!! very fairytale like indeed!

Oh S T Y L I S T

(A brilliant fashion mag/newspaper brought to you free(!) every Tuesday!)

Stylist, I want to work for you.
Pretty please? Sugar on top, cherry, sprinkles, the works?... There are so very many reasons as to why you should employ me but first take the time to read my great spiel about you. Yes it’s really all about you.
I can always bring up the aspect of you being free every Tuesday but that’s not my main point, it’s a great point but the best part about you is that you combine great fashion advice and style points with excellent, readable, relevant stories on current issues which I actually take the time to read. I find myself searching for the people who hand you out at the tube every Tuesday morning, if I miss them I walk to the next station hub to find you. I’m not stalking you honest...

M OR E

Bijoux Hearts

Yip I told you there'd be more!

As mentioned below I went to Butler & Wilson -take a looksie at some of their current collection available here.

Also here is another from Fenwicks... Bijoux Hearts Vintage inspired costume jewellry-similar to the other ones I've posted about but each designer has something a little different about them that draws me to them.

F E N W I C K S

So here are the other jewellry designers I found at Fenwick -LOVE the whole over the top gem collages going on at the mo, speaking of which I stumbled into Butler & Wilsons the other day, it's so amazingly in your face it totally works! Planning on which pieces to spend my rent money on now!

Anywho check out these beautiful designers pieces above!

R A N J A N A K H A N

Another beautiful jewellry designer I came across in Fennicks! Am loving the mix of soft silk flowers and gems. Absolutely stunning to see up close in person. Ranjana Khan combines her talents of embroidery and embellishments to create gorgeous jewellry piece and accessories to die for. Apparently Ranjana uses all kinds of unusual techniques to exact the effects of her pieces such as burning and applying acid to them. "She treats precious things in an almost cavalier way" -(from Ranjana's web page).

Having worked with huge modern designers such as McQueen & Jean Paul Gaultier Ranjana set out on her own and it's totally worked for her, check out her site and pop along to Fennicks to peruse in person!

O T A Z U

Went for a visit to Fennicks today at lunch and had to stop myself pulling out the credit cards to buy some AMAZING jewels! Several posts to follow but check out these great bracelets by OTAZU! One of each please! (The third cuff in top right was worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City).

M E A D O W L A R K

Haven't been near any NZ designers lately but suddenly had an inkling to have a looksie at what Meadow Lark have been up to. AND now they have (well since I was last on there...) an online shop! JOY!

Am loving the Protea Cocktail Ring!

B A S S O & B R O O K E

Completely forgot to post that I finally went to the Basso & Brooke exhibition!

Was actually a little disappointed though, I think I'd built it up a fair bit in my head that it was going to be a highly extensive look into their work. Don't get me wrong though -the work that was there was amazing but there were only 6 garments. I was so excited to have A: found the Design Museum in the first place and B: remembered to take my camera that the high of seeing two garments by a set of stairs and 4 in a box frame outside paled in comparison.

However as small as the collection was it was still pretty awesome to see some of their work up close!

C A M D E N MARKETS

Yip been marketing it up again, this time at the Camden Markets, came across more great stuff but to be honest most of the stalls repeated themselves every 4 or 5 AND a lot of it was cheap and poorly made clothing... I've come across this jewellry (below) -I first thought it was grad or student work but now I'm not so sure as I've seen it at a few stalls now, it's rather interesting -a kind of etched metal, plus the rings are great

F L O W E R S

Again with the flowers!

Yes I've been playing around a bit again with the flowers and trying them out as garments and fashion illustrations....

Would love to get a few things digitally printed with them... hmmmm must explore this further I think! Perhaps it is cheaper and easier in London town?

Vintage filtering

Okay one more post for the day...

I've seen some great 'vintage' photos recently, new ones made to look vintage using photoshop and I really wanted to have a go, turns out there are quite a few ways to do it. I googled it a bit and came across a great blog with excellent advice here.

So I had a go with a picture I took at the Portobello Rd Markets today, I think it went okay -will def be trying it again!

Before (Above)

After (Above)