Oh Christmas Tree

 

The V&A has to be one of my favourite museums in London and I am especially loving their very unusual Christmas Tree this year! It's very simple yet elegant and looks rather effective in the grand entrance of the museum, bringing a bit of design flair to the festive season! 

Spine Tingling

 

 

I love the handmade crafted jewelry of Ayaka Nishi - particularly loving her 'bones' collection and this amazing spine bracelet. I've always been fond of bones and skull type jewelry, slightly morbid I know but I've always thought that they look really effective. This bracelet is combined with coyote bones and snake's spine to create this intricate looking piece of jewelry. I want this, I need this - I have to have it to add to my ever growing collection, but with a price tag of just over a grand I think I will need to get saving!

Stocking Fillers!

As Christmas is fast approaching upon us I took to my laptop last night and started the Christmas shopping!
I really enjoy looking for presents that people will really love, something that's a little bit different.
I came across this lovely Design and Art Sketchbook from Magma, designed by creative agency Studio8.
The book is full of useful tips and measurements and is the perfect gift for any creative mind this christmas....
I may even have to buy myself one!

The Invisable bridge

I love the dutch and their flare for design and especially this astounding bridge by dutch architects Ro and Ad. They have literally turned a bridge on its head and sent it through the water instead of over it creating a totally different experience - yet another simple idea with a very effective outcome.

Lucky Lucy

I am a lover anything from high street retailer Zara so it comes as no surprise that I'm on their mailing list - which is very dangerous - but I like to check out the lookbooks when they come out. Recently I received an email directing me to this lovely short film about Lucy Chadwick directed by The Selby for Zara.  So now, I will admit, I'm slightly green with envy of Lucy, the clothes, the NY apartment, the jewelery, the lifestyle, the barn, the locations, her effortless style - I want it all! Fair to say she may become a new muse of mine! oh and her London home is just as lovely, the girls got it all! - If you want to get jealous too take a look at the film here

Shepherd's Delight

 

In the post at work we recently received a lovely little illustrated postcard from local illustrator Nick Shepherd. Whilst checking out his other colourful illustrations on his website I came across this one. I especially love this, as like I've mentioned before, I am an avid cat lover but my partner is not  - but if I had my own way I would own nine cats and let them sprawl all over our bed - and he would hate it! I think it captures what our relationship could be like perfectly, maybe this could be another one to hang on our wall?

Love Unplugged

Love Unplugged – Love Art Launch night from Love Unplugged on Vimeo.

My lovely friend Maddy, a fellow graphic designer, has been greatly involved in a lovely arts and music festival called Love Unplugged which takes place around the Leeds and Bradford area. The Festival raises awareness of different charities and allows local talent to get noticed. The launch night, filmed by the very talented Luke Rothery, took place at Dock Street Market and was attended by lots of music and art lovers who came to view the various cardboard guitars which have been illustrated by local artists and are going to be auctioned off for the charities involved.

I went down to the launch night  (I have a very small cameo in the film!) and it was a great night full of music, laughter and teapot cocktails! One of my good friends Lizzi has decorated one of the guitars so I even made a cheeky bid on hers, fingers crossed I win! To find out I shall be heading down to the next installment of the festival which takes place in Bradford on the 19th November, for more details check the website here and support the cause!

Hope I see you there!

We are the night

I have recently been trawling Ebay for a gig poster for one of my room's at home. Seen as I have filled the house with girly artwork I thought it would be best I get something that both me and my partner liked. It isn't often that I find a band/dj that I really like as much as the album artwork, I usually like one more than the other and wasn't prepared to put some band on the wall I 'kinda' liked.

However my Ebay searches paid off when I came across a very large 5ft promo poster of the Chemical Brother's album 'We are the night' . I had totally forgot about how much I loved the album artwork by Kate Gibb, I love her stick and paste collage style and the fact that it involves eyes, hands and stars is a winner for me. Not only do I love the artwork but me and my partner both love the album too -  it brings back lots of memories for us as we saw them and their amazing light show at many festivals so its nice to have something we can both relate to! There's just one more little thing I have to find though before it can take pride of place on our wall...,the world's largest frame!

Happy Movember!

So this month is 'Movember' and I have finally persuaded my partner to put his stubble to good use and 'grow a mo' in aid of the charity. I may buy my Mo Bro this lovely comb from Kent so he can keep it in place this November!

Spooky Shelves

I dropped upon the amazing work of James Hopkins, a UK based designer who uses different perspectives, illusions and objects to create these types of images. At first glance you just see stacks of shelves and objects but when you give them a closer look you realise each object has been placed very carefully with much thought given. I am fascinated with skull's and would love to give this a go, but I wouldn't know where to start?!! Never the less I thought it would be nice to share these to get us in the mood for a spooky weekend! Happy Halloween!

Feeling Feline

I am a self confessed, massive cat lover, but unfortunately my partner does not share the same interest in the small furry things as I do because he is very allergic to them - so there's no hope in hell of me ever being a crazy old cat lady! (a secret ambition of mine) But whilst taking a look at Australian label Stylestalker's lookbook I realised I'm not the only one who shares a passion for all things cat related. Russian born, Melbourne based model Anja Konstantinova also admits she is 'quite obsessed' with cats and has taken the obsession even further with four cat related tattoos and even compares herself to the animal. It's not hard to see why from the amazing photo's from this season's lookbook, they make me think that some sort of feline related costume could be on the cards for halloween? - maybe minus the tattoos though...

Sneek Peek

I am currently working on a new brand for a macaron company, which I am really enjoying as I love macaron's and it gives me a good excuse to 'research' them. It's a really interesting brief to work with as I can use lots of colour and have a bit of fun with the design. So far I have designed the logo and chosen some colours and favored a kitch type style, but I have a brochure and a website to also create, including lots of promotional accessories too! I shall keep you updated on the progress and hopefully post the end results soon!

Pea Green with jealousy

For a long time now me and my sister have talked about getting together to write a children's book. With my sister currently studying a degree in primary school teaching, she has a vast knowledge of what children like and has asked me to create the illustrations - we make the perfect team! I've been researching for a while now, looking at different styles of illustration for some inspiration. Initially I first thought of the most famous childrens book's illustrators, such as Quentin Blake and Maurice Sendak, but it's only when i had a look at an old favourite book from my childhood that I became aware of Kevin Waldron.

I love his simplistic yet very characterful illustrations and the tone of the colours he uses compliment each other to create colourful, but not garish, friendly pictures. The images above are taken from my favorite book 'The Owl and the Pussy Cat' - a book that must have been read to me a million times before. Seeing these lovely illustrations brought the childhood memories of the story flooding back, it's definitely one I am going to have to track down and purchase, not only for the story, but the lovely images too!

A London Weekend

A few pictures from a lovely weekend darn south! We had some glorious sunshine to walk along Southbank with, stopping off at a cheese and wine festival and second hand book stall's. It was the perfect get away weekend. I have to apologise for the manic use of hipstamatic photography, im saving up for a shiny SLR so will be able to post some other types of pictures soon!...they do look pretty though!