» Publishers, Monetize your RSS feeds with FeedShow: More infos (Show/Hide Ads)
1. a) light up globes and b) fantastic photographs by Rune Guneriussen.
2. Handmade dolls in tiny replicas of SS10 outfits by Andrew Yang in a shoot for The Block magazine.
3. Posters from International Poster Gallery, an amazing place to buy wall art or lose hours browsing.
4. Shortbread buttons tutorial by super talented Nikole.
5. Lovely collection of drawings from toy museums by Krystina Litten.
6. Same hill, different day a photo series by Paul Octavious.
7. More dolls! Mad Men Barbie and Ken in sharp little outfits.
8. Hark! A Vagrant comics by Kate Beaton.
9. Space nails by Fiorella.
10. Guardians of Russian Art Museums, a clever and charming project by Andy Freeberg.
Last week I tried to have a jewellery cull to get rid of anything I didn’t like or wear in an attempt to de-clutter and ~simplify~. It didn’t really work, I ended up packing most of it away in a shoebox in the warderobe and I still have too much on display since all I ever wear is tacky rhinestones. I guess I’m quite attached to jewellery, even though most of it is cheap.
Also I borrowed Andrew’s macro lens for the close ups, macro photography is so stressful!
The silver rabbit in the bottom right corner is from a necklace I had when I was about 9 and really into rabbits. I wore it as a good luck charm for my exams when I was 16 and superstitious.
The chain necklace was my mum’s in the early 80s.
Talking of things that are tacky, I’m totally obsessed with Mad As A Hatter nail varnish by OPI. It’s part of the Alice in Wonderland Collection (that’s enough already with the Alice merch though, everyone). I forgot to take pictures of it on, but it looks like this. Sick! Just a warning, getting this stuff off is a nightmare, but you can do this fun foil trick which apparently works a treat. I’m a compulsive nail picker and peeling off varnish is like my favourite hobby, so it’s not really an issue for me!
Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany by Luiz Pires
There are so many places I want to see, I’ve been browsing and bookmarking and basically putting together travel porn (oh dear, that phrase isn’t going to be good for my blog search results is it). I’m going to Nice in may and maybe Davos in the summer, so that should satisfy me for the year. If I had unlimited funds I’d do a leisurely Trans Siberian Railway route through Russia and then travel around China and Japan. Where would you go?
St. George Orthodox Monastery in Wadi Qelt, Palestine by Adam Fink.
Hanoi, Vietnam by Larpoon.
Iceland by orvaratli.
Prague, Czech Republic by Adam Gut.
Crystal River Mill, Colorado, USA by Rob Lee.
North Coyote Buttes near the Utah and Arizona border, USA by coulombic.
Varanasi, India by Larpoon.
Dalat, Vietnam by Larpoon.
Oia in Santorini, Greece by marcelgermain.
Brennisteinsalda volcano in Iceland by ystenes.
Honningsvåg, Norway by richard mcmanus.
Fribourg, Switzerland by Adam Gut.
Erg Chebbi sand dunes, Morocco by mikemellinger.
The Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland by letsgetjetset.
If you’re a new reader, you might enjoy my photos of Moscow & St Petersburg, Hong Kong, New York, Davos or Tokyo.
So mother’s day is coming up (March 14th in the UK) and I spent ages browsing for a sweet gift yesterday. My mum is a bit of a nightmare to buy for, she has everything and she’s vegan, doesn’t drink alcohol/caffeine, so food and drinks are hopeless. Tough call!
I have a million ideas for other people though (isn’t that always the way), so I thought I’d share some of the nice stuff I found.
btw you’re never going to see me doing a father’s day edition, because buying for dads is totally impossible.
Persephone books reprint neglected books mostly written by ladies, with gorgeous covers. They even have a handy guide for presents.
Super slick teapots and cups from Bodum. You could throw in a selection of nice black/green/white teas too.
Scented candles from English Eccentrics.
Tapestry kits by Emily Peacock.
Cashmere socks are amazing, Brora are the go-to people for cashmere in general.
Baileys have lots of pretty bits for the home.
Since getting my Filofax, I’ve been raving about them to anyone who’ll listen. It’s the perfect organiser!
Beautiful personalised note cards from Rifle Paper co.
Laura Mercier body stuff. This smells incredible, it’s a struggle to not eat it.
Bracelets from Plumo.
Gloves from Dents.
Painted plates by Nathalie Lete for Anthropologie.
Or you could just bake something amazing! The pictures above are from lomopony.
Some epic recipes: chocolate fudge cake, sponge cake with raspberry and mascarpone, four nut chocolate brownies, maple walnut cake, Austrian coffee and walnut cake, chocolate chip ginger nuts, chocolate dipped cherry cake and rainbow cake!!!
The best ever chocolate chip cookie recipe, classic oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Savory Sweet Life, my new favourite food blog.
If you’re all sorted (lucky you) what are you buying for your mummy?
Frills and bows at Charles Anastase!
Eyebrow glasses at Prada!
Leopard print at Moschino Cheap & Chic!
So I know it’s fashion month and the AW10 collections are upon us, but all I’m thinking about is the Miu Miu cat prints for spring/summer. Last weekend I tried on the swallow print shoes and I’ve got it bad. The shape is perfect, lovely thick heel, super high, lovely! I’m dying for the cat printed ones above though, which are apparently dropping in stores soon. I love this whole collection, it was my absolute fave this season. I saw a lot of the samples on shoots and they are so beautifully made! Some samples come in and they’re falling apart and shedding sequins all over the place, but the Miu Miu jewelled pieces were always perfect. I mean really, crystals, cat/dog/bird prints, matching trouser suits, mermaid sequins, crazy long hair plaits? How would I not love this! Can’t wait to see what Miuccia has planned for Prada and Miu Miu next.
(illustrations by me. backstage and campaign photos from Miu Miu, catwalk photos from Fashionologie, editorial from Vogue Australia March issue.)
“Don’t chew your coloured pencils, dear” said Miss Violence to Laura. “You aren’t a rodent. Look, your mouth is all green. It’s bad for your teeth.”
- The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
How it all starts: pencil lines in red, ink in black, then scan and clean up any funky lines or mistakes.
I totally got inspired by these pictures of Marlon Brando and Mary Murphy from The Wild One, because let’s face it, that is how a young man should look. Swoon. Don’t even talk to me about Streetcar, I die!
A new version of an older illustration on postcards for Fred Flare and fredflare.com.
an interview with me about life post-graduation in the current issue of Blanket magazine.
and I’m selling my old issues of Lula and a bunch of other lovely stuff on ebay.
There’s so much more I want to blab about, but nothing I’m allowed to show yet! Soon, promise.
There’s a photo of me in a really old photo album somewhere wearing this (awesome) outfit when I was about 6. I absentmindedly drew this in my sketchbook yesterday without even realising!
Major sale on everything currently in my etsy shop! I’m also working on lots of new prints for a big shop relaunch next month, so once this stuff is gone its gone forever.
Belated Happy New Year and hope you all had a jolly festive holiday! I spent Christmas at my parents’ house and we took Matilda back for the first time since we moved out. She was strutting around like she owned the place within 3 minutes, what a resilient cat! I thought she would be cowering under the bed for days…
So we ate delicious dinner, wore paper hats, watched white christmas/doctor who, had post-dinner naps and took away insane amounts of leftovers that we subsequently ate for over a week. I love Christmas, it’s one of the few holidays that doesn’t make me barf (see halloween, valentine’s day, NYE).
Now the decorations have come down and it feels like Christmas was a really long time ago. I suppose we better get on with 2010 then!
I drew this for a Christmas wallpaper for the NEET blog (which you can nab for yourself if you follow that link). Any excuse to draw a bit of The Nutcracker, it’s my favourite ballet and my parents and I usually see it at Christmas. This year we saw Les Patineurs / Tales of Beatrix Potter though, which was totally amazing (It snowed on stage! All the little mice! Massive dolls house! How do they see through the animal heads!) but I did miss all that Tchaikovsky.
The Sugar Plum Fairy
The Mouse King
Clara
Nutcracker
And here are the original sketches. I sketched with a red mechanical pencil, inked with a Pentel pocket brush pen, scanned them in and got rid of all the red lines and background, then coloured in and added last little details in Photoshop.
I also did a little rough colour plan this time, which I don’t usually do due to laziness and impatience, because I wanted the four characters to work together nicely.
The inspiration:
(Besimo)
(Julian Broad and Rachel Papo)
I thought this would make a nice simple desktop wallpaper, so I made some in different sizes for you guys.
320 × 480 (iphone) | 800 × 600 | 1024 × 768 | 1280 × 800 | 1280 × 1024 | 1440 × 900 | 1680 × 1050
Help yourself!
ring – Kenneth Jay Lane
necklaces – Malene Birger, Tom Binns, Yves Saint Laurent
earrings – Erickson Beamon
headpiece – Louis Mariette
My rhinestone collection is already kind of getting out of hand, but I still want alllll of this stuff.