thought of the day: in the end

Found via we heart it

Lady in Red

I saw the Noisettes live a few weekends ago. I liked their songs before but now I've seen them live, I am totally in love with them. They were fabulous and I love love love Shingai's style - how gorgeous is this fringe jacket?



Digging about online I've discovered that it was custom made for her by the Topshop team for the V Festival this year. Both V V Brown and Shingai Shoniwa had outfits designed and made for them. Jealous Much!

Autumn leaves under frozen souls

Autumn is here. It feels sad. Don't ask me why; I'm not sure. I went for a walk today, had a coffee topped with chocolate shavings and stood for a while outside the grocers contemplating buying a pumpkin for Halloween. In the end I didn't, but I took a picture. I found a lovely shop that sells lots of old things. It's next door to a vintage clothing shop with racks and racks of clothes. I went into both of them but I didn't choose anything - I'm saving that for another day. Maybe tomorrow I won't feel so stuck, the heaviness will be gone and the sadness will be with someone else's Autumn.

thought of the day

found via weheartit

I ♥ Frankie

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm so excited! Today I took the plunge and took out a years international subscription for my love, Frankie. Honestly, I'm perplexed its taken me this long to give in. It's been a year exactly since I moved back to Glasgow from Sydney and the number one thing I miss (aside from the sun!) is the fabulous Frankie.

My beautiful sister would send me editions when she still lived down under (her gift last christmas was a Frankie mag and the afternoon tea recipe collection... heaven!) but she has recently moved back to the UK and is living in London; how selfish. The loss has been intolerable. Sure, for a while I would kid myself on I could find a substitute and spend hours trawling the shelves of Borders feigning interest in pretentious art and style publications that featured articles less stimulating than the editorial on the back of a cereal packet. But I've turned a corner, and accepted my hunt is futile. There IS no substitute.

All I can say is those postal workers better get off that picket line and back into that sorting office.... if Frankie doesn't reach me on time there'll be trouble.

www.frankie.com.au

thought of the day: when you want something

Found via we heart it

Bluebird Vintage

Today I discovered the fabulous Bluebird Vintage. There isn't one thing in their online store I wouldn't love to own. Check out these lovely pieces; a few of my favourites. Miss James the owner and stylist also has an adorable blog thats worth checking out here.

The Great British Seaside

Some snaps of Brighton a few weekends ago. I have completely fallen for this seaside city. The cafes, the rows of cute townhouses, the colours, the ice cream, the lapping waves, the sun and the deck chairs. I am going to live here, in an apartment off a winding lane that is painted yellow on the outside and has walls and walls of beautiful photography. I will probably own a bicycle with a basket on the front and on sundays I will cycle along the promenade, buy a cafe au lait and a croissant and read a few chapters of a good book infront of some multi coloured beach huts. That will be Sunday.

thought of the day

Sometimes I wish, found via le love

More Lovely Packaging...

It has been a while... but having a lazy saturday morning peek through Design Feedr reminded me how lovely packaging gets me all inspired. Here are a few beauties I just had to share with you...

Illustration love: Marcelina Amelia

It's been an age since I've had a some spare time to catch up on what's happening in the virtual world. This afternoon I made myself a large cup of coffee, sat down in front of my computer and spent some time looking through my favourite blogs. I'd forgotten how much the blog world inspires me.

Catching up with we heart it, I came across Marcelina Amelia. Really like these beautiful illustrations; the mixed media style of illustration really gets me in the mood for collage. Check out her blog here for some fabulous photography, her myspace also has a beautiful collection of her work and links to her online portfolio.

I heart tights

I saw this second image over on Love More today and fell totally in love with these heart tights... so much so I hunted down a pair on tabio.com and can't wait for them to arrive.

Really, I shouldn't have purchased anything else. My bank account took a bit of a battering today when I headed into the city for some necessities, except quickly the necessities turned into a series of not-so-necessary items including a fabulous new jacket (a bargain really - it was a mere £13.00 from Primark!). So now I have a massive dose of shopping guilt.... hmmm but how cute are these tights?

my whole heart for my whole life

I was at a fabulous wedding last weekend; lots of champagne, laughs, dancing and good times! Those really are the best kind of weddings; it was very good fun! The happy couple were both beaming and as soon as they walked out the church the clouds that had been forming all morning parted and the sun was splitting the sky. After the horrendous weather we had all week, and despite the dreadful forecast, someone upstairs decided to give em a break, turn off the tap, and fill their day with sunshine. Here's hoping it's the beginning of things to come.

Here is a snapshot of the day (before dusk fell and things got messy!). My sister was a bridesmaid which was really nice and luckily the bride was very kind to the girls with beautiful deep purple dresses that suited them all perfectly. I had a go at snapping some good shots with my Nikon camera and I am totally in love with the second shot. The groom in the foreground looking like he can't believe his luck and the bride in the background; that's a good shot right? Oh and if any of you have swung by here before you will recognise my dress from earlier posts... yup, I hunted down the very last one in the country and boy am I glad I did. It was perfect.

thought of the day

'Undies' by Marc Johns

These Boots Are Made for Walking...

I am on the lookout for the perfect pair of ankle boots. Here are a selection from ASOS; the fourth pair are my favourite!

1. Leather and Mesh 2. Leather Peep Toe Buckle 3. Carvella Multi Stud Stap Boot 4. Leather Suede Ruched Peep Toe Boot

Last week I started following Grace Smith on Twitter; Grace is a fabulous tweeter (is that right?) with loads of great links to design/web stuff. Yesterday she posted an awesome link to an article - 11 Essential Iphone Apps for Designers and on the list was this awesome 'sketches'. Of course I downloaded it straight away and I have to admit its pretty damn cool! It lets you draw up concepts, input text, annotate photos and post them to a little virtual notice board on your phone - too cool for school! Whatever will they come up with next...!

lets converse

Doing some research for work I came across this awesome converse website that lets you build and customise your own shoe - awesome - it really is hours of fun! Here's a pair I made earlier. Before you get too excited though, they don't ship internationally so unless you live in the US you'll have to just save all your designs and admire them from afar boooooooo!!!!

I lived in converse when I was traveling but eventually, after thousands of miles and a rather hardcore stint on an apple farm, the sole broke away from the canvas leaving a rather large and non-waterproof hole. Which, by the way I totally could have lived with - but when mouldy apple gunk starts leaking into your shoe it's not worth the horror (nor the smell) at the end of the day. Until now I hadn't really thought of replacing them. Hmmmmm....who do I know in the US...

a day in type

One day in type from Dima Boulad on Vimeo.

Check out this awesome video uploaded onto creative review by Dima Boulad documenting a typical day in typography - cool idea, typography really is that important in our daily lives, who knew?

Design Law?

Today I spent a long time getting home from work. I stopped for a snack, I wandered in shops (the kind of wandering that makes shop assistants think you're going to rob something because it's aimless, daydream perusing) I stopped in at the book store for an hour and then waited an age for the bus. That bit was probably the least enjoyable part. It really didn't feel like my usual week day evening where I am anxiously aware of my evening ticking away at an astonishing rate and yet despite my best efforts all the anxiety is wasteful because come bed time I've usually not much to show for it, except an empty glass of wine and wrinkles from the bath. I'm quite sure if you had met me roaming the city this evening you would have mistaken me for someone quite relaxed, someone not moved by the incessancy of time at all.

So I spent a long time in the book store. I thought about getting a coffee while I browsed through the illustration, photography and graphic design books, but somehow I can't bring myself to be that person - y'no the one I mean - the person who drinks their coffee in the book store and decorates the edges of the clean white pages with muffin prints; and doesn't buy a thing. And well, I love coffee but there is something painstakingly wrong with drinking it at dinner time - without dinner. Anyway, so I came across this fabulous book 'Never Use White Type on a Black Background and 50 other ridiculous design rules' by Anneloes van Gaalen. It's a cute pocket size illustrated list of well known design rules, where they originated and what contemporary designers think about them. Have a wee peek through some of the rules over on the publisher website Paperdoll, they also have some other quirky design books which are well worth a look.

I heart tea parties

Some snaps of my birthday tea party on Saturday. We still have enough cakes left over to sink a ship, I am seriously suffering from cake fatigue. My Sis and Mum did a fab job baking everything for the day and it was perfect! The weather managed to hold out, despite the rain predicted, and everyone managed at least one cup of tea before returning to the ice cold gin and tonics (kinda explains the hangover... not so shocking really!).Some more snaps over on my flickr.