Happy 2010!!

frosty the snowmen

ickle snowmen...awww....

via 9GAG

strike a light

these matches are sooo cute...i dunno where they're from (or who they're marketed at...kiddy smokers?!)...spotted on 9GAG

teeny weeny chairs

i so want one of these tiny little chairs.... Eames please!

via Swiss Miss

favourite aunt

oh look... aunty cookie does the cutest prints, decals, fabric and stuff - they just make me want to squeek...they are soooooo....lovely!  All available at her Etsy  store...

via The Design Files

a congregation of magpies

i recently bought a magpie print by We Are Family at the lovely shop Frank in Whitstable...i'm thinking of getting a magpie tattoo and might use one....

LUSH

love these lamp shades by Lush Designs  - based in Greenwich Market (but first spotted on a visit to Lewes at the lovely Wickle shop)...i want them all....but i am hankering after the horse or mermaid i think...

look look look...love love love

love love love...this is the "A Love Letter for You"  project from the States..50 painted walls by 40 international artists, located in Philadelphia's Market Street...awesome...

follow the penguin

i am discovering so many beautiful things on my fave new blog The Design Files....here's more lovely illustrations, by Beci Orpin of Melbourne...look at the penguin!

BYO coffee cup

BYO coffee cup what a great idea...reusable silicon coffee cups.  they keep your coffee hot, but are cool to touch.  designed by Lucy of the design file mum....

ooh la la

amazing Monsieur Qui a French illustrator who pastes his work on the streets of Paris....

via The Design Files

VIP

love this...from Craft Victoria ...

twit twoo

beautiful by Melbourne artist and illustrator Catherine Campbell....available in her Etsy store...so of course i have to have one....

via The Design Files

time for tea

my mum bought me a beautiful green and gold tea set from a charity shop the other day and i can't wait to have a tea party, with some french fancies.  this one is rather lovely too...designed by Kat Macleod for the HeideMuseum of Modern Art in Melbourne

via The Design Files

all i want for christmas is a BIKE

i've been hankering after a bike for years...always looking for the perfect one....this is it (designed by Alexander Girard for US company Electra)...tho i don't think it'd be very practical in London (it'd be nicked in minutes)...aren't they gorgeous!  just found they are sold in the UK at Bobbins Bicycles in East London for £640!

via  The Design Files

nice

lovely little necklaces by Australian jewellery designer Victoria Mason ....i want the NICE biccie and the wool, natch....

scarf

lovely scarf from Urban Revisions at Etsy .... wonder if i'd manage to look quite so pixie-cute ...i think not...ho hum...

woolly woody

beautiful wool/crochet covered wooden stools...from wood & wool stool (dutch designer Ingrid Jansen)....lovely...

everything in its place

oh how i wish to have a place as lovely as this to store my knittyness.....one day....

via Dottie Angel

bank of mattressland

in these hard times...the only safe place to keep your savings is under the bed...

or in the bank of mattressland...

start saving those pennies now...

more mattressness

Gladstone Bag

i have about a million bags...not just handbags...i mean weekend bags, laundry bags, suitcases of all sizes...but there's always been one more bag i need...and this is it.  the Gladstone large weekender bag from Stuart Gladstone...of course i lust after the pink one, but i entered a competition for a tartan one (thru an off licence establishment in kensington church street before christmas) and i'd be quite happy to recieve that if i won!

tree hugger

look at these hauntingly beautiful paintings by Jess Bronk (from Milwaukee, Wisconsin)....amazing...

via Bliss

going native

i want one of these prints by Etsy seller Native Vermont (aka Ryan Fowler from Illinois, via Vermont)...oooh foxy and crow, polar bear...or barnacle whale!!!

wood

this bathroom gives me wood....from Oceanside Prefab a cabin you can rent in Oregon.....mmm

one for sorrow, two for joy....

a few years ago i bought a wonderful acrylic magpie necklace from Paraphernalia on Etsy - i loved it and wore it often. unfortunately the magpie necklace snapped in half (hmmm...there may be something in that bad luck thing about seeing only one!) and i haven't gotten round to fixing it yet...and i've just discovered they have left Etsy and have their own site.

i am fascinated by these much maligned birds - i think they are beautiful and they always reminded me of my english home when i was away in tropical climes, as i was for much of my childhood.  due to superstition about the luck (or lack of) these birds bring when spotted - its interesting to hear how people react when they see them - especially a solitary magpie, thought to be bad luck (probably because they usually stay in pairs). at school i remember reciting "hello, mr magpie" three times, while spinning round clockwise three times and spitting three times, others i know say "hello, mr magpie, say hello to your wife and family" while doffing their cap or saluting. and of course there's the wellknown rhyme, tho there seem to be variations...i always did the first one...

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told

or

One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral
Four for a birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the devil his own sel'

and there are even some extra lines added sometimes...

Eight for a wish
Nine for a kiss
Ten for a time of joyous bliss / for a bird that you won't want to miss

tho i always used to use a variation on this rhyme for sneezes...

One's a wish
Two's a kiss
Three's a letter
Four's something better!


also reminds me of the rhyme my granny used to say to tell the difference between crows and rooks...

A crow in a crowd is a rook
A rook on his own is a crow

babushka, babushka, babushka ay yaaa

i've always loved Matroyshka dolls, since i received a beautiful old wooden set as a child which are now faded and worn from much love, and these ones from Etsy seller Sewn Natural (mother and daughter team from Canada) are just darling....

SPROUTS!

now...i've never been too fond of the little green veggies (tho as i get older, they get tastier...weirdly!) but my love for a few little Bruxelles Sprouts makes me love them more and more....and so do these lovely watercolours by Etsy seller The Botanical Concept (aka Charlotte Linder from Sweden, via Leicester, UK)