Modern Calligraphy

Calligraphy by Hilary

Calligraphy by Hilary

When I was about seven year old, my lovely elderly next door neighbour Dillys bought me a calligraphy set for my birthday. Taken my the desire to have the beautiful script seen in the accompanying 'how to' book, I spend hours slaving over the curves of a lower case 'r' and writing an uppercase 'S' about a hundred times until scraping to a halt and spilling ink across the page.

I was, however, not the best at it and created reasonable but very shaky calligraphy much to my disappointment! This morning I stumbled upon the beautiful offerings on Etsy, my favourite being 'San Fransisco' style from Calligraphy by Hillary (above). Other great sellers include Ever After NY (below), and Bubbo.

EverAfterNY on Etsy

Bubbo on Etsy

Rob Ryan Plates

Since becoming engaged I've been floating along enjoying every minute, the drinks with friends, the lovely cards and the great excuses to buy ourselves (or each other!) lovely things.

During a recent visit to the lovely Coppermoon in Belfast (3 Wellington Street) I spotted a lovely set of Rob Ryan plates. Now, the only problem is where to find a wall space in my tiny house? I do fear I'll have to buy a bigger house just to fit everything on the walls!

See what the lovely Rob Ryan is up to here...

CBBC Presenter!

Yes, I've been away for ages and I'm so sorry - but I have a great excuse - I'm an on-screen designer for a CBBC interior design makeover programme called 'I Want My Own Room'! I aufitioned along with the rest of my colleages in the office and got the job and creator of dream rooms for kids - so exciting!

I'm not supposed to post pictures but there's a few sneaky peaks without revealing anything!

Urbanized Poster by Build

Ok, so it's Wednesday and raining (again) in Manchester and I spot that Gary Hustwit is making a new film. First thought - limited edition posters! And true to form there is a beautiful set of four limited-edition A2 Urbanized silkscreen prints designed by Build.

Not even just a lovely way to spend your pennies, but the proceeds actually fund the film, and ever better you get a mention in the film's credits if you buy the set of four! Ok, they're $400 for the set, but if you're an agency or rich it would look amazing!

If you're feeling super rich for a mere $5,000 Gary Hustwit himself will fly to where you are to host a private screening of the film, plus you get DVD's the screen prints and T-shirts. That might be a pretty good event actually...

The National Lottery beckons....

Crumpled City Map

Whilst wandering around Utility design shop in Liverpool I stumbled across a genius design idea - the Crumpled City Map. Made from a woven fabric-like paper the map in rip and waterproof with a soft texture to allow clear reading of the map no matter how crumpled it gets. Having had many a travel disaster involving the crease of a map (missing a boat in Sicily and becoming stranded to name but one!), I am overjoyed at this genius idea! Other than trying to fold and fold again, the issues of rain, storage and looking like a tourist are the bane of my map using life.

Made for Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Rome and available for a mere £10 here on utilitydesign.co.uk I know what's on my birthday list!

NoChintz

Good morning from my new home at NoChintz, the most brilliant interior design studio in the UK. I'll be blogging and marketing from my little desk in the most amazing design studio you have ever seen in the uber cool Northern Quarter of Manchester, if only my house looked this good!

Watch this blog space for more info soon.

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Lo Res Project by United Nude

United Nude's Lo Res project just launched their first object - shoes. If you love pixelated objects, then you'll love these Lo Res shoes, also available from their website in black, blue and grey for a budget busting €185. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished results for the martini glasses, need to start saving now!

Rebecca Thuss

Absolutely love the website of Rebecca Thuss, former editor of Martha Stuart Weddings, photo stylist and all round creator of pretty things. It's just page after page of lovely things. Indulge here.

Eames Chairs and Peter Blakes

I have been rather busy over Christmas with driving back and forth between Liverpool and Manchester and eating my body weight in turkey and 'Hotel Chocolat' mulled wine chocolates, but my word did we get some cracking presents for the house! Being the geeky couple we are, Phillip and I decided to put our money together and buy something between us - and that thing was an original Herman Miller Zenith Eames Rocker! So in this year of austerity we are starting as we mean to go on, well it's virtually recycling as it's an original chair...



The other exciting purchase was a Peter Blake proof print from his latest Venice collection, I rather like the lady with a cat's head, it looks totally normal yet entirely odd. The blue in this print is the same as our other 'Got a Girl' Peter Blake screen print - which is a good thing as Phillip is massively into coordination.

So, as I move into 2011 with prices rising and bills looming I can sit on my Eames rocker looking at my Peter blake whilst eating Value baked beans on Basics toast clinging to the cat for warmth...

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Download New Years Resolutions Poster

Happy New Year! So here we are at the top of 2011 looking down and the year ahead with high hopes, good intentions and that 'can-do' attitude that will last hopefully until the end of January.

So with high hopes and good intentions I created a 2011 Resolutions poster to pin above my desk to remind me to do all those things I promised after six glasses of champagne of New Years Eve!

Feel free to download and print!
Personal use only, all rights reserved.