DIY Silk Stacking Rings

A great little DIY jewelry project to make something pretty (and to save some pennies!) is this tutorial on DIY silk stacking rings from The Lovely Dept. blog.

Luis Monteiro for Tatler

Beautiful colour palette from Oh the Lovely Things blog. Got to be my favourite design blog of the moment.

Ritzy Bee Blog

OK, so another blog I love, love, love! Even if you're not wedding obsessed like yours truly Ritzy Bee has a beautiful collection of items, photography and pretty things, if you're January is feeling a little grey I'd recommend this injection of beautiful inspiration from event designers Maria & Kelly - they have links to every blog possible so it's a road to a long afternoon of blog reading!

Favourite Blog of this week!

I'm spending far too much time reading everyone else's blogs and not writing my own so as a compromise I'll post some recommended blogs!

A daily addiction for anyone who loves colour, fashion, food and lovely things is Oh Joy! run by the lovely designer Joy Deangdeelert Cho, she has an incredible talent for finding the best things and creating beautiful posts.

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.