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...

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!

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!

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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Christmas Decorations Online Shopping

1. Fabric Christmas Pudding, John Lewis £3.25; 2. Dot Hearts Hand printed Decorations, SouthernSkirts $9; 3. 'Gwyn' Owl from Habitat, £2; 4. Lovebirds Christmas Ornaments, PrinceDesignUK £10; 5. Help for Heroes Charity Bears, Selfridges £15 each; 6. White Porcelain Bell Garland, The White Company £15

My top picks of Christmas tree decorations that are available online to shop in your lunch break. I was disappointed that Habitat hasn't a great selection online, as in store they have some amazing decorations. You may prefer to go into The White Company shop for some of their decorations as they are selling out fast - or do what I did this January and buy them up in the sale!

If the shops are a bit same same etsy.com has the world's largest selection of handmade items for sale, beware it's addictive!

The alternative it to make you own which ensures some unique and budget friendly decorations, so if you have the time, have an afternoon with some felt, origami paper and string. Try these links for some home-made ideas:

- For a modern wreath I made one from Domestifluff last year - totally worth the effort!
- Origami a go-go with this amazing star from How About Orange
- For food that will last forever, try these faux sugar cookie ornaments from Creature Comforts

If you can't find anything you fancy with these amazing blogs, my ctl+alt+del is always craftzine.com for an endless supply of making ideas.

Christmas Tree

Yay, we finished our first Christmas tree in our first house! Minus the flea market fairy on top, but she's just disinfecting at the moment. It was like opening new presents this year as I'd rather thriftily bought my decorations in this years January sales and managed to get a rather lovely selection of The White Company decorations at a third of the price, so opening my decorations box I was glad to see they'd survived the move and looked as lovely as they did in the shop (the danger of The White Company - everything in the shop looks so amazing in the shop but your house has to be chic to start with!).

With a few additions of Home Bargains candy canes (a mere 70p for 20!) and Ikea baubles, I think our tree looks lovely this year - we're almost grown ups!

Now if only we had presents for underneath...

Salford Flea Market Postcards

After braving the fog, snow and freezing cold I finally made the 50 metre trek to Salford's Sunday flea market in search of an old Barbie for the top of my recently erected Christmas tree. Success was to be had with many a bedraggled barbie for the princely sum of 50p, a quick wipe down with a disinfectant wipe and a little sewing and we'll be fairy a go-go in no time!

Aside from the usual tat there were a collection of postcards at my usual favourite stall of war-time memorabilia and house clearance items. I just had to have the postcard from Canada between two school pen-pals with the message "Dear David, I hope you get in the world book of records. From Jennifer Mott". I've been googling all morning to try to find this Jennifer Mott from New Brunswick, just thought it would be lovely if she could get the postcard back after 22 years. I shall endeavor to keep looking...

Jessica Harrison

I know what I want for Christmas this year! Love, love love these porcelain figures by Jessica Harrison, there's something of a Victorian macabre about this. Amazing stuff. Makes me feel a little depressed, she graduated at Edinburgh School of Art (our rival to Glasgow School of art!) the same year as me, damn you successful people! Best get on with my work then!

www.jessicaharrison.co.uk

Halo Folded Wrap - Flat Toaster

With our kitchens getting smaller and amount of appliances increasing we are desperately in need of some new ideas in space saving. Lo and behold, what do I see today - a flat toaster. I am so impressed by this ingenious idea and the design, I was semi-impressed by the see-through toaster, but a flat sheet that folds and toasts - holy moly.



The Halo Folded Wrap is a flat sheet, almost like a silicon baking sheet, you put on the toast, fold over wrap and press the button, even better the toast shows through the folded side as a blue shape that turns red when ready. I can't express how much a I want one of these, they can even be rolled up for storage like a place mat!

Read more here.

Lanvin for H&M

The wait is nearly over! Only ten days to go until we can get our hands on Lanvin’s collection for H&M launching 20th November. France’s oldest couture house as seen on the likes of Anna Wintour, Rihanna and Katie Holmes to name a few is bringing luxury to the masses with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us regular girls to get our hands on these beautiful clothes. With dresses starting at £90 this 48-piece collection isn’t cheap but worth splashing out the extra cash in time for Christmas. My favorites include the bright yellow one-shoulder ruffle dress and black ruffle prom dress. Get saving those pennies!

Image: Lanvin

Feminism Posters

A few new posters I'm working on here over at E&Sh for my office wall, I'm awaiting the new A3 printer so printing a go-go soon!

French Brocante: How may plates do I need?

Having spent the summer trawling the regional brocantes (antiques markets) of the Lot region of France and having come home with armfuls of strange items for my new house I was perusing my new items thinking I should never ever buy another tea cup in my life! (I have over 60 now...)

One of the benefits of buying antiques in this region is the many chateaus in the area selling their wares. Dinner services, for example that are seen as fussy and old fashioned by their owners, but the city dweller picks them up as vintage chic. I did see a dinner service that brought out the seven year-old child in me, the princess fairy castle style, vile and pink but something of it reminded me of my youth.

When I was about seven or eight my sister and I visited the vicars' wife Lesley Condor at the vicarage to spend an afternoon making our own Faberge eggs (Ok I realise I am only 26 and this was about 1990 not 1920 but I had a rather Enid Blyton childhood). So we carefully blew the eggs which I seem to remember were the size of my head, but must have just been goose eggs not dinosaur.

We cut out the front, make a little interior platform, painted them and coated the inside with sparkle before affixing golden legs and a gold top. The best part however was choosing the tiny figurine to put inside and a transfer on the back. Being about seven I went for a Marie Antoinette looking fairy inside and affixed similar themed transfer to the back - this memory, stored in the far recesses of my mind flew straight into the present when I saw a dinner service at the brocante this summer. The motif was almost identical and this nearly saw me depart with €150 for a 53 (yes 53, must have had a breakage) piece dinner service complete with gravy boats, serving plates and an alarming amount of dinner plates! In which lifetime did I think 23 dinner plates would be necessary?!




This said however, since researching the practicalities of holding our wedding in France, buying these antique dinner services would be cheaper than renting them from the caterer! So next summer I shall take the plunge and get one, just maybe not with a pink Marie Antoinette figure on!

Bold & Noble

With the early panic of Christmas presents entering my head as November looms on I am keeping a keen eye out for some prints for my lovely sisters. This morning I stumbled across a lovely print from UK design collective Bold & Noble, with all their prints kind to the environment and printed on recycled paper I just love their 'make do & mend' poster as well as the 'many hands make light work'. The only problem I have now is which one to choose!

California Girls Costume: Step 1

As Halloween approaches fast I've had a day of panic about what costume I can do this year, having rolled out the 'dead Russian doll' a few years in a row now I need to step up my game. Having trawled the internet and become brain-dead by the sheer volume of 'sexy witch' 'sexy vampire' and basically anything starting to be scary then turned slutty, I've decided with a little time on my hands (if I block out all the DIY that needs doing in our new house) I'm going to make something myself and who better to be than Katy Perry!

So here's how we get to Katy Perry's 'California Gurls' costume, breaking it down we have a white corset, multicolored shiny fabric skirt, tonnes of sparkly sweets and a lilac wig. Having overcome the first two hurdles this morning - securing a white corset/dress from ebay (China no less) for a mere £13 then a lilac wig from a website called Flagship Fancy Dress. The latter being the hardest thing to find on the internet, lilac wigs are pretty hard to come by and for a tenner, it's fabulous.

So I'm now off to Salford precinct to find an array of plastic and felt items to cover with sequins for the corset - I may really regret this...

Leaf-it

Love these bookmarks and sticky notes by appree in Korea, order them on designboom.com. That would be my biologist/environmentalist little sisters Christmas present sorted then!

Don't know whether I love the sticky notes that curl like a leaf or the leaf bookmarks more? Decisions decisions, well the only answer is buy both! Again, the less money I have the more I find to buy...sigh...

Pashley Princess Sovereign

I'm in love! After swithering over parting with my hard earned cash for this beautiful bicycle, I'm pleased to announce I finally took the plunge and ordered my lovely Pashley. As England's longest established bicycle manufacturer, Pashley bikes are hand-built in Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Princess Sovereign is the ultimate in classic bikes.

Despite the classic style however the Princess Sovereign features a modern inbuilt Dynamo light system with no feeling of resistance on the wheel, an inbuilt hardy lock (perfect for Salford), and obviously the classic handmade wicker basket and pannier rack. The Princess Sovereign has one classic feature however that really makes me smile - a skirt guard on the back wheel, to stop your long flowing skirt from getting caught in the spokes. I feel the need to buy a long dress just because I can cycle with it on!

I'll post some photos of our first bike ride next week, I'm rather excited!