Toast and Champagne

It's my friend's birthday today. I'm taking her to Bob Bob Ricard for toast and champagne. I made her this upcycled plate to tell her about our trip...

In other news...

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Home Sweet Home

I'm moving out of my lovely East London home at the end of the week so I'm in the process of packing everything up. As I was putting things in boxes I realised there are quite a few handmade things dotted around my room which I have never blogged about. It also occured to me that it would be a shame not to document my little home before it exists no more! I think I've mentioned before that I love interior design so here's a bit of mine...

A medicine cabinet I found in an antiques shop which was that horrible bathroom shade of pink. I sanded it down and gave it a distressed white finish. The little owls and their tree were made for me by a lovely Finnish lady.

A cake stand made from junk shop crockery. This is what it looked like after I had taken everything off it...

...and here's what it looks like normally.

I'm planning on making another cake stand soon, either for my new flat or to sell. Here are the pieces ready to be assembled on the left. On the right you can see my collection of broken china. I'm still a bit in denial that these beautiful plates and mugs are gone forever so I've kept the pieces in the hope of finding a project I can use them in. Any ideas?

You may have seen this is the edge of earlier pictures. I liked this french mackerel tin in an odd kind of way. As you can see from many of the photos I have a strange attraction to empty tins and bottles, they're really useful for putting flowers and candles in. I had a few rose candles I'd bought which were too pretty to burn, so I stuck the tin to the wall and used it as a little shelf!

At the bottom of my full cake stand you can see this collar. I crocheted it using this pattern. It's really useful for prettying up a boring top or dress.

My bed. I bought this bedspread at a market the other day for £4! I love the colours and mixture of prints. I also made the two floral cushions from ikea fabric. Next to them you can see nounou my boyfriend's bear (now everyone knows he's a little boy at heart! sorry Pierre if you're reading this). Also that is my signed Nouvelle Vague poster, a prized possession.

My blue themed bedside table. That alarm clock gives me a heart attack every morning!

Here's a close up of the little alcove shelves. The observant amongst you will have noticed that I had already started tidying this when I took the picture of my bed.

This has been the most useful and space-saving piece of furniture ever. Coat rack, shelving, cubby holes, jewellery holder... It's got it all! On the left is my Rob Ryan papercut. I've been following his work for years and when my boyfriend bought me this I was so happy.




On my grey blazer here you can just about see the little Russian doll brooch I bought from my friend Olly. Check out her Wollies here, they are beautiful labours of love.




My most recent find. A beautiful lamp for £2 from Deptford Market. Took a while to clean and I'm trying to decide on a lampshade, but I love it!

Well there we go, bye bye little home. It's been lovely living in such a vibrant area. I'm going to miss having so many amazing creative designers and vintage shops on my doorstop. Here are a few of my favourite neighbours should you ever be in Bethnal Green:

Shelf for work from inspiring designers : http://www.helpyourshelf.co.uk/

Beyond Retro for the best selection of vintage clothes: http://www.beyondretro.com/

Traditional and useful homewares, walking past this shop everyday makes me smile: http://www.labourandwait.co.uk/

Beautiful displayed jewellery from Comfort Station: http://www.comfortstation.co.uk/

Thank you

This is a hideously overdue thank you to Freshly Found for nominating me for a Kreativ Blogger award.

This means I have to nominate 7 other bloggers and tell you about 7 things I love. This is actually more difficult that I had expected. I want this list to be perfect, but I'm afraid I might just have to accept that I'm going to forget a few things. I've also decided to limit myself to creatively linked things otherwise I would probably explode from indecision and too much choice! So here goes (in no particular order)...

1) Films

My absolute all time favourites that I have watched at least 30 times each, but unfortunately probably a hell of a lot more are:

- Almost Famous

-Amelie

- Breakfast at Tiffany's

I also like many other (far more sensible, well made and important films), but I cannot lie and these are the films that I could recite to you from opening sequence to closing credits.



Another film which I love, but for different reasons is Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.
This film constantly inspires me asthetically, I love the soundtrack and it reminds me of when I first met my frenchman.







2) Candyfloss Colours

Candyfloss probably isn't the right word which is why Marie Antoinette is important. I ADORE the colours in this film. These cupcakes pretty much sum up the colours I love:



They are also pretty cute in themselves - you can buy them here.




4) I am currently obsessed with forties hairstyles and other creative up-dos.

I have passed far too many evenings scouring youtube for these (another love - procrastinating!). My favourites are to be found at


http://www.superkawaiimama.com/

http://freelancersfashion.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piksi_/

and although I can't understand a word, I wish my hair would grow out and I could try this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYn23fg-bO4

5) Interior Design and Furniture

Although I love many crafts (knitting, crocheting, sewing etc etc) The thing that inspires me the most in the world is an empty room (blank canvases generally scare me so this is a sure sign that it's love) I have spent so much time doing up rooms in my head and whenever I move house the first thing I think of is - brilliant, a new room for me to decorate. Once upon a time I considered following this as a career and in the back of my head I always think one day I'll pack in my sensible languages and start up my own interior design company.


I had to be forceably removed from this cafe in Berlin, it was as though someone had jumped inside my head and made everything I love real:

This love also stretches to old furniture that I can do up - for this reason I adore flea markets, antiques shops, thrift stores/charity shops. My favourite chain shop (and as I have previously mentioned, my money achille's heal) is Laura Ashley. This picture shows my main furniture soft spots, on the left is a gorgeous chair that we managed to pick up from a french flea market for €40 (!) and on the right is a flat pack bookshelf that I covered in the magazines I used for the clock I posted about recently.

6) Space Invaders

For a while I kept spotting these mosaic space invaders in various towns and started to take photos of them. I then found out a bit more and realised it is a frenchman called Invader who has put these up in many cities. Once I knew what they were I no longer felt compelled to photograph them as much, but me and my frenchman make a pretty good spaceinvader-finding team. He can sense when one is coming up (we started to notice they're all in similar places, he must have only one ladder because they are all at the same height too...) and I manage to spot them. I currently have over 50 photos from more than 4 cities. Here is just one from Monmartre in Paris...

7) The Frenchman

I suppose I have mentioned him enough in this post that I should probably introduce him at least a little bit, he is called Pierre (as he should be, being a frenchman! He also has a moustache and will occasionly wear stripey t-shirts). He is also a very very creative person and I love what he does. You can look at his illustration here (although it looks like he hasn't really been updating it...) http://pierreferrero.canalblog.com/

His friends have a wonderful fanzine: http://www.myspace.com/arbitraire

And this is his band http://www.myspace.com/thelastrapesofmrteach

Here you can see the perfect combination of his creative talents; the tshirt he designed for his band (you can find out where to buy it here) :





So there we go, as expected it has made me very stressed and indecisive. I bet the minute I post this I will think of something I should have included, but this is what came to mind first so I will have to force myself to stick with it.

And now to the most exciting and important part... who I nominate. Most of the blogs I follow are very commonly known and massive and a lot of them can be found on my links on the right (design sponge, decor8, craft: etc etc). I thought it would be better to honour people who I may not have read for as long, but whose personal style and choice of blogging-matter really inspires and appeals to me.

So I pass on this Kreativ Blogger award to:

Olly at http://wollies-design.blogspot.com/

Laura at http://makeshiftchic.blogspot.com/

http://prettysketchy.typepad.com/prettysketchy/

Kate at http://little-doodles.blogspot.com/

Reapwhatisew http://hazelnicholls.blogspot.com/

http://bitterbettyindustries.blogspot.com/

Lizzy at http://thingsilikeaboutoday.blogspot.com/

Insert 'Time' Related Pun Here

Oh dear this blog is started to get as cluttered as my life... too many unfinished projects. I keep promising to show photos of something finished and then I get distracted and the next post is completely unrelated....

I'm afraid I haven't changed just yet and so here is another disorganised post. I am hoping my life and consequently my blogging will get itself in order soon.

I have just finished a nice little project which I have been mentally working on for a while. A while ago I found a lot of old French fashion magazines hiding in the back of a funny little antiques shop. They are absolutely fascinating and so inspiring. Some are in a beautiful condition and I just look at them in a caring, aren't I lucky to have such lovely things to look at kind of a way. However I'm not one to have much time to look at things properly so I have used some of the less pristine magazines to decorate items of furniture so that the images can be appreciated daily.

I covered a mirror and some shelves and was really pleased with the effect. As the paper is quite thin it decoupages really well. Here's that mirror...

This time round I worked on another antique shop purchase, a clock. This time I decided to go about things properly and plan everything before, finish off everything neatly etc... I am very pleased with the result. I have rather relunctantly decided to sell it as I think other people should be able to have a bit of twenties french chicness in their homes, but I do keep imagining it in my new dream kitchen... However I think I should focus on finding the new dream appartment first!

So here are the pictures....

An in progress shot (sorry no before pictures, that would have been far too organised... although look I put down floor protection like a sensible adult)

And here is the finished article...

Some of the magazine pages are so funny, I particularly enjoy the adverts... creams for a saggy chest (complete with pictures) and remedies for hairy lips. Nice to know that the lady of 1924 had the same beauty concerns as we do today. Here on the back of the mirror you can see an advert for a flatter stomach and clearer skin...

I'm actually really pleased with the back, I finished it off properly and it makes me feel a bit proud when I look at it. I think it's these little details that I want to work on with PrettyGreen, recycled (or upcycled sounds a bit nicer) doesn't have to look like a design compromise.

Well there we go a very rambly post, but more pictures than usual, so if you're anything like me you'll just have looked at them! Maybe next time I'll show you where I've got with my embroidery projects, but I'll have to finish them first...