shiny suitcase

weekend walk

sneak peek project

I've been working on some projects for a craft show that's coming up in the beginning of December. I spent most of yesterday making these fabric and ribbon rosettes that will be part of a bigger idea.

They're easy to make, but after cranking out 30-some, I decided I'd better take a break and grab some shots of them.

friday finds - vintage travel stickers

A few years ago I stumbled into a box of old suitcase stickers at a local antique store. I sorted through the bunch and chose the ones that spoke to me, thinking they'd make a great framed collection, or just be generally inspiring with their colors, fonts and compostision. They're still a favorite of mine.

Most of them are from Eastern Europe, specifically Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia and I'd guess they're from the 1960's.

This is one of my favorites. It reminds me of Hotel Citron in The Life Aquatic by Wes Anderson. I love the little "Inter Hotel" logo in the upper right and the simple color palette is perfect.

Who doesn't love gold, gray and pink? This sticker feels so "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to me.

This has the best mod leaf design. I love the offset printing where the light blue and the red mix. Then that little single dot of gold? Wow. It would make a great tea towel or serving tray.

This last one is a personal fave. Love the pink outline of the hotel and the vertical "Rosiza". The color palette with the robin's egg blue, electric pink and gold is right up my alley.

I hope you enjoyed this Friday Find!

ary trays

I came across these Ary Trays while I was hunting for more kaleidoscope inspiration and I am absolutely taken with them. They're done by British textile designer Asta Barrington and are available for the United States here. It's funny how this follows through from my post about Polish paper cutting. Clearly some design desire I need to pay attention to.

quiet morning

A view out our kitchen window this morning. The heart shape was a stencil I'd used months ago to place a red sprinkled sugar heart on my hubby's espresso one morning. The jar is a vintage milk container and nature provided the branch and seeds.

a cheery way

I'd pinned this awhile ago and thought this happy scandanavian pattern was charming, bright and poppy. My Pinterest source tells me it's from Print & Pattern, the fabulous trend spotting blog, and that it's a Marimekko, but I can't find any evidence of it anywhere. I need to do some more sleuthing.

Still in my kaleidoscope mind, I created this yesterday. I limited myself to just a few shapes and to the colors in the print above. This time I played with the coloring underneath the pattern and again, I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

It feels both holiday and spring all at once to me. I'm enjoying this project and the process.

from palette to pattern

Using yesterday's kaleidoscope photos as inspiration I started making some reflective patterns in illustrator based on this rug photo I'd saved from Pinterest.

Here's the first pattern:

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Now I'm off to make some others!

kaleidoscopic color

I have a child's cheap tin kaleidoscope with plastic beads and little bits in the top section. I bought it a few months ago, meaning to use it for some color inspiration. I took it out today when the sun was out to see what kind of images I could snap of the patterns inside. I was pretty doubtful about my ability to really even see anything through the lens of the camera but these are some of the shots I got of the barrel of the kaleidoscope. They're blurry and a bit crude, but lovely and illuminated in a cathedral like way.

I just shook the toy a bit in between shots or twisted the barrel slightly and I was actually pretty happy with how they turned out.

I think I need to build some patterns and palettes based on this experiment and I'm hoping to post a few of them this week.

 

 

friday finds - vintage button cards

I've got a stash of old button cards, a hand-me-down from an elderly relative. I kept wanting to use the buttons for different projects, but I find them more lovely as they are, on their original cards. My favorite one is the card with the 2 women on it. Those buttons are called "Lucky Day" and I think that's a perfecly wonderful name.

I also like these two simple belt buckles, the green and the yellow. I'm also a sucker for all the fonts and decoration on each card. That little green buckle card is so charming with its fancy borders and minty background.

There are a lot more old button cards, but these colors are what I was feelin' today: whites & creams, yellows and greens.

Whenever I see an old button I long to know what project or plans someone had for it. I think I would use those bright white floral looking buttons on a soft cardigan.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Friday Find!

beautiful beetles

I love the fascinating differences in shapes and colors of these beetles. Nature has so many delightful surprises up her sleeves and this collection is so pefectly and absolutely electric. I'm a huge bug, insect and nature geek so when I found this on Pinterest I thought it would make a great base for a color palette. I can just imagine anyone of them bumbling along in their technicolor way.