On Holidays

Hello lovelies! Huge apologies for the lack of posts lately. I haven’t completely dropped off the face of the planet; I’m just on holidays in New Zealand at the moment, and time unfortunately got away from me before I left. We’ve been driving around the south island for the past few days, hanging out with sheep, looking at bright blue lakes and lovely mountains, drinking craft beer and eating far too much Whittaker’s dark mint chocolate. I will do my best to upload some posts to keep you entertained while I’m away (as soon as I have access to some sort of reliable internet), and when I get back to Melbourne there will plenty more photographs to share. Stay tuned! x

Simone Capano Illustration

Simone Capano is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Rome, Italy. Simone has a love of cooking and food, as well as exploring new cities (he does live in a pretty interesting one!), and this comes across in his porfolio, which features lots of lovely maps and food illustrations.

I particularly like Simon's Collections series of illustrations, which each gather together little collections such as amplifiers and teaspoons. Simone has a lovely handdrawn illustration style, with lots of pastel, 'ice cream' colours.

To see more of Simone's work check out his website, and to purchase copies of his prints check out Simone's online shop. Some of Simone's illustrations are also offered as downloadable wallpapers for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch via his website.

The Hungry Workshop's Flanno Cards

I love these bright and colourful flanno cards from (now) Melbourne-based letterpress studio The Hungry Workshop. Simon and Jenna Hipgrave of The Hungry Workshop do a lot of their messy ink work wearing flannelette shirts, so it's hardly surprising that the infamous flanno check pattern found its way into their work. Simon and Jenna designed their new range of cards using various patterns and colour schemes, and each card in the range is printed on Stephen Scrambled White 330gsm, a carbon-neutral stock that holds beautiful texture.

I really love these bright designs - the little pockets look so lifelife! After going on a pretty unsucsessful hunt for a birthday card for my dad recently, it's nice to see some greeting card designs for the dudes - although I think these cards are equally suitable for the girls too.

The cards are available for purchase individually and in sets of four from The Hungry Workshop's online shop. And if you'd like to see more great work from this talented duo, visit The Hungry Workshop website.

Chapel Street Bazaar

I don't often find myself in the suburb of Prahran, but whenever I do happen to be over in that part of town I make sure to stop by the Chapel Street Bazaar for a little look around. Located (suprisingly) along Prahran's busy Chapel Street, the bazaar is much like the Mill Markets, but on a slightly smaller scale, with numerous stallholders stocking all sorts of vintage ephemera. Some of the stalls have some really well crafted displays, so I took a few snaps when I was in there on Saturday to share with you.
I was especially loving the old school-themed collections on display - globes, wooden chairs and desks, sporting goods, signage, old books, jars, wire baskets, books and maps...
I've never found any amazing bargains in the bazaar (as is the case with most vintage shops in Melbourne!), but it's fun having a dig around. You could easily spend an hour or more having a good look through the many stalls here.
The Chapel Street Bazaar is located at 217 Chapel Street, Prahran.
All photos by me.

A MOZI Patchwork Christmas

Well, I've managed to hold off on posting about anything Christmas-related, but I couldn't hold off on posting about the lovely new MOZI Patchwork Christmas collection any longer! I'm a big fan of Australian label MOZI, run by Melbourne-based sisters Camilla and Olivia Tipler, and always look forward to their new collections. This year, Camilla and Olivia have gone for a red and green Scandinavian-inspired Christmas theme, packed with apples, squirrels and rocking horses.

There's certainly a lot to like here... apple lanterns, door stops, melamine platters, ceramic dishes, gift tags, candles, mugs, soap, tea towels, oven mitts, bunting, wreaths, bags and ribbons. Phew! I'm a fan of the apple lanterns (I think I want one in each colour!), and love the cute apple and rocking horse repeat patterns.

To check out the full MOZI Patchwork Christmas collection, visit the MOZI website.

That's all from me for this week. I hope that you've had a good week and have an even better weekend ahead. Enjoy, and see you back here on Monday! x

p.s. This post was intentionally published at 11:11am, on 11/11/11 - tee-hee!

Made by White and Lisa Manuels

I love this cute collaboration with Australian label Made by White and Netherlands illustrator Lisa Manuels. Lisa specialises in drawing cute animals and people, and Lyndsay and Kelly from Made by White worked with her to produce a lovely range of brooches. The range includes knitting bunnies, beekeeping bears and tiny illustrations in coloured wooden frames - too cute!

I have a slight obsession with brooches, and I think that some of these designs will just have to go on my wish list! To see more from Lisa check out her blog and online shop, and visit the Made by White website to see the full collection (and plenty of other cute goodies!). Lyndsay and Kelly also have a great Made by White blog here.

Claudia Pearson Mugs and Tea Towels

Brooklyn-based illustrator Claudia Pearson has some new homewares out - a set of mugs and some tea towel designs. I love a good mug design (one can never have too many mugs, can they?), and these lovely mugs feature Claudia's original hand-drawn illustrations of each season of the year. They come without handles, and have been made in collaboration with Amy Adams of Perch! ceramics.

Claudia also has a few tea towels in her online shop - Brooklyn, Kitchen, Brownstones and a 2012 Buy Local Calendar design.

I love Claudia's illustration style (I've blogged about her before) and admire her commitment to buying locally and eating seasonally, and I find it really interesting to see her work being applied to different surfaces. Let's hope she expands the range even further! If you'd like to see more of Claudia's work, check out her website, blog and Etsy shop.

Creative Women's Circle @ Harvest Workroom

Yesterday afternoon I went along to my first ever Creative Women's Circle (CWC) event. The CWC is a series of events held in Melbourne for women working in the creative industries, and is a place to share information, inspiration and ideas. The events are held approximately six times per year at various locations around Melbourne, and feature a different guest speaker/s each time. This time round it was Emma, Lara and Jess from Harvest Textiles, and the event was held in their lovely Brunswick workroom. The girls spoke a bit about their backgrounds and what led them to form Harvest, tackling motherhood and work, how they go about developing their screen printing classes and product lines, collaborations with other creative folk, and general info about how their business has grown and developed in a pretty short space of time. It was insightful and inspiring, and gave me a lot to think about! After the talk we were treated to some lovely tea from new local business Tea & Sympathy, run by tea aficionado Angelina Yannuccelli, and I also snapped a few shots of the workroom and some of the Harvest products...

The Harvest products look so lovely on display - and how awesome is that massive pile of Totem cushions?! I think I may just have to cave and get myself a cushion kit one of these days.

To find out more about Harvest products and classes, check out their website and blog, and visit the CWC website to find out more about the group and to sign up to the mailing list.

Lucile's Kitchen

Hello all, and happy Friday! I thought I'd round off the week with some yummy food artwork from Lucile Prache, a French illustrator based in Paris. Lucile loves botanical plates, recipes, vintage lettering and stamps, silkscreens and walking the streets of Paris. She's also a little obsessed with food and cooking, if her lovely watercolour recipe prints are anything to go by...

Yum! It's a little early in the day, but I think I'm about ready for lunch now (or at least a piece of cake). I'm loving Lucile's style and colour palettes. If you'd like to see more of Lucile's work, check out her Etsy shop, website and blog.

That's it from me for another week. I hope that you have a lovely weekend, and see you back here on Monday!

Dear Hancock Paper Goods

I think it's time for a little bit of stationery inspiration, don't you? And so, to Dear Hancock Paper Goods, a design studio based in the Los Angeles area and run by husband and wife team Gwendolyn Mason and Earnest Merritt. Gwendolyn and Earnest developed their studio in 2010 and made their debut at the National Stationery Show in New York earlier in the year. The Dear Hancock range, which includes stationery, custom invitations, greeting cards and prints, features original hand-painted illustrations by Gwendolyn and Earnest, each with a nod to nostalgia, humour and everyday life.

Gwendolyn and Earnest have such a wide variety of colourful illustrated paper goods available that there's sure to be something you like. I'm a fan of their Desk Collection, which features a range of different workspaces, each with a personality such as the book lover's desk and the crafter's desk. But there really is so much to like about their lovely range, and talk about nostalgic - I actually used to have a handmade patchwork dog when I was a child!

To check out the full range, visit the Dear Hancock website, and to see more also check out their blog. Not surprisingly, Gwendolyn and Earnest also have an amazing home and studio - you can check it out in this Design*Sponge Sneak Peek.