Blossom by Inaluxe

Australian designers Kristina and Jason of Inaluxe have just released a brand new series of beautiful prints. Titled Blossom, the works are inspired by spring and the new buds that are just waiting to flower in the Inaluxe garden in country Victoria.


The prints are all large-format (just under A2 size) and printed on velvet matt Hahnemuhle Torchon paper, which has been used for its textural elements. There are five designs to choose from, each featuring lovely bright colours in that midcentury modern style that Inaluxe do so well.


I'll admit I'm a big fan of Inaluxe and pretty much love everything these guys do (in fact, I have one of their Sooty Owl prints hanging above me in my new home office), and the Blossom series is no exception. Check them out for yourself in the Inaluxe online shop, and read about the process behind the new series on the Inaluxe blog.

Going Freelance

I wanted to take a diversion from regular posting today for a quick personal update about my new self-employed status. Yep, after many years working in-house as an editor, project editor and managing editor for book publishers in Australia and the UK, I’ve decided to jump headfirst into the world of full-time freelancing. Choosing to go it alone took a lot of deliberating and soul searching, but at the end of the day it felt like the right move for me at this point in time. And although it’s all a bit scary (and I have no idea whether I’ll be successful or not!), I’m also feeling pretty pumped and excited to get started. 

I’ve so far received some great advice from other freelancers, but if you have any useful tips for me as I get started I’d love to hear from you. And please also feel free to get in touch if you have any projects you might like to work with me on. Wish me luck!

[Photograph by me]

San Francisco Shopping Guide

As you might imagine, San Francisco is a pretty good place to go shopping. Here are my top picks, organised roughly by area.


The Mission

Aldea Home, 890 Valencia Street: This is a lovely home furnishings, furniture and gift shop. There are different settings laid out, such as the dining area, bedroom area, children’s area and garden area, which is rather nice.

BellJar, 3187 16th St: A beautiful boutique that stocks a mix of luxurious home decor and fashion.


The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia Street: This is a very cute, well-curated little shop filled with lovely homewares, prints, stationery, books and magazines. They also have a good online shop.


Needles & Pens, 3253 16th Street: This was probably my favourite shop in San Francisco. Needles & Pens is an art space that showcases international and locally-made artist books, self-published zines, magazines and independent press, as well as handmade goods such as jewellery, bags and accessories. There were plenty of lovely items to be found – Adam picked up a zine he had been after and I bought myself a beautiful necklace from Little Pancakes.




Haight & Ashbury
Amoeba Music, 1855 Haight Street: A massive record store where record nerd boyfriend surprisingly didn’t walk away with too much vinyl. Stranger things have happened. 




Bettie Page Clothing, 1529 Haight Street: The San Francisco outlet of the Bettie Page clothing label, which is, as you’d expect, full of beautiful dresses.

Rare Device, 600 Divisadero St: This was another favourite of mine. Rare Device is a boutique and art gallery dedicated to stocking independent and innovative design, and it’s a bright, airy and welcoming space. There’s a mix of home decor, books, prints, paper goods, jewellery, accessories, gift items and toys. I picked up a cute Sunny SF print by local designer Brent Couchman.




Pacific Heights/Polk Street

Chronicle Books, 1846 Union Street: A book publisher that has its own retail outlets, now that’s pretty awesome! I’m a big fan of Chronicle Books and was excited to visit one of their stores, and we of course didn’t walk away empty handed – I picked up Creative Inc., and Adam bought the super adorable Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown.


Daiso, 22 Peace Plaza: Is it wrong to include a $2 shop in a design shopping guide? Whatever, this place is awesome. Everything you didn’t realise you ever needed and more can be found here. I bought myself some cute Japanese animal-shaped chopping boards, which now makes chopping vegetables just that little bit more fun.

Jonathan Adler, 2133 Fillmore Street: A retail outlet of the famous designer, Mr Jonathan Adler. So much colour and inspiration, and so many things I wanted to buy! 



Kinokuniya Book Store, 1581 Webster Street: This is in the upper level of the Japantown mall (which is an awesome 1980s-style mall filled with Japanese shops and restaurants – totally worth checking out if you’re in the area). It is filled with a great selection of Japanese and English magazines, with a big focus on craft and design. 



Nest, 2300 Filmore Street: A beautiful, French-inspired homewares and gift shop.



Paper Source, 1925 Fillmore Street: Paper Source is a stationery and paper goods chain with outlets all over the country. I’d never been to one before, and pretty much loved it. Aside from papery things, there’s also a good selection of giftware and craft supplies.



Picnic, 1808 Polk Street: A cute little boutique on Polk Street that stocks a good variety of local designs, including homewares, fashion and accessories. I picked myself up a cute San Francisco Maptote bag.



Downtown (and surrounds)

Anthropologie, 880 Market Street: This was a bigger outlet than the Anthropologie I visited in Chicago. A great mix of homewares, stationery, books, clothing and accessories, and too many items I wanted to take home with me but couldn’t fit in my luggage (nor afford!).


Heath Ceramics, Ferry Building: When I spotted  Heath Ceramics I immediately fell in love. This outlet is located in the historic Ferry Building, and although it’s only a small space, it stocks the complete Heath line of wares, including dinnerware, tile and homeware products. I didn’t buy anything at first, but ended up going back the next day to get myself a couple of small Bud vases, which are just beautiful!



Hello!Lucky, 977 Howard Street: This is where Hello Lucky Letterpress happens. You can see letterpress printing in action, and there’s a little shop/display here too.




SFMOMA Museum Store, 151 Third Street: Attached to SFMOMA, this is a large gallery store with all of the usual goods you’d expect to find, including a great book section.


Urban Outfitters, 80 Powell Street: This is the main Urban Outfitters outlet in SF (there’s another on Fillmore Street), and is split over a few different levels. 



Well that pretty much concludes all of my USA holiday posts. The holiday already feels like a distant memory, but I hope these little guides might be useful if you're ever planning a visit. If you'd like any further tips or further information on anything, feel free to get in touch or leave a comment.

A Guide to Dining & Drinking in San Francisco

At last, here’s my guide to dining and drinking in San Francisco.

Dining & Drinking
Golden Era, 572 O’Farrell Street: This is a vegan Chinese restaurant with a pretty good menu. The food is tasty and affordable, and we ended up eating lunch here twice. Try the soy 'chicken' drumsticks.

Frog Hollow Farm, Ferry Building: It was past lunchtime and we were hungry when we stumbled across this little café tucked into the far corner of the Ferry Building. Lucky for us, there was a smoked tofu and chutney sandwich on the menu, and it was a seriously delicious mix of sweet and savory. Braised tofu, lettuce, avocado and Frog Hollow’s own organic peach chutney. Oh my, so good!

Herbivore, 531 Divisadero Street: This is a vegetarian restaurant/cafe with a big menu. Nothing fancy, but it’s affordable and the portions are hearty.

Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery, 1398 Haight Street: We actually didn’t get out to too many pubs or microbreweries when we were in SF, but we did stop by Magnolia for a quick drink. It’s small in here, and most of the seating is reserved for diners, but the craft beer is good (and went down rather nicely on a hot day). Their gold-rimmed drinking glasses add a nice touch of class too.


Millennium, 580 Geary Street: Millennium is a gourmet fine dining vegetarian restaurant dedicated to supporting organic food production, small farms and sustainable agriculture. The menu is completely vegan, with some inventive options, and there’s also an extensive drinks list. We'd heard good things about Millennium, and it was all pretty delicious. We also had really good service – our waitress even brought us a complementary starter as she could tell we were excited to be there. Can’t say that’s ever happened to us before!


Off the Grid: I had read about Off the Grid on What Katie Does and it sounded like fun, so I made sure to see if there would be an event on when we were in town. We were in luck – there was a meet-up happening on at the Fort Mason Center on the Friday night of our visit. Off the Grid is basically a big food vendor market where street food trucks from around San Francisco get together. It’s a  fun idea and is also clearly very popular; the night we visited there were around 30 food stalls and the place was heaving. We had tofu tacos from Cholita Linda and I have been dreaming about them ever since. They were delicious!

Papalote Mexican Grill, 3409 24th Street: We wanted to try the best vegan burrito San Francisco had to offer, so a friend of ours sent us to Papalote. It has a good vegetarian selection, but for me the marinated tofu burrito wasn’t all that amazing. Adam loved his Soyrizo burrito though, and this place has plenty of good reviews, so what do I know!

Whole Foods Market: I know it’s lame to admit liking a supermarket, but I don’t care. The Whole Foods Market is like some sort of organic, vegan-friendly (albeit expensive) heaven where the checkout boys have cool tattoos. They have a good local craft beer selection, fresh vegan donuts and pigs-in-a-blanket at the deli counter. Need I say more?

Coffee

I know it’s boring to complain about how bad coffee is in the USA, but if you’re a poor, coffee-deprived Melbournian on holidays it’s comforting to know that San Francisco appreciates good coffee just as much as you do...



Blue Bottle Coffee, 66 Mint Street: When we got to Blue Bottle the line was out the door, and although I’m not usually a fan of waiting, I knew that the long line probably equaled good coffee, and I was right. It was good coffee, and really the wait wasn't all that long and I just need to learn to be more patient. There are a few Blue Bottle locations about the place, so check the website for details.

Four Barrel Coffee, 375 Valencia Street: Stepping into Four Barrel felt like some sort of weird Melbourne parallel universe. Long lines, converted warehouse setting, concrete floors, exposed wood, bicycles out the front and a roastery out the back. The service might be slow, but the coffee is pretty good. (A friend told me that Ritual Roasters, also in the Mission area, is good but I unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit.)

If you'd like further San Fran info or tips, please leave a comment or get in touch.

Nollison

Nollison is a new little stationery business developed by Sharon (of the fantastic Melbourne design blog Stylisti) and her partner Greg. Sharon is a textile and graphic designer by trade so takes care of the creative tasks, while Greg is in charge of the technical side of things (and keeping things calm whenever Sharon's computer crashes!).


All of the notebooks in the Nollison collection are designed by Sharon and reflect her love for stripes, cats and Scandinavian design. In addition, the products are all made in Melbourne from 100% recycled paper. This is such a fresh and lovely collection, and it definitely appeals to my inner stationery nerd. The Berry Tree design is especially gorgeous, don't you think?


Well done to Sharon and Greg for starting up this little business together, and I can't wait to see what new designs (and products) Sharon brings to the mix in the future. If you'd like to see more, check out the Nollison website and Etsy shop. And while you're at it, make sure to stop by the Stylisti blog for some visual inspiration.

A road trip down the California coast

It's back to California for today's post, and let's round the week off with a road trip, shall we? Our recently married friends were in San Francisco when we arrived, so on our first full day we gatecrashed their honeymoon, hired a car and went on a road trip down the Pacific coast. It's a good thing my friend Laura volunteered to drive, as there was no way I was going to attempt driving on the other side of the road in crazy traffic!


Our first stop on the trip was Santa Cruz, a university town with a (dare I say it?) cruisy feel. So very Californian. We wandered down the pier to see the massive seals making a racket and lolling about in the sunshine, walked through the cheesy boardwalk amusement park (the one from The Lost Boys), checked out some of the vintage shops along Laurel Street and had brunch at Saturn Cafe, a 'space-age' vegetarian diner (vegan pancakes!).


After filling our bellies we headed back on the road, stopping at numerous lookouts and beaches along the way. The drive reminded me a little bit of the Great Ocean Road in parts. Our final stop was at Nepenthe restaurant in Big Sur for beers and burgers with a great coastal view. It was such a beautiful day, and I'm so glad we got the chance to get out of the city and explore some of the coast.


Doesn't this make you want to just pack up the car and head out onto the road? Well, that's all for this week; pop back next week as I'll be rounding off my San Francisco posts with guides to shopping and eating and drinking.

Sugar Paper

Today I wanted to share some stationery goodness from Los-Angeles paper goods company, Sugar Paper. Graphic designers and friends Chelsea Shukov and Jamie Grobecker founded Sugar Paper in 2003 after they both fell in love with the simplicity and nostalgia of letterpress printing. The pair have a simple mission underpinning their brand: to design exquisite and chic social stationery, and this is clearly evident in their beautiful collection.


The Sugar Paper range consists of letterpressed greeting cards, thank you notes, note sets, monograms, coasters, art prints, calendars, gift tags and place cards. I really love Sugar Paper's simple typographic cards the most, and the gold foiling and lined envelopes that come with some of their designs add that extra special touch.


If you'd like to see more from the Sugar Paper range, check out the website, online shop and blog.

New collection from Dear Colleen

I've written about Dunedin, New Zealand-based designer Colleen Pugh of Dear Colleen before (over here), and the good news is that Coleen is back with a brand new collection.Colleen was inspired to develop her new range after watching too many trashy television shows abut tattooing and many happy hours spent reading vintage typography books. She says the new designs have a different look from her older work, but will still hopefully feel like 'Dear Colleen' pieces.


And I think they do; there's a definite tongue-in-cheek sense of humour apparent in Colleen's work. I love her new Ryan Gosling tea towel (Hey Girl, bet you'd rather be doing these dishes - ha!), and there are also other tea towel designs plus prints, rosettes, tote bags, tees and jumpers, all featuring cool graphics and interesting typography.


You can check out the new collection for yourself over on Colleen's Etsy shop, and also make sure to stop by the Dear Colleen blog.