and breathe...

 i am so very much in love with everything below, but particularly the stacking skeleton espresso cups. 

cups above from luna & curious. i actually find a lot of their stuff pretty creepy, but those mugs are just too great to pass up. 

away from the creepy and towards the whimsy, we have anthropologie to thank for the glorious deer-headed gilded porcelain loveliness above, and the tea towels and beautiful tea cups below. only by selling my body parts or winning the lottery or marrying a very rich, near-death gentleman would i be able to afford the latter. 

anyone spotting joi svezia's influence here?! i'm in love with the fuschia and gold ottomen from tabletonic.com, but at around $200 each, i'd better find that rich old man soon!

well, a girl can dream, huh? i can just see the gold ottoman perched prettily in my living room. i wonder if there's a DIY out there? hmm....

i hope you're all looking forward to the weekend! what plans do you have in store?

all images can be found here.

peonies/printemps

ooooh, pinterest - you're just lovely! hope you'll enjoy these pre-weekend peonies as much as i am just now! 

can anyone else smell spring in the air?! sit tight for more exciting finds later, including a skeleton stacking espresso set! (manboy, that one's for you.)

all images taken from my pinterest boards.  

edinburgh city guide!

hey there cats and dolls!! well, wow. what can i say?

a giant thank you to design*sponge for this gig, that's what! i had so much fun writing this guide - i'm so humbled by the comments both on here, and also on the actual city guide page. you can suss it all out here. thanks again to stephanie and her great team!!

hope your weeks are all going just wonderful.

for those who love to live

i figure that everyone on the web with the vaguest shabby chic obsession is posting design*sponge's tutorial taken from daisies and pearls. i'm more than happy to join their ranks. 

forgive my absence, by the way, kittycats, i've been hunting up flatmates (<3), battling the french administration, having vague mental breakdowns, getting freckles and generally hurling my tiny frame into my last few weeks here in corsica!!

as my aunty would say..."crumbs!!"

(p.s.TOTALLY making that lamp when i'm back)

(p.p.s also received my pinterest invite - sit tight for all my finds!!)

(p.p.p.s hope you've all had beautiful mondays, as much of an oxymoron as that is.)

hnnnnnng!

our title today is indicative of how much i love the curiosity shoppe - the sort of involuntary noise one makes when coming across a particularly delicious piece of cake. the wares found in the curiosity shoppe inspire a similar sound.

field notebook, seasonal soups, beautiful notelets, carve your own postcards, hand-stitched letters, moustache pencils (my favourite!) and a crochet sea-horse how to?!  wow. 

my birthday is in may. please send all of the above, thank you.

c'est autre chose...

isn't this before and after of posies and posies' NYC studio just fabulous? i'm loving everything about it. please, someone, hand me a hanky so i can wipe up the drool. 

do you think they'll notice if i creep in and live under the table? their studio contains all the elements needed to make up my perfect industrial/girly kitchen space... flowers, raw brick walls, big heavy duty table - the list is endless!

who wouldn't want a radish-patterened sofa?

thank you, design*sponge, for bringing this to my attention!! i hope you've all had really lovely wednesdays. 

spray-paint scented hope

i woke up feeling really inspired today. it had been one of those four-day weekends with nothing to do except read, write, and drink funny-flavoured fruit juice. (don't blame me, my friend said that pineapple juice was a good thing) 

maybe it was feeling so frustratedly lacklustre, or the lovely chat i had with manboy last night, or having my only morning class cancelled (which i discovered after i'd hauled my sleepy backside out of bed and was tarted up and dressed...) and several tea-filled glorious hours of possibility stretching beyond me, or a combination of all the above, but i managed to focus on the prospect of being back in my little abode in aberdeen, and what i want to play about with when i get back

and so i present to you my new obsessions: metallic spray paint and amy butler fabrics (pictured in my edinburgh love post). sat in a little bar i will soon be snapping photos of with some truly excellent coffee, i planned out just what i was going to do with my flat, and felt like i was back on track for the first time in days.

you'd be right to say that's probably nothing new, but thanks to design vigilante joi (pronounced joey) svezia and her husband david, i'm viewing the potentials of aerosols and deliciously patterned cloth in a whole new way. i need to send apartment therapy a pint of ice cream or something to say thank you for this house tour. 

this, upon first glance, had me hooked. so many of the separate elements would have passed me by, but i am just amazed by how beautifully the room is pulled together as one cosy, functional space. and those photos! perfectly, fabulously organised. *swoons*

i love the elements here. and colour! i would have wandered past those luxe silver ottomans (ottomen?) dismissing them as cheap, but here they just add a glamour boost. i have huge respect for mrs. svezia and her incredible sense of style. 

leopard print and navy blue - gorgeous gorgeousness. i adore the pop of pattern and colour in the window blinds too. 

everyone should go and check out this lady's blog right now, particularly as it shows the before and after of the space above. keep your peepers peeled for the gold sprayed butterfly and white painted fresco. see where i'm getting the spray paint and gorgeous fabric thing from!? there's a reason why her blog is so popular - you just have to have a wee peek and you're hooked.


thank you, joi, for your truly inspirational sense of style! 

japan

if you have a moment, please read this. my prayers go out to all those caught up in the disasters of the last few days. 

amerimacka

what a simply stunning workspace! the peonies and pinboard do it for me. 

what do you like to have around you when you're working? my hit list is comprised of mood/inspiration boards, pints of earl grey tea, and some really nasty dubstep. what helps you get in a creative mood??

(images © melanie acevedo, via design*sponge)

eitheror

kathryn barnard is really something else when it comes to photography. thanks go to design*sponge for the heads up on this truly incredible photographer when steeping myself in their archives this morning. i was captivated by the warmth in ms. barnard's photographs, and i'm sure you will be too.

whilst i'm a huge food photography plan, i didn't ever really feel inspired to cook by any of the images i saw until now. ms. barnard captures what i love most about real food - the colours, textures, shapes and vibrancy of it.

that being said though, food isn't all she captures well. such evocative photos of both companionship and mystery. 

saved the best for last.... it is spring though, right? can i get a collective "aaaaaaaawwwwwww!!!" ?

if you have a spare five minutes i urge you to both go and look at her portfolio, found here and her blog. it might just make your day! (like those little chicks above made mine)

all images © kathryn barnard. 

she gotta voice like creme brulee

shots from pigna, an artisan village, january this year. afternoon sunlight made all the walls marmalade coloured and i almost became a literal cat burglar. 

moodboarding

moodboarding has become pretty essential to my life in the last few months. returning home from edinburgh to corsica after christmas was frankly awful, but i was armed with my mood boards and have discovered that they're the best way to help me focus on the positive and the present. whilst these photos aren't quite as great as those taken with the SLR, i hope you don't mind me sharing a little bit of what inspires me with you all. 

the kay nielsen calendar provides daily inspiration (and i have endless ideas for how to chop it up and reuse it come 2012!)

the above is my portable, more personal moodboard - a lot of the images represent ideas more than anything else. except those rainbow swarovksi heels. how long and how much to you reckon it would cost me to make my own? hmm...

no magazine is safe from my endless snipping and chopping. i'm that really annoying person that sits in doctor's waiting rooms and tears out sneaky pages that i just have to have. 

and as much as i love my own moodboards, i've got a real thing about other people's!! what are your techniques for creating an inspiring space?

israel, helmut lang, fast food joints and graffiti. it all goes in.

do you make moodboards? what inspires you? (and has anyone spotted my third 'gold shoes omfg' moment?!)