Hannah Nunn & Her Papercut Lamps

Hannah is a designer/maker of lamps and shades and owner of Radiance, a lighting and craft boutique in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, U.K.

At the beginning of March, my lovely new blog-friend, Hannah Nunn, kindly featured my Frittilary on her blog. After Hannah came across my blog via Twitter, and commented on some of my posts, it was clear we both shared the same obsession. Flowers, flowers and flowers.

Hannah’s lamps are not something you would find just anywhere. Each one of them is an exquisite piece of artwork, cut intricately and perfectly from paper, inspired by the botanical world.

This Witch Hazel lamp below is my favourite. One day, I shall buy one…..one day….

You can read all about Hannah here. She’s definitely worth checking out.

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Betsy, winner of the Hellebore hand-carved stamp!

Our winner was picked using True Random Number Generator via Random.org – Betsy was the eighth entrant into the giveaway.

Thank you to everyone for playing along with me – your comments have provided me with some more direction, and I’m very grateful.

Giveaway!

This hand carved Hellebore rubber stamp could be your very own in my first blog giveaway……all you need to do is tell me your favourite piece work I’ve done and why, by leaving a comment in this post (The link ‘Leave a reply’ is at the bottom of the post).

The closing date is 9pm GMT on Wednesday 2nd March, so be quick!

The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and I will post the name (not the details!) of the winner at 10am Thursday 3rd March.

Bon chance!

Some new treasures.

I’ve been lucky enough to have received some special books since Christmas. Here are a selection of the most recent, all gifts from some lovely people.

A Year In Japan by Kate T. Williamson – From my Mum

Pattern Sourcebook : Japanese Style by Shigeki Nakamura – From my Mum

1950′s Fashion Print by Marnie Fogg – From my cousin, Lucy, as a thank you gift

Retro Fonts by Gregor Stawinski - From my sister and her husband for Christmas

Angie Lewin : Plants and Places by Leslie Geddes Brown – From my Mum

Lotta Jansdotter Stencils by Lotta Jansdotter - From my Mum

Butterfly by Thomas Marent - From my husband

And I love every single one of them.

P.S This is my 100th post. I can’t quite believe I’ve had that much to say. Thank you to everyone who keeps coming back and supporting my work. I hope I can manage another 100. Salut!

Time For A Change

You may notice a few odd things going on this week on this site. I’m experimenting with some new layouts to make my site a little more user friendly. I hope to have it all finished by the end of the week. And when it is, I’ll also be having my first giveaway you may not want to miss out on.

Home-baked treats.

They’ve been on my mind all week. Being up with the lark this morning, I finally gave in and made some muffins. Cinnamon muffins. I’d also been looking for an excuse to use a gift from my mum and dad when they visited Australia right at the beginning of the year. Little birdie cake toppers and cup cake cases. The perfect excuse to prettify a cake. I’ve already eaten three today.

You get me?

Image via We Love Typography

A Gift For You – Free Wallpaper Download

I felt like sharing something with you today, so I made a desktop wallpaper.

Click on the image above to make it larger and download it from there. I hope you enjoy it – I enjoyed creating it to share with you!

Pin It!

Have you ever heard of Pinterest? I hadn’t heard of it until a couple of weeks ago and I’m getting on with it quite nicely. I thought it might be another one of those sites where the novelty would wear off after a while, but it doesn’t seem so. Its a lovely site to collect visuals to, like pinning things up on a pin board at home, except its online, where I imagine like myself, alot of people also spend their time online, therefore being quite useful.

Its a pleasure to share with people. However, I’m finding its nicer to reflect back on what you’ve been collecting. I saw a pattern forming early on of the things which inspire me. Feel free to take a look at my Pinterest Board.

You could also visit my Pinterest board by clicking the link on the sidebar.

 

Welcome 2011.

Opening up our new year with positivity, none other than the late, great, hardly sedate, Dr Seuss (or Theodor Geisel).

Happy New Year, friends. May you be full of health and the joys of spring.

Thank you for visiting, reading, stopping by, skippity hopping through this blog throughout 2010 – it wouldn’t exist if it were not for you – and for that, I am most grateful!

Lovebird Stationery is on Etsy.

So, my husband said to me the other day “What are you going to do with all your stuff you make cluttering up the office?”

“Um” I look up at the ceiling. “Keep it?” I replied, with uncertainty.

“Why don’t you sell it? It needs to go somewhere.” He said, with vigour.

“Oh…yeeeah…I guess so” I said, hesitantly.

And so, there we have it. My Etsy shop was born, that same night. Not quite on the same scale as the upcoming celebration as the birth of a certain religious man (if you’re a Christian, of course) in a stable, however for me, quite epic.

I’d thought about it before, and put it off. And then I’d thought about it again, put up some more mental barriers and then put it off. Again. Talking it through with my husband on Monday night, it made more sense and I realised I had built it up in my mind to be something big and scary and grown up. And, of course, its  not like that at all. Plus, I already have a mortgage. Financial commitments don’t really come much bigger for the average person. A few clicks later, my first item was and is for sale. Some gift tags. And now, as of tonight, my Mr Owl book plates.

For those of you who don’t know, Etsy provides a marketplace for crafters, artists and collectors to sell their handmade creations, vintage goods and crafting supplies. Perfect for someone with a little hobby like….um….oh yeh…..me!

Whenever I have something new for sale, I’ll publish it here on the blog, so you know its also for sale at my Etsy store. And of course, I hope you stop by my shop for a little online meander.

In the brightness of my mind.

The Secret Tea Party Illustration Swap

Dear You,

How are you?  Have you been up to much lately? I’ve just got back from a short break away to Norfolk, with my little family. It was alot of fun and relaxing came quite easily this time around. I think its because I don’t work in an office anymore. My stress levels are minimal, so winding down doesn’t take as long. Office work sucks. It really does. Since I haven’t worked in an office for a few months, its only when you re-enter a work place when you realise how much you truly and utterly despised it. Its amazing what we carry on with.

The holiday was lovely. It really was. We hired bikes. We hired a boat on The Broads. We ate cake. Enough to last until the end of November, at least. Our campervan got stuck in the mud. We had to be towed out. We went on a steam train along the coast. We went to Bewilderwood. We ate chips.

However. While we were away, a parcel had been delivered for me, in my absence. I was expecting it, which made it slightly frustrating, because I had some idea of the type of thing which might be inside it. Earlier in October, I signed up to The Secret Tea Party Illustration Swap. I was paired with Danielle Andrews, who, at the time, I knew nothing of, except her address. Until I opened up this box.

I couldn’t believe my swap partners generosity. Every little item had been packaged, carefully and methodically. Every drawing had been crafted by Danielle (I think she’s a whizz with ink). And then, to top it off, Danielle had drawn a portrait of Bella from Twilight. For those of you who don’t know, my nickname is Bella. My maiden name was Bell. Two extremely good friends named me Bella and the name stuck. As a bit of an alias, I still use this name, but I had told Danielle my actual true real life name. As a joke, she had said she would draw a portrait of Bella from Twilight. I thought it was a joke. Obviously not. I was quite taken aback. With another twist, before I picked up the parcel on Monday, we watched Twilight on DVD for the first time on Sunday night. So, you can imagine it was quite an odd feeling seeing this portrait within the parcel just the next morning. And very nicely done too, I’m sure you will agree. (Thank you again, Miss Andrew-s.)

If you’d like to see what I sent Danielle, you can visit her blog here where she wrote a very kind post about my parcel to her.

Thats all from me. Please write back soon. It’d be good to hear from you.

Love Me

Escape to the country.

We’re sneaking away for a week, for some mid-term coastal action. Meet you back here a week from today. Synchronise watches. Aaaaaand…GO!

Twitchy Tuesday

I’m feeling twitchy. Not in a Seven Year Itch kind of way. But in a blog-design-overhaul kind of way. So if you see a few strange changes……now you know.

Every now and then…

….I think its important to reflect. On whatever you like. Today, this quote is on my mind:

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful – Teachings of Gautam Buddha

Its quite simple really. I’m not religious, but I am human, therefore I have moments where I don’t feel my best. I don’t feel hard done by, but I don’t always feel happy. If I didn’t, I’d be a weird fish. Reflecting on words like this puts it all in perspective.

Laters.

P.S I don’t mean to come across as being holier than thou, or in fact, that I am the reincarnated Buddha. Profuse apologies if you think I’m a nincompoop.

Finding a diamond in the rough.

A diamond is a diamond. There’s no getting away from that fact. However, sometimes, a diamond can mean something else to someone. And thats precisely the point I’m slowly trying to get to. (*rolling eyes) I love. No. Not love. Thats an understatement. I have to harness my huge predilection when I walk into a charity shop. Especially with the new one I was introduced to by my mum last week. It’s called Emmaus and its not a charity shop. Its a village. Here’s a statement from their website about what they do:

“Emmaus Village Carlton is a homeless charity based in North Bedfordshire offering active support to formerly homeless people and we provide what we think of as a real workable alternative to homelessness.”

It’s a bit of a strange place when you approach it. You would never expect to find it where its located. But, its definitely a diamond in the rough. And alot of good charity work is being done, thats obvious.

Here are some of the treasures I bought, for literally, pence.

These bookends were £1.50. Ridiculous. And I LOVE them. I can’t wait to use them somewhere in our new office.

Ooh, actually. This honey pot wasn’t from Emmaus. It was from an antique shop from a nearby market town. I had it wrapped up in bubble wrap for the last eight months, so I wanted to photograph it. I also love this very much. My husband bought it for me.

This is going to be a nice little paintbrush holder for the office.

I bought the childrens book of prayer for its illustrations, not for its words, since I’m not religious. They’re very reminiscent of all the birthday cards my mum still has from my 1st birthday back in 1979. Probably why I love all this stuff so much. I think my mum was cringing at everything I picked up. And probably wishing she hadn’t thrown all her stuff out years ago, so she could make a dime or two off me.

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month

I know my blog is a bit of a funny one to some people. Some people get it, some people don’t. Some people don’t like it, thats clear. Others do. There are some people who don’t even acknowledge I have a blog, even if I mention it in passing conversation. There are people who have been inspired to start their own blogs. There are people who I would like to share my excitement with about my blog, but can’t. But to me, it makes sense. It’s like a very little bit of me in a very big world. I get secretly excited when I’m thinking up my next post. I get even more excited to read peoples comments they leave. Its a modest selection of my thoughts, which I want to share with other people. I only share the bits I want to share because of course, there are many other things I wouldn’t dream of writing about.

Naturally, the comments I receive which aren’t the ones I would like to hear, play on my mind. I wouldn’t be thinking out loud here if they didn’t. Thankfully, none of the comments I’ve received so far have upset me enough to want to abandon writing here. However, depending on what I’d like to write about, they do make me think twice about posting. And actually, even that’s wrong. I tell myself, if people don’t like it, they don’t have to read it. Thats probably why, with some people, it doesn’t get brought up in conversation, because they would feel uncomfortable having to talk about it with me, because actually, they don’t like it. This is the very reason I’ve tried to make a point of not talking about it with many people, which isn’t easy, because its something I a feel quite attached to, as I’m sure its obvious. I think, in fact, there are only four people who I feel totally at ease with in talking about my blog. One of those people is the person who I had alot of conversation with before I started writing it, debating or not whether to do it. We talked about it for a few weeks, as I remember, and then one day, she put a different spin on it, which made complete sense to me and that was the turning point. She’s also the person who nominated me for the Dorset Cereal Little Blog Awards. It was a huge compliment to me.

The closing date for the award was yesterday and sadly, I wasn’t glorious in winning the Little Blog Award. I didn’t expect to, in all honesty. But I liked being part of it. There were some other really comprehensive sites which had also been nominated. They looked like they had been established alot longer than I have, with many more followers, so I’m quite sure they deserved the recognition more than me. (Thank you to all of you who voted for me…you made my day!)

Discovering ghost signs

Hey you. How’s it going? Good? Pleased with the weather lately? Yeah, me too. We needed a bit of rain. Kind of refreshing in a cosy, red wine kind of way.

So, today, something caught my eye. A Love Letter For You. (I found the site because it was tweeted by these people). As quoted from their website:

Love Letter is a project by Stephen Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and is sponsored by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative. Generous support provided by the Brownstein Group and Septa.

That’s actually a very modest description of their site. The page in particular I was interested in was the one on murals. Not murials. Murals.  They’ve created a series of murals around Philadelphia, which follow the Market-Frankford elevated train line. There are so many of them, and they’re all so detailed and well-conceived.

Everything about what they’re doing, I love. I love the fact that they’re spreading messages across the city. I love the fact it takes years to get this good at doing what they’re doing. Not everyone can just start up with this skill. It’s a craft. It’s also something which has been going on for decades. And after a little mind-ticking-over moment, I started to look around the internet.

Adverts were once painted on the sides of city buildings. Personally, I can think of no better way to advertise. Hand-painted = quality, which inevitably leads to a strengthening of a brand. I mean, back in the 1890′s, there was no other way. They obviously didn’t have the glorious benefits of high definition, or…….personalised mailings…..or, adverts in the sky over the beach you’re bathing at. The adverts we see these days are generally predictable, computer-generated and everywhere. These brick-wall adverts couldn’t be easily duplicated and probably took weeks to get right. But, as famously quoted in a very old nursery rhyme…’once they were up, they were up’.

This preserved sign was uncovered off Tottenham Court Road  because the building next door had been knocked down to make way for a new crossrail station.

And suitably so, these adverts have been nicknamed ‘Ghost Signs’. They present themselves after disappearing or fading years ago and are now, becoming a local feature, rather than ‘just another advert’.

These adverts (which have been around sometime on sites like Creative Review) have come back into fashion. Clemmow Hornby Inge agency created these old-fashioned ‘hand-lettered’ adverts, based on the long established business of Anchor Butter, since 1886.

And as beautifully these adverts work here (in my opinion), they totally contradict the reason they were created below.

This is going to sound a little strong, but whoever approved this advert being shown in this way, should be removed from their work place. Ridiculous. Surely this ad placement actually defeats the whole point of the advert? Oh, listen to me. What do I know. I’m off my soap box.

BUT. Worry not, friends. The talented Alison Carmichael (who co-produced the Anchor Butter adverts) has things under control.

These adverts which I found via her website are like the 21st century digital version of old-fashioned signwriting. They still have the swirls. They still have the colour. Yet they’re portable amongst platforms. Magazines. Bus stops. Walls. I mean, I still personally prefer the old fashioned wall paintings, but at least sign writing is still alive.

And you know what? Anything typographically-related gets my cockles stirring….

“Oh I do like to be beside the seaside…”

Feast your eyes on these snaps taken last week. We may turn our noses up , but you can’t beat a bit of British beach.

Now. Where did I leave my application for the Swanage brass band…?