Clare Grill

Beautiful oil paintings from artist Clare Grill.

Inspired by the traditional craft form of samplers.

You can see more of Clare's beautiful work here.

via an ambitious project collapsing

Lisa Larson

I love looking at pictures of artists at work- in their studios,

workrooms, ateliers, gardens. These are some of my favourite

creations and photographs of Swedish designer Lisa Larson. 

Many of Lisa's designs are still in production. 

You can visit the website and shop here and view more 

of my favourite artists at work, and their ateliers here.

I hope you're enjoying a lovely start to the week! 

We've decided to shift our field journal posts to Wednesdays

and will be posting entry four in our little project then, if you'd

like to play along with us. Happy Monday Everyone! xoxox

image credits: one, two, three, four, five, six 

These are a few of my...

favourite things. 

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

Friends are like flowers, beautiful flowers

Friends are like flowers in the garden of life.

Are you a Daisy? Are you a Rose? Are you a Dandelion?

You can be what you are and I willl be what I am

We can be friends in the garden of life.


I have vivid memories of gleefully belting out this 
little number on my guitar in the church choir when I was 
a child... the hippy undertones resonating in my soul.

If I were a flower, I think I'd want to be one of the strange 
and beautiful creations above. I can quite imagine the 
Dr Seuss-like gardenscape they'd call home.


plaques by herman marie, pillows by colette bream

nature play

love these illustrated playing cards by Hanna Krajni,

wasn't able to find much information on this artist

Sabine Timm via virginhoney on flickr

more illustrated playing cards by Hanna Krajni

nature patterns via botanicals and curios on Pinterest

walnut boats via art and children on Pinterest

 Mortéza Esmaîli Sohi via Atelier Pour Enfants

A few of my favourite nature craft inspirations.

Some kooky 70s nature craft ideas in this book.

nature studies

the eucalyptus is always greener

birds in flight 

field journal 

all via wild goose chase on flickr

The beautiful work of artist Fiona Watson.

I have been thinking about keeping a nature diary with Ari.

Documenting the seasons and the bits and bobs we collect

on our many trips around the countryside, beach and city.

Fiona's photographs are a beautiful source of inspiration 

for such a project. It would be fun to create such 

works with children, don't you think?

Pop Pop Portraits

A lovely little letter arrived in the mail for me this week and

it was written on the back of these super sweet illustrations...

The work of the very talented Helena Randall.

I have known Helena for many, many years and have watched her 

work develop and change, as she has explored different styles and 

mediums. Her art has a wonderful sense of fun and whimsy about it

and her colour choice and line work are just exquisite.

With Pop Pop Portraits Helena has given the art of portraiture a
new and contemporary twist, creating custom portraits of clients 

(and often their pets or kids) in her own unique style of illustration.

Her work was recently featured in Frankie Magazine.  So exciting!

But, as far as creative talents go, portraiture is just the tip of the iceberg

for this clever lady!  I can't wait to see what future projects lie ahead...

You can visit her blog/s here or take a peek at her shop here.

xoxox

Чебура́шка!

Also known as Cheburashka or Topple in English Translations.

Here's an episode. It's in two parts.

At the start, the crocodile is singing about what a great

pity it is, that birthdays only happen once a year.

one...

two...

I love the strangeness of these old claymation films and would love 

to have a go at making one of my own.  The colours in this one are 

particularly lovely I think and the characters and sets are very cute! 

It would be a fantastic holiday project to work on with older kids...

Jess Quinn

A rather lovely new watercolour by Jess Quinn.

I do so love her work and blog.

read a little about my winter days here

Ribambelles

The beautiful work of Nathalie Parain has a timeless quality to it.

I love the simplicity of these designs and the beautiful shades of

blue and red against the parchment used in this 1932 craft book.

You can view all images from this book here (and many other 

wonderful vintage french illustrations) and you can read more

about Nathalie and her designs here (link will need translating).

the music maker

We've been having a lot of fun with my birthday present.

It's been a while since I've had a turntable and Ari's never

enjoyed the experience of listening to records play before!

I have bit of a collection of kid's recordings, though none 

quite so wonderful as the records pictured here. Perhaps we'll 

have to start a collection of 1940s and 1950s kid's records.

Some of the records pictured here come from this great site.

The sweet collectors there have uploaded their collection for
your free personal enjoyment. So lovely! Take a peek. x

lei li la loo

Today, I turn Thirty-five!  WOW.  Ha?
It's a rather grey and gloomy sort of birthday day.
Typical for early June (and the beginning of Winter).

We're planning to brave the miserable cold front

and take a little trip into town, though. Yay!

I thought I'd write about this lovely maker's blog today,

my very first Etsy discovery and my birthday gift to you... 

The white rabbit, or rather... very cute and colourful bunny...

that I followed into the wonderland of Etsy.

You can visit the LeiLiLaLoo shop here.

A beautiful place to find inspiration

and glimpse an artist and mother at work.

If you're feeling grey, visiting this blog

is just like dancing in a rainbow ♥