Pin of the day: Decorating red

This is a pin I pinned a few months ago.  I love it because for me it is a fresh approach to decorating around red which I find a problem colour, especially keeping it warm and modern.

The pin was originally added by house of turquoise, but the image itself comes from a stylin' hotel in Nantucket.  Click the image for the link.  I just love the places pins take me, don't you?  I've found so many great blogs, sites and places that way.

All hail the mighty pinterest!

Etsy find: Vintage sunglasses

Hi guys, I just happened to stumble across an Etsy shop selling THE cutest vintage sunglasses.  Get a load of these bad lads

Aren't they dreamy.  I have such a thing for cat eye frames.  They're soooo glamorous!  It's really about time I get myself some.  The shop is GreenFlamingoVintage and there are so many frames to choose from.  Here are a few of my picks, enjoy!

Stunning Jean Paul Gaultier steampunk sunglasses

These are so stylin' librarian

Fendi cats eye havana

SO Mod!

Flip-up sunglasses

The Sketchbook Project

I happened across this amazing idea, The Sketchbook Project, when I was perusing Designmom.com (it's a great blog).  Have you heard of it?  Its a fantastic project to get involved in.  They send you a sketchbook, you fill it up, send it back and it goes into the Brooklyn Art Library!  How awesome would it be to know your very own heartfelt sketchbook is in the BROOKLYN ART LIBRARY.

I think its a tremendous idea. . .now if only I could fill up a sketchbook.

While I'm on about sketchbooks I might as well tell you the sad story of my diary today.  Its short and isn't really sad for anyone but me.  The thing you have to know about me is I'm a total stationary addict/freak/hoarder.  I love it.  I love love love it.  My friends and family are aware.  They smile knowingly (if not a bit sympathetically) when I suggest we go look at the stationary cause often I will just stand and stare at it.  

Pine for it. 

 Moon over it.  

Until I'm gently ushered away.  

So getting to the gist of this sad story.  I bought a mid year diary cause I just didn't have my life in order in January and missed my window (who wants a diary for 11 months or less, what a waste).  Its a sweet little thing, all green and ordinary.  And I've been counting down the days until Saturday because that's when June starts and that's when my diary commences.  I've been dying to use it.  So much so I jumped the gun and tried to put in some important dates for next week.  ONLY TO FIND my sweet diary doesn't start till JULY.  Needless to say I'm gutted.  July is so so far away.  I'll have to manage with my wall calendar until then.  Sob.  

The only thing that could console me is my favourite stationary oriented blog papercrave.com.  If you have a similar stationary obsession then this is definitely the blog for you.  You can thank me later.

Pin of the day: pom poms

Today I was doing a lot of pinning (as usual) and this prettyness totally hooked me!

How totally cute are these pom pom bookmarks!!  I could burst!

I want one in every colour and everyone I know must have one too.

I followed the link which took me to Designmom.com (click to go to the tutorial) and now not only do I have another 'to do' on my to do list but I found a brand new blog to follow.  Don't you just love it when that happens?

Mini project: Wall art

After decorating my bedroom I never really got round to putting any pictures up.  The walls were so bare and lonely looking that I just had to do something.  So I decided to do a bit of DIY wall art.

Its super easy but does take a bit of time.  Here's what I used. . .

I forgot to add the sharpie!

1. I found the poem I wanted to use; Invictus by William Ernest Henley and picked a nice font, increased the text size and printed it out.  It spread over 4 pages.  
2. I then used carbon paper, which you can find at most fabric/haberdashery stores, and blu tacked it to the area of wall that I wanted to apply the poem.  I reused the carbon paper for each page of the poem.  
3. Carefully lining the poem up so it would be straight, I blue tacked that over the carbon paper and started to trace it with a mechanical pencil but you could also use a ball point pen or anything with a point.  The carbon paper transferred the poem to the wall and when that was finished I removed the paper and went over the whole thing in a fine tipped sharpie.  

This was a bit time consuming but was relatively cheap since I had all the equipment already.  I really love the rough effect of the text.  I finished off by printing out some images onto pages of old books and washi taped them to the wall.  Now the wall is no longer bare and I've spent nothing for a really personal piece of art.

Zara Home: Have I been living under a rock?

No seriously I must have become some sort of hermit recluse to have ONLY JUST discovered Zara has a homeware store.  Please excuse me for a moment while I slap my face.   . .It was only recently that I discovered H&M's home section, and I call myself an interior design student!  Anyway getting to the point I wanted to share my favourites from their summer collections.

Fluor collection: brights on white is so popular this year.  I like it cause it's fun and clean.

 Hotel collection: do they have a hotel as well?! Nawh I checked.

New collection: I love the layering fabrics in this collection.  The colours aren't bright but still manage to be summery.

 Paradise collection: I have a total fascination with the paradise theme lately.  Exotic bird prints will always get a big YES.

Picnic collection: how sweet is that swing chair! Zara has totally captured my image of summer with this collection, now all we need is consistent sunshine!

I'm sure there are other huge gaps in my homeware store knowledge, I hope to remedy that.  Are there any stores you'd like to share?

Etsy shop launch!

I've finally gotten round to launching my etsy shop: Raining cats and frogs!!!

Over the next few days I'll be adding the rest of the stock and over time I'll be adding new items.  I have plans to create my own line of printed napkins, placemats and various linens.  And I will be designing my own crockery to sell so stay tuned for those posts and keep checking back at the shop for new goodies.

It's really hard to actually commit to selling all of these beautiful items.  I could hold on to them forever but who has the space?  These sets were particularly difficult to list

These tea trios have a gorgeous flower pattern and gilt.  They are so small and delicate they really did steal my heart.  I may have to keep one set back for myself to remind me of the very beginning of my business journey.

And this set has a beautiful feature where the design continues to the bottom of the cups.  Such attention to detail!  It really does make a difference.

Vintage china will never go out of style.  It is so well made and delightful to look at.  I often use mine when I steal a quiet moment to myself with a cup of green tea and a bagel, it's sort of like a ritual.  Do you have any style injected rituals?

More hidden treasures

Would you ever have guessed that this lovely bunch

Was hiding under this pile of crap

That is just the way of things in this house.  All the pretty things get tidied away and forgotten  about in the pursuit of practicality.  But I'm on a mission to unearth all the beauties and clean them up real nice.

And that's exactly what I did this bank holiday weekend

Didn't they come up lovely?  And they're all gonna be gracing my new Etsy shop as soon as I get the boxes to package them in later in the week.  I'll be doing an announcement once everything's ready to go.  For now though I still have half the pile to wash!

Loft Treasures

Today I had the great pleasure of rummaging round in my grans loft.  To me a loft is full of childhood treasures and vintage relics, especially when it’s someone else’s.  It’s the place people throw their rubbish when they can’t be bothered to bin it and I’m a firm believer that one persons trash is anothers treasure.  People are kind of secretive about them too, I think it’s because they just don’t want people to see their hordes of trashy books and Barbies.  I certainly had a lot of fun scavenging around but man was it dusty.  My hands were black with it by the time I was finished but I was happy.  I found these gems.  

This delightful old camera caught my eye immediately.  It sort of rattles which makes me think it may not be in working order but it looks so striking I’m sure I’ll keep it forever and it will be great to use as a prop.

I found all of these old ledger books back from when my grandparents ran clubs.  I don’t understand a word of it besides whisky but I’m ok with that. 

 I have a severe obsession with old books.  They have the best smell and feel and the pages turn a lovely colour with age.  I especially like the ones with illustrations and I found a few today. 

 There are half filled books and blank books that just fill me with ideas.  

I love to turn old books into art and I just couldn't believe my luck when my gran told me they’re just rubbish to her and I could have them.  What a score!

Hello! And welcome to my blog Raining cats and frogs!  This is my first ever blog post on my first ever blog, are you excited?  Cause I know I am, really really gonna burst excited.  I’ll start from the beginning (this will be a quick one promise).  I’ve created a blog with the intention of feeling like I’m doing something productive with my life.  As I’ve just finished uni (like literally JUST handed my final work in this very morn) it’s about time I got my life in order aka get a job you lazy student bum.  And that just fills me with dread because I’m the kind of person that never feels like they’ll be good enough.  I’ll be all ‘hey I’d really like to work here’ and they’d be all ‘no.  No experience. No skills. No’ and the job market is looking ever so BLEAK to me right now.  So I thought hey I like making things and sometimes people even say they like the things I make and there’s this wonderful place called etsy and well. . .you getting it?  So as it happens in this household theres a ton of vintage china, like loads and loads and loads and it’s all real pretty and I’m thinking ‘I’d buy the hell out of that tea set’ cause I like to feel fancy when I’m drinking ma green tea.  So here’s my plan

• Always loved blogs – set up my very own
• Always loved vintage homeware – sell some of my very own
• Always loved making things – make loads of things and mayhaps sell some of those too

So this is the first step on my very simple to do list.  Start a blog.  I love blogs.  They’re so helpful and funny and interesting.  I make no promises that mine will be any of these things but I’ll certainly give it a try.  So yeah.  I conquered the dreaded deadline.  Finished university and came straight home to wash up that china.  I’ve spent all day washing and photographing and I’m only half way through!  This is serious.  So when I finally make it to the end and edit the photos I will in fact be opening an etsy store called, can you guess?  Raining cats and frogs.  ATM I’m stocking up on boxes and bubble wrap and pretty paper and ribbons and all that jazz and I’ll be documenting my business life (and probably the other life stuff) on this very blog. 

SO now I have the super scary first post out of the way here’s a little sneak peak of ze china, photographed by my good friend Pepper Ross (check out her website www.pepperross.com)