Have your cake and eat it!

My mother in law surprised me and made my day today by making this amazing cake for my birthday - she not only made the lovely cake but all the decorations she handmade on top of it too!  Its a basket of crafty things as she knows I love that sort of thing.  The bear on the cake is even a  decoration based on a real bear tape measure I own too.   Its so lovely i don't want to eat it! 

Illustrations - Meomi

OK, last post today as Im dashing off for a weekend at Grandma's - lots of tea and cake - woohoo!  befre I go though, here are some wonderful illustrations by Meomi, aka Vicky Wong and Michael Murphy who are based in Vancouver and create these lovely illustrations and also Vicky is the author and designer behind the great series of Octonauts books!

Illustration - Johnny Yanok

Great illustrations by Johnny Yanok

Illustrations - Jilly P

Lovely designs from Jilly P.

Illustration - Flip Flop Design

Another fantastic French illustrator is Caroline of Flip Flop Design - I am absolutely in love with these fantastic designs - such adorable characters and so much fun stuff going on in each picture.  Caroline has also just designed the website for Belgian company, Achille [la petite] Marmotte, which is lovely - go and check it out!  If you are lucky enough to be in Paris from 4-6 July this year you can see Flip Flop's work at the Playtime exhibition.   Hopefully, next year I might be able to go to this!

Illustrations - Helen Dardik

I'm a huge fan of Helen Dardik who is such a talented illustrator and designer (I've already eatured her on the blog previously but couldnt resist blogging about her work again!) - her website is fantastic and shows so many of her great designs - I could spend hours looking at her work!

Children's Illustrators - Marc Boutavant

Inspired by some of the fantastic work of French children's illustrators I saw when I was in Paris I thought I might dedicate this week, or what is left of it, to looking at some of my favorite children's illustrators - first up is Marc Boutavant, an eye-poppingly talented illustrator who Im sure you will have heard of before and who doesnt need any introduction as these pictures speak for themselves (via Book by its Cover)  If you want to see more of his work, check out this website Boutavantheque by a lady who collects his books or his agency's site here.

I ♥ Paris

What a fantastic time I had in Paris with my boyfriend.  We stayed in a fabulously cute apartment in Montmartre and ate lots of lovely food  (I got the box of Laduree macaroons - and they were as amazing as they look!), saw some great shops (Luka Luna, Petit Pan, Colette, Petit Atelier De Paris and Madame Mo and more) and as it was my birthday my boyfriend bought me lots of lovely pressies too - I was spoilt rotten!  So many more places to see there though so need to start planning the next trip back.   I'll try and upload some of the pics we took in the next day or so ...

Je vais a Laduree

Yay!! Paris here I come.  Can't wait to get my greedy mits on a box of these wonderful creations from Laduree! Will be back next week hopefully with plenty of lovely things to post about!

Don't tell my boyfriend...

but I think I've fallen in love with another fella .... with the Duke of New York no less - here is a peek at him, I think you'll agree he is a pretty handsome chap!  To get your own piece of this felty action check out the extremely talented Matte Stephen's etsy site here.

Timorous Beasties

I've been a fan of Glasgow-based Timorous Beasties' print designs ever since I saw their bright London Toile design in Elle Decoration a couple of years ago, and they are currently exhibiting at the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield.  I think the toile design is still one of my favorites.

Wren Design

I've been so busy the last few days I haven't had much chance to sit down at the computer for more than a few minutes so I apologise for the lack of posting, which is likely to continue for the next week or so as scurrying about like a woman possessed! 

I'm in the process of having various interviews, creating my pattern portfolio, visiting family who have flown in from America and then off to Paris soon for my 30th birthday, a lovely birthday gift from my lovely boyfriend and parents!  I'll try and blog as often as I can in the next couple of weeks though!  

Anyway, enough of that - here is the fantastic work of Wren Design from Cape Town - I just love handmade goodies made from the recycled materials like these hessian coffee bags!  

Daniel Moraes

Wow!  This guy's work is incredible - I just found Daniel Moraes on Flickr and had to post about his work.  Go and check out his work - it is fantastic!  Those colors are just amazing (they look much brighter on his Flickr page than on my blog for some reason) and such a unique style.  His work is the sort I dream of being able to do, but know that I will never be able to be anywhere near that standard!

And now for something a bit different...

Setting up

The end result

... Last week I was lucky enough to help out Chris who was art directing a photoshoot for a project he is working on for an end of year degree show programme called the Creative Spark at Sheffield Hallam University.   It was great to see how he works and what a huge amount of work goes into getting just one shot - the picture above took us 3 hours to get set up and then the photographer, Nick, had to spend time arranging and rearranging lights - it certainly makes you appreciate the work that goes into it all!  

Prints & Patterns - Hollabee

Last, but by no means least, in this round up of Australian surface pattern designers, who all make up the Australian Fabric Mafia, is Bianca, aka Hollabee.  I love her swirl print!

For great print and pattern inspiration visit Print Pattern's blog for daily updates on the latest prints and patterns in fabric, stationery and more.

prints & Patterns - Pippijoe

Next up is the talented Caitlin who works under the name of Pippijoe, another Australian Designer and also part of the Australian Fabric Mafia.  I love her organic prints and the new lampshades would be just fab in my house!