Blog of the Week

This week's botw is the fantastic Wee Birdy.  I think I must be a bit behind the times blog-wise as I somehow missed Wee Birdy's blog until a couple of weeks ago.  And you don't need to take my word for how good it is as Wee Birdy has won a place in the 50 top blogs in the WORLD by the Times Online and it is in the Sunday Times 100 top blogs in the world too.  Anyway, now I have found this fantastic blog I feel I should share it with you, just in case you've been living in the dark ages like me and somehow missed it before!  Wee Birdy is written by the shopping and style deputy editor for Time Out London, an Australian who currently lives in the UK.  The blog features british designers, places to go, places to eat and more.

Joanne Rutter

I'm a huge fan of Joanne Rutter's work and although I have posted about it previously, I wanted to show you these lovely images from her blog.  I just love her painstakingly paper cut works and the way she shows off her wonderful jewellery pieces using the tree trunks is just fabulous - what a fantastic designer- Im not jealous honest!!

Joanna Rutter

I was doing my daily trawl on Etsy recently and found UK designer, Joanna Rutter's , pretty jewellery collection, I just love the simplicity of these lovely nature inspired jewels and just had to share them with you.

Helena Carrington

If you are stuck for christmas/housewarming/birthday presents then look no further than Helena Carrington and her fantastic range of cushions and accessories featuring Helena's illustrations taking inspiration from foreign cities and travels. Helena was featured in the New Designers exhibition this summer after graduating from Norwich School of Art and Design.  Norwich must be a hive of creative activity as I know of quite a few talented craft and design types from that neck of the woods - maybe I should pencil in a trip soon!

Now Panic...

..and Freak Out!! I found this great new version on Threadless of the Keep Calm design which was originally issued in Britain by the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of WWII.  

The Keep Calm design was used in a time when the good old British 'stiff upper lip' mentality was abound and when we were seriously in the s*** and before the crazy world of media got in such a frenzy and hyped all the country's doom and gloom up so much that people will soon be terrified to leave their houses for fear of the credit crunch, the economic meltdown, the various reigns of terror, Bruce Forsyth's dogs being dognapped ...the list goes on! 

The media seem so keen to impress upon us the economic armageddon which is about to fall upon us that I think the new design by talented designer Olly Moss, is much more prevalent now!  Can you believe his design is selling for just $15 - I got to get me one of these - I'll don my new T-shirt and if I am subject to another dose of GMTV's 'Britain at Boiling Point' I'll put on my fab new t-shirt and gather all my possessions together and go live in the air raid shelter in our back yard and wait for certain death (seriously, we do have an original WWII shelter in our yard - although it doesn't look like it'd give you much protection -even against the credit crunch!)

Pintuck

Continuing the theme of British designers, Pintuck is another small company whose work I love.  Especially the the puppy love tea-towel which can be transformed into a cute stuffed toy too.