Etsy Search Top 10... Plus One

Oops, I just realised that I left my favourite linen tea towel by Flower Press out of my 10 Shop Local listings. I love the combination of the unbleached natural linen with the white filigree design.

Flower Press has 20% off cotton tea towels at the moment so snap one up while you can.

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Etsy Shop Local: Sydney

For today's weekly Etsy search I took a look at local Sydney sellers and found my Top 10 favourite items.


Can you believe this artist, Moofus, is only 12 years old. Night at the Opera is such a fabulous image of our iconic harbourside landmarks.

Here is his bio (which needs to be updated now that he's all of 12):
My name is Milan, I am 11 years old.
I do stuff with skateboards, pizza, pencils, paper and water.
Sometimes, even, at the same time.
I am scared of the dark.
My favourite band is Bloc Party.
I have long brown hair but I still look like a boy.
My favourite clothes are jeans and Vans sneakers.
I am right handed , brown eyed and often hysterical.

Have a look at Milan's Etsy shop - he's definitely one to watch. In his own words:
Welcome to my shop, watch it slowly grow.
Like a WEED. LIKE ME.



How adorable is this 3D tree card complete with a little swing! Spring Has Sprung is a printable PDF consisting of a card/invitation, envelope, gift tags and party favour, available from the wonderfully named Go Make Me. You just purchase the PDF, print it out, cut, fold and glue, and voila!



This looks like something I could enjoy on a lazy day now the weather has turned cool: a handknitted cushion cover in pure Australian wool. Available in baboom's Esty shop.



I love felt and anything small and cute, so it's no surprise I fell for these sweet little Flower and Green Tea Tea bags by Angela of Sydney Angel. Angela makes cookies with sugar sprinkles and little card holders too - all made from felt and all super cute.



An assortment of robots present the alphabet on this simple graphic poster from Creative Neesh.

I've blogged about Plus One's Adorn purses before, but I just couldn't leave them out of my Sydney 10. How can you go past those colours and the beautifully embroidered dandelion.



Anima88 is a brand new Esty seller who just opened her shop this week. This lovely tranquil image is called In White.



Elwin The Forrest Sprite made me smile when I saw him. He is described like this:
To call Elwin mischievous would be an understatement.
His favourite tricks to play on people are:
1.hiding your keys, wallet or phone
2.hiding socks so you can never find a pair that match
3.putting huge amounts of salt in your breakfast cereal
He does these things for a bit of a laugh and he is so endearing that you often find yourself laughing along with him. Elwin also loves boardgames and is always up for a challenge. He doesn't like monopoly because he says it brings out the worst in him but absolutely adores cluedo and scrabble.
From Herbert and Friends.



This sweet little print called Red Flowers is by Samantha of Matou en Peluche (which means plush tomcat). I really like the smudgey colour. It would look lovely in a simple black frame.



Is this Bee Mini Art Doll the cutest thing you've ever seen? It would have to be close. These felted cuties are by fing, and I can say first hand that they are well made and goegeous. I bought a little cat called Thomas the Tiny Cat from fing last year, and I recently gave him to my goddaughter because she loved him and I felt a bit silly owning him as a grown woman!
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Loving this: Priscilla Puss

Just look at this adorable kooky little face!


Julie Ramsden's Priscilla Puss and her other Googlies are made from 'forgotten balls of wool' which she finds in op shops and markets. She designs her one-off crocheted toys around the wool she finds.

Priscilla Puss is available here at Georgie Love, which was Australia's first online store devoted local handmade products.
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Inspiration: Heidi Daish

Heidi Daish repeats and layers simple shapes to form beautiful organic looking structures. Shapes are hand cut from treated paper, plastic and stiffened fabrics, then folded and stitched to create these amazing sculptural pieces.

Image Source: Free Range

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Cath Kidston Wallpaper

Although the whole shabby chic thing doesn't do it for me I have always admired Cath Kidston's design. She seems to add a graphic edge to that whole look which I find lovely without being too girly. And of course I love her vintage influences.

When having a poke around on the Cath Kidston website the other day I noticed a link to wallpaper... as you may know it's one of my recent obsessions. And I discovered their new bespoke digital wallpaper service.


The wallpapers were initially created to decorate Cath Kidston shops, but following many enquiries a new bespoke collection was made. The collection consists of 10 designs which are photos of vintage fabrics and artwork digitally printed onto paper. I absolutely adore the top image with the big bursts of vintage blossoms. So divine!

You can also download the other type of wallpaper - for your computer monitor - from Cath Kidston here. Although unfortunately none of the beautiful designs form the bespoke wallpaper series are available.
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Special Features

I found these intriguing pieces on NotCot - I love the fun and unexpected additions to the traditional glass dome shape. They are by Fabrica Features, a dynamically evolving series of products and collections mapped by a web of multipurpose commercial and cultural spaces around the world.


When I had a look at the Fabrica Features website I found lots of other unexpected design delights. I really love this shot, and I'm taken with the artwork: the way that letter forms become part of the illustrations. I'm loving the P with the electric beaters attached.


Something that I always enjoy seeing is craft, art and design converging, like in these 'cross stitch chairs'.

Fabrica Features, a hothouse of young artist-experimenters, is currently taking part in the Milan Furniture Show - you can read more about their participation here.
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Bright Lights

When I saw these chandeliers from Squint they filled me with joy. The colours are definitely joyous and I really like that the perceived preciousness has been removed when the colour was added.

This contemporary take on an old standard is so refreshing and fun and I can imagine them being used successfully in many differently styled interiors. I'd love to have an all white room (walls, floors, sofa, etc) with some small splashes of colour and one of these beauties as the focal point. Lovely!

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Monday Blogday: dear ada

Oh goodness, where has the day gone?! We are having the interior of our house painted at the moment and it's chaotic. There are boxes of books and ornaments, bits of furniture and stuff all over our house. It's absolutely doing my head in. It's almost like we are moving house, but things are only going from one room to the next. And if my environment is a mess then my head inevitably is too. I just can't seem to focus. Are you like that too, or is it just the Virgo in me which demands order and neatness to function?

So apologies for the extremely late post... here goes...

I have mentioned the wonderful blog dear ada numerous times before when I've credited it as the source of some of my art finds, so I thought it was about time that I featured dear ada here on a Monday Blogday post.

Dear ada is my daily dose of art inspiration. If you love any sort of art from photography to jewellery, sculpture to prints I guarantee you'll be bookmarking dear ada too.


I was especially happy when I visited dear ada today and found this YouTube video 'Stop Motion with Wolf and Pig' - it's so upbeat, sweet and clever, it made my day!

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Wood You Believe!

I'm signing off for the weekend now, but thought I'd do some show and tell first. I finished this large format commissioned Wood You Believe! piece earlier this week and I'm really happy with how it turned out.


Have a wonderful weekend, see you Monday!
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Japanese Egg Shapers

The delightful Hello Sandwich blog featured a wonderful post on bento accessories earlier this week. Cute overload! It prompted me to photograph my Japanese egg shapers: little moulds which transform hot hard boiled eggs into cute little bunny and bear faces.


After reading Ebony's post I can't wait to get back to Tokyo to stock up on more cuteness.
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Etsy Top 10: Terrariums

I often log onto Etsy and do a search for something I'm interested in browsing, and it always turns up some really great finds. So I thought I'd share the fruits of my Etsy searches - my favourite 10 things - in a series of posts each Thursday for 10 weeks.

Keyword search: Terrarium


I bought this book from the Book Depository a while ago now, with good intentions of making myself some terrariums. But of course the idea and the book have been put aside for now until I find the time for it. I often wonder when that will be... when Roxy graduates from high school (in 13 more years), when I retire... when?

In lieu of making my own I had a browse around Etsy and found my favourite terrarium listings (in no particular order).

Stealing a Kiss. This beauty is by Elizabeth DeHart of One Punk Posey. I just love the little worlds and stories that Elizabeth creates in her terrariums - they are so simple and almost poetic.

This one took my breath away - it's so unexpected and beautiful. It's called Terrarium Mold Makes the World Go Round and is one of a series of lovely mandalas in playnature's etsy shop. This one, as the name suggests, has been created from a photo of a very intricate colony of mold growing on the wall of a terrarium. These mandalas are so stunning I think they deserve their own post... I'll add that to my list!

Oh so sweet and cute! This Pocket Garden is made from needle felting in a nutshell, and is described as "a miniature garden and a terrarium for your pocket". From Etsy seller drawingroom.

Another crafty example is the crocheted Picnic in the Park and is "a worry free alternative for anyone looking to add a touch of spring to a shelf or window sill". It's from JackRabbit who says this on her profile page: JackRabbit by Christine Domanic is brought to you by: handlebar moustaches, hot pretzels, garbage night, grilled cheese, thrift shopping, recycling, hanging out in the library, crocheting, sewing, indian food and riding bikes. I love reading fun stuff on sellers' profile pages, don't you?

Balloons for Bobby from One Punk Posey (again! I just love her creations). "A little bit of garden, a little bit of art".

The Terrarium Elephant from Charlotte Cramer has wonderful bold shapes and is quite graphic in its composition - great photo huh?

This Terrarium Print is the work of one of my favourite artists and bloggers, Gennine Zlatkis. You can read my previous post about Gennine's work and blog here (there's even a photo of a terrarium Gennine created, which now that I think about it, may have been the start of my terrarium love!).

In-vitro Plant Culture is a hand-carved rubber stamp by mongosteenskin. Have a look at the mongosteenskin Etsy shop for more hand-carved stampy goodness.

Blithe Gardens' shop boasts a host of whimsical terrariums in interesting vessels, including this one in an apothecary jar.

If you look closely at the interestingly named Thoreau Moss Terrarium you'll see a lovely little mini sculpture of 3 balanced rocks. What a sweet little detail! You'll find this one at Green Briar's shop along with The Transcendentalist, The Jung Frau, and The Peabody... gotta love a seller who puts so much imagination into naming their wares.

Image Source: All Etsy images from individual sellers, as listed.
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Getting Crafty

I am the excited owner of two recently released craft books - both very different to each other. I finally visited Borders over the weekend to buy Meet Me at Mike's: 26 Fun and Crafty Projects, and my copy of Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts arrived in the mail last week from the Book Depository. (Thanks to Belinda for the tip about the Book Depository which has free international shipping. Yippee!)


The Meet Me at Mike's book is full of contemporary craft projects (mostly sewing) by Australian designer/makers, and the book itself is sooo gorgeously designed by Simone Elder of Ortolan. There are lots of things I can't wait to make. Pip from Mike's has created a flickr group where you can see projects people have made from her book.


As you would expect, Martha's book is a fantastic resource for techniques and ideas for a huge range of different crafts. Very elegant. Very Martha!


Have a look here for an etsy interview with Marcie McGoldrick of Martha Stewart craft dept about the book and her immensely covetable job.

I have already organised myself with some linen and embroidery thread for our next Brown Owls meeting, so unless I miraculously end up with some spare time I'll have to be content with leafing through my new books until I can try out some of the projects I've bookmarked. Do you have either of these books? Have you made anything from them?

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Schmooks: Sweet Illustrations

Australian designer, Illustrator and new mum Claire Verrell creates these lovely digital illustrations under the name Schmooks. How cute is the little girl losing her knickers?! You can pick up a print in her Etsy shop.

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Inspiration: Kristin Perers

I always love it when the postman arrives with a magazine I subscribe to. On Friday he brought me the latest issue of Vogue Living, and that's where I came across beautiful painterly photography of Kristin Perers. The images above have such richness and intensity they stopped me in my tracks.

Kristin comes from a background of fashion, design and painting, all of which are evident in her styling and photography.

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