Tuesday 25 November 2008

Useful resources

My search for tools to help me build on my yearning for art and creativity began some ten years ago, when I first read Julia Cameron's classic The Artist's Way. That book and the accompanying The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal made me realise that we can all be creative in our everyday lives.
If you think about it, art is embedded to our nature. God built us to His image, making us appreciate beauty and the world He created and placed us in.


Only a century ago womenfolk were creating beautiful embroideries and lovely clothes and beautified their homes with their own hands. And primitive people never shied away from carving and painting. So why let ourselves believe that only the work of a few well networked people who sell their products to a few thousand around the globe, are allowed to be called art?

Most of you are familiar with Etsy that I mentioned in my previous post. Last week I have also written this post about my maternal family's approach to handicraft and at the end I have posted a link to the on-line community of Artella Land.

Let me tell you some more about it. Artella is the brain child of Marney Makridakis who, back in 2002 had the idea to start a magazine for artists and writers.The result is Artella Magazine, a playland of people and tools which has grown into an on-line community.

She also publishes a free e-zine, full of ideas and inspiration for artists of all kinds and ways, from poetry to altered books, to people who look for ways to unleash their creativity.

Why don't you head over, subscribe to their free e-zine, and have fun?

Oh and make sure you stop by soon for a fantastic seasonal giveaway!

Saturday 22 November 2008

Knock knock!







Knock-knock. It's cold and Christmasey, and it very much looks like so on Etsy! Have a dreamy weekend!

Thursday 20 November 2008

For the love of craft.

I am an admirer of creative people. My mother was an accomplished dress maker who used to knit and sew and cross-stitch for pleasure. She is known to have knit even with a broken arm in plaster.
Her mother adored sewing and embroidering things from the home. She did tea towells and dishclothes and handkerchiefs with religious attention to detail.

I was born in times of change, when academic excellence was pivotal. So crafting was largely discouraged at home.
But the crafty vein found its way in my tapestries that I used to make every year during the exam period, my way of focusing.
So, I love seeing the work of people who actualy do what I adore looking at.
There is so much that can be expressed though handcraft. It may not be art in the classical sense as in the arts. But it is the expression of how each soul is related to the World. And that should be grately encouraged.

(All photos from Inspireco. Artella is a great resource for altered art and artsy props).

Monday 17 November 2008

Enchanting forest


Good morning!
It rained, at last, yesterday. I am not asking for snow, not before December at least, but some tiny little clouds and a little fog is always a nice way to remind us that there are still seasons to be enjoyed and Christmases to come.
I opened my Flickr page to upload some photos I took over the weekend and I came upon this lovely forest. How I absolutely love it! I think I didn't have enough childhood, that's why!


These treas are made by a Croatian lady (hello neighbour!) now living in Germany. Jasna's Flickr page is here and her DaWanda shop is here.


Jasna kindly joined my True Vintage group page, which houses, as its name suggests, true vintage views of houses and items, belonging to family and friends or random encounters.
Thanks a lot, Jasna!
A happy new week to all.

Saturday 15 November 2008

Vanessa Arbuthnott Fabrics

Last Saturday I posted a Happy Weekend picture, i.e. a picture which represents how I'd like my weekend to be (maybe yours, too?) and I mentioned that I was going to tell you about one of my favorite fabric makers. I hope to do so today.
I came across Vanessa Arbuthnott's fabrics a few years ago through an advertisement in Country Living (UK). I contacted her and that is how my love story with her fabrics begins.

I first dressed an armchair from our shop in her Cockerel fabric (the one below is not mine but very much looks like it).
We dressed the walls in the den in her acorn and leaf wallpaper (now out of stock).


And I am working on our kitchen curtains, that will be made in her Pie in the Sky pattern.




I am also having the armchair above, destined to be my crafts chair in a corner of the living room, just across the den, covered in an Ikea red and green stripe with pillows at the back and on the seat in her Fern and Dragonfly pattern.I really look forward to it!



Here are some more pictures from her website and the lady herself.


I should also not fail to mention what a wonderful sport everyone in her team is. A gem.

Here is wishing you a very pleasant week end!

Thursday 13 November 2008

chez tadpole


chez tadpole
Originally uploaded by la petite anglaise
Are you familiar with La Petite Anglaise ? I got the book yesterday. A hardcover. I lover hardcovers. The ceremonial sense of reading.
One more book that began as a blog. But I think this one started it for me.
Picture from her Flickr photostream.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

JKM (Joyful Christmas Matryoshkas)

I absolutely love those Christmas cards from tskts (found via Lulu Carter's blog). Folk/Matryoshka style prints are quite fashionable right now. What I like about these are the clean, no frills lines, yet the details are happy. The dolls' eyes are smiling to me, which is important if I am wishing someone a happiness and merriment. What I also like is the classic color combination, pure and classic, associated to a modern theme. Very well done.

Monday 10 November 2008

Sweet beret Dadaya




What is this? I thought when I saw them first.

Tea cosies?

Toadstools?

Why,they're berets, of course~!



They don't come cheap at $120+ but they have a nice, intricate job and you'll have people wondering, too.


They can be bought from Dadaya at Etsy).



This is the girl herself, San San, unique and stylish. And here is her Flickr page and her blog.
I like Japanese quirkiness. Excellent for putting your best foot forward! Happy New Week!

Saturday 8 November 2008

Enjoy the weekend

Enjoy the weekend! (Picture from one of my favorite fabric makers. I'll tell u more soon!)

Friday 7 November 2008

American photography

I am a big fan of photography. I believe that in our fast paced world it is the most appropriate means of recording our eye view, the way we interpret the world around us, the way it is shaping us, our souls and minds.

I am therefore glad to have stumbled upon Everyone's In Love With You, a place full of what I see as quintessentially Urban American photography. No pinks, no frills. I absolutely love it. Have a taste in the pictures that follow.




On the blog there is coverage of the American election with some atmospheric yet very alive and natural pictures. I thought the following commentary by Tim Geary from Helena Firth-Powell's blog fitted nicely.

"It’s half past one and the streets are crowded with people,three deep on the sidewalk. New Yorkers have climbed on their roofsand on to their fire escapes, there’s dancing on the streets, dancingin front of cars. There’s the ceaseless noise of cheering, even -suddenly - bagpipes playing. Tonight, we even forgive the bagpipes.Every few seconds comes the blare of another car horn and morescreams of Obama, of Yes We Can, more whoops of utter joy.










I’ve been here, on and off, for more than 19 years through two Clinton victories, big wins for the Yankees and Knicks, a dozen ormore New Year’s Eves and nothing has been like this, nothing has comeeven close.

This is the sound of a city set free for the first timesince September 11, 2001. This is us exhaling at last. For eight years, New York has felt like another country. What counted forAmerica has been owned by others and governed for others. Everything the Bush Administration did with its exclusionary policies, itsbigotry and intolerance, its religious fascism, its economicarrogance was done to us, not for us.

Obama can’t solve everythingbut he has already made the greatest city in the nation feel like itbelongs to America again and he has made someone who has only been anAmerican for 5 years feel like he belongs for the first time. Up tonow, my belief in citizenship had been shaken by a question about what kind of country I had joined. By showing us the best of all ourselves, Barack Obama has silenced that doubt not just for me or forus in New York, but for millions of Americans who can have faith in America again".

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