Charley Harper

Whilst on a day out to Chichester with my friend (we were ladies who lunch for the day!) we stumbled across the work of Charley Harper in a bookshop - I bought a beautiful new address book full of his artwork. I realised I had seen his work before - I had torn a page out of Elle Decoration of a house owned by a collector of his work, they had grouped together lots of the bird artworks in frames on a wall - it looked great.

Here are some of my favourites (although there are too many to choose from!) All taken from the Charley Harper art studio website.

Kitchen inspiration

I am in the process of buying a house with my boyfriend and if it all goes according to plan, we are going to put in a new kitchen straight away which is VERY exciting! So I am on the lookout for kitchen inspiration - we have seen the sort of thing we like already which is probably glossy, light cupboards and dark work surface and we'd like curves to be involved, like the curves on these buildings. No fussy detailing, fairly minimal in that respect as I will have stuff to put in the kitchen and that will be the detail... If anyone has suggestions for where I can look for kitchen pics that would be ever so helpful! I do like retro kitchens though, here are a few that caught my eye:

Image from here.

Image from here.

Image from this very nice blog here.

Cornish holiday

I've been on holiday! We had days like these:

and days like these:

and we went to the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden in St Ives which was fab.

(And I saw this cool sign in St Ives too.)

I Heart H Is For Home

There is so much stuff on their website that I wish I had the room for, they have such a great eye for vintage bits and bobs, where do they find it all? I would love to go and visit their space but it's a long way away... one day! Here are some items of loveliness you can buy on their site!

Jessie Tait

My latest 'discovery' is Jessie Tait, a fab ceramics designer who died earlier this year. Read more here. The reason I have looked into her work is because my boyfriend bought me a Jessie Tait Midwinter coffee pot for our 4 year anniversary present :o) - he had a little help from a good friend of mine and fellow ceramics enthusiast :o) It is beautiful, the pattern is like the tureen pictured below (available on Ebay). I think all of her work is beautiful so I shall be keeping my eye out for more on Ebay...

The added bonus is whilst looking for Jessie Tait images I found a new blog to follow!

Here are some more images of her designs, first one courtesy of Dee Beale's blog:

And this one from House Bible:

Saltdean

Saltdean near Brighton has some beautiful buildings, I have been there once as my friend lives there but I really must return and investigate further!

Firstly Saltdean Lido, image from the RIBA architecture.com website:

Then this old hotel, now converted to apartments:

And finally this building that caught my eye when I was there:

I Heart Jonathan Adler

I subscribe to Jonathan Adler emails and they always make me lust after his stuff. Best bit is they come from liberace@jonathanadler.com - Liberace is his dog! This is from the latest one!

See more here.

Donna Wilson

I love Donna Wilson's creatures, they are brilliant. This little fellow is one of my favourites from her website.

I also love her cushions:

and now she has introduced ceramics! And she blogs too, what a gal!

Forever is Today

This is a beautiful blog by Hilda who is Swedish - she takes the best photos. She also has a fab apartment that was featured on Design Sponge because she has made fantastic use of a small space. Hilda certainly inspires me, I can recommend following her blog. A couple of detail photos of her apartment... I find other people's 'stuff' so interesting, especially how they display it.

High and Over

High and Over in Amersham is a beautiful house in my opinion - it is considered to be the first modern style house to be built in this country and it is for sale! It was designed in 1929 and caused more than a few raised eyebrows when it was built. It was divided into 2 properties in the 60s but is now one house again and is on the market.... if only 'sigh'.

If you want to see more, visit The Modern House.

(Images courtesy of The Modern House.)

Hornsea Concept

I have also just purchased a Hornsea Concept sugar bowl with lid which I am very excited about, I can't wait for it to arrive! I found this beautiful photo on Flickr of the bowl with a matching teapot which is beautiful! Very elegant. Ebay has a lot to answer for...

Portmeirion Totem

I have recently 'discovered' Portmeirion Totem, a fab range from the 70s (that era again, what a surprise!) - I have bought an amber colour small jug and a green small storage jar from Ebay, am waiting for them both to arrive, very exciting! I found this from Pips Trip which is lovely!

Yoyo Ceramics

I have long been a fan of Yoyo Ceramics 'plastic containers' but I have only just discovered their homage to Homemaker! It is excellent and I would certainly like a Tea & Toast set to add to my kitchen!

A Homemaker birthday treat

It was my birthday recently and a very good friend of mine gave me a Homemaker trio of trios! I already had 2 bowls in this beautiful 1950s pattern and I received 3 teacups, 3 saucers and 3 cake plates. Now I am on a hunt to find one more bowl so I have a quartet of trios! Ridgway Potteries produced this range in this mid 1950s and it was sold through Woolworths. Read more on the excellent retroselect.com here.

Happy Easter

From Not On The High Street  aaaahhh they are so cute!

Sunny outlook

When I have more wall space, which will hopefully be sometime this summer if I'm lucky (I hope I'm lucky!!) I long to fill a bit of it with a sunburst clock. Here are a couple from Ebay, I love them. Any tips on where to find a good one much appreciated, I want a second hand one so I can wonder about where it has lived before...

Alexander Girard and House Industries

I love Alexander Girard's work and now House Industries have this site, ahh it's lovely, such beautiful colours and nice things to look at!

Best. Picture. Ever.3.

I LOVE Elvis. This photo is brilliant.
Image courtesy of Dr Macro.

Dandelions for spring

I am copying print & pattern by blogging about this beautiful range available from Illustrated Living, it's gorgeous! Really reminds me of Lucienne Day's work, read about her here.  Her Calyx print is shown below.