Antipodium at Goodhood

via Clever Nettle, checkout Goodhood as well.

Cheer up love (don't you hate it when people say that to you?)

I am going dotty tonight

Keep up to date with my patterns here

Minimarket flower print

Love this print from Swedish label Minimarket.

image from Purple Pink

Romance Was Born

Fun Australian fashion label Romance Was Born, find here on their slightly annoying website. I particularly like their printed dresses with the bright tights.

Jaguar Shoes, Phillip Smileys Hive

We popped in to Jaguar Shoes a few weeks ago on a random Shoreditch crawl (don't rule Shoreditch out just yet, there are a few little gems) Jaguar shoes never fails with it's interior decor or rather exhibition space. This time stunning illustrations cover the wall of bees and nymph type creatures gobbling up honey. There is also a film installation and the most incredible bumble bee disco ball.

These images from Dazed Digital.

A little fact for you, Philip Smiley is actually the guy on the front of the hugely successful 'The Selby'
book. Go check out his house here.

random image from google image via Corks and Caftans

Nicola Rowlands Designs

I love these cards! more here.

Free People in the UK!

The last of the Urban Outfitters owned companies are according to The Stylist, heading to the UK in time to launch their AW12 Collection. It's priced similar to their sister shop Anthropologie, but attacts a younger more Urban Outfitters customer, the ones with more ££.

I wonder how it will fair up in the UK, a lot of the products look like they are better suited to Californian beaches than trudging around London streets. I notice that the website imagery has changed slightly and looks a bit less bohemian and a bit darker - perhaps this is part of the reason.

Still there are a few bits that I could happily incorporate into my wardrobe should I not be skint.

Lillies Gif

In your face!

Kettle love

I love this kettle. We don't have a kettle in our house, due to the fact our kitchen is the size of a matchbox. This one wouldn't take up any space though as it could sit on the hob where the (tea making) sauce pan currently sits.

I am showing my age, I would not have raved about a kettle a few years back.

Buy here for £125.

It's not just a kettle, its an investment. Ha.

Dolce & Gabbana ads

Love the new Dolce & Gabbana ad campaign, see the rest on The Terrier and the Lobster blog.

EYE

Promoting myself!

I am, as you probably know, a graphic/digital designer, and although I can turn my hand to pretty much any project, my main focus over the last however many years has been fashion retail. I have created this to use as promotion and will make various others depending on what company it's sent to and the season.

If you know anyone in the industry, please forward my details!

Thanks! Grace x

Smelly old books

I love the smell of old books, new books, magazines etc etc. But would I want to smell like one?
Paper Passion is a fragrance by a collaboration of people: Geza Schoen, Gerhard Steidl, and Wallpaper magazine, with packaging by Karl Lagerfeld and Steidl. Read more about it here.

Apparently, they managed to create the perfume with just four or five ingredients, where most perfumes contain between 20 and 100 ingredients.

I would like to give it a wiff!

What a face!

This is the face of Mexican actress Delores Del Rio (1925–1978) whom I discovered on one of my favourite sites; Retro Vintage Photography. She was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of her time and was the first Latin American movie star to have international success. She started off in silent films and went on to the 'talkies' in the 30's. Yes that is what the first sound films were know as.

Loud Bombers

I have a thing for these jackets at the moment. I am still loving my River Island one. Not sure who this is by but I love the print. I'm sure I've seen it in a magazine or something...

Image from street style blog 'stitches fabric and soul'

I have gone flower mad

Giffy giffy gif gif. Although I think the pattern in the post below looks a bit banana-y?

Oliver Pauk - Heat Recovery

Oliver created these photographs in order to help promote waste heat recovery, which is the process of harnessing thermal energy and re-using it. He photographed areas of Toronto, and altered them in order to high light the vast abundance of these systems, where the leaking energy could be used (read more here.)

Not only that but it makes for some pretty cool pictures.

Housing estates, old and older

Has anyone been watching the BBC program "The Secret History of our Streets?" Last night was about Arnold Circus in Shoreditch, somewhere I have always found fascinating to walk around. The program informed us that Arnold Circus (now grade II listed) was The first housing estate in the UK, although failed in that it couldn't afford to house the areas poorest of poor.

There still seems to be quite a community feel in Arnold circus though, despite the obvious changes in the area. I have yet to catch a band at the band stand in the summer, which looks great. 

Arnold Circus 1901 more fascinating pictures here.

On a slightly different note, I love a bit of 60's architecture and the fact it causes so much debate.
My sister, Alice told me about the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate she lives near, and I was intrigued. I now walk past the estate every day on my way to work so have done a bit of research. See their community website for more information.

images from Open Buildings

They have a great website with a brilliant film made by the residents. "it's great, apart from the dog shit' is all one resident had to say. As with most of the housing architecture of the time, it was a bit of a social experiment, so there are some elements that fail and some that don't.

UK Festival Tips

I.e. how not to look like a knob.

So all the magazines these days tell you what to wear to festivals, along with how to shift 2 stone in two weeks, the correct way to fake tan, how to stop cellulite etc but I bet half the people who write that stuff have only ever been to V festival on a day trip or VIP Glasto and stayed in the bar.

(This article was pretty good though in the Stylist. Which one are you?)

As a regular festival go-er this is my list of stuff you should actually take:

If you are going to a festival in the UK this summer, then lets be honest the only footwear you are going to need is a pair of wellies. You don't need Hunters, despite what the mags tell you, just make sure they are comfortable and not to hard to take off (imagine half a field of mud around them and only your other foot to remove them) Also take a fold away waterproof and/ or and fold up umbrella.

Take an across body bag (boob separator!) that is big enough to fit the above in, but not the kitchen sink. Make sure it does up well also, that way you can forget about it.

Take a nice dress, one that has plenty of movement so that you can swish it around when dancing (pockets is an extra bonus) Don't wear a maxi skirt (will get caked in mud/ something else to trip over) or a playsuit (too much hassle in the loos) wear a skirt however, that is long enough to hide a paper cup (to pee in whilst standing - so useful)

Don't take so much stuff that you spend all day moving things around in your tent trying to find stuff.

Take something you wouldn't normally wear, but perhaps always wanted to.

Take something to put in your hair i.e. loads of kirby grips, scarf, hat, etc. Sunglasses (prob not needed for the sun) but make you look a lot better on day 4. A million pairs of thick black tights, thick socks)

Some warm layers, suncream (well you never know) bin bags, loo roll, baby wipes.

Leather Jacket: Topshop £165
Ring: Miss Selfridge £6.50
Cross Body bag: Etsy $35
Lipstick: Mac £16.50
Earrings: ASOS £6.00
Cardigan: ROMWE £83.92 (20% with first order - free postage)
Shorts: ROMWE £19.33 (20% with first order - free postage)
Tiger top: River Island £25
Kirby grips: most chemists/ pound shops
Dress: Rare London £60
Ring: ASOS £15
Artificial flowers to turn into headbands: Withycombe Fair Various prices
Sunglasses: Nasty Gal $40
Essie Nail Varnish £8.45 from NailVarnish Direct
Wellies: Tayberry £25
Scarf for hair: Ebay £3.50

Victorian Boots

Not really the right time of year to mention boots, although yeah with weather like this in the UK maybe not so peculiar. Anyhow these just popped up on Etsy whilst I was searching for something else.

I always wanted a Victorian style pair and these ones are perfect. Apart from the price ($365) Someone needs to remake these, that way you wouldn't be scared to wear them. If boots have lasted since the Victorian times, you wouldn't want to be the one responsible for effing them up now would you?

Instagram - Ibiza

So I made it back from another Hen do in one piece.

I really liked Ibiza, it seemed like there was something for everyone and that you could ignore the party side of it really easily (if you wanted to) Club wise, we went to Space and Pacha. Pacha I wouldn't recommend unless you are around 10 years younger than me. Although having dry ice sprayed at you at 100 miles an hour is quite an experience. It causes Maggie Thatcher style hair dos, false eye lashes to fly off, and no doubt a lot of unwanted groping!

Urge to paint shoes

Discovered these kitschy shoes on Nubbytwiglet (what a name) and now I wanna go, or rather add it to my long list of stuff to try and probably fail at...

Maison Martin Margiela Haute Couture AW12

Something for those bad skin days perhaps? Although I imagine it's cheaper to get botox or even a face lift! From another magazines website.

T-shirt designs

I have recently made an album on Behance with some T-shirt designs I did for a company last year. They were designed for SS11 (ie now) and the theme was mainly tropical and bright, as you may have noticed, both are big trends this summer. Go see more of my designs here.

Di$count

If I was younger and cooler and/or actually had more than two pennies to rub together, I would be all over this Australian label Di$count!!! Checkout their kitsch and sparkly website!

Pretty windows

Shop windows of Myth and Symbol in Houston, stocks a jewellery favourite of mine Odette, who I have mentioned before on here. Makes me want to scribble all over the windows now.... Steve?

The Kindness - House

I have almost played this too much, but not quite yet. It's a great one for the end of a night!

Dreamy photography

by 15 year old (!) Amber Ortolano, more on her site.