Karen Barbe

Hello ma'friend, have we ever shared Karen Barbe's work before? Beautiful. I especially love her cushions and scarves.

Love and Kisses

I was searching through a stack of vintage label inspiration at work and came across this little beauty. I thought it was extra special because it had our initials on it - I wonder what kind of garment it was stitched inside? Maybe a nice cardigan, I think I would like it x x x

Cup Cakes

Can you see this clearly enough? It is a set of cup cakes made by a lady called Zalita, it's called the Mad Hatters Tea Party and it reminds me of your Kiki and Koko picnic cake... but rather more dainty! It gives me an idea for the next round of crazy cakes if ever we are in the same country for a birthday again... Decorated cup cakes here we come...!

She also made this which is so, so, so pretty. If Andy and Niki could do something this exquisite, they'd be onto a bomb. Do you want one?

Chocolate Buttons

Banners sent me the best chocolate buttons ever for my birthday. They are REAL buttons! So, so pretty and delicious too, every single one was a different design - I had to ration them. I thought that you would like them a lot.
Here is a close up so you can see the sweet details. ('Sweet'. Geddit?) (Sorry).

Puppy Love

While we are on the subject of cute puppies I thought you might quite like this little chap. He is definitely worthy of a feature in Metro.

A Chihuahua puppy born in Japan with a natural heart shaped pattern on his coat has captured the hearts of animal lovers around the world. His natural heart-shaped markings on his fur have made him an instant star in Japan. And it was a case of puppy love across the world as the tiny dog made television appearances worldwide.

Shop owner Ms Sakurada got the surprise of her life when she saw the birthmark heart markings in the fur of her tiny pooch. She said it was the first time a puppy with these marks had been born out of the 1,000 animals that she has bred.

Since Heart-kun was born, he has brought a lot of luck, according to Ms Sakurada. He sister got lucky on the lottery and won a concert ticket.
Heart-kun's owner has been inundated with requests from people wanting to purchase the unique puppy. But they can keep their paws off him, she says, for her little four-legged friend ain't going nowhere!

Tiny things

Theres not much better than small things is there? These people make lots of REALLY small things, they are called re-ment. Oh, I really like them.

Pretty craft sewing book from the olden days

I thought that you would like the contents of the top right hand page for your sewing box. I took these pictures years ago (4th year of college in the Constance Howard resource - did you come too?) and just found them again, they make me want to do some sewing!

Paper Cuts

Thank you very much for the lovely book - now this is to remind you to get yourself a copy of it too. You can see gazzillions of Rob Ryans paper cuts on his website. He is selling nice things (including, yes, some tiles) on Etsy.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Well, if these aren't verging on perfect then I don't know what is. Its made by some people called Keep Calm! Can we both have one of each please, and one of each for the teashop too? PS: The Flying Duck is closing down and everything is reduced, they have some good tea cosies!

Pretty Prints

I've been looking around for a nice bit of fabric to hang at our front door and I recently spotted these beauties at Urban Outfitters. The Neighborhood bedspread reminded me of the way that you make things look pretty.

Lovely Wallpaper

Here is the lovely wallpaper, oooh it is so nice and it comes in other good colours. It is from Cole and Son, good UK manufacturing! I used an entire roll for my show and I don't have any left.... If I had some walls to paper I would use this wallpaper. Yes. And I would stick some birds onto it, just a few of them.

Gingerbread Baby

This is just about the cutest gingerbread baby I've ever seen! Don't you just want to gobble it up - errr..... I mean... squeeze it really hard?! It's made by cupcakes for Clara and she has a blog and you might like the cute characters, I think that they look like the sort of fellows that you would draw. I mostly very much like this gingerbread baby.

Christmas Birdies

Ok, so you won't be that interested in these little beauties (more flippin' birds), but I think that are lovely and I would almost certainly have made you look at them if you were here. "Hello my little friends". They are from 'Not on the High Street'. Cheep, Cheep, Cheep. It's got me really excited about Christmas decorating, but as our tree usually goes up on Christmas Eve and we are leaving for our hols on the 20th, I'm not sure that we'll get many decorations up. Good job I did a bit of decorating at the Open Studios. Ha helped me and stuck some eyes onto your furry snowball lights.

Pie Crust Labelling

Oooh look at this beautiful thing. Wouldn't you like a pie with the top rolled with this? (Well except you would have to have one that said 'Made in the USA'). It is made by a lady called Kathleen Hills, nice innit.

My new Moomins mug

This is the one that I wanted to get for Arran but they didn't have it at the show.This is the one I have got for myself - £13.50 - for a mug! But I have wanted it every year that we have visited the Finish Christmas Fair, so this year I got it and last night I had hot chocolate in it at the studio. YUM.I think this one is rather sweet too, but as I don't know the Moomin stories or characters, I have no idea if he is a nice kangaroo or a naughty kangaroo.

Pretty things from Shelf

Now... if you were here we would go for a visit to Shelf to get a few Christmas presents, so as you are not, then here are some cuter than cute things for you see that they have in this year from a Japanese designer called Shinzi Katoh. I most especially like the mug, and now that I have a Moonins mug, perhaps I can have this one too and a nice tray to put them on? Maybe you would like the tray too?

Tea Shop, tea cosies and a bambi.

Oh yes, you must have a row of teapots like these beauties. Imagine how good the tea shop could be! This is a selection of goodies from Couverture. So pretty.