a slow day

Hi my name's Emma. I've been clubpub-ed. Went out last night to the last ever clubpub... boy have I suffered for it today.

Crafting 365 is obviously going splendidly, as today was my day 3, I think a week after I took the pledge. My year of craft might be a long one!

my ideal dress

I really love this dress, it's pretty nigh on perfect as far as I'm concerned, but there's a little problem:

a) it's $282 (that's £141 to you and me)
and
b) they only have it in stock in small - hmph!

anyone out there who knows how to sew - how achievable is this? I have a sewing machine which I plan to make use of this summer, but am I being overly ambitious here. C'mon, be honest ;)

Coming soon... Ryantown!

How exciting is this? The marvelous Rob Ryan is opening up his very own shop, Ryantown, on Columbia Road of all places.

Wikstenmade

Seems a lot of people are quite excited about Jenny Gordy's new collection, due to go on sale on 31st May - and rightly so, it's cute as! I've got my eye on this top.

enjoy the simple things in life

I've been really appreciating the work of Natascha Rosenberg lately (an illustrator based in Madrid) but today's post really struck a chord with me! Her style is so lovely and whimsical.

crafting 365

Call me ambitious, but I've decided to take up the Crafting 365 challenge over on flickr. I spent a good couple of hours crocheting granny squares for a blanket started last summer... "why not?" I thought.

Of course, I also start my final teaching practice tomorrow. Wish me luck!

In my mind I'm clapping

I've just come across the work of Chrissie Abbott, some really lush illustration and better still, is currently featuring in an exhibition just down the road at The Old Shoreditch Station.

Particularly nice are these totes, which would surely bring a smile to even the hardiest of faces. Available to purchase for 12 smackaroonies by emailing her: hello@chrissieabbott.co.uk

Advice to sink in slowly

"Take time" by Temujin Doran

"Look after your lunch" by Rebecca Cobb

I really like this - Advice to sink in slowly is a project from University College Falmouth (or Falmouth College of Arts when I was there) offering a series of posters designed by recent and established graduates of the college, offering advice for it's future students.

The top poster is really beautiful, and I think there can't really be a person in Falmouth that doesn't appreciate how the pace of life seems to slow down there... it's something I've really missed since moving back to London. But the second one I can especially relate to, having just talked about the ferocity of Cornish seagulls with my family last week. To lose an entire pasty is an embarrassing thing!

Birthday goodness

These shoes, which I actually purchased myself, but wasn't allowed until my Birthday (ahem - today cough cough). I was alerted to these via Ringo, have a banana, which I have to say is just the most genius name for a blog (and I'm rather liking the blog itself a lot too.)

And how good is this? My mother managed to purchase something from Third Drawer Down without any prompt! I know... who'd a thought? Anyway, she picked out a set of hand silk-screened pillow cases 'All You Need in Life' by Lilli Hartmann.

According to Lilli all you need in life is:

a roof over your head
an apple tree in each direction of the sky
a sheep to make you warm
a chicken for the eggs, obviously
a monkey to make you laugh
a ghost to make you cry
and finally
two horny bears

Birthdays rule x

a nice cuppa

These are really lovely - so simple, but very elegant in a kind of scruffy way - I like that. By Agneta Livijn from Sweden (of course)

(tip off courtesy of Poppytalk)

Quilt

For a recent college assignment I had to review the Imperial War Museum in relation to suitability for school visits. I hadn't been there since I was in primary school, and whilst I consider myself to be a pacifist (despite drunken play-fight tendencies) I loved it so much I made my Mother take me back there in the holidays.

Whilst walking around their 'Children's War' exhibit I came across this quilt, which was made by a family member to celebrate the birth of the child. After starting the quilt WW2 started, and so as it was worked on more and more things were embroidered on it relating to that. Whatever the subject though, it's an amazing thing to look at, and gives you a real sense of what the family was going through. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Apologies for crap pic by the way - the lighting was very subdued.

holga love

Took my Holga on holiday, decided to have a go a cross-processing, and got the most nuts results!