Random Objects

Happy Monday everyone - we are all about patterns and packaging this morning. Check out these cool skins from Urban Outfitters for your iPhone - very cool. Hey, I'd like to design one of these  - so if anyone's listening from UO give me a call, I've got lots of pretty pictures  ;-)

Design

More wonderful packaging this time from Tokyo Milk - via my Country Living magazine!

Design

Very pretty packaging from Lollia - what a dream job this would be for any graphic designer to design fabulous packaging like this. 

Inspiration

If you'd asked me 5 years ago what I thought of plastic jewelry you would have got a different answer than today. I think these are wild. Above all I think they are strangely inspiring and, as I am in the throngs of a design session at the moment, and hungry for inspiration, I gobbled them up as soon as I saw them - yum!

From Out of the Blue, 

Have a wonderful weekend - enjoy the all the weekend festivities(and if you're on the east coast I'll cross my fingers for sun!) See you all next week - ciao!

Image from Grey Likes Weddings

Trinkets

Why am I so drawn to these to these charms? I think it's because they remind me of all the tiny things you hope you will find in the bottom of boxes at the flea market and the antique stores. I'm always the one down on my hands and knees raking through boxes of old ephemera and when I get to the bottom of the box, or the back of the drawer, I always wish I'd find some forgotten trinket . . . just like these  . . .

Random Objects

Looking for a fun way to personalize your art, a little bit of DYI or just a curiosity to sit on your mantelpiece? This gal has a whole bunch of these cool wooden letterpress letters. They are only $5.50 each and you'd better hurry before they are all gone.

Art

I feel like I am seeing way too many Keep Calm posters these days. How about some new art for your walls? I love framed posters and there are some great ones available at Poster Cabaret. take a look at their collection I'm sure you'll see something that you like in the way of contemporary art.

Inspiration

Need some end of the week inspiration? Here are 3 images that catch my eye every time I see them in my little stash of eye candy that I keep close at hand. First image is from Purl Bee. Second is from a birdy project and third is a lovely shot of Maryams stenciled floors. 

Playing hooky!

So it's a rather short post today. Here's what happened - it was a big holiday here yesterday - Canada Day - first official day of summer holidays! I was going to work all day but, contrary to my workaholic nature, I quit at lunch time and went to the beach. It was such a beautiful day! We got home late and there just wasn't time for my usual evening flurry of blogging activity - woops! {don't worry I'll make up for it tomorrow!}

Eye Candy

A beautiful interior photographed by the brilliant Alexander Van Berge. This is the Dutch home of Maria de Haan who obviously loves to collect all the wonderful curiosities that we love here at Cafe Cartolina. You have to look very closely at all the pictures to recognize all the cool details.  Enjoy!

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

It's a holiday up here today. So, wherever you are, take the day off, head to the beach and enjoy yourself!

Fixer upper anyone?

I think you enjoyed yesterday's photographs of old books so today I have a Flickr set called Forgotten Places from Sam. Some good old grunge! Don't know about you but I find it fascinating!

Curiosities

Now let it be known that I don't normally feature other card designers on Cafe Cartolina - for obvious reasons  :-)  But these are quite special. These are handmade pop-up cards from Crank Bunny and I think they are beautiful. Yes I do.

Inspiration

Check out all these gorgeous craft supplies you can buy these days. Makes me want to start a whole new craft business . I seriously have to restrain myself from jumping on every crafty bandwagon that rolls past - do you have that problem? - I have every tool and every craft supply available. Seriously though I love all the pretty curlycews and vintage looking findings  available these days.

Random Objects

Very cute screen printed felt from Lucie Summers via Poppytalk yesterday. How sweet are these - love the random, hand drawn pattern.

Curiosities

When you have a moment check out Jelen's Flickr set, diary of the book-lover. She has photographed hundreds of piles of old books and it is a joy to browse through them. This is such a great idea for a Flickr set - wish I had thought of that!

Random Objects

I have a few vintage tins that I collected about 10 years ago. I don't collect them anymore(a bit too shabby chic now) but I still love to see originals - and I still have a few nice ones in the cupboard with a variety of tiny treasures in them. They are hard to resist aren't they? These ones from this Ebay seller via Brocante Home.

Random Objects

Pretty little purses from Mingus

Good morning - hope you all had a great weekend - we spent most of it painting and renovating so we were very busy. I don't usually post at this time of the day - and I don't usually post images of animals but I thought you might get a chuckle from these pictures I took of Mimi, the studio cat, who considers the broom to be a spa treatment - oh Mimi, if only it was that simple!

It's all in the details

If you know me at all, you will know, by now, that I am all about the details(and that may explain why I don't feature a whole lot of modern design here - because there's a lack of detail in a lot of truly modern design these days) So I was delighted to see these beautiful images from Morten Holtum via the wonderful blog Manderine d'Italie.

Random objects

Pretty pretty pretty imagery on these tiny little tie tacks from the Tie Tac Shop on Etsy

Random Objects

Foo Dogs remind me of when I was a kid - we had a few of these at our house(that my grandpa had collected on his travels in Asia.) I love this green one that I spotted on Studio G blog available at Sprout Home.

Random Objects

I know that typewriters have nothing in common with Foo Dogs(and I always try to keep my posts somewhat consistent) But this green typewriter is, well, green - like the Foo Dog!  I can't get enough of these vintage typewriters from Poetic Home it's such a shame that they are so obsolete - they make great conversation pieces. Do you have an old typewriter that you use as a decorative accessory?

Handmade Lovelies

Beautiful handmade lovelies from artist Janine Golbert - aren't these fabulous - so simple and unique. Really great.

Another wonderful French blog

I found another French blog this week with great brocante style. The imagery is lovely and you might want to add it to your list of daily reads. The blog is called Bord de Scene and I think they have a store of the same name. Enjoy!

Pamela Angus

Look at these gorgeous creations  - stained glass garlands or buntings - from Pamela Angus. This lucky artist lives near Allevard in France and there is definitely a french feel to all she does.

Here are some great ways to bring some green into your home. I love the first image - the pale blue sky - make that ceiling - is superb and the green front door is fabulous too. All images from Canadian House and Home.

Check out the ceiling of the this kitchen(above) fantastic green patterned wallpaper(?) What a great idea. Our studio ceiling is outrageously high - I think we should paint it a crazy colour - I wonder if we have a ladder that's long enough to get up there?

Here's something you don't know about me - I am, and will always be, a huge Michael Jackson fan and I am very sad today. I will play this album all weekend and sing loudly. RIP MJ.

If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change. 

~Man In The Mirror. 

Random Objects

A couple of lovely vintage mirrors also available at Five From The Ground - once again lovely pictures