Guest Post: Country Mice In The Big Smoke!

Good morning! Today's post is a guest post, giving Rosie a well-earned day off and me a chance to sat hello! My name's Amy and Rosie is one of my oldest friends. I blog at Hey, Nice Cardigan... (I dedicated a post to my lovely friend here the other week) and help Rosie out a bit with the busy business of running her business (too many 'businesses' is there? Nah!).

Since we are both currently stay-at-home mums (my first boy was born a week before her second last year) we hang out with our babies a lot these days . While we see each other pretty regularly, it is very unusual for us to do anything without our little boys in tow, so our recent inspiration gathering trip to London was the biggest treat! 

 We both live in Bedfordshire these days, and love our small towns and relatively quiet countryside location. However, in our past lives (read: before children!) we both used to spend quite a lot of time in London, for work and for fun, so we were shocked at how much we felt like a pair of country mice in the big city when we stepped off the train!

London is such an incredible city and there is so much inspiration just waiting in every shop window, museum and street scene. We were officially going to see the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy (now closed), but we found design inspiration everywhere we went. I was designated official photographer since I am a tragic iPhone photography addict! Rosie and I thought you might like to share some of the lovely things we saw on our travels.

The photo above is from the exhibition, a little sneaky since I'm not sure whether they allowed photography in the gallery... These images were all created by Hockney on an iPad. I was really inspired by the way that he has embraced this new technology so readily, while many artists might dismiss it as not being a valid artistic medium. The paintings and photo montages were so beautiful, I absolutely love his use of colour and it was a rare treat to be able to see Hockney's iconic Californian paintings along with his recent works inspired by his Yorkshire home.

These pictures show a rather less highbrow side to our trip, the shops! The shop displays in central London are like miniature works of art in themselves, and so inspiring. This spring's pretty pastel trend really can be seen everywhere you look at the moment, and I love these fresh feminine shades, they feel so fresh and springy.

We both had a TINY splurge in Anthropologie, which is really one of the loveliest shops there is ad has only come over to the UK from the USA a couple of years ago. Helpfully - or expensively! - it is a one stop shop for everything you would ever need to live the Anthro lifestyle, from clothing to homewares. We both bought some pretty door handles in the sale as a small gesture towards this in our own homes! It is really worth a visit just to look at the beautiful shop.

 We had always planned to go to Liberty as part of our trip, so that Rosie could do a bit of research in their stationery department. If you have never been, Liberty is the most amazing shop, not only because it sells beautiful fabric, fashion, home wares and all sorts of pretty things, but for the building itself. From their website: "Liberty is one of the last great emporiums for innovative and eclectic design. Situated in the heart of London since 1875, it remains to this day the destination of choice for the savvy and sophisticated shopper."

It is such an iconic London shop, and a little like visiting a beautiful National Trust house that also happens to sell amazing design. My Mum, who has taught textiles and art and design for most of her life, has always loved Liberty, and taken us since my sisters and I were little girls so it is always a special place to go for me.

The queues for the Hockney exhibition were pretty ridiculous, but luckily we had advance tickets so we got to bypass the long wait and go straight in. Before I had my baby I worked in museums and went to lots of exhibitions but it had been a long time since I last went to a big show like this in London. The museums and galleries are so fantastic, I can never believe that you can just get on a train and go and see these incredible works of art and historic artefacts, many of them for free. Although it seems distant sometimes, in fact we only live an hour's train ride out of London, and we are so lucky to have this vibrant, beautiful city practically on our doorstep.

Having children is wonderful, but it takes over your life and changes it forever, and it can seem incredible the freedom that you took for granted before they came along. It was so good for us two mummies to have a day to remember those old days and have a bit of "me time" to catch up properly and get inspired.

Its been great to meet you and share our trip, I'm hoping Rosie will have me back some time! I also have a not-so-secret secret plan to convince her to collaborate on a tutorial or two to share some of her amazing floristry skills - blogging buddies are the best!

Have a great Sunday,

Amy Xxx

Let's be friends! You can follow me and my blog (Hey, Nice Cardigan...) on Twitter, Facebook, Bloglovin', Instagram and Pinterest

Fuelled by Tea

I spent most of yesterday cutting straight lines, very, very slowly to try and make sure that the template design for a commissioned series of cards is as perfect as possible. Work like this requires a lot of concentration and it is both mentally and physically tiring (not that I am complaining!). In such circumstances I resort to good old fashioned British tea breaks to keep me focused. I find that stopping fairly regularly helps prevent me from losing focus and making a mistake or suffering from cramp in my hands.

So in honour of tea (aka British rocket fuel!) I thought it would be nice to feature some of the various paraphernalia that goes along with a cuppa.

1: This upcycled tea pot from Esther Coombs on Etsy caught my eye. I really like that she has made a very uninspiring and outdated floral teapot and brought bang up to the minute with a hand drawn tower block design.

2. These stunning hand thrown porcelain mugs are made by Dave Green Ceramics (found on Folksy). They actually leave me lost for words I think they are so beautiful.

3. This mug from Caractacus Pots (found on Folksy) is impressed with the pattern of cable arran knitting. White on white and textured ceramics are key trends this year - so this mug is very appropriate. I really like functional art and I definitely think this mug fits into that category. I'm sure it would feel lovely to hold as well.

4.Sometimes you need things that make you feel special. Drinking tea from this beautifully decorated tea cup and saucer would certainly do that. Yvonne Ellen has a fabulous Folksy shop featuring a number of beautiful and unique hand decorated vintage cups and saucers. I struggled to limit myself to just one.

5. I'm sure we had a very similar spoon to this at my parents house which was used to scoop leaf tea into the teapot. (Leaf tea is the norm for my parents and a much enjoyed luxury for me when I visit!) This lovely spoon is from fannyandlil on Etsy

6. I have a weakness for tea caddies (not a sentence you often read, but true all the same!). Being the Diamond Jubilee year this lovely caddy from emmalovesxxx on Etsy seemed very topical. I love the colours.

7. Simple, beautiful. This dish is one of a number made by Little Bobbins on Etsy.

Frame it!

One of the joys and challenges of working with paper cuts is that you have to create a design that links together. This means that you need to use your imagination to link aspects of the design without it looking forced or odd. A really good method is to use a decorative border. I cannot get frames and borders out of my head at the minute - I think because they will probably be integral to my animal fair cut.

So today I thought I would show some examples of paper cutting artists' work who use frames really well.

Image - Made by Julene

Julene Harrison is seriously talented. I heartily recommend taking a look at her site if you would like to spend an hour or so drooling at her beautiful work. One of the things I most admire about her typography work is the clever way she links things together and encloses the design in a gorgeous border. It doesn't look forced, it is an integral part of the design and adds to the image.

Image - Rob Ryan

Rob Ryan is perhaps one of the most well known paper cutting artists. I thought this piece was a really good example of how a frame doesn't have to seem like a frame. In this piece the heart blossoms organically into the birds and branches border. It doesn't look like a border and yet it is serving that function - the heart couldn't be in the picture without it. Genius. Again if you want to spend hours drooling here's the link

Image - Suzy Taylor

This is a recent commission done by Suzy Taylor. Here the tree and grass bank merge with the border. Its seamless but vital. Check out Suzy's blog for more paper cutting loveliness and great explanations of little devices she uses to keep a piece as one. (Look at the stars in the river)

All three of these artists are hugely inspirational for me. I love that all 3 are UK artists who have gone out there and shown how fantastic paper cuts can be. Who inspires you?

Start as you mean to go on!

One of my New Year's resolutions is to promote the amazing number of people in the UK creating beautiful things. So may I introduce you to Three Bears Prints. I stumbled across Marliese's work on one of my many wanderings around Etsy and fell in love immediately. The natural environment is a source of inspiration to both of us and I think her linocuts are just stunning. I hope you agree.