My dear friend Leslie recently sent me some of her latest creations from her studio in Amsterdam- pillow portraits, featuring some of her favourite once-forgotten portraits from her personal collection. They each have a name, and each their own little narrative which is screen printed in unique handwritten fonts on the back of each cushion. Here, I’ve taken some promotional photographs for Leslie to use. Below, meet Rolf…

…and Bridget, who tells us about journeying along a canal and finding the perfect shop …

I adore the anecdotes on the back of the cushions as much as I love the portraits themselves. There are six pillows in the collection thus far, and I secretly hope Leslie designs more. I can imagine collecting each one as they are made…

Leslie is happy to ship these anywhere in the world, so if you are keen to start your own portrait pillow collection, click here to read the details on her blog.

xx

PS I think my favourite is Rolf – he goes on walks and collects leaves and bits of nothing that mean something to him. Man after my own heart.

PPS wow, this time last year.

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My first ever job as a stylist was assisting on a david jones catalogue, some 7 or so years back now. I was nervous, to say the very least. I had no idea about styling, or photo shoots, or anything of the sort. I remember walking into the windowless studio – a concrete room filled with hi-tech camera paraphernalia and trestle tables full of props – daunted by the bright lights and the fact that everyone in the room knew exactly what they were doing. That is when I met Jenni Booth, the stylist I was to be assisting. Jenni took me under her wing from that first moment, teaching me the ropes of styling for the many months that followed. Her generosity and genuineness never faded, and we soon became great friends.  I’ve always said that if it wasn’t for assisting Jenni, I would never have wanted to pursue a career in styling.

playing with props at Jenni’s place

A few years back, during a skype conversation while I was living in Amsterdam, Jenni let me in on an idea that she’d been nurturing for some time. We were rattling on about the frustration of never having enough time in a day as a stylist – so often we are allocated a minimal amount of hours to prep for a shoot, and those precious hours are spent rushing around from store to store, with most of it wasted in travel and trawling the internet for props. Even if we find something on the internet worth pursuing, we still have to get out there and pick the item up. During our conversation, Jenni asked me, “What if you could hire your props online, with clear photos and prices of each item. Would you use that service?” I answered, “absolutely! That would be awesome.” In the months that followed, Jenni got to work on creating just that – an online hiring store that would be super easy to navigate, with loads of great props, clear photos, and next day delivery.

Today, I’m super excited to be the first online to tell you about my dear friend Jenni’s new venture,  Prop Hire Online…

What makes Prop Hire Online truly unique is that it is an ONLINE ONLY store. It has been created to make the life of a stylist, art director, photographer – really anyone in the industry who requires props  - a lot easier and much more productive. It’s open 24hrs a day, so you can hire when it suits you. There are beautiful clear photographs of all items to show you exactly what you are hiring. It works just like an online shopping cart where items for hire can be added and tallied as you browse. Then, the items are delivered the next day to your studio or location and will be collected when the hire period is finished.

all sorts of props – from baskets, books, and backdrops…

Jenni has also included something rather exclusive to the range of items available - stylist supplies and kits. So if you have run out of masking tape or need a whole new kit, she can add this to your order and deliver it too. With this launch there are over 500 items available to hire for every kind of shoot, be it interiors, still life, food or fashion. New products will be added as they are gathered and a regular newsletter will keep you up to date with the latest arrivals.

One of the other things I love about it is that you can type anything you like in the search button – be it, say, the colour ‘red’ – and you get a selection of all the red props…

Isn’t that cool? Since shoots are often theme-based, you can narrow down your search this way. Let’s try, ‘green’…

I love it. There are so many gorgeous items. Looks at some of the crates…

and vintage bottles…

Last year while I was visiting from Amsterdam, Jenni and I were in a fabulous antique store in a little country town, and found this divine vintage French champagne bottle to add to the Prop Hire Online collection…

It’s one of my favourite items in stock, and I can’t wait to hire it for an upcoming shoot.

So if you’re based in Sydney or around, and are a stylist, photographer, art director, or just love photographing beautiful props for your blog, OR if you want a stylist’s kit of your own, then this is the store for you. Congratulations Jenni, after all the hard work and persistence, you’ve done it! And it’s more than fabulous. I am a very proud friend.

xx

-photo credits: first 3 images by me, fab product images by Alan Richardson.
-click here to visit Prop Hire Online.

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Did you know that anthropologie in London (Kings Road)have a beautiful gallery space? And did you know that my friend Leslie – who is responsible for sending me that fabulous bag featured in my last post – has an exhibition of her wares in there right now? It’s times like these that I wish I could wiggle my nose and pop up just in front of that window, spending the afternoon wondering through the gallery, being inspired all the while…

I’ve known about the gallery exhibition for some time now as Leslie has been working on creating pieces for it for the last 6 months. And I’ve also been lucky enough to see all these pieces during the making of, so seeing these photos of the space all set up is super special…

If you are in London, I do hope you can find some time to go and visit the gallery to see all the amazing things made by swarm. The exhibition will be up until May 10th. In the meantime, you can also visit the anthroplogie online gallery which features more individual swarm pieces, with information and images on each creation.

……………………………….

All  photos are courtesy of Anthropologie, London.

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In a gorgeous little back street of Newtown, appropriately named ‘australia street’, sits an incredibly quaint boutique called newspaper taxi. I’d been dying to visit ever since I met owner Stefanie Bassett at my impromptu book signing last year at Berkelouw bookstore in Newtown. Finally last week, I got my chance…

(the always inspiring children’s magazine, papier mache.)

Stef’s store is filled with vintage collectibles, handmade home wares and beautiful publications like you see above, and below…

(ebony’s divine gift wrapping zine. Ebony is also selling her zines online, of which all proceeds from the sales will go directly to Red Cross to help survivors in Japan.)

(above left: beautiful ceramic brooches made by sarah o’sullivan above right: a little in store vignette of vintage goodness.)

Newspaper Taxi is also an exclusive stockist of one of our favourite parisian artisans, Nathalie Lété. At the moment, Stef has some stunning prints by Nathalie. If you’re in newtown, be sure to check out stef’s store.  If you’re nowhere near newtown and don’t think you’ll be there in the near future, you can also view part of stef’s extensive collection of goodies on her online shop here. And! she writes a blog here with updates on her newest finds.

Oh, I can’t wait to visit again and again. It’s good to be back in my ol’ hometown.

xx

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How exquisite is this new range of porcelain and ceramic ware by Michele Micheal?  She incorporates the texture of homespun linen into the clay, and uses a series of painterly techniques like brushing, dripping and pouring for glazing. I adore the deep blue color palette and the organic, raw shapes. Without doubt this range will be used a-plenty in upcoming photo shoots around the world. Congrats Michele!

-All images by elephant ceramics.
-View the whole collection here.

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Jane Schouten, creator and curator for Dutch online (and offline) boutique All The Luck in The World not only makes gorgeous art but restyles vintage and found furniture in the most inspiring of ways. Above is one of my favourite items – the  medicine cabinet – from her latest collection of  treasures, and below is another…

…the happy cabinet. So bright and cheery!

If only this gorgeous boutique was in Amsterdam, I would have included it in my book! But here it is in the (blog)house instead, be sure to check out Jane’s online boutique and also her flickr photos – I particularly love the images of the pretty, tranquil spaces throughout her home. Below is the full collection of  latest treasures…

A couple of years ago I bought a bag (the one in the top of this set of sold goods in fact) from Jane and it remains to be one of my most favoured everyday items. I have no doubt you will find something in her collection that you will fall in love with too.

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comment #74: Terry! Congratulations!

Thank you everyone who participated, you made this giveaway extra fun and special. And a big thank you to Cassandra from haven workroom for giving away such a gorgeous treasure.  Terry if you could please send me an email with your address details so that I can let Cassandra know, and for the rest of us who missed out, Cassandra has offered a 15% discount off everything in her store, click here to read her post with code details. I have my eye on the peacock cushion, and the tropicals, and the stripes and…

Thank you again mes amis. I’ll be back here again in uno momento…

xx

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I’m not the least bit bashful to admit that I’m quite alot in love with haven workroom.  This wonderful atelier based in London is run by New Zealander Cassandra Ellis who creates custom-made contemporary quilts, cushions and lampshades from vintage silks & cottons, as well as restoring and up-cycling vintage furniture. It’s a dreamy space (both online and offline) of inspiration, great ideas and loads of gorgeous fabrics for making all kinds of marvelous…

Cassandra runs quilting workshops at the papered parlour (i’ll write more about this fab place in coming weeks), and has also recently started taking orders for quilts made with your own personal collection of fabrics (read more about it here)…

…a little montage of inspiration I compiled from haven workroom.

A couple of weeks ago while I was in isolation-writing-retreat mode, Cassandra wrote to me with a very special thought: she wanted to offer you guys, my dear readers, one of her beautiful handmade cushions in lieu of my absence. I thought that was the sweetest and most thoughtful idea ever!

So we chatted back and forth (a bit of “no don’t be silly!” from me and a little of “it’s my pleasure, don’t think twice about it!” from her and so on) and I decided that instead of announcing her offer to you then when I was not blogging so much I decided to wait until today, in celebration of me (and hopefully you) being back regularly here in the (blog)house…

Cassandra even let me pick out the cushion to offer you from the haven workroom online boutique and since I know how much we all love shades of aqua, turquoise and ruby red combined, I thought this one would be utterly perfect…

This gorgeous cushion is made from vintage japanese silk backed in hand-loomed cotton and measures a generous 50 x 50cm, for more of a look-see, click here.

Now I must admit, I’m a little envious that you guys get a chance at owning this cushion! But I know you will love it as much as I would and that makes me happy. So what do you have to do to be the lucky recipient? Well I’ve decided that it would be wonderful if you could all visit cassandra’s blog, website, or shop - have a browse, have a wander and then all you have to do is leave a comment below: It’s about sharing the love really.

That’s it!! That’s crazy good.

I will choose and announce a winner randomly via some fancy-random-selector-computer-application-thingo this Friday, May 7th. But you have to make sure you have left a comment on this here post otherwise you will not be in the draw. Cassandra will send the cushion to you the following week.

As you know, giveaways don’t come by here regularly (the last one – and first one - was over a year ago!) so you know then that this is super, super special.

Thank you dear Cassandra! And thank you, my dear readers,  for your company, generosity, enthusiasm and encouragement over the past 2 or so years that I’ve been a blogging lass.

xx

PS tomorrow I will announce the details of the amsterdam: made by hand book launch! Oh, this week in the (blog)house is already so gooooooooooood…

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Once upon a time when I was a retail shop owner, I visited design & gift trade fairs throughout each year in Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong (which I only went to once, that was enough for one lifetime!). Each fair takes days to explore and after my third or fourth visit to a trade fair (i.e. year 2 of my business), I was over it. There was just too much stuff, too many people, the fluorescent lights hurt your eyes after a few hours (so you can imagine how they feel after a few days), and your feet hate you forever. I don’t know why I went in the first place, I suppose because everyone else was and apparently that was the thing to do and lets face it, I was only 21, fresh out of Uni  – I had no idea. I soon realised that I didn’t want what everyone else had in their shops anyway, so I instead searched out local artisans,  craftspeople, and designers + importers who cared about the environment and their artisans.

So today, when someone mentions the phrase ‘design fair’ to me, I shudder. And being here in Holland where design is ‘the thing’, there is a lot of peer pressure to go to the fairs. Well, forget it. I am just not interested. And these days, I am less likely to do what someone expects of me than when I was a 21 year old impressionable entrepreneur.

Having said all of that, I have thoroughly enjoyed perusing the recent blog posts of stylist Imke Klee and  designer Kristina Klarin, who have both managed to capture the best during the recent Milan design fair with little or no explanation, just pictures: perfect! Granted, the stuff that I like looks as though it’s not even in the main fair but instead at spazio rossana orlandi. Which means if I ever want to go back to Milan (I lived in a little village not far from there when I was a teenager), then I will look this special place up and take a wander.

Above are a selection of Imke’s gorgeous images, take a look at her blog for even more beauty. And below are a few of Kristina’s, check out her inspiring blog for more…

It’s Monday! I have some great posts for you this week. Well I may even post all the great ones today, just because I’m feeling in a posty mood. Today is the day to be visiting the (blog)house, come one, come all!

xx

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Last week on my etsy favourites post I mentioned there was something in  sadie olive that I really really wanted. Today reader Judith reminded me in a comment that I had not yet revealed what it was, and that although she wasn’t losing sleep over it still, she was curious. So, Judith, this post is for you! And for anyone else out there who was curious about my ‘must have’ item. It was in fact these sweet little antique s&p shakers – are they not the most darling things you have ever seen?

I just bought them. Because well, I think I will sleep a little better now that I know they will soon be mine.

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