So where was I… oh yes, my obsession with the work of weavers! Another weaving studio which I am smitten with is that of Kelly Stewart and Kenny Nix – the lovely couple who have created the Gene Straus Design Weaving Studio. They have an extensive online gallery and I have been perusing it over the past few weeks, imagining them looming away, coming up with new ideas and fashioning loose threads into woven treasures. There is such a personal touch to their website – writing about how each piece was formed and what it was formed from – you see, Kelly and Kenny create rugs from tossed away clothing and scrap wool selvages. There is so much work to strip the fabrics into usable threads, let alone the amount of time and energy into creating the designs and starting the production, making each of their handwoven rugs unique yet so affordable.

What you see above has been made from old denim jeans which I think is just amazing. I imagine this rug on white wooden floorboards at an entrance way. In fact, I imagine alot of their designs in white spaces, creating warmth, depth and texture. Weaving old into new – I love it.

Click here to peruse their collection.

seems i’ve got a thing for teals and acqua’s today, and puffy clouds and birds. Perhaps this combo is all very soothing, and dreamy, just what i need to start the week! I love this photograph from Montreal photographer irene suchocki. She describes her works as creating ‘little poems for the eyes’, and i think she does this perfectly…

This Bird Has Flown by irene suchocki.

and you know I have a thing for the etsy boutique of Foundling. And I definitely have a thing for her phoenix necklace, crafted from a little vintage Cracker Jack prize from the 1930s or 1940s, dangling from a natural brass chain with a mix of stones and vintage glass, vintage lucite and semi-precious stone beads. wow. I love the way Foundling photographs her creations too – really thoughtful and very inspiring.

I have fallen in love with Ball and Chain’s quirky designs, and especially with this one: the cloud silver silhouette necklace.

I like to keep a selection of flower pins by the front door to add one to my bag, or jacket or hair before I head out the door. This one would be perfect for my collection: Teal Carnation Flower Pin made from a recycled t-shirt. It’s the handiwork of etsy favourite marang 97.

Hope you enjoyed this installment of…

Do you remember when I wrote about my little front door wreath? I made it for Christmas with fairy lights and all, and then I loved it so much that I wanted to keep it displayed all through the year. So I decided to make it an evolving floral sculpture for the front door (certainly inspired by my love of Tracey Deep’s work) – I let the flowers and foliage die and just add to it over the months and seasons to see how it evolves. I call it my ever-evolving wreath. Back in January I evolved it to this. Meantime the buds have long-died and cobwebs were starting to grow through it all. So I cleaned it up yesterday while I was doing the gardening and I added the dying peonies and astilbes, here it is…

What do you think? I quite like it. The colours are so muted but the different textures are so strong. And the most beautiful part of this piece is that when I open the door a few petals fall, leaving a little path of petals on the bridge for me to walk over, while some of them fall into the canal and float away…

I think I’m still very structured with the wreath though – I’d like to be much looser with it, make it into a crazy beautiful artwork. When we have our summer boat party I will add fresh foliage and blossoms to it, make it colourful and lively.

On a side note, while I was out and about yesterday I passed an interior decorating studio that was selling fabric off-cuts for next to nothing, so I bought all of these…

I couldn’t help myself. I blame ms. hyena in petticoats – she posted that she was about to start selling her incredible fabric collection online, i got so excited about it, and then went out and spotted these fabrics for sale, and bought up! oops. I will no doubt use them for upcoming shoots, so you will probably see them again somewhere down the line. I was also thinking I might re-cover my napoleon chair in one of them, maybe this one…

While I think about this, I am going to pour myself a glass of milo, my last glass in fact, as the tin is now empty. Boo hoo! I’ll savour every last spoonful (yes, it’s imperative you drink milo with a spoon).

Next Up: hmm, I have no idea, what does everyone feel like to end the week? A home tour? A cool new kids clothes range? A tag? Or is there a category you like most? You choose.

What better way to spend a Monday morning than with a little browse through etsy. Here are a few in my favourite items list right now…

I used to stock all natural, handmade soaps in my store and I do miss having such divine bath and body products on hand. But look what I found: Birch Bark’s Star Anise Bath Bar. Blissssssss. This lovely batch is curing right now, and will be sent out at the end of the month. Handmade with love using only natural ingredients by Nova Scotian Sherrieg . She also recently listed me amongst her favourite blogs when she was an etsy featured seller, it was such a surprise, thanks again Sherrieg !

And if I could get away with it, I would label everything in my home. and now that I spotted these babies, my labeling fetish just got fed. I mean people, they’re just four buckaroos! (‘buckaroos’ is aussie for ‘dollars’. well, i’m not sure about that, i actually just made it up.)

Who has not yet figure out that I adore repurposing, rethinking, and recycling stuff? But also that I have a very very picky palate for stylish, classy and well designed things? Well, the above find is your clue. These very sweet ivory poppies for your hair are made from repurposed blouses and are all hand cut by the very talented Betsy of foundling. She has a tonne more of the good stuff in her shop, so go check it out.

I have heaps more in my etsy favourites but good things come to those who wait. So I hope you enjoyed this segment of…

next up: have you packed your bags? have you got your sun lotion? sunglasses? your new lalesso hotpants? no? then get packing, I told you already we are off to my favourite island hideaway, chop chop!! plane leaves in a couple of hours…

…bloglines, blogcatalog, de.l.i.c.i.ou.s (where do all the dots go?!), or flickr. I don’t know how to rss feed something, and I have no idea what technorati is.

Are you surprised to hear this raw and awful truth? me too. it’s embarrassing to admit and right now my cheeks are flushed fuchsia.

BUT. what I have become familiar with is etsy. now i know most of you must be asking yourselves, “how ancient is this woman?!”, but look, here is the story…

Us stylists (any of you out there, lots of head nodding and “right on sista!” would be helpful here), we are more what you’d call “shop stalkers”: I mean, we have only just learnt that you can locate a shop by looking it up in the yellow pages on the internet, all this time we’ve been lugging the hard copy around on the front seat of our car along with our baby wipes, fabric samples, and multitude of tape measures (yes I’m looking at you jboo).

And, well, we have our faves (I’ve already mentioned this one and this one with plenty more to come), so we usually go straight to them when we know what we need, and then branch out from there.

My plan, I must reveal, has been to use the (blog)house as my branch. So as I find interesting items that I think will come in handy for shoots, I blog about them, for two reasons – first to support small businesses because g.o.d knows how much I know how much this is necessary; and secondly as a personal ‘pia’ pages (yes sorry ‘yellow’, you have been thrown out the window) for myself and my friends to refer to. Some stylists are known to hold on to their secret boutiques and craftspeople like it is gold, but I’ve never been one of them.

are you getting the gab of my gib now? good. so on and upward with who and what are among my favourites in etsy!

FOR ME:

I want this bag from Rome-based designer ninù. Check out her other awesome designs here.

The Lulu Satchel from Tennessee designer Erica Bazile. Beautifully made. Stylish. Classy. Funky. And all that.

FOR THE BUBS IN MY LIFE:

I don’t know what a windsee is, but I love Rita! and her friends Bettee, Bobee, and June – all handmade form vintage fabrics by Canadian-born, Melbourne-dweller One Girl. She also has a blog which is pretty cool.

Sofia Barão has added this sweet little number to her etsy shop. I think it would be perfect in a baby’s room.

& FOR ME, AGAIN:

Lovely Marie has just opened her very own boutique! It’s called Tissu and is fast becoming sold out with her first items (yes I left a bit of a dint after buying a couple of her beautiful crochet pins and garland, sorry guys but first in first served!).

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this first segment of:

You will also find an etsy category here now so you can check out my etsy favourites at any time. Happy Etsying!