Winter wattle, berries and blooms

Another nice weekend spent on the farm.

Kirigami

Another little treat from the Kinokuniya bookshop - an inspiring visual diary by Japanese paper artist and Kirigami specialist Kanako Yaguchi. On her website Kanako explains that this is a journal combining photographic images of growing up in Japan, an insight into her daily life, and her artistic work in the medium of paper-cutting.

So beautiful - I wish I had the patience for this intricate work!

Take a look at Kanako's website for more images of her paper-cut designs on a range of other homeware and clothing products.

And beautiful butterflies

I can't resist Nathalie Lete's painterly designs. I bought this colouring book from the wonderful homewares shop Scarlet Jones in Hawthorn East.

Beautiful Birds

Another wallpaper and fabric design for all of the bird enthusiasts out there - Bewick Birds from UK company Lewis and Wood. This design is named after Thomas Bewick, a master wood engraver and naturalist working in the late 1700's.

At the bottom of a London garden....

....is a lovely little cabin that is delightful in every sense of the word! This gorgeous little room is available to hire for photography from Airspace locations. I would love to do a Hiccups photo-shoot there, just a slight teeny problem with distance. Hmmmm.

Kids bedrooms from Real Living

Great decorating ideas for kid's room from the August 2009 edition of Real Living. This magazine just keeps getting better and better!

Chinese lanterns in delicate pastel shades from Susanne Rutzou's home.

Bold wallpaper and a Marc Pascal pendant light decorate Tess's bedroom.

Vibrant bedlinen and wallstickers add a splash of colour to the plywood walls in this little girl's room.

And more plywood in Luke's bedroom.

Appartements de filles a Paris

More French interior design loveliness from the Paumes book Appartements de filles a Paris. This book is jam-packed with creative homes and work spaces of young Parisian designers and artists - l'amour!

Auspicious red

Beautiful Japanese Chiyogami papers from Sydney's Kinokuniya bookshop - a place I could happily spend a day browsing!

Sydney

A few days in Sydney - enjoying the lovely warm (winter) weather.

Patterns from the sea

Fabulous sea creatures from 1930's and 40's printed dress fabrics decorate these notebooks from the V&A Museum shop.

Tidy your room!

Inspiring images of kid's bedrooms from the Houzz blog (a wonderful smorgasbord of decorating ideas).

Blue and green should never be seen?

If these photos are anything to go by, I disagree! I love the shades of petrol blue, turquoise and emerald green in this children's fashion spread, beautifully photographed by Beatrice Heydiri.

Jungle parrots

I love these painterly green plates and trays designed by Vera Neumann in the 1960's and freshly re-released into the wild by Anthropologie. 

Flying Start Magazine

Here are a couple of Hiccups designs (now available in the UK) recently featured in the online parenting magazine Flying Start.

Hiccups Safari bed linen (p)

Hiccups Russian Dolls bed linen (e)

Visit the Flying Start online magazine here!

Hand-printed greetings

They're creepy and they're kooky..... but these are the friendliest critters I have ever seen. These gorgeous cards are hand-printed by UK designer Lisa Jones, and are available in Australia from the Lark website. I love that caterpillar!

Thinking pink

A few sprinkles of pink and a touch of vintage from the pages of Country Living magazine.

Hiccups in store

Here is our 'Fairy Village' bed linen design displayed on a gorgeous sleigh bed from Kidzone.

Cute and colourful rooms

Red, green or pink? I love them all... from the pages of Shop 4 Kids magazine.

Cosmic Capers

And as seen on HomeMADE - here is another image of Cosmic Capers - lots of fun for future astronauts!

On the tele last night...

The Channel 9 home make-over programme HomeMADE featured the Hiccups bedlinen design 'Cosmic Capers' in a little boy's space themed room.

Happy campers

Ahh, the great outdoors! This happy collection of summery images from Junior Magazine features some great vintage inspired kid's clothing. Photographed by David Handley.

Counting in the garden

Counting in the Garden is a lovely picture book for young readers by US textile designer Kim Parker (creator of those beautiful floral rug designs for The Rug Company which I would love to own...... one day.) Lush watercolour paintings of flowers in a vibrant palette hide a collection of animals and insects - a colourful way to learn to count to ten!

Up to the country

A nice weekend spent in the country....

Yurio Seki and Salvia design

Yurio Seki is a Japanese designer with a mellow and sparsely beautiful drawing and design style. Her portfolio includes a myriad of products from textile repeats, book design, art direction, apparel design (including some rather lovely patterned socks), CD covers, and packaging. This wonderful book 'Yurio Seki - Japanese Graphic Designer' documents Yurio's body of work, her home and workplace surrounds, and her travel inspiration. Every page is a visual delight!

I love this simple yet elegant pattern repeat of bluebells.

Sweet cherry blossoms

A lovely mimosa colourway
And I love this hand-embroidered cushion.

In 2001 Yurio launched her 'Salvia' brand which utilises traditional Japanese craftsmanship across a wide range of products. Visit the Salvia website to view this inspiring collection.

Babies to teens

A few lovely images from the children's bedroom feature 'Changing rooms', which can be found in the July - August 2009 edition of Inside Out.

Sweet mix

Colourful kid's bedrooms from the pages of Skona Hem magazine. I love the wall art in this image!

A creative nursery

1970's hippy chic

Tonal turquoise blues and stripes - a great place to sleep and play.

Girly dress-up boudoir

Natural History notemaking

Here are a few images of the lovely new collection of notebooks, envelopes and gift wraps featuring Cavallini & Co's distinct take on natural history and botanical subject matter. Cavallini products are distributed in Australia by Zetta Florence - one of my favourite weekend browsing (and purchasing!) destinations. You can visit this magical store (in Melbourne) at either 926 High Street Armadale or 197 Brunswick Street Fitzroy.

Parisian decoration inspiration

I have noticed a few local Melbourne bookshops are now stocking very small amounts of the wonderful Japanese decoration books by Paumes and Editions de Paris. Happy times! 

Ma deco a Paris is another glimpse inside the creative homes of Parisian stylists, textile designers, graphic designers, design boutique owners and artists.  I'm hoping this will inspire me to tidy up my pad today.... 

Styling ideas for kooky kids

Whimsical images from the portfolio of talented German stylist Maria Grossman. A nice place to browse on a Friday afternoon!

Bedtime stories

I love this vintage inspired 'Little Red Riding Hood' fabric design, available for a short time (as it is now discontinued) from Reprodepot.

A lucky little girl....

... named Colette calls this Parisian bedroom home. I love the dramatic dark grey wall combined with the pretty pinks and chartreuse accessories. This bedroom is featured in the Marie Claire Maison April 2009 edition.

Photography by Nicolas Matheus.

How does your garden grow?

Lovely verdant images photographed by Louis Gaillard from the pages of Marie Claire Idees.

Hiccups in Bambini Directory

The 2009 edition of Bambini Directory has just been released - here are a few images of the Hiccups products and advertising that can be found inside.

Coyotes, chiens and crochet

Curious creatures to wear as a brooch, to decorate a baby blanket or to admire on a nursery wall - these crochet animals by French designer Sophie Digard can be found mooching around at Selvedge Drygoods.

Bon Baiser de Paris

Another book on Paris that I was unable to resist (and a cost effective way to keep the travelling urge at bay) is Bon Baiser de Paris by Nathalie Lete and Frederic Ray, with photography by Richard Boutin.

Filled with Nathalie's painterly illustrations, drawings, embroideries and ceramics of the sights and inhabitants of Paris - this book is a delight for any Francophile's eye.

Ahoy!

More design goodness from US graphic designer / printmaker Wayne Pate. A fresh take on everything ship shape and sea-faring!

'Jacques'

'Sammy Seagull'

'Flock'

Visit Wayne Pate's Good Shape Design shop here.

Happy kids

Beautiful pictures from the kids portfolio of UK based photographer Malin Ngoie. Love the red-head chap's outfit!

Animal portraits

How cute is this little pig? These lovely animal theme letterpress designs are by Old School Stationers. Each design is available as a wall print or greeting card.

Old School Stationers products can be found online at Hazel Wood Children, and here at Etsy.

Cherries Cherie

More on the cherry theme - I guess I can't go past anything red! This is a painting by my great grandmother Lucinda which I found stashed in the rafters of an old dairy shed on our family farm a few years ago. It was a little worse for wear, having become the residence of a family of wasps, but I love the worn canvas and chipping paint.

A Nathalie Lete designed biscuit tin in a lovely shade of green from La Marelle.

A vintage style cherry stripe fabric in green, available here.

A delicate watercolour cherry fabric from here.

Vibrant red cherries from Robert Kaufman.

A gorgeous shade of blue for a girl's t-shirt from Belgian clothing brand Zorra, available from here.

Bursting with colour

Here are some wonderful card designs by talented UK textile designer Brie Harrison that I spied at the weekend and could not resist. Brie has such a unique drawing style and use of colour - I love the pink, grey, chocolate and gold combination in the last image.

Brie's card designs are published by Art Angels, and are available from here.

Wherever I lay my hat

If I owned a hat I would like to hang it on a hat-stand like this one (from Caravane Chambre 19) via the Marie Claire Maison website.

And if I owned a townhouse in Paris I think this floor covering would be quite alright too...

Brighton Bathing boxes

A colourful place to spend a few hours enjoying Melbourne's unseasonably warm Autumn weather - Brighton Beach.

Painting the view

'Coronation Cup and three pebbles'

'Small yellow dog'

'Tulips and butterfly brooch'

'Summer flowers'

Painterly brushstrokes, serene still life compositions, pretty blooms, butterflies, and whimsical birds - Debbie George's paintings tick all of the boxes.

I discovered her work via a card from UK company Art Angels, where Debbie's blurb/bio notes that her work is 'a celebration of her passion for flowers and the objects with which she surrounds herself - from ceramics to fruits, feathers and stones'. The landscape surrounding her home in the hills of West Yorkshire and the beaches of Norfolk and Scotland are also an important influence on her paintings.

I would love to see these works in real life - they are totally my cup of tea! (or Diet-Coke)

View more of Debbie's lovely paintings at the Bircham Gallery website.

Autumn leaves and blooms

Autumn in full flight as witnessed in my wanderings around the Royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

Sophisticated Swedish

Bedroom happiness, Swedish style. I love the crochet rug and unisex colour palette. And that leather kangaroo is pretty groovy too!







From Family Living magazine, styling by Christina Breeze Le Guellaff, photography by Jonas Gustavsson.

'I know a lot of things' by Ann & Paul Rand

Another beautifully designed children's book re-released for a new set of readers - 'I know a lot of things' written in 1956 by Ann Rand and illustrated by influential American graphic designer Paul Rand. I love the bold colour combinations - especially that strawberry image!

Freshly styled

There is a subtle tinge of green to all of these lovely interior photos by UK photographer Emma Mitchell.

Lambing season

Happy lambs enjoying a feed of oats - great to see a little bit of green grass at last!

Alex and Lulu - Two of a kind

Alex and Lulu is an entertaining little tale about a cat and a dog who are the best of friends even though they are as similar as chalk and cheese.
The talented Lorena Siminovich has created two great characters who I'm sure will become very much loved in the future: the second instalment of 'Alex and Lulu' will be published in 2010. Discover what opposites really are in this delightful story that celebrates differences, beautifully illustrated in Lorena's distinctive drawing technique.
Published by Templar Publishing.

Chris Chun delights

The very talented Chris Chun has recently opened his online store here. Happy browsing!

'Fusia' 'Magnolia Moment' art card published by Woodmansterne

'Fusia' 'Midnight Garden in Kyoto' art card published by Woodmansterne

'Parade of the Origami Butterfly' Original painting in mixed media

I very much look forward to seeing Chris's limited edition range of cushions which will be released in August. No doubt they will be exquisite!