Link storm - Illustrators and Artists

Jenny Bowers via Peepshow

Hollis Brown Thornton

Ping Zhu via the fox is black

Dream Diary - Anansi

I was reading Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys about the African spider and trickster Anansi and that night I had a very story-like dream about him. Here goes:

Anansi was the king of a small African village but he died, so they buried him. But they didn't realise that he was actually a seed and they were planting him. So overnight when it was dark a huge coconut tree grew up in the middle of the village where they had planted him and it grew taller than all the trees and the shadow of the tree sometimes looked like a man, and sometimes looked like a long arm with a grasping hand.

If you passed under that shadow Anansi could get some power over you or do magic to you. The shadow would also move of its own accord, and at night it would still be visible as it was darker than the rest of the darkness.

 

Link Storm - Graphic Design Articles

Good resources for you graphic designers out there.

via shape of design 

• Helpful articles at Adobe Create magazine

• The four phases of developing your creative voice via 99u

• The psychologist's view of UX design - very helpful

• Designing a facebook page for a business? Good examples and advice over at hubspot

• I didn't know this existed - the official google blog

• The shape of design book

Link storm - Girly sites

via Juju Sprinkles

• The little market - wonderful fair trade online store founded by Lauren Conrad. Lots of charming baskets and blankets and home wares.

•Elle & Co. for graphic and web design tutorials, and blog and business advice

•Self - online women's magazine

• Lovely interior design blog by Emily Henderson

• The Everygirl

• Juju Sprinkles - cute illustrations and lots of Konmari

Book shop adventures with my little sister

Wrapping papers at Oliver Bonas - Amazing + traffic cone monster

The other week my littlest sister came to stay and we went on some jaunts. We went into Oliver Bonas which she had never seen before and oggled at all the pretty bits and pieces - I am loving all their neon, paint daubs and scribbles at the moment. We then went over to Foyles book shop and spent a good hour getting lost in their shelves. It is like a sweet shop for me there - if I was rich I would go in every week and get a new book. The covers are really beautiful and the book selection makes me want to read all of them. 

I also love the kids section which is full of comforting old favourites and edgy new kids books with incredible illustrations. I could spend so much money in there.

Link Storm - magical books, movies and music

Image via Messy Nessy Chic

Well its getting darker and darker and colder and colder as the season progresses. Time to stock up on red wine, tea, blankets and spiced cider and curl up with a good movie or book to read.

Here are some links for when it is dark outside:

• A nice breakdown of how Wes Anderson does what he does

• Secret Paris toy shop from Messy Nessy Chic and a gothic library that wouldn't look out of place in Hogwarts

•Style guides with a historic and literary twist from the beautifully designed and descriptive Miss Black:
• Literary snob
• 1920's party looks
•1930's summer looks
• Slytherin style guide and common room
• Ravenclaw style guide and common room

• Librivox recording of the classic, The Moonstone

• A mix of my favourite classical composers to listen to while reading and drinking tea with the lights low

• Beethoven's symphony no. 7 from the film 'The Fall'. Stunning movie and powerful music.

• Moody dark piano from Satie

Behance and Dribble favorites

Lets be honest, everyone on Behance and Dribble is mindblowingly talented. Here some of my favourite things I have found recently.

Behance:

Rafael Mayani

Patrycja Podkoscielny

Diker Bau branding by Ramin Nasibov

Dribble:

Gorgeous frog from Lan Truong

Monogram stamp by Jonas

Loving this identity from Mackey Saturday 

Book Club - Women's studies

This month I chose books about various famous women and on female psychology.

1. Andrew Morton - Diana, Her True Story, in her own words

This notorious book was the cause of a huge scandal when it was published. Princess Diana contacted the journalist Andrew Morton to help her tell of her true life in the monarchy and her deep unhappiness she couldn't share publicly. He smuggled questions into the palace for her and she smuggled out tape recordings of her responses. This is an updated version since Diana's death which comes clean about the source of the information and that it was Diana herself who spoke to Morton, but at its initial release it was kept covered up that she herself had initiated the book and supplied the information, and was conveyed as if it came from various sources close to the princess. 

On its release it started the ball rolling for her divorce from the Prince, and it is very sad reading of a woman who was quite badly misused. Her husband was quite clearly having an affair with Camilla at the time of his proposal to Diana, but as Camilla was married and he had a duty to produce an heir, he merely found himself an appropriate breeding candidate. Four out of five stars, I found it compelling and couldn't put it down, but now I have read it I don't think I would read it again.

2. Nora Ephron - I feel bad about my neck

I loved this, a collection of articles from the multi talented Nora Ephron who was a journalist, director, screen writer and producer, and is famous for 'When Harry met Sally', 'Sleepless in Seattle' and my favourite 'You've got mail'. It talks about many things, one of which is getting older as a woman. It is very funny and often reads as a love story to New York, which I really like. I want to get more of her books now. Five out of five stars.

3. Pattie Boyd- Wonderful tonight

I didn't have especially high hopes for this autobiography, as last month when I had read several autobiographies, I had found them generally badly written and awkward. I was intrigued by the life of Pattie Boyd though - a sixties icon who had been married to George Harrison of the Beatles, and then to Eric Clapton, and who had inspired several song to be written about her by both. This book was beautifully written and very interesting, if sad. 

Her grandparents were from colonial India and wealthy, she grew up until she was eight in Africa, she then moved to England and went to Catholic boarding schools until she was seventeen and moved to London, becoming a model shortly after. At the age of nineteen she met George Harrison, and married him when she was twenty one and he was twenty two. She was the main force behind the Beatles famous trip to India and became a photographer. Four and a half out of five stars.

photograph by Henry Grossman via harrisonstories.tumblr.com

      

4. Ariel Gore - Bluebird, women and the new psychology of happiness

The premise of this book was that women and men experience happiness through different things and in different ways, and that most studies on happiness have been conducted purely on men. All well and good. The author then asks a group of women to keep a diary on what makes them happy each day... and that seems to be it. It is mainly a rambling story about her own life and makes no direct and logical study on how to be happier. Not impressed. didn't ever get to the point. No stars. 

5. Rosalind Wiseman - Queen bees and wannabes

This is the factual book which was used as the inspiration and the basis for the film 'Mean Girls' with Lindsay Lohan. It looks at the social structures of high school and female relationships, and is a very interesting study. I found this compelling reading but skipped some of the case studies of what to do in certain situations if you are the parent of a teen - I'm not. I will be passing this on to a secondary school teacher friend of mine, and would definitely recommend it if you have teens. She has also written a book about boys in adolescence. Three and a half stars out of five. Interesting, but not a book I would want to curl up with. 

 

Link Storm - For the home

via Terrain

•The website from the magazine Ideal Home

•Habitat's blog

•Beautiful houses at Houzz

•Arty home wares from Tate, I'll also have everything from Heal's please, and Terrain for autumnal natural home and garden bits

•Lots of home DIY's on Design Sponge

•A blog I have been reading for a long time by a professional interior designer who decorates hotels - very glamourous with lots of marble and gold.

Konmari and the life changing magic of tidying up - Part 2 - Books

The second category after clothes in the Konmari process of de-cluttering (see my part 1- clothes here) is books, being slightly more difficult to part with, but still quite an easy category to go through.

I followed Marie Kondo's method, took out each book one by one, and asked myself as I held it 'does this spark joy?'

I didn't get rid of a huge amount of books, maybe two and a half  bags, but I also had a lot of books to return to family.

I like to use my book cases to display oddments and decorative items, and now I have more space to do this. Jon was getting a bit annoyed because previously I had over stuffed the shelves with junk and he couldn't  get to the books when he wanted to, so I've also tried not to over do it this time.

I am enjoying turning books with really nice covers face first to jazz up the shelves and bring a bit of colour, and have organised books of the same height together to bring in more evenness. I also have been enjoying putting books by the same author or from the same series together in stacks.

The vintage tea party books in pride of place.

Turning pretty books face out, grouping books by the same author or type in the same place, and grouping books of the same height together

design books together in the office.

Category wise my shelves aren't perfect, lots of categories are jumbled in together, but I have mainly put all the design books in the office, and have put Jon's favourite foraging books together on the middle shelf in the lounge bookcase because he likes to refer to them often and they happen to look attractive together.

I also have my big old 70's photographic encyclopaedias together on the top shelf, my 80's annuals together on the next shelf down, my beautiful fading paperbacks together, and my favourite cook books in pride of place on the bottom shelf. All my other cook books are together in the kitchen.

Some books did and didn't spark joy for several reasons - there were lots of books I loved for their stories, but hated the covers of, so I used floral fabrics, old maps, and marbled paper to re cover them, and then put them all together in my glass fronted china cabinet .

I was skeptical when she said if you haven't read a book by now you never will, so throw it out. There were several books I had like this which I put aside to take on holiday  - and I could hardly bring myself to read - they were so dry. She obviously has a point.

I re-covered some paperbacks with dodgy covers
in pretty paper and fabrics

The reason I have been enjoying this top to bottom house chuck out so much is because me and Jon moved to this particular house we are living in a year ago, but have never really found proper homes for all our belongings. It has been good to take everything out of the shelves and cupboards, whittle down the contents to things we love only, and put them back in in a more organised and categorised manner.

Marie Kondo is quite firm that you should do your entire house in one go (which she says takes on average about six months) and while going through this process I am starting to feel in general that things in my house are beginning to have proper homes. When I want to get something I know where it will be, instead of having a vague idea it may be stuffed in a drawer upstairs somewhere. 

She also says when you have a place for everything it is easier to maintain tidiness, which I have indeed noticed, and is really great.

September and back to school

I woke up a few days ago and could feel that distinctive September chill to the air. There is  real anticipation I get even still to the start of September - years of going through school conditions you to it a bit. It makes me want to buy new pencils and wear grey skirts and white shirts, eat bread and butter pudding and school dinners, and live to a routine. I like the boost of motivation to work hard and focus and learn.

I'm going to try and harness this feeling for the next few weeks to help me make an extra push at things I have been self learning for a long time, maybe do a bit more coding and focus on some more academic and challenging things I have been putting off. Maybe check out some books at the library and go on some runs.

KonMari Inspiration

I posted yesterday about the start of my Konmari process. I love a good before and after and I got a bit obsessed at looking at other people's before and afters with Konmari. Here are the most inspiring ones I found online:

Rae from 'Say it ain't so' has such great style - I liked seeing how through the process it shined out even more as she went through her home.

part one - intro and clothes, books, paper.

Look at her amazing before and after on her closet!

   I liked this guy's video and he had some interesting things to say about the method:

I also loved the video series by Alexa Weber Morales because she showed the entire process, which a lot of people don't, and did a lot of before and afters and commentaries. In her house, again, you really see her true style shine through a lot better once she has tidied.  

This lady has a lovely video where she shows herself clearing out her jewellery cabinet - her pieces she decides to keep really shine when she puts them back together.

Konmari and the life changing magic of tidying up - Clothes

My de-cluttered clothes cupboard - the shelves were previously stuffed to the top with clothes.

Over the last couple of months I have been doing the Konmari method of de-cluttering. I read Marie Kondo's book 'The life changing magic of tidying up' and it gave me a totally different mindset about the the things I own, and my house. I have always hated clutter and have been quite minimalist in my possessions, but recently I have found I have accumulated more than my house and cupboards could fit.

The whole premise of the book is to focus on only keeping the things you truly love, and to get rid of everything else. It is a refreshing and positive approach, and I found that when I paired back my stuff to only the things I loved it gave me a lot more happiness and contentment with what I had. Often I feel we go chasing more possessions because we feel dissatisfied with what we own.

It makes me really happy to open my cupboard or look at my wardrobe and see all the things I love together - I can pick out anything and be happy to wear it, whereas before I would have to sift through the things I didn't like to find something I wanted to wear. I also found (not just with the clothes, but with everything) that when you kept the things you loved only, they tended to go together better - your true style shines out more clearly and is not obscured by things you don't like.

My wardrobe where I put my more formal wear that needs to be hung. Now containing only things I love.

With her method you de-clutter category by category, not room by room, and the first category you start on is clothes, because it is the easiest. She says you need to get all the clothes from the whole house into the same place to start so you can see just how much you have and if there are any repetitions and duplicates. Then you need to pick up each item in turn and ask yourself 'does this bring me joy?'

Some things will surprise you when you realise they don't - I had a beautiful new dress which I never wear and I realised it really doesn't bring me joy - it fits kind of weirdly and the fabric is really thick wool even though it is a mini dress so it is too cold for winter but too hot for summer. And also you will find some things that you assumed wouldn't bring you joy, do - like an old sweater or shirt.

These days I am pretty good at knowing what suits me, so I didn't have a crazy amount of clothes to give to the charity shop. But in fact I had a lot of clothes that I had once liked and worn a lot, which had become faded and worn and I still had in my wardrobe. These were all basic items like long sleeved plain T-shirts for layering in the autumn and winter and plain jeans, but I purged these to the cupboard under the sink for cleaning rags and they actually came in handy when I was Konmari-ing the rest of the house, because I cleaned out lots of areas and cupboards etc. as I went. I got rid of about one carrier bag of clothes to the charity shop and put about three carrier bags (three!) under the sink for rags. So much for me being the minimalist I thought I was - no wonder my clothes cupboard was full to brimming.

She says once you have completely and properly tidied an area it will pretty much stay tidy, all you need to do is put things back where they go. The key is to get rid of all the excess belongings which are cluttering up the space and not bringing joy, and once you have de cluttered give everything a proper permanent home with everything of the same type all in the same place.

With clothes she says you should fold them so you can see at one glance all that you have - so stack them vertically on their ends in a drawer instead of one on top of the other.

Since I have been doing this for a while now and have done other categories since, I can definitely say this was the easiest and quickest to do. I went through the clothes in my cupboard in about 20 minutes tops, and while I tried on a few things from my wardrobe to double check I was sure, the wardrobe took about 20 minutes as well. It was such a dramatic change once I put everything back folded neatly in her method - My wardrobe looked amazing and was filled with only the things I loved an that made me happy. Plus all the space and organisation was beautiful. I now love looking at my cupboard and my wardrobe with its matching hangars and all my fancy clothes - I feel it looks really pretty and put together.  

I treated myself to matching wooden hangars once I had de cluttered (which were actually surprisingly cheap) and
ditched all the miss matched plastic ones.

Another obvious side effect, apart from the fact that your space looks tidier, is that if you only keep the clothes you love, you only wear the clothes you love, resulting in feeling a lot better about how you dress and what you wear. I feel a lot smarter and more comfortable and put together since Konmaring and I had also previously been wearing a few unflattering items because I liked the type of style they were, but they weren't really bringing me joy because they made me feel awkward. 

Best thing I've found on the internet in a long time

www.cameronsworld.net. Everything is animated - it is truly wonderful.

You're welcome

Link storm - Music and Illustration

• I have recently found The 405 - a good music news site, and have been listening to Com Truise, an electro instrumental group who's music sounds like it was straight out of the 80's.

• Wonderful animal illustrations from Paul Farrell - me and Jon have a few on our walls from when we discovered him at one of the Bristol art trails. I particularly want his 'C' is for Cricket print.

• Another awesome Bristol illustrator -  Ellie Cryer.

She has a Society 6 page with t-shirts, mugs and phone cases etc.

• Drawing every day group on reddit - I firmly believe your level of drawing skill is directly linked to how much practice you get. This is a good place to get drawing subject matter prompts and where people post their responses to the daily challenges and discuss them. Nothing too heavy. And hey, if you get really good at drawing and you still want to participate in drawing to a theme groups, you could enter the different t-shirt design challenges from threadless.