Cabinet things

{Cabinet by Misha Kahn seen via thank you ok}

"After scanning the hoards of tchochkes lying on my bedroom floor I printed out life size puzzle pieces and arranged them into this curious thought bubble."

Totes totes!

{from Lost At E Minor}

{Bonjour Tote from MMMG}

{Our Workshop Grid Tote}

{from Fieldguided}

{from Hellopenny}

Canvas tote bags are my favourite. I have a few that I use that are usually pretty messy because I don't get around to washing them as much as I should. I would like one of each of the above and then that would be a tote bag for every day of the week!

I also really love these baggu duck bags, available from here.

After having had totes on the brain all week, I just saw that Johanna from the amazing Bonjour Johanna blog is holding a tote bag workshop. Man I wish I could attend. If I weren't as far away from Zürich as you can possibly get, then I would *totes* be first in line!

Help Japan

{Print seen via Lilys Make Believe, can be bought here}

{Cards from the Help Japan Shop, by  Hilda Grahnat}

I just bought these cards, a very small gesture, I know. More prints for sale can be seen here, or you can donate directly to the Red Cross for Japan here.

AND cute Melbourne store Mr Kitly are holding a fundraising raffle with a prize pack of very special Japanese made items. Tickets can be purchased from here, with all money raised going towards the Red Cross relief fund for Japan.

Fresh Face

I've gone and changed things again! I recently redesigned Banana Meet-Cute's header, for the millionth time it seems during our rather short bloggy lifetime. I promise I'll stick with this new look for a while. This is what the header has looked like in the past:

Yeeeeeeuch!

I was after a cleaner design that used a hand drawn font. Here are some of the ideas I was playing around with at various stages of tweaking:

I found some excellent font websites during this process. All free of course! If you're interested in this kinda thing, these are the links here:

webdesignledger.com/freebies/best-free-fonts-of-2010

www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com

creativenerds.co.uk/freebies/50-best-free-fonts-from-2009

And, if you're not interested in this sort of thing, sorry that this has been the most boring post ever!

Woolly Wedding!

I must admit, I'm a tad excited about the upcoming Royal Wedding, and apparently the bride shall be wearing wool! Fiona Goble's book 'Knit Your Own Royal Wedding' features patterns for all the royals, corgis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and various guests. These look like a lot of fun. Sadly for me my level of knitting is still stuck at the easy peasy level of scarves only.

Camp Times

{photo above is by Tim Barber}

It was a long weekend for us Melbournians and I went camping! It was my first Australian camping trip and I was rather terrified of snakes and spiders and lizards and things. Although, seeing as I was actually camping with a few thousand other people at this, once I arrived I forgot all about my fear of creepy crawlies, and apart from some giant ants, there were no scary insect encounters at all. Just fun times! And I took a lot of photos too, which will be coming soon (or, as soon as I get the many rolls of film I took developed!)

Quiet Mornings

Get up, shower, make breakfast, check emails… Every Morning is a photographic project by Nanako Koyama showing various people during their morning routines. These photos have such a calmness about them. I wish my mornings were this serene.

WORLD with knits

More knitting inspiration! Kiwi label WORLD are known for their colourful offbeat designs, but I really like the knitted accessories used here with these pieces from their 2011 Autumn/Winter Collection. The woolly glasses, chain-link scarves, bowties and bow brooches are all handmade by the very talented Kute Kiwi.

Mag Love

New mags!! Grafik magazine which is based in London, and Australia's Desktop both focus on graphic design and print media, and they have both relaunched this month. My workplace has a Desktop subscription, and to be honest I was never really that interested in it, but with the brand new redesign it is just so good looking now!

I love the huge images that bleed off the page, and the content seems a lot broader now too. In the words of new Managing Editor Brendan McKnight "Much has changed, both from a design and content perspective, with not just a focus on finished work, but as the tagline says, 'the culture of design'."

I'd never read Grafik magazine, but I had to buy it when I saw the feature on Mike Perry, one of my most loved artist/designers, interviewing and collaborating with his personal 'Graphic Design Hero' James Victoire.

Hello Chilly

Summer is officially over down under. I am really looking forward to dressing for the cooler weather.

{Cosy scarf, seen on the make believe sea}

{I want a cape like this!}

{Cute pinafore by Steven Alan, pics from here}

 {woolly jumpers! From Ruby, and… not sure}

Even though it's 30 degrees in Melbourne today, I'm still wearing stockings. I just like wearing layers!

Video Stars

These drawings by Hollis Brown Thornton remind me of my high school days - pre-internet, when I would tape music videos off TV. I had some pretty good compilations of 'grunge' era music, and I would have spent hours waiting through crap music videos (like Boyz II Men, or The Corrs) until something worthy of hitting record came on (like Pearl Jam! Or Bjork or Smashing Pumpkins!)