Sunday Reading: Drawing Inspiration from H&H

I'm loving the "Weekend Decorating" article of the latest House and Home magazine (Sept '11) produced by Stacey Smithers, (text Kimberley Brown) and photographed by Angus Fergusson.  Titled "Drawing Inspiration" Stacey created some super obtainable DIY's  to help create a more relaxed look with painterly brushstrokes, handwritten embellishments and more.  I wanted to show everything - I loved it all so much, but of course shouldn't.  So I picked my two most favourite, above the bedroom with it's paint imperfect walls - notice the uneven brushstrokes left by a paint roller , colour-block shutter doors, the bookcase used as a headboard (isn't that brilliant), instead of sconces a hanging pendant from a hook, and keep looking, I'm sure you'll find more.  And below a quirky handwritten label painted onto a used wine bottle to serve water with.  If you're hooked up with Zinio you can purchase the digital version here. This article alone is worth it!

Wall colour, Setting Plaster 231 and shutter doors - from top - Plummet (272), Slipper Satin (2004), Down Pipe (26), Farrow & Ball
 

My post at Family Style today - Fun Weekend DIY's

Cannonball!

Outdoor swings immediately conjur up memories of long summer days filled with cannonballs off the docks in the lake, picnics, and swinging one's toes up to touch the sky under the shade tree.  These one-of-a-kind hand crafted wooden swings are made by Sky Saddle out of Flagstaff, Arizona who create them from found downed trees they find in their area.  I wish I was on one now. See more online:

shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SkySaddle

website: http://www.SkySaddleSwings.com

poppytalk handmade:  skysaddle (table 62)

Download Dum Dum Girls Song

Click here for more info on Dum Dum Girls. (Via Sub Pop)

Friday Link Love

Crafty Friday by Sweet Paul

A cute mini movie about recycling Bonne Maman crême brulée cups by jeroenwesselink.nl
I'm loving these chalkboard maps (yes i still like a bit of chalkboard)
The finest paper plates and cups in the land
The coolest hotel souvenirs
Irene of Bloesem is having an onine garage sale!
Did you see the Kirtsy relaunch? Love today’s slideshow.
Are you going to take The August Break?
12 Countries in 12 Months
Have a Crafty Friday (love this one)!

My posts for Family Style on Babble (a parenting site) this week:
Still Retro Life
Minimalist Posters Inspired by Children's Stories
Antique Roadshow
The Most Amazing Wedding Invitations
Cool Kitchen Tools for Mom
Cottage-Inspired Style

Creative Courage: E-Course

Poppytalk Handmade artist, Stephanie Levy is starting a new e-course this fall called Creative Courage which will run from September 26th throught to November 11, 2011.  The course is designed as a practical guide to help you find, clarify, and follow your unique, creative path.  It includes interviews with 12 talented and thriving artists, illustrators, designers, photographers, writers, coaches, and bloggers (including me)!  As a special bonus in Week 4, participants will travel with her on a *virtual field trip* to Venice, Italy and peek behind the scenes at the world famous Venice Biennale art exhibition. Stephanie will be sending participants exclusive photos, sketches, and impressions directly from Venice.   If you're interested in knowing more click here.

Weekend Project: Family Tree

I received an email the other day from Erika, the daughter to one of our daily readers Melissa in El Cajon, CA of Darby's & Pumpkin's Daily blog. Her mom suggested she email me with her Family Tree project, and I'm so glad she did.   The entire project cost $50.

Materials:
Frames (big and small)
cork self-stick drawer liner
scissors

She says it's quite simple, just time consuming with a lot of it spent cutting.  Using a roll of cork self-stick drawer liner, Erika cut out this beautiful tree free hand using no reference design.   Didn't she do an amazing job?  And if you get a chance be sure to visit Melissa's blog, she has some gorgeous little Cardigan Welsh Corgi's and the most amazing pomegranates (which I've never seen growing before) in a beautiful setting of rolling hills. Thank you Erika and Melissa!

Still Retro Life: Christopher Stott

This week I wrote about collecting vintage luggage over at Family Style so when I saw these realist paintings by Christopher Stott of vintage luggage and other vintage-inspired items I couldn't resist something related.  Truly stunning work.  Check out my post here if you wish.  (Via Anthology).

Geronimo Pop-Up Shop!

Still one more day for 100 Layer Cake's latest Pop-Up Shop featuring the beautiful balloons from Geronimo. Festive balloons perfect for weddings or any occasion really!  Click here to see the special pop-up prices that end Friday (July 29th/11 at 6pm)!

 

Best Issue Yet for Rue!

The July/August (Issue 6) of Rue Magazine is out and I have to say it's probably their best issue to date.  Lots of interesting photo's and stories featuring travel, decor, fashion and food.  Click here to see.   Photo credits:  (Above)  Lou Mora and (Below) Max Wanger.

Today at Poppytalk Handmade {a little southwest}

1.  Kilim cushion, ocean swept
2.  Fine art photographic print, isphotography
3.  Skeleton key notebook, tangible press
4.  Wood log stationery, ashley pahl

ocean swept

 

isphotography

tangible press

ashley pahl

On the Radar

Jesse Hazelip Moving Sale

It's been a while since I've done a radar post - but this week amazing things are flying in. Some crazy pieces all that I would love to have for my own. The Jesse Hazelip piece, some folk art found road trip embroidery, and stunning chairs and dishes from swarm home.

 

Found Road Trip Embroidery

swarm home

swarm home

My Family Style post today at Babble:  Minimalist Posters Inspired by Children's Stories

Mini DIY Round-Up

Make a Pouf Ottoman from Better Homes via Curbly

How to Cyanotype on Handknits and Crochet @Craftzine

DIY Plank Wood Coffee Table

Botanical Beauties

Guest post by Mr Yen

Small Catkins Lamp by Hannah Nunn

Hello everyone, for the last post in the Botanical Beauties series I'm featuring products and packaging that have botanical designs.

As a lover of all things flora and fauna, I think any product with a botanical icon or illustration has a very special feel to it. Whether that's a plain, simple icon or a detailed and delicate repeat pattern, natural elements lend themselves to a wide range of products and designs. From big brands and companies like Cath Kidston and Crabtree & Evelyn to independent brands and companies such as the products of the independent designers featured today.

What are some of your favourite floral or botanical product designs?

madebyanna

Tea Towel by Skinny Laminx

Wildflower & Honey Soap by sweetpetula

Spring Plate by watersounds

..................................

Mr Yen (also known as Jonathan Chapman) studied at Leeds College of Art and gained a BA HONS in Graphic Design. After leaving University in 2010 he had the opportunity to work on a few freelance design projects for companies such as Computer Arts Magazine and LYNX. In between freelance projects he creates hand cut papercut artwork that is for sale here. Visit him online at www.shop.mr-yen.com/ and http://mr--yen.blogspot.com/.

Musical Bean Bags

Retro music instrument-inspired bean bags from Barcelona-based Woouf!  (Via  Babble)

Help us redesign the blog!

It's been a long time coming folks and it's still a bit of a ways away, but I'm finally working on a new redesign for the blog.  It'll come with a big change.  We'll be going to our own .com (finally) and I'd love for you to be involved!  You are afterall, the people who read it everyday, so you should have a say in how it looks!  Sadly I'll be leaving blogger (in all probability) but I came across a wonderful feature of theirs recently which is helping me with ideas for my redesign.  So today is sort of two-fold.  If you have blogger yourself, you can do this with your blog, and I'm wondering, if I have something similar like this programmed for my blog which do you prefer?  Here are the choices:

1.  Flipcard - http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/view/flipcard#!/
2.  Mosaic - http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/view/mosaic#!/
3.  Snapshot - http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/view/snapshot#!/
4.  Timeslide - http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/view/timeslide#!/
5.  Regular:  Leave the blog as a regular type style blog as it reads now
6.  All of the above (if possible - ha)!

So like I said - if you have blogger you can do this yourself - just add "/view" to your url and poof!  Magic!  Only problem is at this point you can't make it your default url.  And where/what do you do with your sidebar action?  But it's a fun choice to have and play around with!

I'd love to hear your opinions - so please leave a comment if you have time and would like.  I hope to have more posts/polls as things progress  I'll be offering up some gift certificates to Poppytalk Handmade to random commenters throughout as a thank you!  This post is worth $25 at this month's market!  Thanks for helping me out! Your opinion is important to us!  Offer will end this Friday, July 29, 2011.  Eep!

Update:  Thank you everyone for commenting - it was really fun to read everyone's opinion.  It sounds like most of you like the original format, and now that we know that, it really helps us go in the right direction.  We chose the very first commenter for this - (as out of all the giveaways that we've ever done, the first one has never been chosen that we can recall).  So congrats to Jamie of A Pair of Pears!  Jamie has won the $25 gift certificate to Poppytalk Handmade.  

Link Love

Beautiful camping pictures from Junkaholique's south coast weekend trip

 

A chapter from the last Harry Potter novel painted on a wall (via craftgawker).

Buoy lights (via craftgawker)

The 'suitcase wall' from the studio of artist Gail Rieke via Cafe Cartolina

My post over at Babble today:  Antique Roadshow

A Collection a Day Book Summer Blog Tour + Giveaway!

Lisa Congdon's book, A Collection a Day launched this spring and as I mentioned last week in a post, publisher UPPERCASE is holding a mini summer blog tour for the book.  The book which I wrote about here and I'm sure in a few other posts this past year is a daily documentation of arrangements of Lisa's collected items she photographed (and some imagined and illustrated) everyday for one year last year.  The book comes in a fun tin too - perfect for holding your own collection.

Fun fact:  Check our collecting tag here which started back in 2008 where we featured Lisa's collections among with many other online artists' amazing collections!  It's a treasure trove if you like that kind of thing. (Be sure to go all the way back to 2008)!

And hey, we somehow managed to fandangle a copy of the book to giveaway here on the blog!  (Thanks Janine) - so one of you will be winning it!  Just leave a comment here at this post with a link to your favourite collections online.  Maybe it's at one of Lisa's or my posts here or maybe it's one of your own, or a friends, we'd love to see!  We'll announce a winner come Friday, July 29th/11!  (The giveaway will run till 9pm Thursday, July 28/11 )!  Good Luck!

In the meantime, check out the blog tour (check here for dates) if you will or buy the book,  it's a collector's item in itself!

 

Update:  It was a tough one to try and pick a winner for this.  At first I thought I would pick one that had a great link to a collecting post, and then it became really difficult after that (did you see all the great links)?.  So then I thought I'll do the random generator thing.  And funny - it picked the very last commenter - No. 38!  So congrats to Melanie of Inward Facing Girl.  And what's rather serendipitous is that she collects art books.  So really how fitting!  

Summer on a Plate: Panzanella Salad with Beans

By Jeannette Ordas of Everybody likes Sandwiches


I discovered panzanella salad last summer and was instantly in love. It's filling, versatile, and it's beautiful on a plate. This traditional Italian salad is meant for summer when tomatoes are at their peak, so don't even try to attempt this with less-than-stellar tomatoes or you'll be disappointed with the results.


For this version, I used the green onions and red leaf lettuce from our CSA (community sponsored agriculture) share along with some market fresh vegetables and a day old loaf of multi-grain bread from our local bakery. The beans I added as an afterthought since I had just cooked some up the night before, but it was a great call. A hearty and filling salad? Totally! And it's vegan too, so it's a win.


The only trick with this salad is to make what you will eat for that meal because leftovers turn soggy quickly. What I like to do is prepare the dressing ahead - often making a double batch so that I can make this salad quickly whenever the urge strikes. And trust me, the urge will be often. Is it embarrassing that I ate this 3 days in a row? It's that good.



Panzanella Salad with Beans
1/2 cucumber, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
4 green onions, sliced on the diagonal
4-6 small tomatoes, seeded & diced
1 cup cooked beans

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 t kosher salt
1/2 t aleppo pepper

1 head of lettuce
1 cup fresh basil, cut into a chiffonade
1/2 loaf of day-old peasant bread, cubed

In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.

In a small jar, give the next 5 ingredients a good shake. Pour the dressing over top of the vegetable/bean mixture and let flavors mingle for 10 minutes.

Toss in the lettuce, basil and bread. Give everything a good toss and serve immediately.