This Bell Will Ring.

Here's a photo of the sunrise from last week.
Saturday's shopping trip wasn't all bad. Even though I didn't have any fancy clothes that took my eye and pretty much ended up huffing and puffing in and out of each shop, I didn't go away completely empty handed.

It's so nice to finally be able to treat myself to things I've wanted for a long time. I've been after this vase since I first saw it in Feather and Fern, months and months ago! I'm a huge fan of Rob Ryan anyway, but his 'Bells' collection is my favourite, it makes my heart melt. I just need some pretty flowers to put in it now, I kind of picked the wrong season to snatch it up.

I got this from John Lewis but I'm a little gutted that our John Lewis in Newbury doesn't stock Rob Ryan anymore. Still, this is a fine addition to my tiny collection, I think his Hello Egg Cups are next.

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Tuesday Tabs #27

Feels silly posting this because I have so many other things lined up to share with you. I've been at work all day though and I'm feel a little sleepy and lazy - also silly because these posts take a little longer than they should.

I hope that you're having a good Tuesday, I've been rushed off my feet, here are some of my favourite finds from the Internet this week. ♥

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Beach Party Print, Tuesday Bassen
I really like this print from Tuesday Bassen, I love all her other work too, you should definitely check her out, her store is full of quirky, humourous knick-nacks.


Georgia - Nautical, Jo Totes
I've been talking about Jo Totes' camera bags for so long now that it actually makes my heart a little hurt that I still don't own one. With yet another stylish, and pretty collection launched, I hope this will be the year I get one. I'll make it a treat for the wedding I'm shooting in October, this is my favourite of the Jo Totes bags so far, just check out the inside.


ASOS Dress in Tea Party Print
I wish that I'd seen this dress sooner as it's now sold out, as well as being half-price, it's so cute and fun, the heart cut-out on the back is a killer.


Teapot, Ferm Living
Pretty ♥


GPOY. (source)




'I Thought That You Didnt Like Me' Ceramic Tile, Rob Ryan
*note to self, ask for all the Rob Ryan things for your upcoming, unimportant birthday.x


Ray Bans, Smart Buy Glasses
I picked up a pair of (rather convincing) Faux-Bans while in Turkey, but after browsing Smart Buy Glasses and seeing the bargains on offer, I'd love to treat myself to these bad-boys. Something about spending that much on a pair of sunglasses makes me incredibly nervous though, even if they're the coolest and so discounted, I always lose everything.

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Link Love: ♥

Print & Fold Paper Cats via How About Orange — I'll always have a soft-spot for cute paper craft even if I'm not the best at it.

Terri Lowe's Blogging Etiquette Guide - Part Two — Terri writes some really great stuff and this was particularly good, some great tips as well as witty, well-thought out opinions, one of my favourite blogs at the moment to read.

This Is Rude — Pretty rad creative collective.

The iTunes Festival — I must say it's hardly living up to previous line ups, but it's grown in popularity I guess and people ruin everything. Last year was actually the first time I didn't go, I could have seen Dry the River and Manic Street Preachers had I not been as poor as church mouse. However, Mumford and Sons have been added to the line-up and I've love to see Frightened Rabbit and Biffy Clyro, so fingers crossed despite lacking a bit of oomph.

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Currently Watching: The Newsroom.
Currently Listening To: The 'Drive' soundtrack.
Currently: Crying over the bills stealing the money I literally just got paid. *boo to bills

To cure your soul.

If you're a regular reader then you'll know I'm a big fan of Rob Ryan, he's easily one of my favourite artists and he lifts my spirits.
When I heard about his collaboration with Alphabet Bags, it was an opportunity to good to miss.

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I've been a bit strapped for cash in terms of picking up the Rob Ryan pieces that I really want, and this was a much more accessible route to go down. I must admit that I was a little skeptical that £16 would be a little much for a tote bag, despite following Alphabet Bags for a little while and seeing other peoples. However, as usual, I'm eating my own words because it's one of the sturdiest tote bags I've ever seen, it seems a lot thicker than others I have in my collection. It will definitely come in handy for tomorrow's car-boot rummage, as well as other bits and bobs, I plan to use it all time! I think it's fairly obvious why I got an 'R', but in all honesty, I could have gone for all of them because they all have cute little accents to make them different from one another, something I really like.




Delivery was super-quick too, I only ordered it on Thursday afternoon and it arrived with the post this morning, it certainly was great to come back from work to. As well as receiving the bag in good time, they also included a cute alphabet postcard featuring all the designs, perfect. As if I didn't have enough Rob Ryan artwork already, I can now add this to my collection. As Moon clumsily broke the frame of my most recent Rob Ryan purchase, it makes a pretty replacement, although I hope to get another frame and put the 'bells' card somewhere else soon.

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As well as the tote bag, I also ordered a copy of the summer 2012 edition of 'S.P.Q.R' (Sentanus Populsque Ryantown), Rob Ryan's quarterly newspaper for his shop 'Ryantown'. I kind of forgot about it, but it was pretty nice that both items arrived at the same time. This issue is all about why Rob Ryan got into ceramics and all the cool things he's producing. It's so beautiful, even for a newspaper, filled with lovely text and pretty pictures, I'd definitely buy it again. I particularly liked this issue for the exposure of the ceramic cats and dogs he does and the different ways he's painted them, makes me wish I could get my hands on a pair.






I'd definitely say these purchases were a great success and I'm so pleased. Expect to see a lot more of my Rob Ryan tote, thank you Hayley and Lucas ♥.
If you fancy one yourself, you can have a peak at the lookbook here, it's a lovely, simple shoot, I like it. There is currently free worldwide shipping on Rob Ryan Alphabet bags until 27th July.

Also, because it was too good: ♥

Tuesday Tabs #23

Happy Tuesday! I'm feeling much more pumped and ready to start the day than I was yesterday, so I'm doing this and I'm going to get stuff done. I'm wondering whether it's too soon to start thinking about changing some money over for my holiday and buying cute travel-sized products, I think I'll be waiting until payday, but I'm getting more excited by the day!

This week I've been thinking about Android apps; loving map-print things and thinking about how I should get my hair cut.

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Pug & Bulldog Cushions, £30, Urban Outfitters (1, 2)
These cushions are adorable, I don't think they'd quite go with my cat cushions but that pugs face is too much.


Cat Nightlight, £75, White Rabbit England
I've really been taking note of Fab since they launched their UK site last week. It seems to be a bit more decor-orientated than it's US counterpart, but I'm not complaining, they have some amazing stuff on there at the moment, including this cutie for a £20 off! White Rabbit is a children's lifestyle interiors company set up by sisters, Charlotte and Victoria. Okay, so this lovely bone china lamp is for kids, but I love it, they also have rabbit, owl and dog lamps that are equally adorable. They have some amazing other products too all featuring their signature critters, from bedding to crockery, I'm in love.


Was anyone else excited by the Monsters Inc prequel teaser? Everything Pixar does (except for Cars) is the greatest.


Do They Half? Shorts, $49.99, Modcloth
My fat bum wishes there were less hot-pants around so I could actually get away with going bare-legged in shorts every now and then. Why do these pastel lovelies have to be so nice?


Mapped Crusader Leggings, $34.99, Modcloth
I think that Modcloth might have lowered their international shipping, which is nice as I was pretty surprised after seeing a post Charlotte did about ordering a necklace from there and it arriving in a larger than shoebox-sized package. This recent development has had me seriously umming and ahhing over these, they're so good, I'd just be worried about them fitting so fingers crossed somewhere like ASOS will bring them over here to make for easier returns.


Map-print tee, £25, Tee & Cake for Topshop
I spotted this in-store and in terms of Topshop prices, Tee & Cake generally stick to being fairly good value and I love their designs. I just don't know about spending that much on a t-shirt at the moment, even it it would be lovely and light to wear when I go away and would go great with my green maxi skirt, it's a real thinker.

Atlas Bunting, £15.78, Gritty City Goods


This Bell Will Ring Necklace, £210, Rob Ryan for Tatty Devine
I don't think I'll ever be able to get enough of Rob Ryan's 'Bell' series, everything in it makes me feel like everything is good in the world.



'I Miss Being A Small Girl' Silk Scarf, £105.17, Rob Ryan
I love the colours of this, they're pretty patriotic. I do wear scarves quite often actually, especially when it gets to Autumn. I don't want to wish the year away though, but I would definitely like this scarf.


This is my favourite song this week, after seeing Brian Wilson live I was put off The Beach Boys for a while, but then I remember to forgive a little and just enjoy them.

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Link Love: ♥

Fab UK — If you're not familiar with Fab, they recently launched themselves in the UK after having Moon and I drooling over their US site for some time. The idea is to help you discover new designers, bringing exclusive daily deals. It's such a simple but clever idea, I love it.

Caturday Tunic

Silverware I Come From Pin — This is so cute, but I never really know how to wear pins or when I do, I forget about them and they get ruined in the wash. :(

Kris Atomic's iPhone Photo App review — I don't have an iPhone but it was useful for looking for the Android equivalent on the Google Play store as I wouldn't have known where to start. I've only just discovered her blog, but it's full of lovely photos and illustrations and it might be my new favourites, her drawings are fantastic!

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I hope to get Moon and I on a similar timetable soon, we are in need of a rug for the lounge. Do you have any fun Internet finds this week, I'm trying to keep away from my bubbling online shopping addiction, but it's always nice to look isn't it?

Tuesday Tabs #20

It's been an eventful week, and once again I've semi-failed to keep in touch with you, and if I wasn't working today, tomorrow and the day after, I would hope to share lots with you. I still do want to do that, I just don't want to make any promises, although I'm sure I'll get around to it all at some point.

Did you have a nice Jubilee weekend? Moon and I went down to Devon to stay with his Gran for a couple of days. It was okay, it's just a pity that the weather wasn't more on our side, but it was nice to grab a change of scenery. On our way back from Devon, we made a slight de-tour to Portsmouth and had a spot of lunch with Moon's brother and his girlfriend, Charlotte, before have a peak in Pie & Vinyl, which is just about the most fun idea for a shop. Anyway, I have a more visual method of sharing my adventures with you coming up, as well as a few treasures I picked up along the way, so I won't say much more.

I suppose that it's back to reality today, as although it's still the bank holiday 'weekend', certain muggins need to return to work as the masses need to be entertained. I don't mind so much but the weekend was quite busy so it would have been nice to relax and take stock for one more day.

I really haven't even got a lot to show you this week as I've been either Internetless or working, so I suppose this is just a slightly lazy way of letting you know I have some nice things to come, which I hope I do.

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(via Things Organized Neatly)

How perfect is this pantry cupboard? My favourite feature is the apple drawer at the bottom.


White Car-Print Prom Dress, £17.99, New Look
I spotted this out in Exeter on Sunday and if it had been my size, I definitely would have snapped it up, sadly it wasn't meant to be. I do have enough dresses, but this one is so cute, and the fabric is much nicer in real life than you would expect for a standard New Look dress.


'Social Media' by Paul Worm, $14.99, Society6
A dilemma I have often found myself in.
Part of a series by Paul Worm entitled, 'The Worst Thing is...'.


Lipstick Dinosaur
I can't even begin to describe how sad I am that this is now sold. She always has the nicest, most reasonably priced vintage items though, so I'm hopeful that something else I like will come up.


Narwhal & Pirate-print tights in Turquoise, £17.12, Teja Jamilla
These tights are so beautiful, but I'd be so worried about ruining them I don't think I'd be able to handle it.


Vintage Telephone, £23.36, Good Merchants
If only I had seen this before we bought our plain (and boring, as well as confusing) Tesco-Value house phone.


'Can We, Shall We' Lasercut, £90.11, Mister Rob

(via The Daily What)

Apparently I'm actually quite the semi-fan fo Robyn, and this is both adorable and incredible good, so I really like it.

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Link Love: ♥

Key Lime Pie Marshmallows — I'm not a huge fan of marshmallows, and the recipe is such a crazy, American one that these would probably be almost impossible to replicate. However, that doesn't stop me from at least thinking it would be fun to give them a try.

Hannah Curson's 3D Rainbow Cupcakes — Hannah's blog is one of my favourites, as she post such nice photographs using so many different cameras. Our first connection was through baking though, and this is a fun post showcasing some cakes she's made, as well as some cakes she'd like to make. I think these are a fair effort, even if Hannah was a bit disappointed.

'The Silent Evolution' by MUSA — Images of an underwater sculpture park I researched whilst working on the picture desk of Ink Global. They're a bit spooky but beautiful in their own way at the same time.

Pop Chart Lab Prints — I would love to get myself at least one of these, but there are so many good ones. I think my favourites are The Splendiferous Array of Culinary Tools and A Visual Compendium of Notable Haircuts in Popular Music, both under $30!

DIY Tiny Polaroid Magnets — At some point, I need to have a serious update of printed photos as I don't think, aside from ones for other people and University projects, that I've printed any photographs for display in well over a year and a half. This is a fun way to display images and seems relatively easy so definitely something I want to try out.

Rachel Bone — Lovely illustration, so happy that we have so much wall space.

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What a gloomy day, and over the weekend, something the cover of darkness hid from us last night, the lilac tree in our garden has fallen, I have no idea how to deal with this. Stay tuned, I'm going to try and make time for your because I definitely have a few things to share now.