the green gal

Nest Pretty Things

source

As you may have read in a previous post, I've been listening to lots of super interesting interviews with creative business women on SmartCreativeWomen.com. This week I caught up on a few more and heard a great chat the host, Monica, had with Tamar Schechner. Tamar's business is called Nest Pretty Things, she makes such pretty jewellery and accessories and sells her creations in her three shops on etsy – Nest Pretty Things, Nest Pretty Brides and Nest Pretty Things Kids. 

source

As I do with all of Monica's interviews I click through to the subject's website or shop or blog, and I was so taken with Tamar's jewellery. It's just so pretty! She creates everything herself, many of the elements that make up the pieces are coloured to her specification and she's really keen to make everything super strong and durable. 

source

Tamar came across so well in the interview, talking very honestly about how she runs her business, and her work is so gorgeous, I just wanted to share it with you! She lives in the US and says she has a lot of British customers, which doesn't surprise me at all. Take a look at all the links I listed above and you can read her blog too.

source

Too beautiful to tune in

source

What a beautiful piece of design. This may be a vintage radio from the 50s but I think designers today could learn a lesson from the gorgeous curves and symmetry, and the colour! Of course, a teal radio is going to win me over but whatever the colour this would still be a jolly lovely addition to my home.

PS Don't forget that all you early Christmas shoppers can get £5 off when you spend £20 at the green gables during November with code NX5!

Too beautiful for geography lessons

find it here

This is such an amazingly gorgeous typographical map painted with watercolour, I just love it. I've always found maps fascinating (I recently framed a v old map of the county we live in and have hung it in our guest bedroom) so I envy whomever gets to have this piece of art on their wall!

Palette pingpong no35

Have you dug out your woolly sweaters and big boots yet? Has the switch been flicked to kick your heating into action? It's all turned a bit chilly and autumnal, hasn't it? A pallet of logs (from a local, responsibly managed forest of course) is being delivered today so from tonight the fires will be lit in our house! If you're reading this from somewhere warm and sunny do please enjoy it on my behalf!

And from a pallet of logs to a palette of colour (like what I did there?!) it's time for palette pingpong!

Kirsty has challenged me with a lovely, summery image, which you can see on her blog, ginger and george, and from which I took a decidedly autumnal palette:

It's been a while since I've take a virtual wander around the galleries of pinterest, flickr and my favourite blogs so I decided this palette was a good excuse to indulge in some pretty picture searching, and here is what I came across:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Like the charming vintage photo frames I've used? I bought the digi kit yonks ago but this is the first time I've used it and I love the effect it gives the images. The hugely talented Danielle Thompson of Kitschy Digitals created the Vintage Cabinet Cards kit, as well as tonnes more, that are available at JessicaSprague.com. Kirsty brought Danielle's work to my attention a couple of years ago and in fact made some beautiful bunting and a needle case out of this very same kit, check it out here.

I hope you enjoyed this week's palette pingpong, if you feel inspired to make your own colour swatches we'd love to see them!

Summer sale at the green gables

Another year older, where does the time go? Today is my birthday and in celebration I am having a mega clear-out of old stock to make way for lovely new stock at the green gables! Plus I thought I'd treat you to a special offer on a few popular items.

find more here

You can find brilliant bargains at my website and my etsy store, just click on the words to see what's up for grabs, or on the images in this post.

find more here

I will no longer be making and selling fabric bunting, mini bags, mini pinnies or fabric bunting art so get them while you can – they're all at HALF their original prices!

find more here

New lovely creations are in progress right now and I will soon need clean virtual shop shelves to display them on.

find it here

My website is also having a bit of a revamp so hopefully in a couple of weeks I can share it with you – it's all go at the green gables!

Five lovely things 6

How are you all, lovely blog readers? Hope you've all had a lovely week and are looking forward to an even lovelier weekend.

So to this week's five lovely things. No1 is that I'm so pleased the warm weather has provoked the rose bush in my garden into action, it's SO pretty when it blooms, just hope it lasts for a few more weeks…

Is there a way to find out what type of rose this is? Or is it just generic cream rose?

At No2 is spending time last weekend with three of my nieces and nephews, they're such gorgeous little people and always make me smile with their adorableness.

As promised, here is the lovely iPad case I ordered for my hand-me-down iPad, my lovely thing No3. Made by Tillymoss on etsy, it's perfectly made and I love how the retro prints contrast with the technology it's keeping cosy inside.

When the iPad is slid fully inside there is a loop that fastens over the button keeping the iPad snug and safe

I am thrilled to have gained three new stockists for the green gables products this week so that's at No4. More about them to come…

And lastly at No5 is that Mollie Makes magazine is finally out, yay! There's been a lot of buzz about it and it absolutely lives up to the hype. I stayed up last night to read it cover to cover, it's as if the editorial team held a focus group in my head, found out what would make an ideal creative living magazine for me, and then went back to their office and produced it! The opening page has four – I suppose you could call them mission statements – and they totally match up to my ethos. Love, love, love Mollie Makes, I urge you to find a copy or get the digital version here.

Palette pingpong no27: printable bunting

Today's palette pingpong picture inspiration is such a pretty photo and from one of my favourite blogs. You'll need to check in at Kirsty's blog, ginger and george, to see but here is the palette I took from it:

Because the pretty colours just sang Spring to me I decided I just had to make some bunting using the palette (any excuse!):

As you will have seen from the previous blog post, I have created a set of printable Royal Wedding mini bunting that is the perfect solution to the last minute need for some patriotic decorations. You can read more about the bunting in my blog post here, and you can find the printable bunting here. 

For my blog readers I have an extra treat, you can get the above palette pingpong-inspired Spring-y mini bunting as a bonus printable pdf when you buy the Royal Wedding printable mini bunting. On the bonus pdf you'll get eight diamond flags to cut out, fold over a length of ribbon or string and glue to make a quick and pretty mini garland. And as you have the bunting as a pdf, you can print it out as many times as you like! (But it's only for personal use please.)

You can buy the Royal Wedding bunting here, just let me know in the message section that you're a blog reader so I'll make sure to send you the bonus bunting too.

And in case you managed to miss the last PPP (note from your mother please) do check it out again here because you don't want to miss Kirsty's super gorgeous bunny garland.

Happy bunting making!

Printable Royal Wedding bunting

find the printable bunting here

If you're a smidgen late with sorting out decorations for Friday's Royal Wedding, don't worry! I have put together a digital mini bunting kit which can be emailed to you for speedy decoration making.

Simply order this digital red, white and blue printable garland and once you receive the pdf file you can print and make as many lengths of Royal Wedding bunting as you like! 

The pdf file consists of three pages of mini diamond flags – eight patterned and 16 that spell out 'William & Kate 2011' – and instructions how to make your garland.

You can buy your printable mini bunting from my etsy store here. Let the wedding celebrations begin!

Loveliness

Etsy finds…

music, watch, locket, book

Palette pingpong no23

My word, don't Thursdays come round quickly? I hope everybody is ready for a little bit of palette pingpong action!

Kirsty challenged me with a lovely pic this week and if you ping over to her blog, ginger and george you can see it.

So, here is the palette I came up with, a bit of a surprise from the pastel shades I was expecting…

For a change I thought I would have a mooch around etsy.com and find some pretty things for sale that match my palette. The result is…

Vintage Sams  Simply Chacha  dapper dean

Two Little Doves  Sycamore Street Press Humboldt Street

Although this isn't the palette I thought I'd come up with, I really, really like it. There's an earthy, old-fashioned quality about it that I just really warm to. Ah yes, they're warm shades too! The etsy finds are a beautiful collection too, I hope you agree.

For anyone who's a bit baffled about what this palette pingpong is all about, you can read the first post here which should reveal all…