Designasaurus

I love, love, love Australian jewellery brand Dinosaur Designs!

Cutting edge, eclectic, colourful, creative and funky they've got it nailed!

I think what I like most about their pieces are the slight imperfections and lack of straight lines - don't get me wrong though, their pieces are still highly beautiful and desirable but they've got that handcrafted almost child like appeal to them!

Dinosaur Designs stand alone with their highly unique resin pieces, they were amongst the first to play with this new material in terms of jewellery design and it led them to create endless colour combinations, shapes,designs and textures.

Dinosaur Designs right from the beginning gained the reputation for one of a kind, statement and ornate jewellery and still to this day has this distinct reputation to their credit.

Dinosaur Designs began solely in designing / making jewellery in 1986 and by 1990 they were swiftly moving into homeware pieces after finding that there was not much in the current market place to satisfy their wild design aesthetic. Serving spoons, one of a kind serving bowls and cups just to name a few of their bits and pieces. This move into homewares helped to expanded their clientele and spread the Dinosaur Designs image and message.

Dinosaur Designs is a now well established Australian and international brand with stores open in New York, as well as exporting to more than 20 countries worldwide.

The pieces might set you back in terms of moola, but these pieces are not to be missed! The colours are dizzying and the rustic, rough shapes and designs are tantalising!

If you've got the cash to splash, then there is no doubt a piece waiting to entice and capture you! They've branched into metals and woods as well now, so if resin isn't your thing they've got you covered.

Check out www.dinosaurdesigns.com.au for their latest collections.

Note that all pieces are still lovingly designed and manufactured in Australia! <3

Zara is coming!!

So i've obviously been living under a rock, but I only found out about 2 weeks ago that the Spanish mega brand Zara will be opening in Australia!! Even better, the first store will be in Sydney's brand new re-vamped Westfield in Pitt Street mall! Not only will it be amazing but it's going to be 3 levels of amazing, predicting to be one level for each women's, men's and kids stuff, with homewares hopefully crammed in there somewhere.

I jumped the gun a little and have been anticipating shopping expeditions at Zara before Christmas but was sadly disappointed to find out that Zara is expected to open in the second stage of the new Westfield due in April.

I'm sure that waiting an extra four Zara free months won't kill me but it sure does hurt walking past that giant 'Zara coming soon!" sign in the space where Zara will soon occupy.

For all of you unfamiliar with Zara, it's a little like Witchery with a dash of Country Road but so much cooler and loads more fashion forward. Classic, cool and cutting edge all at the time! Zara's design ethos is; runway to store floor in only 2 weeks! So it's all fresh new lines and pieces constantly, not to mention the affordability and quality of their clothing and accessories! Get excited, as i'm sure once Zara hits it will spread like wild fire - but you might just like it so much that you don't want to tell anyone, I understand!

You can start your love affair with Zara right now by jumping on the website and checking out the latest collection.

www.zara.com

On another note Hennes and Mauritz otherwise known as H&M is currently scouting for the perfect spot to launch H&M in Australia, I just knew it was on the cards!

H&M - I heart you!

So there was a serious lack of updates here for the past 4 months, my apologies - I was just having the time of my life driving all over Europe with my Danny in a little Peugeot 207 named Claudia - Seeing amazing things, eating delicious new foods, shopping in new stores, meeting friends both new and old - it was all too good to be true! And while I wish that it could have lasted the rest of my lifetime - here I am back in Sydney back to my boring old life, suffering from post holiday depression. Every now and then I have these flashbacks ... riding my bike through little backstreets in Paris, riding a camel named Shareef through the Saharan desert in Morocco, eating ice-cream on a pier in Barcelona - the list goes on.

However one of my favourite memories in Europe is falling head over heels in love with H&M, now for those of you who are unfamiliar with H&M. It is a Swedish clothing store that caters to men, women and children. They have all the latest styles and pieces at amazingly cheap prices! Think the wonderfulness of Ikea but relate it all to fashion.

I quite literally couldn't resist slipping into H&M where ever I happened to be, it didn't help my credit card that H&M has shops in almost every country in Europe either, but what's a girl to do? And at such reasonable prices, my baggage seemed to be growing at an alarming rate every with city I visited.

So not only do they have amazingly up to date fashion at very reasonable prices, they are sure to kit you out starting from your underwear right through to finishing touches like the shoes bags and accessories, they really haven't missed a beat!

But wait, I haven't even mentioned the best part, with H&M reaching such a large market of women and men all over the world top designers are literally fighting to design tweaked and affordable collections that are ready and good to go. Need names? Try Karl Lagerfeld, Jimmy Choo, Stella McCartney, Viktor and Rolf just to name a few.

But why am I rubbing this in? With H&M in over 37 countries and rapidly expanding - there's bound to be one in the works for Australia along the line somewhere - so get excited!

They are currently updating the website and have just introduced online shopping, however only shipping to the UK (big sad face!) but I can only imagine that it will soon spread and hopefully down under to our corner of the world -fingers crossed!

In the meantime go and check out their latest collection online!

www.hm.com

Enjoy!

DIY Candy Wrappers

I simply can't resist beautiful handmade bits and bobs so when I saw this little DIY project I just couldn't say no. I just wish I had seen it about 3 weeks ago so I could have made my mummy a sweet little personalized candy bar for Mother's Day :)

Although I can't speak from experience, as I have not yet had a go at this project, it looks pretty straight forward. Plus the step by step photo's surely help!


You will need:

-Chocolate candy bars (either 2.6 oz or 5 oz sizes)
-A Colour Printer (or a friend with one)
-Standard printer paper (white, color, or patterned will work) or self-adhesive paper
-Decorative Paper (be creative... you could use: graph paper, contact paper, vellum, magazine pages, etc.)
-Scissors
-Glue or double-sided tape
-Pens or Pencils for addressing your labels

1. Buy your favorite candy bars 2.6 oz. or 5 oz. (for this project you will need to select bars that come foil-wrapped with a removable paper label).
2. Carefully remove the paper labels from your candy bars. If stuck, use a dull instrument to gently loosen label.
3. Print the PDF files (above) and cut around each one.
4. Select a decorative paper of your choosing.
5. Cut to size (6" x 5.25" for 2.6 oz bars and 6.75" x 8.25" for 5 oz bars). Wrap each candy bar, securing in back with glue or double-sided tape.
6. Adhere your decorative labels to the front of the candy bars and address them as you wish.
Labels can be downloaded here in big or small

This tutorial came from the wonderful and fun Creature Comforts Blog by Ez.
Be sure to check it out for lots of other goodies and tricks.

www.creaturecomfortsblog.com

I'll be sure to post some photos up when I get round to completing mine!

Apartment Therapy

For all you sticky beaks, much like myself here's a website you may want to check out -
If not for the sheer enjoyment of looking inside other people's homes then definitely for some interior decoration/ styling or design inspiration.



Apartment Therapy takes you on a tour in and around the homes of people all over the world with all different styles, colour schemes and tastes.
Their mission is to help people create more organised and beautiful homes by simply showing them a plethora of other homes decorated and organised in any - and just about every way and style you've ever dreamed of.



They also have all kinds of great articles on DIY for all you budding little creators as well as many specialized articles for those who know their design all too well. If you like reclaimed timber then they've got an article waiting just for you!



So if you're looking for something to inspire and help get you off your butt to complete your home or room or whatever it is you've been dreaming about, then this may just be it, or it may juat help you along the way.



Enjoy, although I can't say you won't get carried away with ideas and themes and most of all the time like I did.

Happy browsing!!
www.apartmenttherapy.com



xx


P.S
I'll have to admit the hardest part of this post was choosing my favourite pics to match!
As you can tell - for me there can never be enough white in one room!

Fun with Polyvore

Imagine being able to pull your dream outfit together without even leaving your seat.

It's now possible at Polyvore and it's possibly the most fun I've had in a long time!

I've always, always, always loved ripping old magazines apart and putting collages together! But this really has brought it to a brand new level.
You can create your own little page of whatever style, colour or trend you want and the whole web is your oyster for doing so. Plus they've done loads of the searching for you so it's super user friendly.
Let's say you wanted a picture of a pair of jeans; all you need to type in the little search box is 'jeans' and it will literally come up with thousands of jeans sourced from all over the world, and best of all it's all latest season so there's a link which takes you straight to the site where they were sourced from so you can purchase it right then and there.If you want to search by a brand; type in 'Miu Miu' for instance and it will come up with all the listed Miu Miu products. You can also search by colour or even a general search like 'tassles' or 'military' will get this baby going.

It's just like creating your own magazine style page, you can add a little caption, a background and even crop picture of a model in or even something straight from the runway to make it look really real.
Best of all it's completely free! However I can't guarantee that somewhere along the line you won't be tempted to buy something that you've suddenly fallen in love with. Then all of a sudden you'll be on their website and clicking purchase before you know it ... just like I already have.

So go, create and have fun! www.polyvore.com

Here's one I had fun with earlier, all a girl needs is a good pair of jeans!




xx

The Sartorialist

A mecca for style and fashion junkies, The Sartorialist is an amazing and inspiring website run by New Yorker, Scott Schuman.
In short Scott takes his camera on his way through the über fashionable cities of New York, Milan, Paris, London, Stockholm (and the rest) and photographs those on the street who catch his eye with some outrageously 'real' styling. It's sort of a celebration of style, fashion and the guts to wear whatever you like with worldwide recognition in tow. The result is a mish mash of styles and tastes, and a great source for all kinds of inspiration. I guess that's why it was ranked the most influential blog of2009.

I find that the simplicity and the reality of the shots are what really makes it work, It's a form of people watching I guess, I can totally relate to the shots - they're so believable. You could easily slip yourself into the scene- sitting in a cafè in Paris on a sunny Summer day and watching that girl across the street parking her bike in her chic white shift dress and candy coloured heels. It's like that double take, captured to be admired.

The extravagance of some of the ensembles and styling never ceases to amaze me, do people actually get around in these amazing clothes in everyday life? I can honestly say looking at all the photos makes me re-think my own sense of style every single time without a doubt.


Looking at all the pictures really makes me appreciate the layering and the combination's people manage to pull together, sometimes exquisite and other times so very clashed and wrong that it becomes eerily beautiful.

The other great thing about the Sartorialist is that Scott not only features women but also men; in an array of suits and everyday wear. Mixed up and mis-matched in ways you've probably never seen before. I love the endless colour, patterns and texture combinations that men manage to bring out in the formal and informal suits in the photographs.


I've been coming back to the Sartorialist every month or so now for about the last two years and for me the captivation and inspiration hasn't stopped. I still find myself pouring over all the new photographs like I did the very first time.

So all I have left to say is check it out www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com
You won't be disappointed!

Missoni: Amorè!

So i've always, always, always loved Missoni!
UK's What not to Wear's Trinny and Sussanah rave about Missoni's knack for flawless colour matching, juxtaposition and blending, and I can honestly agree.
How can you look at these beautiful, colourful patterns and not be inspired? The simplicity captivates me every time and the use of such vibrant colours makes me ga-ga!


I always love those bits in styling magazines (they even have them in sunday paper supplement mags too now!) where they show the inside of someone's home. I've always been so curious as to how people choose to decorate the space in which they inhabit.
But in one of these magazines a woman had Missoni hand towels in her bathroom, which automatically caught my eye. Her sneaky tip was to buy smaller (and lower priced) Missoni items such as the signature pattern hand towels and blend them in with the rest of her neutral/ white coloured bath towels. It automatically brightened up the whole set with that little designer touch and still looked fab! I suppose it's a little more boyfriend friendly too. Orson & Blake sell a range of Missoni towels in store and online, last time I checked handtowels started at an affordable $32 and bath towels $88. With beach towels at $299 - totally extravagant but definitely on my 'I want' list!



The other thing I love about Missoni's bold patterns is that they translate so well from homewares to fashion and almost everything inbetween. I guess it comes down to the simplicity of the pattern, but there's something so chìc about a little wrap dress in that signature print or their swimwear which is simply stunning. Needless to say when I found this Missoni swimsuit I fell in love, and I guess Giselle wearing it makes it just that little bit more breath taking!


I don't think I could possibly skip mentioning Missoni's range of Margherita dinnerware. I don't think I can put into words how much I love these pieces! They are just so gorgeous and it simply just makes me happy looking at them, it might be the joyful bright colours and patterns used but all I can say is that to me its a few dollars splurged- but well spent.



All this Missoni dreaming has really inspired me and i've been designing some Easter cards with eggs on them with a Missoni-ish print. Funnily enough I can clearly remember as a child loving to draw zigzag patterns over and over again in all my favourite colours, and here I am all these years later still doing the same...
I'll try to get some photo's of them up a.s.a.p

Until later...

Danielle x

I Heart Blush Designs is Born!

Welcome to Blush Designs via the web!
I intend to keep everyone posted and up to date with my latest designs and creations as well as a few stories about me along the way!

Enjoy!

Danielle
x x