Polly Jones

I was gob-smacked when I found Polly Jones' painting blog.... her paintings are awesome! I just had a look back to her earlier paintings from 4 years ago when she began blogging and her work has become more refined and more fresh at the same time. Her paintings are just lovely to look at and as a still life painter, I really admire the freshness and vitality of her work. Here are some of my favourites, which, I have to admit, I keep on going back to look at again and again.

Two Teapots
This painting is from 2006. The teapot at the back drew me to it, with it's detail and reflected colours on the surface.

Silver Sugar Bowl
Having attempted to paint a silver teapot I know how difficult it is to paint silver, but she makes it look so easy!!

Limes in Blue Willow
I just love the detail in the willow china in this one.

Clementines in Blue Willow
and again a completely different willow...

Blue Willow with a Chance of Tea
such an amazing teaspoon!

Daffodil
Love this work in progress shot

Still life
The glass dish here is incredible!

Strawberries
You could just pick one up off the plate and eat it!

Peach Puzzle
Just look at the reflection of the tea towel in the underside of the bowl - gorgeous!

Homage to Matisse

work in progress

Milk Glass Vase and others
I wanted to see more of the painting in the top left of this shot...

...and here it is!
This Lime That Lemon

Mixing Oil and Water
The glass here is one of my favourties!

Winter Sunflowers
One of the best for last - that clear glass vase and water are so beautiful!
all images from polly jones

birthday books & etc

Each year I receive a book gift voucher from someone or other. This year my two brothers and sister in law gave me an amazon voucher which I have almost finished spending. I bought:

well, this one is a dvd box set

... but what a great birthday present!!

images from amazon

May calendar

I've been so busy lately I forgot to upload my May calendar. The 2 images are from Wood & wool stool on flickr. She also has a wonderful blog here and website here.

Doshi-Levien

Doshi Levien are a very successful design duo based in London. Although they both studied furniture design, their work has covered many areas of design and is a hybrid of Indian hand-crafted textiles with industrial design and craftsmanship, creating a unique look. They've created installations for the Wellcome Trust, design for Nokia, product design for Tefal as well as many other top clientelle.

My Beautiful Backside sofa

Principessa

Charpoy

Paper planes

flickr faves

I do spend a lot of time - too much time in fact - staring at the pages of flickr. So here are some of my favourites with no particular theme. You can view them here.

puremotif

majlee

majlee

moodboardblog

majlee

moodboardblog

moodboardblog

karaku

such pretty things

craft and creativity

jenny b allsort

redecorating

This is our existing home office and a close-up of the bathroom-tiled fireplace taken a couple of years ago. It's an absolutely chaotic space where we can't move without knocking our legs into something painful. Once we find somewhere else to work and move the office out of the house I'll be able to turn this room back into a peaceful sitting room. I've gathered some ideas but don't know whether I should go rustic or country, Scandinavian or Moroccan... anyway, I've got plenty of time to figure it all out! Here are some of my favourite living/sitting room looks.

location collective

wary meyers

house beautiful

southern living

australian country style

inspiration

I always find red inspiring. I've started a new still life painting of red-ish items from around the house. It's something I've been wanting to do for ages. Next on the still life painting list are Asian and Oriental crockery items - they are just so beautiful! The red Gerbera in this image has just re-flowered - it's a pot plant I bought in the supermarket last summer which has survived in my kitchen throughout the winter, not the least from much daily watering and tlc.