pinterest pick of the week...

Welcome to another Friday! Today here in the UK it's Children in Need, a yearly charity event that takes over the brains of ordinary normal people and makes them do crazy weird things to raise money for children here in the UK and abroad, (dip in a bath of beans anyone?) Now I suppose your wondering what these totally rad trainers have to do with that...well, my sister is a personal trainer/fitness instructor and is holding a Children in Need Zumba party in the theme of 80's exercise gear at her gym tonight! So in keeping with the general theme of 80's madness I have found an amazing treasure trove of eighties goodness for our pinterest picks today, something a little more fun and out there than usual! This fab board is curated by Nicole Alexandra and is titled Everything Awesome about growing up in the 80's! So dig out the leg warmers (maybe some sunglasses for all the neon!) and get all nostalgic...x

 

 

 

 

 

 

I totally need all of these for tonight! The T-Shirt clips and leg warmers for the look, the flying saucers and Slush puppies for the sugar rush to keep me going! I had a card of stick on earrings exactly like this when I was young, same picture and everything! Hope you all have a fun weekend and as usual click the links above for sources.x

littletree visits...ikea

Hello again! Now if you follow me on Facebook you may have noticed that I posted I was off to Ikea on Monday...nope? Well never mind because I'm still going to share all the glorious christmas goodies that were on offer plus a Top 10 of my Favourite Festive Buys! How cute is this wall hanging? (above) Not sure it's particularly festive but I soooo want one! Wolf or Goat? Hmm...tricky. Enjoy!x

 

 

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all images in the top 10 from ikea

I love the little paper birdies and the wall light that I bought and literally cannot wait to put them up! I totally love the patterned glasses and bottle, they would be excellent filled with a spicy christmas drink for the table. I really like the mix of super modern (angel no5) and traditional (raffia goat no4) that they do so well at Ikea. What are your favourite festive buys?x

read all about it!

Attention my lovely readers, are you listening close? The new issue of Sweet Paul was launched today and it is a true winter extravaganza! Super festive interiors, recipes, craft and gift ideas galore! Check it out right here...x

image borrowed from the lovely bright bazaar blog

magnetic advent calendar...

Hey everyone, hope you're all having a good week so far? Today I'm sharing a little project I've been working on for a while, a magnetic advent calendar! I got the idea after I bought a sample pack of magnetic paper to try with another project and thought it would be a more creative alternative to traditional cardboard advent calendars. The design is based around a pile of presents that would grow bigger everyday, adding piece by piece until the 25th. I've gone for a more modern christmas colour palette with a kind of minty green and softer red mixed with peachy pink and a turquoise to perk it all up a bit. This is the arrangement I designed (above) but you could easily play around and make some crazy lopsided piles (below) that look like they might fall any minute! Obviously this would work really well with a white fridge but I still think it looks pretty good...what do you think of my idea? I would love to know! x

 I apologise for the poor quality pics but it was a bit dark in my kitchen yesterday afternoon!

littletree discovers...clare halifax

Now if you remember last week I visited the Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery to see the Angie Lewin / Rob Ryan exhibition and while I was there I saw these lovely prints for sale by the wonderful Clare Halifax. I love Clare's style and use of structured pattern mixed with inky sketches of English cities. The simple colour palettes with a pop of colour make the prints really striking, for example the bright red bus in the picture above. These pictures I took don't do Clare's work justice so I popped along to her website and flickr stream to view some more in all their glory and I'm going to share a few of my favourites with you! Hope you enjoy and if your interested in seeing more (and in their full size) then do visit by clicking on the links above...x

Balloons over Bristol

Going Under Clifton Bridge

2 Come at Once

Bridge to St Pauls

Pigeon 'Flirty'

Jubilee Pool - Penzance

Bridge of Sighs - Cambridge

All above images from Clare Halifax's Flickr Photostream.

littletree's wishlist...lovely books

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Hello again, hope you all had lovely weekends? The sun did peek his head out on Sunday which was lovely as it had been miserable and cold with a bizarre rolling mist for most of the week! To keep myself entertained I started to write my Christmas list (eep!) and as usual I mainly want books! I was going to make it a top 5 but then I just had to add one more, ( I could easily add more but one needed some self restraint!) mind you this is just my list of creative/design related books...there are cookery books too! But I thought I would save that for another time....Print & Pattern 2 by Bowie Style is my number one, must have choice but I'm pretty sure that someone has got me that already so just patience is required, in the mean time the blog of the same name will keep me going! I recently found a shop that actually stocked Decorate by the lovely Holly Becker (of the blog decor8) and Joanna Copestick and spent a merry 15 minutes browsing the beautiful pages, I had to put it down before I read it all! I wanted the book already but now I want it even more! How many lovely books are on your wishlist for this Christmas? x

pinterest pick of the week...

Hello Friday, you here again so soon?! November is already flying by and I find that all a bit scary...I've had a bit of a blue week this week and it can be very hard to pull myself up out of the depths. I'm very lucky to have some amazing friends who are always there to listen and be positive for me, even when I can't be positive for myself. So for todays pinterest picks I've chosen a few favourite positive sayings from my very own pinterest board Words and more... And if you're having a bit of a bum day hopefully these will perk you up. Hope you all have lovely weekends and see you again soon. x

As usual click the links above for sources.x

littletree visits...angie lewin & rob ryan exhibition

Hi folks! Hope you didn't miss me too much yesterday but I was out and about in Cambridge again! I had read a while ago about the Angie Lewin & Rob Ryan exhibition and I just had to pop along as I had never seen any of their works in person, my Mum wanted to come along too as she is a big Angie fan (she has the book that I bought for her last Christmas) so off we went and a jolly nice day we had to!

As you can see there was a really lovely selection of work on display and for sale too! Amazingly the gallery were offering a deposit and then a 10 month interest free payment plan for any of the pictures so anyone could afford a beautiful piece of art. Plus there were lots of prints for sale by various artists, some I had heard of, some I had not...more on my new discoveries next week!

There were plenty of stunning cards and boxed notelets to buy as well as a few other interesting pieces on display. I purchased just a little souvenir card but my Mum kindly bought me a stunning Rob Ryan tile (below) as a Christmas present, so I managed to get a quick pic before it was whisked away!

I hope you have enjoyed my little exhibition tour, if you are around Cambridge I urge you to stop by the Cambridge Contemporary Art gallery, the exhibit was free and is still on until the 20th of November. You can even pop next door to the Michaelhouse Cafe, like we did, for a scrummy lunch or coffee in truly glorious surroundings as you can see below! We had quiche and a fab selection of salads for just over £6 so a real bargain too! Don't forget about Pinterest Pick of the Week tomorrow, hope to see you then...x

littletree's top five blogs...with fab shops

Hello again, nice to see you! Last month I launched a new regular post called top five blogs, now I never thought I would find another five wonderful blogs to share with you again so soon but here we are! This month I am sharing some new blogs I have found that are run by fabulously talented people and have fantastic shops packed full of goodies to ooh and ahh over, perfect for this pre-christmas time of year...hope you get a few ideas for those one off gifts you know no-one else will have!x

Amy Blackwell Blog / Shop

Mon Carnet Blog / Eva Juliet Shop

Monda Loves Blog / Shop

Mellybee Blog / Shop

Simply Hue Blog / Shop

All images from their respective shops and blogs so please click on the links to visit any of the sites. Enjoy!x