Melbourne artist Madeleine Stamer is the bomb.

I so love these drawings by Australian artist Madeleine Stamer. When I first saw her work I was drawn to the bold and playful simplicity of each piece. They totally reminded me of a mix between Mexican paper cutouts and Chagall (fancy!).

An interview I read confirmed these influences:

There are so many influences which fall into many categories. Nature, natural history, mythology, graffiti, Aboriginal art, European folk art, vintage toys and the decorative arts all play a big role. I love a bit of kitsch too, I guess the most significant artistic influences for my colour and line choice would be Picasso and Chagall. Culturally I am a sucker for folk art, particularly Mexican ceramics and traditional Mexican decoration and religious iconography. The Mexican culture has an instinctive way of including vibrant colour and mixing surreal elements in everyday life, it is a sensory delight!

Excerpt from interview in Indie Art & Design

Aren't they great?

To see more of Madeleine's work, or to purchase a giclee print for your very own, visit Little Circus Design. She also has a cute little blog here.

Presents are my bag, baby.

Perhaps you remember my quest for this awesome Orla Kiely bag? It's a super cute bag and though a little pricey, seemed fun and useful and something I could schlep all my stuff around in for ages. I was torn between two colors (treated like a fool....lalalala. A little Mary MacGregor 70s sap rock anyone?) and you kind folks even voted to help me chose. The problem was, the bag is discontinued and hard as hell to find. Well last month was my 8 year wedding anniversary and look what my super adorable (and style savvy) hubs bought me!!!

Awww, how cute is that? The super cute, lemon yellow Orla Kiely button bag. Weeee! He read my post and hunted this bag down. I was sooo touched by his sweetness and thought it was genius that he had read Strawberry Lemonade for ideas. Yay! Except....well....except he didn't really read that closely or he would have seen that....

I already posted about how, after massive web sleuthing, I found and bought myself the red bag as a treat for slaving so hard at work. EEP!!!! It was like the Gift of the Magi or something. I think we truly bought that last two bags of these kind for sale out there. I hadn't had a chance to show him the red bag, which had arrived the day before and as I opened up his amazingly sweet and thoughtful prezzie I kind of gulped. Like, do I pretend I never got the red one? Do I sell it? Hide it under the bed?? Waaah.

Being the good little George Washington that I am, however, I couldn't tell a lie. I had to come clean and show it to him. Greg thought it was pretty hilarious but immediately said, "Um, you know you can't keep them both right?" *sigh* I know, I know. I decided to let Wolfie pick the winning color, because I honestly couldn't decide. The yellow was so sunshiney and sweet, but the red felt more "me". And so the winning bag (drum roll please):

I love it. And I love Greg for getting it for me. He has always been one of the most thoughtful, awesome present-givers in the whole wide world. He's a keeper, that Greg.

The beautiful yellow Orla bag will being going up on ebay if any of you lovely readers have a hankerin'. It's truly lovely and so pretty.

Pencils Down, Everyone.

Some folks like to draw with charcoal. Others with pastels. Some with pencil. Well, groovy Australian artist Ghostpatrol does it one better. He likes to draw ON pencils. I just love these.

Purple Reign.

My very first favorite color, when I was a little girl, was purple. Purple eventually gave way to pink and then red and blue took their place at the top of the list. But there is something about purple that always pulls me back. I wouldn't say it's my favorite color, but I still really love it. Purple gets a bad rap sometimes (all those dalliances with the wizard-n-crystals set, doncha know) but at its best i think its moody and regal and perty as can be.

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

We now return to our regularly schedule programming.

OK people. Thank you for indulging me in my series of ME ME ME posts. I am recovering from Halloween mania quite nicely and have lots of vintage goodies and other randomness up my sleeve to share with you this week. It was fun to spread the Halloween lerve, but I'm ready to get back to business. That's all. Carry on!

We Tricked and Treated.

ARGH matey! So we had a pretty great Halloween. I'm usually a fan of costumes you make yourself, but this year I decided to bust out and buy a pirate costume. Problem was, this cheapo outfit made me look like I should be workin' as a waitress at a Long John Silvers ("Will ye be havin' hushpuppies with yer orderrrrrrrrrr??"). Whoooo chile, the puffy sleeve action was outta control. I ended up adding my own skirt and boots and tights for the deal and have to admit, I had a the best time talking like a pirate the whole night (annoying everyone around me to be sharrrrrrrrrrr!)

We got a little costume happy over here during the course of the weekend. We went to a cocktail party on Friday (kids welcome, which was a great....we all got to have our lil drinkies and the kids had a blast munching on the outrageous snack table). Greg was out of control and had THREE costumes he wore throughout the weekend. He went as the "Elegant Giraffe" to Wolfie's school party (aka, he put on his Frankenstein suit and then Wolfie decided the mask was too scary and asked him to wear the giraffe mask instead...so he was a giraffe in a suit and bow tie. Oddly charming!). Next up, Friday night, he went as Gallagher, the crazy 70s/80s comedian who used to smash watermelons. A bit obscure, but hilarious whether you knew who he was or not. Then on Saturday, his kid band The Time Outs played the Bay Area Discovery museum—I convinced him that the kids would have NO CLUE who Gallagher was, so he did a last minute make shift super hero outfit and went as Super Greg (complete with a towel cape and a sparkly motorcycle helmet, from an old Evel Knievel costume of mine years ago). The audience ate it up! He's pretty amazing on stage—the kiddies love his goofball antics. Wolfie was pleased as punch with his Ash outfit. For those of you who have yet to experience a child who worships at the alter of Pikachu, Ash is Pikachu's "Boy". He looked rather cute, I must say, and wore the hat and gloves ALLLLLL day long with out a fuss. High five!















OH! And I forgot. For Wolfie's school Harvest Festival, we dug out last year's Pikachu costume and this time Greg was Ash (which brings Greg's costume tally up to FOUR). Yes, Wolfie has Pokemon fever. I had bought the Ash outfit offa eBay last year and it came the day after Halloween (boooo) so we decided they should team up this year just for the Festival:




Whew. I'm exhausted but still have loads of little mini twix bars to much on. As nutz as it all was, I skooted over to Target the next day to snag all the sale goodies so we can decorate propa next year! Best score: the light up jar of gurgling, floating eye balls. Bwah hahaha!