small magazine's autumn 09 issue

small magazine presents a lovely online collection of the best art, photography, design, clothing, and general goodies for the little ones -- this jam-packed issue features the lovely art of Lisa Golightly (Kiki and Polly) and Isabelle Arsenault. You'd be mad not to check it out, here.

i was very honored and quite thrilled to be interviewed for Bonham Knightsbridge's Period Design catalog in August, and i absolutely loved looking through all the fabulous lots; it was difficult to chose just a few to discuss. i'm hoping there will be a sale while i'm in England in October . . . could be double dangerous! but, thanks, Charlie et al, especially Megs.  It was a delight to be the featured designer in August's Period Design!

for the little ones . . . fall edition

photo via anthropologie, owl available here

if you know her, you'll not be surprised that caroline MUST have this owl !

so, fall, for me, isn't just thoughts of mums, pumpkins, trick or treating, and on to the mad dash through turkey eating and on again to the holidays -- it's more fundamental, a response to the days drawing in and the chill in the air -- i find myself thinking of some of my favorite times from my childhood in Scotland; dark afternoons before Brownies meetings in the church crypt, the sing song chant of twenty little girls, "good evening Brown Owl, Good evening Tawny Owl, good evening, friend Brownie" our greeting to each other, - and the drive home for a "tea" of toasted cheese, thinking of carved turnips, not pumpkins, and the magic of enid blyton books and bonfire night ahead . . . maybe that's why i have a soft spot for owls . . . we actually have a big barn owl resident in our back garden; he sometimes comes near the driveway to "visit" our bunnies and eat their fallen food, much to their chagrin! So, in honor of and in hopes of a quieter, maybe simpler, more magical fall, here are a few of our new and old favorites, for the little ones ... 

 first, the eponymous british fairy stories by the eponymous british author, enid blyton, a trilogy, the enchanted wood, the faraway tree, and the folk of the faraway tree, available here 

photo courtesy amazon.com

 

next, evocative and adorable art from favorite etsy artists kikiandpolly and creative thursday

 

photos courtesy creative thursday and kikiandpolly, all rights reserved

so perfect for children, and us, . . . and so sweet

and more etsy favorites~

 

photo courtesy girlsavage, all rights reserved

girlsavage's jaunty jackalope

 

 

photo courtesy feltmates, all rights reserved

feltmates friendly, fuzzy owl measuring tape (extra cute gift!)

 

photo courtesy isewlucky, all rights reserved

isewlucky's fab fabric owl, with dressmaker detailing

 

photo courtesy nyhop, all rghts reserved

nyhop's gentle-faced bunnies (you can request a portrait of your own bunny on a shirt -we'll be doing this with a portrait of our lovely little angus and rosie ~)

~so you see why we LOVE etsy~

and just one more etsy thing

photo courtesy fairyfolk, all rights reserved

woodland gnome in a snug little woodland home, from fairyfolk

~the fergusandme family wishes you magic this fall, and forever~

 

 

Love anthro's retro modern cuckoo clocks -- bright, fun patterns and pom pom esque pendulum!

angus and rosie

meet angus and rosie, our beloved bunnies, the sweetest, gentlest, most affectionate and darling pets that any family could have (except when they're chewing my laptop power cord, which they attempted to get away with -it wasn't plugged in- right after i snapped this butter-wouldn't-melt-in-our-mouths portrait!!) 

Anyway, we LOVE these bunnies (don't tell fergus!) 

So, we bet you're wondering what the point of this delightful ode to bunnies really is?? Well, it's a warm and fuzzy kind of how-to, a step by step description of one of our favorite fergusandme homemade wall art projects -- 

the ten by ten close up portrait on "canvas", cheap and cheerful edition.  here's how:

first

take a close up, or crop a shot of a favorite animal or child or part of said animal or child (i'm thinking tiny feet on a baby, a little hand curled around a big one, an impish smile that just reaches the sparkling eyes . . . you get the idea)~

second

use your favorite photo manipulation tool (around here, iPhoto) to save your chosen shot in sepia, or black and white, and be sure it works, as above, in a square format~

third

scurry off to your favorite almost-anachronistic camera store (around here, Wolf Camera) and have them print the shot as a ten by ten~

fourth

while said camera store is printing, and hopefully not losing, your photo, hop on over to your local art supply store (around here, Michael's) (hopefully with this week's 40% off one item coupon clutched in your hot little hand!) and buy a blocky (one inch deep) ten by ten artist's canvas (the thick kind)~

fifth

go pick up your stunning ten by ten close up print, then bring everything home. Hopefully your children will not have talked you into the infamous "bunch of junk", including those paint your own wooden thingys, that tends to come home here from the craft store.  Attach the print to the canvas with slightly watered down glue and a paintbrush~

sixth

and there you have it, a lovely, dimensional "canvas", by you.  Be Brave! Make multiples! You'll be surprised how marvelous your own shots can look, with just a little work, and a little know how ~

so that's it, our excuse for featuring our bunnies on the blog.

thanks for being so sweet, angus and rosie~

the BEST wall stickers

photo via/courtesy chocovenyl, Helen Dardik

when you see wall stickers in Target (we love Target very much, but it's a behemoth, not exactly nimble and at the cutting edge of high design .. .), you know that this particular form of decorating has gone mainstream, become ubiquitous.  but the stickers themselves are wonderful, repositionable, removable, really fun. . . and there are some amazing examples out there. our current favorites are from chocovenyl, available here.

Chocovenyl features work from some of our favorite artists, including Helen Dardik, Jillian Phillips, Carolyn Gavin of Ecojot fame (check out her amazing blog!) -- you'll seem some of our favorites below -- so talented!

an even more exciting option is their custom work: chocovenyl will create fab, BIG repositionable fabric stickers from your high res photos, with amazing results; or, you can opt to have artist Helen Dardik incorporate your favorite family photos into original art, realized as those fabric stickers.  Amazing: see below! 

 

 

 

 

 

all above photos via/courtesy chocovenyl

saturdays at the farmers market

grab a gorgeous handful

 

summer will soon be a fond memory, but alongside the yummy fruits and veggies, breads and lowcountry shrimp, and plants and herbs at the close-by kings road and morehead farmers' market in charlotte, you'll find the stunning, locally grown flowers of two lovely ladies -- they have a wonderful eye for combinations of shape and color, and will happily put together a hand tied bouquet of your favorite color, or flower, or scent . . . such a beautiful, affordable extravagance, and available only into october  -- impossible hues and beauty, a celebration.

here are some more lovely flowers~

 

ikea's new birdy tray

elle decoration UK September featured this darling new (and cheap, cheep!) birdy tray designed by Susan Pryke. we really really love it, and really, really want it, but a fairly exhaustive search of the new ikea catalog and the various ikea websites has revealed not a feathery trace of this, the "baarbar" laminate tray.  we may be forced to actually GO to ikea tomorrow and check it out!  if we find it, we'll post right away, and twitter (which would be appropriate, i guess.)  if YOU find it, let us know!

it's fall, that's all

 

so maybe it's the pumpkins we saw yesterday at Earthfare, or maybe it's the veritable deluge-through-the-mailslot of shiny, happy catalogs bearing all manner of costumes, decorations, and other goodies, but talk around the dinner table here at the fergusandme household had a definite halloween slant last night . . . since we're trying to go handmade or recycled this year, we thought we'd share our fave Etsy halloween finds, so we've replaced our shop feed (more fun that way!) Hope all of this gets you in the spirit!

be gentle

 

thought for tomorrow~

be gentle, we're very young

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three,
I was hardly Me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever. 

copyright 1927 a.a.milne "now we are six"

 

ready, set, create your own fabric at spoonflower.com

okay, so maybe our guy here isn't the most beautiful boy in the barnyard . . .teeny head, floppy wrinkles, beady eyes  -- hmm-- . . . but we kinda liked him (enough at least to snap this photo on our trip to a rather idyllic Vermont farmyard last summer)    BUT, can't you see him gracing a totally cool, totally one of a kind throw pillow, say, or maybe a tablecloth, repeated over and over in all his splendid cockereliness?? Why YES! absolutely! We WILL embrace the current fad for realistic animal photography printed fabric, especially if it features an animal that we thought was funny enough to photograph (even without an accompanying child!)   So, over to our home state (lovely north carolina) basedspoonflower.com, where nice people will help you use their friendly website to design and print your own fab fabrics!  They even have upholstery weights, in case you decide a cockerel wing chair is just what you're after!! LOVE it, genius idea, can't wait to try it!

p.s. we thought you'd like to know that spoonflower seems to be pleasantly affordable :)

i miss you, followers! where are you?? blogger is trying to find you, apparently . . .