Tuesday 31 August 2010

Notting Hill Carnival - August 2010

I attended Notting Hill Carnival this weekend for the first time ever... I loved it! There were unbelievable amounts of people there, and the streets on the 3mile procession route were completely packed. There were some amazing costumes and the music and drums made me fight the urge (with little success) to dance in the street! I took total advantage of the yummy food that filled every street with the most glorious smells, there was jerk chicken, corn on the cob, goat curry and BBQ's on every corner. I chose the most amazing Brazilian Chicken curry with coconut and lime. Here are a few of my photos from the two day event...















Birthday Cards - Alice in Wonderland and Cute Crayons

Something that I have always loved doing is handmaking birthday cards for friends and family, it gives a lovely personalised touch and makes it a little bit special. I've been feeling creative again and decided to make some cards to put into my Etsy shop... I've created two designs: one featuring crayons, the other featuring Alice in Wonderland.

I have used pages from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass to create these birthday cards in a collage style.






A Weekend in Dresses... Floral and Vintage

I spent the bank holiday weekend visiting my lovely sister in London, we visited Camden Horse market, the alternative village fete on Southbank and Notting Hill Carnival - blog posts on those fantastic events will follow. But first, here is a weekend in dresses!

My favourite vintage floral dress!

Black rose print dress from New Look.

Black floral dress from Dorothy Perkins.

Floral Tunic from Zara.

Vintage dress from Marhsmallow Mountain.

Floral dress from Blue Inc.

Cute Mini Cupcakes in Camden!

On a recent visit to Camden Horse Market I stumbled across a delightful little stand selling the most amazing little mini cupcakes. They were really reasonably priced and very cute. I was so caught up in choosing which ones I wanted that I neglected to note down the name of the cupcake stand, but if you are visiting the Horse market any time soon, keep an eye out for pretty little cupcakes...

They sold three different flavours of cupcakes: lemon, vanilla, and chocolate. We bought four different mini cupcakes and they were popped into a lovely little egg box for us to take away and enjoy.

Vanilla flavoured cupcakes

Chocolate flavoured cupcakes

Lemon flavoured cupcakes

Thursday 26 August 2010

The Alphabet of Abbie: A is for... Ani Pipette!

I'm starting a new little feature on my blog called the 'Alphabet of Abbie'. Each week I will feature an A-Z of things that I love, things that are important to me, and things that inspire me. This week I'm going to start right at the beginning with...

Ani Pipette!

The Pipettes are brilliant, I'm most definitely a big fan: I've seen them three times, in Brighton, London and Leeds, and every time I've been to one of their gigs I've had oodles of fun, danced to and sang along to their catchy songs. I have always loved and been inspired by their sense of style as a band - being a bit of a polka dot addict (even if the polka dots are "on ice for a while") but in particular, and more recently, I love the style of Ani Pipette...

Ani's sense of style is really fun and quirky. It always find it inspiring when someone's sense of style is a little bit different and makes them stand out from the crowd. In a recent interview with TeenToday talking about the Our Love Was Saved By a Spaceman video, Ani said, "It's better to be interesting than boring!"... hear hear!

Love the cute bob hairstyle.

Ani on the set for the video for "Stop the music"

Earth Vs the Pipettes - The Pipette's new album in available from the 13th September and has been described as "what a 'disco in space' where 'all the genres and styles that have set the dance floor going for the last fifty years were loaded onto a rocket and fired into the stars' would sound like'..... sounds good to me, I can't wait for it to be released!

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Yummy Birthday Cards... Designed By Me!

It was a good friend's (who just so happens to also be a work colleague of mine) birthday the other day and I was entrusted with the task of creating a huge birthday card from everyone at work. It inspired me to start getting creative again and make a few little delights for my Etsy shop! I have combined two of my favourite things in these two birthday cards... polka dots and cake! Both cards are made with a variety of material, including polka dot ribbon, brown paper, and some little hand drawn sketches by my fair hands... check them out in my Etsy Shop - All About Abbie.





Let me know what you all think of my little creations... I'm going to delve deep into my creative supplies soon and make some more! I've started something now....

Monday 23 August 2010

Dollydagger - Rob Ryan Beautifully Cute Cards

I stumbled across these lovely cards on Dollydagger's website They are designed by Rob Ryan for Roger le Borde and each and every one of them are adorable! The design is beautifully intricate and laser-cut. I am sorely tempted to buy some and frame them! Each card costs £2.35 (an absolute bargain in my opinion!) and while you are on the Dollydagger website buying cards, why not buy a gorgeous little polka dot gift box too!