Feature Wallpaper... Polka Dots, Birds and Flowers!

I'm getting a little bit excited about moving soon. I'm going to have a space that I can, for the first time, decorate however I like! I've been thinking about giving the rooms a little bit of personality after only ever being able to decorate in "neutral" colours... i.e. magnolia, cream, beige etc etc... so I want to inject a little bit of colour and life onto the walls. But at the same time, I don't want to overpower the space, so I've been looking into some lovely feature wallpaper.

Belle-Rose Polka Dot range
Naturally as a polka dot obsessive, I've been looking into getting some polka dotty feature wallpaper, I love the red one, but I also like the slightly less space-dominating grey polka dots too.

Bookshelf Wallpaper
I adore this bookshelf wallpaper. I would love to have this on one wall in my study/mini-library. It'd only be a small amount as it is quite a dark colour, not to mention it's £70 a roll!

Isabelle Wallpaper - Graham and Brown
I love this wallpaper and it's not too pricey either at £30 a roll.

Cath Kidston Antique Rose Wallpaper
Of course I had a little look the trusty Cath Kidston website to see what wallpaper was on offer there, and I found this gorgeous print.

Louise Body Wallpapers
I adore Louise Body's wallpaper designs. In particular these bird-themed wallpapers.

Willow Tree Wallpaper - House To Home
I really like this willow tree design. It wouldn't match any of my colour schemes at the moment and would be much better in a warmer colour.

What's New Cupcake?

Well Lovely people! I hope you've had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas?? I've had a wonderful Christmas full of family, fun board games and food! I hope you've all been spoiled by Santa as well! I've been lucky enough to got some great gifts from my generous family and friends :) I shall no doubt be blogging about some of my many Christmas presents over the next few weeks, but to start it all off, I'm going to tell you about a brilliant book my little sister bought me... What's New Cupcake?

There are some gorgeous cupcake recipes, and some incredibly imaginative ideas for frosting and decoration... I love this cupcake Ring Bling! and here are some more of my favourite cupcakes from the book... (excuse the rubbish photos!)

Fur Ball and String Monster Cupcake

Karaoke Cupcakes

Artist's Palette Cupcakes

Jungle Fever Cupcakes

An Apple A Day Cupcakes

Rubber Ducky Cupcakes

Sand Castle Cupcakes

Pantry Pets Cockroach Cupcakes

Festive Stuffed Turkey Cupcakes

I can't wait to get stuck in and start baking! I'm feeling inspired by this wonderful book, and all that remains is for me to get back to Leeds, buy some ingredients and get baking!

The Alphabet of Abbie - B is for... Books!

Books!

There is nothing I love more than to curl up on the sofa with a good book. I love books old and books new, and I read most genres too, if something is well written I can enjoy it no matter what the context is. I have a huge collection of books, I rarely like to get rid of them once I've read them, and I always have at least 5 books lined up ready to read at any given time. The trouble with my obsession with books is the storage... I have bookshelf upon bookshelf full to the brim, with boxes in the spare room and under the bed, so I really need some more book shelves to accomodate my collection. I love the bookcase staircase above. I think it would definitely solve my lack of book storage space issues... but I also found these sleeker and prettier bookcase designs as well...

Tangram Bookshelves

Ying and Yang bookshelf

Pink Lego-style bookcases

Swirl bookcase

Crooked Opus Bookshelf

Pacman Bookcase

Staircase Bookshelf unit

The Santa Marta Art Project in Rio de Janeiro!

The other day whilst perusing the news and internet I came across this little project in Rio de Janeiro. Inspired by earlier projects by artists Haas and Hahns with the Favela project, The O Morro project in Santa Marta has transformed the slums there. Haas and Hahns initiated community-driven art interventions in Rio's slums in 2006 with the Favela project, where huge murals were painted on building-sides by youths and people living in the slums: offering them a chance to learn a craft and earn money whilst doing so.

The artists have totally transformed the slum, and the community too! The locals that were involved with the massive project were trained in everything from different types of paint to safety when using scaffolding: good transferrable skills for their future. Due to the huge array of building materials used in the slums, it was a challenge for all involved to work with every different building...

When all the painting was completed the huge piece of art spanned over 34 houses and buildings and roughly 7000m2 of the hillside slums, converting the area into a a momument for the community. The goal is to raise enough funds to paint an entire hillside favela potentially transforming it into one of the greatest driven artworks of our time. To help realise the goal, you can donate money to suppor the O Morro project here.

This is a truly inspiring project that is not only helping create works of art for everyone to enjoy, but training and equiping the local with valuable skills.

I love this photo.

Business as usual for this local shop owner.

The local Samba school, one of the focal points of the community, celebrating in the main square.

Taking a well earned break!

The locals involved in the huge project.

Double Dose of Polka Dots: Polka dot houses!

Today's double dose of polka dots features this lovely polka dot house (via Oh Joy blog). How much do I want to live here...

Everyone that knows me knows that I am a little bit obsessed with polka dots, and some might say that making your house polka dot is a step too far... I however believe it's not far enough! Though I'm not sure my boyfriend (or landlord!) would allow me to get my paintbrushes out on the outside of the house.

See, if you had a polka dot house, you could be as happy as they are!