Cheer up!

What a horrible gloomy grey rainy day. At least it has been in our little corner of the world, from what the weather man tells me it is pretty horrible elsewhere in the UK too...euch!

I may be a little late on this but I was introduced to it last week and thought it may well do for some cheer up entertainment. The video is the amazing inflatable street art of Joshua Allen Harris who creates weird and wonderful creatures from refuse bags that inflate as the air from subway trains rushes up through the grilles on the street...wonderful stuff. Watch:



While trying to find out more about the artist I got rather sidetracked by an amazing blog: www.woostercollective.com
It is a celebration of street art and has a brilliant and diverse selection of finds from around the world. These are a couple of my favorites from my first visit, I think it will be a place I frequent rather regularly seeing as there is so much to explore there!!

Wonderful play with shadows by a Lithuanian artist who goes by the name Morfai.
Brazilian street art from Level. You can see more HERE!!

And I love, love LOVE this so much it makes my head hurt: Doodles.

Day dream of sunsets...

Ooh, I like this...a sunset landscape of hillocks providing a little perspex oasis of calm to your desktop...Watch the video:

Desktop Landscape — How To from keenley projects on Vimeo.
Available from Desktop Landscape.

Swallows, deer and sparkles...

Ahh, finally summer seems to have arrived just as we are nearing the end of September! The weather has been gorgeous here over the last week, I love it!

So, over the weekend as well as enjoying the sunshine I added some of my latest Bonbi Forest jewellery to the store... the new pieces feature swallows, deer, vintage floral details, sparkling Czech glass and little owls and can be seen RIGHT HERE!!



In other news my brilliant web designer Pensandpencilsandpens (aka Mark, my beau) has re-designed his portfolio site. It features a grand selection of his bespoke web design work including The Bonbi Forest Indie Emporium, Urbindimo, Bat For Lashes, Hennie Haworth, and Urban Fresh Fruit.

Being very interested and inspired by books, music and film he will also be featuring snippets of inspration and interesting finds in a new blog which will be well worth checking back for...You can have a lookie HERE!

ErinT...

I have just added the gorgeous jewellery of ErinT Accessories to the store! Hawaii's Erin Touuke is the lady behind the label and she uses earthy materials such as wood, Tiger Ebony, gemstones, and silver combined with glass, lucite and pops of brilliant colour to make her fun yet elegant pieces...See and shop them all HERE!!

Nantes

I love this, it's a wonderful song and the video is so well done. It's filmed by Vincent Moon who made The National's A Skin A Night amongst other things...

Nylon Bonbi...

Bonbi Forest has a little blurb in this months Nylon magazine...Yay! Click the pic to read...

xXx

More paper cut love...

I was just made aware of these gorgeous paper cuts by artist Amy Soczka which are part of an installation gracing the windows of an Urban Outfitters store in Milwaukee in the US.



Such great shapes. I love paper cuts.

Bonbi Headbands!

My Bonbi Forest headbands are now in store as well!!


There are three different colours to choose from in numerous different colour combinations. They have a little bird and stars which depending on how you wear it can peek out from behind your ear...very cute!

Well I didn't do too badly at the competition on Saturday. Lauder was a bit excited and naughty but still managed a decent test (despite some uncalled for bouncing and neighing) and came away with a 2nd and a 3rd, and little Pia who I ride at competitions for my Mum achieved her best score ever (72.2 for all you dressage bods, not bad at all!!!), unfortunately we were pipped at the last minute by someone on another super score and came 2nd but I was still so pleased with her. Yay's all round!! Below is a little pic of Lauder and I, a rare moment of still and quiet from him on Saturday!

The obsession continues...

You don't get stuff like this on UK chat shows do you? Not that I have ever seen anyway...



Love. Love. Piano gave me butterflies.

Finally!

I have my newest Bonbi Forest t-shirts in the store, hurrah!! There are some brand new print designs and some old favorites in new colours and forms for guys and girls including a new slouchy sweater for the ladies too...I said in a previous post that it was my first long sleeve for girls but I totally forgot that a couple of years ago I made some long sleeve numbers with the bonbi tree and feathers printed on them, I even have one of each. I don't know how I forgot about them!!


Anyway, the new designs which feature thunderclouds, wise old owls and the Bonbi tree are available HERE. I will be printing more of my Owl Scarves in the coming week too, plus my hand printed headbands will be in store as well as some new Bonbi jewels too...


Tomorrow I will be getting up at 5am to polish and primp the Lauder horse as we are off for the day for a dressage competition and we have a very early start time. I usually avoid early starts where possible being more of an owl than a lark, but I am really looking forward to the day as I haven't been out competing for a while, yay! Wish me luck!!!

New designers!!

This week I have been catching up and adding lots of new items to the store with the addition of THREE new designers!!

First up we have the whimsical jewellery of Finest Imaginary. Choose from cute perspex pendants with Grrr! and Arg! speech bubbles taken from Finest imaginary creator Kim Lawler's monster drawings, a little love heart tea pot pendant or a happy raincloud with sparkling Swarovski rain drops...


We also have fun jewellery from stateside based Zlanarama! These colourful pieces feature stars, boomboxes, little puff hearts and sparkles...sweet!


These bold and bright shoppers are crafted by Ruthy Loves Retro. We have some of her little plush cats too, so sweet and made from vintage and vintage inspired fabrics and buttons and at only £5 a kitty are a cute treat!

ALSO, there are some brand new fun leather jewellery items from Emma Ferguson (sunglasses and feathers!) and beautiful upcycled bracelets and stud earrings from Kirsty Kirkpatrick in store too!

See and shop them HERE!!

Adventure time...

After the design fair I took a much needed few days off and my friend Jemma came to stay. She was only down for a couple of days but we managed to cram in some jewelery making and a couple of excursions.

The first was to a tiny secret beach that only locals know about, I have never been to it though which is really disgraceful seeing as it is just around the corner from where we live but my brother came with us and showed us how to get there. To get to it you have to turn off the cliff path through a tiny and very spiky gap in the brambles, where a narrow and bumpy path winds down the cliff side through lots of blackberry bushes (lots of scratches and nettle stings were acquired and you can't even see the path from the beach!) to a small but gorgeous beach in a little bay all of it's own. The path was so steep and slippery in places some kind soul had put some ropes down it to aid the inching down! It was so pretty down there, and the sun even managed to come out and make the sea look blue and warm us up a little bit...

Then we went to Eden!! I love it there so much and knew Jemma would too. I manage to go about twice a year and it's so interesting seeing the different plants in bloom. If you ever go though make sure you head to the Mediterranean biome first. It is interesting with lots of fragrant oil plants, fruit trees and really beautiful flowers, but it isn't quite as impressive as the absolutely massive Rainforest biome, with it's enormous palms and unusual plants. My favorite is a little shrub that closes all of it's leaves when you touch them...!

I was suprised how much Eden itself has grown since I went last December. It's a proper full day out now with not just the biomes but loads of fun stuff for kids (den building this time around...) and has the newer 'Core' building with interactive educational machines, films and animations as well as art exhibitions with pieces that explore the environment...really good stuff!!

Design Fair and new tees and stuff!

Last weekend was the Hidden Art design fair at Godolphin House (previously posted about HERE) and was a chance for me to get my newest designs out and about for the very first time and also the chance for customers to nab some Bonbi bargains to boot. It was a really good show for Bonbi Forest, despite turning up for the set up and finding that I had booked a smaller stand than I initially thought. I always forget how much room the tees take up when they are on display!! With Mark's help and his excellent hammering, stapling, sticking and pinning skillz though it turned out to be a great success if a little crammed in, but then nothing I seem to make is ever minimalist anyway...!

So over the next week I will be adding all of the new designs that you can see in the stand pictures (click the pics to see them bigger if you like), including new shoppers, Bonbi headbands, new jewellery, cards, all of the new mens and womens tees and my first womens sweatshirt, more owl scarves (which were all sold out by midday on the second day!) and I will get the Love Cat Mini Canvas in store as well as previously promised on this very blog...! Phew!