gingerandgeorge

Pinteresting

Five or six weeks ago, I finally got around to jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon. I'll be honest here - it wasn't my first time. Me and bandwagons go way back. Sometimes, the jump is a great thing (Flickr, Twitter, blogging) and other times (Tumblr, WeHeartIt, Facebook), not so much. If I'm honest, the reason it's taken me an age to mention it here is because I thought the novelty might wear off, just like it has with so many other Internet obsessions. But so far, if anything, the opposite is true. I'm hooked - a pinning, repinning, board-filling, fully paid-up Pinterest disciple.

by Anne M Cramer | pinned to Wearable

I love the fact it's a tool you can use as you're doing the stuff you normally do online, bookmarking images and saving ideas, but also that it's a place to go specifically for inspiration. Yes, it's easy to get overwhelmed, but you quickly develop ways of filtering the pictures you like the most and just admiring the rest from afar.

by Pink Shirts + Car Wrecks | pinned to Paper

For me, it's also been an interesting way of building a clearer picture of my personal style - something I often find tricky. Going back and looking at which images I've chosen to pin, where I've put them and how my boards fit together has been an unexpected and rewarding side-effect of the process.

by Sunset | pinned to Home

I've stumbled across new blogs, great ideas, amazing artists, far-too-tempting shops and even gathered up a handful of recipes along the way, all by following links from images or from the people who posted them.

by Alli Coate | pinned to Embroidered

Clearly, as a new convert to the cause, I'd urge you to give it a shot if you haven't already. It may feel like the world and his hipster wife got there first, but don't let that put you off. You can sneak in and get your pin on with the minimum of fuss.

by BlotoAngeles | pinned to Miscellany

If you do decide to give it a try, you can find me and my boards here, updated very regularly and always happy to find new people, pictures and prettiness.

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Palette Pingpong (No.6)

Morning, lovelies and welcome to what is fast becoming the most colourful day of my week. 

This episode of Palette Pingpong comes to you courtesy of an image by one of my favourite designers. I was doubly thrilled when Gabrielle set me the challenge, as it also features a small swatch of a Cath Kidston print. OK, so the photo doesn't quite make up for the fact I had to keep my hands and wallet firmly in my pocket when i visited the new CK store on Sloane Square earlier in the week, but it's helping to ease the trauma. 

So, from the original image, hosted over at The Green Gal, I made this pretty palette:

 And from that, an even lovelier mosaic, inspired by each individual colour. 

1. Untitled, 2. Macarons, 3. Pears, 4. shades of blue, 5. Untitled, 6. tea lamp, 7. Cuba Gallery: Retro / radio / vintage / speaker / typography / wood / cool / green / photography / music, 8. Tiny Flowers, 9. Saucer, 10. Custom Large Bunny Feltidermy,, 11. Green, 12. Cuba Gallery: New Zealand / landscape / sea / ocean / clouds / green / waves / sky / photography 

 

If you've ever felt tempted to play along with all this colour-swatching, today would be a very good day to give it a shot. Pick one of the images from the mosaic up there (using the links underneath), and Gabs' challenge, which inspired my palette, which in turn inspired a whole new collection of images, could inspire your whole new colour palette. 

All of which is making my head spin just a little bit. The colours are pretty, though, right? And that's really what the game is about.

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PS. If you're visiting from One Pretty Thing or How About Orange - hello! Thanks so much for stopping by. You're very welcome to stay and have a look around. 

Etsyness

A little clue as to what's been occupying the Etsy part of my brain over the last few days.

 

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There's some tough competition out there. 

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Floating my sartorial boat this week...

Daisy Lowe at the GQ Men of the Year awards (handsomely accessorised by Matt Smith).

And Billie Piper (who I love even when she's rocking the trackie bums and lost-my-hairbrush look).

Sadly, I'm not sure I could pull off top-to-toe stripes and I definitely don't have the cheekbones for that sleek bun/oversized bow combo. I am, however, seriously considering adding a bold splash of red to my mostly-neutral autumn wardrobe.  

Anything you want to recommend?

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Palette Pingpong (No.2)

Hellohello. How's your Thursday been so far?

Mine would best be described as frantic, so it's especially nice to be winding down now with another Palette Pingpong post. This week's inspiration photo is super-pretty - you can find it here, over at Gabrielle's. And this is how my palette turned out: 

I felt like breaking away from my usual squares and rectangles, and once I started on the hexagons . . . well, let's just say I got carried away. They went from pretty patches of colour on my screen to pretty patches of colour on a simple notecard. 

If you'd like to send your own version of the same card, I've made a printable version which you can download here (it's free - hurrah!). Score along the centre line marked, then cut out, trimming just inside the dotted outline. For a square version, rather than the printed rectangle, just cut it a little smaller. Fold neatly in half along the score-line, and your card is ready to send. I rounded the corners on mine for added prettiness, but that's entirely optional. 

And while you're in a downloading sort of mood, you might also want to go back over to Gabrielle's blog and help yourself to a sheet of her adorable jam-jar labels and tags. I'm not a jam-maker (or jam-eater, for that matter), but I've still printed off a set to use on a couple of other jar-based projects. They're too cute not to find an excuse.

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Palette Pingpong (No.1)

A few months ago, I posted a tutorial over at The Copy+Paste Project all about how to make colour swatches from photographs. Lots of people said lots of nice things about it, one of them being my lovely friend, Gabrielle. In fact, being a proactive sort of a gal, Miss Gabs didn’t just say nice things, she rolled up her (probably vintage) sleeves and posted a few of the pretty palettes she’d been making.

The two of us had been talking for a while about doing a project together, and at some point during one of those inevitably lengthy conversations, we ended up coming back to the colour swatches. The idea is simple, and I’m very happy to introduce you to Palette Pingpong. Each week, Gabs and I will take turns picking out a little bit of photo inspiration for each other to turn into a colour palette. Often, it’ll just be about the pretty colours, hopefully it’ll throw up some unexpected combinations to inspire us (and you!), and once in a while we’ll give the swatch in question a little workout while we’re at it.

Today, though, we're kicking things off with pictures we’ve chosen ourselves – Gabs has one of mine and I’ve stolen one of hers. (Neither of us know which images the other has used, so you can bet your pingpongs I’ll be dashing over there for a nosy as soon as I’ve finished writing this.) I had a tricky job picking just one of her photos (truthfully? I didn’t – this is just my favourite of the three I made), but here you go with my Green Gables-inspired colour swatch.

 
I think it’s the fact I’m feeling the tiniest touch of autumn in the early morning air just now that pulled me towards that particular set of colours. It’s my favourite time of year and I’m pretty sure this colour combination will be featuring in at least a couple of autumnal projects this year. 

As for what I’ve done with it right now, I took just a little bit more inspiration from Gabrielle and recoloured something I made to celebrate the opening of her online shop, The Green Gables, last month. (You can see the original here.)

If you’d like to play along and have a go at making your own colour swatches, or using those we’ve put together, you know you’d be very welcome. Link me up in the comments below, or leave a note with Gabrielle over at The Green Gal. Don't forget to go and see what she's done with her end of the bargain, too - that's where I'm headed right now.

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Way Back Wednesday (No.2)

Hello. Happy Wednesday! 

Here you go with another project from the creaky vaults of my spare room, plus a template and step-by-step, in case you fancy giving it a shot yourself. The card in question is one I'm still quite fond of, not least because it was the first image in my Flickr stream to reach the giddy heights of Explore-hood. 

Although the instructions and step-by-step images are obviously for an invitation, there's no reason you couldn't adapt the same idea to suit other eventualities, too. The drawing on the front is easily altered, or replaced by a sticker, rub-on or something similar, and by leaving the inner section blank, you can use the space to hand-write a message, just as you would in a normal greetings card.  

Check back next Wednesday for another old-style project, or tomorrow for another new regular feature. 

Thanks (always) for reading.

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Numbers Up

Saints alive, that was hard work! My two hours of post-purging yesterday ran to something more like four, and by the time I’d eventually whittled 5327 down to ), the warm glow of blog-loving had well and truly gone cold. By 6 o'clock yesterday evening, I'd have been perfectly happy to never clap eyes on another blog again.  

Today, though, I’m back to something near normal. That lovely, round ‘0’ of unread posts has already morphed into a ‘26’, but it seems a much more manageable number. Inviting, even.

One thing that really hit home yesterday was how overwhelming so much inspiration in such a short time can be. Skimming through post after post of beautiful images and clever ideas, all put together by super-talented artists actually made me feel more inadequate than inspired – like I should give up making stuff here and now because I’m not, and will never be, that good or even good enough. That’s really not how it’s supposed to work. In small quantities, the wishing and hoping to maybe, possibly, hopefully come somewhere close is what drives me. In bigger doses, apparently, it’s more likely to cause drowning. Lesson learned, order (thankfully) restored.

So, what of the favourites list I promised? Clearly, there were way more than twenty noteworthy posts in such a huge pile, but I’m nice – I’ve done some hardcore honing, so you’ll hopefully have a much easier time of things. These are a few of the things I especially loved:

 

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1. As a girl who never leaves the house without a hat during the winter (and misses them like crazy when it's too warm), it was inevitable this post would catch my eye as I skimmed through the super-inspiring sfgirlbybay.

2. How can you not love anything involving the words ‘applique’ and ‘free’? Pattern, tutorial and some useful applique tips from the ever-adorable Kasja at Syko (via Sew Mama Sew).  

3. I think one of these tiny sock bunnies may have to join my socktopus family. They’re so sweet it’ll drive your dentist to drink. Tutorial by Meg at Elsie Marley.

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4. Considering the damage these wretched creatures have wreaked on my garden over the last twelve months, it takes a very special kind of person to make me see beauty in a fox.

5. I’m seriously gaga over this freestyle sampler by Pam Garrison, and she’s still only calling it a work in progress. Imagine the deliciousness when it’s all finished. Oy!

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6. Scrapbook layouts by two of my favourite artists, Amanda Johnson 

7. . . . and Kara Haupt.

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8. I am determined to make a quilt for our sofa this year, which is maybe why I dropped this post by Alicia at Posy Gets Cozy into Google Bookmarks, quick smart.

9. Make a small-but-beautiful pocket mirror with this free tutorial from Rashida at I Heart Linen.

10. And, if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about embroidery, Amy at Early Bird Special has a whole series of free lessons, complete with useful video clips and cute patterns. 

11. Remember this? I love assemblage, and am really itching to try another piece, but it would never have occurred to me to make assemblage jewellery. I’m pretty sure Katie Runnels (The Constant Gatherer) is a genius.

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12. I want to work here. Or, at least, demand that Sharilyn at Lovely Design (which it really is) comes here and makes my workspace look just as pretty (and ok, as tidy, too). 

13. I think I may have mentioned before how much I love Sweet Jessie. This project-packed post proves she might just be the most aptly-named blogger on the whole of the internet. 

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14. As much as I adore this idea (by crazy-talented Liz Tamanaha), it’s one I almost don’t dare to start. So many books, so little time, so much chance I'd get completely carried away.   

15. I haven’t owned a bicycle in over 15 years, but Jill McDonald is making me wish I did.

16. This post (by Larissa Holland from mmmcrafts) probably made me smile more than any of the others. I am the biggest fan of Lauren Child, and Larissa’s 3-d adaptation of her Pippi Longstocking illustrations is just perfect.

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17. Oh, for goodness sakes, how cute are these? And baking whiz, Natasha (from Amelie’s House), is even sweet enough to show you how to make them for yourself.

18. I’m very shallow. The reason I like this post is quite simply because I need a new clock for my office, and I want it to be this fabulous vintage one, as found by Gina from doe-c-doe. 

19. Be still my beating Magimix. The most amazing collection of kitchen images and ideas, thanks (again) to sfgirlbybay.

20. Last, but most definitely not least, crochet (obsessed much?). Yvestown’s Yvonne always uses colour – whether it’s paint, fabric or yarn – in the dreamiest way. Plus, look closely at her pretty post, and you'll also find a link for a free pattern. I'm smitten. 

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I've been making . . . (Part Two)

It’s very much been a month of two halves here – making things and writing outdoors (hurrah for sunshine and pretty gardens), then heading back indoors to edit photos and do computery stuff. It would be nice to think there’s an ingenious-but-pale scientist somewhere out there, busily inventing a way to make laptops more sunshine-compatible, but until then, please go right ahead and enjoy my hard work, while I slap on another layer of tinted moisturiser so my vampire skin doesn’t frighten small children.

The grocery bag above, decorated with Little Miss Radish-me, and the windmill picture below were both projects from our weekend-long blog party over at The Copy+Paste Project back in May. (Lots more goodness to catch up with there if you didn't see it at the time.)

Also in May, a certain someone turned . . . well, let's just say a few years older than his pretty face might suggest. In an effort to decorate with something frugal but fabulous, I took my scissors to a piece of gift-wrap and created the banner below. You could very easily do the same by printing off alphabet letters in a selection of fancy fonts and colours, cutting around them, and folding the top edges over a length of string or ribbon.
  

And then, lastly for now, a little rabbit. It's a finger puppet, but I'm not going to say much more, as plans are afoot involving a few more of them. I do like those round pink cheeks, though.

 
Another catch-up post coming your way in a day or two. Prepare to marvel at the hole-y goodness of my crochet progress. 

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Emma in Wonderland

Inspiring me today are these amazing pics of Emma Watson from the US edition of Teen Vogue. 

Damn Atlantic.