The Daily Corgi

Corgi Time! Belles Chloe, Penny and Piper grace The Daily Corgi on Wednesday 9/30.

Like Buttercup Bungalow, The Daily Corgi is a labor of love for me. I've been spending a lot of time there lately ... on the blog, at the facebook fan page, twittering.

You have got to be passionate about a breed to do all of this, because oh BOY it's work!

But they are the most adorable of dogs ... just ask The Queen!

shop happy: gudrun sjoden

I'm not sure what "Gudrun Sjoden" means, but it definitely translates in the universal language of color, pattern and print.

I'd never heard of Gudrun Sjoden before I saw an advertisement in the September '09 issue of Country Living (U.K.) This issue is one of the most beautiful I've seen in a while from them. So many things to ooooh and ahhh over.

The Gudrun Sjoden site is one worth visiting ... the opening video sequence is colorful and accompanied by soothing music. There is a home range as well ... I'm not even visiting there until my wallet stops shrieking from the last round of spending!

shop happy: wishingfish.com

This super cute "Early Bird" alarm clock awakens sleepers with a woodsy chirp and a little bird icon that glows and softly pulses. Is it me or is this the total opposite of the black box LED alarm/radio clock?

Yes ... and that's a good thing, I think! Available at wishingfish.com.

Drew thinks pink ...

... and comes up once more as the perpetual deb at the ball. I love Drew, she's girlish and gutsy at the same time. Sure, the top of this dress should have been brought in, and maybe the shade is just a hint too pale for her, but who cares? Drew is enjoying being Drew, who cares what the fuss budgets say?

The dress is Marchesa, and for me Marchesa's track record remains unbroken. I've never seen a Marchesa dress that wasn't at least a little bit "to die for", that's how lushly feminine they are -- without ever crossing the "overdone" line. The satiny, simple peach-pink clutch is old-style Hollywood and doesn't compete with the dress, just complements it.

Can you believe this is a woman who'll soon be starring in a movie about roller derby chicks? Hard to believe. She's a chameleon. Never did see her as Little Edie in Grey Gardens, but it's on the Netflix list.

If I ever get rich, thin and married again (ha, Ha and HA!) I will wear a Marchesa gown at my wedding. And ride off into the sunset on my new husband's motorcycle.

On a completely different note ... did anybody see The Emmys last night? I forgot it was on, and by the time I remembered it was too late. My favorite comedy show did win, however (30 Rock). And Alec Baldwin as best male lead in a comedy series, that made me happy as well. He may be lunatic fringe in real life, but on the show he's pitch perfect.

By the Hammer of Thor I cannot NOT laugh at 30 Rock! The writing is soooooo spot on. And Tina Fey's considerable talent is being put to good use. Yay for ladies in comedy.

shop happy: Mit Hus

Gorgeous Greengate teapots and cozies, from on-line shop Mit Hus. I didn't think I was generally a fan of Scandinavian design, but these selections from Copenhagen-based Green Gate's line are too much for me to resist. The folky-country motif of the brown cosy set against the red teapot (with all those baby DOTS!) draws me in like a bee to honey.

I've written about Green Gate before on the blog, and I'm still whiny about the fact that their items aren't widely available in the U.S. Mit Hus doesn't deliver outside of the UK (and even if they did the postage would be insane). If you know about a retail source for Green Gate goods domestically, please let me know.

etsy joy: Hannah's Tutus

Little girls, tutus, fairy wings, flowers in their hair ... how sweet is all of THIS?!

Hannah's Tutus makes fairytale and princess dreams come true.

Cute-as-cupcakes bloomers available through Hannah's "dot.com" site here.

Baby face ... you've got the cutest little baby face ... !

Fabulous Fifties: Jackets, Suits

I have always liked the fitted structure and pulled together but feminine "career clothing" of 1950's suits and jackets. Ladylike but tailored, and a hat ... always a hat!

art happy: Dizah Hope

From the California studio of Diza Hope:

Wilson's Warbler

Red Mary Janes

etsy joy: InaBit

CUTE STUFF ALERT!

At my other blog The Daily Corgi I occasionally highlight Corgi-themed items. The latest is from Jann Richardson at InaBit, where she sells custom-made Dog Art.

The image here is of Moe, a Cardigan Corgi. Hung from a pendant, this is one wearable and and fun conversation piece!




Something like this would make a super gift for, say, a Chihuahua-loving friend :-).

art happy: Cedric Smith

Best Friends

Cedric Smith, American: 1970 -

etsy joy: CadiGirl Designs

Found on etsy.com: "Sunday Best" from fiber artist CadiGirl. This is tender, and so tenderly made. The tiny purse is the crowning touch!

Paper trail: Barbara Schriber Studio

From Barbara Schriber Designs, these handmade crowns and trinket boxes are irresistibly fun.

Oh, and the wrapping paper ... far too delicious to throw away, a gift on its own. I'd save it to cover a plain cardboard box or hatbox, maybe even as a twist on the traditional mat in a framed photo. What do you think?

(Available on-line at Kate's Paperie).

Barbara's mother Melissa Neufeld designs these hand silk-screened designs on 4 x 4 greeting cards, printed on lovely stock paper. Delicate and treasurable.

I could never part with one of these ... wasting such beauty is a crime!

These's much more to wander through at the Schriber/Neufeld studio. A PDF version of the wholesale catalog is available here. The vintage-images greeting cards embellished with genuine German glass glitter are a favorite of mine. The first time I heard of Barbara Schriber was in Country Living magazine a few years ago, where these cards were featured. The torn-out pages are somewhere in my inspiration/daydream boxes.

The site is wholesale, but there is a store locator function here.

Truly special stuff.

blog happy: Dog Art Today

Fellow dog lover and collage artist Moira McLaughlin runs a virtual gallery of modern dog art (and more) at Dog Art Today.

Her features on the history of the canine in art, auctions, books, fashion, posters and decor are (get ready for the bad pun ... here it comes ... ) wag-worthy. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Her affectionate but not overly sentimental regard for these makes the blog a refreshing read. And of course all those wunnerful, wunnerful dog images.

Call me blog-besotted. Thanks, Moira!

blog happy: The Clever Pup

Hazel Smith's The Clever Pup is just the sort of blog that makes me realize I really ought to be reading more, that my library card has grown brittle from lack of use, and it's been way too long since I visited a museum (this, within 35 miles of the cultural cornucopia that is Boston/Cambridge).

Her posts on food, travel, history and art, with a "healthy dose of nonsense thrown in for good measure" are a recipe for compulsive reading. Today's recipe for Peach-Upside Down Cake is a recipe for compulsive eating. Let them eat cake ... the whole cake! And laugh like loons while they're at it!

Thanks, Hazel for your bright spot on the web.

shop happy: Ganapati Studios

From Seattle-based Ganapati Studios comes this awesome greeting card, a souvenier I picked up on a recent vacation to Seattle. (I didn't buy it at the studio but looking at their website it sure looks like it would have been a fun place to visit!)

Lots more to be seen (and purchased) there, from a rich range of cards, magnets, journals, prints and tote bags. Combining a love of antique paper and the art of collage, the creative minds at Ganapati "celebrate color and fun with a playful visual mix of cultures and decades".

Rhapsody in blue ...

Bleuet Paris vintage postcard found at flickr.

She is the spitting image of my niece, who is also a little French girl! The world over, loveliness faithfully repeats itself generation upon generation.

paper up your PC!

Wallpapers downloadable and free from frankie magazine.

Font-asy: Fling by ITC

Do you remember the short-lived Martha Stewart Magazine Blueprint?

I do, and wish it hadn't stopped publication. One of the things I liked most about the magazine was the title font on the cover. A little searching revealed that the font, by ITC, is called Fling. And you can buy it here:

I subscribe to Newsweek, which sometime in the past few months changed both its format and its typeface throughout the magazine, though I'm not sure that they fooled with the very familiar cover font. Maybe. All I know is that it changed the character of the magazine (I felt like a fogey for disliking it for as long as I did) and made it feel less serious.

I do like the new typeface but I suppose I don't like change that radical, that quickly. At least not when I didn't initiate it!

LOL.

New to the blogroll ...

My google image searching has netted an abundant catch of blog baubles this morning. I find that this is The Number One way of scouting out new sources of inspiration, delight and plain old fun. Try it, you'll like it!


ishandchi: Aussie creative Vivian shares her spot-on eye for design and color, both her own and that of others. She lives in Sydney in a cottage she's named "Betty", and derives inspiration from "blogs, interior magazines, fashion photography, the sixties, fabrics and Japanese art." The fact that she's named her house "Betty" is such a tickle. Oh, and her etsy store? Loving it like lemonade on a hot afternoon.

One selection from her clever assortment:

Vintage Chandelier - Pink

8" x 10" Archival Paper Print

happy loves rosie: I didn't see a single thing on this hap-hap-happy site that I didn't love, starting with the cheery masthead. It's a busy site, but I like busy. It's full of red, which I think is fast becoming my favorite color. It's got lots of nods to fun, colorful vintage images (especially women's and home magazines). It's just downright exuberant, maybe even over the top, but in a totally charming way. Happy Loves Rosie puts me in mind of all things Cath (Kidston), which is never, ever a bad thing. Do you want a brand new blog or banner design? Happy does those too ... check it out.


brown button: Like a well-edited magazine. Drift from post to post, each one different but enough to make you stop and linger, though you want to follow the impulse to keep on turning pages! (Does anybody else do that with a new magazine or is it just me?) The pictures, the pictures, the pictures, oh the pictures! A real treat from yet another Aussie, who also runs a well-edited on-line shop full of delectable treasures like these plates from Netherlands-based Greengate:

Finally, this one's not a blog, but a flickr photostream worth exploring: Vintage Pleasure. I particularly liked her My Corners and Inspiration, Vintage Fabric and Vintage Magazine sets.


And now I've got to stop and consider the necessities of moving on with the rest of my day. Showering, tidying, returning e-mails, making a plan or two for the Labor Day weekend. As a car-less chick, I find it difficult to plan things too far afield, and of course many of my friends with families take off for the shore or the mountains for the last days of an all-too-short season. That funny feeling of having been left behind becomes less abstract and more tangible when these holiday weekends rear their head.

I'm afraid some of the oh-no-here-come-the-holidays blues are creeping in. (You too can worry yourself silly for fun and profit!) Maybe I'll see the indie "post-modern romance" 500 Days of Summer to take my mind off of it. If nothing else, the soundtrack includes some Regina Spektor, who is a talented charmer.

So today I put my cynical crystal ball in the back of the closet and forget it.

Happy Labor Day Weekend, everybody.

Corgi Land

Yesterday I a) got my hair cut, b) slept a LOT (I may not be a narcoleptic but I could sure play one on TV), and c) worked for hours on the latest post at my other blog The Daily Corgi.

I don't normally spend that long on a single post, but the person who submitted these dogs gave so much colorful description and has so many incredibly great photos of them that it took at least twice as long as usual ...

... but the result is, if I may so say myself, a thing of beauty. If you are a dog lover, please check it out! Your heart will skip a beat over this 16-legged charm offensive

CORGIS SEMPER FI!

Cheeky!

Tea for you, tea for me ...

Spied over at Alkemie, a visual feast of mouthwatering tea-time inspired tableaux. Somehow, this is a theme that just never grows old.

Quite a lovely blog, this one ... new to me but I love discoveries, even if I am the 353rd person to sign up! I especially admire her eye for color. The palette in the masthead is one I've got a serious weakness for ... it's grown-up girly.

A summer afternoon with Perry Como's croon ...

Ladies, head over to the cool green of my backyard. There's plenty of room on the porch. Grab yourself an icy lemonade and a seat in the shade of the trellis, heavy with summer's roses. The cats are lazing, the dog is napping, and my rhubarb pie is cooling on the window sill.

(Anita, will you bring the ice cream?)

It's time to gather 'round the radio for Perry and the gals!

Dreamer's Holiday

1949

Music by Mabel Wayne

Lyrics by Kim Gannon

Performed by Perry Como & The Fontane Sisters

* * * *

Climb aboard a butterfly

An' take off on the breeze

Let your worries flutter by

An' do the things you please

In a land where dollar bills

Are fallin' off the trees

On a dreamer's holiday!

Everyday for breakfast

There's a dish of scrambled stars

An' for lunchin' you'll be munchin'

Rainbow candy bars

You'll be livin' a la mode

On Jupiter and Mars

On a dreamer's holiday!

Make it a long vacation

Time there is plenty of

You need no reservation

Just bring along the one you love!

Help yourself to happiness

An' sprinkle it with mirth

Close your eyes an' concentrate

An' dream for all you're worth

You will feel terrific

When you get back down to earth

From a dreamer's holiday!

* * * *

Listen here ...

... and find more like it here ...

Enjoy!

Word on the tweet ...

(image: National Journal Online)

It wasn't long ago (less than a week!) that I signed Buttercup up for twittering. I've got a twitter account for my other blog (twitter.com/thedailycorgi). What's one more on-line presence?

I'll tell you what: one too many! My two blogs (possibly three), three different e-mail addresses and one twitter account are quite enough already.

I grew up in a household without an answering machine, a world without the web, a perfectly adequate college experience without a PC, and 35 years of living before my first cell phone. I remember when they called them "car phones". I recall erasable typewriter paper (no more White-Out!) I remember how exciting caller I.D. was back in 1980-something.

Bottom line? I think I can live without more twittering than is absolutely necessary (and don't even get me STARTED on texting.)

Happy Tuesday! Over and tweet-less out ...

Deck The Walls: Anthropologie

I'm not even going to pretend that Anthropologie is anything new to anybody reading this site. You already know that they are style setters and innovators and just plain cool.

Well, for me they just got even cooler. Behold their "Barking Mad" wallpaper! All of their wallpapers are interesting, but for me as a dog fanatic this just takes the trophy. There's a neat close-up scan/view function at the site, so check it out ...

... and don't say I didn't tell you that this was Million Dollar Cute.