Looks like: Post-it notes

Gotta love post-it notes! Here's a post-it note structure made out of 30,000 cells at ARTZONE in Kyoto, Japan. It took three days to complete! Found via Frame magazine.

Happy Friday!...and a birthday package

Happy Friday! Is it just me or has the smell of spring been in the air lately? With the warmer weather we've been having, and all the almond and cherry blossoms bursting out, I've been smelling it everywhere...and I get a little thrill every time I do!

I picked these freesias this morning and they smell exactly like spring to me. I love just keeping a few nearby and every now and then catching a whiff of that amazing scent. I've been trying to take as many walks through the neighbourhood as I can lately, to take in all the spring blossoms, and the freesias growing by the roadside - I just love it.

Fridays make me think of celebrations, and celebrations make me think of birthdays...which I why I thought I'd share with you this birthday package I made recently for a friend. I love a matching present and card combo! For this one, I wrapped the present in kraft paper and prettied it up with some of these fantastic dot stickers, then tied it up with plenty of string. To make the card, I decorated the back of a mini kraft envelope (from MUJI) with the same stickers, then glued it down to a plain white card. Inside the envelope I put a little hot pink card with the message "happy birthday!". And then of course inside the card I wrote a personal message. You can't beat an interactive card!

Here's to a lovely weekend filled with fun celebrations!

A work in progress

When Mini passed away she left behind a huge number of beautiful handkerchiefs. There were bundles of them in her drawers and every time we opened one of her incredible handbags we'd find another one or two - I'm sure she never went out without one. They were all so beautiful and delicate - such fine fabrics, delicate embroidery and pretty colours and patterns. I bundled them all up and took them home, not really sure what I was going to do with them. I'm not sure how or when I came up with the idea of a quilt, but when I did it just seemed perfect. The hankies would be preserved and appreciated and it would be a lovely way to be reminded of Mini every day. I was originally going to make one large quilt, combining most of the hankies (there are around 50 in total), but when Eko suggested an all-white one, I loved the idea, so I decided to make two smaller quilts, one mostly white (with little bits of colour here and there) and one combining all the pretty coloured ones.

For the last few weeks I've been busily working on the white one and it's almost finished! I've never made a quilt before and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but I'm just making it up as I go along. I don't mind it it's not the right way to do it (and I'm quite sure it's not!) - what's important to me is that I made it myself. I've been thinking of Mini the whole time I've been working on it and it's been lovely. Here's what I've done so far...

• Laid out all the hankies on some calico. It took a lot of rearranging to find a pattern that worked both in terms of the colours and the different sizes of the hankies. I didn't want to cut them or lose any of the pretty edges, which made it kind of hard! 

• Attached the hankies to the calico using iron-on adhesive. Toshi liked to 'help' during this stage...

•  Measured diagonal lines going both ways across the fabric, and drew these onto the back of the calico.

•  Stitched along these lines, resulting in a criss-cross pattern across the hankies.

•  Stitched around the edge of each hanky. I wasn't originally planning to do this, hoping instead that the adhesive and criss-cross stitching would be enough to secure the hankies. The edges were coming up here and there, though, and I wanted it to be really secure to stand the test of time! I was originally worried the hankies wouldn't hold up to so much stitching because some of them are so delicate, but they actually proved to be hardier than I thought! I also thought it might look a bit busy with stitching around the edges but it was barely visible in the end.

And that's where I'm at! Next up is to add some 100% cotton batting and a fun fabric for the reverse. I'm hoping to have it finished in a couple of weeks, and I can't wait to show you the result (hopefully with much better photos than these - sorry!).

The quilts will measure about 115 cm x 125cm, so they will be perfect for a child's bed or doubled over in a baby's cot...no, I don't have the kids to use them yet but hopefully one of these days they'll be put to good use! I love the idea of telling my children stories about Mini as they're snuggled under a quilt made from something that was once hers...

Loom rugs

I just came across these beautiful rugs by Loom, after seeing them in Megan Morton's home on The Design Files. Based in Melbourne, Loom source antique rugs and also make their own collections out of new or antique yarns (read their definition of Old Yarn here - it is amazing). The colours, the patterns, the materials are just breathtaking. They're really more like works of art than rugs, don't you think?

These are just a few of my favourites - take a look at the Loom website for the whole stunning collection.

*All images by Loom

Pastel rainbow

I've just unpacked a big box from Claystone Pottery, filled to the brim with egg boats and mini milk jugs in a whole range of beautiful colours. 

Egg boats (for poaching the perfect egg) are now available in white, green, yellow and clear blue, and mini milk jugs (so cute as a little bud vase!) now come in yellow, clear blue, green, deep blue, black, natural white, pink and translucent porcelain. They look so pretty all in a row!

Most of the colours are available online, with the rest coming soon...

Looks like: Koskela

I recently was lucky enough to see some Koskela products brought over from their Sydney store. My favourites were the Bye Bye Birdy pendants, the PBS table and the Twiggy stand. These guys design and manufacture all their products in Australia and have some truly beautiful products!

Happy Friday!...and minoux

Happy Friday! This sweet little posey was given to me by a customer this morning :)

And inspired by these bright and cheery colours...

...I'm loving these fun enamel necklaces by minoux at the moment. Something for Mr Sparrow to sell down the track maybe?

Have a lovely weekend!

*2nd, 3rd, 4th image by minoux. Found via Oh Joy!

New Emily Green necklaces

After completely selling out, we now have Emily Green necklaces back in stock! Emily has changed her designs slightly so that there are now 9 instead of 7 beads on the necklaces, making for an even prettier spectrum of colours. We also have a new bright and colourful design, Rosseau (2nd image), as well as the Jade, Rose and Grey Skies designs.  All the new necklaces are now in the online store. You may notice the price has gone up a bit, too - this reflects the extra number of beads as well as Emily's increased operating costs - but they are still very reasonable at $45.

If you love Emily's designs as much as I do, you should definitely take a trip over to The Design Files where she was the guest blogger all last week! It was fascinating to find out a bit more about the inspiration behind her designs through her Colour Theory series - you can take a look here.

*All images by Emily Green

Green & white

 

 

Just a few snippets of green and white from around the shop, thanks to the beautiful helliboris and almond blossom I picked up this morning...

Remember these?

They're Postcarden, fantastic little pop-out postcards that transform into miniature gardens! I wrote about them way back here and now finally they are in store at Mr Sparrow (and also online here). We have the three designs you see here - Allotment, City and Botanical - and all come with their own little packet of cress seeds ready for you to grow...and eat!

And it gets better! The company behind Postcarden, Another Studio for Design, recently launched a new product, Matchcarden, which is an even smaller version of the same idea (about the size of one of those big matchboxes). We now have these three Matchcarden townhouse designs in the store and online.

So cute!

I've set a Postcarden up in the store, so let's hope he starts sprouting in the next day or two...

*All images from Another Studio for Design

The bike is here!

Yep, that gorgeous bicycle from Papillionaire has arrived! Oh wow, it is sooo pretty! How am I going to resist riding this off into the sunset??

It's sitting out the front now, so come by and take a look while it lasts...

Oh, and I have some pretty nastursiums in my window, too, thanks to the vacant block in our street :)

Looks like: Denim dresses

Last year when I was in Japan I picked up a denim dress and it had become one of my favourite wardrobe items. Great in winter with stockings and just as good in summer with bare legs and sandals! 1. Stella McCartney 2. Miu Miu 3. Surface to Air 4. Marc by Marc Jacobs 5. A.P.C. 6. Acne 7. Dorothy Perkins 8. Current Elliot