Paula Mills Art

Well there are approximately 55 days until Christmas! Wow Weee how time flies. Sending Christmas Cards is such a lovely thing to do and it is always great receiving cards full of news from friends and family. We have designed and printed a small range of Christmas cards (now available to buy in our etsy store ) and to encourage a little Christmas spirit we thought we would do a give away - of a pair of cards, one pink one blue. For a chance to win simply leave us a comment and we will do a random draw at the end of play on Monday the 2nd of November. Happy Friday to you all! xx ***** Update: Mara Mail won the little duo of cards - well done and we hope you will have fun sending them out and bring a little joy to someone ******

Miranda Meilleur

We are so proud and excited about our beautiful 2010 calendar including 12 of our illustrations! Yipeee! You can check it out in our etsy shop . We have been busy, busy, busy - gearing up for all the lovely craft markets that we will be participating in in November and December. Shells had a wonderful day on Saturday at Craft 2.0 in Wellington - thanks to everyone who supported that. Jeanine and I will be at the Sisters Teeny Tiny Market in Melbourne on the 7th of November next, can't wait should be fun!

I have fallen completely in love with the art direction and styling at sleeproom.com . I saw their advert in the latest Elle Decoration UK , went to visit the web site and have been pouring over the styling of each image. I also found their little annimated video above - so lovely! I love the white floors and pops of color all over the place, the vintage fabrics, and the cozy lived in feeling each room has. Lovely, lovely, lovely!

I love blogging but nothing beats sitting down with a cup of tea and a fantastic magazine. I am a bit of a magpie and collect anything , so I have piles of magazines, some dating back to 1996!! I have done three continental moves with my cherished magazines and still get cross when I think of the ones I had to throw out. Some of my favorites are Elle Decoration UK Edition, Living ETC and since living in Australia I have found Dumbo feather pass it on , which is really a stunning 'mook' - half mag half book! Here is a blurb from their website that describes what the mag is about: What unites the people we interview is their creativity, passion and integrity , and somewhere they’ve found the courage to fly. In their own words they tell you how they discovered their passion, what inspires them, the lows as well as the highs on the journey and ultimately why they do what they do. The art direction, writing and even the printing is truly inspiring. I love the fact that it celebrates...

We love the work of Skinny Laminx for many reasons, here are a few: 1) they are based in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa, where Shelley and I grew up; 2) they have a brilliant eye for color, pattern and design; 3) they do these amazing paper cuts, fabric design and so much more. I found these images of their work space via an amazing web site called share some candy which is packed full of incredible work and inspiring things to look at - oooh you could loose hours!

Today I received this lovely little wire word from my friend Milli. It came all the way from South Africa in a little birthday parcel. It made me smile and it made me pause and think, that yes, Hope was just what we needed at the moment. Trusting that things will turn out for the best can be hard sometimes, I had little ground for this feeling last week when we found out our lovely English Bulldog, Poppy, has advanced heart failure. The vet said she could go any day now, or live for another 6 months to a year. She has responded so well to her medication, so now the little seeds of hope have sprouted, our wish - to have her with us untill after Christmas. We are also trying to sell our house, and of course, have gone into that with strong expectations, but our confidence has been buffeted a bit . I put this little word above my kitchen sink - so I can look at it everyday and hope against hope. For a complete change of subject - I wanted to take this opportunity to blow my sister...

Recently, Kim from Cuckoonest made the most gorgeous little mail box for my daughter, Layla. At the moment, Layla is really into mail, envelopes, stickers and stamps, so I though a little mailbox for her birthday would be fun. Kim's creation is so much more than that. One side unzips to receive the mail, and a little mouse lives in the mail box, with her budgie, chimney and pretty toadstool garden. The whole piece is so joyful and imaginative. I really wanted to do a little feature on Cuckoonest as I love all the work. Kim was kind enough to answer a few questions. Questions 1) Since you have started Cuckoonest what has been the most joyful and the most challenging? Its the most wonderful feeling being my own boss and being able to charter my own creative course everyday. Being able to contribute to the family income (however modestly) from home whilst caring for my family has kept me true to my goals -I always want to be available for my family and working hard and being cr...

I love the work of stylist Emily Chalmers . I bought the 'London Ateliers' Japanese edition Paumes from Lark the other day and was so pleased and excited to see a feature of Emily's work and apartment. Her book; 'flea market style' is one of my favorites, it is well thumbed and I often refer to it as a style guide. Emily also owns a store in London called Caravan , oh how I wish I could visit - thank goodness for the web! Here is the link to the Caravan blog , and I found this lovely blog: found, now home who have done a lovely feature on Caravan. Hope you find some inspiration too. p x

I bought this bunch of poppies at the market on the weekend, the buds were still closed but slowly they have started to unravel and reveal themselves to the world. After peonies, poppies are my favorites and so I had to grab a pen and sketch them. '' Through the dancing poppies stole A breeze most softly lulling to my soul.'' Author: John Keats

Some of my favorites on flicker at the moment. You will have to click through to flicker for the links to each shot. Lots of lovely loveliness out there.

I just love blogland - there is so much to look and learn and be inspired by - and it is all so accessible and available for everyone all the time. So here is one of my latest finds: the work of Lizzie Stewart , so whimsical, delicate and interesting to look at.

A new illustration of mine done for Illustration Friday's theme 'pattern', blogged here .