Ready for more cool Easter makes?
In our previous Easter blog we posted some cool marbled eggs. But if you’re looking for something more grown up and sophisticated, check out these silhouette painted eggs from Rook No. 17. They’re so pretty and grown up, they’d make great place markers at a dinner table. A permanent version could be made with a papier maché egg.
Sew, Mama, Sew! feature this tutorial for secret pocket eggs- great for hiding little gifts in, and because they are fabric can be reused time and time again:
Finally, for an Easter treat that everyone can enjoy, these Creme Egg brownies are fantastic. Our press girl Ildikó recently made them and they didn’t last long!
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Sweetharts Creme Egg BrowniesClick here for a video of the brownies being made (that’s her yelping “no” you can here. Embarrassing.)
We’ve just discovered Rosy Rings- the brainchild of Shannon Cumberland, selling candles, diffusers and pot pourri in a broad variety of fragrances to suit anyone (you can search the website by one of ten fragrance categories, which is pretty cool). Everything is handmade in Denver, and the packaging and products are beautifully designed.
We were particularly taken with the design of Rosy Rings’ reed diffusers:
Each diffuser lasts 6-9 months and they contain real fruit and botanicals. Such a pretty item to have around the home, as well as scenting it beautifully. We’re also rather enamoured with her Botanical Candles, especially this Clementine and Clove offering:
It might be a bit Christmassy for spring, but with the weather outside at the moment, a warm spicy fragrance seems the perfect match.
Rosy Rings are stocked by a variety of European retailers. To search by location click here. UK stockists include Zalando, and Fortnum and Mason.
With Easter coming up we’ve been looking at DIY craft projects to brighten up the holiday- but we’ve been trying to find things a bit further afield than decorated eggs and bunny rabbits- try something different this easter!
Hostess with the Mostess has this tutorial for amazing looking carrot cupcakes, involving baking batter inside an ice cream cone. They look really impressive, and tasty- maybe suggest it’s time to leave the Easter Bunny a gift like we do for the reindeer at christmas.
The great thing about edible crafts is that you don’t end up having to either throw them away or find a place to put them- clutter be gone!
A more traditional edible for easter is a painted hard-boiled egg. They seem to inevitably end up with the egg turning a spectacularly unappetising colour, and, to be honest, a bit boring for kids. However- check out Kimberly Cun’s surprise marbled easter eggs:
Aren’t they awesome? They look like something from a comic book!
Another fun twist on Easter eggs are these cool DIY LED eggs from Apartment Therapy:
They’re not edible, but they are definitely useful past their easter sell-by-date!
Stay tunes for more cool Easter ideas!
With Easter coming up, we’ve been thinking about alternatives to bunnies and chickens, looking to other countries for inspiration.
While, obviously, the Hindu faith doesn’t celebrate Easter, the Holi festival happens to fall at a similar time, ushering in the arrival of Spring. It is celebrated by participants lighting bonfires and smearing and throwing coloured powders and scented water at each other. Ideas about caste are relaxed, as everybody participates. The result is a riot of colours and laughter:
This year Holi was March 8th, so we’re a little late, but in the spirit of things, we’ve been playing around with colours. Chocolate eggs seem a bit dull now, right? Our PR girl has been busy on pinterest creating a Holi moodboard full of all things colourful, including these amazing painted elephants:
Check out some of our prints to bring more colour into your life!:
Cloth is a new magazine for craft enthusiasts, featuring fashion & style advice, upcycling tips, and pages of inspiration for creative and quirky home interiors.
Every page contains something beautiful, so we were very pleased to have our magnetic wallpaper featured in the Marchrecent issue:
Since cloth encourages individual style, our customisable wallpaper is the perfect fit.
We also loved these literary-inspired brooches by House of Ismay, which fit right in with our love of storytelling and animal motifs:
This month’s issue also comes with a guide to the magazine’s favourite boutiques and bloggers, revealing some hidden gems all over the country (and the internet!); well worth checking out if you’re on the lookout for something a bit different.
While browsing Frankie Magazine we were instantly drawn to a post about this book: Tree Houses, Fairy Tale Castles in the Air; a guide to the “best treehouses in the world” from colossal, sturdy constructions to delicate, romantic tea houses perched seemingly impossibly on branches.
This one looks like it could wander off on its tree trunk legs, putting us in mind of the Miyazaki animation Howl’s Moving Castle!
Some of the treehouses are fully functioning homes-can you imagine living in a tree? Sounds good for summer, but perhaps not so much for this extended winter we seem to be having (a snow shower started in the middle of writing this post!)
We’ve been mentioned recently by some great sites that we want to share with you.
The godmother of cool lifestyle blogs, Domestic Sluttery featured our magnetic wallpaper back in January. It’s hard to imagine that anyone into great design hasn’t visited this site hundreds of times already, but if you haven’t, head straight there and discover a whole world of amazing food, homeware, design and fashion that you didn’t know you wanted- we’re currently getting excited by imaginative home storage options (blog to come), fully enabled by Domestic Sluttery.
Fox and Beau is a design studio and online store, whose daily blog features some of the most gorgeous and interesting design from small retailers, so you can imagine how pleased we were to be one of their favourite finds!
Fox and Beau’s design philosophy is “if it doesn’t make us smile, it doesn’t go to print,” and this “Moosing Around” print certainly brought a smile to our faces.
Another Aussie mention, Frankie Magazine featured our magnetic wallpapers back in January. Their website is a wonderful source of all things arts and crafts, focusing on sustainable goods and small businesses; and the magazine is available on digital subscription for people like us on the other side of the world.
Continuing our international theme, a little closer to home, french magazine Doolittle featured us in February.
If you’re not a French reader, they said: “Sian Zeng offers a selection of wallpaper combined with coloured magnets. The idea? Move the animals to create a new story for your room, every time”.
Thanks for the mentions!
This Natural Dye Chart by Jessika Cates via her site Collective Individual reminds me of the natural dye classes I used to take at CSM, a few years back. I really enjoyed watching as the fabric took up the natural dye colour and I was always surprised to see it had worked. The most interesting part for me was when we were able to mix several natural dye colours together or leaving the fabric in the mordant for longer to get a slightly different shade of the same colour. If you would like to try it for yourself the table rock llamas website has a really good natural dye guide. Have Fun.
Today is the last day of Tim Walker exhibition at the Somerset House. The curator in my opinion has done a really fantastic job at putting together his work. When I entered the exhibit, it felt like I was walking into a Tim Walker world with words across the walls, gigantic props positioned across the exhibit and even his photographs were placed onto wooden crates filled with straws.
Tim Walker was and still is a major inspiration for most of my work. Many of his photos tell an epic tale and are staged so beautifully. Even though a lot of his themes come from well known fairy tales, he has managed to inject some sinister elements into them, twist them and present them in a quirky way. They are fairy tales for adults.
Sian Zeng Products
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