sam's notebook

a new project

  
Please forgive me (again) for another unplanned and unannounced absence! After yet another long blogging break, I have decided it's time to wind down sam's notebook. 

I have loved having the blog and I miss it terribly. It's given me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful, inspiring, creative, kind and generous people, but now it's time for new projects!

And you can see one of the new projects right here! Wish us luck!

Thank you to all of you that have visited and supported sam's notebook over the last few years. Your visits, comments and emails are very much appreciated and will be very much missed. 

 

 

 

merry christmas

 

Just popping in to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! Hope you all have a wonderful day filled with love and happiness.

It's also time to announce the winner of the Christmas giveaway! Congratulations to Lynn of Sea Angels - Yoshie's calendar and a little handemade gift will be on their way to you soon!

Thank you to everyone who entered!

 

Image from Taverne Agency.

 

the enchanting world of miss clara

 

Laëtitia and Philippe Rissetto of e-magDECO have put together a wonderful article about the magical home of designer/illustrator Claire Guiral (also known as Miss Clara). Claire's enchanting world is a beautiful 1897 townhouse in the centre of Bordeaux which she shares with husband Philippe and son Philémon.

You can read the article (it's in French - thank goodness for Google translate!) and see many many more photos of this utterly charming house right here on e-magDECO.

If you still want to see and read more about Miss Clara, Claire also has a lovely blog and portfolio website - but be prepared to spend quite a bit of time looking around!

Found via Le Divan Fumoir Bohémien.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Styling and photography by Laëtitia Rissetto of e-magDECO.
Photographs courtesy of e-magDECO (used with permission). 

 

århus :: denmark

 

We just spent a lovely long weekend in the picturesque university town of Århus on Denmark's Jutland peninsula. With lots of gorgeous old buildings and houses, wonderful little cobbled shopping streets full of cozy shops and cafes and very friendly locals, I highly recommend a visit!

Just before Christmas was such a nice time to visit too, with Christmas decorations and lights only adding to the already charming atmosphere. Can you tell that we loved Århus?!

Highlights included the shopping and cafes (especially in the Latin Quarter), Den Gamle By (The Old Town), ARoS art museum, the beautiful old residential areas close to the centre of town, and of course catching up with our friends Rikard and Amalia who were actually the main reason for the visit to Århus!

 

 

 

 

 

Images by me.

 

flower

 

For a friend whose favourite colours are purple and black. I don't often work with these two colours, so this flower was a fun challenge. The purples I used are more on the pink side, hope she likes it!

The flower was made using a technique learnt at a Julie Arkell workshop.

 

Image by me. 
  

boulangerie :: malmö

 

Just about to head off to our favourite Malmö bakery to pick up a late breakfast. Boulangerie has really great sourdough bread, fantastic pain aux raisins (my favourite) and they do an excellent lemon tart (Grant's favourite). You need to go early though, Boulangerie's popularity means they often sell out of most things before lunch time!

I love Boulangerie's shop exterior, and the interior is quite beautiful too, with a black and white check floor (I do love a good back and white check floor!) and rustic French butcher's blocks. You can sometimes also spot Boulangerie's fabulous vintage Citrön trucks at farmer's markets and festivals around Malmö and Lund.

Boulangerie
Östra Rönnieholmsvägen 6
211 47 Malmö 

 

Image from Boulangerie.

 

tabitha kyoko moses :: bride groom

 

I wish I could write as eloquently as others have about the moving work of English artist Tabitha Kyoko Moses. Her poetic, magical and sometimes disturbing work deserves much better prose than I can possibly come up with.

Vintage textiles, vintage and found objects, and even human hair feature prominently, materials which (in Tabitha's words) bear the weight of memory and the marks of time. Rememberance and overlooked objects, places and people are recurring themes in her beautiful work, which you can see much more of on her website right here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images 1 - 3
Bride
2007
Vintage fabrics, thread, plastic, wire, bits and bobs

Images 4 - 6
Groom
2007
Vintage fabrics, thread, plastic, wire, bits and bobs 

Images by Ben Blackall.

 

e.timglas

 

My gorgeous friend Maria designs and creates the most wonderful clothes under the label E.Timglas (love that name). Maria splits her time between her home studio in Malmö and a studio in Copenhagen and does everything herself, from the original designs right through to sourcing fabrics, constructing the garments and even the marketing and distribution.

I love to find makers like Maria who specialise in original, beautifully handmade items, makers who care so much about their product, their processes and their customers. They are a breath of fresh air in today's world where we are so often surrounded by poor quality, unethically and mass-produced goods. Maria's clothes are deservedly selling like hotcakes right now - I am so pleased and excited for her!

The photograph below is of one of Maria's dresses that appeared in a listing for an apartment sold recently by Malmö real estate agency Bolaget. I love this dress, I think it's my favourite from E.Timglass!

 

Image by Bolaget.

 

blomster pigan :: flower girl

 

Our favourite florist in Malmö always has such stunning window displays, especially for Christmas and Valentine's Day, and this Christmas is no exception. I took this photo on Sunday on a little walk around the inner-city with Nora.

Blomster Pigan (Flower Girl in English) creates some of the loveliest flower arrangements you can imagine (unfortunately the pictures on their website really don't give a true feeling of their work!), and the shop's interior is absolutely gorgeous with a black and white check floor, iron spiral staircase and a sweet little terrace off the second floor as well. Well worth a visit if you are in Malmö!

Blomster Pigan
Hamngatan 4
211 22 Malmö 

 

Image by me

 

collection

 

Some of my most treasured posessions.

Brooches by Julie Arkell, Jessie Chorley, my dear friend Julie H, some vintage brooches, and a bracelet I made at a Julie Arkell workshop.

Displayed on a vintage child's cardigan bought at J@B The Shop, quite possibly the loveliest shop ever.

 

Image by me (yes I'm taking ALL the credit for this terrible blurry shot)

PS. Don't forget to enter the Christmas giveaway!

a christmas giveaway

 

What better way to start December than with a giveaway?

Remember this gorgeous calendar by Yoshie? I have one to giveaway to one lucky reader!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before December 24. The winner will be selected randomly and announced here on sam's notebook on December 25. Easy!

The calendar comes with a sweet little make-up bag and there will also be a few extra goodies thrown in too, including a little handemade something or other from me! Happy December!

 

Image from yoshie's blog.

 

one month

 

Can you believe it's only one month until Christmas?! Where has this year disappeared to? 

 

 

1. Vintage Christmas decoration from Butik Sophie.
2. Felt shingle tree by Janice Rusnak of Papier Valise  

 

vintage fabrics from rag rescue

 

Some recent vintage fabric purchases from Rag Rescue. To be used for cushions, inspired by the vintage cushion loveliness in this post.

 

 

 

Images from Rag Rescue.

 

bhalla papdi chaat :: lentil dumplings with fried pastry, yoghurt & pomegranate seeds

 

Grant and I tried bhalla papdi chaat for the first time when we visited London earlier this year. The combination of textures and flavours (pomegranate, tamarind, mint, coriander, yogurt) was just amazing. We talk about it often!

Today a recipe for bhalla papdi chaat popped up on the Guardian website and I think it's a sign that I need to try it at home. It will be quite interesting to see how that goes since the lentil dumplings and the papdi both require deep frying - I have a completely unfounded and irrational fear of deep frying and have never ever deep fried anything. For this recipe though, I am willing to give it a go!

Wish me luck!

 

Image © Karen Thomas/New Holland Publishing

yoshie's 2012 calendar

 

Gorgeous 2012 calendar from one of my favourite illustrators, Yoshie. You can purchase the calendar here - does anybody have any hints on navigating through a Japanese shopping site???

 

 

Images from yoshie's blog.

 

liberty print suitcases

 

These suitcases from Liberty of London are seriously lovely. If only they were a bit bigger, they would be so perfect for a weekend away.

 

 

Image from Liberty of London.

 

babylonstoren

 

This absolutely beautiful farm hotel in South Africa has such stunning grounds - the garden, accommodation and restaurant all look quite wonderful. I wouldn't mind a holiday here! Right about now would be perfect, it's freezing, grey and miserable outside but I just looked up the weather in Cape Town and it's 31°C and sunny.

Can you imagine having gardens like this?! The grounds include a manor house dating from 1777, an ornate chicken coop, pigeon loft, bell tower, vegetable and herb gardens, fruit orchards (in the soft stone fruit orchard the paths are paved with peach pips!!!!) and forty-eight pergolas of climbing roses. Wow.

You can see the equally georgeous architecture and interiors of Babylonstoren here and here. Go on, it's worth a look!

Found via one of my favourite blogs, 16 house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All images © Babylonstoren

 

minus sun :: yuka maeda

 

Beautiful collars by Yuka Maeda of fashion/art label Minus Sun. Aren't they lovely?

 

 

 

 

Images by Yuka Maeda of Minus Sun.

 

bar centro :: great coffee in gothenburg

 

Unless you happen to be travelling in Italy, we've found that great coffee can be hard to find when you are away from home. Not impossible to find, just hard to find. So on a recent weekend away in Gothenburg we were so happy to find Bar Centro, a small espresso bar located right in the very centre of town. Recommended by our good friend Mark, the coffee, service and atmosphere were all fantastic. And according to our resident croissant expert (Charlie), Bar Centro's chocolate croissants are quite good too!

On a small side street next to department store NK, Bar Centro is so popular that each time we visited it was completely jam-packed, with customers hanging out on both sides of the street outside - a good sign indeed, especially when the weather was as cold and rainy as it was that weekend!

Bar Centro
Kyrkogatan 31
411 08 Gothenburg

Image from Bar Centro.

 

he and she :: gražvyda andrijauskaitė

 

I've been meaning to post about this wonderful print ever since I purchased it way back in April. It's by Lithuanian printmaker Gražvyda Andrijauskaitė and I can tell you it is even more beautiful in person. The print is only 10 x 10 cm but the detail is really incredible.

When I bought the print from Gražvyda online, she mentioned she was having an exhibition in Sweden in late April/early May. Now Sweden is not a small country, so it was a nice surprise to find out that the gallery (Galleri Tapper-Popermajer) was not too far from Malmö. Grant and I made vague plans to go see the exhibition. 

Over the Easter weekend we were out in the countryside when Grant got a call from one of his best friends, Rikard. Rikard was at his cousin's art gallery, and was chatting away with the exhibiting artist who, when she found out he was from Malmö, asked if he knew an Australian called Samantha who also lived in Malmö.

Talk about a small world! We headed over to the beautiful old station house in Teckomatorp where Galleri Tapper-Popermajer is located, and not only did we get to see the exhibition, we also got to meet the lovely Gražvyda and her partner who were in Sweden for the weekend.  I love it when unexpected things like that happen!

You can read more about Gražvyda and see more of her beautiful artwork on her website here.

 

He and She
2010
10 x 10 cm 
Mixed technique  

Image from Grazvyda on etsy.