Cute panda mania

Perhaps, pandas are the only creatures able to provoke an universal feeling of tenderness. Who does not love pandas, indeed?! Maybe, this is due to their lovely and defenseless appearance, which makes them similar to living teddy bears; maybe this is because we imagine them all the time eating calmly bamboos... the reality is that it is impossible to escape from their irresistible and innocent charm! And, it doesn't matter if they are not peaceful at all, as in the advertising here below...

Actually, they belong to the family of bears... and it should not be pleasant to find up in front of a angry panda of a hundred or more of kilos! This genial advertising exploit indeed this apparent contrast between the believed cuteness of the panda and the actual behavior of this panda, a overbearing and menacing bully! And, as I just cannot say no to panda...

 

 

...few days ago, I decided to go along my wishes and I purchased some cooking tools essential for panda lovers from casabento, an on-line retailer of cute stuffs for kitchen in japanese style based in France... they are just arrived and I have spent last time in preparing cute and delicious onigiri with the shape of little pandas...

 

 

And, being at the mercy of this panda fever, I have also created a series a gift ideas, all dedicated to this soft lazy friend with black spots around their eyes like eye sockets.... Check out all my panda creations on my etsy, I hope you like them!!!

 

 

I'm singing in the rain... with matryoshka dolls!

Here is Paris autumn is definitively started and, by now, it's raining since several days ago... probably the sun is striking for a right reason, but this permanent cloudy and rainy weather risks to terribly depress me! So, in order to cope with this season, I took decision to exorcise my unease with a smile: and here this my new collection completely dedicated to smily and funny clouds, which if put on they will be able to make funny also the dampest autumn day!

More than this rainy kilt pin and these cloudy necklaces, our deep need of happiness and smiling could be fulfilled with these adorable Matryoshkas! Nothing makes me happy as much as a Russian Doll...

you can find these creations of mine on my etsy: matryoshka buttons and safety pin. I hope you like them!

La ronde des boutons

Here me back again in Paris; one of first things I've done, once come back from my holidays, was to have a short visit in some wonderful haberdasher's shops of this town... colored ribbons, precious fabrics, and amazing beads... all these things drive me crazy! But, above all, I've a weakness for buttons: both new ones, multicolored and imaginative in their forms, and the vintage ones, able to evoke again in me sweet souvenirs linked with my old clothes, such as my favourite cardigan or the coat of my childhood. I keep jealously them all into big jars in which every now and then I love to put my hand in: it's a unique sensation. The proof of the pudding ;) !

Following my passion for buttons, I took decision to carve a rubber stamp set figuring some little colored buttons of different shapes:

Once stamped upon some fabric, they were so much cute that I took the decision to turn these drawn buttons into real fabric covered buttons. As I had already experimented in the past, the result is very original: it has a somewhat of surrealistic that remember the celeber "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" by Magritte, in this case I ought say "Ceci n'est pas un bouton!" ;)

For the new set of buttons, I created 3 exigent mademoiselles to wear them :

I have the honour to introduce to you

Annette, Fifi, and Juliette.

On sale on my etsy and on my new French on-line shop, ALM!

I'm sure that these buttons will be able to give a special touch to everything upon which you'd like to sew them. You'll see, you are going to exhume old cardigans that you did not wear since longtime ago in order to totally refurbish them with a simple and little touch of craftiness!

Le Temps des Cerises

As summer is coming to end, I have tried to produce some hand-made stuff able to bring some of warmth and happiness of summer with me during autumn and winter, while I will be waiting for the next summer... and what is more evocative of summer feelings than cherries? Recently, I've also discovered an old French popular song, called "Le temps des cerises", which refers to the time of cherries as an happy time of populair cheerfulness, as the summer is....

J'aimerai toujours le temps des cerises

Et le souvenir que je garde au cœur

[I will always love the time of cherries

and the memory that I hold in my hearth]

Moreover, during last days I've also hand carved some rubber stamps figuring fresh fruit, inspired by the characters of Decolello:

Apple, pineapple, orange, strawberry, cherries, mushroom, pear, and lemon... they were all used to produce some cotton covered buttons that you can find, together with the Cherries Brooch, on my Etsy shop:

The hidden perils under the sea

Summer is coming and, although I do not especially like this suffocating season with her beach crowed of crazy people and the endless days spent roasting under the sun, I must admit, however, that I am really looking forward to have finally a swim! I love to find some relief from the burning heat plunging into the cool water... I love to bask myself into the sea and to leave me to rock up and down by waves... well, until now everything would be really fantastic and would be able to repay me of the time spent gasping among sweating dudes and yelling children, but also the sea, unfortunately, hides under dangerous tricks... I'm talking about jellyfishes, small gelatinous sea creatures that seem to have no other purpose than to make my life a hell! It's pretty obvious that, once sufficiently far from the shore, while gently carried by sea draughts I can finally enjoy some silence and tranquillity, I'm going to find myself suddenly surrounded by a shoal of stinging jellyfishes. They are probably attracted by my whitish skin that does not even want to hear about to get tan and, exchanging me for a their fellow creature, they have maybe not any bad intention... the fact is that it is not at all a good encounter, and although most of the time I'm able to leave away uninjured, I hate those little cocksuckers! Despite my immense hatred, I decided that i will not spoil my holiday with jellyfishes... you will find a full line of summer accessories dedicated to them, or rather to their kawaii version, because, as I always say, the best way to turn what scares us into something harmless is to make it as reassuring as possible through a soft style that exorcise all the ruthlessness! I must admit that I've turned out because these little jellyfishes are really sweet!

Here you will find them in the form of buttons...

and of little pin and brooch..

And also of necklace...

This is my centre-piece because it's virtually impossible to reproduce it similarly, in fact I printed my hand carved stamp over a white marble stone that I picked up from the beach where I usually go when I get home in Italy, I surrounded it all with the soft gray felt ... I'm really happy about the outcome ... I hope you like it too, it's for sale here!

And here another star of the sea: a tender little octopus, much more sympathetic of the jellyfish! Using a rubber stamp carved by me, I created these pretty pins that you can attach to the bag, the shirt and everything you wish ...

have a nice summer!

Spring bugs and other animals

With the arrival of spring pique-niques and promenades in the parks are a must. I love to lie down on the grass and let myself be pampered by the warm torpor of the sun, indeed I very often fall asleep. So far so good, except for being awakened by all the series of annoying bugs that seem to have no other purpose than to make my life a hell! As you can understand, I feel a out-and-out phobia for these disgusting fluttering creatures. The terror I feel in front of everything with more than four legged (and maybe hairy ones) borders on pathology so that even butterflies and ladybirds, universally recognized as lovely animals, have the power to scare me to death. Not to mention spiders, the level of my arachnophobia is as high as I’m not be able even to crush them beacuse of the disgust that I feel if I think to have such an animal under the sole of the shoe or, even worse, because of the fear that the mother of all spiders comes during the night to take revenge for the crime I’ve committed!

So, since I am convinced that the best way to face my fear for bugs is to exorcise it making harmless the "enemy subject", I decided to dedicate these new spring rubber stamps just to insects, or rather to their pretty and friendly version. And I'd say that I reach my goal: they look so reassuring that me too I find them really lovely... who knows, maybe after today when a little bee will wake me up with its "tuneful" buzz, I will be able to see it with different eyes and to hold myself back from having my usual hysterics!

ladybird felt brooch, available on my etsy

Little honey bee felt brooch, available on my etsy

Spring butterfly felt brooch, available on my etsy

Spring bugs fabric covered bottons, available on my etsy

and here's some other cute aminals with respective brooches and fabric covered buttons...

Funny Monkey, Cute Snail and Flying Bat, all three available on my etsy

Funny animals fabric covered buttons, check it out on my esty shop!