Cute japanese food

Just today I've found in my mail box a package that I was really forward to receive. I discovered indeed an online shop that is able to meet perfectly all my wishes of cuteness in terms of food and, especially, of Japanese food! CasaBento sells indeed amazing stuff to prepare cute snacks, such as onigiri and sushis, and also fantastic boxes, called "bento" to bring them outside for a picnic...

I'm sure that with all these cute things, I will be able to make kawaii food with ease and fun, which with to perform amazing brunches at home or picnic outside in gardens, as seen that we are now in Spring and even in Paris sunny days are not lacking....

....Inspired by all these cuteness, I've hand carved a wide series of rubber stamps dedicated to Japanese food in which you can find sushi, maki, nigiri, onigiri and a wiener in shape of little octopus... I hope you like them, check them out on my etsy!!

Dreaming Twiggy's tete à chapeau!!

As I wrote some time ago, one of my favorite pastime is to spend weekend in flea markets, looking for amazing and unique old-fashoned treasuries. Yet I omitted to tell you that, above all, my dream is to find some day a Twiggy "tete à chapeau". This dummy head, used to displays hats in fashion stores, is often called "Twiggy" because it very similar to the face to Twiggy, the famous 1960s-1970s model. It would be really a dream for me to come one day to a flea market and to gather one of these heads...

... waiting for the arrive of that day, when a lucky me will be able to bring at home it for few euros, this cute item gave me inspiration to produce a wide range of little stuffs. For instance, I hand carved a rubber stamp with the shape of Twiggy with which I've then produced a necklace with shrink plastic. I have also remake a some of little dolls-necklaces, that you can find on my etsy. Finally, I've taken decision also to write a tutorial, with which you will be able to make your customized handmade retro doll necklace! You can find it on etsy as well. I hope you like all these things!!!

Customized works

I love to make custom orders! During last times I met on the web some amazing crafters and bloggers, who committed me some little customized works such as stamps or draws for them. Here's I'd like to thank them, and to show you these last creations of mine, introducing you also these amazing people who contacted me for their little hand crafter works...

The first is Coral, from Saint Louis Obispo - California, also called "SLO", to which wikipedia refers also as "the happiest city in America". And I believe that wikipedia this time should not be far from accounting the true, seeing the wonderful world that Coral is able to describe in her gorgeous blog, rich in inspirations and cute pictures. Recently, she asked to prepare a couple of portraits to be added on her blog that feature her in company of the Pascal, her inseparable softy bunny, in both a winter and a spring versions...

... then, I'm glad to introduce here also Charlotte, a Parisian talented dress maker, who ordered me a stamp with her logo, to be used for signing her collections. Recently, she was also featured on the French Etsy blog, in which she released an inspiring interview with amazing photos showing her dreamy works; you can take a look also to her blog here...

And last but not least, I happy here to talk again about Rosario, aka Donamaria. Rosario handcrafts amazing wools and I find that really gorgeous. She firstly asked me to turn a draw of her daughter into a stamp. Then I made also for her the logo of her boutique. Some time ago, I discovered that she uses these stamps to decorate her wooden spools and to embellish little cotton pouches that she uses for her wools. I find this idea really creative, able to well describe the potential of hand carved stamps: to have fun, to embellish things, and to make even more special our unique objects. Thank you Rosario for sharing these cuties!

A great week-end in Paris

Week-end in Paris for me means to gather stuff in flea markets. This town offers a lot of knick-knack expositions. The most famous are marchés aux puces, which are located in Saint-Ouen (at the Porte de Clignancourt), in Porte de Vanves, and in Montreuil. These markets are stable ones and they are opened each week-end, sometimes also during monday, and they are really little towns filled with old stuffs. Yet aside these well-established flea markets, usually each week-end some ephemeral exchanges are organized in the streets: they are either brocantes or vide greniers. A brocante, word that could be translated with "second-hand good", is an occasional market in which sellers sold in the street antiquities and other old things. Vide greniers (literally "clean out attics") are even more informal, and people simply brings their old and no more wanted things for selling them down in the street. While brocantes are usually more chic, in vide-greniers you can find really great deals (or huge rip-offs.... bien sur!)

During my last gathering activity, I stumbled upon an amazing brocante in Village Saint-Paul - an ancient inner court in the Marais district - and amongst wonderful old stuffs, I found my little happiness. Indeed, I've found a tiny owl in ceramic (first photo in head) and a spectacular typo drawer in wood, which can contain with ease not only the tiny owl but also all other little stuffs already gathered around! In my opinion, it is simply wonderful, and it fit very well with the ambience of my little attic...

And my old-new tiny owl inspired me to such extent that it became my mascot and I turned it in a felt brooch and in a rubber stamp... you can see the outcome here below... both the brooch and the stamp are on my etsy!

Llama, my spitting avenger!

Big city life seems often to a jungle. Not in the sense of a virgin tropical jungle, fulfilled with green trees, funny animals and relaxing chirps of tropicals birds as in Kipling's books... I am talking of that kind of cement jungle in which people forget their kindness, use compulsively horn at any time, and wrestle for each cm on sidewalks without caring about others... Sometimes, I would like to have a llama and come out for a walk with it on leash as a dog... it would be my shaggy avenger spitting in the face of all bully ones crossing my path!

As I think it would be rather unrealistic to adopt this unerring animal as my personal pet, I wanted to dedicate a rubber stamp to it, with which I've spent some funny times marking my stuff and producing a pencil case. Both the stamp and the pencil case are available on my etsy... I hope you like them!!

Happy Valentine's!!!

Some time ago, I purchased an amazing necklace, created by Tinee Häcker. I really love it so much and I always wear it because I find that its style and its design are unique and genial! Thanks to Tinee, I discovered the existence of "shrink plastic" a magic material that allow to create bijoux in plastic with a lot of fun using stamps to decorate them! So, I wanted to try to use me too this material creating a new stamp with which I have decorated the pendant. This lovely hug between two koalas is dedicated to all lovers, as far as today is Valentine's!!

In my etsy shop, you can find also other items in theme with Valentine, such as the little felt heart brooch

or the little heart hand carved rubber stamp set

and a padlock, along with its little key!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S to everybody!!

My dear robot

When I was child, one of my dream was to have a robot all for me. I longed indeed for having a robot able to do whatever I disliked to do, such as, for instance, to tidy up my room, do my homework, to listen to mum while giving me a lecture, and even to eat vegetables... a kind of little unaware slave, willing to kindly help me in every occasion.

Hopefully, I put aside this slave attitude growing up; yet I've kept a geek vocation linked to robots. I am convinced that robots are one of representation of what I love in human being: that's the Promethean attitude to create through ingeniousness devices with which to overcome physical limits. As in the funny cartoon here above, "Bimbo in the robot", in which the weedy Bimbo is able, thanks to its personal robot, to lick the enormous and unfair Mike for the hand of his beloved! This funny story came from the ingeniousness of the mythic Max Fleischer, the father of Popeye, Betty Boop, and, off course, of Bimbo.

Thus, while I was remembering during these last days to this childish desire of mine, I took decision to carve a special stamp set dedicated to this little mechanical friend; some fabric hand stamped using this set became afterward a geekery pencil case... I hope you like them, they are on my etsy!

My favorite illustrators # 7 Misako Mimoko

by Misako Mimoko

In this continuous discovery of utmost creative entities on the web, to which I'm dedicating a special issue of this blog, it was impossible for me to not assign a special place to Eva, aka Misako Mimoko. Eva is an illustrator, a crafter, a dreamer based in wonderful Barcelona, in Spain. Her creations are simply extraordinary: take a look to her website or to her etsy shop for having an idea of her unique style!

Amongst her creations, Eva has made a wide range of unique characters, thus materialized in the shape of funny dolls! These dolls are entirely hand made with soft and warm fabrics, and they are able to evoke in me the same uniqueness that belongs to "d'antan" dolls, because of the care and of the meticulousness that Eva put in these creations. Since I discovered her on etsy some time ago, I was really fascinated by these imaginative dolls, which she called dolis (the little ladies) and dolos (the baby boyz). For instance, doli winter tree & dolo monsieur tranchette (here above), and doli little house & doli red apple (below).

Yet my favorite doli is this cute candy, which I saw some times ago on her etsy. I love it to such extent that I made an hand carved rubber doli-stamp directly inspired to her sweetness!!

timeless vintage brands #7 Haribo

After having showed the amazing world of handcrafted candies, here I'd like stay on the line to this sugary world... Indeed I'm glad to dedicate this 7th issue of timeless vintage logos to HARIBO, maybe the standing confectionery producer over the world. Gummy bears, cola twist, liquorice wheels, starmix etc... this hall of fame of candies belongs to Haribo! I'm sure that everyone of you was, at least for a short time in her or his life, a sound addicted of one of these gummy delicious sweeties!

This brand was born almost a century ago: HAns RIegel of BOnn, HA-RI-BO, created its firm of candies in Germany in 1920. As soon as in 1922 the first "tanzbär" (litterally "dancing bear") was created: it was the ancestor of the actual "Gold-Bear", a cult candy for children and grown-up ones! In a certain way, these candies were one of first attempts of popular mass candies: in a period of economic and social crisis, such as the post WWI Germany, these funny bears represented an inexpensive drop of happiness!

Yet the most funny aspect that I experienced is the Haribo is the most French of German firms. My apologized for the game with words, but the rivalry between French and German people is notorious; in spite of that, Haribo is the leading producers of bonbons in France! Since 1967, when Haribo took over some French producers, it started also a production of a "vedette" candy, that was shortly assimilated as a French flagship: the Fraise Tagada, a guimauve with the flavor of strawberry coated with red sugar. Tagadas are as ingrained in French culture to such extend that it was calculated that one of them is eaten every second here! I guess that Tagadas are sold in other countries under the name of Primavera (Italy and Germany for instance) or Strawbs (UK and US). If you find them in your country, try them!