Gobino Chocolate Factory

The front of the building you see here is the Gobino Chocolate Laboratory . Exquisite chocolates are made here and prepared before being distributed to the two retail outlets they also own in Turin. So by all means this building can be considered a true "Chocolate Factory", and the painted mural on the side of the building illustrates just that. It is a really wonderful illustration, done in a style which depicts the chocolate making process in a fairytale way. The quality to detail is great, and outside elements such as windows, air-conditioning boxes and even the iron gates have all been painted and included in the design so that nothing gets in the way of the overall effect.

It is the work of an extremely talented bunch called Truly Design. They are all artists who began by doing street art and graffiti. Their internet site is really worth a LONG look. There are lots of challenging projects all with very original end products, using many different styles and interpretations, from bodypainting in Turin to an unusual exhibition layout in Brussels. These are works of ture artists, even more incredible the fact that they have known how to create a market for themselves and are enjoying success on such a large scale. Their art is a refreshing way of bringing "street art" into commercial light. I hope they can continue to produce such unusual and different pieces.

You might like to look at these photos in more detail on my NEW FLICKR account!

Wonderful enormous fig tree

We have an enormous fig tree in our garden and for 11 months of the year it is my favourite of all the trees we have. It creates perfect shade and is very well behaved, when other trees take two months to loose all their leaves (and that means two months of collecting them for us! ) our very intelligent fig tree at the first sign of cold weather turns yellow and then all the leaves fall off THE SAME DAY... fantastic. However, our lovely tree is a pain for one month of the year, being so big it manages to produce loads and loads and LOADS of figs. I keep saying that one year I will weigh all the friuts we pick but I still haven't got round to it yet. If we don't pick the figs they rot and fall off and have to be scooped off the lawn, and they attract big hornet type wasps which are not very friendly. So we pass about three and half weeks picking figs everyday, that may sound nice but it can become monotonous after the first few days. I like to give them away because we don't like fig jam and although I haven't tried bottling or freezing them I think that at the end of the day they are just figs, and figs are so yummy when they are freshly picked off the tree. So this week we are busy collecting figs and I would just like to say publicly a big "Thanks" to our wonderful enormous fig tree for being such a pain again this year.

P.S this post is dedicated to Flowerlady, who I know if she had a fig tree like ours would do it more justice, by making lots of yummy things to eat, and, by using up every single fig on the tree!

Milvia - Vintage Tea Towel

This latest tea towel came to light whilst searching for something completely different. Thats how things happen in my house, you have to look for something you don't really need to come across what you're looking for (if you get what I mean).

Anyway thats beside the piont, I consider it a lucky and interesting find to add to my 3 tea towels already posted some time back (September 2010). Since my last post I have also found out that the towels were produced by Zucchi which is an Italian household linen manufacturing company. However Milvia remains a mystery to me I guess that Milvia is the artist and that the artist might be a lady but still no nearer to an answer.

For now enjoy this lovely find with me. It is Mercoledì/Wednesday - Stirare/Ironing. As before the illustration and colouring are wonderful. I particulaly like the iron, the plug, shoes, face and that gorgeous loopy handwritten typeface. So I now have 4 days of the week, I think its going to be pretty hard to find them all.

P.S I find myself more and more interested in the humble old tea towel, I keep doing searches on Ebay and Etsy for vintage stock. There is a lot of interesting examples out there to buy and at reasonable prices. Please don't let me start collecting tea towels... I collect enough stuff as it is!

Coffee break - reverse

I have been an extra Busy Bee today. I have done loads of things and got back up to date with mails and stuff. I ordered yet more fabric from Spoonflower as I am preparing the launch of my new project... what? Sorry but I have to keep it a secret a while longer and can't tell you yet.
Anyway in the meantime of being Mrs Busy Bee I added a new Coffee Break swatch to my Spoonflower shop (I was missing one to complete my batch of five). I had originally liked the design in reverse/negative form but had put it to one side. However, back from my hols and in a new frame of mind I looked at it again and liked it, it is totally different with a dark background and for now I really love the pink!

Glamorous Mermaid

Hi, I am now back in Italy and ready to begin work again. I had a wonderful time in Lincolnshire taking lots of photographs and walking along beautiful beaches. As usual have come back with more work ideas than I can ever hope to produce.

During the LAST ten minutes of my LAST walk on the LAST day of my holiday I came across this lovely little lady. She has won my private competition to become my favourite picture of the hols, the important prize being of course a mention on my blog! She was painted on the door of a beach hut by a budding artist and I had never noticed her before. As a Mermaid she has all the qualities needed to lure any unwitting male under her spell... full of glamour, charming and fascinatingly attractive... just fantastic.

Owls in the kitchen

No this is not the Spoonflower web site but my blog. It seems to be the only thing I write about lately! I have uploaded a new design which I hope to be selling on Spoonflower pretty soon. I have already ordered swatches so when they arrive the fabrics will be up for sale immediately. They feature my owl designs which I have themed in with a kitchen atmosphere. The design will be available in 3 colour ways to start off with. You can obviously get a closer look here at my new shop on Spoonflower.

P.S I am off to sunny England for 10 days so I don't know if this blog will suffer. If I'm honest when I am at home and have 30 miles of Lincolshire beaches at the end of my road I don't usually think about much else!