I’ve just come across (via my blog stats of course) a really fantastic little Internet tool called Stumble Upon.

First you download a little application/tool bar (definitely NOT a virus or spyware and takes only a few seconds). Next you answer a few questions about yourself and your preferences and then hit the ‘Stumble Upon’ button in the toolbar. Every time you hit ‘Stumble Upon’ a new, completely wonderful, website which matches your personal interests and which has been recommended by other ‘Stumblers’ will be served up to you.

You can then use the tool bar to rate the sites as they are served to you and Stumble Upon uses your ratings to personalise its selections for you even more. You can also use the toolbar to rate websites that you like and recommend them to other Stumblers.

It’s difficult to explain – just go and download it and see for yourselves!

In pre-Minx days, the Husband and I would often unwind by taking ourselves on relaxing breaks to country cottages, where any unwinding would soon be undone by fiendishly-competitive and stressful games of Boggle. (For the uninitiated, in Boggle you have three minutes to find as many words of three letters or over hidden in a grid of 16 randomly chosen letters).

Since the arrival of the Minx I had thought my Boggling days were behind me, but no, toddlers are now going unfed, eggcups are going unsent and husbands are being ignored because I have discovered online Boggle ! Played against other people! Whose scores (if they are genuine) are ludicrously better than my own.

And to think I thought I didn’t have an addictive personality.

KARIN AT WORK

I loved the glimpse we got in the Decor8 article mentioned below of Atelier LZC’s stunning design studio. At mirror mirror we get enormous pleasure from sourcing products from talented designers and craftspeople who make their products themselves, often fully by hand or finishing them by hand, rather than producing them by machine or in some vast sweatshop in China. It means that you won’t see many of our products on your local High Street and that very often the product you end up buying will be completely unique.

One such supplier is Swedish ceramicist Karin Eriksson. Reading her beautiful and inspiring blog was one of the reasons I started blogging in the first place. She recently wrote a great post showing herself at work making her beautiful Signe vases. I knew that she made her things by hand, but I’d just never focused on just what that entailed (duh!) – the amount of skill and practice and time and patience and effort that has gone into and goes into creating each piece.

THE FINISHED ARTICLE

.

… with some bars of chocolate. Found through Karin’s Style Blog. I may have to look into buying some in for the shop – they are just SO mirror mirror, darling!

If you’re remotely into photography, Google’s Picasa software will transform your life.

It organises your photos into easy-to-view files and has a basic yet comprehensive suite of really easy-to-use photo-editing tools, which will cover most of your editing needs. I can’t explain how much easier it is to use than Photoshop (which I still use for more tricky editing tasks).

Mostly I really hate software (which admittedly is a bit of a disadvantage if you’re running an online shop). It’s either full of bugs or has been designed by people whose brains work in strange and wondrously illogical ways, which means I spend a large part of my day engaged in software-cursing. Picasa, by contrast, is always helpful and almost cuddly.

It also has a rather sweet ‘collage’ tool.

Spring has sprung The grass is riz I wonder where the birdies is? Actually Spring hasn’t sprung, it’s miserable out there and the birdies, if they’ve got any sense, are lying on sun-loungers somewhere warm drinking pina coladas. But never mind. We’ve been photographing all weekend so we could add some gorgeous springlike goodies to the mirror mirror website – exquisite rose-strewn beakers from the wonderful Karin Eriksson (she of the most beautiful blog on the web); the fabulous earrings from Darling It’s Perfect that I’ve been banging on about; and another pair of deeply elegant crystal earrings from the same company. We’ve got more stuff to go on, but in the meantime don’t you think you deserve a little ‘it’s February and I’m miserable’ treat?

.

Have had to put my usual thrill-a-minute social life on hold (this might be a slight exaggeration – am mother of one-year-old after all) for a weekend of getting organised. 

We’re off on a rather crazy week-long trip to Seattle and California on Wednesday and needed to make sure we’d booked hotels, done the washing and bought Boots’ entire stock of lavender aromatherapy oils to help the Minx get over her jetlag. 

Apart from yesterday’s rather gratifying flurry of orders, the only redeeming feature of the weekend has been using the extremely groovy Backpack project organising software (which you can use free on their website, no need even to download).  It’s little more than a glorified To Do list with space for notes, but is more flexible and somehow more gratifying than Outlook.  Anyway, me and my husband have been spent the weekend sitting at our computers merrily amending and re-ordering our immense list and even occasionally ticking things off as done.  How sad. Oh and here’s a California Poppy.

Stuff I noted at Top Drawer…

Colours for Spring/Summer are beautifully clear and bright – coral and candy pinks; turquoises, teals, aquas and clear bluey greens; sunny yellows, lemon yellows; clear apricots and tangerines and touches of lilac

• White is EVERYWHERE, layered with sugared almond pastels – cream leather bags; pearl and crystal jewellery; crisp white home furnishings
• Charms in abundance – charm bracelets, charm earrings, charm necklaces, bag charms, mobile phone charms…
• Metallics STILL around – though now in more muted shades of old gold and bronze.  Silver looks like it’s coming in to add even more zing to the fresh colours and tons of white.
• Ribbons
• Bold, stylised, but not too abstract, florals
• Accessories are BIG – literally and figuratively.  Gorgeously bold long necklaces (sadly not at all appropriate for ginormous post-breastfeeding boobs such as my own) and chunky bags.

Loving it all.  Need to shop. 

Last week I pulled on my extremely filthy and decrepit-looking ugg boots – needed to wear the comfiest footwear possible – and made my way to Top Drawer, the big Spring trade show for high quality fashion accessories, homewares and gifts. 

I was able to leave the Minx with her father on the Monday afternoon so could whizz round about half the show fairly efficiently.  However, the standard was sufficiently high this year that I decided to return again on Tuesday, this time with a grumpy baby girl in tow. Who absolutely hates being in her buggy for any length of time and who had resolutely decided that an afternoon nap was not required.  So I spent a large part of the show carrying a howling and snotty baby on my shoulder, while trying to talk to potential suppliers – the very picture of calm professionalism. Not. Embarrassed apologies once again to all those potential suppliers who had to put up with a shrieking child grabbing at the shiny jewellery on their stands (my daughter is definitely a ‘mirror mirror’ girl…)

Usually when I go to trade shows I gather all the bumpf together and then don’t look at it for several days in order to see which products stick in the mind and which I therefore MUST have.  This past week I seem to have been thinking most about the gorgeous bags and small leather items from Angel Jackson and stunning crystal earrings from Darling It’s Perfect (just loving that name), so really hoping to be able to get them on the site soon.

The above pictures are from the Angel Jackson website and in no way represent what I looked like while walking round Top Drawer.  Sadly.