Some of my designs, old victorian baby dresses and laces...I hang things I like on the wall, specially when working on new collection or designs.

(photos by chocolate creative)

New friends and bloggers

I had a great time on Tuesday at the mydeco event, met very interesting people and fellow bloggers, learned about new ideas and ways of blogging and how important is the impact that social media is having in helping business to increase their general awareness and sells.

Geri, from Cherry Blossom Tree blog just wrote this post about the event and chocolate creative in her blog, it really touch me, thanks dear for mentioning my work in such a friendly and nice way, I am very pleased to have finally met you and wish you the best in your new adventures in London!!

NEW UK BLOGS

foxandsquirrel

Fox&Squirrel offer London Lifestyle Walks. With lifestyle at their core, Fox&Squirrel walks are a unique equation that guarantees to unravel London’s treasures before you, to ensure your experience of the city is an authentic one, and that the walk caters exactly to your needs. (brilliant idea!)

deardesigners

Run by Carole, and interior designer, and complete and utter design junkie.

ariannainteriors

Arianna's blog is a collective of her inspirations of all things pretty from interiors, decor, art, fashion, latest trends and much much more...

pippajamesoninteriors

Pippa, (we met last year in out trip to Brussels, she was still pregnant and just about to give birth to her lovely daughter), started this Blog two years ago after the birth of her daughter Elsie-May so that she could keep her hand in the interiors world whilst she was on maternity leave. The site has been really well received going from strength to strength and is now recognised as one of the UK’s leading Interiors Blogs!

myfriendshouse

The lovely girls behind this blog are two friends living in south London, blogging about their efforts to do up their houses.

flowerona

London based interior designer & colour consultant. Rona created Flowerona due to her passion for flowers…and hopefully to provide inspiration for others too!

livinginaprettyhowtown

Run by Heather a London based interior designer & colour consultant.

And many more blogs...

Nesting book

While browsing the lovely design-shimmer blog, I came across this image below which really catch my eye. I have always struggle making my TV look any good or in any stylish way possible, (I don't like TV in the houses, or make them the focal attention of a room), so I thought what an original and funny way of making the TV looking good? So I may try something similar...Anyway these images are from Nesting, a book consisting of 26 interesting homes. The Swedish version of The Selby! randomly chosen by the authors; Cilla Ramnek and Pia Ulin. I wonder if it available in the UK, because I haven't seen it around at all, any of you know of this book?? I would love to get it!

Loving white porcelain and ceramics...

Did I say I like white porcelain and ceramics already?? These pieces below are my favorites, I would love to own them all, but come on, lets be realist, I may be able to get only one of these pieces if...I like investing in designers/makers's work, and grow my small collection of much loved things in my home.

Kraszanai

Caroline Swift

Coenandwaitto

Wendy Walgate

Black wall, white ceramics and ethnic treasuries...

Black wall? my friend said to me, are you mad or what?? Are you sure you want to ruin your precious grey wall??? And very firmly I said yes why not? Nothing to loose apart of a few good hours of labour and a tin of paint!! Not that I don't like the grey color, still mad about it, but felt in love with black (blame the blogs and magazines), and no regrets, so far...love it!! it goes perfect with my huge white sofa and growing collection of white ceramics.

I find black and white, a color combination too cold on its own, so being adding a few touches of vintage wood furniture and ethnics pieces I have been collecting over my trips to warm it up. Don't get me wrong I love colors, but at home I rather live in a neutral environment, it makes me feel relaxed, and cosy.

This is a collection of pieces from the Amazon area, made by different local tribes, (my trip to Brazil was one of the best thing I have done in my life). Art piece on the left, is from London based artist Amelia, I love her work, a mix of textiles and paper collages.

Pictures are not great, as the black wall is difficult to photograph, plus today is a very grey day in London...so not chances of getting natural light, where is my dear SUN??

mydeco.com blogger's event next Tuesday

The design, trends and interiors news UK based site Mydeco.com is hosting a blogger's event next Tuesday in London, to introduce some new tools for finding inspiration and blogging a bit easier. I have been invited to be the guess speaker at this event, so if you are around and fancy to join mydeo and myself for some coffee and interiors/design talking, come along, all you need to do is to reply RSVP to dnelson@Mydeco.com.

My inspiration and new colors

All started here...when mixing inks for a new color range or looking for inspiration, I tend to go around the house, or out and about in search for a color combination that catch my eye. It could be a flower, a vase. a print, a dress, etc...below are some samples of what have inspired to come up with the wine/green colors for the chandelier design, available from my online shop.

Next step is to mix some inks that match what I have seen and like. Difficult task as sometimes I don't get it right straight away. You see, I don't tend to measure the pigments and binder so I get different results every time I mix inks for the same color, resulting in a few headaches and sometimes happy mistakes!

Above is an image showing the different tones of green I get, I print till I get the exact color I want. This stage is quite fun, I get to experiment and play around with different fabrics, designs and colors.

This retro scandinavian pot I found in a second hand shop in Norwich, has been one of the main sources of inspiration for this colors, I LOVE it.

And the final result, the cushion already made and styled!!

I have spent a few hours taken these photos in the living room, I could spend days styling the products or just things around the house. I am not a good photographer, but my new cannon camera is a great help, plus a bit of sun that decided to come out for me this morning.

Love this movie, so my friend, who works at the cinema gave the original poster, plus the dried flowers, the colors are amazing!

(Photos by chocolate creative)

Valentine's promotion at chocolate creative

LOVE is in the air...or at least I feel it that way...I won't say much, only that I recently have been very well looked after by a lovely hanson guy that I really like...Valentine's is round the corner, so I have put together this promotion to celebrate LOVE. The love message bone china mug and hand printed tea towel are available from my shop for only £16!!

(photos by chocolate creative)

Things I like in my house

Back in London...Thank god the weather is quite mild, otherwise I would have had a shock, I went from Summer to Winter in a few hours yupii!! Glad to be back at home anyway, with Missi and London in general. A lot going on, making cushions, printing, developing new designs, products, etc...I have been changing things in the house, wall colors, moving things around, adding new pieces, etc...so I went back to my flickr account to check how it was a while ago and really liked the the way it displayed all the photos in small squares, so just wanted to share it with you. If curious, follow this link to see a bit more about chocolate creative.

Gorgeous industrial desk and other beauties...

Back from my weekend at the other side of the island, it is so far away...the roads are terrible, with more curves than my stomach can cope with, but worth the trip as the town 'La Aldea' is lovely and peaceful, surrounding by fields and impressive mountains. Went to the beach and had delicious fresh fish in between helping my friend with his house. Still so much to be done...

First time I visited him, he took me to a huge garage with tones of things and still managed to spot this industrial desk, full of dust, at the bak of it. As soon as I saw it I knew I had found a gem!! It is in perfect state, and must date back to the 50's. The lamp and clock are from Ikea, (I predict these two items to became a 'must have', they have great designs).

Are these rabbit and mushroom not lovely?? they are made of white porcelain, and got them from my favorite shop in the island, "Showroom", Love them!!

He gave me this old iron, don't know the exact origin of it, maybe from the islands??, It dates back to the the beginning of 1900's, I love the texture and engraves on it.

Wood, black, white, grey and industrial...

I am helping my friend to decorate his house, he doesn't have a defined style yet, he likes danish wooden furniture, leather sofas, and industrial pieces, easy task if he lived in London, but in Gran Canaria??? Not a single vintage shop where to find this kind of pieces, (I may open the first shop of this kind in the island, a bit too soon, people are still a bit reluctant to use second hand/vintage furniture, crazy eh??), so back to decorating, we have managed to find a few old pieces he is restoring an may find and old leather sofa somewhere...so I am focusing on black, white and grey colors mixed with wood pieces and a few industrial finds. These photos from Manolo Yllera portfolio are serving me of inspiration, Totally love his work and the interiors he gets to photograph.

Things that inspire me...JO POND

I don't know you, but I can spend hours browsing blogs and admiring other's people's work. now and again I come across very interesting pieces that really inspire me, and that is the case of Artist Jo Pond, who I came across while browsing the nice bientondemain blog. This is just a random selection of her beautiful work, she focus on small details and reuse all kind of objects, sometimes embracing the imperfections on each piece, my favorites are these metal boxes and delicate ovals.

SALE at chocolate creative

Welcome back to myself and all of you from a long and great break, I am still in Gran Canaria, but back to work. I am sure all of us are feeling the same, a bit distracted, unfocussed, tired, wanted more sleep, etc...the more I sleep the more I need it!! Xmas has not ended for us in Spain yet, the celebrations will continue till the 6th of January, but I feel I can't justify another week of not working and since I am my own boss and make my own decisions, here I am ready for 2011!!

What a better way to start than offering some sales and discounts at my shop, I will be posting some discounts and give away in the next few weeks as well.

The handmade English roses cushion (pictured above) is on SALE till stock last,

at £38, (was £48).