enjoy the little things

This week I've decided to slow down a bit in work and gave myself some free time everyday to just relax. This Friday I will close my Etsy shop for the first time since I opened it. I decided it is about time I do it so I can concentrate on the production of my new line of hand printed textiles that need to be ready at the beginning of October.
Also this weekend I'll be traveling to Tuscany for a wedding party and a little tour  of the hills with my husband. I'm really looking forward to this!

Lately I've been working really a lot thanks to incredible shops that believed in me and in my handmade line enough to order from me and also thanks to all the people that decided to buy something in my shop. I'm really so grateful for all this love. I can't believe that I'm able to do what I most love doing. Thank you!

Here a round up of little things I enjoyed lately. Those little things that made my days better. That made me smile and reminded me I am a lucky person.

This beautiful brooch arrived in the post yesterday. Its made by super talented Mary who has a lovely shop on Etsy called My Hideaway (go and check it out) and a blog full of beautiful pics and original content that I follow regularly. I love the colours in the brooch and the little beads details. I bought it thinking of autumn and I can't wait it gets cold enough to wear my favourite chunky cardigan and pin this on it!

This morning at a thrift market I bought this embroidered cotton piece. I think originally was a large table cloth cut down to a smaller piece. I couldn't resist to buy it thanks to my current obsession with hand stitching and blue. And at 50 cents was a steal!

A few days ago my husband made this little wooden horse for Anna, our friends' daughter. It reminds me of a Dala Horse, it's a little bit chubbier. Ed loves working with wood and build things, I wish we could have more space for him to make more stuff.

Tomatoes always make me happy! The tomatoes seasons is drawing to its end, so soon it will be time to make preserves with them. This little bowl in the pic is part of the traditional pottery from Puglia, a region in south Italy where we go on holidays and where we would love to move to.

I really enjoyed designing and making new hang tags for my cotton totes. On this note there will be some new entries in the coming months. I'm designing bigger totes made with screen printed linen using new patterns.

What are the little things that made you happy lately? I would love to know what makes you happy!

Dyeing fabric with natural dyes: a little DIY

Sunday I did a little experiment. I tried to dye a cute cotton doily I've found in a thrift shop a while back. To be gentle towards the environment I used food dye, the same one used to paint eggs for Easter. I picked a sachet of blue colour and I decided to try to obtain some effects with it. So I folded the piece and wrapped some string on it.

I boiled some water and then in a large bowl I mixed the water with the dye and rock salt. Rock salt (or vinegar) helps the colour to stay on the fabric.

I left it soak for a few minutes and then I rinsed the piece, unwrapped it and hang it to dry.

As you can see in the last pic the final colour is very pale and a bit minty compare to what the dye looked like in the water. 

I kind of like the effects on the fabric, the unevenness of the dye. Probably I should have pulled the string much tighter to obtain a stringer effect. 

So the final result is not at all as I imagined it but I had great fun in doing something very different. 

Did you ever try dyeing anything? Do you have any suggestions on how to?

Enjoy the little things: myrtle branches, a traditional Italian little bowl and more.

This morning coming to the studio I passed by a florist kiosk and saw the guy trowing away some myrtle branches. Not sure what was wrong with them, I picked them up and now they look beautiful in my studio.

My studio is starting to look like a garden and I love it! Among the plants there is also this tiny spiky cactus.

One of the walls is starting to look like a tiny art gallery, I'm collecting different kind of handmade pieces made by some friends. This beautiful wooden disc (Nature is the best artist) is by NuggetSays and I love it so much!

A few days ago I bought some handmade paper, I'm planning to draw on this using some black ink, isn't gorgeous? It's an Himalayan Lokta Tissue. Amazing colour!

In our weekly thrifts hunt last weekend, my friend Giulia and I came across this lovely traditional tiny bowl from South Italy. It's going to be in StoriesTellers shop really soon.

weekly round up

This week was made of never loosing hope on you plants, a short train trip, a surprise ice-cream and other lovely little things.
My friend Giulia and I found this group of wood toys at a thrift market, perfect for our vintage shop StoriesTellers.
I used to play with them as a kid. They're made in Italy by Sevi (these ones are from early '70s) and I have so many lovely memories about them. I wish contemporary toys could be a little more like the old ones.

a thrift find you can buy here

A few weeks ago I discovered our lemon tree was under a serious attack by some really quite ugly insects. I decided to cut it down almost completely and I'm so happy it's coming back and looking beautiful! Never loose hope.

the flowers are going to smell gorgeous!

On Tuesday I had to go to Pavia, the town where I grew up. I had a lovely train trip. I love travelling by train. Love to look outside, read and listen to music. I find it super relaxing.

the area is full of rice fields (and mosquitoes!)

Our prickly pear is surprising us with more growth.

And a different but lovely kind of surprise was this ice-cream my husband brought me yesterday in the studio knowing that I was having a difficult long day.

YUM!

Storiestellers, our new vintage shop

Hello!
Some of you know that apart from my line of illustrated and hand printed goodies (find it here) I have recently opened a little shop called storiestellers with Giulia from Keep Calm And Knit who is a friend of mine.

We decided to open storiestellers because we both love going to thrift markets and we think that old things have stories to tell. We have a few vintage pieces (for you and your home), some collectibles and some handmade pieces made using vintage supplies. The latter ones are really what drove us to open the shop.

framed hand dyed doily by Giulia

weaving wall hanging by Mirta

vintage patterned pillows 

vintage macrame, wood and ceramic bracelet

matchbox from Peru

at the Sunday market

Hello!
Yesterday I went with Ed (my Irish husband) to a lovely Sunday market.
We've seen a very cute mushroom, a fun graffiti and a giant wall of live moss!

Thrift finds

Hello!
I love going to vintage markets and charity shops. When I find something cool that can have a second life I'm as happy as a child with a new toy!
When I plan trips to other cities I always check with the locals where to find good thrift stores.
Last summer I went to Stockholm and I had a fantastic time in some incredible second hand shops.
Among the other things I bought: wooden letters that I painted and hung on the wall outside our bedroom; a small simple leather bag; a nice old matches box with a little fun and creepy surprise inside :)

Thrift finds and some new work

Hello!
I spent Sunday walking around a great open air market here in Milan where you can find a lot of vintage stuff: furniture, books, clothes and accessories, decor pieces, stamps, dolls and a lot more.
To get there we just walked along the canal which is my favourite part of the city, because it looks like an old village still full of character with colourful little houses and many wild flowers growing along the water edge.
I took a photo of this incredible old house that has been left like this for a very long time, you can see there are trees growing inside it. I would love to have the money to buy this and restore it to its former glory!

At the market my favourite kind of stalls are those full of wooden and metal old pieces, like old tools, frames, keys...
I love buying small quirky things without having a plan for them and this time I got these!

These little fishes are very heavy, I think they're made of brass and are some sort of little handles.
The old man who sold them to us was really nice and told us lots of stories about the pieces he was selling. This is something I love about this kind of market, the stall holders are just great story-tellers!

When we got home I was so full of energy that I decided to create a new gift set for my shop, so I made this hand printed tote bag and this little grid notepad. Obviously both with fishes on, using a small stamp I hand carved a little while ago.

tote+notepad set

What were you up to during the weekend?