Pretty Packaging: Herbal Essences

A free sample in Marie Clare, January issue - £2
Such pretty packaging I oculdn't 

resist scanning it into the computer.

This packaging has a great use of colour, 

such a tropical looking blue that has great impact, 

then on top the grunge like marks in silver and green. 

I just looked up what grunge actually means, 

one of its definitions is dirt and grime, 

the other being a type of rock music. 

But now I finally know.

The beautiful flowers adorning the packaging are orchids

and look at the detail of venation and marks on the petals. 

A short post this is, yes, but I'll be collecting some stuff 

to talk about in the next post. 

Oh and the shampoo and conditioner were amazing. 

Smelt lovely too.

Covered: The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
is an amazing collection
a writer who accomplished great things for Utopian feminism.

The cover itself is what really caught my eye,
I first saw a copy of this book at the DLI in Durham,
at the Pattern exhibition,
a collection of work relating to pattern
by various amazing artists. 

There was also a collection of reading material 

relating to pattern or the artists - or in most cases both.

The cover plays upon this piece of wallpaper in the book's namesake story, 

in which a woman is thought to need rest to 

be cured of her mental problems, this doesn't really work 

of course but she is deeply interested in the wallpaper 

on the walls of her room which she is given whilst on this 'holiday'. 

To her it is alive.

it certainly looks that way form the cover.

Monument a-glow with light

This is in the Monument area in Newcastle, around the NE1 area.
Normally Christmas decoration in the streets,
ie lighting tends to be in forms of Santa and other such characters.
But these take a more abstract bauble like appearance.

The circles when not lit up have been shown in the previous post.

But as with many things they look amazing all lit up in blue and white.

Round, blue and white

Christmas is upon us –
or so the Newcastle City Centres’ decoration tells me.
That and the Fenwicks window display.
The decorations in town are normally quite typical,
but these blue circular baubles like motifs
are the most interesting and pretty
both when lit up and when not lit.

They look like a collection of flatish bubbles, or even baubles,
in blue, white and light blue
and using simple geometric shapes and dots to fill them.

Their clear modern cut styling stands out against
the backdrop of the beautiful Newcastle upon Tyne’s historic buildings
in the town centre, like in monument.

It’s interesting to find pattern
where most feel there is nothing special there,
but the fact that these shapes have been used
shows their versatility, they work amongst things
that don’t directly relate to them in shape form or colour.

Zag-zig and diamond flakes

So tempting to skive today's post, but I figured 

these photos have been waiting to finally be shown in all their glory, 

admittedly one is a little blurry.

Very simple shapes used on a coat lining,
here is a photo from the hood part of the coat.
Using wavy and zig zag lines as well as snowflake like structures
created using the diamond shape.

The colour is a brilliant kind of midway between pink
and purple and red, 

kind of plumish but with more red thrown in.

Any way the coat belongs to a friend and was bought from Primark.
Fantastic!

The week of coats special has come to a close, but hopefully I'll be able to do a month special next month with it being January, or maybe another week special for the first week of January.
Back to the random regulars.

Print and swirls and roses

I still have one more post for the coats special,

so I'll be extending this weeks feature till Monday night.

The coat lining shown below has a use of tones and

the shiney fabric that ensurs its classic look.

Again the buttons were simple,

but the coats inside lining obviously more than

makes up for this and somtimes simple is better.

A very modern looking bit of decor on the lining,

using a combination of thin and thick lines to

create rose motifs that have a sense of movement to them.

The label above is one I have heard of but not seen much of,

so far it's in the good books.

Again photos taken at a charity shop.
The print itself also looks very swirl like,
prahaps taking influence form the use of curling and swirl motifs
used in the present as easy to grab or create motifs used on,
well just about every leaflet, menu and flyer that comes to hand.

Pink grids and Orange weave

Again the whole rows, verticals and horizontals

has got me here. The grid form

with such brilliant precise weave is just fantastic.

It uses a pink coloured grid structure for threads to weave in and out of, leaving enough of it showing so that you can tell straight away the colour.

The button is quote a traditional looking one,

with that brown and cream blending thing going on

that matches with some of the weaved threads. 

The colours include orange as well,
that comes off very light ginger like amongst
the other colours of browns, pinks and the tones.