One of my new favourite blogs to read, Bright.Bazaar, is all about colour. “Mr Bazaar” Will Taylor says he is “unashamedly hooked on hue.” What a great phrase.

We are thinking about renovations of late chez Bulger, and I’ve been scouring the Internet for ideas. I don’t know that I could actually replicate all of the following ideas in my home, but they have definitely got me hooked on hue this week! Have a colourful weekend, dear friends.

1. Psychedelic stripes

By Glasgow-based artist Jim Lambie, in his floor series called Zobop. {Via Honestly WTF}

2. Piñata cake

Oh actually, I think this is one I will replicate at home. {Via B for Bel via A Subtle Revelry}

3. Wacky wallpaper

Joanna Goddard has collected 10 great wallpapers for us to admire and covete. Which do you like best? {Via Cup of Jo}

4. Striped ice cubes

I have bookmarked this idea for spring and summer. I will invite you over for sparkly, colourful, cold, fruity drinks next November. Save the date. {Via Oh Joy!}

5. Stitches alive!

Vibrant embroideries come alive in this short video about love. A little something joyful to take you into the weekend. {Via the Etsy blog}

And that’s all, folks!

If you’re one to spend hours on the computer tweaking the look of your blog; designing invitations, business cards or brochures; or just generally playing at making things pretty, I have good news for you!

Creative Market opened its doors today. This is an online marketplace for “handcrafted, mouse-made design content,” made by independent, creative folks all over the world. Think of it as Etsy for your desktop.

Here are eight of my favourite designs. What are yours?

More content will be added all the time so keep checking back. And if you are pretty nifty with a mouse yourself, you can always open your own shop in the Creative Market. Go here.

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And also, here I am lately on English Muse and iVillage:

Beautiful papercuts
The new nesting
Cartoons on reading
Show someone you care

Guess what I discovered yesterday? FREE creative digital design downloads! But for a short time only. The lovely folks at Creative Market are just starting up and, while they get ready to launch, they are offering some wonderful freebies to give early adopters a taste of what’s to come.

Here are some favourites I’ve already downloaded:
A set of vintage-style hang-tags

Beautiful herringbone patterns

Chalkboard-style icons

Snippets from a 1912 French text book on geometry

I think this is a super smart marketing idea, kind of like the digital version of those little tasters they give you in gelati shops that sucker you in to buying the three-scoop cup when you weren’t even hungry. I’m fairly certain creativemarket.com has won a future customer in moi.

Also, I need to extend a big thanks to Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely for alerting me to this great opportunity.

(This print by Laura Ruth on Etsy)

Last October, this glorious video of a murmuration of starlings over a river in Ireland went viral. I missed it, what with our overseas holiday and my somewhat surprising pregnancy (and subsequent morning sickness). So just in case your attention was elsewhere, too, I’m sharing it here.

Murmuration from Islands & Rivers on Vimeo.

What did you think? I am touched by their collective beauty and precision and, in particular, the mystery they hold. Still nobody knows exactly how these birds create such glorious patterns, en masse, like clockwork.

Starlings are all over Etsy, too. Here are some lovely pieces I found.
Top L-R: starling doll; starling migration map; starling & roses woodcut
Middle L-R: starling greeting card; starling pin; starling skirt
Bottom L-R: starling bag; starling print; starling light-theatre photo

At last, dawn woke the forest to the song of the birds, and Snow White too, awoke. A whole world was stirring to life and the little girl was glad to see how silly her fears had been. On she walked until she came to a clearing. There stood a strange cottage, with a tiny door, tiny windows and a tiny chimney pot. Everything about the cottage was much tinier than it ought to be.

Snow White pushed the door open.

“I wonder who lives here?” she said to herself, peeping round the kitchen. “What tiny plates! And spoons!” Upstairs was a bedroom with seven neat little beds. Going back to the kitchen, Snow White had an idea.

Toward dusk, seven tiny men marched homeward singing. But when they opened the door of their house, to their surprise they found a bowl of hot steaming soup on the table, and the whole house spick and span. Upstairs was Snow White, fast asleep on one of the beds.

The chief dwarf prodded her gently. “Who are you?” he asked. Snow White told them her sad story, and tears sprang into the dwarfs’ eyes.

I am utterly in love with these adorable cottages from The Rustic Way, which can be fitted out as guest houses, garden sheds, saunas and children’s playhouses. They are just like a fairy tale come to life, don’t you think?

Once upon a time, I went a-visiting to the website of someone who had left a comment on my blog. (I always try to visit your site if you leave a link to it when you comment).

Anyhoo, this particular site was called Hivenn and it turned out the blogger was a sweetheart of a young, blue-haired gal from the UK who took some quite lovely photographs. One of them struck me as particularly moving and I wanted to tell her so, but I couldn’t find out where to leave comments.

BUT while I was searching for a comments option, I found this human calendar at the bottom of the page. The little folks inside the boxes will even figure out what day it is on your side of the world and switch places and signs accordingly. Things like this make me embarrassingly happy.