Witness My Revival

Mumford and Sons announced earlier this week that their new album 'Babel' is now available for pre-order off their website www.mumfordandsons.com. The follow-up album to 'Sign No More' has been long-awaited (especially by us here!) and the first single, I Will Wait, is a goodie.  

It goes without saying that Marcus Mumford's marriage earlier this year to Carey Mulligan - one of our style favourites, did nothing to decrease our love of Mumford and Sons.

We have recently fallen in love with the Rekjavik Corner Store. 

Where else can you buy a ring that grows moss, a terrifying yule cat game and a speech tie? The corner store deals in fantastic and quirky design objects. Even better is the fact that the store is a small company with the aim to support the design industry. Their carefully selected variety of products are from emerging designers and artists and the store is committed to a high-quality local production (so your inner eco-warrior can feel good). They also work in close collaboration with the designers (so your inner hard-done-by designer can feel good as well). 

Also - the store deals in small quantities of the product, thus ensuring that you will be the only one wearing a moss ring to the work summer party this year...

aMAZEme: A Labyrinth Made from 250,000 Books from Christopher Jobson on Vimeo.

 aMAZEme is the breathtaking new installation at the Royal Festival Hall. From the 31st of July until the 25th of August a huge labyrinth of 250,000 books will wow festival goers as part of the Festival of the world. The amazing maze has been created by Brazilian artists Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo, in collaboration with production company Hungry Man. The piece is inspired by the writer JL Borges and interestingly the maze forms the shape of Borges’ unique fingerprint.

So what are the vital statistics? Well... The maze covers over 500 square metres, with sections standing up to 2.5 metres high.

Certainly big enough to get lost in!

For more info on the project go to the Southbank Centre website here.

French artist Mademoiselle Maurice took her unique style of urban origami installation to the streets of Hong Kong and Vietnam. Her urban installations, ephemeral and non-degrading, consist of hundreds of origami folds. Each of the simple geometric shapes used is the abstract representation of ideals such as harmony, spirituality, balance and many others.

All images via This is Colossal

"In Hong Kong, I just wanted to encourage Hong Kong in their desire to remain independent and to allow freedom of expression. In Vietnam, I wanted use the symbol of the star as this adorns their national flag. The star represents the country's unity and is shown with five branches of the yellow star symbolising peasants, students, intellectuals, workers and soldiers who have fought together for independence."

Mademoiselle Maurice uses different mediums such as origami, lace, photography, or painting and embroidery to create works that appear light-hearted and fun, but consistently have a strong connection with sensitive events encountered in life. 

More images and are on Mademoiselle Maurice's website.

Sometimes a trend is so popular and goes on for so long that you are reminded of it everywhere you turn - whether you like it or not. We feel that way about chunky necklaces - they are, and have been everywhere over the blogosphere AND the High Street for the last 10 - 12 months. And it's all a little bit same-same now.

So, imagine our delight when we spotted these beautiful little pieces. The necklaces are dainty, slight and ever so pretty - the perfect summer accessory. Each necklace is handmade by natasha in secret; property manager by day, aspiring designer by night.  

You can enter to WIN one of these little treasures here - it closes today, so get in quickly! 

They are a welcome relief from the excessiveness of solid necklaces, and I want one. Now. Or two in fact. Yes, I want two. Please?

Image via natasha in secret