Jewelry I heart today

Antler jewelry set by MaeLo

Look at these pretties! I came across MaeLo's antler jewelry when she started following me on twitter. I'm so happy she did, because I'm in LOVE with her makings! All the jewelry in her shop is made of hand-painted organic, naturally shed antler slices and forks. Each of her piece is completely unique and no two pieces are the same. Me likes!

The Blogscars - I'm a Nominee!

Hey sweeties! Guess what? Janette from Janette the Jongleur has come up with a brilliant idea. The Blogscars! And she has nominated my blog in two categories! You can vote for My Best Friend Jules in the best visual effects/design category and as the best foreign (non us) blog. I'm super duper honored and touched. I think this is such a great idea and it promotes the awesome friendship and synergy we have here in the blogging world! The lovely oh so beautiful bloggers I'm nominated in these two categories  with are.... drum roll!

Visual Effects

(Best collages, posts, photography, and other design elements)

Hearted Girl

My Best Friend Jules

A Brilliant Melody

Scenic Glory

A Lost Feather

Foreign Blog

(Best Non-US resident blogs)

Hearted Girl

A Piece of Lisa

My Best Friend Jules

Odds and Ends

Whimsical Poppysmic

Visit Janette's blog to see all the categories and nominees. You can find the voting poll for the two categories I'm nominate in, on my sidebar! Voting ends on February 20th. Winners announced on Oscar Sunday Feb. 26th. READY, SET, VOTE! :)

Typography crush - Alphabet Pearls

ALPHABET PEARLS by Pugly Pixel

Ok, so here it comes. Typography crush is my new regular feature, because I just couldn't resist myself! This week I thought I'd share a link to these lovely Alphabet Pearls by the talented Katrina from Pugly Pixel. Her work is such an inspiration to me and her tutorials are amazing! She has taught me a LOT!  If you're not familiar with her site yet, hurry up and visit. Her whole site is pure deliciousness and the freebie category the icing on the cake!

Jewelry I heart today

Life is an Adventure locket necklace by Mrs Smileys

I've been such a fan of Mrs Smileys locket jewelry ever since I came across her shop couple of months ago. And this turquoise patina locket compilation may be my favorite! It's stunning! And I love the name "Life is and Adventure" too - kinda suits me perfect at this point in my life. I'm ready to explore the world again!

Ps. Talking about exploring the world, I booked tickets to Toronto Canada last night! I'll be visiting my friends who moved there last autumn in May/June for two weeks. I can't wait!

In my record player

Hi friends! It's Friday today! What are your plans for the weekend? I thought I'd share this stunning folksy cover version of Sabrina's 80's eurohit Boys Boys Boys by a Finnish singer Sansa. She just does MAGIC to this song and I think it might be my new favorite! I've pretty much played it on repeat for the past hour ;) And guess what, I'm going to see her play live tomorrow night. I can't wait!!! Have a great weekend lovelies!

Ps. You can find Sansa on Facebook and MySpace too. Be sure to listen Waiting for the Sky - it's absolutely gorgeous. 

Colors of the rainbow

COLOR INSPIRATION // 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7

Hi sweeties! I've been wanting to do an interior design color inspiration post for a while now. And I've finally come across the perfect interior design picture that tickles my fancy! It's colorful, relaxed, vintage inspired, fun and fresh! I would love my bedroom to have this colorful Scandinavian vibe. At the moment I'm sharing my flat with a friend, so I'm living in this bedroom/living-room/work-room combo... But I'm holding on this dream bedroom for when the time is right! In general, I like to mix and match things and colors. So I picked a couple of fun colorful homely things I'd love to add in my apartment. The sofa is my absolute favorite!

Ps. The font I used in the layout is called Ostrich Sans. You can download it for free here.

Jewelry I heart today

Lavender Amethyst Slice Gold Dangles Earring by Rifle & Radford

Oooh la la! Look at these beauties! I'm a complete sucker for amethyst jewelry, so these babies didn't go unnoticed when I came across Rifle & Radford on Etsy. I adore the sliced look because you can see the whole stone and overall I think these are absolutely gorgeous. I'd love to glam up for a night in town in these!

Typography crush x 5

RIBBON // HOMESTEAD // MENSCH // LAVANDERIA // AIRPLANE

I'm such a typography freak. I'm completely hooked on searching for new fonts because I just keep falling in love over and over again. I've been sick in bed all day, so I've been entertaining myself by looking up new fonts. And I came across a fantastic site called Lost Type Co-op! And what's neat about this type foundry is that the users have the opportunity to pay whatever they like for a font, you can even type in '$0' for a free download. 100% of funds raised on the site go directly to the designers of the fonts, respectively. I picked 5 of my favorite fonts on the site, but you should definitely check out the rest too! 

Ps. I'm thinking of making typography crush a weekly feature. What do you think?

Modern + vintage

Vintage brown fades cat eye frames // Audrey Brooke cross body bag

Hi pretties! I've had my eye on the Vintage Optical Shop on Etsy for a while now and I just keep going back to their shoppe. I could pretty much snatch all of their frames - that's how awesome they are! I'm just a bit skeptical about ordering frames online without having the chance to try them on. But I'd love to order these pretty cat eye brown fades! I think they'd go nicely with the brown shade color block bag. 

Ps. What's your experience in ordering frames online?

Blog makeover - Bliss & Pumpkin

Hi there! I've just finished a blog design for Sonia over at Bliss & Pumpkin. Sonia wanted her new blog layout to be quite minimalistic and clean, so that her content could stand out. She didn't want any extra bells and whistles, just a nice modern look with a hint of girly colors and confetti. Pop over to her blog and see how it all turned out!

Erin Antiques giveaway winner!

Hi sweet peas! We have a winner! Congrats Blair from A Case of the Mundays for winning this beautiful Erin Antiques vintage heart locket. I'll be contacting you within the next couple of days, so we can ship this pretty thing your way! Thank you everyone for participating! :)

Phoster.

A poster I created on Phoster.

Hello pretties! I hope you're all having a great weekend! I've been pretty much at my desk all day, working on my design projects, going through emails etc. Feels good to be productive! But I've had time to for some silly nonsense as well. I found a great new and super addictive iPhone app - Phoster. You can use your own photos and cool ready templates the app provides to create neat posters and invitations. Me likes! You can imagine how much time I've spent playing with it. I'm completely hooked!

Jewelry I heart today

The Helsinki Series necklace/bracelet by ISWASANDWILLBE

Happy Saturday loves! I recently came across ISWASANDWILLBE and it was instant love. I'm such a fan of delicate modern jewelry like the Helsinki necklace.... and especially when the piece has been named after my homecity! ;) The necklace can also be wrapped around the wrist several times for a fun, fidgety bracelet! LOVE IT!

Ps. Have you entered the Erin Antiques vintage jewelry giveaway yet?

Emerg{in} Store - shop branding

Visit Emerg{in} Store

Couple of months ago Naomi from Emerg{in} Store contacted me for a shop branding project. I was super excited to work with her, because A) I love new challenges B) I love jewelry C) I love Australia. The project just checked all the boxes for me, so I could only say yes.

But what does Emerg{in} stand for?

1. a young or emerging independent designer 

2. a vibrant artisan, craftsperson, graphic designer and/or jewelry maker 

3. an unique creation designed and created in Australia or around the world 

4. an online store

SO HOP ON OVER FOR A VISIT - EMERGIN{IN} STORE IS NOW OFFERING A 20% DISCOUNT ON ALL THE SHOP ITEMS WITH CODE "MYFRIENDJULES".  IT'S CHRISTMAS ALL OVER AGAIN!

Helsinki is the World Design Capital in 2012

WDC Helsinki 2012: New Year's Eve of Design from WDC Helsinki 2012

Hi there! I thought I'd make a little shout-out for my awesome hometown Helsinki, because it's the World Design Capital 2012. They had a mesmerizing opening event on New Year's Eve on the Helsinki Senate Square with such an amazingly colorful light show. I can't wait for all the cool events in the local art scene! If you're planning to come for a visit, you should check out the Helsinki WDC programme. Maybe we'll meet there? :)

Photoshop therapy.

Love this quote // Collage is my personal work

Photoshopping is sometimes pure therapy for me. It's like doodling. I start doing something and end up somewhere totally unplanned. I was going through some of my iphone photos this afternoon and I decided to edit a few of them. Then I came across a quote by Mary Anne Rodmacher that really spoke to me. The full quote goes like this. 

At first glance it may appear too difficult. Look again. Always look again.

Then it all kinda flowed from there. It felt good to get lost in photoshopping for a little while. What's your way of forgetting all the troubles in the world? Where do you like to get lost in?

From where I stand

Hey sweethearts! I feel like I've been a bit absent lately and there's a reason for it. A lot has been going on in my personal life for the last couple of months. A lot of good but also things not all so good. I try to keep my blog a happy place for you to visit, but I feel like this is something I need to share with you. We ended our 4 year relationship last week. It wasn't an easy decision, but I think it was the right one. I won't go into details here, but let's say that now is the time that we both need to gain ourselves back and find the happiness within. At the moment I'm having such mixed feelings, that I'm just going to take it a day at a time. Some days it might get a bit quieter here on the blog, but I promise I'm not going anywhere. I just need to regroup my head, so bare with me!

Ps. It snowed yesterday :)

Closed - Erin Antiques Giveaway

What would be a better way to celebrate the New Year than a little vintage jewelry giveaway? Erin from Erin Antiques has been so generous and she's giving away this beautiful 40s vintage gem for one lucky winner! Thank you sweetie!

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A lovely 40s gold-filled hear locket with decorative etching in the middle of the front (matte silver part) with a polished plain back. The locket opens from the side to two photo compartments with its original photo rims and snap shut with a "click". There's some fine hair line scratches due to age. Overall in an excellent condition with no dings or dents. Erin has promised to add a dainty gold plated chain to go with this small locket .

Measures: 5/8" tall and wide (widest point)

Markings: 14KT GF and maker's mark " M over A" (Marvel jewelry manufacturing Co. since 1942)

Chain: 17"

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To enter, just leave a comment here with your email address and let us know what you'd pair this beauty with? For an extra entry visit Erin's shop and let us know what's your favorite item in her shop. Or tweet this giveaway mentioning @myfriendjules and link back to this giveaway post. Remember to leave a comment for each entry. The giveaway closes on Sunday 8 January and the winner will be announced the following day, by using random.org. GOOD LUCK!