thanks so much to the wonderful karin eriksson for her fantastic work on the guest blog these past two weeks. she had some really beautiful finds and i hope you’ll all continue to read her blog now that she’s back “home”. as we say goodbye to karin, it’s my pleasure to welcome a relatively new blogger- anna of red.house! since she founded her blog in july of 2006, anna has been tracking some of the best scandinavian design on the web. a designer herself (and a native of sweden), anna will be sharing some of her best scandinavian design finds (focusing on textiles and prints) as well as any other great tidbits she comes across. so, welcome anna! click here to check out her debut posts.

[after these three scandinavian bloggers we’ll move to a different region…so fret not if you fear i’ve gone scandi crazy over here]

My time on the guest blog is over. Thank you Grace and all readers for having me! I hope I’ve given you some food for thought and inspiration. If you want to get to know me more, please come visit my blog.

I shall leave you with a heart from Dada’s Diamonds “That’s Amore” collection and a bird brooch from Grainne Morton. Bye, bye!

Many of you really liked Maxine Sutton’s work, and I asked her whether she sell to anywhere in the US? She doesn’t yet, but she’s working on it. In the meantime, contact her directly through her website.

ac and i are off to the mohonk mountain house for our three year anniversary. we’ll return on monday evening so i’ll be back blogging on tuesday. stay tuned tuesday for a brand new guest blogger and on wednesday, november first: the next crop of designers at the d*s shop! so, if you want to order any of the october goods get em while they’re still up! we’ll be closing the shop on sunday evening to tally and prep for wednesday. have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you on tuesday! until then here are some design links to keep you going through tuesday…[the print above is by amazing artist jacqui oakley for the junior boys album cover]

• fresh design at d*s on hg (updated daily)
• karin’s last days at the d*s guest blog (thank you, karin!)
• submissions for the letterpress guide (thanks to everyone who has emailed, i’ve gotten so many emails i haven’t been able to reply to them all yet- sorry!)
• the d*s newsletter- now weekly!
• free people’s blog, via joy
• mia hanson, via poppytalk
• think pink at print+pattern
• design in literature at ace jet 170
• my last day at jon’s site

the lovely satoko of pare umbrellas just sent over her new designs for the rainy season. i’ve been rocking my pare umbrella for a few months now and i can’t tell you how many people stop me while i’m out and ask where it. these new designs are far too cute to pass up. beautiful color, stunningly decorated leather, plastic and wicker handles- just in time for fall rain showers. umbrellas are around $65-$85 a piece and i can’t recommend them more highly- they’re like tiny works of functional art. click here to browse and shop the full collection! i love the knitted and lace patterns- could embroidery, knitting, needlepoint and all of those sewing techniques be any hotter? [thanks, satoko!]

speaking of bears, my new painting by marci washington arrived today! it came from marci’s show at the beholder gallery, which is chock-full of great marci paintings. i love how haunting her works are- this one was a bit more chipper than the others, which is always welcome in my home (even ac liked it). click here for more info on marci washington.

gorgeous illustrations by joanna billingham, via jan at poppytalk. if only they were for sale….