Hand-painted Junior crests

We are happy to say we have just launched Anzu junior crests over on www.notonthehighstreet.com . Each crest is hand-painted bespoke individually for each baby or child. Simply choose the template shape, tell us the child/baby's name and the things they love and we will hand-paint a crest for you.

The crest above was created for 2 year old Chloe. Chloe loves monkeys, kites and the colours blue and green.

10 year old Sophie absolutely loves her horse Star and spends all her time after school riding Star in the beautiful fields that surround her home. When she's not busy horse-riding, Sophie also loves ballet.

7 year old Jack is not into football, but loves taking things apart to find out how they work, and his favourite toys are trains and lego.

After you have purchased your crest, the original piece of art will be delivered to you mounted and cello-wrapped. There is then the opportunity to buy cards and letter paper with your crest on them. Baby Mila Lavinia had a funny birth story involving carrots, and as daisies represent innocence her Mum felt they were the perfect choice for her newborn. This crest was then applied to birth announcement cards and letter paper.

If you would like to buy or know more simply visit www.notonthehighstreet.com and look for Anzu crests or click here

'The Patient Gardener'

How amazing is this? Swedish architects Visiondivision have designed and are working on this two storey leisure area.

Ten Japanese cherry trees will be bent and pruned over the next 100 years - yes 100! If only they could speed it up! As my Dad says, when you think of things in tree years you suddenly realise and appreciate how short time is.

www.visiondivision.com discovered via Another Magazine

Crystal Christmas

As part of the Swarovski Crystal Christmas that Harrods are doing this year, this Ralph and Busso dress worth £230,00 has been created and will be displayed in the store.

Like Anzu cards, the dress is decorated completely with Swarovski elements. The dress features more than 150,00 stones and took hundreds of hours to make.

Anzu will also be participating in the Swarovski crystal Christmas with some designs that are only available in Harrods (more to be revealed later).

Dangerous

Wear these two together at your own peril!

Shoes by Charlotte Olympia, Bag by Valentino

Lori Nix

Fantasy landscapes from photographer Lori Nix. Always love stories or photos of nature taking over so these really appeal to me.

You can see more of Lori's work here

Hawaii

My friend's parents are going to Hawaii, so I asked the lovely Claudia over at Passage Paradis for some insider recommendations and she has just done two wonderful posts over at her blog. So thoughtful and sweet of her, and it really made my day. I wish I was going now, especially after all the food tips!

Top of my list would definitely be the Doris Duke Shangri-La estate, with it's amazing collection of Islamic Art.

Claudia has great style, sense of fun and is a big foodie so be sure not to miss out on her posts. You can read them here and here

But if you can't go and want to get into the holiday spirit, you could always just buy some of the Anzu Hawaiian shirt cards instead!

Images: Fine art America, unknown, Anzu

Anzu Pick of the week: Saffiah

'I am picking the Anzu cosy candle to give to my sister. It is 1 year since she got married and moved into her new house, and I think this is a perfect gift for housewarming. The rich colours of the patchwork packaging remind me a bit of this great photograph below of the Pointer sisters.'

Diwali

Anzu would like to wish a Happy Diwali and new year to all celebrating it. Here are some images and a video we love, to celebrate the festival of light.

Strings of rainbow Diwali decorations

A bright, embroidered and jewelled section of a sari

An Indian miniature portrait of the Hindu Goddess Shiva surrounded by a glowing fire.

Our sparkly Rainbow Necklaces card embellished with Swarovski Crystals.

An amazing satellite image of India during Diwali. It's literally glowing.

A scattering canopy of fairy lights

These gorgeous French chandeliers!

We also love this video from the Bollywood Devdas, the song is based on a candle that never burns out, symbolic of her love for a man. Click here to view it.

Anzu Pick of the Week: By Ruth

My choice this week is our simple yet elegant 'Wedding Rings' card from our Diamonds are Forever range. I am going to a close friend's wedding next month in Australia and I feel the words 'from this day forward' sum up the occasion perfectly!

Edward Burra

My friend Jasmin (not to be confused with Anzu's Jasmine!) has been working on a documentary on the artist Edward Burra which is going to be shown on the Culture show tomorrow and BBC4 at 10pm Monday night.

Burra liked to paint Harlem, people sitting at cafes or listening to jazz and urban life scenes although he did also paint more typical English landscapes.

One of the things that is inspiring about Edward Burra was that like Frida Kahlo he was in pain for much of his life, but battled through that to create a legacy of work. Despite crippling arthritis, Burra would only sleep five or six hours a night and would paint until he had worn himself out. It is thought that he began to paint watercolour because it was physically easier for him to paint than oil as you could be in a sitting position.

Whilst looking for images, I came across this one below, where Southville Primary school had re-created the painting, which I thought was quite funny. Bet they had fun doing it.

Cute

Laughing at this in the office - very cute and funny. Firstly the performance, click here and then the shopping trip, click here.

Inspiration

Often on this blog, we've posted on design inspirations but never about inspirations from a business or motivation point of view, so here's the first one!

Russian avant-garde architect Konstantin Melnikov's flow of commissions from the years 1926-7 provided him with enough money to build this house in Moscow. It is now regarded as the architect's most renowned work. Just shows what you can achieve in a year.

You can read more here

Images: Avantgard-ru.org, Another magazine

Factory visit

Visiting a factory today. Rather hoping it will look like this, with giant chocolate heads being created by Grace Jones. Somehow I suspect it won't!

Anzu Pick of the Week: By Ben

Ben: 'This week I've picked the Guitar card from our men's range because it reminds me a lot of my guitar and I'm doing a gig as a guitarist in my band Everyone to the Anderson in Brighton tomorrow.'

Glamorous moments..

Just some favourite striking moments from the Spring Summer 2012 Fashion weeks. Above the all white underwater world at Chanel (love sea horses),

just good old la dolce vita glamour at Erkan Coruh, Milan,

a sort of 1930s Picasso muse look at Temperley,

another all white magical world - this time a horse carousel at Louis Vuitton,

\

a sweeping chiffon statement dress at Nina Ricci.

Pictures 3 and 5, Vogue.com, others unknown

Decorate your walls with jewels

The Harrods Anzu limited edition print exhibition has been extended yet another week!! We are delighted. So please head down there and snap up some sumptuous jewellery prints, which are perfect as a special gift or to add a truly glamorous touch to your home.

Sistine Chapel

I really like this 360 view of the Sistine chapel on the Vatican website. Just move around and click to zoom in, the link is here

Anzu pick of the week: by Ellen

'I pick our emerald necklace card, because even though they wouldn't particularly suit me, I just love emeralds!!

This amazing ring below is currently on sale on 1st Dibs.

No reason

Just really like this picture; the stripes, the building, the sense of adventure..

Miss Scarlett

The Cluedo character Miss Scarlett was always a favourite of mine, and I love the colour scarlet and lots of tones of bright red.

This Ellie Saab dress is such a showstopper,

a more cherry tomato red, but this Anna Sui varnish is the absolute best varnish ever - I have pots that have lasted for about 12 years!

This John Rawling photograph from Vogue - the dress is just perfect. I love the brooches on the belt and it is also totally now.