Sweet William is one of my favorite shops because I adore their prints and handmade goodies and really like the illustrative characters, patterns and colorways. My current favorite is the print of the chairs on notebook paper shown below, it's the best! I bought some things from them over a year ago as gifts for some friends in Germany and they loved their Sweet William pouches and prints! I kept a print for myself and cherish it so much. I really get the sense that all of these nice things were created in love and it makes the purchase feel good because the items come from a happy place inside of one's soul -- produced out of passion and a genuine love for handmade craft.

Sweet William is a very small company formed by sisters Shelley Gardner in New Zealand and Paula Mills in Australia and though they live thousands of miles apart they share a connection through Sweet William, "We share a passion for all things creative, we make, draw, sew and collect lots of lovely, sweet things and we are so excited to share them with you."

Above there is another print that I like in addition to the hand drawn chairs, it's with a girl and an elephant (I happen to love elephants) and it says, "When choosing friends one should be wise." This is a very good reminder even when you are all grown up! We often tell children to choose their friends carefully but it's equally important that this pattern continues into adulthood because friends can really make or break our spirit. I was watching a TED lecture recently (do you watch TED? I barely have time but try to when I can) about social networks and how we can impact one another negatively or positively and why it is important to consider who we call our friends for this reason. I don't believe in dumping friends when they are going through hard times simply because it could be hard to deal with -- but I do believe in distancing myself from those with whom I am not close to through years or blood if I sense that the friendship is weakening me in a way that begins to negatively impact my life. Online this can happen in the social networks we form and so it's a good idea to watch how certain interactions impact your health and well-being. It's tricky sometimes isn't it? But this sweet print is a nice way to remind us of how vital good friends really are.

If you like what you see above (I know you do!), you can also follow Shelley and Paula on the Sweet William blog.

(images: sweet william)