The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

I re-discovered my love of New York based illustrator Shanna Murray’s work the other day. In the last few years, Shanna has very cleverly transformed her chalkboard style illustrations of wild flowers and laurels into poetic wall decals (and stationary) . I’m not a huge fan of decals as I rarely find any that aren’t gimmicky, but Shanna’s lyrical decals have a real sense of timelessness.

There are very few things on this blog that although I love, I rarely buy, but I am moving into my first bought home this year and these little talismans of well wishes are coming with to welcome us into our new home!

P.S Talented Shanna also posts a down-loadable desktop Calendar [usually a collaboration with a photographer]  each month featuring a beautiful illustration. My computer is currently adorned in November which is breathtaking…

I think I have found the perfect Christmas gift… Great Food is a collection of 20 charming tomes from Penguin charting the  “the sharpest, funniest, most delicious writing about food from the past 400 years,” The books offer a mouth-watering selection of food writing fare from which to choose, with authors ranging from the classic – Victorian ‘domestic goddess’ Isabella Beeton and that wonderfully intelligent food writer Elizabeth David – to the less familiar – eighteenth century innkeeper William Verrall, Pellegrino Artusi.

The delicious looking covers were designed by Penguin’s senior cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith each one drawing on a decorative ceramic style of dish relevant to the period of the writing concerned. For further insight check out Pen’s Great Food Club, a food blog by a Penguin employee cooking their way through the 20 books. A humorous  and charming account the blog has hints of the Julie and Julia about it with success stories as well as disasters documented in the attempt to translate 18th century recipes to the modern day table!

There is a wonderful synergy and poignancy attached to these prints ‘La Lune’ and ‘La Terre’ by graphic designer Double Merrick.

Inspired by old classroom wall-charts, these fantastic prints began life as an experiment in replicating old printing techniques, mixing the analogue and the digital.

Which would you choose? (I’d go for La Lune)

This week I visited the most extraordinary exhibition at The Wellcome Collection – Miracles and Charms…Two exhibitions exploring Hope and Chance. The first part displayed 100’s of Mexican votives which are small intricately coloured paintings, executed on tin roof tiles or small plaques, painted by members of the mining community around Mexico City in gratitude to their saints for delivering them from disaster and sometimes death.

Dating from the 18th century these touching and sometimes humorous plaques tell immediate and intensely personal stories, from domestic dramas to revolutionary violence. For instance one mining family from the 1800’s  gave thanks for the recovery of their donkeys (and livelihood) from illness, and one sea traveler in 1840 was caught in a furious storm -  praying to the Virgin of Soledad of Santa Cruz she was delivered safely from the storm and dedicated an intricate tableau to her saint.

There was just something pure and life-affirming about these plaques giving thanks, it got me thinking about how therapeutic it must be to put a thought or feeling of gratitude out there into the universe. When do we ever give thanks whether in a religious context or otherwise, for a good day at work, for a lucky break, or a wonderful weekend with family?

Caption: On 2 March 1840, Doña Gertrudis Castañeda, having set sail, was caught in a furious storm at sea and in such a terrible predicament she invoked the Virgin of Soledad of Santa Cruz and in finding safety she dedicates this retablo.

Caption: On first day of June 1861, Juan Garcia was drifting into unconsciousness while bathing in a pool and anxious that he was drowning and near death he passionately invoked Our Lord Saint Francis who saved him from such a dreadful death.

Caption: On 18 September 1930, Señor Donato Lopez, while chasing his cow through a stream as he tried to lasso it, had the misfortune of crashing into a boulder and breaking his left leg. After such a severe blow he appealed with all his heart for the help of the The Holy Child of Atocha and with gratitude he dedicates this retablo.

The second part of the exhibition Charmed Life: The Solace of Objects is the result of artist Felicity Powell’s engagement with a collection of 1400 Amulets assembled by the Edwardian amateur folklorist Edward Lovett. One of the few people to have had access to this curious collection of ‘charms’, wishbones and coins and amulets, once carried in the pockets of Londoners for luck or protection, Powell was intrigued by the silent witness they bore to countless personal narratives, most of which are now lost to history. Despite being long divorced from their original owners, these objects seemed to retain an insistent sense that they might yet hold some hidden magic : )

Also on display were Charmed Life curator Felicity Powell’s miniature wax artworks which allude to her own medical ailments and desire for wellbeing. Gothic and haunting these works look large here but in reality were tiny and impossibly intricate.

Miracles and Charms, fills a corner of London with life-affirming energy during dreary times.

Noticing a lot of painterly ink splatter products lately, Dynasty pillow Eskayel, ink-blot T-Shirt Rachel Rose, Splatter collection Emma Bridgewater, Bleeding oil digital print textile, Amy George.