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This guy's carving beats your carving.

I'm an impatient person. Like, flips out in traffic kind of impatient. And then I see something like this, which makes me want to be a better person.

Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth from Tugboat Printshop are two crazy talented humans, who undoubtedly tested the strength of their relationship during the two years that it took to carve this ah-MAZING forest landscape.

From BoredPanda:

"Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based artistic duo, has unveiled their “Overlook” woodcut print, an epic work of art that they spent the last 2 years (on and off) designing and making.

The dedicated duo, which runs the Tugboat print shop, painstakingly cut trees, leaves, grasses, rivers and mountains into a board measuring 28 in x 46 in (71 cm x 117 cm). The dizzyingly detailed vista is then printed with three colors. “A panoramic infinity will be suggested by the print’s ability to eventually meet itself seemlessly at the edges,” explain the artists, “expanding like an eternal ‘wallpaper’ into an ever stretching vista!”

The piece will be sold as a single piece, diptych, triptych, or as an endless wallpaper."

I mean. Incredible. Checkout the fantastic behind the scenes pics on their Instagram over here.

Hello Pretty Staff Picks: Sara

It's staff picks time! You should all be getting to know us quite well by now - well, well enough to know what to buy us for our birthdays.

Today we have numbers person Sara picking out what she would most like you to gift her with:

"Much like our fellow Pretty, Lee, I too love the geometrics and the monochromatic. In complement, I of course love any clean, contemporary living space with peeks of warm neutrals and untouched wood. But to keep things comfy, I like to splash specks of crazy colour in the form of quirky decor and illustrations. As for my fashion pieces, I like it simple and smart paired with cool accessories."

Naaice. What would you pick?

Tree-themed treats

I have a huge weakness for pretty cushions, and this one is no different. iSpy's cushion covers are all screen printed by hand and this one's bright, Scandi-inspired print is my favourite. It comes in two different colourways - the one you see here in blue and coral, and an equally delightful coral and pink version.

We featured this item in our newsletter this week, along with a curated collection of our favourite items using trees as a motif. There's a new theme every week, so if you'd like to be kept in the loop, sign up below!

3D printed cityscape shells

We stumbled upon this amazing post on boredpanda recently, which is just too gorgeous not to share - Japanese artist Aki Inomata has printed out 3D, clear plastic shells covered in mini cities for hermit crabs.

According to boredpanda, 'Hermit crabs usually inhabit vacated snail shells, but in their absence, they’ve been known to inhabit pieces of wood, stone or plastic, so their “partnership” with Inomata isn’t all that strange. Instead of their usual shells, Inomata provided them with tiny works of art to carry on their backs. The series is aptly titled “Why Not Hand Over a ‘Shelter’ to Hermit Crabs?”'

The cityscapes include New York, Zaanse Schans, Thailand, Santorini, Honfuer and Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou. Check out the video showing how they're created and how the hermit crabs moved into their new homes:

Process of "Why Hand Over a 'Shelter' to Hermit Crabs? " AKI INOMATA from Aki Inomata on Vimeo.

Pretty right? I kind of want one!

Nadia van der Mescht's creative workshops

Super lovely Nadia van der Mescht recently partnered with Hello Pretty to sell tickets for her latest creative workshops in Cape Town - and we were delighted!

I popped into one of the workshops at Dear Me last week, and true to form, Nadia had thought of every last detail. I hovered around takin photos and listening to some of her pearls of wisdom - I managed to catch the segment on relevant and constructive use of hashtags and from that alone I can highly recommend these workshops for any creative business owner!

The workshop covered creative goal setting, marketing and branding, blogging and social media tips, and how to approach the press, among many others - Nadia has a great way of personalising her content to be relevant to anyone.

Typically, her choice in venue was super - in fact, as someone that's new to Cape Town, I had never been there before, so immediately went back the next day for lunch. It was delicious - I can only imagine the treats they provided for the ladies at the workshop.

Check out Nadia's ongoing Business Tip Series on her blog for great advice all year round, and give her some social media love on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.