Little Letters

Dear 1am,

Why must you be so much fun? My brain is so awake, but it is time for sleep :(

Dear lilac scarf,

i love you to death, and I never thought I'd even like a scarf. It's amazing how much warmer you keep me.

Dear Kmart beanie with pom pom,

I'm coming back for you , don't worry.

Dear Myles,

thanks for being so patient and so lovely and better than I could ever ask for. Thank you for liking me :)

Dear Me,

Please take better care of yourself.

Dear Mum,

thanks for the flannelette sheets, they're the bomb

Dear sister,

you are truly talented, you'll do big things kiddo.

Dear Dan Brown,

I know Digital Fortress is Myle's favourite, but I like the Da Vinci Code better. I like more arts and history to modern technological warfare. Just sayin'.

Dear Vanity Fair,

thank you for inspiring me to be a better journalist. One day hopefully my writing will be of your journalists calibre

Dear Kevin Rudd,

I don't think anyone should be treated how you were today.

Dear Blank A4 sketch books,

Why are you so alluring? I can never have enough of you!

Dear Fish oil tablets,

Where did you go? I'm tired of playing hide and seek with you, and I've already checked your usual hang outs.

Dear Ducchess,

you look so pretty all cleared off. Sorry for covering you with crap. I'll try and find some lilac paint soon to touch up your paint work.

Dear Readers,

I realise these pictures are too few and far between, and aren't really fitting with the post. I'll find better ones tomorrow.

Dear Gen,

Go. To. Bed.

I like.

I like this video for some reason .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-opi8Unz3Y

firing on all cylinders

There is so many interesting things going on at the moment, I almost don't know where to start. In between seeing friends etc, I've been :

# learning Spanish using a podcast I found on openculture.com

#spending excessive amounts of time on Vogue.com.au lusting over A/W 2010 shows and drooling over S/S 10/11 shows

# reading the illustrated version of the Da Vinci Code (I'm not stupid, it just has relevant historical illustrations THANKYOU MYLES)

#Reading other things from my reading pile

1.The Picture of Dorian Gray

2. Aid and Other Dirty Business - Giles Bolton

3. 365 - I just use it to write ideas in, especially helpful when I get an idea in the middle of the night or as I'm falling asleep.

4.Clean Breaks - travel. Drooool.

5. The Complete Photo Guide to Sewing - little dress here I come

6. RUSSH

7. The Complete Kodak Book of Photography

# Drawing and sketching

# Swearing at my camera for working for a day, and then breaking again

# Spending time with Myles :)

# Planning my room

It's slightly annoying that we're stuck with A/W 2010 when Spring /Summer 2010/11 looks so. damn. good., but I'm trying to make the most of Winter, since a lot of it is pretty cute.

I had a great belt that fitted my waist perfectly, (lucky, as it only had one size), that was a hand-me-down from Mum, from when she did Girls Guides. She was 7 at the time, but I think it went around her hips. I can't find it at the moment, but the skinny little waist belt is going to be a big part of my winter clothing.

More on winter clothing later.

Myles and I went to Mado on the weekend for dinner, which is a Turkish restaurant in Southbank. I wish my camera had been working then, because the Turkish decor was so fun. I like it when places go nuts on the decor, rather than playing it safe.

I had Iskender, which was Alexander the Great's favourite meal, according to the menu. Probably his only option, but it was delish.

The Cheese Pide was also realllly good, which is what Myles had.

Dad brought this home for me from the farmers markets on the weekend, some sort of crunch cinnamon swirl filled with apple thing.

I love cinnamon. It is also surprisingly great with pasta and cheese.

xx

the last grand duchess

There's quite a few little separate posts I'll do in the next day or so, I never remember everything I want to say at once. Smaller chunks of blog post are more easily digestible anyway.

I'll be heading to the hardware store this week to pick up materials for a little project that has been on the back-burner for a long time, probably about six months.

It's part of my plan to salvage my duchess from the hungry jaws of my dysfunctional bedroom. I say Duchess out of habit, most people would call it a dresser. I'm not sure why we call it a duchess, I'll assume that's what the guy at the antiques place called it when he sold it to us.

I still remember when I was four years old, and my parents and I went to buy it from an antiques place. To be truthful, I don't remember a lot of how it looked or when we bought it, the clearest memory is just looking out the car window on the way to the shop.

This video reminds me of being about four years old, I think it's so beautiful.

There is something very special about sisters.

I found it at lalalovelythings.blogspot.com, who found it from rikshawdesign.blogspot.com, both blogs I now follow, because they are that beautiful. The video was made by Ericka McConnell, I believe.

But I digress.

It was originally very ugly, Dad tells me, it was very dark, painted in a bad wood finish.

Dad and Papa ( his father) sanded it back, and painted it to the colours it is today, which is white, with lilac panels on the front of the drawer, the middle table section and the front of the cupboards.

It has a big round mirror at the top, and was perfect for a little girl who secretly hoped she was a fairy.

Dad, and me back in my fairy days, at age 3 or 4

I used my duchess every day from then, until about a year ago when I rearranged my room to accommodate for a bigger bed. Natural sunlight to the duchess is blocked out by my behemoth of a wardrobe, and my overhead room light isn't that strong, so the lighting for the mirror is terrible, so now I use the bathroom mirror instead.

So it has collected a pile of jewellery, hair accessories and other odds and ends. I'm clearing it all off, buying a new stool for it ( the old one broke some time ago) and putting little lights on it to return it to it's former glory.

I also want flowers around the place

Several times, Dad has tried to convince me to throw the whole piece out, but there is no way I could, i love it way too much.

Now, what the hell has this got to do with my little side project? Admittedly, that was a massive walk down memory lane, but anyway.

I'm building a few different little jewellery storage/display units custom built for my various types of jewellery. They're all fairly simple to make, I designed each unit a while ago. There's one for necklaces, one for bracelets, one for rings and I don't remember what my plan for earrings was, so I'll have to dig up my sketches of the ring unit.

At one point I was toying with the idea of combining each separate unit to make one larger, all-in-one display and storage unit, but I think it would look too clunky. But we'll see.

Below so far is part of what is inspiring me for my room make over. I won't be painting any walls pink though, although I do like pink in bedrooms because it's warm, pretty and it also helps you sleep, apparently.

images via quirky charm, Andy Warhol, Lalalovelythings, The Selby, Petrina Tinslay. Please comment if any are attributed incorrectly, or if they are yours and you would like them removed.

So that is what I am excited about at the moment, I love when a creative project serves a purpose.

I'll put up some photos of the units, and the duchess when I am done.

alive and kicking

I am feeling really re-energised right now, I've just found a whole stack of great blogs to follow, filled with fun, inspiring content that has sent my imagination back to it's usual state of over-excited productivity and dreamings. It has the excitement of a kid in a candy shop, with the energy of a kid who just ate the entire candy shop.

Between finding all these great new blogs, I've been designing a little collection, and I really hope I finish this one. Well, it's actually two. Or a split collection. I think they'd be workable in the same wardrobe, and have a similiar wearer in mind. I have six weeks off uni, thanks to finishing exam block two weeks early, so I want to finish the drawings and make at least one of the dresses.

I'd love to get my hands on a dress makers dummy, but at this stage it is looking like I'm going to have to find patterns and then adapt them.

God a dressmakers dummy would be fun though.

Without further ado, I'll introduce the things I am most excited about inspiration wise at the moment :

Steph Chard's artwork

I won't post a picture here, as that is probably a breach of copyright or something, but you can find her work on Facebook, if you search Steph Chard. This is my favourite out of all of her work :

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7994860&id=235828000163#!/photo.php?pid=7949130&id=235828000163&fbid=235841135163

I love seeing modern artwork based so heavily on illustration, which (unless technology has just got even more crafty) looks like it was drawn by hand, at least at some stage. It shows such talent, and such time and effort put into becoming that good.

This one is so beautiful because of the way there is so much colour used, yet it's not a particularly "bright" image.

I used to draw a lot, and while being no where NEAR as good ( as in, lightyears away from her standard) as Steph, the illustration really resonates with me.

The next three videos I found on http://atravelingsong.blogspot.com/, among other things, which is now one of my favourite blogs.

Hopefully she doesn't mind me also embedding some of the videos she put on her blog, but they are just so fantastic I can't not line them all up! Seriously though, visit her blog, I'm yet to read a post I don't like.

My beautiful friend Maddy and I have had a plan since about year 11, to run away to Iceland, and have since become obsessed with the country. When I was cleaning out my desk today, I found the 16th birthday card she gave me, and the attached print out of Iceland information, which she had annotated with witty comments. And then I found this video! Iceland is awesome.

As this video proves, for damn good reason.

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

You have no idea how excited I am that I just embedded that video and it seems to be working.

The next one is really cute, and I love it to bits.

I'd never heard of The Girls With Glasses, but I'm looking it up now to try and find one of their shows on Vimeo. Both girls have been wearing glasses since primary school, as have I, yet the difference between them and me is that they are proud to wear them , and pull them off really well :) So far... I'm still not a fan of my glasses, but I am working on it. Just a silly hangup I've got to get over... I've had almost eleven years! haha

I Am A Girl - The Girls With Glasses Theme Song from The Girls With Glasses on Vimeo.

Finally, one that really sets off my wanderlust is Where the Hell is Matt. He goes around the world, dancing badly and getting the locals to join in with him. A shout out to Myles, if this guy can dance, so can you :), so next time I'm dancing around my living room, join in with me:) The guy in the video is by all dancing standards terrible, but I love it! And by the looks of it, so do a lot of others! I love his lack of inhibitions.

Anyway, that is all for tonight as it's 2:02 A.M and I am getting up at 6:30 to go to the farmer's markets with my dad and sister, followed by an 18th bbq, then another 18th tonight. It's going to be a big day, so sleep would be helpful.

Next time, I'm going to share a little more of what really inspires me, my wanderlist and my bucket list that is still a work in progress.

Oh, and another gift from the http://atravelingsong.blogspot.com/, which is a link to this site with heaps of free downloads of classes, like Psych, languages, history etc. So more on that later.

Yes, I'm a nerd. A very very excited nerd.

P.S. Sorry the fonts and colours and sizes are all over the shop, sometimes it does this, and it's a pain to fix

image via Lake Jane

wandering down the garden path...

My posts might take a bit of a different path over the next little bit. I say "little bit" because I don't know how long it will be for.

This blog was intended to be about creativity in all of its facets that I enjoy. Art, fashion, music, design.

But at the moment I'm pulling other things to the top of the priority list, as I sort my mind out a bit. I sometimes think of one's mind like a garden, and all the beautiful flowers and plants you grow are your ideas and experiences, and creative projects. All of these beautiful things that start out as little seeds , little ideas, that you think about consciously and subconsciously, you put time into, and they grow into beautiful things.

However, sometimes, especially when you are doing a lot of growing and garden work, if you're careless, weeds pop up all over the place. A seed that falls astray here, rogue plants that pop up there, and all of a sudden you have a thicket of weeds among your flowers. Sometimes they even strangle your flowers. And then your garden isn't really a pleasant place to be, but it's kind of a muddle, and a mess. The weeds creep in from the edges and take over, creating swamps and so on and so forth.

So you have to clear out the weeds, do some pruning and freshen up the soil. Then you can start planting again.

So, in real terms, I'm clearing out the crap, decluttering and rethinking where my mind's at, how I'm feeling and where I want to go. It can be a somewhat boring process, but it's just part of the mindcycle I think.

I'm not sure how much of it I'll post about, this post is largely just to let you know that if I stop posting about creative things, it won't be for too long.

beach-lounging & wave-frolicking

I really want to try something different. I don't know what yet, but I just need a change from this routine.

I'm getting very restless. This happens intermittently, kind of as if my mood and feelings have seasons, that don't follow a timely pattern exactly, but are just reflective of whatever is going on in my thoughts and in my life at a certain point in time. Follows a pattern to an extent, but its an unusual rhythm. It's time for another shake up.

http://www.xenophilius.wordpress.com/

The last few weeks I've had this strange desire to go swimming, obviously in a heated pool, because it's freaking freezing swimming in Winter. I don't even normally like swimming that much, I'm more of a beach-lounger and wave-frolicker than a deep sea diver. But how far does beach lounging get you? You laze around the edge, observing all and occasionally playing a game of volleyball. You soak up the surrounding culture, watching the world go bye. But as valuable as being a cultural sponge is, when do you start living?

When do you become a part of the many pieces that make up the total picture?

i have no urge to go deep sea diving, but I'd really like a swim.

I'm sitting at the dining room table, surrounded by un-read study notes, armed with my new taupe nailpolish and a can of whipped cream. Don't get me wrong, I love the taupe. But whipped cream by itself, really? Whattt am I doing with myself. That's not even a dessert, thats a topping. Eating it by itself is delicious, but kinda gross.

My muscles have been very stiff lately, I need to do some yoga and I'd kill for a massage right now.

I just want to go somewhere I've never been before, even if it's a little strange or a little scary. Just to feel really alive, you know? Something that challenges me, and opens my eyes.

I've spent the last 17 years being a spicy food wimp, but I've even gotten really into spicy food recently, just for a change.

I can't wait.

wonderwall

Well, that's possibly the overstatement of the century. But Oasis is cool.

Anyway, I promised my friend Michael that I would put up a photo of the photo wall so far, so here it is ( yes, i know it's the same photo three times).

the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future...

I'll be fairly quiet until next Wednesday, as I have heaps of study to do for upcoming exams, but I wanted to do a quick post. I also need to use up some of the photos I took the other day before I go on my next photo hunt.

I'd really like to take a little camera with me everywhere, but my sister won't let me borrow hers. Mine bit the dust a while ago, so I'm currently deciding on a new one. I'd like a really good one, however I think since my photos are pretty amateur anyway, I'll just got for a small digital one under the $200 mark.I can't wait for the holidays. There are so many people I need to catch up with after this busy semester, plus I have a list of lists of things to do. I have lists for books to read, movies to watch, things to make and creative projects to start and finish, songs to learn on piano and guitar and stuff to do for my dad's business, mostly marketing strategies, etc.

I've taken to killing time in bookshops recently, such as on Tuesday when I had an hour to spare before work. I will probably borrow most of these books rather than buy them, but I note down any titles that look good in my phone drafts.

Here is the current list, which I won't get done in the holidays, but maybe by the end of the year.

I'm just going to make this post about books, hence the title, which was Jim Bishop, on books.

To Read

The Picture of Dorian Gray - currently reading, and loving it.

Love in the Time of Cholera - need to finish, started ages ago

The one that flew over the cuckoos nest

A Clockwork orange

Wuthering Heights

Persuasion

The Happiness Hypothesis - Jonathan Haidt. Self help books on happiness usually don't interest me as I generally associate them with a mid-life crisis, however a comment about why journalists are generally unhappy caught my interest. I'd be interested in what he has to say, it won't change my mind on journalism, but it would be interesting. Plus, they say forewarned is forearmed.

The Female Brain - Louise Brizendine. I wouldn't have thought that this would interest me either, and I can't remember what it was now, but something in the blurb sparked my interest.

Hector and the Search for Happiness- Francoise Lelord . I notice that there is a happiness theme, and again, this sort of title is normally a deterrernt, however the blurb interested me when it mentioned travelling around the world, and what makes us happy and what makes us sad. Guess I'm a sucker for travel-writing? Here is the blurb:

"Hector is a successful young psychiatrist. He’s very good at treating patients in real need of his help. But many people he sees have no health problems: they’re just deeply dissatisfied with their lives. Hector can’t do much for them, and it’s beginning to depress him.

So when a patient tells him he looks in need of a holiday, Hector decides to set off round the world to find out what makes people everywhere happy (and sad), and whether there is such a thing as the secret of true happiness…Narrated with deceptive simplicity, its perceptive observations on happiness offer us the chance to reflect on the contentment we all look for in our own lives. "

I just read a review of it at

http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/hector-and-the-search-for-happiness-by-francois-lelord/,

which comments that

"this book is really quite funny. Dryly funny. It also has a genuine edge to it, with on-the-button observations about human beings and the way they think and behave"

Interesting, no? Cute cover, too.

The woman who fell from the sky - Jennifer Steil. This is about a western woman who moves to Yemen, one of the oldest and most conservative Muslim cities in the world, and her experiences as she becomes editor at a Yemen newspaper. I either want to be an investigative journalist or a magazine editor, so I think this memoir would be really interesting.

Hearts and Minds - Amanda Craig

The girl who kicked the Hornet's nest - steig larsson. I just realised this is the final book in his trilogy, which starts with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, of which a film adaptation has just been released in Australia. So I should start at the start I guess.

Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford . Good old $10 Popular Penguins does it again.

I just noticed, at least three of these authors are or were journalists ( Jennifer Steil, Amanda Craig and Steig Larrson) and another book also touches on journalism. If nothing else, hopefully the writing will be a good influence.