Friday, January 27, 2012

Valentine's Arrows

Starting the morning off with a bang I can cross that first thing off my list! Now without further ado this is my first 'inspired shoot' (using that term very lightly I really have no idea what I am doing) you saw the mood board and now this is it... albeit missing a few things like my figs. That's just what happens when you have no money but no worries that means that everything below is potentially something you could do with a little bit of time and some creativity!

You like? please say 'yes', please say 'wow! that's great'

oh and just in case you were wondering it cost me $0 to make, warranted I do have an entire cabinet full of crafting goods but still pretty cheaply done.

The brown paper is all pattern making paper but I hear Woolworths has brown paper rolls for about $3, the 'All You Need Is Love' poster I made using black A4 card from Typo (unfortunately no longer available), my Cricut and a roll of white wrapping paper I had laying around. The hanging arrows were cut out of the little curly cardboard end of the wrapping paper roll hence why they won't lay flat and you can hardly tell they are arrows. I made the 'flowers' out of some Georgette type fabric from my stash and the runner was painted with watercolours (I took it up to my sister's after and we used it in the pass the parcel for my nephew's 6th birthday).

So there you have it my first attempt, hold out for next week's which will be delayed as I am off visiting again tomorrow!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

black and beech

I am completely without motivation lately. No idea why. I should be applying for jobs. Lots of them. But I am wandering through our little home cleaning and doing random bits and pieces. And looking for bar stools. And other bits of furniture....yes I am anal I wrote a list about it.


and since I was on a roll I wrote another list....


Just in case you were wondering 'off-peak' is in reference to our internet :)

And I found some stools I like... problem is they are a little on the $$$ side

The Catenary Bar Stool from Token via Contemporist

Replica Jean Prouve Bar Stool from Life Interiors
I am also loving these interiors and think I might paint the top of my Ikea stool black too...

The lamp I mentioned in my list is fingers crossed going to be a little like this....

Better Living Through Design


Except a floor lamp instead... Joel said he hates it so we shall see.

I also entered this Modcloth-Pinterest contest, you can see my entry here

So until tomorrow ciao!!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

my apologies

yes today WAS the day that I was supposed to be posting my Valentines day idea #1 but I have just returned from my nephews 6th birthday party and though I have compiled and 'shot' it all alas I have been using our internet just a little too much and we have reached our cap. But it does refresh in just a few days and I have been instructed by the hubby that uploading images of considerable size definitely has an impact and I must convert them to a lower res.... how else do we learn but through experience

so today I will share but one image that of my favourite sight from the train a beautiful house perched in the trees, solitary......

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Trending

If like me you are an avid Pinterest user you may have noticed colour blocks popping up all over the place....

sources: Preen by Thornton Bregazzi Summer 2012, Magnus Anesund via SeeSaw and 'Squaring of the Circle' by Kvadrat

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Monsters

I'm still on the seemingly never-ending job hunt. Gosh it's fun. Not. But I guess it does give me time to do things like this..


it's a library bag for my nephew, still not sure if ribbon is too girly for a 6-year old boy but monsters are supposed to be pretty cool right? especially when they are white and furry and only have one eye.


Manes

With a beautiful black ribbon tying my hair back in a pony tail, my thoughts turn to romantic hair.... for any old day or of course for Valentines Day.

source: Sanderson Images via Style Me Pretty via Lonely Afternoon
source: VS Photography via PrettyCityLife and Live Fast, Dress Pretty
Basically tousled waves, timeless and oh so pretty...

If you want to find some more ideas I suggest taking a look over at The Beauty Department or She Let's Her Hair Down

Or if you are looking for a new place to get your lovely locks done and you happen to live in Newcastle try out the newly opened Dollhouse Hair in King St just near the movie theatre

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

projects

Yesterday I had a list and I accomplished things. It felt great. Today I have the things that I didn't get to do yesterday.... and I have accomplished nothing.

Well I did empty all my fabric onto my bed in effort to identify some new projects.


So I got white fur, a ton of tulle, lots of gingham, SO much blue upholstery fabric, black lace, odds and ends of patterned fabric, bright yellow silk, white jersey, white flannelette and a pile of failed or unfinished projects.

Now what should I do with it all? Because we really need the room...

Monday, January 16, 2012

Party in a Box

Not really a New Year's resolution but more a thing that I want to do/follow through with this year is to try and make a big deal out of family birthdays.... as this little idea didn't pop in to my head until maybe a week ago unfortunately I have already missed a few so for you guys (you know who you are)....

Steph Loves Ben via Hip Hip Hooray

But I did start with my hilarious cousin who shall be known as 'the peanut-butter monster' on account of the awesome stories he used to tell us, he turned 40 and I made him a 'party in an envelope' complete with confetti etc. And as I had SO much fun making it (and I hope he had equal in opening it) I decided to take the idea a bit further after receiving a whole lot of empty Natio gift boxes.... so here goes




pity about that hideous power point in that last picture on my 'not New Year's resolutions list' is to become a better photographer... maybe also it should be to find a way to 'cover' power points. I also have been doing a little bit of paper flower making in attempt to find my favourite paper flower. The ones below come from Twigg Studios and Handmade by Sara Kim via Utterly Engaged, I ran out of glue half-way through the rose so it doesn't look as full as it should and the larger one I think would look better if you went from outside to in and using more 'petals' more tightly 'scrunched'.
 

The next one I would love to tackle has been making its way around Pinterest is this giant crepe paper rose featured on Green Wedding Shoes. Do you have a favourite paper flower tutorial you would love to share?

But today I have a list to follow and unfortunately that is not on it... soon my pretty

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Bon Voyage

today we said goodbye to our two great friends who are moving 6 hours away to that distant corner of NSW. We will miss them both SO much!!


so in effort to fill the rest of the day I have been crafting.... as there is no light like natural light you will just have to wait till tomorrow to find out what. I will however say that it involves my new Cricut machine which I got for Christmas.

In the meantime I think that you should take a look at Issue Number #17 of Utterly Engaged, it is filled with immeasurable beauty

Friday, January 13, 2012

Mexican Fiesta and Christmas Feast

so I have been a little hesitant about posting these pictures we took over Christmas on account of them being so terrible.... I am not a good photographer nor it seems is Joel and the fact that we were using tarps as sun-shades has resulted in a 'delightful' blue tinge being cast over everything. One thing I can say though is that you learn from experience, or at least I will endeavor to.



We wanted to keep things simple as it was Christmas Eve and none of us wanted to spend Christmas Day taking decorations down. Joel's mother made the table runner from fabric bought at Spotlight and we just used plastic tablecloths, plates and cutlery (cheap, quick and easy). The food was AMAZING we had cajun drumsticks, mexican grilled corn and burritos (SO GOOD). You can see the mini pinatas I made at the end of the table they were so simple to make, though I always seem to make pinatas that never get smashed. Overall it was a really relaxed simple evening.


we had eggs, bacon and french toast for brekky - total egg overload

you can see the effect of the blue tarp in these pics (yuck) again we went really simple (and cheap) I made the bon bons myself using this tutorial over on Design*Sponge and the tassel garland was another DIY from over on The Sweetest Occasion, we got the deer from Spotlight and the white lanterns are Ikea of course leftover from the wedding, the giant red one was actually Joel's Christmas present to his mother but we thought it would look good on the table anyway. We used random plants including ivy and something unknown that happened to have red berry like things to nestle in with the napkins they looked pretty cute and lunch you will see above was yes cooked on the BBQ too. Joel was the master of the BBQ on both occasions and did an amazing job.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

breakfast in bed

I apologise for my sporadic posting of late... no excuses this is 2012 people!! so in effort to keep it up (even if I feel like I have nothing to say) I will share with you my thoughts on the next Valentines idea I have in mind.

lack colour
oh yes it is the lovely Marilyn again. Breakfast in bed surely that is what everybody wants this Valentines Day not roses, not chocolate, nor fancy dinners, lingerie etc etc (well unless of course these gifts come with breakfast and served in bed) I just want to be served my favourite meal of the day in bed without having to lift a finger.

and what might that be....

maybe these delicious looking chocolate croissants from Dishing the Divine
i personally LOVE the Donna Hay pancake recipe with a dash of vanilla but this one looks pretty rad too
or could this version of heart attack inducing eggs benedict be your heaven

I think even a simple slice of jam toast and mug of strong coffee would take the cake this year

what would be your ideal breakfast in bed? post a comment below



Friday, January 6, 2012

welcome to our humble abode

we had pancakes for breakfast this morning


Joel's mum gave him a pancake/crepe pan with heart shape moulds, cute and tasty

As he walked out the door to go and work on his car he asked me what I was up to today... he joked that I would probably just spend the whole day on the computer. So in effort to quash that theory I have spent the day cleaning our little home. It is not yet picture ready though. Joel still has a pile of boxes in a corner that will eventually go on/in his desk and we desperately need another bookshelf. So just in case you were wondering this is my pathetic attempt at drawing a floorplan (I took a Computer Aided Drafting course in high school, computers make everything easy-peasy)


yeah so it's pretty small right? but the kitchen is amazing and it is perfect for just the two of us (a bit more storage wouldn't go astray - and we would stay for years if it had a balcony). You might notice that there actually isn't a door of any kind separating the bedroom, this isn't really a problem with just us but I am looking into a few different ways I might be able to string some sheer curtains across the divide (we still have plenty left from the wedding).

We both also need bedsides, in the other houses we just used two antique huon pine chairs that were too fragile to sit on but now we will need furniture that does heaps - like store things AND hold lamps etc. The problem is my side of the bed has a measly gap of 14inches and nothing (from Ikea at least) will fit there. The rear lounge wall has been meticulously plotted out to fit a desk (custom-built by Joel) along with our existing white Expedit bookcase and another smaller Expedit bookcase  like this one!

source
we might even do something like this to cover all the ugly games/cords etc

source: Ikea Hackers
Add two bar stools at the island bench - we can't decide on any yet but don't have the funds anyway so will stick to using my Bekvam step stool (ok I LOVE ikea I can't help it I'm a uni student) and maybe a hat/scarf/umbrella rack and we will be done, well there is the small matter of the bathroom but that's another story....




Thursday, January 5, 2012

from one holiday to the next

while shopping the other day we noticed that the supermarket had started making hot cross buns again.... yep they just keep pushing from one thing to the next, so I thought I might do the same....

i am going to attempt to embark on creating and shooting 3 Valentine's Day tables (I was just going to do 2 but then I asked Joel his opinion on them and he came up with his own other idea) as I am pretty bad, nay terrible at completing things I will do my best to not get sidetracked etc and to keep me on the straight and narrow I have given myself dates on which the tables MUST be blogged! as Valentine's falls on a Tuesday this year (in Australia) I will be posting them on the 3 Tuesday's beforehand i.e. the 24th Jan, 31st Jan and 7th Feb.

Feel free to scold me if they aren't.

They will be based on the following (in no particular order); arrows, hearts and Joel's idea

I am feeling pretty good about my 'arrow' concept table and have even done a mood board and drawing to plan it out - here's a bit of a peek

1. Tile Pendant Jewellery on Etsy 2. vol25 on Etsy 3. Sasha Prood via SeaSaw 4. Little House in the Suburbs
It's going to be dark and moody and fun to create - you also might notice that it doesn't look anything like a 'traditional' Valentines table might, I think that's going to be the best thing about it :) 

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy 2012

ok so it's been a while... i know yep terrible way to start 2012 but better late than never right?

so you might have guessed we didn't quite complete all the activities we had intended but here is a quick recap...

 yep we failed though for second Christmas with my family Joel made a sweet one will show pics soon


so 16 out of 25 ain't bad right?? right?? ok so it's not so good but we gave it a shot and that's what matters :)