Sunday, October 30, 2011

Animal Silhouettes

After tackling one of my long ago thought up projects yesterday I think today I will try to keep the ball rolling. Yes I should be studying but when I finally learn to master my creative bursts I will put other more important things ahead of it :)


this lovely drawing was done by my two-year old niece, it hung on our fridge for a while but kept falling off due to the size. I don't think it gets its value from the quality, obviously, but more so from watching her do it. It was my mother's 60th birthday and as the little one sat scribbling furiously more and more of her body making it's way onto the table so she was almost laying on it, the cuter it got. That was also the weekend that Joel and I announced our proposal, it was a fun night later on into the evening the little one entertained us further by getting up and dancing in front of everyone, not a shy one at all.

So back to the point this lovely little huge drawing has been sitting tucked away in my file for a long time and after coming across this pin on Pinterest I finally decided what to do with it

There are so many ideas when it comes to children's silhouette art and though it will be displayed in our home rather than in her own room I want to make it as fun as possible. My ever helpful friend (who, tear is moving away soon) suggested I use a silhouette of one of little one's favourite animals.  Apparently she loves all animals but dogs are her favourite.

these cute prints can be purchased from Tiny Decor, I found them on Green Your Decor 

Hiroshi Sasagawa via Apartment Therapy via Sarah Hearts Design

Source: Scratch and Sniff via Sandy A La Mode
so to make mine I looked for a beagle silhouette (because that would be the dog of choice for us) and then using excel inserted the image into a spreadsheet and with show page lines on, dragged it so it was big enough to fit over 2 pages (in retrospect could have been over 4 and definitely with margins narrowed) and printed.... then voila! using a craft knife cut it out of the scribble and put onto whatever your backing is (I cheated and just flipped the insert over (I know something thicker would look better etc but time and money people!) I happened to have an Ikea frame laying around that I bought in the 'as-is' section it's silver but seriously considering painting it black.... let me know what you think


side note: if you are looking for a image to use just search google images 'silhouette dog (or animal)' and try changing settings to get only black and white results this limits the amount of stuff you have to scroll through to find your perfect pic :)

White Fur Capelets

I am so amazed at myself!! today I got up and said to myself no! not another wasted day in front of my laptop! and got all my crafty stuff out and started on one of my many many projects I have been pondering. :)

This one is a Christmas present for my cute as buttons nieces (so to my sister if you are reading this look away!)

Like many crafty people I have stashes of things that have been bought but left neglected for extended periods of time - the white fur I used for the capes was one of these things. I bought it when I was still in high school (about 5 years ago now) with the intention of making a blanket (thank-god I didn't) and then after seeing several cute kids capes around decided that little princesses always need luxurious capes and since I had two little princesses, some white fur and copious amounts of charmeuse I needed to make me some.


OMG!! aren't they just so adorable! I can't wait to see their faces when they open them on Christmas day :)
just in case you were wondering I found a tutorial here on how to make them, there are so many out there but this one is really good and the little collar really makes it.

I didn't take any pics as I was making them because a) my work area was a total mess and b) both camera batteries had died so I had to wait until they were charged.

But this is not all I did, the other day I was going to chuck out a whole heap of cereal boxes (the joys of living with men, they NEVER chuck stuff out) when I thought maybe I could make something out of them. So voila! with a little cutting, fabric and spray adhesive they became these cute gift boxes!


I finished packaging the little capes with folded white tissue paper and a ribbon


I also made that little bow you see out of magazine pages it was inspired by this one, but unfortunately the colours didn't really go... no matter I kept it in my stash... never now when it might be useful :)

oh and also while getting these pics off my camera I found a picture I took of our dinner the other night, Scotch Fillet with Mashed Potato, Baked Parmesan Asparagus and Mushroom Gravy it was so tasty


Friday, October 28, 2011

fontalicious menus

I finished a rough draft of our Christmas Menu and thought I might print up some cute menus/booklets so of course I headed on over to Pinterest to see what I could find....

source: Martha Stewart Weddings and Emily Lincoln on Pinterest
source: Martha Stewart Weddings and Oohlala Photography via Style Me Pretty
source: Martha Stewart Wedding via Happiness Is and Den Gamla Skolan

this of course sent me over to DaFont to get some new typewriter, block and script fonts


you might recognise 'Road Movie' from my page header

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Christmas in Australia

Today I am procrastinating majorly (yep again, I know I really should do something), we are still on the hunt for a new home, I am still on the hunt for a new job (offers welcome) and university has not yet finished for the year (though exams are getting pretty close). However with a few events on the calender; my Dad's 60th, my mother-in-law's 50th and of course Christmas I thought I may as well turn my thoughts to the one closest.

Christmas in Australia is a little bit different to celebrating it in other parts of the world for one thing it's not freezing cold and hardly ever snows over the holidays (being Summer and all), so to us Santa being rugged up to the max with fur and all seems a little out of place. It got me thinking our Christmas tree (if Christmas trees were to have feelings) would also be feeling the heat around this time so this year I might just keep it simple (not that it's really something new) and instead of using the plethora of cheap ugly decorations we have I may just craft up a couple of simple ones. Like these ones.....

source: Karin Lidbeck-Brent for Good Housekeeping and Chrisjob for Curbly
source: reyaveltman on Etsy via Epheriell Designs and Martha Stewart

and because this year (as always) i am all about saving the $$$ these little cherubs are ones that should cost me next to nothing - Candy Canes obviously have to be bought fresh, I am sure I can use book pages to make the next ones, I will raid my fabric stash for the hearts and Joel's Grandads house for the buttons..... now that just leaves a cheap place to buy the stash of ribbon I am going to need.....

also have too put it out there my mother has finally decided to give up smoking again!!! i am SO immensely proud of her and hope that this time round she can be successful it will make the hugest difference to her health and hopefully mean she can be around a bit longer for us all :)

alice in wonderland

for my mother-in-laws 50th birthday she is (we are) planning an Alice and Wonderland inspired gala.... thing is it isn't due to happen for another 2 or so years so i can't really get excited about it yet or do to much planning etc but needless to say I have and if you are interested here is my Pinterest board Alice.

so with this seemingly long amount of time to the actual event i will take it slow and start off with the paper side of things because well they usually come first anyway.... this is my collection of ideas (my gift to her)

source: MrYen (no longer available) via Design is Mine and Tag Team Tompkins via Paper Crave
source: Kim Le Photography via Style Me Pretty
source: Delphine taken by Joielala Photographie styled by Couture Events
source: Kasey Buick via The Inspired Occasion and Tina Tarnoff

source: a Couple of Cameras via Style Me Pretty
source: Better Homes and Gardens and Loralee Lewis
 as i do not have the last say on this one i can't say what kind of direction they will end up going, what i can tell you is that she likes purple, Twilight, Muse, sewing (quilting), bright colours, fairy lights, Christmas .... etc

so far she has told me her plan is to have around 50 people, seated at around 8-seater round tables on the verandah (it's a huge one), she liked the idea of a photobooth, she wants to have a tea-cup at every place setting and we discussed the idea of flower arrangements in tea-pots (I added a whole lot of pictures of these to my Pinterest board), a giant chessboard might happen and trivia in secret boxes (or tea-pots?). I'm probably missing something but no doubt she will shortly let me know :)

items we are on the lookout for include clocks/watches, keys, tea-cups, tea-pots, she is thinking plastic chairs but i'm not so sure...    

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Christmas 2011

My belle-mere is visiting so this should be a short post as we will shortly have to go around to dinner with the hubby's Grandfather.

good news is we finally have finished putting together our thank-you cards! I used the freebie on the EatDrinkChic website it's quite cute, called 'Love and Thanks' you can find it here. I printed them on A5 card folded as I'm am not really a fan of square cards (i think it has something to do with being raised in a post office).

but you are probably wondering why this post is entitled 'Christmas 2011' when i have not as yet spoken about anything Christmas related!!

well i have probably mentioned before that i am not really good at the whole Christmas spirit thing, the whole idea just stresses me out and I long for the Christmases when I was still a kid and we had waterfights in the backyard and played with our gifts all day, stress free, not having to choose where to go, not having to visit other people (I know sounds really selfish of me but I am not good at 'making polite conversation' with distant relatives or other in-laws... i love my own though lol). 

anyho i am terrible at staying on track today but long story short we are hosting Christmas this year where ever we end up and will visit my family either before or after the rush so as always i got to thinking how i will lay the table :)

ideally we will have a large backyard and i can set up one or two of our little wedding tents (with curtains to keep out those aussie flies) and a long table with all our lovely reupholstered chairs the rest is better explained with pictures....


Sources:
Notes from Polly via Pinterest here
H & M via Brunch with Saks 
Mary Swenson on Project Wedding via Brunch at Saks 

but i have to go now so sorry for rushing :/

Saturday, October 22, 2011

helpful hints

so i am a novice at a lot of things. i was a novice when it came to planning our wedding, i am a novice when it comes to money, also blogging etc but i am also most definitely a novice when it comes to both photography and digital editing so when i see articles that look like they might be useful, i sit up and take note.

and sharing is caring so i thought i would let you guys in on what i have found too...

today it comes from Anna of Door Sixteen (a super cool design blog if you haven't checked it out before), titled Go Ahead, Make a Circle it shows you a super simple trick in photoshop to making a photograph circular with a transparent background. sounds easy enough but if you are like me and haven't really ever 'got' photoshop it can be super helpful :) now i just need to buy photoshop to practice in lol 

and because it's been a while here is a lovely bedroom colour palette

source: High Gloss via Plush Palate on Pinterest

Friday, October 21, 2011

Petal

while over on pinterest today i spotted this amazing gown designed by Charles James, I had originally intended on making it the focus of a mood board but like so many pins it was not referenced correctly and I went through 50 pages of the blog Coletterie and became inspired.

source: Charles James 'Petal' on Coletterie

isn't it beautiful?

anyway i think i may have said it before but i find pinterest is a great way to discover new blogs that you wouldn't ordinarily visit.

the Coletterie blog is all about sewing and would be an amazing resource for those wanting to have a bit of a go but who aren't exactly sure where to start. I love sewing and think I might even knock up some Clover pants but then again I am a manic sewer and do my best work with classical music blaring in the middle of the night and often work too fast and get disappointed/frustrated too easily. But if I were going to give it a go again this would be the place for me.

her patterns are amazing retro style dresses/pants/skirts and shirts that remind me of the quote i often see 'your clothes should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to show you're a lady' Edith Head i think

but it's late and my brain is shutting down for the night so here is one final link from the 50 pages i flicked through to find this amazing dress - how to install an invisible zipper here



Tuesday, October 18, 2011

DIY Christmas Crafts

as a recently married student with no job i am what you would call i dont know.... broke

so as the thought of Christmas approaching with all it money pit glory i have been trawling pinterest for some ideas on homemade gifts and crafts to make the coming season.... well a little more relaxing than taxing (yep it rhymes BOOYAH!!)

so here is my pick of things i plan to do/make (feel free to hold me to this if you do not see any follow up posts of any kind)

oh yeah and family etc LOOK AWAY

sources:
- faux deer head - rubyslounge on etsy via Oil Wells 2 Cotton Bales
- paper ribbons - this one's tricky found it on Pinterest the link takes you to Baying Hound Howls but the Flickr picture is removed... image is attributed to Spotted Sparrow who also have a tutorial on their blog here
- bobby pins  - a homemaker's journal and Little Miss Momma she also has an Etsy shop here
- newspaper rosette wreath - natureaccessories on Etsy here
- solid perfumed pocket watch - Design Sponge posted by Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes
- white fur cape - Pink Princess and jewellery stand - also on Design Sponge tutorial here


Monday, October 17, 2011

cooking

filling the void that was wedding planning seems to be pinteresting.... not that i didn't spend a whole mess of time on there when i was 'wedding planning' but now it seems way more and way more misdirected...

so today i share with you kitchen inspiration from my 'cooking' board :)





sources from left to right:
Morten Holtum via My Scandinavian Retreat
Annette Joseph on Pinterest
Small, Cool Kitchens 2011 on Apartment Therapy
Masao Nishikawa via Vineet Kaur via Masika Wa on Tumblr
House Beautiful via Chris Barrett Design via Sacramento Street 
High Gloss Magazine via Everything Fabulous
Firlefanz on Tumblr
Masao Nishikawa via Design Boom via fine ting og sjokolade
Amit Geron via Mimdap via Desire to Inspire (which btw i think i might just visit everyday such prettyness!!)
Convoy on Tumblr  

also have officially decided to stop re-pinning tumblr images drives me crazy that i can't get proper info for the pictures also will try and remember to check web address for re-pins. trawling sites to find original post is super frustrating

hope you like :)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

wood paneling

so we went and looked at some houses yesterday... oh didn't i tell you yeah we are moving... again.... it sucks but then again it does mean we can get out of suburbia and back to where things happen and it doesn't take a 15 min drive to get to....

well anyway back to the story we looked at two places in the area i know i would LOVE to move back to! the first was definitely a goer it was a decent size, had a sweet ass back deck and a decent sized lockable garage. The second I liked the interior better but unfortunately the garage lacked a door... a definite no no for boys with bikes.

So I know that chances are we won't get too many more reasonably priced houses in right area with car spaces so I am going to pin my hopes on that 1st one.

oh btw did i tell you that the owners seem to be kinda obsessed with wood paneling....

source: Annie Schlecter via Design Crisis
tricked you!!

no it's definitely not the nice kind of wood paneling. it's actually kinda more like this....

source: ugly house photos
the house is 2 bedrooms and a study, advertised as 3 bedrooms as usual. the kitchen is strangely sequestered in the middle of the house and everything is connected by maze-like passages. there is a servery style window in the kitchen onto a room which doesn't look like the right kind of size for anything really. it is this weird extension that houses the wood paneling. so in the weird non-room there is veneer paneling half way up the wall, it's hideous. the kitchen also has a bit of a thing for ugly wood and i guess they thought they would carry it through to the bedroom and put louvered built-ins. the 3rd bedroom/study actually has real wood paneling. as the husband seems to think it was pretty cool i think i will designate him that room as a study IF we get the house.


 

Friday, October 14, 2011

friday 14th

so i have seen all our wonderful wedding pictures but am still yet to receive them in the mail, so as i sit on my computer this friday evening (or saturday morning whichever you prefer) waiting for my husband to take his turn on 'words with friends' i thought i might put together a few of my favourite non professional wedding pictures for anyone who might care to take a look :)

these were all taken by various members of the family and uploaded to facebook so i apologise for the bad quality of some, also i only just realised there aren't very many pics where my spunky hubby is facing the camera... this wasn't on purpose i think everyone must have only had eyes for the bride (also i got sunburnt the week before the wedding and the tan lines on my back are horrible)