Hidden Treasures creations.

Popping in briefly to say that my latest Design Team blogpost is up at the Artfull Crafts blog, featuring the goodies I made using the lovely Kaisercraft Hidden Treasures range.

Have a lovely Friday! :)

currently.

 currently:

waking up early to watch the America's Cup racing. well, not so much after today as it was the last race (& the less said about that the better) but I'm now in the habit & I have to admit that I've been enjoying the extra time to myself.
 
sleeping badly, it seems. some nights I swear I'm waking up on the hour, every hour. not to mention the amount of time it actually takes me to fall asleep in the first place. AAARGH.

experimenting with various recipes-- mostly inspired by Jamie's 15 Minute Meals. the guy's a genius, because he can make even me interested in cooking, & that's somewhat of a miracle. my current favourite go-tos are masala paste and natural yoghurt, because they can be added to a myriad of things to make them taste MAGICALLY DELICIOUS.

watching so many tv shows at the moment, it's a little insane. the newest ones are The Blacklist (James Spader!)  & Sleepy Hollow, along with old favourites like Sons of Anarchy, Modern Family, Orange Is the New Black, Homeland, Under The Dome, and my two reality show guilty pleasures: The Block & Survivor. for someone who doesn't really watch a lot of tv, I watch a lot of tv, haha.

enjoying the warmer weather that spring is bringing. (not enjoying the rain & random thunderstorms quite so much, however.) it's so nice to throw open the windows & doors and see sunshine & blue skies.

making Project Life pages, because I am sort of addicted. so much fun!

calling my hairstylist soon, I think. it's possibly time to go a little shorter & sassier for the warmer weather.

placing things in new spots around the house, to keep things fresh. it's a kind of springcleaning for the soul, I think.

writing in my Q&A 5-year journal every morning, my design team blog posts.

wearing short sleeves! no long-sleeve merinos lately! soon, hopefully, bare feet! :) 

ordering  some of the new We R Memory Keepers blackboard journalling cards for the aforementioned PL pages. they look AMAZING-- told you I was addicted. :D

planning things to do during the upcoming school holidays. I love school holidays. LOOOOVE.
 
dreaming of a roadtrip somewhere brand-new to me. or even somewhere old & familiar. just feeling the urge to get in the car, load up my favourite music & go go go.

 
drinking Liptons Green iced tea. coffee. & tea. water, whenever I pass by the tap.
 
cherishing everything, as often as I can. :)

feeling content, pretty much.

reading a backlog of magazines-- mostly home decor/lifestyle ones.

loving spending time in my studio, music playing, creating whatever feels right at the time.

witnessing the change of seasons. my garden in spring is a source of constant wonder-- so many new plants & flowers appearing, & it seems to change constantly. I love that. (I don't love the weeds quite so much, funnily enough.)

finding a bit of inner peace. a little more each & every day. 

Sunday.

it's Sunday morning, the sky is blue and the sun is shining, and we're two-nil up against the USA's Oracle in the America's Cup racing -- all good things. :) I admit, I know pretty much next to nothing about the finer points of sailing and boat racing, but I do know that Emirates Team New Zealand were charging along that course at supersonic speeds, leaving everyone and everything else behind them. well done, boys-- and long may it continue! :)

I hope to get into my studio later in the day to finish up a couple of projects I'm working on (inbetween refuelling with coffee and maybe sneaking a little chocolate in there, too) but here's something I have finished: a mini-album using Kaisercraft's fabulous Take Note collection. (the link leads to my Design Team post on the Artfull Crafts blog.) I will take any excuse to make a mini-album, and playing with the Take Note range was pretty much the perfect one. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for looking! :)

ten last things.

10 Last Things

1. Thing that you read: Under The Dome- Stephen King. well, it's still in progress, but I'm almost finished. it's the third time I've read it-- I tend to re-read his books every few years or so. :)

2. Thing that you watched:  I'm working my way through the web series of Orange Is The New Black right now.

3. Thing that you listened to:  a couple of episodes of the Welcome To Night Vale podcast. it's quirky, cool & delightfully offbeat, & therefore right up my alley.

4. Thing seen in the theatre: movie-wise? um....After Earth, I think it was. the Will Smith/Jaden Smith film.  actual theatre-wise? a production of Jesus Christ Superstar performed by the local Drama League. it was fabulous.

5. Thing that you ate:  homemade chicken & vege soup, followed by a handful of pineapple lumps.

6. Thing that you wanted:  a breadbin. I know, how utterly boring & practical, but there you go. I'm yet to find the perfect one, so the search continues.

7. Thing that made you happy:  getting recognition for putting in effort & successfully stepping outside of my comfort zone. sometimes it's very worthwhile. :) 

8. Thing that made you sad: heartbreaking footage of the children in Syria affected by the chemical warfare over there. so, so horrible.

9. Thing that made you worry:  the prospect of driving in big city traffic by myself last month. thankfully, it didn't happen, & all was well. (except that one incident in the mall carpark, but we won't talk about that. ahem.)

10. Thing that you're looking forward to: summer! sunshine & blue skies-- I am SO ready for it. :)

seasonal.

Spring is just around the corner, supposedly-- there were glimpses of it earlier this month, with a few gorgeously warm, blue-sky days-- but now we're back to rain and a constant breeze and skies overhead sadly lacking any sign of colour at all. (Well, technically dull grey IS a colour, I suppose-- but I really don't think it actually counts in this instance. Sigh. ) I'm looking forward to the days of short sleeves and bare feet, of all the doors and windows thrown wide open, and leisurely meals on the terrace, eaten while watching the world go by. Sounds like bliss to me. :)

Above are a few pictures of life around here lately, all taken (as always) on my iPod. I actually got my regular camera out the other day, and to my horror I'd kind of forgotten how to use it. Ooops. Luckily it didn't take me long to re-familiarise myself with all the settings, but it was a reminder that I should probably get it out more often. My iPod is so much more convenient though-- I can slip it into the pocket of my jeans and the variety of settings and effects I can use via various apps is pretty mindblowing, so I can't bring myself to feel too guilty about it. I figure as long as pictures are being taken and memories are being captured, it doesn't really matter how it's done, right? I get my iPod photos printed out every few months or so, too-- so I'm not just relying on a purely digital format. Digital is great, but there's just something special about having the actual printed photographs in my hands, too.

Ah, technology-- what would we do without it? I know I'd probably get a lot more dusting done, but that's hardly fun now, is it? ;)

Artfull Crafts Design Team 2013

That's right-- I am thrilled (and honoured!) to announce that I have been selected as a member of the Artfull Crafts Design Team for 2013, along with several other creative and talented ladies. :) The 2013 team was officially announced today on the Artfull Crafts blog, and over the next week or so, there will be introductory posts from all the members so you can get to know us all a little better. In the meantime, have a look at some of our creations in the gallery here.

I am so excited to see what creativity and fun lie ahead in the next 12 months! :)

Sunday evening.

what better way to ease myself back into the habit of more regular posting with a simple list of what's going on around here lately? sounds like the perfect plan to me. :)

working: on upcoming project ideas, which means a fair amount of time spent perusing various places around the internet for inspiration. (blogs, pinterest, instagram, youtube, facebook, & tumblr, mostly.)

watching: Magic City, Under The Dome, 7Days, The Living Channel.

listening: Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Ed Sheeran, Benny Tipene, The National, Ellie Goulding, Florence & the Machine, Imagine Dragons, Frank Ocean, Snow Patrol.

trying: new recipes when I'm feeling particularly inspired. which is more often than I used to be, to my surprise. does this mean I'm finally a grown-up? surely not!

preparing: for fun new challenges in the months ahead.

loving: that signs of spring are starting to appear: bulbs in the garden, blossoms on the trees, & best of all: lambs!

revisiting: books I've read before & loved-- which is pretty much all of my Stephen King collection. I'm slowly working my way through them all again, some for the 5th or 6th time. for me, they're the written version of comfort food.

continuing: to do bits & pieces around the house as we can afford it/find the time. it's amazing the difference a coat of paint can make, or how changing a few  things around can bring a whole new perspective to a room.

wanting: warm summer days, long summer nights. also a holiday somewhere new where I can explore with my camera in hand. 

laughing: always. that's how you know you're alive. :)


brainstorming: the aforementioned project ideas. I think I might need to get myself a shiny new journal to write all my ideas down in. (any excuse for a bit of retail therapy, okay? okay.)

re-organising: my studio. starting first thing tomorrow! um, probably.


enjoying: hidden object games. home decor magazines. piles of glorious books from the library. macarons from McDonalds. L&P chocolate. coffee. capturing my world via instagram. feeling inspired.

back to the future.

while I love Instagram, I think my favourite photography app would have to be Hipstamatic. there are so many film & lens combinations to choose from, giving you a huge cross-section of effects to play & experiment with. my current favourite is the newly-released Tintype pack, which gives your photos the look of vintage tintype shots, complete with a gorgeous shallow depth of field, textures & hand-tinted colour effects. I am totally & utterly smitten. ♥

the year in review, version: pixels.

what 2012 looked like via the wonders of instagram/hipstamatic-- in roughly chronological order. um, sort of. I'm not really that organised. HAVE YOU MET ME?




















and so far, 2013 looks a little like this:



happy new year! :)