antique lace

"eye-spy beauty".

What a great topic this week, simple but expansive. Love it.

So... at the risk of seeming totally materialistic, I spy beauty...



Antique lace rocks my world. And these dresses do for me in a big way, I think they are truly beautiful.

Next time Johnny Depp invites me to the Oscars (cough cough) I will be wearing this blue dress. I won't be wearing the Lisa Simpson beads with it though. No, no necklace, but maybe some earrings instead, something more art deco to match the belt buckle. Yes, I can picture it now... ahhh beautiful!

BOTH dresses, and loads of others that are simply stunning, come from Timeless Vixen Vintage on Etsy.
(And, might I add, isn't it a treasure to find someone with really beautiful vintage taste these days? The term "vintage" gets bounced around so much, it's nice to find real vintage, not just some fugly multi-coloured knitted jumper from 1986).

So if these frocks rock you like they rock me, and like me you need to look at them from all angles, go take a closer look:
- 1910's Antique Edwardian Couture Wedding Dress
- 1920's Vintage Flutter Crepe-Chiffon Art-Deco Couture Dress

(This week's thought provoking but deliciously eye-candy topic by Stacey from Sheep's Clothing)

a master chef I am not

Thank-God that Master Chef show has come to an end! I've just spent the past few months being unbearably hungry for food well beyond my abilities. The cravings leading me to brazenly attempt feats I shouldn't. The last week alone resulting in a finger burn (nothing new there), a badly grated thumb knuckle, and an egg that turned itself into a cluster bomb and very nearly blew up our whole kitchen.

Now it's over (and I survived) we can go back to eating what we know, without those accompanying feelings of bitter disappointment and want for something far better. Thank-God!


(Note to fellow kitchen novices: I'm sure, like me, you know not to cook an egg in the microwave. But, as it turns out, you can't even re-heat one. Not even if you think you're being smart by boiling an extra egg the night before so you can have one for your lunch tomorrow. Not even if you peel it and pop it in the microwave for just a little while so that the mayonnaise can melt into your egg a little on your yummy sandwich. Nope not even then. Heed my word, or you'll be eating peanut butter on your sandwich like me, again bitterly disappointed that it's not what you'd been craving. Another word of warning - while cleaning the decimated egg out of the microwave, it is impossible not to end up with egg-smudge clogged in the tiny round air vents, resulting in your kitchen smelling like egg bomb for days! Urghhh).

legs

"eye-spy something I should use" (more).

These are my legs:


Why am I showing you my legs? Because these are what I should use more. I should get up out of this chair and use them, for goodness sake.

When we moved here (to a smaller town from the city), we assumed we'd be moving to a healthier lifestyle. This is not the case. We were both so much more fit and healthy in the city; walking everywhere, dashing here and there, making an effort to stay active.

Here, everything is so convenient that people have become so lazy. They complain if they can't get a car park right outside of where they are going, heaven help them if they have to walk more than 1 block. People drive to the beach, and it's only 2 blocks away. Once our neighbour drove to our house! And I recently discovered that the motor registry office has a drive through window, to save you parking your car, getting out and walking inside.

When we realised all this, we made a pact not to let ourselves become lazy. We park at the far end of carparks, we NEVER drive to the corner store or the beach, etc. Yet we still find ourselves moving and walking much less than before. Somedays I just crave activity.

I've never been a runner or jogger, but I spent so much of my life sitting in a chair, somedays I just can't stand the stagnation anymore, and nicely dressed I burst out of the house and sprint up the street.

But, that's rare. Hence, why I think I should use my legs more.

(Great topic this week from The Bird Bath)

weddingy wednesday 12

Save The Date:

Less than 3 months to go now! Yikes!
Yep, I wrote up a BIG to-do list the other night, time to start taking things seriously.

But now that real stuff is actually getting done, I can start showing you some sneak-peek's... every now and then ;)

To get the ball rolling, here are our 'Save the Dates'. As most of our guests will have to travel a long way to get there, we sent out a link to a little webpage we put together, with info for travel and accommodation. This was at the top:



I'm working on the invitation designs now. Nearly done, just some final design tweaks, printing, cutting and sticking to do.
Another couple of weeks and I can give you another sneak-peek :)

artful in nature

You may remember the Artful Agenda diaries I contributed to last year. They sold out in a flash! Great news for Stephanie who put them all together to raise money for the Portland Tool Library.

Well this year she has even bigger plans, and has started much earlier. Her cause for the year is supporting arts education in public schools.

To help her out I have again donated a stack of my illustrations which are now starting to pop up in the Universal Planners, Lesson Planners, and 2009-2010 Diaries. They are all currently for sale via Etsy.

They really are so beautiful. Every day has a different hand-drawn doodle to enjoy, like an advent calendar all year round :) There's a whole crowd of illustrators who contribute their work, so every page is fresh and new.

Here are some bits from my copy of the universal planner:







And you can check out the other products HERE.

weddingy wednesday 11

Keeping Perspective:

This is a very much re-worked, and heavily edited version of the post I mentioned that I almost posted last week… I decided keeping it bottled up wasn't working. To get myself out of this mood I'm going to have to let it out. Prepare yourself for some crankypants...


Yes, we’re getting married soon, but let’s keep it in perspective here people;

• Mr You and I will be standing in a garden making our personal promises to each other.
• I AM NOT entering the Miss Universe pageant!
• Why do people keep mixing these two things up?

Say you’re getting married, and suddenly people are overcome with a need to turn you into a child-beauty-pageant contestant!

Have you ever been to the hairdresser or a beautician and straight off they’ve said something insulting (such damaged hair, that doesn’t suit you, your skin is so dehydrated, etc)? I think it’s a sales technique to get you to sink money into them to “fix” you. But in actual fact they’re just making you feel bad, while you think to yourself, “No wonder I don’t do this very often”.

I’m finding the lead up to our wedding has been one HUGE case of that. Not just people I’m potentially hiring, it’s friends and family too! I never realised so many people were thinking ill of my un-kept fingernails, pale complexion, uneven skin tone, small boobs, hair colour, height, etc. etc, etc. I mean no-one has been outright rude to me, but these constant comments, suggestions and opinions are adding up. And when I suggest that I’d like to just look like a slightly more spruced version of my normal self, people look at me like I’ve crawled out of a swamp.

Isn’t being a “bride” (shiver at that word …more than usual this week) supposed to make you feel beautiful? Well, I don’t. I’m feeling further and further from it thanks to people expressing their un-filtered opinions. It’s as though all these things they’ve thought about me for years now have a reason to be expressed.

Am I really that much of an abomination?

From now on, I’m putting my foot down. People insisting I simply must have my nails done, get a spray tan, false eyelashes, etc, are in for a shock. No more shall I respond with a meek “Do I really have to?”… No more I tell you. From now on I’m getting tough.

I may even have a t-shirt made that clearly states “I AM NOT Miss Universe”. And perhaps some flyers wouldn’t hurt either. Something along the lines of:

Things at our wedding that (believe it or not) are NOT going to affect our future marriage:

• The state of my fingernails
• If my skin is not exactly identical in tone from my forehead to my toes
• If I’m so pale I “blend into the curtains”. (yes, someone actually said that to me).
• If my hair has streaks or not
• And if the accessories I select to wear at our wedding are not colour matched to pantone perfection.

Oh, and I might get these pictures printed on the back of the flyer too, just to prove a point…

Fair skin + pale dress, can = classic elegance.

CAN SO! Have some imagination!

over and over

Still slopping through this funk. So I'm going to go easy on the words, and just show some nice pictures.

I saw this book on someone's blog, coveted, searched, found, bought, waited, got.

Complete impulse buy. So unlike me. Love it though.

"Over & Over" - a catalogue of illustrators who use hand drawn pattern in their work.

out of the blue

See that dog with his paw on his overwhelmed heart? That's exactly how I feel.

Out of the blue yesterday a very sweet card arrived from Renee along with a packet of wild-flower seeds. (I have no idea how they wrangled their way past the quarantine beagles! But they look gorgeous.) Completely out of the blue! How nice is that?

Then, next thing I know, the delivery man arrived with a package for me. This one was a complete surprise too.

A new village store tin for my collection!!!!
All the way from Tinniegirl in Melbourne, with a sweet card saying she found this while cleaning out her studio and thought I may like it. Huh! :)



(Here's a pic so she can see where all of her donations are going):



What a week. I won't deny the putrid mood I've been in. Foul is all I'll say. I wrote a big "Wedding Wednesday" post, but didn't publish it... I might do a heavy edit, cheer it up a bit... okay, a LOT... and post it later.

All week I was tugging at wanting to post something reassuring, but I'd get near then do a complete about turn, unable to deal with it. I wanted to thank-you all so much for all of your AMAZING comments for me over my last two posts, but just couldn't bear my own blog.

Then out of the blue these gifts arrive, and I'm given a happy-slap in the face; a big reminder why blogging is so important to me. It's not me writing, or sharing, documenting, marketing, or anything like that. The thing I love most about blogging is the overwhelming feeling of good. The friends I've made, the community I feel part of, and that our little world is absolutely engorged with creativity, sharing, generosity, support and friendship. Where else can you find all that in one place?

I mean I don't know anyone, not really, but that doesn't stop me laughing along, shedding a tear at the sweet posts about your babies and pets, feeling hell shiver through me when one of you is going through a big personal issue, squealing in delight at happy news, and almost... almost buying a plane ticket to fly one of you out from America to photograph our wedding (almost, I didn't do it in time though and missed my chance. But we were serious about the idea). I even report your news to Mr You, like I've been chatting with you on the phone. And he does the same to me when he's beat me to it.

The point is I feel a great, great sense of friendship. And that's why my blog has morphed over the years. That's why I've continued to blog. And realising that I feel SO much better. SO much.

One of the reasons I've have had trouble blogging is that my head is so full of wedding crap, that's practically all I can think about right now. But I'm afraid of my blog turning into a wedding only thing, and that any extra wedding related opinions will snap me. I feel like I'm failing by not illustrating and keeping up with my creative endeavors. I feel like my blog is becoming banal. But you guys are WAY more understanding about it all than some others. So why am I holding back? I should just share, right? Like friends do, without concern of judgement.

I mean it's the internet, what could go wrong? Heh heh.

Anyway, my point is THANK-YOU! Both to Renee and Cathy, and everyone who commented, and even those who didn't but read my posts all the same. I think this reminder will really help me get myself out of this blue.