In the past month, I've organised some invites, attended a wedding, travelled for work

In the past month - I've attended my first wedding, to one of my best friends from high school. My wedding gift to them was their wedding and engagement invitations. They provided me with something they were looking for and we used the same style as we did for the engagement invites. Their names and the flag we decided to do with silver foil, which came out really nice and clear the printer we used didn't have the best quality colour printing though. Below are just some of my favourite photos from the night :)

Otherwise I've been busy and travelling for work - which is why I haven't posted much. All my photos were locked on my home computer. I'm about to travel back to Perth for 3 weeks for work, but this time I will actually take some things to do - so hopefully will get some drawings for the book I'm doing.

I'm still here - drawing away

Hello everyone, I hope your year isn't flying by as fast as mine - How are we in February already???? Here is a very personal drawing that I ummed and ahhh sharing, but here it is. For anyone who knows me they could probably guess who this is and really I thought this illustration would never become a thing. It had been a greylead outline on tracing paper for over 4 years, a present I always wanted to make but never made it past the sketches. Alfie decided to take matters into his own hands and started tearing it up, so I had to make a decision to actually finish it or let Alfie tear it up into a million pieces. I'm sure from the pictures you can guess its outcome :P Oh and don't worry, I fixed the weird arm disappearance - its funny how you don't realise errors until after you photograph and edit them ha ha

The scarves are up!

Hello all, happy Australia day. I hope we can use this day to not only celebrate our beautiful diverse country but also to remember our Aboriginal land owners and the awful events that happened to their people following this date (I hope one day that we can celebrate this on a day that doesn't bring so much pain to their people). Lets use our past, not to separate us but to build a better, inclusive and understanding Australia in the future.

On another note, I have finally got the scarves up! I had to do the photos in a rush after work one day, trying to get them done before the light failed so they aren't as ironed as I would like. Don't worry, they will definitely come ironed

The scarves are all hand stamped and dotted, so there are imperfections, but this really adds to the look and feel. The scarves are Habuti silk, dimensions are 110cms x 110cms. They are a beautiful light weight material so would be great to dress up a pair of jeans and a black top.

This has been a bit of a side project for me because anyone who knows me well, knows I love scarves. I've always wanted to make my own printed scarves. I'm testing some Paypal buttons on the site instead of using my Etsy store - so we shall see how we go. There is only one of each at the moment, but unfortunately Paypal won't let me select inventory number on the buttons - so if a button gets removed its because its sold. Feel free to contact me if the scarf you liked sells, I have some more scarves ready to print if they prove to be popular. Lastly postage is only worked out for Australia so if you want one from somewhere else in the world, please contact me first. Thanks


Magenta magic kaleidoscopic scarf

$45 plus $8 postage
Dimensions - 110cms x 110cms
Colours - magenta pink, copper/gold, ice blue and cobalt

Magenta magic kaleidoscopic scarf

Magenta magic kaleidoscopic scarf - close up

Magenta magic kaleidoscopic scarf - overall 

 

Magnolia kaleidoscopic scarf

$45 plus $8 postage
Dimensions - 110cms x 110cms
Colours - magenta pink, pastel pink, ice blue and cobalt

Magnolia kaleidoscopic scarf

Magnolia kaleidoscopic scarf - close up

Magnolia kaleidoscopic scarf - overall

  

Pastel kaleidoscopic scarf

$45 plus $8 postage
Dimensions - 110cms x 110cms
Colours - copper/gold, pastel pink, mint green and cobalt
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Pastel kaleidoscopic scarf

Pastel kaleidoscopic scarf - close up

Pastel kaleidoscopic scarf - overall

Illustrations

Here is the new illustration I've been working on - another one for the book I'm trying to get together. The drawing is not yet finished but I've tried to capture an in progress shots as I always start with greylid pencils and then build up with the coloured pencils. Hopefully soon I will have some of my scarves up, I just need to get some photos to show off the pretty colours and design.

2017 - New year, new me right?

Well lets face it, me, like many others had a pretty rubbish 2016. I'm trying to look on the positive side and accept any hard things only make you stronger. I just wish it had spaced it out a little ha ha. But there is always something refreshing about a new year, it feel like everything that was too hard before is now achievable.

Like my blog posts (you should see the number of draft blog posts I wrote in the second half of last year) as I would always start to share and then decide what I had created or made was not enough or I wasn't happy with it. To be honest I had hit a creative lull, as I work in a different industry its sometimes hard to come home and start to create but ironically I get very antsy and frustrated when I don't create. It helped that in December my workplace did a little makers market as there are so many talented people who create outside of our jobs.There is a photo of my little store above. Its the first real time I have put my work into prints and to get such positive feedback was so uplifting, plus it forced me to actually do the work.

I also in the last year kicked a fitness goal, I wanted to get healthier woo hoo! I lost a bit of weight, got fitter, started to eat well. I had struggled really understanding a work life balance - I suppose everyone who gets their first, full time 9 to 5 job (or a 9:30 to 6pm in my case) struggles with. Its something people can't teach you, you have to fine tune it which usually means you can't fit everything in at first.

Lastly the pictures below are of home, I went back to the Otways to stay with mum for my 2 week holidays. We went down to beautiful Johanna beach and picked some wild daisies on the drive back. I also have started to create some new work - some silk scarves. I created some trials for the markers market and have now made a few more to test how they will sell. I will have them up on my blog for sale (or maybe on my etsy) as soon as I get some nice pictures to really show the design but for now enjoy my making pictures.

To all those who have followed my blog, even in my absence - Thank you so much for your support and I hope I can show you a more creative side this year. And to all those who also had a terrible 2016, I hope 2017 shines even brighter for you as you've deserve it!

Exploring Hong Kong

Recently I came back from a trip to Hong Kong. I went to HK for a service design conference with a work colleague and then we explored for another 5 days. It was really good just to get away from everything that's been happening and was a much needed break. Hong Kong is so beautiful with lots of interesting nooks and crannies, street art everywhere (well in Cheng Wan where we stayed at least), small relaxing parks nestled in between the buildings. It was a bit of a melting pot of different cultures with them all layered on top of each in all the High-rise buildings, they use every inch of space they have. There are also an abundance on stairs, being on a hillside means getting to and from places means you definitely get a work out; especially when carrying a suitcase in 30 degree heat.

We went to the conference which was very inspiring and great to hear how different places and cultures look at and tackle service design thinking. We also went on a day of workshops to see how places in Hong Kong businesses work in a customer centred way. Through this I went to a place call PMQ which used to be the police married quarters (where police families lived) but is now a thriving little creative hub, with little Hong Kong craft shops and studios in the upper layers. We went to visit our team in Hong Kong which was great and we ate so much delicious food that day. We went to Disneyland for two days as my colleague is a bit of a Disney nut, it was hot but an interesting experience as the level of detail into everything that was in the park was amazing - also space mountain was Star Wars themed.

My final day I was there alone and went to a place called Stanley which a local said I should go to as its where locals go to unwind and eat pizza. It was a beautiful little coastal town, but I must say the seaside cliff double Decker bus experience on the way home was one of the most stressful journeys - how do I always forget I don't like heights. I tried to keep a bit of a concertina diary of the trip, which was difficult as we were only there for a week we packed it pretty full - as in I didn't go to the peak because we didn't have time to wait in the ginormous line to get the tram up. All in all it was a great trip, I already wish I was back there.

Through a window in our apartment building
Stairs everywhere

The sky line filled with buildings and air conditioners

Stanley, with all the cute little boats

Stanley has a walk that leads to a temple

The last two months

Finally - I get to doing a blog post. Its been an eventful month for me and definitely not for the better but not all is bad either - such is life. I have been super busy with an awesome project at work which I'm loving working on. Its always great to work with a team that is excited about service design and trying to help their business revolve around the customer not the products - makes our job so much more rewarding! June is always a pretty big month anyway as my sister and I have birthdays 4 days apart. I spent 2 days making a wonder woman costume for her 21st birthday party - lucky my mum is a quilter and I know how to use a sewing machine!

On the bad note, my long term boyfriend and I broke up - I've been trying to decide whether to put this here and chose to as I think its a part of accepting what has happened and help us move on. Its hard, but it wasn't nasty which is always good - its something we had both been talking about as we have spent so much time together growing up (we were together 10 years) that we needed time to become adults on our own. This is why this space has been a bit inactive and I hope you can bear with me as we sort out our lives.

On a lighter note below are some more of the story book drawings I have been working on. I have a picture of my colour palette choices - I don't plan them in advance but compare them as I go along. I've always been pretty strong in colour (I don't always get it right though) so I'm pretty bad at advance planning :P