over exposed

Jacket - Anna Middleton - Black Quilted Silk Jacket
Shirt - Uniqlo - Navy/White Striped Long Sleeve Shirt
Jeans - Jeanswest - Black Skinny Jeans
Shoes - Vintage Loafers
Book - Peter Mayle - A Year in Provence

A couple of weeks ago, I went to The Big Fashion Sale on Oxford St and amongst all the designer and vintage pieces found a black quilted silk jacket. I haven't bought any jacket like it before, the round neck which I generally try to avoid, and the quilted style which has never caught my fancy. It wears really well and is a great transitional piece. This is pretty much what I've been wearing for the past week.

I also enjoy interesting accidental over-exposed photos.

18 days till...

Valentines Day! or better yet, Singles Awareness Day. Regardless of whether you're single or not, have an admirer or don't, it's such an opportunity to show people that you love them. I've made a list of Valentines Day gifts to make. These are teeny tiny love letters that I'll probably end up mass producing.

During high school I went to a christian convention called KYCK, where around 4000 kids would be chucked (note: the verbs I use are sometimes quite violent, but they aren't meant negatively even in the slightest) into a massive shed. It was tradition for people to bring pegs, perhaps write a little note or a bible verse on them and secretly peg someone without them noticing. I guess this is where I got the idea from.

What you'll need:
- Scissors
- Red Felt (sometimes you find them in the bargain bins at your local fabric shop!)
- Tiny Wooden Peg (or normal sized ones, buy them for cheap at your $2 shop)
- White Paper
- Pen
- PVA glue

Simple to make as per usual:
1. Cut out a heart from the red felt
2. Write what you want on the strip of paper (important: leave some room at the beginning to put glue and WRITE SMALL!)
3. If you want to be fancy, cut the end of the strip of paper to make it look like the end of a neat ribbon
4. On the side with writing, put a thin layer of glue at the beginning of the strip of paper and stick it to the heart
5. At the end of the peg, put a thin layer of glue and stick the heart to it

So make a couple or many, give say 2-3 people 5-10 each and tell them to start love pegging!

Enjoy the song, it's beautiful!

Switchfoot - Your love is a song

do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself

Happy Chinese New Year!
Honestly, my family hasn't had a break from festive eating - Christmas, New Years, Chinese New Years, and I can see the repercussions of it. From permanent food baby to the ever growing muffin top over my jeans (attractive i'll say!) In the top left hand corner is Aunts homemade fried ice cream and it's seriously good (note to self: get recipe!). Along with food comes red pockets, from work a fortune cookie, something that rarely is consumed by Chinese people might I say, and finally but not least, from the haunting past, the dreaded Chinese New Years Song that confusingly is fun to sing on repeat however annoys the living daylights out of you. 

On a final note, I enjoyed snacking on a couple of fortune cookies and particularly liked the fortune above - "No need to worry! You will always have everything you need." It made me think about a particular passage in the bible, part of Jesus' sermons on the mount. 

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

 

   ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

A good reminder that there is more to life than eating, drinking and clothes, and it's such a comfort to know that God knows what we need most which is grace (the gift of life from God that we don't deserve because we've wronged him and actually deserve death). And the best thing is, God has the gift neatly wrapped in his hand ready for us take because Jesus has died on the cross.

Harmony to my heartbeat

Every year there is the intention of personalising every single card I send out, except it gets all too hard with all the glue and cutting out textured paper and no one ends up getting a card because I've tragically given up.

Solution: ditch the glue if possible, at most have only one object to stick down.

Doing some casual strolling through Vinnies, actually more like running away from writing on my nonexistant Christmas cards, I found these fabric Christmas bow decorations which I have a feeling are intended for Christmas trees because of their two metal things that stick out and have the ability to cling to things. They came in a pack of 10 for 50c!

Don't shy away from $2 shops and even Op-shops when it comes to scrapbooking and decorating cards, neither should you under estimate the power of the basics: textas, pens and coloured pencils. There is something quite beautiful about a handmade card, well even in this day and age a handwritten letter is a phenomenal sight. They ooze love and willingness to take time to seriously reflect on one's relationship with the recipient.

What you'll need:

- Cardboard (I used 1.5mm boxboard from the panic over buying of model making materials)

- Black pen (felt tip, inky preferable)

- Dark Green and Light Green Pencil

- Scalpel and Cutting Mat (or scissors or hole puncher depending on the thickness of cardboard)

- Bow Decoration (ribbon tied into a bow in which you'll need super glue to stick down)

- Metal Ruler

Method:

1. Cut cardboard into the size of a postcard

2. With the black pen, draw a circle of leaves to make a wreath (Tip: use a pencil to draw a circle as a guideline)

3. Colour in the leaves (Tip: keep it consistant, colouring all the inner side of the leaves dark green/light green and the other side the other colour)

4. Go over the leaves again in black pen (it makes a very big difference in how much the picture pops out of the page!)

5. With the bow pictured, make use of the two metal things by cutting two holes at the top of the wreath such that the metal can go through and tie up at the back.

5. With a bow made from a normal piece of ribbon, glue it at the top of the wreath with super glue.

Sally Seltmann - Harmony To My Heartbeat

Silhouette in dreams

I hope your preparations for Christmas are well under way! If you are bashing your head for last minute gift ideas and don't want to spend a fortune, here is a really cheap and personalised gift idea - Aluminium Embossing. You can make Christmas tree decorations, necklaces, badges.

What you'll need: (for a Christmas tree decoration)

- Scissors

- Dead Ballpoint Pen

- Aluminium Tray (the ones you use for bbqs and buy from $2 shops)

- Nice String or Ribbon

It's quite simple to make!

1. Carefully cut out your intended shape. (You can print off a google image stick it on to the aluminium as a template)

2. Decorate the aluminium by drawing with the pen. (It's better to do it over a slightly padded surface so the aluminium has room to dent)

Note: The side you draw on is not the side you present (which I did incorrectly) So if you want to write a word/s on your aluminium, you will need to write the word/s mirrored. 

Kimbra - Cameo Lover