In pictures

Our holiday in pictures...



1. Cherry picking, 2. Cherry picking, 3. Cherry picking, 4. Weekend away 27-29 Dec, 5. Weekend away 27-29 Dec, 6. Weekend away 27-29 Dec, 7. Christmas 2010, 8. Christmas 2010, 9. Christmas 2010

Wishing you all a fantastic, successful and happy 2011!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas... may your Christmas be filled with laughter and fun... and cookies :)

More camera fun...

Last weekend it was such beautiful weather in Melbourne and I really wanted to use my new camera a bit more. I bought a canon 550D back in September and because the weather hasn't been all that good I feel like I haven't used it enough.

What better place to take photos than at the Melbourne zoo... I think most of Melbourne had the same idea because it was packed! Nonetheless, I had a great time and with my FOTZ pass I can go whenever I like and skip certain parts without feeling guilty.

Social Media Revolution

How the world is changing...

Blokkenkast

Sometimes I wish my apartment was bigger and I didn't need to think about storage space in the furniture I buy or make... Right now my TV cabinet is a large chest that holds my camping gear, ski gear, Christmas tree and miscellaneous... practical? Definitely! Pretty? So, so!

I absolutely love this and it's a DIY project... I'll definitely keep it in my bookmarks and will revisit it when (if) I buy a house...


Blokkenkast Tas-ka via 101 woonideen

MOvember

I think we should all support MOvember. You can make a donation on the website (gosh I love that tweed background)

To make it a bit more fun... buy yourself a Mo Towel.. how cool!


Mo Towel from Spin Spin

Melbourne's Chinatown

I was walking through Melbourne's Chinatown last week, killing time taking photos before going to the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Mary Poppins show (it's awesome!)

These are some of the photos I took:

Happiness flowchart

found here

Fashion show at GPO

A few weeks ago I went to see a fashion show at GPO, which was great fun. The show itself was a bit short, but the cocktails were great and my friend even won the draw they had on. She's not complaining with a $700 Wayne Cooper voucher...

I took some photos that night too.







Find more photos on flickr

Royal Melbourne Show

On Saturday I went to my first ever Royal Melbourne Show and had a great time (apart from the rain). I just loved the horses! It made me miss my childhood, when I used to spend lots of time on a family friend's farm looking after the horses, calves and lambs. Definitely great memories!

New Blog!

I know I have been neglecting this blog a bit but that's mainly because I have had little to show, not because I don't want to talk.

For that reason I've started a new blog. Fashion et al is a blog that covers Fashion et al (and others).


Felix & Mabel, the first to be featured on Fashion et al

The new blog will bring you lots of fashion news, but not just the big names. We aim to showcase indie designers, established labels, big business, accessories designers and quirky little retail shops.

There are so many fashion and design blogs out there, but I haven't found THE ONE that I absolutely love in terms of fashion and accessories. I thought, why not start one myself? Because I want everyone to love what's featured on the blog, I would love your feedback, suggestions, ideas etc.

In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy Fashion et al.

Healesville Sanctuary

Thank you for the lovely comments!

I haven't really had the chance to use my new creative suite because I work fulltime and weekends have been taken up by trips to the snow, the beach or the zoo. (Tough life.. I know)

But I'm loving my camera at the moment! The perfect way to be creative if you ask me. I took these pictures on Saturday, at Healesville Sanctuary.







You will find more photos in my flickr

Photography

Hello?

I know it has been aaaages and I'm sorry :( I just haven't had anything too exciting to talk about. Certainly nothing crafty, unless I name the numerous cooking and baking adventures I've had, or trips to the snow, or weekends away.

I'm pretty excited now though. I just bought my first DSLR camera and am totally in love with it. It's a canon eos 550d with 18-135mm lens and it's just perfect!
I've been snapping away after work (which is going great by the way, I love my job in marketing at one of Melbourne's universities) and have finally started using my flickr pro account again.

Hopefully I won't disappear for 6 months again, since I now have something to show :)

I have also installed Adobe CS5, so I'm hoping to get back into designing a bit more. It seems easier to find my creative mojo when it's not a must.



1. car, 2. nature, 3. sky, 4. station, 5. arrow, 6. flower, 7. laneway posters, 8. red, 9. house

Beautiful...

I've been looking at pretty things on etsy... It has been a while since I've visited the amazing wonderland of handmade, and it's great to find so many new and pretty things.

I have my eyes on these beauties:


Tweed Brown Hood by Afra


Raw silk bolero by Angelika Liv


White garden silver necklace by Little White Dresser

I'm hoping to get my crafty mojo back soon because I need some curtains for my bedroom. I'll show you the result once I get around to it ;)

Breadmaking...

Thank you all for your lovely comments :) I feel like I'm on the right track now and am looking forward to achieving all the things that I want to do in my life.



Last weekend I went to do a breadmaking course at the Abbotsford Convent Bakery and it was sooo much fun! It starts pretty early (8am on a Saturday) but that was perfect because it was heating up during the day. We started off with white sourdough of which we made rolls, then wholemeal pizza dough of which we made a savoury pizza and a apple & custard calzone, we made scones with sultanas and two rye sourdough loafs.



It was such a fabulous day, we got to have morning tea in the sun with our own scones, fresh cream and homemade raspberry jam and we had our own pizza for lunch (I only had 2 slices because I was still full from the scones). Our freezers are full with bread now, and it feels so good to know that I made it :)

Word's out...

As you may have read over at Ink & Spindle, I have decided to pursue my career in marketing and left the business.

Ever since I was 18 I have had the dream to have a successful career in marketing (and events) and chose to study International Business to get me started on my dreams. In my 4th year of studies I was fortunate to be offered a work experience place with a company in Melbourne and made the trip Down Under. What was meant to only be a 5 month internship turned into another 5 months to complete my thesis and after I graduated I returned to Australia to begin my career.

A lot has happened since then, I have worked in several jobs, marketing and non-marketing and started playing around with pattern design about 3 years ago... the rest of the story is pretty well-known.

At the end of last year I started to feel restless and uncomfortable and couldn't quite figure out what it was that 'bugged' me until I took a break to think about what I actually wanted to do with my life. Ink & Spindle was fun and a great experience but it wasn't quite taking me where I wanted to be in life. Leaving the business wasn't an easy decision and it took me a very long time and the help and support of my wonderful personal coach to finally tell the girls in December. They were really supportive and could see that it was for the best, and now we're all happy :) Thanks girls!

Fear not, Ink & Spindle will still be printing and selling my designs so all you lovelies can still sew gorgeous things with it.

I'm not sure how often I'll blog as my craft life is somewhat non-existent at the moment... I still craft but it's more in the form of baking and cooking :)

I'm really proud and happy about the journey that I have made, with Hollabee and Ink & Spindle and it wouldn't have happened without your support, so thank you all so much for your support, kindness and love for fabric. I really enjoyed setting up the business with the girls, going to markets, meeting lovely bloggers and non-bloggers, doing shows, travelling interstate and generally just having a great time! Thank you! But...Sometimes it's just time to move on to other things, and that's what I'll be doing...

Thank you and I'm sure we'll meet again :)

Hot, hot, hot

We're experiencing some extremely hot temperatures here in Melbourne. Yesterday we hit 45, and that's not all that surprising, but we also had the hottest night since 100 years... and guess who doesn't have aircon at home? Yup, moi!

I've kept everything shut and dark over the past few days and it has been reasonably bearable inside, with the fan on, whilst drinking lots of water and eating frozen yoghurt.

Today is the second day I got sent home from work because it's simply too hot to function. Some ^*#@*^ decided that it was a good idea to replace the office aircon system in the middle of summer, which leaves us without nice cool air. The manager decided to get some portable aircons in, but they used too much electricity which made the power turn off, including our computers and lights, so the only other option was to go home.



I've been hanging out on the couch, in front of the fan...

2010

I'm not very good with new years resolutions so I'm not going to give it a try... instead I have written a list of things I'd like to do and some of what's on it is pretty straight forward, some might ask for more dedication and some might eventually be taken off the list because life changes right?

Things I'd like to do/achieve in 2010:

1. Spend time with friends
2. Listen to my heart
3. Learn kite surfing
4. Save money
5. Go skiing in either New Zealand or Canada
6. Talk to my family more
7. Go on day trips/weekends away more
8. Eat healthy
9. Take up some form of exercise
10. Cook & bake new things
11. Read more
12. Learn Italian
13. Be creative
14. Set personal goals
15. Continue life coaching
16. BE HAPPY!

Hello 2010!

Wow, another year has passed... and what a year it was.
So much has happened in 2009, happy things, sad things, eventful things, difficult things, scary things. I can't say that '09 has been an easy year with a break up, a move and one of the most diffucult decisions right at the end. I might write about this one day, when I'm ready.

I'm definitely looking forward to 2010 and started the year in an amazing way. Through my job I got in touch with a fellow Dutchy, who's daughter works for ID&T, the company who has been organising 'Sensation' for years.


Image credit: Sensation

It's a Dutch organisation which puts on some massive events, such as Sensation. I have been to Sensation before, in 2002 in the Amsterdam Arena. I absolutely loved it back then, but didn't think that I'd ever go again because the tickets are quite expensive. Anyway, I'm drifting off... the girl who works for ID&T lives in Holland whilst her parents have been here for 28 years. During my work Christmas dinner we got talking about this and he thought it wouldn't be a problem to get us free tickets... he text his daughter et voila... free DELUXE tickets to Sensation! It was amazing, the show was spectacular and like last time I was excited to see everyone dressed in white, it's really something special. At midnight they had a sensational show with fireworks and the famous Sensation megamix, I had the best NYE ever!

The only negative was that I got a throat infection the day before NYE. I'm still fighting it and it's probably a good thing that I have a few days to myself (i.e. nobody to talk to) before going back to work. I've been keeping myself busy with...


reading magazines


decorating my apartment


looking after a friend's vegies in my kitchen


baking a pear upside-down cake

I'd like to say thanks to everyone for visiting my blog and the ink & spindle blog, for supporting our little business, for sharing their handmade creations, for visiting us at shows and for being our dedicated fans.

Happy New Year everyone, cheers to a great 2010!