Fabric bunting

You will need:

Material - You can have as many or as little different types as you want. It depends if you want to follow a pattern (e.g. blue, green, yellow, pink, blue, green, yellow, pink..) or if you want to have a different type for each triange.
Ribbon or twill tape (I used two metres and it fit 15 triangles, also make sure it's thick as it just makes it easier).
Cardboard (template).
Scissors
Pins
A pen
And finally you will need a sewing machine.

Step One: Make a triangle template using cardboard. It can be as big or as small as you want.


Step Two: Place your template onto your material and trace around it. Now you can cut it out. Repeat this on all the different materials you're using.



Step Three: Fold the twill tape/ribbon in half and iron along it so it stays like that.


Step Four: Lay out the tape/ribbon and arrange the triangles to your liking. Make sure they're nice and secure between the fold of the tape/ribbon, and then pin them into place.


Step Five: Sew along the bottom of the twill tape/ribbon, close to where it meets the triangles. You can tuck in the ends of the tape/ribbon to make it more neat.


Step Six: Now that it's all sewn, you can iron it, just to get rid of all the creases and other little annoying bits.

And you're done! :).

Cutest cafe in Melbourne

 
This  is quite possibly the cutest cafe in Melbourne. Cafe Giraffe is filled with the most adorable trinkets and decorations all over the place. Seriously, ALL. OVER. The place. Wherever you look, whether it's a vintage typewriter, strings of pretty photographs, beautiful mirrors, cute little giraffe toys, there was always something to oooh & aaaah about. 

It's like a cozy museum of cuteness! I wish my room looked like that.

blue bow brooch

If you'd like to know how I made it, here's how:

♥ Knit a small rectangle, in whatever size you prefer.
♥ Use some extra yarn to wrap around the middle to make the bow shape. Tie it up to keep it secure.
♥ Attach a brooch pin base at the back, and a button at the front. Sewing them on is probably the best way to do it, but I just used some super glue.

♥ Done! Easy, right?

RAPHAH

RAPHAH. BE STILL

I would love Raphah in cursive as My first tattoo.  maybe just below my bra line or on the very side of my foot. Not sure exactly where but i'm sure i want it. 

Be still has always been the strong words of God in my life. Through a period where my Cousin committed suicide God reminded me to be still. 

This article explains what i mean when i say be still. 

It is knowing Gos is bigger, to not worry but to drop it all at his feet and seek him fully. Then we can be healed and his plans will be revealed. 

Be still and know that i am God is from psalm 49:10 in the bible

RAPHAH is the Hebrew word for Be still.

A song called Be still and know i am God was played at my cousins funeral. 

And throughout my trials i am reminded of Gods love, power and in that i feel peace. 

So be still and know God is God. 

RAPHAH.

Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exulted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

The traditional translation of the Hebrew word raphah in Psalm 46:10 is Be still. Be still and know that I am God. we are quite familiar with that version. But, we might not realize that raphah implies a good deal more than sitting quietly. God is not interested in bowed heads and folded hands. He has something else in mind here. To understand His perspective, we need to see the others uses of this form of the verb.

Joshua 10:6 translates raphah as abandon. Deuteronomy 4:31 uses forsake or fail. Psalm 37:8 uses ?cease.? Judges 11:37 translates as let alone. What is the similarity In every case, this form of raphah carries the idea of letting go of something. Thats the imagery we need in Psalm 46:10. God is not asking us to be quiet. He is asking us to let go of everything else that demands our attention. He is commanding us to stop the striving, frantic business of living. He is requesting our full and undivided attention. Then, and only then, will the second part of the verse become reality.

Do I have to sneak away to a quiet corner to enter into this relationship with God No, I dont! (But it helps!) Even in a quiet corner my mind can be so full of myself and my world that I cannot hear or know the God of creation. I could stand on a crowded street corner in Brazil and be so attentive to God that the world ceased to exist for me. Location is not the question. Neither is physical posture. Face down or face up makes no difference. What matters supremely is the discipline of abandoning the constant stream of distraction. I must enter into the heavenly throne room and stand or kneel in the presence of the All Mighty. God must fill my mind and heart until everything about me and my world is pushed out of the picture. Such discipline takes practice (or epiphany). Usually years of practice. Thats why I begin by finding the quiet corner or secret place. Whatever helps me enter into His presence and His presence alone is a useful tool. Whatever does not help must be abandoned, even if its the choir or the organist.

Do you want to know God? He invites us into His presence. But the steps to get there are up to us. Abandon, forsake and cease. Let go of everything that keeps you occupied with the important but trivial. The bigger the gap between you and your life, the closer you will come to Him.

Be still. Raphah

Words of truth.

Ok i'm going to start bloggin some photoshop techniques.

There are heaps of ways to make a smiple image look stunning. 

And photoshop makes it so easy.

For my own reminder as well as to help all you photo lovers i'm going to try and post a new technique or effect every now and then. Horray!

So first up is how to create a simple vignette. These looks great on desaturated or Black and White images and it is so so so ridiculously easy. 

Vignette (pronounced vin-’yet) is a sort of framing element that you’ll sometimes see in photos (particularly older photos or Lomo shots), in which the image fades out toward the corners. It’s most commonly seen as a fade out to black, but white is also used sometimes. The vignette can be a powerful element of the photo because it has a natural tendency to draw the eye toward the center of the photo.

1. DO THIS AS YOUR LAST STEP IN PHOTOSHOP!!!
2. Create a new empty layer on top of the stack. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N
3. Fill the layer with pure white. Shift + Backspace
4. Set the blend mode to “Multiply”. Alt + Shift + M
5. Apply the vignette filter to the new layer.
   Filter >> Distort >> Lens Correction…
6. Mess with the “Amount” and “Midpoint” sliders in the “Vignette” section.
7. Press “OK”, and now you have art!

I would love to get m hands on a photo editing program called 

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP LIGHT ROOM 3. 

I've grown up with photoshop and love it to pieces but i'm always up for a change and am so interested in finding out what else this program could do to my images!

Anyone willing to buy it for me haha. 

If you're an advanced amateur or professional photographer, you need a wide range of tools to keep your digital projects creative and organized. Lightroom provides all your essentials in one intuitive package.

Lightroom 3 delivers a range of new features and enhanced capabilities, including faster performance, new world-class noise reduction, lens correction, support for DSLR video files, easy-to-share slide show videos with music, and much more.

You can get a free trial !!!

I have fallen in love with the fantastic work of  Ryan Polei.

Both a photographer and videographer his work is exactly my style.

He uses great effects including burred edges and desaturation as well as short fast and quirky cuts on his videos.
Check him out here and find out what i'm carrying on about.

As far as i'm aware he is on the streets of Adelaide, so i'm trying to get some hot tips and maybe even some lessons!

Sometimes I wish my stuff would turn out like this.... but I must remember practice mades perfect!

Lately I have been discovering some incredible wedding photos.

Doing some recent wedding shoots myself its inspiring to find new images and ideas for future clients. 

I hope to have my wedding Photos are as amazing as what London Photographer Marianne taylor creates.

They are simply beautiful with a clean, yet artistic and somewhat vintage feel. 

Crafty rafty

I am become more smitten with craft everyday. 

I want to be a graft wife, mum and friend one day. My baby steps are getting me there!

I want to make cards for everyones special occasions

Knit scarfs for my loved ones in winter

Make badges to quirk things up

Sew cases for water bottles, laptops, phones and pencils.

Sew my own clothes

Make calenders.

Create gifts for friends and family.

so many ideas. The list will continue!

Kareena Zerefos

 I love and appreciate good art so much. 

Kareena Zerefos is an artist from Sydney, Australia."With a background in design, graduating from College of Fine Arts in 2005, Kareena works using a variety of media, including pencil, gouache, tea and ink, and often combines traditional drawing with contemporary digital graphic techniques."

Kareena has exhibited in solo shows in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as in numerous group shows across Australia. She also works on commercial illustration projects for the music, fashion and advertising industries.

Someone emailed Kareena a few questions on her work, luckily for me she took the time to answer them:

What tools/materials do you use? Do you use the same materials each time?
Pencils/graphite, gouache and ink on paper, I’ve recently been playing with copic markers too which is a lot of fun.
The materials I use kind of evolves and changes every now and again, when I started out I would just draw with whatever I had lying about, biros and old scraps of paper.
I've been working on pine plywood boxes quite a bit too, and have been experimenting with watercolour canvas too,

Three words that describes your style?

1. Nostalgic, 2. delicate, 3. bittersweet

Do you have any artistic influences?

I take inspiration from so many things like my collection of old super-8 footage from my dad’s childhood in rural NSW, travel, vintage postcards and photos, children’s books…
Egon Schiele has been a major influence I saw his figurative sketches and watercolours on a little trip to Vienna back in 2006 and that’s when I really felt inspired to draw.

Why do you like what you do and how did you first get into it?

I've always liked to draw, for as long as I remember, I don't really know why I like it - it's kind of just something I have to do compulsively!
I studied design at the College of Fine Arts, but I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember - it all started out like everyone does, sticking macaroni to paper plates and painting with my fingers!
I worked as a graphic designer for a while and it wasn’t really until about two years ago that I took the plunge to do art and illustration full time.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

Hopefully exhibiting in places like the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

Who/what/where are important parts of your process?
Before I start drawing I make collages from photocopied bits and pieces to plan out the composition and to find all of the right elements to bring into the work (I’m completely a Virgo).

Then I use my collage as my reference to draw from. I always work with a really light and loose outline layer in pencil, work up a couple of layers by spilling and dripping ink, gouache and tea and then work over it all with the detailed pencil lines.

What music are you into now?

Ah, at the moment when I'm working, Iron & Wine, The Stone Roses, Animal Collective, The Sisters of Mercy, Doves, Kings of Convenience, The Church, Siouxsie & The Banshees...

2 wheeled love.

One mans junk really is anothers treasure.

I found a bike on a hard rubbish pile one day while driving along.
I yelled to my brother to stop the car.
I collected the bike that had no pedals, brakes or even tires.

 But she was still a beauty and i would restore to full health.

 I pushed her home and from that day on she has been my 2 wheeled lover.

With the help of my Dad and brother 'Bessy' now looks good as new with a heart that is well worn.
My 19th birthday present from my dear sister topped of Bessy. A wooden basket.

I can't wait to ride around the streets of glenelg with icecream, hats, summer dresses and good company.

This is the beautiful beast.