Thursday, 30 May 2013

A QUATER CENTURY





The weekend before we moved into our new house (Eeee!) we went up to Omaha beach to celebrate my 25th birthday. And in true "grown up" fashion, I made everyone dress up as sailors... Ahoy! Even though it was forecast to rain, the sun stayed out which meant a lot of cycling trips through the dunes to the beach.










On the Sunday we went to the Matakana Indie Craft Market where I bought a few little goodies as well as some tasty treats. This market is on every third Sunday of the month... I highly recommended it :) Thanks Alana for some of these cute pics!


Thursday, 16 May 2013

SUCCULENT LOVE





I shared this photo of this AMAZING letterbox that I found down the street where I work on instagram (@toriveysey). And because I'm so in love with it, decided I needed to share on the blog too. We will be moving into our first home is two weekends time and I have schemes to make a letterbox like this! But, if the husband disproves, there will – at the very least – be a few of these scattered about the place. Obsessed!

Sunday, 5 May 2013

SHINE FOR YOU...


It seems that lately I have been on am unintentional blog hiatus. When I opened up these photos I realised that they were taken in February! I don't know what it is about this year but it is May already and I feel like I'm playing catch up. Plus, Brendon and I have bought our first house!! Eeeee! We get to move in at the end of May so I can't promise any more posts between now and then either! Uhhh I'm such a slack blogger.
Anyway... This little project was devised from a need for a case for my external hard drive. My drive is quite compact and I often carry it around in my handbag, but it needed a little protection in case I dropped it and to guard it from the scissors that are often in my bag too. (Yup my bag is basically a giant pencil case). I decided to make a drawstring bag similar to the favour bags that I made for our wedding – only a bit larger and lined with bubble wrap.

You'll need: Fabric, bubble wrap (or something thickish and soft), sewing machine/needle and thread, ribbon or string and fabric paint or pen.



First I measured how big my bag needed to be to fit the hard drive inside it (I wanted it to be quite snug). Then I folded down the top edge of the fabric twice – first a small fold and then a larger one where my draw string would eventually thread. Then I did a little snip just under the folded fabric. I unrolled the fabric, tucked in the sides about the snip and then folded the fabric back down on both sides. Then I added the bubble wrap.


Sew down the sides where the draw string will go (before it's rolled down) and then fold it down again. Sew along the bottom of the draw string fold making sure you don't sew the bag closed shut. Flip over and repeat. Stitch the side of your bag and turn inside out. Thread your string or ribbon through one side of the bag and then trough the other (as pictured above). Then repeat with another piece of string on the opposite side. Tie a knot nice and close to the bag.
Ta da! You have a simple draw string bag.


I wanted to make my bag a bit more exciting, so I cut out a circle from some calico and wrote on it. The spotty black and white fabric that I used reminded my of stars and I couldn't help but use the lyrics from Coldplay's Yellow. I stitched the medallion onto my bag with the same twine that I used for the draw string which, I must admit, was a bit of a challenge! But I was pretty happy with the final outcome.


Wish me luck with packing! I will need a LOT of boxes to move all my stuff!! :s

Thursday, 21 March 2013

A FAMILY PORTRAIT

I have been extremely slack with the blog posts this year! I have so many things sitting on my computer waiting for me to post. But – for the most part – they are sitting there because I have been so busy doing things that I haven't had time to share. And in my books, that makes it ok :)
But I digress... I wanted to share this family portrait that will [hopefully] be the first of many. One of my goals for 2013 was to explore watercolour and illustration further and I thought that this might be a good way to do it. And what better subjects to start with than my brother and sister in-law and their beautiful family! The likeness isn't quite there yet but hey, that's why I'm doing this project. Any tips and tricks are welcome!



Tuesday, 12 March 2013

YEAR TWO.





It has been two years today that I married my best friend Brendon! My how time flies! We celebrated up north in Kerikeri on the Takou River in a little cabin called the Magic Cottage... And it really lived up to it's name. It was such a romantic spot and the perfect place to celebrate our anniversary. If you're ever in the Bay of Islands I would highly recommend staying here.




We explored all around the area and had a kayaking adventure down the river all the way to the beach. We even went on a little night walk to see the gloworms. It was an unrivaled weekend... bring on Year Three!


Wednesday, 13 February 2013

SAINT VAL.

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope you like the little gif I made with the girls at work :)
Wishing you a LOVELY day xx

Sunday, 27 January 2013

ONE DAY...





It has been quite a while since I've done a sketch in my Little Brown Notebook and I decided it was time to get back into it. I'm wanting to do a lot more drawing this year so hopefully this will get the ball rolling! I was feeling particularly nostalgic one day which led to me watching Almost Famous – the movie that inspired this particular sketch. It didn't quite capture the beauty that is Zooey Deschanel but I kinda like it anyway. Once the sketch was done I scanned it in and did some colour work in Photoshop. I think the coloured ones turned out nicer than the original. Here's to an artistic 2013!