One giant step forward

I made some progress with my secret project today! Yay for me :D Actually my mum nudged me and it felt like the perfect time to do some serious exploration. Photos teasers to come.

Night before christmas

and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even the mouse...

To be honest it's a bit early for that, but it paints such a lovely picture. Merry christmas everyone!

gorgeous print from StudioFlowerPower

Chowderrrrrr

Seafood chowder is one of my all time favourite foods. The first time I tried it was in America somewhere, when I was about 10yr old. And today I spotted a recipe on Everybody Loves Sandwiches... thank you! So I thought I'd better link it here before I lose it and wonder where I saw that recipe.

Fish chowder recipe.

maritime fish chowder
(adapted from Simply Recipes)
2 T butter
1 large onion, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
4 small-ish potatoes, diced
1 t thyme
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 1/2 t Old Bay seasoning
1 1/2 c fish stock + water
1 1/2 – 2 lbs Red Snapper (or cod), cut into 2 inch cubes
1/2 c corn
1 1/2 c skim milk

In a large pot, saute the onion and celery in the butter until soft and fragrant. Add in the potatoes and all of the seasonings. Add in the fish stock and add enough water to just cover everything. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes until the potatoes are done.

Stir in the fish and cover again for another 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to a low simmer and slowly add in the milk – I had the heat on the very lowest setting. Do not bring this mixture to a boil or the milk may curdle. Add in the corn and let it rest with the lid on for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve in deep bowls with oyster crackers or hunks of buttered sourdough bread.

oh

and I also spotted this on the same blog. Lemon Cookies... YUM! my bf loves lemon flavoured desserts and he loves cookies, perfect combo. Cant wait to try it out.

New Years Resolution

In 2010, I will endeavor to immerse my whole life in creativity...

Not that I'm not doing creative things at the moment, but I've been so exposed to the amazing talent and creative lives of fellow bloggers, I'm itching to be part of that. They are so design conscious. I have been inspired to make my life more beautiful and create things that will make everyday tasks a joy.

Most of my work will be based around Lines and Blocks, Colour and Movement. I want elegance in some areas and bold flowing brushstrokes in others. All of it will be graceful, happy and colourful. Here are some of my ideas,

* Lists: make writing down notes fun. I love filling in things.

* Organizing: creating labels (or even borrowing labels from fellow bloggers) to pretty up my pantry. And tuck everything into nice boxes. And find opportunities to decorate.

* Books: I have always loved sketchbooks and notebooks, and I really want to design some lovely covers to go with them. And collecting gorgeous papers. Oh I so want to make books!

* Gifts: I want to make and give gifts. I will finally get to try all those tutorials I have collected.

* Etsy: Really work to perfect my secret project. Plus if there is anything good I want to share it would be nice to list them too.

One final thing. I am going to ditch all those ideas about reinventing old thing and only doing that. Old sheets, old clothes, old magazine pages. I have cornered myself and the thing is... it turns out looking old. No wonder I've been in a creative block.

Hehe, and a little funny promise... In the new year, I will be less of a hermit and go out and be exposed to new things. I am SUCH a hermit, staying at home, making things and getting a screen tan from watching all the episodes of stargate. Time to branch out.

Holidays

Hello! we're back on holidays again, but this time we can really relax and enjoy our time. Knowing that we've got something to go back to (and money in the bank) makes a huge difference to our happiness.

It's almost Christmas! I've got about half of my Christmas list done so still a few things to buy and a few other things to make (actually, quite a few things to make. I keep coming up with more present for certain people and it's a bit distracting, so I need to stay focused). Will be fun. Oh and I really want to go on a drive somewhere before we head back home to visit family.

So here are a few more things I've collected while online surfing.

Doily Canvas bag tutorial. Ashley Ann's stylish design, such a elegant but simple idea (and hugely responsible for distracting me in my present making task).

DIY Sweetheart Brownies found on the Twig and Thistle blog. Really really want to make some now, just need to find a good recipe or I might just cheat and get one of those premixed ones, I was really frustrated the last time I made brownies cos they turned out too sweet and had a weird crusty top. Anyway, a lovely gift.

Another Twig and Thistle find. Homemade marshmellows, arent they gorgeous and sparkly! I am so gonna try this out for easter or something.

Candy Cane Chocolate Bark from Everybody likes sandwiches blog. I think I might make this for my cousin's Christmas present. I'll gets some beautiful Haighs dark chocolate and sprinkle some nuts or candy on top.

And last but not least the beautiful soap from Nostalgia Organics. I absolutely love the sweet packaging, such a treat!
Can you tell I have a thing for online tutorials?

Cute little project

Today I have decided to start on my Christmas list. I want to give my mum a tablecloth and perhaps some placemats and I found this cool project on Design Sponge. All I need is some fabric so I'm off to get some now :)

Weekend

It's the weekend! And I've finished a little freelance job I had lined up so I can chill out for the rest of the weekend. The way things turned out with work is quite good actually, we do 2 weeks work after a huge break and then we go on another break for 2 weeks, so we're going to be 100% charged for next year! Plus I've worked out a little worksheet to help me with my job so that's going to be good.

Making worksheets is quite a bit of fun. I'm thinking of making heaps of worksheets to help me with all aspects of my life. It'll make writing lists and plans and ideas a lot more fun and pretty (cos I'll be printing on pretty paper). Maybe I should think about investing in a printer...

Over the last couple of days I've been collecting a heap of pictures I've found on the internet while looking for Christmas presents and general blog and etsy surfing. Here are some (and I will try and add a few every day and include links where I can).

Some lovely winter clothes from the Asian online shop YesStyle.com. The store is Melissa.



Gorgeous, GORGEOUS illustrations by Paperfashion, and her etsy shop (would have to get something from there one day, the tricky part is deciding which one...)
And a really handy workbook for any aspiring fashion designer, or people like me who just want to draw costumes and design fantasy fashion (for amusement) and perhaps design some clothes for everyday wear (we'll see what happens). I was actually thinking of making such a worksheet, it's nice to see someone had already done it.

Take a look at Hokey Croquis. You can buy the clever workbook pictured below, or download the worksheet in the freebies section.

Happy

Great news, I'm back at work again! It's been a great break and I've done a lot of crafty things, and opened an etsy shop :) The break has satisfied my hunger to do crafts full time.

But now, I'm back at work and I feel at home again. I have order in my life! It will be an interesting ride over the next couple of months as Matt and I work in different roles at the studio. Hopefully it will be a nice long ride (so that I can go shopping with my sister over here and take those weekend trips to the wine regions I've been dreaming about). For now, I will enjoy my work and enjoy my free time. A new start for me.

Embroidered Buttons

Today, my little fascination, is Embroidered Buttons. Tutorial by PurlBee.
Would love to try these out.

Me and my sister

This gorgeous print reminds me of us when we were little, beautiful work by lepapierstudio

oh and just so I wont ever lose the link... UK handmade website. Some pretty cool stuff in there.

Pretty dresses

Lovely dress from Sheike and it's on sale!!
Now, all I need is a paycheck and a place to wear it hehehe...

Snowflake Tutorial Find

I saw this tutorial on the blog KatyElliot inspired by the artist evencleveland and thought it was incredibly pretty and so easy to make. Another project to add to my 'things I love to try' list. Here is another item by EvenCleveland up for sale in her etsy shop. Such quaint little dwellings :)

Love this too

Little Brown Pen's calender

Such a great little gift, now I want to take a holiday to an exotic place and take beautiful photos. Little brown pen is brilliant at doing that. It's like she opens our eyes to all the gorgeous details in a place. What I think make a photographer stand apart from everyone else is, a photographer see things that we all take for granted. An artist really appreciates what's there, the detail, the colour, the history. While everyone else, me included, take happy snaps of people smiling in front of random places. Not that that's bad, there are tons of memories in those photos but they dont mean anything to anyone who wasnt there at the time. My wish, for new year, is to take photos like an artist. Just like Little Brown Pen and Lil Fish Studios.

Today I have decided to do something 3D. For a long time I've been wanting to revisit modelling and rigging, the character creating part of animation. I've picked a little toy tiger (named Sita) to recreate in 3d. It shall be my little project today. As I know I tend to get stuck into the details way too soon, I must remember to be a sculptor, roughing out the shape then deal with details like edge loops (which in 3d is very important if you want to make it move).

Btw, I've finished the little pot mats for my bf's grandma and I love them. Do you like them? and I've also continued working on the 'Wishes' booklet (I'm still deciding whether it should be called Wishes or Promise). Along with my swirly background one, I've created a cute one too. I might also reuse my horse images and see what that looks like.

love

By Lil Fish Studios

Off balance and in balance

To pose a nicely balanced character is tricky, and I've seemed to have grasped it over the years, but today I am animating a character going off balance and falling off a tree, now that is DIFFICULT! It seems to be a combination of the character trying to readjust the balance and over adjusting the balance... I'm confused, I will need to explore.

Anyway, a few crafty things to add to this post.


Yesterday I worked on a little booklet I wish to give my sister and cousin (we have a tradition of writing New Years Resolutions together and sealing it in a time capsule to be opened the following year). This booklet is a day to day tracker of our progress. Like next year I wish to:
*Eat a piece of fruit every day
*Do 10mins of exercise every day
*Be thankful of something/someone and say a prayer for them every day
These may be really simple things, but they are things that I've failed to do enough of over the years. I hope my booklet will help my sister and cousin attain their daily goals too. Hmm... my background for the booklet kinda looks like the swirls in soap... I'll do a cute one too with my favourite things.


Artmind, the very creative artist who creates gorgeous little babushkas (want hehe), writes of a 'Secret Project'. As I've recently discovered the perfect solution to embody all that I want for my ultimate project, I wish to do something similar and document a process that will eventually lead to what I've imagined. Cant wait to start. Tomorrow.

Ok, back to animating. Ta ta!

Making Christmas Presents

Today I adapted a pattern from the book 'Hooked Throws' by Margaret Hubert into a little mat to put hot dishes on. My boyfriend gave me the idea after seeing that his grandmother needed something like it to jazz up her table, as well as keep the hot pots off the surface. Needless to say she'll be receiving the first ones :) The sample took me a few hours to make so it's not hard. I want to see if I can make a few extra for the other females in my life.

I dont know about you all, but I find it extremely easy to find presents for my female family and friends, especially when you have to make it (I'm having a budget Christmas but I'm determined to make it the best yet). Somehow the male people in my life just make 'keeping costs low' a little challenging. I wonder what I can come up with for them...

like :)

African Touch necklace by Fleurfatale

Time to decorate

So it's nearly Christmas and I have decided to decorate our rental place this year (it's not something I do usually). There are a few great tutorials on the blogs I've visited.

Beautiful bauble curtain tutorial from Lupin

Paper baubles like these

Advent calender garland from Lupin

I'm excited now, perhaps I'll make some today after I finish writing up a schedule for the next couple of days (I like having a schedule :D).

I went to a friend's lovely wedding over the weekend. The friend was a colleague at my first animation job and he started one day after me. Such a beautiful wedding, the bride was stunning, the groom so happy and everyone was celebrating and laughing. I even got to catch up with a few other colleagues that I haven't seen in over 2 years. Beautiful, beautiful day. Oh and my sister did my hair and I love it.

Well it's back to life in Melbourne, there really isn't anything here for us, but we still love the convenience of everything and we're still yet to check out the city. So we're gonna stick around till the lease runs out and look for something to pay the bills in the meantime. Matt got some freelance architectural modelling jobs and I just found something from a friend. It's a start. Btw, we're gonna look for jobs overseas next year. Wish us luck!

Cool find of the day

cute little bowls :) I love the simplicity and the hearts

A little burst of craftiness

Hello! It's been awhile again, funny how when I'm on holidays time travel extra fast and I end up a bit dazed. Well, since last time I posted I've been doing some homework for my online course and that's turning out pretty good, will finish it today. I've also been going to a few meetings regarding the studio I moved down to Melbourne for (it's quite a mess really, I hope things get sorted out soon, I dont want to move just yet).

I am happy to report that I've also been doing some creating too. It's my escape. I played in Illustrator earlier on in the week, it's going good, though I do need to make the push and finish something. I've also been making some hairclips for christmas presents (and in relation to that, watching my etsy shop being looked at hehe).
Yesterday I decided I needed pin cushions to stop myself from pinning needles into the chair I am sitting on or onto my shirt. It's a disaster waiting to happen. Anyway, I picked two of my favourite things, acorns and strawberries, and turned them into pin cushions. I'm really pleased with them and they do the job nicely (though, true to my nature I put the pins on the background rather than stab them straight into the image). It makes me smile.


I also decided to do something with the clothes I've saved but no longer wear. The green bag was made our of a nice cheerful pair of shorts. I just love the buttons and pockets and the lovely greeniness. I lined the inside with a coat that got a bit old looking and hand sewed the whole thing up. Do you like it?

Anyway, I promise to post more often, my life needs to get back to normal. It doesnt look like I'll be going back to the studio anytime soon unfortunately, so it's either look for more work now or take a break. I'm leaning more towards a break ;) hehe but as I am slowly becoming insane from not knowing where my future is heading, I think I should at least organise some work for the new year. Let's hope it turns out that way and I get something that works out for us.

Star...

Wow! nearly a week went by, what have I been up to? I have no idea... haha. Now, lets see...

Over the weekend I watched some movies,
The World's Fastest Indian => really REALLY good movie, so heartfelt. Anthony Hopkins performance just draws you into his world and make you want him to succeed. Very believable as an essentric old New Zealander.

Stargate (the original movie) => interesting, though I thought I was watching the tv show so I was thinking it was a long episode the whole time. But it was still entertaining and I'd watch the tv series now

Startrek (the recent movie) => hehe well I thought I'd check out what all this Star - trek, gate, war thing was about and the movie was interesting. I kept trying to guess the all star cast and I couldnt help thinking that the actor who played Spock would suddenly turn into his other character Syler from Heroes and kill everyone. The movie was cool though, great effects. But if I had to pick either Startrek or Stargate to watch, I'd probably choose Stargate, the characters are less annoying :P haha

------------------------

It's wednesday now and we've had a long weekend with Melbourne Cup yesterday. I had hoped to make something to commemorate the event but I got lazy and just watched the race on tv haha. But today it's back to normal. More Illustrator time today.


Picture I found on the internet that just makes me want to leap and dance (or imagine I could do that haha)

I went op shopping last friday and it really is the first time I appreciated the experience. The people there were so friendly and the items were pretty good. I got myself some pieces to turn into something.

Etsy shop!

I just opened my shop on Etsy!

This morning I woke up and went, 'I'm gonna open the shop today' and I finally took photos and packaged and listed my very first items. It's been a long time coming and I am really excited about opening it. It feels like an adventure, an experiment and it will be interesting to see what people think of my work. I haven't given up on my ultimate project but my little bits of crafting is starting to creep into various corners, so I decided it's time to set them free, on Etsyland :D

Fly my babies, be free!

I am really looking forward to exploring, creating and listing my secret project as well.

Lots of thanks goes to Lupin and the little old man who inspired the snackboxes (that will be listed tomorrow, it's late and I should go to bed now hehe).

origami t-shirt

Living Creatively

Isn't this cool? It's like blending the ideas of crafting, fashion, origami and 3D polygon modelling. I also love the colour. I wonder if it's wearable? Interesting thought.

I've started on my project, beginning in Illustrator. It's sorta turning out but I can see it looking better once I've had more practice. I'm enjoying my day as well. Multi-tasking as usual hehe, as in... sitting in front of the tv watching Harry Potter (again) and working in Illustrator.

Here is a sneak peak of what my project involves.


Oh I went to a Village Fair yesterday (this is turning out to be a long post). The fair was just outside our apartment. It had a bit of everything, food, wine, farm animal petting zoo, chalk drawings on the road. I dont think there was a point to it, but it was a great day, showcasing the food and yummy things in the region. We got some really really nice gourmet sausages (chicken, spinach and pine nuts sausages and a lamb souvlaki sausage), mangoes, apples and two punnets of really gorgeous perfect strawberries. I cant believe how beautiful they are. All in all it was a lovely day, I might post some photos up, if I can figure out how to get my photos off the camera's backup memory (as I forgot to put the SD card in).

Stand Down

annacote's shop

These are beautiful and simple. Quite similar to what I was thinking of creating, though not exactly like it.

I have some news, my studio recently underwent a huge change and put most of the workers on 'stand down'. It's not exactly a closing down of the studio, but rather a state where we're on hold till they deal with the problem. It was quite a shock and I'm still trying to come to terms with it. Usually I have my days all worked out, heaps of things to do, like get my Animation Mentor work down and then do Etsy project, but now I actually do have time and I wasnt prepared. The last 3 days felt like a recovering/coming to terms period, I didnt do much. But I think I am ready to take advantage of this gift (I have decided to see it as that), and make the most of it by doing the projects thats floating in my head. Starting from.... now!

Fingers crossed my workplace will be up and running again soon.

So true, so true

Watch the above movie first.

This is why I'm never bored and why I cannot fit everything I want to do in one day... And now I understand why Matt has these silent moments and I really should believe him when he says he's really thinking about nothing. hahaha

Song of the day :)

Black, white and pink

Some pretty discoveries on Etsy.

Felted shawl from Vart
Black dress and pink petticoat from It's Ok My Dear
Cute girl's dressup clothes from Sweet Marguerite

Bath bombs

Baths Not Bombs
This is cool, looks yummy! Saw this on the front page of etsy. I love looking at bathroom products these days because I am finally living in a place that has a nice new modern bathroom! I can finally take a bath :) Havent been able to in years... Perhaps I'll try using a bath bomb, I have no idea what happens and I'm curious.

my perfect day at work...

A cup of tea
Calming rainy day
Listening to Coldplay
Animating a quadruped.


For a sugar free beverage go to Lupin Handmade for the treats pictured above.