Painting in PJs

So far this morning I have been trialling an idea for our wedding. It is an adaptation of a unity ritual. Many couples as a part of their wedding ceremony will include this ritual to show that they are coming together and are committed to each other. The most common ones are the sand ritual (where the bride and the groom both have a vase of a different coloured sand and they pour it into a third empty vase), the candle ritual (where bride and groom have a lit candleeach and use the flame to light a third candle - beware for outdoor ceremonies!), binding ritual (either the bride and grooms hands are bound together with a ribbon, also can be done with two flowers being bound in ribbon), and the list goes on. None of these things really appealed to Lucky and I, but we did want to have something to take away from the day aside from the 300+ photos. I started to think what would we actually want in our home, what do we appreciate? So I thought of creating an artwork together. Lucky uses one colour I another and we create something we can have framed and keep. After much trial and error we have settled on acrylic paint, blue for Lucky and red for me. Then we fold the paper in half and squish the paint onto each other, giving an ink blot result. Fingers crossed it works on the day and I don't get any paint on the dress!

Mohawk show 2011

Last Wednesday Lucky scored a day off work so we popped into the Mohawk Paper Show put on by Raleigh Paper. It was held at Lightspace, an awesome little venue. The design work on show was inspiring, and the little show bag was a bonus! One of my favourites was the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School entry. It inspired me to redesign my resume. Here are some snap shots from the show.

Wedding stationary

One of my favourite things that I have done this year is designing our wedding stationary. We wanted something unique, fun and pretty. After much searching of where I could find coloured paper doilies I found a blog that showed how you could dye doilies at home. The blog was Charlotte's Fancy. I bought a stamp from OfficeWorks that allows you to change the letters to say whatever you want. Then they were finished with tapestry thread from a bargain city store (its one of those cheap stores like Crazy Clarks or The Warehouse). It took a little bit of time but it was well worth it!

The next element for our wedding stationary was the invitation itself. I am very lucky to have a friend who owns a very lovely letterpress business, Bespoke Letterpress, where she designs and produces the most beautiful wedding stationary. I designed our invitations with a blind impression (no ink used) in the background and black type. A little while ago on this blog I mentioned being inspired by motifs and designed a couple that were based on architecture. I reworked on of these and made it our wedding motif, its featured in the background and on the main invitation.

I also really wanted to incorporate handkerchiefs somehow. I researched and found some beautiful ideas where people had collected vintage handkerchiefs and screen printed the details onto them. I also came across some amazing fabric maps on another blog. So I set about designing something similar for our big day.

After much production work this is the final result! Well worth the work :)

Blog masters

My poor little neglected blog. I really admire those bloggers out there who are able to update their blog weekly or even daily! They must be masters of time management! As a tribute to them here is a list of my favourite blogs.

Design for Mankind

The Design Files

My Love for You

My Lucky Pony

My Milk Toof (not updated quite as much as the other but well worth the wait when it is!)

Lacking motivation

In an effort to get motivated I have reviewed my Life To Do List. I started work on it some time ago and while some items have been checked off the list, others have become stale. You will see cross through on the ones I have completed since first starting the list in June last year.

1. Write a blog

2. Write a book

3. Sell a piece of artwork I have created

4. Run 5km in under 30mins

5. Visit Japan

6. Visit Holland

7. Go to Disneyland

8. Grow tulips

9. Grow a herb garden (While I have completed this task, my little herb garden did not fair so well against some fungus gnats and ant army. So I will be trying again when Lucky and I move next).

10. Have a vegetable patch

11. Take a photo everyday for 1 year

12. Learn to speak a foreign language

13. Win a graphic design competition (you can view my winning book cover design in an earlier post)

14. Run my own a market stall

15. Own a leather jacket

16. Don't speak for one whole day

17. Create a typeface

18. Make an animation

19. Donate my time to a charity/worthy cause

20. Make a piece of origami every day for a month

21. Send a thank-you note to someone who has inspired me

22. Sing at a karaoke bar

23. Go to Hawaii

24. Pick wild blackberries and make a pie

25. Make a snowman

26. Dance at a Gay Bar (like in sex & the city, girls night out!)

27. Make pumpkin pie

28. Take a holiday alone

29. Own shares

30. Get married

31. Become a mother

32. Print my own fabric

33. Earn a manual drivers license

34. Win a game of tennis

35. Ride in a helicopter

36. Own a house/unit/apartment

37. Go to the Ballet

38. Make a pavlova (this is the second pavolova I made for our engagement party, the first I took to a dinner party where after the first slice it was decided that the group would eat the pav straight from the display plate)

New header

Today I have quickly created a new header. I wasn't very happy with the old one which I put up as a place holder until I made the time to create something, well, better. Here is the old one, its bad I know!

Vintage vibes

I love it when you rediscover something that you forgot you had. I found my 2 stamp albums that were given to me as a young girl. At the time I didn't really appreciate them, instead I wanted a new outfit for my Barbie, but now I really love them and I am so happy I never sold them on, which is what I considered many times. Just looking at all the old designs and illustrations, its kinda cool! Here are some of my favourite finds below.