Vintage buttons

Like everything in my life at the moment, things get put on hold. I've been meaning to blog about these vintage buttons that I got last year and never got around it. I can blame the PhD or other parts of my life but really it is me. LOL And since the season of Lent is upon us and personal changes are encouraged, I'm trying to do things that I feel I should. Like blogging more often... after all, blogging is a form of reflection. 

Anyway, I got these beautiful vintage buttons at a vintage button sale last year. I got them so I could make jewellery out of them. However, as I was paying for them the lady at the shop told me a little about the history of some of the buttons I got. Apparently some are from the 1920's with distinctive features. Knowing that, it is simply impossible for me to cut or even apply glue to these lovely pieces to make into jewellery. I may have to think again about what I can do with them or even how I can still make jewellery but still preserving these beautiful buttons as best as I can...

Meanwhile, they are still a source of inspiration as they are. :)

Love,
from me to u.

Making something old new again...

During the Australia Day holiday, I decided to finish up my mannequin restoration project. I started this project last year, but never got around to finishing it. I actually acquired this mannequin around 2004. It was already old by then... but the mannequin continued to deteriorate over the time. Mainly the problem was caused by the disintegrating foam within. The foam had turned so chalky that the fabric covering the mannequin had brownish powder all over it. Of course, this also made the mannequin impossible to use.

Upon disassembling it, I had to clean all the parts as the powdery foam was just so awful. Loads of brushing, and Dettol wipes did the trick. Loads of Glen 20 too...;;^^

Instead of foam, I've decided to use wadding instead to pad the mannequin parts. I think I've got foam phobia after seeing all the powdery brown foam...:P

I also used knitted jersey fabric with smaller patterns. The logic behind it is to give it stretch for easy pinning when the mannequin is in use. Smaller fabric pattern repeat is fantastic to make things easier when all the mannequin parts are back together. I don't have to match the fabric patterns! ^^

Anyway, this is one of my most major before and after project I've undertaken and I must say I'm rather pleased with the outcome. ^^

Have you done any similar projects? Do you have any tips that you can share with me? After the success of this, I can see myself doing more before and after projects. ^^

Love,
from me to u. 

Back to knitting....

My travel to Ireland was intended for my PhD work. However, the travel to Ireland, Dubai and Abu Dhabi actually re-ignited my love and passion for textiles. I love the rich culture and history that permeated in these places I visited. The architecture and vivid colours of these places are simply inspiring. It also helps that along the way I encountered amazing textile places like Avoca Handweavers in Ireland and the souks (markets) of Dubai. Anyway, I've gone back to my knitting and it feels good. :)

This is my current knitting project. Knitted with Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran, purchased in Ireland. I'm knitting it together with Adorn Silky Yarn 8ply which I purchased from Wool Baa on Saturday to compliment the lovely Irish yarn. :)

I will be featuring some of the knitting shops I found when I was in Ireland and more on Avoca Handweavers in my next few posts. So stay tuned! ^^

Love,
from me to u.

Sprocket Rocket

Before and After Project - A touch of vintage knobs

This is my first foray into the area of DIY before and after projects but I thought I'd start small. I've been watching a lot of renovation shows (very addicted to Divine Design by Candice Olson), and the one take-away I've got is that you can give drawers/cupboards a new look just by changing their knobs. What luck, when I was walking around at Provincial Living, I found the most amazing range of vintage style knobs!

I choose the simple glass knobs because I wanted something that would stand out against the black of the Ikea drawers beside my bed. My husband helped with this one as we had to cut away the excess screw length of each knob. Then he also helped to remove the old knobs, drilling and installing the new knobs. Ok, mostly I supervised, but hey, I came up with the idea! And I took pictures. So it counts! ^^

Anyway, I'm very happy with how this turned out! I think this is an easy way to get into doing restoration DIY. My next DIY before and after project is restoring my vintage mannequin. When I finish that project, I'll put up pictures too, so stay tuned! :)

Love,
from me to u.

Blue

I got my Holga lenses for my Nikon D60 and I took it for test shots around the city over the weekend. Overall, I'm happy with it as it combines the Holga-goodness and the Nikon-goodness, and post-processing options. My favourite photo for the day was the splatter shot (2nd photo).

I'm loving the blue with the greens and white... maybe this can be a design inspiration? Hmmm...

Love,
from me to u.

I do make stuff, really!

Tea Time - 2 in 1 Brooch
2011 Copyright - jmh / me.u design

After much hiatus from creating designs (wedding preparation, marriage and PhD), I've finally finished some pieces. Yay! I'll be uploading them on my website soon. Meanwhile, here's a preview of one of the pieces I've finished. ^^ Now, back to PhD work again....>.<

Love,

from me to u.

Starting anew....

I've started a new knitting project.

The pattern for this is 13 stitches on 4mm needles, using Filatura di Crosa Zara yarns (8 ply), knitted in moss stitch. Though it is an experimentation, I thought it is a good idea to document on my blog so I can find the pattern later. ^^

Have you started any new knitting project recently? How do you document your knitting experimentation?

Love,
from me to u.

Flower arrangement

Beautiful shadows

 .... all from a teacup and light.

Back to knitting

Finally got back to knitting after the summer season. Although, it wasn't much of a summer, it did take me a while to get back to knitting. Having friends who want to get back into it is certainly encouraging to finish old projects and start new ones. I had a blast inviting the girls over for a knitting morning tea. Above are images of my new green scarf (remember my green obsession?) knitted in diagonal checks. Will share the pattern when the scarf is complete.

Meanwhile, if you want to see more lovely images of the knitting session through Miss Anna's lenses, head over to Much Love. ^^

It's new year's eve!

And it is definitely time to do a recap of what has been happening this year!

More Hana brooch produced this year, one of me.u's bestsellers. Available as a custom-made piece, a variety of Hana was created in 2010. It still remained one of my favourite collection to make, where extreme creativity can be used to achieve a match between the design of each piece and the new owner.

My favourite piece for the year was Little Frog. The best pieces are created when I do take a longer time to finish. Why? There are some ideas that I needed to sit on or even source materials for. This piece was only completed when I acquired the vintage button seen in this piece. Oh, and did I mention this piece is modular? That's why I have to sit on my ideas for a while to work out how things can be pushed further.

 me.u had a debut at the Fitzroy Market this year. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disaster with the Melbourne weather. The other session to make it up didn't turn out well either. For these reasons, markets for me.u plans will be shelved until further consideration.

The colour of the year for me was definitely mustard yellow. I fell in love with anything mustard yellow. Two major scarves were knitted. My yellow mustard scarf and my pink scarf.

2010 was the beginning of freebies from me.u. The first ever me.u give-away started for Christmas. Two sets of necklace from Animals of the Forest were given away with a special me.u original Christmas bauble. Also me.u original free gift tags template was made available this Christmas. Look out for more freebies in 2011! 

 This year was certainly an interesting year for me as there were definite highs and lows. 2010 started with a major personal low when I had to go through a trying time. However, due to that personal experience, I became more philosophical about life in general. Life indeed do go on...:)

 Photography by Jave Lee 

This was also a year of weddings! I attended many weddings this year. First and foremost, the wedding of one of my best friends early in the year. Then followed by another two weddings and finally it was my own wedding! We had a weekend wedding on the 2nd and 3rd of October. It was a wedding 1 year in the planning from engagement shots, colours to the invites. Next year, read more about how I put my wedding together. Although, when the whole thing was done it was kind of bittersweet...ah well...there is always honeymoon planning next year. :)

All in all 2010 was an interesting year for me.u and for me personally. I do hope 2011 will bring more exciting things. Happy New Year everyone and all the best for 2011!!! ^^

Digital Herinezuming....

My pink digital harinexumi. Tiny but powerful...IMHO anyway...

I finally got all the necessary things I needed to get my new Digital Harinezumi to work. :) I took it to work yesterday and started snapping away. I'm still finding it difficult to work with the manual view-finder. Hmm....I guess I just need more practice.

Overall, I'm happy and excited and cannot wait to continue to snap away! ^^

A wedding journey : 1. Colours (and the best laid plan)

Inspired by wonderful items from Etsy. Apologies I'm not able to give individual credits to the sellers as I did not save the name of the sellers...apologies! ;;^^ But if you contact me, happy to credit and add the details. :)

Beautiful dress custom-designed and made by Wilson. Photography by: Jave Lee (http://www.apixel.com.au)

Colour scheme and shoe clips for the bridesmaids, sourced from Etsy.com, Chloe & Maddie.

More details of the gown. Photography by: Jave Lee (http://www.apixel.com.au)

When I was planning my wedding, I realised that the sky is the limit. Perhaps budget would be the limiting factor, but when it comes to colours, styling, details etc... literally, there is no limit. It is the one day where you can have things that you like, to represent you and your fiance, anyway you like. And of course, my wedding would be one creative outlet that I relish...:)

Everyone said your wedding should have a theme, a theme that ties everything together. Being the person that I am, I had no idea what theme I would like simply because I love colours...ideas etc. All I know was that I wanted a wedding that represented both of us. So I thought, let's start with a colour scheme. Being a trained and practising textile designer (albeit briefly), I set out to do a mood board. And the place where I got much of my inspiration was of course, Etsy! ^^

I looked for dresses, flowers, accessories idea and I came up with a colour scheme of pinks and greens. Thinking it would be a spring wedding anyway, it would be quite apt.

Having a year to plan the wedding did not help...with the colour scheme. ;;^^ As much as I loved my initial scheme, I felt it wasn't right. I changed my mind so many times until, I got my custom-designed and made luncheon dress by Wilson Tjuatja Widjaja. The idea of the dress was a bridal dress that is not in white. I already had a white gown when I approached Wilson, but I needed a second gown that I could wear on Wedding Day 2 (when the reception was held). He came up with this fantastic idea of marrying salmon pink with mushroom grey. My Matron of Honor, E. picked a darker watermelon pink for the bridesmaids' dresses.
And we finally have our colour scheme. ^^

Salmon pink, watermelon pink, mushroom grey. The french lace that Wilson used on the bodice introduced the idea of the lace throughout the wedding. The pearls added accents of vintage. More details next time on how the colours and ideas from the dress were used throughout the wedding stationery etc...:)

Wedding tip #1: As much as you plan for colours, schemes etc. sometimes be prepared to shift ideas. It is amazing how things fall into place.