Mix and match

 Even no matter how busy I am, I have to eat... LOL So the other day while waiting for my take-away lunch from one of my favourite Korean restaurant (Darac), I snapped this photo. I thought it is so interesting the effect of mismatched chairs had and the sense of whimsy that it had added to the decor of this place.

It made me think, who said a table chair setting had to match anyway? Or even anything else in life? 

Love,

from me to u.

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.

Melbourne Cup

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.

Colours in the sky

Melbourne had a beautiful weekend, with these gorgeous colours in the sky during the sunset on the Sunday evening. It seems like spring is coming... yet, I'm not ready for winter to be over.

Love,
from me to u.

Inspired

Paper Cutting Book: Contemporary Artists, Timeless Craft

I haven't been buying any design books (due to overwhelming collection of books), but I knew I had to have this when I saw the beautiful content. I love the delicacy of paper cutting and the amazing things that the designers featured in this book managed to make with paper. It is quite amazing how a medium can be transformed through creativity and I want to do just that with the materials I work with. Since this book is so inspiring, I'm feeling the urge to create....

What have been inspiring you?

Love,
from me to u.

Part of Anna's Much Love Monday

Trend Spotting: mush-haves

I couldn't help but notice mushrooms are sprouting everywhere.... here are some picks from my favourite shops!

Peter Alexander: magic mushroom pants & tee
Typo: woodland mushrooms notebook & get mugged woodland wonderland

Love,
from me to u.

Winter Styling

winter blues by nyaan featuring suede peep toe pumps

Who said that winter styling should be boring? Colours can add a touch of joy (yes, joy) to an otherwise depressing season. Don't get me wrong, I do love winter because it is time for lovely coats and wonderful boots. With less daylight, it is easy though to get depressed... so I love wearing colours in winter. And dresses too. With layering, your summer look can turn into a winter look.

And another reason to love winter? Knitting!!! ^^

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. ^^

Double exposure effect

The beauty of taking photos with a manual camera is the ability to take photos using double exposure. This picture, on the other hand is captured using my blackberry camera. I love how this accidental capture turned out!

A Wedding Journey: 3. It's a Sign!

As you know, signage are very important in any function. In a wedding, it can be the very thing that ties the whole wedding theme together. As I mentioned before, I did not have a specific theme for my wedding but rather I was using colours to tie the whole wedding together. Using signage, I used not only the colours, but fonts and motifs to create a feel for my wedding. 

I opted for a different, albeit a well-used idea in weddings by using words for each of my table instead of numbers. I designed and created the signs with a variety of words linked to "love". Some of my friends who were guests in the wedding helped me to come up with some of the words such as "adore, "devotion", "faith" and so on.

The fonts, motifs and colours were carried across onto other signage in the room. 

I did not want to settle for a normal excel sheets for my guestlist and sitting chart. So I created these. Again, I had hoped that by doing so, the continuity of the theme of my wedding would be preserved. 

Using cupcake wraps with stickers that I had designed to match the other signage around the wedding, I've saved time in making sure that my bomboniere were ready by the wedding reception with minimal hassle. I'm a big fan of doing things simple, easy and effective. Here, I opted for a typewriter font instead of the flowy font I had used in my other signage. Why? The size of these particular signage were tiny. It is important when creating signage that the guests can actually read them. That being said, the same font was also used in the invites. So again, it carried the theme of the wedding through.

Details, details details! It is the little details that can make a wedding unforgettable. I created a signage for my cake table to tell the guests what cake they would be getting. I created this by op-shopping my frame and painting it white.

Perhaps I was being overly obsessive about my wedding signage... but I absolutely think it is crucial to have signage that reflects your personality. The fun thing about these signage is, it could be the creative (and DIY) aspect of your wedding as you can actually do them way before the wedding, hence less stress. It is a fantastic way to get the bridesmaids and even guests involved!

My colour pick for the season....

Green with envy by nyaan featuring green jewelry

Pantone suggested that Honeysuckle would be the colour of 2011. On the other hand, I do get obessive about certain colours too every year... Remember mustard yellow last year? Green is THE colour for me this year. I'm not sure how long this fascination would last, but at the moment, I just love anything green!

This keeps playing in my head...

BTW....her rings are always cool. Any of you noticed that too? :)

Looking up

I'm the sort of person who walks with a sense of direction and purpose. As you can guess, when I walk, I walk looking forward. But from time to time, I tilt my head up and I'm amazed with things that I see in Melbourne city. Even though I've lived here for over 10 years now, I'm always surprised by the things I see when I take the time to look up. So next time you walk, look up. You might be surprised by the new discovery of things that had always been there!

Wall Decor

Last Saturday I went to the craft fair with the girls and picked up some lovely fabrics and ribbons. Then, I thought to myself what can I use them for? I remembered I bought this lovely green vintage-type of frame from Typo. So I thought why not make a wall decor out of them? I proceeded to get more frames. I used different fabrics that I already had and also some of the fabrics I got from the craft fair. With the ribbons, I decided to arrange them as stripes. I hung these cute fabric collage in frames on my room wall. I feel really inspired and happy whenever I look at them!