bags & books

Dear friends, if you can believe it, it's December. The gift giving season is upon us and to be honest, finding the perfect gift can be a real challenge. I'm often finding myself thinking, "this would be PERFECT for this person" but only because I like it for myself!

Since becoming a sort adult, the novelty of gifting has changed - I'm no longer waiting for birthdays or Christmas for things on my wish list. I just go out and buy them, from me to me. And this month, it's been bags and books.

It's no secret I have a thing for bags. This bag from Melbourne brand Naked Vice is perfect for keeping it minimal and practical. It's made from real leather, is so soft, and goes with everything. Naked Vice have so many other chic bags and wallets, I'll definitely be looking at their website for a while!

The Flower Addict is one I have not been able to put down. It's this stunning, thick coffee table book with glossy pages and surreal photography. Anyone who knows me / comes to my apartment knows my love for flowers, and how I always try and have fresh blooms in my space. The Flower Addict marks the amazing portfolio of Saskia Havekes, who runs Grandiflora and is one of Sydney's most famous florists. The sheer creativity and opulence of the installations and designs inspires me every time I pour over the pages.

I hope your days are chic and inspiring.

x

| The week that was | 22.10.2013 |

So the good news is that I took a lot more photographs this week, which will make this weekly post a bit more substantial! Uni has been crazy over the last week- we had a whole year photoshoot to coordinate and manage, and my friends were taking happy snaps for the whole day and were totally exhausted, but the day went smoothly and I'm very excited that the printed media of the Grad Show is finally taking shape.

Without further ado, here's the week that was:

In case you're unaware, I'm a massive Sherlock Holmes fan, and I'm slowly working my way through all of Sir ACD's Sherlock pieces. Don't even bring up the BBC Sherlock TV show, you will regret it.

This is the weather we shot in, couldn't be more perfect!

My Em before the shoot.

New bedside table prettiness! I love my shadow box and succulents, and Frankie magazine makes everything look good.

On the ferry home to Manly.

Little cafe with live music in Manly, found on rollerblading adventures on Sunday.

That's all for today's post!

Stay fab~

| The week that was | 18.08.2013 |

My my my what a blur of a week its been! Due to my schedule the past week I only have a few photos to share tonight, however I am planning on doing a photo shoot this week with my darling Emily-May for my major project, so more to come!

Here's the weekly wrap up~

It was my dear Emily-May's birthday over the past weekend & she had some vouchers to spend in at LUSH- needless to say that if Heaven has a smell, it smells like a LUSH store.

Snapped this from Emily-May's car on the way back to class from a birthday lunch with my uni family. I forgot how pretty campus can be some days.

These lovely blossoms have been making an appearance since the weather started to be a bit nicer, & my goodness don't they look pretty!

Snapped this before the light completely left- this is at the end of my street, & then I ran inside & got warm again, haha.

(Sorry about the unartistic picture.) A lovely early gift from my darling, and no, even though it's on that finger, it's not that kind of ring. I'm wearing it on my middle finger on my left hand, I plan on getting it resized in the future. I am beyond in love with it, & got such a giddy surprise.

In lieu of past blog topics, I've decided to do more purchases in my posts- even though they won't be so jewellery and accessory centric. The majority of my purchases are for my shoots for my magazine, which basically gives me an excuse to buy pretty things.

I got this awesome diary for Emily-May for her birthday, from kikki.k. It's super cute, has water coloured illustrations, a plastic dust cover, and when Emily-May saw it in the store I knew straight away that it was fate for her to have it. I'm pretty hopeless with trying to keep a diary- I've gotten one of the past 3 years & there are just periods of time where nothing is written haha!

I have a stationary addiction, sorry I'm not sorry. Again, these are from kikki.k & are very cute, A5 prettiness. Good size for carrying around in your bag. You can find them here.

It's late, and I have grown weary from a busy weekend. Hope you're all happy, safe and well.

Stay tuned x

My love for Mel Stringer (´∀｀)♡

Gonna blog about another kind of purchase today, and before some indecent hour, things are coming up Milhouse!

For those who didn't know, I am a huge magazine reader/fan. I love anything that's printed- paper stock, covers, typeface choices, book design, embossing- I'm salivating just thinking about it. My room is filled with about 60% printed objects, & I will buy a book or paper or anything printed for the simple reason that it's been designed with care. My favourites would have to be anything from magnation in Newtown, Typo, kikki.K, & my new favourite, thanks to Emily-May, Papier Tigre. 

Hitching a ride on the coat tails of this love for anything printed, comes my most recent purchases from probably one of my all time favourite illustrators and graphic artists, Mel Stringer. I was first introduced to Mel in an early edition of frankie magazine (which is one of my first loves), & she provided some very cute artwork to accompany a cooking recipe. As you will see throughout this post, her adorable little illustrations capture nostalgia, her sense of humour and overall girl power badass-ness. For many editions she continued providing the artwork until she expanded into being a freelance graphic illustrator and running her own online store to sell her artworks. In 2012 for my Publications unit, I had the very exciting opportunity of interviewing her about her creative methodology and her own journey to where she is today. She was so lovely to talk to & was very open to answering my questions. With her permission, I submitted my interview and photographs of her work in frankie magazine & it became an article in a magazine my year produced, which was two kinds of amazing. So it's pretty clear to see how much I adore Mel and her work.

In preparation for my imminent moving out in the coming months, I have been collating pieces of work to bring to my new habitat, and it was no contest as to whom's artwork I would be buying. Mark has his Doctor Who artwork, some of which are from the show, others are fan art which are these amazing galaxy constellations with the TARDIS floating around in it, so I feel like bringing some Mel Stringer will make the space a bit more eclectic.

You can check out Mel at this awesome locations:

Her portfolio

Her shop

Her Etsy store

Her tumblr

Her instagram

Below are the prints I have by Mel, which are available at her shop.

The Bedroom Series: Cat Nips

The Bedroom Series: Fairy Floss

The Bedroom Series: Puffy Pout

The Bedroom Series: Happy Tattoo

Fairy Dust

Bad Teeth

Cute Butt Club

You've Never Called Me Weird

That's today's post! I'm feeling so under the weather at the moment- having a head cold & the semi-flu sucks. I'm gonna curl up in my comfy pants, knitted scarf & have a GirlCode marathon.

Stay tuned! x