What I Wore: For My Birthday

I took a few quick photos of my outfit yesterday before leaving for Mandarin. I knew I'd be stuffing myself silly (and I did) so I chose my trusty, stretchy jersey dress. Of course, I had to wear my new tank top underneath and a bright scarf to add a bit of colour:

The scarf matches the necklace I'm wearing.

Not that you can really tell since these are terrible photos! These are literally the only ones I took though, so... working with what I have.

I also took a photo of my new sweater - but it's still a bit too warm to wear it:

OK, that one is a little better, but still. I need to work on my self-photography skills!

After all that, I decided to paint my nails:

I thought a blue gradient was appropriate to match my navy tank top.

The details:

• dress: Sirens (I think) - about 5 or 6 years old
• tank top: c'est moi clothing co. (birthday gift)
• scarf: vintage (Etsy)
• beaded necklace: handmade (by me)
• flipflops: Aldo (from my gramma, this summer)
• zip-up hoodie: Bench (birthday gift) 
• nail polish: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in 420 Pacific Blue (thumb); Avon Nailwear Pro+ in Cosmic Blue (index and ring); Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 460 Thinking of Blue (middle); Nicole by O.P.I. in Nicole's Nickel (top layer on ring); Avon Nailwear Pro in N239 Night Violet (pinky); Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in 180 Disco Ball (top layer on pinky)

Well, it wasn't anything elaborate or extravagant, but I had a pretty awesome birthday overall. Looking forward to my 27th year of life!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday To Me!

Well, I haven't put up any decorations but I did open my birthday gifts!

First, last night I opened one gift while on the phone with mom - I always was one to open "just one" gift early! I opened the clothes you see at the left: a black Bench zip-up hoodie and a navy stretchy lace tank top. I'll try to get a good photo of them on me instead of folded on the table.

Then early this morning I opened my gift from my brother John and his girlfriend Emilie:

The little silver dishes and spoons are too cute and the measuring spoons are adorable! I think I'll hang them in the kitchen so that I can see and use them!

That left two gifts from my mom. She called me a little later this morning to open them.

Gorgeous jadeite creamer and sugar dish!

A lovely cabinet with four ceramic spice drawers! While I was up at the end of July, mom and I went to this little shop called Neat Stuff - they have a lot of.. well, neat stuff, including vintage and new kitchenware. I saw both the Jadeite and these spice drawers there and wanted them so much. I LOVE this little set of drawers!

That plus a piece of birthday cake for breakfast has made a great start to the day! I don't have much planned for the day, but we're heading out to Mandarin for dinner tonight - I can't wait!

Hope you have a great day!

List: 27 Things To Do Before Turning 27

It's my 26th birthday!

I like making these goal lists for two reasons: to motivate myself during the year to come and in order to keep track of my fluctuating tastes and passions. It's fun looking back to see what I wanted to accomplish a year ago and coming up with ideas for next year.

First, let's do a quick update of my 26 Things list:

26 Things To Do Before I Turn 26:

1. read 50 new (to me) books
2. write a short story - started one at least
3. publish a zine
4. publish a scientific article
5. write a guest blog post 
6. learn a 3rd language - only just started learning Dutch on a whim
7. learn a programming language - took a short course on javascript and html
8. refresh my blog and increase readership by 50%
9. journal everyday: write, draw or collage - more or less
10. make a series of paintings (3 to 5) - paintings of kids
11. work on series of ACEOs - get to 20 for each (Klimt Goddesses, Women in Science, Strong Women) - worked on them but didn't get close to 20 each
12. make myself an article of clothing and wear it
13. make all the recipes from World Breads by Paul Gayler
14. start a new, healthier diet
15. eat what you buy - waste less - sort of
16. use the green bin diligently
17. practice yoga daily - again, more or less
18. take a dance or exercise class
19. learn to walk in heels and look good doing it
20. visit another country (besides the US) - visited the US...
21. walk in the ocean
22. go camping alone with Pat
23. move to a new city and explore
24. host a tea party
25. find a family doctor and get a full physical
26. find a job

13/26 crossed off (more or less...) - not too shabby! Some of these goals were a little lofty, so I'm pretty happy with where I am. I just wish I had crossed off #26 (and #23 along with it)...

Anyway, here's the next installment:

27 Things To Do Before Turning 27:

1. read 50 new books
2. finish my Krez short story
3. find a job 
4. read 5 French books
5. volunteer (animal rescue? Hospital?)
6. take a course (dance, exercise, art, work, etc)
7. learn (to read) Dutch fluently
8. visit another country
9. bake 27 new recipes
10. visit 3 new farms / wineries 
11. ride some roller coasters  
12. go swimming in the ocean 
13. go skating outdoors at least once
14. find 5 new hiking trails
15. bike more than once all summer!
16. develop a new exercise routine including daily yoga
17. design logos for Ulixis, blog and shops
18. design and sell another journaling workshop
19. design a calendar for 2014 (2013?)
20. start a new 365/52 project (collage a day/week)
21. make 3 downloadable files for the blog (reading list, calendar, art, agenda, etc)
22. increase blog readership by 50%
23. run another ACEO-X
24. finish 2 cross-stitch pieces
25. paint that plain tea pot
26. make myself an article of clothing and wear it
27. make 27 new coptic notebooks

This list feels a bit more attainable. Motivational.

I'm looking forward to the year ahead - are you?

Birthday Package

Well, I may have said I wasn't all that excited in my previous post... but then my birthday package arrived! My mom sent my gifts in the mail and they arrived today - don't they look tempting?

She said I could open my card and the two small bags. I wasted no time in doing so. The card had a scratch ticket in it - I didn't win.

The pretty pink bag had this tiny glass pig in it:

So cute!

The blue bag had a sleeve of tea lights and a sweet tea pot candle holder:

Fun! My mom knows me (and my love of cute little things) well! Now I just have to wait for Pat to get home in order to open two more. Then the last two I'll open on my birthday.

I'm all about prolonging the celebrations! What about you?

My Birthday Weekend

Tomorrow is my birthday!

I used to get hugely excited for my birthday every year, but this year has been a bit more subdued. I guess I must be growing up! I don't have any big plans this year - Pat's working - but I will be having dinner at Mandarin and opening a few gifts from my mom (I'm expecting my package today).

This weekend we did have a bit of fun though. Like having Marbleslab ice cream for supper Saturday night. Yum! Then, yesterday we went out to Puddicombe Farms, Estates and Winery.

We picked 5 pounds of pears. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with them all, but I imagine plenty of pear crisps, tarts and some sauce are in the near future! We also grabbed a basket of peaches - a peaches & pear crisp will definitely be in the works... probably not until next weekend after all our indulgences in the past few (and coming) days.

We can't go to Puddicombe without stopping for a taste test (we've been twice to pick apples). I tried an ice wine and a cranberry fruit wine. Pat tried this pear cider and decided to go with a bottle. I chose a bottle of pear fruit wine - I've had it before and it's wonderful!

Oh and speaking of indulgences: 

Fresh fudge - the mint one is to die for! I'm looking forward to going back to Puddicombe in a month or so for apple picking. It's always a good time!

Now I think I may just break out the balloons and streamers and make this place a bit more festive! 

The Sketchbook Project Collaboration: Update

As promised in my last post, here are the pages I started for Angie to work with:

First we have this collaborative spread. I started by inking the edges with turquoise, teal, copper and yellow. Then I collaged a collection of scalloped circles in similar colours. I love the soft feel here - I can't wait to see what Angie does with it!

Next, I completed this left-side half of a spread. I started by laying down a soft butter yellow, then I collaged some inspiring phrases. I finished it with some ink doodles.

This page was all about layers. I started with a coat of blue paint. Next, I dripped watered-down yellow paint and stamped some leafy and flowery bits in green on top. The thick layer of molding paste - in which I wrote "grow" and dragged grass up with a fork - was in my mind from the very start. So I did that next. I coloured it with layers of olive and brown watercolour. Once all this was dry, I decided the yellow looked like lightning, so I added some storm clouds with more molding paste and dark gray paint. A bit of bright washi tape finished the page.

As I said yesterday, I'm so in love with this book! I can't wait to see how it looks once Angie sends it back to me!!

My Creative Space

Angie received our sketchbook today, which means I can blog about it! I've spent most of my spare time in the last few weeks working on it - adding layers and layers. I'm so happy with how it's developing; I was flipping through it constantly during the time I had it.

Before I show you my pages, go take a look at what Angie sent back to me - I'm going to be showing you pages that she started. You can find an explanation of what we're up to (and my first pages) here.

With that as a starting point, here's what I came up with:

Angie sent me a lovely yellow and orange background - the gradient made me want to add the "exploding" triangles around the edge. The resulting shape reminded me of a heart, so I used India ink in violet - first diluted, then straight from the bottle - to emphasize that. The words came naturally to me after that.

Angie left me another fabulous yellow spread to work with. The texture she used - glass beads - reminded me of a shoreline with rivers running at the right. Her reference to maps in the following page completed the picture in my head. I used brown India ink to make an outline of roads on the landscape. For the smooth green "water" space, I wanted to transfer maps for that lovely transparent look. A few collaged "nets", some washi tape and ink splatter finished this spread. A simple one but definitely one of my favourites so far.

Here's that mention of a map - Angie completed the left side of this spread. I collaged that map on the right down but then stalled. Not sure where I want to go with it... so I'll finish it next time I get the book back.

Well, I still have quite a few photos to go, but I think I'll leave it at that for now. I'll post the pages that I started for Angie's inspiration tomorrow.

I love this Sketchbook Collaboration!

More creative spaces here.