Not Far From Home

No Frills

Savin' It For Later?

For the past week I have been at a complete loss as to why I nearly always seem to have melted chocolate on the fingers of my left hand. It was seriously eluding me. I just couldn't work it out.

But now, I have just discovered a massive splodge of chocolate moulded nicely between the 'C' and 'V' keys of my laptop. Ahhh, might have something to do with this...

Self Portrait

Via here.

Today I am Listening To...

'Ghosting' by Freelance Whales, found via this beautiful blog.



What about you, peeps?

It's Only Me

I find I am taking a lot of photos of myself these days, and studying them all the time. Not in a vain way, but in a pure fascination with how unrecognizable I am to myself. I struggle to comprehend how much I think I've changed in the last few years.

You know when you're 'younger' and you hear so many women talking about how 'this' changes and 'that' changes and you have to look after 'that' or 'this' will happen... and you kinda think yeah yeah, one day, one day when I'm much, much older.

Ummm so all of a sudden, I think I'm there. It's almost like I woke up when I turned 25 and my skin is freckled and a bit tired looking, my hair is a bit oily and lank, my face has pudgied out... could be that I haven't been wearing enough sunscreen, could be that I have a thyroid condition wreaking all sorts of havoc on my body, could be that I have gone back to being a natural mousy blonde and I don't have chemicals in it to keep it stripped and dry, could be that I've put on nearly 20 kilos in the last 5 years. Yikes! Did I just admit to that? Yes, yes I did. And I don't have kids to blame this on either!

I'm not saying this cos I'm getting upset about it - I've done what I've done and I am who I am, I take full responsibility. It's just so crazy how it seems you can go from one day looking in the mirror and being really content with how youthful you are, to the next thinking, 'what the heck happened!?'  The body is a fascinating thing, it really, truly is, and man it's so cliched but if you don't look after it, it starts to show that's for sure!

Funny, unrecognizable me.

Penned Poppets

Clogged

I can't believe these babies are all the rage again, I think I was in Standard 4 at primary school when I was begging my mum for a pair of clogs (not heels like these mind you).

I can't decide whether I'm feelin' it or not,  however I do find myself developing a soft spot for those yellow strappy jobs... but then again, I have a tendancy to love anything if it's yellow...!

All images from Topshop.

Glad Heart

On Sunday I had a 'glad heart'.
I think of having a 'glad heart' moment as when you are just so darn happy with the world for a small moment, everything seems A-OK and then something else happens that just tops it off, cherry style.

We picked up a hitch hiker on Sunday morning on our way out exploring, (hitch hiking is about as common on this island as getting in your own car and driving somewhere would be - it's considered totally normal and safe).
Said hitch hiker turned out to be the coolest chick ever from New York, travelling around the Gulf Islands for two weeks before she heads back to the east coast to start her summer internship in Chinatown. She is doing her post grad on art therapy, and after she explained this to me I decided I have perhaps missed my calling.

We got along like a house on fire, and as a thank you for the ten minute lift, she shouted us to a beer at a local cafe, and gave us her contact details for when we head off to NY on our whirlwind three day adventure in September.

That was the biggest 'glad heart' moment I have had in so long. Sometimes the world just rocks, as well as the people in it.


Image from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/a-nation-of-hitchhikers.php

A Successful Start to the Week Is...

Teaching yourself (with the help of that wonderful world called 'YouTube') how to play 'You Were Meant For Me' by Jewel, on the guitar that until three days ago you couldn't play one chord on. AND can sing along WHILE playing, AND only f**king up the chords and rhythm every third or so strum!

And the other day when you went out to the grocery store for salad greens and you returned with this guitar instead? Yeah, that would be this guitar...

Yee haaa!

The Wardrobe - Fulford

There is a little shop shack in Fulford on Salt Spring Island called 'The Wardrobe' and going in there is like Christmas. Christmas, in Bali. Or Thailand...

It is tucked away behind a wall of ivy in a little lean-to shack type of building, with little openings and warrens branching off into other areas, and it is chocka-bloc full of clothes, scarves, sarongs, hats, jewellery, mittens, accessories and bags from all over Asia.

It has an overwhelmingly ethnic feel to it of course when you enter, but if you search through the racks and piles, crammed with handmade lace, tie-dye, cotton, silk and colour, there are so many individually gorgeous pieces that you could easily take home and add to your wardrobe.

My favourites are the twirly, gypsy style skirts, you know the ones that come down to your calves and swirl out if you spin around? (as you do). And soft cotton summer dresses for pairing with sandals and sunglasses and running through fields in... (of course).

I could spend an entire day in there and not get through all the shelves of scarves and bowls of bracelets.
And I swear there is nothing in there over $30. BONUS.

Appreciative

  

We went exploring today and reminded ourselves just how lucky we are to have stumbled across our little piece of borrowed paradise.

We drove through winding tree lined streets that broke out into overgrown, pebbly pathways, surrounded by rolling meadows and quaint old farm houses, nestled amongst orchards, farm buildings and out-houses.

I could have sworn we had time travelled into an Anne of Green Gables storyline. In places, it was so unbelievably picturesque and seemingly untouched by the 21st century it was almost painful to see.

The roadside produce stalls with their little honesty boxes were overflowing all over the island, with eggs, organic vegetables, flowers and jars of pickles and jams and fruit, lovingly hand-labelled in curly whirly handwriting.

The geese trailed across the fields with their babies towing the line, turkeys gobbled and pecked at the earth and dust. The sound of bleating lambs could be heard even over the sound of the car engine as we wound our way through pure sunshine and fields of rich greenery and meadows of wildflowers, daisies, and wheat.

We picnic-ed at a picnic table at Ruckle Farm, with ocean to one side, and fields of cream and dusty pink coloured foxgloves stretching towards the horizon on the other.

I lay in the clover and thought of how appreciative I am that the universe spun us around and plopped us here for the northern summer, in this little paradise so near, and yet so removed from the hustle and bustle of 'the real world'.

 

                           

                           

It's Quiet Here, But...

Nothing much really to report around here at the moment - so I just couldn't resist ONE more picture of...

deer babies playing together in the sun. One, two three, awwwwww....

Pizza, Pizza!

On every single occassion that we've been over to Victoria for the day, we've ended up eating at our favourite Irish pub there. I ALWAYS get their vegetarian pizza, and it's ALWAYS delicious.

So I thought I would try to make my own version of it at home, and it was goooooooood!

Take a wholemeal pizza base, (or even better, make one!) and spread it with pesto.

Lay baby spinach leaves over it, top with artichoke hearts, sliced red capsicum, crumbled feta and mozzarella.

Cook, and eat.

Ohhhhh yeah.

Recording the Brain Waves

You know what? Someone seriously needs to design a thing-a-me-bob machine like this one that, (instead of recording earthquake vibrations like this baby), is actually hooked up to your brain at around that time of the night when you're somewhere between sleep and awake, when your brain is just going nuts with ideas and STUFF, stuff that you want to record, to jot down, to list, but you just can't be assed rolling yourself out of your comfy little duveted cocoon to scramble in the dark for a piece of paper and a pen... this thing-a-me-bob quietly jots these mega thoughts down so that in the morning, you can blearily and crusty eyedly tear off the documented thoughts, all in list or word or doodle format, ready for you to go, 'Oh yea! That's right...' and commence putting into action your brilliant brain waves of the night.

photo from http://kaiserfam.com/kyrieeleison/2007/09/22/photo-hunters-76-paper/

On Nights Like This

On nights like this we meander through tall grass and wildflowers...

Heading towards the tracks down behind our volunteer property...

Once we see the sun beams as they slice between the branches of the trees...

We follow the track down, down, down, til we see the ocean ahead...

We stretch out on warm rocks...

We watch liquid sunlight bubble and tease our toes...

And we make friends.

Pattern Creation

                           

A while back I found this leaf with the craziest, coolest pattern on it. Actually, I think the pattern here is actually a fungus or disease on the leaf, but this is why I like it so much. I've been mucking around a bit, stylising the lines and creating my own drawings from it. I think that maybe this would look pretty neat as a graphic repeat on fabric, as a rug design, or batiked onto a sheer material for curtaining...

P.S. 'Scuse the really pixelated images at the bottom, don't know WHAT I did there...!?

Hand Made Love

    

I have recently found the blog of Melbourne based artist, Handmadelove.

She posts about all sorts of lovely art and life related things, but one of my favourite parts is that she draws and paints what she eats every day. From what I can gather she started this for a school assignment but it looks kinda fun, and I love the little illustrations she produces!

Anna Emilia: Illustration

'Spring is About to Happen' by Anna Emilia. I love this wee drawing to bits.

Quick Twilight Tip

Just a really quick heads up to any Twilight lovers out there - you can currently listen to all the tracks on the upcoming 'Eclipse' soundtrack for the next 24 hours only, at THIS site - good sounds!

Oh Dear, More Deer

I'm crazy for anything deer related at the moment, so I found myself searching for 'deer' products on Etsy this morning. Look at these lovely goodies!

Clockwise from top left: Stirling silver antler pendant from MRD74, deer ring by Sophie Hill, camera and lense carry bag from Gypsy Rose Handbags, deer decal by Wow Wall.

Sketchy Sketchy