Colouring Outside The Lines: Jewellery Making

One of the self-identified problems that I have which is a cause for my creative frustration, is that I have so many amazing ideas of things I want to design and make, yet I have no clue how to go about it, so the idea gets shelved, and I get shittier.

Well, I decided to pull finger by educating myself and enrolling in a silversmith night course. And so off I trundled last night, and I had a fantastic time, learned SO many things and produced this! A ring! To anyone who's worked with stirling silver they probably look at this and think, 'Wow, that's about as beginner as it gets...' but I'm stoked!

Note to the universe: Why do I insist on choosing hobbies which cost ridiculous amounts of money?

A Weekend Project: Make A Bed

Hello, did you have a nice weekend? What did you get up to? Oh ya know, bought a new king sized mattress, then realised we didn't have a king sized bed base, so, as you do, just made one. Yup. Made an entire bed base. Timber slat, upholstered side rails and headboard. I think that's what you get when you pair a builder with a designer. Minds set on a project and that's it. There's no stoppin' us.

Ellie Goulding & Lissie - Everywhere I Go

Mmmm Monday music!

DIY Framed Photoboard

Ever since Sarah at Bobbyrobin posted about her amazing DIY photoboards, I've been quietly harbouring my desire to make my own with all our holiday snaps. I'm talking, even before we'd been to half the places and taken the photos, I was planning on creating my own photoboards. Nuts much?

My photoboard ended up framed behind glass instead of being on canvas, after I got my sticky mits on an old picture frame that my parents didn't want anymore. I used the 'Poladroid' application that Sarah suggested to turn all my photos into polaroid style, and took them down to Harvey Norman to catch their 9 cents per print sale ($7.20 for all my prints? I'll take that thank you!).

I bought 2 sheets of matte board, and after an insane amount of measuring and sticking I got all the photos in place.

 A very handy builder man who I also like to call my fiance helped me to cut the frame down a little, sand it, prime it and spray it black.

I finally got around to putting it all together this weekend and wollah!

VERY stoked with my photoboard!

A Race for Leukemia

We spent the weekend in Auckland so that C could compete in the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge - racing up the sky tower in full B.A. to raise money for the Leukemia & Blood Foundation. He did so well, I was so proud!
Dawwwwww...

Colouring Outside the Lines: I See Red

There seems to be so little to blog about at the moment, but I thought I'd throw this in cos' I pushed the boundaries of my little zone of comfort today. Red tights and red lippy. Oh yeah. Reach for the sky Nikki. Hah!
Ever worn something outrageously bright and noticed how friggin' everybody looks at you while you're walking through the city? Hmmm, I just figured that one out... I have just discovered a good reason to stay tucked up in 'my zone'.

Ellie Goulding: 'Your Song'

Yea yea, I know it was part of the Royal Wedding and all that jazz, but don't lie, you know you watched it. Either way, I love this version of Elton John's song, and I'm sharing it. So there!

A Mixed Bag

Easter in 'Wanga-vegas'

I've spent my Easter weekend visiting my Grandparents in the mighty 'Wanga-vegas' (Wanganui).

My Grandad is approaching 90, and he's fitter than me. We followed him round his orchard and garden - gathered eggs, fed the chooks, pruned the fruit trees and filled bags with lettuce, capsicum, corn, spring onion and zuchinni to take home. Yum! Hope you're enjoying your Easter weekend too!

Things I'm Lovin' Lately...

Working on secret squirrel projects... more on those later!

Finally moving into our own place after 12 months (sorry Mum & Dad, I love you but space is good...!) which has the bonus of coming with a view like this! (That's Wellington harbour for those who might not know).

Getting all my stuff out of storage and surrounding myself with the things I love again!

Getting new dining chairs, woot!

This little jar of kaka feathers that my Dad collected just for me. Daawwww my Dad is the CUTEST!

Re-discovering drawings I did 2 years ago...

and drawings I did 20 years ago!

Feelin' proud as C trains and fundraises hard for the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge in May, and having some fun coming up with t-shirt logos for the team. (Not that they got used, but still...!)

Getting my very own 'creating' room... there's my sewing machine, my computers, my printers, all my art supplies, my mannequin... yippeeeee! (That's all organised chaos people, don't judge!).

Lots of good vibes these last couple of weeks. What about you?

James Vincent McMorrow - Sparrow & the Wolf

It's a funny time of the year I think. I don't know about you, but I haven't got a lot of uberly exciting stuff to blog about right now, life's kinda ticking along day by day, can't complain, but it's pretty quiet round here at the moment! Still, thought I'd share a new favourite song with you. Here you go!

Love in the Funniest Places

While wandering back to the office yesterday after getting some lunch, I found myself walking behind a man who had unsuspectingly sat on a piece of red thread, and it was stuck to his bum forming the shape of a heart. It looked something like this. Unfortunate for him, quite possibly. Highly amusing for myself? Most definitely.

It's Time For A Joke

What do you get when you cross a ton of scraps of silk curtaining, polyester upholstery fabric, linen, cotton duck, flocked velvet, solution dyed acrylic, macrosuede, pocket woven satin, a forever tunelling, burrowing cat and a seamstress with zero patience and little tolerance for pinning, tacking or measuring?

A majorly twisted, crooked fabric delight for said cat to play in.

Aggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Italian Tale

I just realised it's nearly been six months since we left Canada and headed off towards the lights and delights of Europe. Jeepers time flies!

One of my all time highlights was hiring a scooter in Sorrento and driving along the coast through Positano and finishing with an afternoon in the sun in Amalfi. Yeah, you know the bit in 'Under the Tuscan Sun' where Francesca goes looking for a replacement part for her chandelier and ends up in Positano with Marcello? That's what I'm talkin' about. The stuff of dreams. And I went there. Literally, with my hair blowing in the wind behind me on the back of a scooter, in the Italian sun. Ahhhh... !

Now for the cheese - my home-made vid of our scooter ride. Yes, some of you have probably seen this before, but oh it's good to reminisce isnt' it?

*Sorry just to be a real pain you need to be logged into facebook to watch this vid!

One from the Moleskine - Bunnies on the Brain