inspiration to heal

I have had a sad week with the passing of my beloved grandmother, Mama Cherie. She was a beautiful, caring and creative lady who is sadly missed. In the last week our family has been reflecting on her life, her influence and I guess legacy we have all inherited. She was a very talented illustrator and we always received hand drawn birthday and Christmas cards, which we all tried to copy. I truly believe it is from her and also my mum (her daughter) that I have such a passion for creativity and especially illustration. It was with this knowledge I set about being creative. I had registered for this years Photo 5 competition run by Canon in Australia. Here is my post from last year. The idea is that you receive a box with 5 briefs to create an image from. There are props and a tutorial from the judge of each brief. I love macro photography and so the eye dropper brief was my choice.

This brief is asking you to use your lens to look closer. Use the eye dropper to place drops of liquid in any arrangement you want. You can use a single drop, or as many drops as you like.
And you’re not limited to just water - feel free to use liquids of different colours and consistencies, such as milk or tomato soup. Just make sure you get close.

My grandma was a fan of lavender and always had at least one lavender bush growing. We have a lovely bush in our front garden which has just begun it's springtime bloom. I snipped a few flowers a got creating! I thought of the idea of the beautiful colours in nature and how we try and recreate them in art. I decided to depict a "Leaking Lavender" which is giving up it's beautiful colour ready to paint with. Here are some of my shots and then the one I entered into the competition...

I had a lot of fun mixing the right shade of 'lavender' purple and then delicately placing the drops onto the flowers. I also loved playing with my lovely SLR camera! I have also found that the natural light in our dining room makes for a great photography 'set'. I could control the light levels with the blinds and curtains too!

It was tricky picking the final photo, but I settled on this one as I loved the the 2 drops - the one still on the flower is being gently hugged by the petal! I also liked the stem curling off in the background. The entries for this brief closed last night and you can view entries gallery over here at World of EOS.

my purple patch

After recent neglect I wanted to get back to this blog and my daily search for prettiness. I've been having a particularly un-inspiring time with my job lately, but luckily have had a few spots of creativity to brighten things up.
I'm currently working on some wedding invitations and other design pieces for a friend. We share very similar tastes so it's been a pleasure. Even more fortunate is that we work with generous printers who help us dream big. For this invite I'm {fingers crossed} having a die-cut on the invite cover for a bit of wow-factor. Anyway I thought I would share a few of the inspirational images I've sourced for the colour palette. Initially the bride wanted the design to be very simple, elegant and neutral. After I did the first concepts for her we decided that she is far too much of a colourful person to stick to such a monotone palette. She already had her bridesmaid dresses which were a dark taupe colour and we have now decided to put a punch of purple into the wedding colours.

Here are just a few of the images I pulled together to get just the right mix and shade of colour.
Top Left: via Style Me Pretty I really appreciate the little personal touches that give some personality to the wedding. Take a look at all the images from this wedding and read the story of how the couple pulled it all together themselves.
Top right: via Style Me Pretty A stunning mix of blooms in shade of purple and creams. I love the pearl details too!
Bottom: via Style me Pretty An nice example for the bride of how purple can be paired with neutral colours in a simple but oh so effective way.
As you can see I am totally in love with Style Me Pretty! I'll have more from my inspiration files soon...

finally - my blog ID

It has at times felt like the hardest thing to sit down and create, but finally this weekend I have got it together and designed my blog header! There are a few colour variations, but I have gone with the red for now (perhaps inspired by my valentines post). I'm certain that I will change my mind and mix it up now and then - but overall I am quite happy and relieved. I ended up using some floral illustrations I did a good 18 months ago.One day I hope to design prints for cards, fabric etc. but for now I can release my creative expression here.

Sunshine

After a wet Monday it was so nice to wake up to blue skies and sunshine today. Admitedly it has now clouded over, but not before my mind wandered to fields of sunflowers.
These were my absolute favourite flowers in my teens. I love that the flowers grow the size of you head and then stay alive for so long.
Inspired by sunflowers I have again turned to etsy for some cute finds... enjoy!

Images from top:
'garden party sunflower necklace' by wickedpen on Etsy
'Blooming Harvest, A Leather Sunflower Brooch' by peaseblossomstudio on Etsy
'Recycled Madison' by UnderCurrentPaper on Etsy

Magnolia Magic

Though most are now past their prime, I still want to celebrate the fleeting magic time when magnolias are in full bloom. I remember our magnolia tree in the house I grew up in.
The colours are so rich and the flowers so creamy to touch.
I have found this beautiful photo my mum took many years ago.


It has been scanned from a slide and then I have done some work on it to really make the colours sing.

[Image copyright embrace the pretty]

Spring has Sprung

Needing a bit of a pick me up today, I have taken some time out to celebrate that fact that Spring has Sprung.


Using a butterfly I illustrated a while ago I have let the colours of spring just come to me.

I love this combination of aqua greens and soft yellows. I'm declaring these as my colours
... for today anyway