Shout out!

I was looking at my good friend, Tong's new website... And i came to realise, i have some REALLY artistically talented people in my life - that i am privileged enough to call friends!! So i thought i'd use this space to show-off some of my friends amazing artistic endeavours [click on their names to be taken to their site] ♥

I'll start off with the one who inspired this post...

Ladies & Gentlemen...

TONG ZHOU

Chinese born & raised, Tong has to be one of the most amazing free-hand artists i have ever met. I stayed with Tong for 2 weeks while in Vancouver, and was lucky enough to witness his talent first-hand. We'd be sitting there talking, laughing & being silly, and Tong would have a sketch-pad in front of him just drawing away like its no big deal. And these were no sketches... these were incredible works-of-art! And he just pulled them straight from his imagination. He didn't have to copy from anything... every crease and wrinkle on an old ladies face, every twist & curl in a poodle's coat - straight from his imagination! INSANE! I stole these images from his website http://www.tong-zhou.com/. OH, his website is 100% Tong-made too. ANDDD he's an origami expert!! Talent seeping out of his pores!

Love how these 3 beauties show his diversity as an artist. Check out his website (noted above) for more. He is drawing everyday, so keep your eyes peeled for new Tong!

KARYNN BROWN

Ahh i adore the guts out of this girl!!

Karynn Brown - creative mind behind 'Karynn's Keepsakes & Kupkakes' - is possibly one of the most genuinely sweetest people you will EVER meet! Even sweeter than her gorgeous 'Kupkakes' ^.^ (that's a Karynn smiley). Her kupkakes are so exquisitely beautiful, that i don't know how one can bare to eat them. In fact, my friend Michael just said to me, after i showed him her page "wow, do you get to eat those or do you have have to keep them?!...seriously, because i'm not sure" I guess they just smell so scrum-didli-umptious, that they just magically make their way into your mouth (yes, i'm speaking from experience) whether you want to part with them, or not!

Not only is Karynn THE cupcake MASTER, she also has mean photography and photo-editing skills! This is where 'Keepsakes' comes into play! Her shots all have a romantic and whimsical feel to them. Now since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going let her photo's do the rest of the talking...

The Canadian Keepsake & Kupkake Kween conducts her magic in Vancouver, BC. She bakes Kupkakes and makes Keepsakes for all occasions. Check her facebook fanpage for deets.

HENRY MURPHY

One of my favourite quotes is "Beauty dwells and is awake in each thing... we must look for it." by Rainer Maria Rilke, and i think you can apply this quote to many of Henry's photographs. That's one of the things i think seems so romantic about being a photographer, that seeing and living life through the eyes of a photographer must be beautiful. Beauty truly IS everywhere! You just need to open your eyes, put on your rose-coloured glasses and look for it! Or, if that's too hard... just head to Henry's website and let him show you how it's done.

This is probably my favourite Henry Murphy photograph. I can't put my finger on why, but I can just stare at it forever!

I feel the same about this one.

"Beauty dwells and is awake in each thing... we must look everywhere." - Rainer Maria Rilke

LOVE the contrast in this one!

Dreamy

SITJI CHOU

Sitji, like Tong, is an absolutely amazing artist! I've never had the privilege of watching Sitji at work with my own eyes, but i can only hope that one day i will, and in the meantime lose myself in his masterpieces. Sitji encompasses an imagination that most people, even artists only dream of having, and it shows through in his works. Check it.

Self Portrait

LLLOOOVVVEEE

This is all i can get my hands on for now, so will have to suffice. But as soon as i can get more, they'll be up! Isn't he brilliant?!!!

Now I do have many other amazingly talented friends, but i've been working on this blog for wayyy too long now due to super duper slow internet. So how about i do a 'Part 2' with everyone else on it?! Cool? Cool!

Well I'm finally tired enough to go back to sleep now (I had a 'nap' from 4p-9p this evening, that was full of nightmares and has kept me up til now - 3:40a) so i'm going to peace out & pass out!

I hope you've enjoyed my friends artworks, and have been inspired by them just as much as i have been :)

We live in a beautiful world, all. Take a minute to stop, and smell the roses!

Nighty night

♥

Implode.

Someone dear challenged me to conquer the world today, and to me that translated to 'pull your finger out and get crack-a-lackin with E L I X I R (my forever 'up & coming' jewellery line for those of you who don't know)'. It could have meant a number of things, but me being right-brained, opted to take the colourful & dreamy route. Now you're probably thinking, 'that doesn't sound like a challenge at all', but when your creative juices are involuntarily set to 'overflow' mode, and you feel like you're about to implode, you're suddenly faced with a new challenge - where do I start?!?

My brain.

Now, I originally started by flicking through over 30 fashion magazines (Russh, Oyster, Vogue, Frankie, In Style and Yen just to name a few) and throwing together an inspiration board. And inspire me it did. Not only do I want to be a jewellery designer. I now want to be a painter, swimwear designer, furniture designer, interior designer, landscape designer, AND I want to add a second line to my jewellery endeavour, 'ROSCO'. BAH! If only I could be/do all of the above... Don't want to be a 'jack of all trades, master of none' though!

I need some of this!

So now I'm trying to steer all my artistic energy into one direction, but it seems to want to veer off every time I get it on the straight & narrow. I know my main focus should be Elixir, and I want my main focus to be Elixir, but something in the back of my mind is nigling at me, telling me not to ignore all the other ideas protruding my brain just because they bare little, if no, relevance to Elixir. So what do I do?! Do I allow a little left-over juice for these other concepts (which may in-turn generate more creativity/inspiration), or do I just solely concentrate on Elixir and give time to these other ideas when I've made substantial progress with my number one endeavour?!

E L I X I R

E L I X I R

Ohh I don't know!!!

I think this little pickle calls for bed time. I'm tired, and I'm sure being this sleepy can't be good for such important decision making :P Ahhh you know life is good when something like this is your biggest problem (if you can even call it that)!

Nighty night all!

To the one that challenged me.

Bloglovin

Oi!

Click here to Follow my blog with bloglovin

Do it.

You know you want to..
♥

Nuff said.

Convict

If all had gone to plan, I would have landed in Kansas City 14 hours ago, would be hanging out with Jesse, on my way back to my place to see my Kitty, Common AKA 'Tigerlily' (and the rest of Rosco, of course) and settling back into the normal world I had made for myself there.

LOVE. LOVE.

HOWEVER...

USCBP (United States Customs & Border Patrol) decided that they didn't like me and sent me on my not-so-merry way back to Vancouver. They interrogated me for about an hour (yikes) brought up all kinds of people I knew, from... who knows where?!!! And then finger-printed me and took a lovely mug shot of me! Oh how I love being treated like a criminal - NOT!!! My Australian ancestors were convicts, so maybe they can just smell the criminal blood in me?! :P

The enemy

Gettin' my grump on

Anyhoooo. Like MANY people have said to me over the past 2 days... there is always a silver lining. And I know this, but it sure is nice to be reminded by those who care about you :) Although I'm especially sad that I'll be spending the next 4 or so months without Jesse, I know that it will only do us good and in the end it will just be a testament of our love and committment. It also means I get to go back home to the land down under and spend some much needed time with my family & friends, get E L I X I R in 'all systems go' mode, enjoy an Australian summer on the beach, and count down the months/weeks/days 'til Jesse touches down in Sydney Town -  This all makes me mucho happy. OH, and... my best lady from the West, Biancca is moving her butt to Sydney in December! This makes my move home all the more exciting :)

One thing I am NOT looking forward to is my 28 hour flight back home... Because I was denied entry into America, I had to find an alternative route to Sydney from Vancouver, which just so happens to be through Shanghai!! So Something ridiculous like 15 hours to Shanghai [3 hour stop-over] then another 13 hours to Sydney. And I forgot to buy a pillow!! BAH!! Maybe I shouldn't sleep tonight so I just pass out straight away on the plane.... hmmm.... could be a good idea.

OK, bored of blogging about this now.

NIGHT!

Au Revoir, Vancouver

So... My last night in Vancouver has arrived. Where did that week go?! I must say, as amazing as this past week has been, I am looking forward to leaving tomorrow and (hopefully) getting back into the US. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling at all anxious or nervous about it, but I know and trust that what ever is meant-to-be, will be, and that I'll be set on the right path. And besides there's nothing I can do about the verdict at this moment, so no point wasting my time worrying about it, right?!

So instead of focusing on what may or may not happen tomorrow, how about I share stories of my time in Vancouver with you... I don't want to bore you with too many mundane sentences, so I'll give you a quick recap and then just post some pictures. How does that sound? Good? Good!

I arrived Sunday afternoon after 2 plane rides (stop-over in Dallas) and a bus ride from Seattle to Vancouver. Walked down Granville Street where I witnessed a whole bunch of regular Jane's & Joe's dancin' in the street (I think Jesse told me it was West Coast Swing?!) then met up with Tong and played catch ups for the night.

West Coast Swingers dancin' in the street.

Monday I walked around the city and took in all it's beauty. Vancouver is such a clean, cute city. There are flowers EVERYWHERE and the air is so crisp from all the mountains that embrace the city. Also took the bus to Kitsilano beach... I was dying to see and smell the ocean! A little bit disappointed that there were no waves (quite a sheltered beach) but the feeling of sand between my toes and sea breeze in my nose (hey that rhymes!) was amazing!

Vancouver Art Museum

Impatients

Kitsilano Beach

Tuesday I strolled around Stanley Park and stumbled across another beach, second beach! Ima let the photos do the talking ::

Beautiful colours

My first pondering spot

Found a fallen down tree in the woods (with a seat carved out!!) which became my second pondering spot.

Skull Tree

Reminded me of someone special :)

Pondering spot numero tres!

Wednesday had a chill day then Tong & I made way to Gastown to catch up with some of our lovely friends Karynn, Sitji & Devan

Lights of fairies <3

My Darlings (L-R) Devan, Tong, Sitji, Moi, Karynn <3

You guys!!

Thursday = beach day!! Tong and I spent a couple of hours at Second Beach. I lounged by the pool for an hour or so, then headed for the sand. Didn't make it to the ocean though because the tide was sooo far out and it looked a little icky :( We then walked back to town, caught the skytrain into Metrotown, got our nostalgia on and visited American Apparel and then.... went and bought.... PC organic chocolate ANIMAL BISCUITS <3 <3 <3

Tong-a-long <3

Logs ;)

Friday I caught up with my Aussie friend, Henry. Had fish & chips (nom nom nom) at the Templeton Diner. Really cool old school diner, with mini juke boxes at each booth & ice cream floats (spiders for ya'll aussies) in just about every flavour you can imagine. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my memory card for my camera, so no happy snaps from this day :( I couldn't even find a pic of the diner on the net to treat you with!

Saturday -  my last day... and what an AMAZING day it was! Karynn & I had a mini picnic on a 'grassy noll' and then 'rented' (haha only Karynn will get this) a tandem bike, and went cycling around Stanley Park. I'm surprised we didn't have a stack, we were crying with laughter the entire way, i broke and dropped my purse 2 times, and my helmet once, and we nearly got coathangered my a tree! Hazardous to say the least. We then went to Cactus Clud Cafe ( and no we didn't dress up as cowgirls or indians) and met Tong there (and no, he wasn't dressed as a cowboy) for a light supper. Followed by a nice stroll home through fruit alley (named it this tonight because of all the blackberry bushes and apple & pear trees). Photo time!!

love

this

gurl

dorrito?!

we don't have big heads, the helmets were just made for kidlets. and do we look like kidlets? no!

rah!

yam.. is that like a ram or clam?

dum dee dum

blackberry pickin'

our delicious treasure!

Well Vancouver, it's been an absolute pleasure! I will definitey be seeing you and all your beauty again soon. Thanks for having me.

Peace out brussel sprout!