Excuse me, do you have any talent to spare?

Berlin Bar - Interior Design by Yelena Beylin Perry

Every day I am blown away by so many amazing creative people out there, following their dreams and making it a reality. I am so inspired by their passion and dedication to their chosen field. Yelena, a friend I met while we were both working as slaves at the not so local cinema, is one of these super creative people.

She has been an Interior Designer for the last 5 years and has produced some amazing work - like her design for Berlin Bar, pictured above. She has recently launched her website too which I am so pleased to be sharing with you - Arium Design.

Check out some of her stuff - you may have been to a bar she's designed!

There's a chair in there

Finally something crafty to show!

The chair before

The chair after the restoration project

A few weeks ago, we found an abandoned chair pretty much on our front doorstep. I was initially quite annoyed that an idiot left their rubbish in our common property to be someone else's problem but after some further inspection, we realised the chair was in quite good shape despite the insides falling apart and not wanting to sit on it for fear of falling through.

So aside from the fact that neither Nathan or I had ever restored a chair before, we thought we would give it a go. After working on it on and off for a few weeks and after a fair share of expletives expended from our mouths, we turned this piece of trash into treasure. Nathan stripped back the wood and gave a few coats of satin varnish while I worked on finding new foam inserts and making new covers.

For more pics, check out my new flickr page.

And, does Lara really need any more publicity for her fabric? ;)

If you want to see even better restoration projects, check out Heather's blog.

Yes but, can it take calls?

Feeling a little attached

I used to be proud of my phone with no features other than to make and receive calls. No camera, no applications, no blue tooth connectivity, no music player and no 3G connectivity. I never stressed when I left it at home or in the car. Nor did I feel any pain when I dropped it on the floor (several times).

This was until recently I was laughed at by someone I least expected while saying my phone was "sooo old". In that moment I went from feeling no emotion toward my phone to feeling ashamed and wanted to bury my little dinosaur to the bottom of my handbag and ignore it when it rang.

So I have sold out. I am now expecting my new iphone to arrive in the mail. This should be a proud moment but it's not. I feel confused! Do I really need a phone which can play air hockey with me?

P.s. This little pic is a Karin Q original. Knocked up using my very basic Adobe Illustrator skills. :)

I love printing

Sometimes I feel like I'm going backwards

I have lived in my area for 18 months and never knew the Melbourne Museum of Printing was just around the corner from my place. Lucky for me I found out just in time for the open day through this post.

So I had a look at their prints (a cool $200 each) and then used what would have been $6 for the entry fee to have a coffee at the Happy River Cafe which is part of the Footscray Community Arts Centre. Then road my bike home along the river. Ok, that's a lie but I would have ridden if I wasn't coming from my friend's place!

It was a nice end to a nice weekend. I have been crafting this weekend too...but my latest project is not finished yet. I hope to have something to show soon! Everything takes longer than planned. This crafty stuff is hard work!

Oh I forgot to mention - this photo was taken by Marika on her iphone. Thanks Maz!

Oh my, I'm honoured...

The lovely Sandra of Pepperberry & co. fame has given me an award called "The Awe-summm blog award". This is ace, my first blog award!

I have to list 7 things that make me awe-summm and pass it along to another 7 "awe-summm" blogging people...

Ok here goes my list:

1. I'll give anything a go at least once

I have jumped from the top of a rickety old boat into the water somewhere off the coast of Thailand once before even though I have a morbid fear of deep water.

2. I'm a bit of a crazy scientist/craftist

I guess the "crazy" part is because most of the time my craft experiments fail. However, I know that one day I'll get on top of it all and hit on a winner!

3. I like making up games

I get bored easily and I try to make up silly games to play all the time. Like who can do the best Alison Duboir "waking up" impression (you know the show, Medium?). It helps when you have an obliging husband.

4. I'll buy whatever you're selling

I was talked into trying out for the Australian Army reserves when I was 18 by a friend. Lucky for me I didn't get in. Well, lucky for Australia too really.

I also signed up to a couple of things from door to door salespeople. Lucky I'm rarely at home during the day.

5. I can cook

At least I think I can.

6. I'm hard on the outside, soft on the inside

My sister often tells me I have a scathing wit but I also cry during Oprah too. I've also closed the door on some door to door salespeople when they wouldn't shut up...

7. I'm persistent

See point 2.

I have decided to tag these 7 awesome people:

1. Munaluna cos I love her work
2. Leah cos she makes nice skirts and knits cool stuff
3. Cath cos she makes nice softies
4. Sally cos she organised the first swap I ever participated in and it was so much fun
5. Lara Brehm cos I love the colours she uses in her textiles. Not to be confused with Lara Cameron whom you are all familiar with, I have no doubt.
6. Abigail cos she makes beautiful jewellery
7. Sarasophia cos her blog makes me smile

Remember

Narrie and Me somewhere in Hong Kong - 1980

In response to Meet Me at Mike's latest words and pictures theme this week - "Remember"...

My sister would probably remember the day this photo was taken; Mum and Dad would definitely recall it. However, I don't remember a thing. Perhaps the stress of moving to Autralia blanked out my memory? Or it could be because I was less than 1 at the time...

Unpolished Gem

Little bronze bird

This little guy in the picture has taken me hours to make and it is still unfinished! I took a jewellery casting course recently and I now have a new found appreciation for jewellery designers who use the lost wax casting method. Any jewellery that looks sculpted and not beaded or laser cut, would have undertaken a lengthy process involving:

- creating wax models
- plastering
- burning and firing in a kiln
- Pouring and releasing metal involving even higher temperatures
- cut, clean, file and polish

My little bird took me about 5 hours all up and I still need to file it down more and polish it off. Phew. The tutor did compliment me on my filing techniques though. I guess all the effort in maintaining nice nails didn't go to waste after all.

If you think my little birdy is an eyesore (poor unpolished gem), then check out some real examples from my tutor, David Parker.

Keeping warm

A surprise gift from my mother in law over the weekend - a scarf knitted with love from 100% baby Alpaca wool. She's quite the talented knitter, she is. She helped me get started with this other scarf last year (err, still not yet complete though! Actually it could have even been the year before last when I started that scarf).

Oh and if you're on the hunt for some scarves, check out these screen printed beauties.