harmony in a wreath

pa-rum-pa-pum-pum!

i have been busy with work and have not found the time to post more but this Christmas, I just couldn't resist making a wreath to usher in my favorite holiday.

i've seen a tutorial of this wreath somewhere and I had the musical sheets for some time since I found them at the thrift store (it is the Mikado no less!). Don't know how that is related to Christmas but the musical sheets sure add a quiet elegance to it.  The blue bauble is from Christmases past.

in case I don't see you on Christmas day, have a Happy Christmas everyone!

written in the stars

inspired by the color yellow and a dark-blue polyester skirt found in a charity shop, i tried my hand at embroidering Taurus and Gemini, two of the constellations of the zodiac that me and the mister were born under.

Taurus is known as "the bull" and Gemini, "the twins".  They are both very near each other up in the skies.

i also came across these personalized crafty projects all over the net so it was just easy to get started.  All I needed apart from the navy blue cloth were yellow embroidery threads, a 12cm embroidery hoop, a needle and a pattern that i traced over the front part.

they are both now hung in our hallway.  Now, gotta get meself ready to repaint the hallway.  and that is another post altogether :)

tickity-tock-tock

moving house has been so stressful but the thought of decorating and adding all the good things i've always wanted in our very own house made me get up every morning with the hugest smile on my face.

one of the very first things i made was a sunburst clock (i noticed that when we initially moved into the new house we habitually looked towards the empty walls whenever somebody asked what time it is!).  so i bought a cheap second hand clock in a local buy-and-sell Facebook page here in Gib, glue-gunned a few skewer sticks, spray-painted it in bronze (i wanted copper but couldn't find any in the stores here) aaaaaaaand voila!

my new DIY bronz-y sunburst clock

prepping my clock by glue-gunning barbecue skewers at the back of the clock and covering the hands with painter's tape

the cheap second-hand clock I bought from a Facebook page 

i enjoyed doing this project because the mister and i had to find an open space to spray paint.  he said he knew of a place. and then he took me up the Rock!  and while waiting for the paint to dry (fairly quickly!) we had fun counting our blessings and enjoying the glorious view :)

profile of a Gibbo

i've been meaning to do this custom paper silhouette project for the mister in time for his birthday but i got swept up by an unexpected workload and pre-birthday celebrations for him that its only now i got to finish it.

i got the frames from a friend's mother-in-law who was spring cleaning her house.  it was very dirty but i managed to clean it up.  i would have wanted to paint the frames white too but not now... maybe next time.

i've had the yellow and lime stripey paper for a time now ever since i bought a bunch of them from a shop that was closing down about 3 years ago.  

i used a Design Sponge tutorial for this which you can find here. 

the mister loves it, by the way :)

in search of sushi

that restlessness again... for something new, for something challenging, for something to rejuvenate the soul... and the palate...

i've been searching for a place like this for so long... with upside down yellow chairs nailed to a pink wall...

with giant Japanese parasols suspended in the ceiling... dappled in the afternoon sunlight...

with a shadowbox full of memories and mysteries...

with shadowboxes full of remembrances and secrets...

where they hide among big banana fronds...

and then, one mouthful of my rainbow sushi and everything is alright in the world...

nothing beats old school, though... food for the famished soul and the tired hippocampus...

banana tempura... with the toasted sesame chasing the blues away... best when shared with one teaspoon...

 Surla in my mind...

 i shall return.

geometry is cool!

i didnt think so when i was in high school :P 

but now i am fascinated by angles and sides and symmetry and balance… in everything i do.  in my photography, in my writing, at home and even at work.

i think geometric shapes are great decorations!  especially if you are geeky like me :) here are a few that i’ve made using the tutorials from mini-eco. do check out her page, it's absolutely full of cute tutorials!

a stellated dodecahedron, on top of my multi-colored 'banig'* placemat, a present from one of my best friends

from the top: a pink icosahedron, an orange cube, a yellow polyhedron , a purple dodecahedron and a blue octahedron

*banig - is a handwoven mat traditionally made in the Philippines and are used for sleeping and sitting. made from either palm or grass leaves, they are dyed to create colorful and unique designs.... often geometric!

boo!

halloween despite being the invention of the Celts, is very much the most celebrated of all holidays especially in America.  here in Gibraltar, it is not so noticeable apart from the occasional zombie or witch that we see on the weekend prior to the eve of the first of November smoking a ciggy or drinking a pint while discussing first world problems.

i try my best to be “evil” every year so this year i put up my usual decors (just varying the function and placement for variety), bought some candy and wait for the fun part (which is to hear that knock on our door by tiny cute blood-sucking creatures).

made with scrap fabric from my ribbon-making days and left-over spiders and spiderwebs, a raven cut-out and googly-eyes, all attached to an African grass trivet that i got from a shop that was closing down.

the scariest plastic bats ever i bought from a little boy for a pound (for a pack of 4) at the carboot sale last year.  i suspended them from the ceiling in the verandah with a fishing line and voila!

we eat locally so let’s see if we can scare a little wee vampire or two like we did last year :)

(monstrify yourself at www.picmonkey.com)

saturday's child

saturdays are busy here in Gib.  there's Big Band music provided by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment Band in the piazza (think jazz and swing music!  awesome!) when i was living in Singapore, i used to spend my weekends sitting in the park listening to fantastic Big Band music in Symphony Lake. 

there is a craft market in casemates square too selling handmade stuff.  they just started this summer and only a few stalls have set up their stuff.  i am hoping this will catch on and eventually would expand and attract a lot of people. 

i love this stall below selling beautifully-preserved insects :)  on top of your purchase, the seller will also give you a free lecture about them :)

original paintings by locals...

the stall below is by my favorite local painter, Paul Cosquieri.  his paintings are very contemporary and colorful

you can also find one of a kind teatowels, fans, coasters and place mats...

handmade leather jewelry with Celtic knots... very creative!

 adorable mouse doorstops :)

here's my current favorite jazz singer singing my favorite swingy big band number with a modern twist :D turn up the volume!

enjoy your weekend!

flea market finds: head to toe and everything in between

its lazy sunday!  

i finally went to my favorite shop last week and well, initially, i didn't find anything i like.  after a few more days of browsing and even with their new stuff coming in, i STILL didn't find anything i like.

oh well.  

yesterday was Clean Up The World day of which i am a regular volunteer (tell you all about it on my next post).  i thought... maybe... before i pick up litter i might as well drop by a church sale, the St. Andrew's craft and collector's fair.  might be good to check it out and maybe pick up a few things or two since i haven't dropped by in a while.  this church usually puts up this sale every first saturday of the month with just a handful of sellers.  true enough, i found a few treasures. these are my finds:

this is a small pair of black and gold stud earrings with a depiction of a bird.  i can't quite make out the maker because its so tiny but it looked like its made by hand. the clasps are a little crude but i think it has oodles of character which is why i bought it for a mere .50p!  tweet, tweet!  it also reminds me of Biba (an iconic fashion store in London in the '60's with an Art Deco vibe by Barbara Hulanicki which used a lot of black and gold back then)

if Sweden has their wooden dahla horses and Russia has their wooden nesting matryoshka dolls, Japan has their wooden kokeshi dolls!  this one however is made of ceramic and sporting pigtails instead of the usual bowl cut do the kokeshi dolls usually have.  she is 4 and a half inches tall, bought for a pound and is now best friends with my matryoshka dolls :)

y'all know i have a fondness for turquoise, teal, cobalt, seafoam... (well, basically all the variant colors in between blue and green. i can't quite make my mind up yet!) the tallest and bluest of 'em all in the picture above i bought for £3 in a Facebook page here in Gib selling secondhand stuff. forgot to mention that i didn't buy this in the church sale.

and lastly, in the church sale, i bought this brand new fluffy pink house slippers for .50p (but in the picture i have already worn them) all because my usual Homer Simpson house slippers were now looking a lot like Homey... in terribly bad shape!

i lurve my first finds for fall!

*linking to The PennyWorthy Project @ hey what's for dinner mom? :)

a sight for sore eyes

flea markets, bumper cars, The Bourne Legacy, eat-all-you-can, arts and crafts, best friends... these pretty much sums up my weekend, oh and on top of these; dealing with a leaky toilet, laundry, grocery-shopping, clothes that needed mending and a pesky worm problem with my mint herbs.

all in a weekend's work!  but on to some lovely things that i left at the flea market :)

 all things gilded!  old-world charm :)

a beautiful sun tray (did i ever tell you about my fascination for yellow?)

i sent this to my sister because she loves Melissa shoes :)  i found this in a snooty posh seller's stall. all her stuff were designer but as i was trying to inspect a beautiful pink Hermés clutch, she rudely snatched it away from me as if i am going to steal them away from her.  so, i walked away and decided no dime shall be spent on her stall! 

a train track!  a boy of about 8 can be heard shouting "comprar! comprar!"  (buy, buy!) to his dad :)

and there they are again :)  globes!  the one below is an old globe with a hidden bar/wine storage selling for only 35euros!  i looked them up online and they sell for up to hundreds!

the little figures below might look scary to some people especially in America (i froze to death when i saw them the first time!) but they actually represent persons seeking penitence during the somber occasion of Holy Week until Easter Sunday here in Spain.  it is a strong Spanish tradition observed since the Middle Ages.  (the pointed conical hat is called a "capirote")

now on to the animal kingdom which never fails to fascinate us :)  i am so glad this piranha is stuffed :)

 deer antlers!

a stuffed seagull(?)  not sure what kind of bird it is... but take a look at that huge candelabra/chandelier behind it?  really nice in a big airy dining room don't you think?

 horsing around :)

well, well, well... lookee here... a decorative plate from Gib :)

i try not to feel regret at all the beautiful things i left behind :)  *sigh*  i am beginning to have an idea what those people in that TV show "Hoarders" feel now :D

flea market finds: rastro y mercadillo

"rastro" is Spanish for "an open-air street market for inexpensive or secondhand articles" and "mercadillo" also has a similar meaning except that it pertains more to produce, inexpensive clothing and other household stuff.

y'all know i was in a flea market funk this summer so decided to check this big flea market in Fuengirola, Spain (about an hour and a half drive away from Gibraltar) and naturally wanted to stay there the whole day and buy tons of stuff (next post) but, realistically speaking, only brought home these goodies:

a spring green Denby stoneware 4PT casserole in pristine condition for 2.50euros :)

a long, silver necklace with the palest seafoam green beads, bought for 1euro (really looks great with a simple white tee or an ecru office top)

and last but not the least, a pair of stuffed dahla horses for 1euro each :)  i normally do not like stuffed animals (not a hard and fast rule, really) but with these i make an exception :)  dahla horses are Sweden's most popular handicraft and were originally carved in wood. 

i originally just wanted to buy one but i can't bear the thought of leaving the other one behind so together they are still :) 

here's a wonderful one-stop-shop for all things dahla :)

*linking to Thrift Share Monday @ Apron Thrift Girl :)

Mallorca: design inspirations (2)