Silver And Gold.

One of the creatives Karen, Sian, and I did in June got picked up by FantasticsMag. The working title or theme for this shoot was "dreamy masquerade". The washed-out, soft light effect that Karen was able to achieve really lends an ethereal quality to the images.





The gauze mask was a total improv job by yours truly. None of the masks I'd pulled really worked with this look so I had to get creative; I rummaged through my crates, found some tulle scraps, cut it to shape and attached it to a thin elastic hang strand that I'd kept from a pair of shoes I'd bought for another shoot. I was inspired by the mask that Marie Antoinette wears at the masquerade ball in Paris when she meets Count Fersen for the first time (swoon swoon).







A friend commented that this series reminds her a little of Tim Walker's work and I couldn't imagine a better compliment seeing as how he's one of my all-time absolute favourites.

You Get To Draw In Heaven.

If you're a mega nerd like me - someone who can't think of anything more fun than spending an entire afternoon wandering around an art supply store - you will love this blog: Pencil Talk is entirely about pencils and other writing/drawing implements and stationery. There's even a section where you can post a question in case you have a pencil crisis and need advice from an expert on the subject.

Explorer, Homemaker, Pioneer.

At about the age of eight I became obsessed with anything and everything to do with accumulating knowledge in obscure fields, mastering uncommon skills, and learning how to do things with very specific applications. For the young intrepid that still resides somewhere inside of me, Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts, is on my list of books to find. You can download it in its entirety thanks to the Gutenberg Project* but I really want a copy of my own in hardcover.

I would've loved to have had this book as a little girl. I was an insatiably curious child and unafraid to the point of sheer folly and I know how much more trouble I would've gotten into - possibly resulting in my not surviving to adulthood - but just thinking about all the adventures it might have inspired gives me goosebumps. It's never too late.

Some excerpts:



GIRL SCOUT UNIFORM - TWO PIECE



TIMBER WOLVES ON THE TRAIL
Closely related to foxes and dogs. Range: Formerly over most of North America. Habitat Group in American Museum of Natural History.



Tourniquet: In this case it will be necessary to put on a tourniquet to take the place of the finger until a clot can form in the vessel big enough and strong enough to prevent the force of the blood current from pushing it out. This of course can be used only on the legs or arms.



HAMMERHEAD SHARK
The eyes are on the ends of blunt stalks, or extensions of the sides of the head, which suggest the name. Range: All warm seas, north to Cape Cod.



3. Bowline-Knot
If the people on the bridge at Niagara Falls had made a Bowline-knot in the end of the rope before throwing it as a life-line they might have saved one if not three lives. A Bowline is used chiefly for hoisting and lowering; it can be used for a halter or with the Sheet-bend in making a guard-line or fence. It is a knot holding fast a loop which can be made of any size and which will not jam or give.

*Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of PG, invented eBooks in 1971 when he was given an operator's account for computer time by the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Lab at the University of Illinois. At the time, operators were encouraged to do whatever they wanted with the "spare time" in the hopes they would learn more for their job proficiency.

An hour and 47 minutes later, yielding the first ever posting of a document in electronic text, he expressed his belief that the greatest value created by computers would not be computing, but the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in our libraries and the universal access this would afford. Learn more about Project Gutenberg here.

King & Roncy

This is the view from my new bedroom window. I just moved in and haven't had a chance to make curtains. The early morning light was shining me awake so I tried to find something to block it out. All I could manage was this small and wrinkled piece of tissue paper from an opened gift. It didn't work very well but I've decided I like the look of it so I think it's going to stay.

Bad Medicine.

Studded leather medicine pouch by d_luxe. It's a necklace and a purse and super bad-ass, the holy trinity. I can see myself using it for late night cig runs when all you need is your bike lock key, some money, and (if you're me) your I.D. It's almost half a month's rent, though, so I'll have to save up for it. In the meantime, I will have to settle for loving it with my eyes at Pitbull Mansion.

Kiwi lovelies Karie Higgins and Megan Oliver, the design duo behind d_luxe, met in architecture school. Check out their beautiful website.