By Jen on March 17, 2011
I am so happy to finally share my great news!!
I am so excited to announce that I have been asked to join the wonderful group of girls over at Creative Soup and be a part of their creative team!! Its a great new site that offers awesome weekly challenges as well as an inspiring monthly class. As part of the Creative team I have had a sneak peek of the challenges and classes coming up, and I can’t wait to work on them and share them with you guys!!
Creative Soup also has a wonderful forum which I love! It is great to have a place to build friendships and be part of an international community of people who love what you love and share inspiration. I hope you will all join me over there and join in with the challenges! You can see the rest of the great team here!
I can’t wait to get my creative soup on!
Posted in paper & glue | Tagged creative soup, design team, paper & glue |
By Jen on March 13, 2011
Had a horrid day yesterday and it really had me worn down and deflated.
I was determined to have a good day today so had my morning coffee while browsing Pinterest ….it is quickly becoming my go to spot for cheering up and inspiration! Thought I would share my pinspiration for the week.. what a beautiful thing to keep in mind whenever I run into ugly souled people again.
Update~ Today is turning into a beautiful day… just received some fun news but can’t share just yet! But I will soon! I promise!
Posted in pinspiration | Tagged pinspiration, pinterest |
By Jen on March 10, 2011
One of my big goals for this year has been to make our house feel like OUR home. We are lucky enough to rent this wonderfully spacious village house in the northern mountain ranges of Hong Kong…space is very rare here. However as spacious as our place is, it is completely ugly and not our taste.
As a creative person, I am very much effected by my surroundings and growing up I always took pride in how my bedrooms were decorated and reflected who I was. Luke, however dosn’t seem as effected by his surroundings as I am… maybe its a man thing.. I don’t know… but what I do know is I have decided to make a change!! Its time our place, rental or not, reflected us, not our landlords 1970′s obsession with gold, cream, pale yellow and poo brown!!… and yes it is that colour scheme in EVERY room except our guest bedroom which is orange, lime green with animated giraffes and monkeys. Now I know some people may be worried because we rent and this place is not actually ours….and considering this I have held off for sometime…but I am convinced that anything we do will drastically make this place better and easier to rent to others when/if we eventually move out. Plus we pay good money to live here… we should enjoy it right???
So I have given myself the challenge of working on one area of the house each month, doing what I can to make this feel like the comfortable home I long for. A place where I can be happy, relaxed and creative in and most importantly reflects who we are.
I have decided to start with our front door since its the first thing you see when you come to our house. Now the ugliness of the exterior lends itself mostly to Hong Kong village house style and not so much can be done, really. However, I am going to try my darnedest to make the front door reflect our love for colour, vintage hong kong and be inviting….
So here is our front door’s before photos….
….ewwwww right??? I bet your wondering what could I possibly do to make that look remotely welcoming… but I have ideas! I plan to bring some colour with plants and nice pots, I have some DIY ideas brewing in my mind, the mailbox needs to go as rain gets in and the lock is starting to fail and as charming as the mexicanesque house numbers are, they are not even correct!!
So here is a little inspiration board I have put together…..
- Love the pops of colour this door bring from Design Sponge.
- Would love a handmade wreath like this one from ItzFitz.
- The old places here have these vintage Chinese mailboxes, I am on the hunt for one!
- Thinking about building a trelis like this from Design Sponge.
- Searching the local nurseries for a climbing flowering vine… I love the effect they have on doorways.
- Quirky welcome mat! Love it… .
- Would love this full of plants! from Terrain.
- How cute would these be with your house numbers? Wood & wool stool’s stuff is so cute!
- Another awesome container from Terrain.
So I am giving myself until the end of the month to get this done. Check back for the results! TFL! ~{Jen}
Posted in Our home | Tagged front door, our home, our reno |
By Jen on February 28, 2011
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on deep and permanent, in the idea of living.” ~ Mariam Beard
Its photos like these that drive my passion for scrapbooking even deeper. This moment was so profound for me and it makes me so thankful that I have scrapbooking to help me document and record this moment.
My entire life I have always been interested and curious about Buddhism. It has been a life long dream of mine to sit down and just chat to monks about their views on life. I have been lucky enough to travel all over Asia and have been able to visit many amazing temples. However, all past attempts to chat to the monks had been unsuccessful due to language barriers or the strictness of the sect… some cannot even look at women.
While in Cambodia visiting Angkor Wat, Luke and I wondered off the beaten path through the jungle to find a toilet or a private tree… when we came across this small village in full on festival mode all around a small Buddhist temple. While shyly observing on the outskirts trying not to make the locals uncomfortable, a monk approached us and introduced himself in perfect English! then proceeded to shake my hand!! I was so shocked! Here was a monk not only talking to me in English but shaking my hand! He proceeded to take us through the festivities explaining the celebration and introducing us to the villagers. He then took us into a locked temple and told us the entire story of Buddha and Buddhist history in Cambodia! He was ecstatic when I asked him to teach me to pray to Buddha and I was ecstatic that he wanted to teach me.
Those quiet moments of Buddist prayer in the empty temple… emptiness anywhere in Asia is rare!… will forever remain in my heart and fill me with emotion every time I think of it. I do not consider myself a religious person. I was not raised with any religious influence and I think because of this the culture of religion fascinates me immensely.
So the whole reason I am telling is this story is because I created this layout this week with Cosmo Crickets fab Circa 1934 paper that came in my Studio Calico kit. I was excited to see how closely the tiled floor of the temple matched the patterned paper…and the colours worked great to!
Also a fun coincidence Studio Calico has brought in the great new Epiphany epoxy button maker into their store! I had the opportunity to play with this at CHA and loved it! Funny I made my buttons with the Circa 1934 paper! This layout was meant to be I guess ha ha…
I used Studio Calico’s fantastic Sunday Sketch for my inspiration for this one… and was inspired to try something new… a horizontal 8.5×11 page!?!? What?? plus this is quickly becoming my first ever 2 page LO as I have plans to make a page just for the journaling with the same orientation!… maybe a whole album in that orientation?? now I am just getting crazy he he he… or am I?
Posted in paper & glue | Tagged cambodia, cosmo cricket, studio calico, Studio Calico Kit, travel |
By Jen on February 24, 2011
Craft Inc. has been out for a while, but I just picked it up along with the Craft Inc business planner on my recent trip to the USA and am I ever glad I did! If anyone needs a little confidence push to take steps towards turning their creative hobbies into a business then this is the book for you. My goals to turn my creativity into a full fledge running business are still very long term, however I still very much enjoyed the read.
Meg Mateo Ilasco has gathered everything she and other successful crafters have experienced and has laid it all out in an easy to understand step-by-step guide. Everything has been so well covered, from realizing your creative dreams, to marketing and pricing, through packaging and shipping, right to outgrowing your home base. She covers everything so thoroughly, yet I never found anything exhaustive like most business books. I loved that everything was organized into small sections making everything short, sweet and to the point. Instead of skimming through and reading sections that only pertain to me at present I read every word! She has written it in such a fun way that I got sucked in and was actually excited to get to the reading part of my day… of course the bright colours and cute illustrations helped too!
The best part of the book for me by far has been the encouragement that seems to drip from the pages. Meg really helps eliminate any of those persistent self-doubts you may have about your creativity and your ability to make your dreams a reality. I also really enjoyed the conversations that this book generated while reading it on the subway from fellow subway riders and people who saw me carrying the book around. Since its hard not to notice its bright yellow cover that basically shouts what its about combined with my feverish note scribbling while trying to remain standing on the constantly breaking train… (you really need to have a hand free to hold on with on the Hong Kong subway trains), I naturally was noticeable. I had people asking me if I was an artist and curious about what business I am starting.
I highly recommend this little gem to anyone who has any inkling to start a creative business. Even though this book is geared towards those wanting to sell their own handmade products, I think that anyone wanting to work within the creative industries or wanting to open your own shop selling others creative products you will find value in Craft Inc. I have yet to break into the Craft Inc. business planner, purely because I have no immediate plans to start working on a full fledge business selling anything just yet. But I have it sitting here on my desk ready to encourage me through the process when I do decide what that business will be.
Next on my book list- Unmarketing by Scott Stratten
Posted in great reads | Tagged book review, creative business |
By Jen on February 18, 2011
I was so excited to get my scrapping mojo going last night after what seemed like months of nothing! So to inspire myself and get that creativity flowing I decided to approach my layout a bit different.
First, I choose to scrap 8.5×11 instead of 12×12… this worked out great for me! I didn’t feel so overwhelmed by the vastness of the page and my wee 2R (2x3in) photo. However I got a bit over excited and forgot to finish trimming the page to size. I didn’t realize until after I had stuck everything down…..oooppps oh well 8.5×12 will add character to my album right???
Second, I told myself to just commit!! Sometimes I get so stuck moving everything around the page trying to decide where things should go I get frustrated at myself for not being able to make decisions and give up on the page . I have told myself to just stick things where I first place them and trust that the whole thing will come together…. and it seems to have… it was hard and I can’t say that I was 100% effective at this new method… I moved somethings around right before taking these photos… he he.
I have to say I am very happy with how it turned out and how little time it actually took me. Most of my 12×12 layouts have averaged me about 5 to 6 hours -starting from finding what photo I want to use to taking final product photo. This one took me only about 3 hours! Plus being inspired by the wonderful Studio Calico team and kit helped a bunch to! Love those guys!
Posted in paper & glue | Tagged Challenges, love, Studio Calico Kit |
By Jen on February 14, 2011
Happy Valentines day! I know there are many out there who bah humbug at this holiday and how commercial it has become but I am a sucker for it! That said I really don’t participate in the commercial end of it anyways, not out of protest… (I would totally be all over those spicy little cinnamon hearts) but mostly just because we don’t really get that stuff over here.
I like to think of it as a day to show appreciation for those I love. I find that in the chaos of life, showing appreciation for those that care about me is something I too often overlook and I love that there is a day on the calender to remind me to do so! Plus how can you pass up any reason to make everything pink and heart shaped????
Anyone who knows Luke knows that the way to his heart is with an awesome breakfast, so I had fun early this morning cooking this little treat! Yes!! those are totally pink love heart pancakes! and I didn’t burn them!
Sometimes its the simplest things that show so much love. I love the heart drawing Luke made on our bedroom window this morning.
Hoping everyone has a wonderful day with the ones you love and all the fantastic hearts and pinkness!
Posted in Life in general | Tagged jen cooking, love, Luke, pink pancakes, valentines day |
By Jen on January 12, 2011
Welcome this is Cheeky Bunny’s first little hop into the world wide web…
We are still in the creation phase but hope to be hopping soon!!
Image from cuteoverload.com found via pinterest.com
| Tagged first post, hello |
