Hi everyone! Just a quick note to say that my online shop is shut from 1 June to 30 June. I’m taking a break to recharge! You can follow my adventures on Instagram as I doodle my way around…Iceland!

That’s right I’m heading to Iceland! After years of dreaming and obsessing about this beautiful rugged country, I’m finally making my way there with Big Mo! Our first leg of the trip will be in Wales to visit his family and then en-route to Iceland, London and KL. I’m so excited!

Awhile back, I bought this sketchbook with an Iceland map on it, dreaming about all the things that I would see and sketch in Iceland. Can’t wait to put my sketchbook to good use!

I even started inking a few pages and will continue to fill it up during my trip!

Meanwhile…back to my packing! (I’m still deciding what pens to brings with me!) Catch you on Instagram or Facebook!

I recently came back from a week long Melbourne trip. It was filled with so much art and creativeness that I think I might have to share more than one post about my trip.

Today’s post is going to be just about my screen printing workshop with the Harvest girls. One word: INSPIRING….

Or make that three words:

HAPPINESS!!

FUN!!

MAGICAL!!!!

If you are considering a workshop at Harvest Workroom, or have an interest in screen printing, I hope my post will encourage you to take up a class! I chose Design and screen print your own fabric. It’s a two day workshop, run by the lovely Jess Wright.

I should confess that flying to Melbourne to attend a workshop seemed exciting at first but closer to the time of my travels, I started to feel very nervous and was even regretting my enrollment. I had no experience with screen printing so I felt out of my depths. I tried a few things to prepare myself for class:

1. Read up on screen printing, particularly fabric printing (I’d recommend Lena Corwin’s Printing by Hand)

2. Brainstorm pattern ideas and draw daily

3. Practice stencil cutting

Of course you don’t have to do all of this, in fact you might like to turn up and learn as you go! But the preparation gave me a basic understanding of the screen printing process and also encouraged me to play around with patterns.

The first day of the workshop was like a test run. We spent some time stencil cutting our patterns before applying it to our screen and adding fabric ink.

I realised quickly that screen printing requires good discipline and organisation skills because the whole process gets messy quickly: dirty screens, spilled ink, upside down images…and then back to more tedious stencil cutting!

By the end of the class, I was feeling a little frazzled because there was so much information to process and this whole world of screen printing suddenly seemed so overwhelming! I wasn’t sure if others felt the same but Jess was so patient and she told us to go home, have a rest and regroup for tomorrow!

On the second day of the workshop we learned about repeat printing on fabric. Using the swiss repeat technique, I made a confetti stencil pattern and picked colours that reminded me of candy floss and strawberry sorbet.

After my very messy day on day one, day two seemed easier as I became more comfortable in using the squeegee. There is an art to it and over time I even learned to pick up the happy sounds that a good squeegee print makes!

I love my confetti fabric!

Next I worked on my posie pattern. I wanted a two colour screen print so I mixed up some bright orange and ocean blue. As you know I’m very partial to these colours because they are my wedding colours!

Posie printing in action…

The final result!

And with all the excitement and fun going on…before I knew it the day had flown by so quickly!

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my workshop. It has certainly inspired me to do more screen printing projects at home. I’m going to shop around for some supplies and experiment with colours and different fabrics. At the mean time, I’m going to see what I can make with my fabric prints from Harvest. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them! Tea towels? Pillow cases? Let me know!

This January, we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary at Lake Leschenaultia. It’s a manmade lake situated in Chidlow, about 45 minutes drive from Perth. I packed a picnic for us and took my SuperHeadz wide and slim camera. 8 months later, I finished the roll of film and had it developed.

The thing about shooting with film, it’s a longer process as compared to taking instant shots on a digital camera. I usually make my roll of film last longer by shooting a couple of pictures and then saving it for another special occasion. I don’t get to see the photos until it’s developed many months later!

I’ve got to say that the SuperHeadz slim is one of the easiest film camera to use. The wide angled lens makes every photo look effortless and beautiful. The camera doesn’t do well in dark conditions but as a day camera, it’s perfect. The camera is so light weight and compact, it’s quite possibly my favourite camera at the moment!

Film stock used: Lomography 400ASA

Taken in Germany:

Film stock used: Lomography 400ASA & Fujicolour Superia 200

Taken in Paris:

Film stock used: Fujicolour Superia 200 & Lomography 400ASA

I’m packing for my holiday and I haven’t decided which of our film cameras will join us on the trip. I have a feeling we’ll be bringing more than one. I guess you could say Big Mo and I are really enthusiastic about photography. Even though we have digital cameras, we still love the analogue culture. There’s always an element of intrigue and surprise when you shoot on film.

I like nature shots and I like playing with patterns of light and shadow. Big mo on the other hand is more technical and experienced. He likes taking architecture and panorama. He also likes experimenting with long exposures. Sometimes when I think I’ve found the perfect object or a great spot to photograph, I see him sneaking up behind me to take the same shot. He likes to tease me that this is the “backup” shot in case I haven’t captured it correctly!

I’ve been meaning to blog about my camera collection for awhile and today seems like a good day to bring out all my toys!

Diana F+
This is the Diana F+ which I won in a Lomography photo competition last year. I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t gotten around to playing with her yet. The great thing about the Diana F+ is that she’s very versatile. You can attach her with various lenses to capture different perspectives (wide-angle, fisheye, telephoto, super wide to name a few). The Diana F+ uses 120mm film but if you’d like to shoot on 35mm film or on instant film, you can purchase different backs like the 35mm back and instant back. If you have the Deluxe Kit which is what I have, it comes with a full range of lenses and accessories for you to experiment with.

Diana Mini En Rose
When I first got into Lomography, the Diana Mini was the first camera that I purchased from the Lomo family. She takes dreamy, multiple exposures like her big sister the Diana F+.

One of her main features is that you can switch between:

square format

and half-frame.

The Diana Mini shoots on 35mm film and unfortunately her lens and her back is fixed and not detachable. I took this camera with us to Europe and it didn’t let me down one bit! I loved that it was so tiny and light weight to carry around.

The downside I had with this camera was when switching between square frame and half-frame, I kept getting confused and would forget to plan my shots properly or wind the counter correctly. I had a lot of shots that overlapped between the frames. Some looked pretty but some looked like a mess.

I’d recommend dedicating one roll of film in half-frame and shooting another roll in square frame just for ease of mind.

Sprocket Rocket
I bought Rich the Sprocket Rocket for his birthday. Not only does it take the most glorious panoramas, but it has a nifty reverse gear that allows you to rewind and remix your photos. This offers endless possibilities for overlays!

Superheads White Slim Angel
This is the SuperHeadz wide and slim. Anna from Much Love shoots most of her beautiful photos on the SuperHeadz. I’m a huge fan of her work so I decided to give this camera a try. It’s very easy to use, you basically just point and shoot and wind the counter to advance to the next frame. The beauty of this camera is the 22mm wide angle lens, fitted inside its slim and ultra-weight body! Fits easily in the pocket of my handbag!

Unlike the Lomo cameras, you can’t actually take multiple exposures on the same frame with a SuperHeadz. I know that if i rewind and shoot the entire roll the second time, I would be able to achieve this. If you know of a better way, you can tell me!

Smena 8m
And this is the Smena 8m, the latest addition to our analogue collection. A vintage 35mm camera manufactured in the Soviet Union. First of all, I love the minimalist look of this camera. I’ve read that it takes a mean black and white photo which I’m looking forward to testing out!

Stay tuned for more photos:)

Next week!

When researching on places to visit, we decided to take up the challenge of climbing Mount Kinabalu on the island of Borneo, in East Malaysia. We’ve always loved the outdoors and we’ve done some hiking and jungle trekking in the past but neither of us have actually climbed a mountain. Not one that is 13,455 ft high! Obviously we love the challenge and we’re convinced this climb will be a great experience.

In preparation for our hiking adventure, we’ve been doing lots of stair climbs and morning hikes. Every week we’ve been climbing up and down Jacob’s Ladder!

The view on the hill after our climb is always amazing. We get a free cardio workout with a breathtaking view of Perth city!

On other days we go on hikes around Kings Park. And this is why I love being outdoors. There’s so much to see, smell and enjoy. I’m so grateful that we have this mass of park space to explore and take in all of natures beauty!

So…we fly off next Thursday and begin our mountain trek on my birthday, 6th June. We’re hoping to reach the summit within two days. Although a little nervous, I’m also keen to celebrate my birthday on a mountain for the first time. Wish us luck! And stay tuned for a mountainous post about it:)

Hi! Sorry for the absence. I’m sure my mum (who visits my blog daily) must be wondering by now what I’ve been up to!

Last weekend, we went on a South West trip to film a documentary for the Shire of Kulin. Kulin is a small town situated in the Upper Southern whealtbelt area of Western Australia. It took us 4 hours to get there and it was quite a picturesque drive with rolling hills, open farmlands, cattles, sheeps and horses throughout. I even spotted some alpacas!

While Richard was filming, I wandered around taking a few snapshots. I think the pictures kind of sum up the classic Australian farming lifestyle!

I’m looking forward to returning to the town next month. We’ll be filming Kulin’s famous Tin Horse Highway so I’ll post more pictures then. I hope you are all well! xox

So part II of our travelogue:) Our next stop was Berlin and boy were we overwhelmed with this metropolis! Even though I’ve traveled to some of the bigger capital cities of the world like Tokyo and Seoul, there is something about Berlin and the way the city is laid out that makes it so vast and spacious. The buildings were huge, the statues were ginormous and the roads stretched so wide (probably for the benefit of the tanks and marching troops in the old days).

Walking around Berlin is like walking through a kaleidoscope of time periods. It’s steeped with old history and yet it bustles with modern art. A normal day in this cosmopolitan city involves stumbling upon monuments or forgotten walls from the world war era and then coming across an indie shop or a graffiti wall brimming with youth art and vibrant colours. I feel like there is always an interesting sight waiting to reveal itself just around the corner!

Come and join us on one of our Berlin walks:)

Next stop France, in my next post. Expect to see a lot of pictures of macarons and pastries:)

I know you’ve waited for our holiday pictures for so long and it’s taken me this long to edit them! Between the two of us…I think we took about 2000 over photos! I’m not sure how I’m going to condense all the stories I’m about to tell you of our trip…but here goes!

Germany was our first stop in Europe. My mum and step dad lives in Stuttgart, in the state of Baden-Württemberg so we spent most of our time touring the Southwest of the country before making our way up north. Southwest Germany is beautiful for its mountain landscapes, lush Black Forest and half-timbered towns. The region is also famous for its cuckoo clocks and needless to say, we wasted no time in purchasing one for our house:) I’ll share pictures in my next post.

Rich found that the longer he stayed in Germany, the more he grew to love the sights and its people. We agreed that Germans are hands down one of the funniest and friendliest people!

Since we were always on the go, we would start our day with a freshly baked pretzel from the bakery. I like the pumpkin seed ones the best.

One of our holiday highlights was a road trip down to Bavaria with some friends. The sight of the Bavarian alps were just incredible!

Now, being in a country where it’s famously known as the ‘Country of castles’ (there is around 25,000 castles in Germany) you could say we were spoiled with choices. Hence our trip to Bavaria because there was only one castle that we REALLY had to visit; the Neuschwanstein Castle.

Built in the 18th century by King Ludwig II, Neuschwanstein Castle is also known as the “Fairy Tale Castle” and is said to have inspired several Walt Disney castles. The castle was breathtakingly beautiful and to see it up close and walk through the rooms that Kind Ludwig II visioned himself, was an unforgettable experience!

On one of our day trips out of Stuttgart, we visited a university town called, Tübingen. The Neckar river runs through the old town which makes this scene look postcard perfect! We strolled along the river and park, before venturing into the medieval town centre. We bought fresh raspberries from the marketplace and for most of the afternoon I had sticky red fingers.

In Esslingen which is just on the outskirts of Stuttgart, we hiked up the steep cobbled hill to check out the town’s castle. Once up at the lookout tower, we were treated to an amazing panorama of the village and the vineyard. Walking down the cobbled road later proved to be a challenge itself!

Aside from castles and alps, Germany is also famous for its wide range of beer, sausages and currywurst (hot pork sausage seasoned with curry ketchup). The serving size in this country is ridiculously huge and most of the time I was contented with eating one meal a day!

Next stop Berlin…in my next post!