Discovery ...

So I must tell you about Design Festa. It was HUGE! and amazing. IF you are creative, or want to be inspired AND are thinking you may just go to Japan next year the next Design Festa is May 15. When i was there last month I think they had 800 exhibitors. Here's a beautiful piece of water colour work I found by MorinoMisako. While there i was always on the look out for how English was used.. don't you love the poetic phrase she has captured here ... 'Yesterday's dream dissolves into milk"
Here was her stand... it would've been nice to have had a chat..

Onwards and forward...

So after an 'interesting' few weeks following on from my redundancy while on holiday in Japan ... I'm pleased to say I'm back to work!
I feel very lucky be staying with the same company... to join a new team with a great bunch of people and work on one of Australia's iconic titles.

This week, the next phase of my day job began with me working at the magazine that comes with the Saturday newspaper here in Sydney. I'm looking forward to the challenge of a different publication..

It's hard to make decisions (when faced with a change) not only on behalf of yourself, but also your whole family. I feel like i have the best of both worlds, and for that i'm grateful. To be able to 'go' to work but to also enjoy my time at home creating when i want to..

It's crazy all that debate about working mother vs stay-at-home mother, or the 'corporate' day job vs own handmade business... in the end we are all just doing what we can do, in the short time we have, to be happy. Surely that's all that matters ... however we choose to juggle it?

reasons to be cheerful

So did you still want to see some holiday pics? would you like to pop inside this cafe?

It's cosy and peaceful - pleasant for an afternoon stop, revive and survive!

Let's pop our bag into the basket and take a seat on this pretty cushion... what's on the menu?

Hmmmm, that looks like it has all my favourite food groups and is just under $8 Australian...

Yumo! it was gorgeous - you'll have to take my word for it. The jelly was amazing - so 'clean' and refreshing, the white balls were chewy, the green tea ice cream the perfect partner - topped with sweet beans.. AND if you still needed a pick me up you could pour the brown sugar syrup over the whole arrangement...
very cheerful indeed!

Better than sliced bread...

Masking tape! I had come across it before i went to Japan - but of course had to seek it out while i was there..
i found a book on it..
I don't know the title but the ISBN is ISBN978-4-07-262088-5.
Here's an example of how you can use masking tape to collage a project...
the book has about 80 pages of actual pictures with projects which are lovely + inspirational.. there's also some history and info (but in Japanese).. the tape has various transparency properties (depending on the colour) so you can experiment with overlaying and adding it to your own collages.. more from the book here...

or, you can create pictures with it..
so that led to my own experimenting..
or combining it with rubber stamping too! Stick down some random shapes ... then carve out a stamp and ink over the top...
So of course Christmas is a good excuse.. to get yourself some masking tape and start creating.. embellishing all sorts of things! I do have a few rolls at my Etsy shop over here..