I discovered the beautiful photography of the talented Jose Villa via the Duet Weddings blog... not that I am in the habit of reading wedding blogs, but when cruising around blogland you never know where you'll end up.
I was struck by the sometimes quirky nature and gorgeous feel of Jose's images and his graphic compositions. He seems to have the wonderful ability of shooting each wedding with a fresh eye. You know how you sometimes see the work of a wedding photographer and their photography style seems to dominate and detract from the subject matter? There's none of that here. And when I took a look at his website and blog I found even more to love: especially the travel shots (like the one above). So beautiful.
Here's a small selection, and check out Jose's website here and blog here for more. He's from Southern California, but "available for travel worldwide". How great would that be - flying your photographer in from the US?!
Inspiration: Jose Villa
Today
Today has just whizzed past me with no time to blog.
But what a momentous day in history it's been!
The seven year old daughter of a friend in America went to bed tonight saying these words:
"goodnight mama, dadda, Obama, liberty, justice, everyone"
What the world needs now
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Advent Calendar Tuesday
OK, so I think I was getting a bit ahead of myself offering a weekly tutorial for my advent calendar! In my usual style I am winging it, no pun intended (the pun reference will become apparent in a minute). I have a vision of the finished piece and I have started to make various components, but how it will come together in the end is still negotiable. Having said that, I have provided a tutorial below of what I've done so far, and I will continue to update you every Tuesday.
My idea is based around wanting to make these gorgeous birds from a pattern I downloaded from Spool earlier this year.
Image Source: SpoolClick here to go to Spool, and you'll see the free pattern download in the left sidebar.
I showed you my materials and colour palette last week - here. And here are my little Christmas birdies:
My birds are made out of wool felt, which I embroidered, and pieces of Florence Broadhurst fabric. I will have to make some more, because I think they might be a bit lonely on the big branches.
At the moment I am thinking that the birds will sit on found branches (from around my neighbourhood) which are placed in a vase. The vase is cylindrical and I'll cover the outside with wrapping paper. You can see from the photo above that I have stuffed the inside with newspaper to hold the branches in place.
I've used Laikonik wrapping paper to make little cones which will hang from the branches and house the treats. I cut squares which measure 16 x 16cm and attached double sided tape to one edge on the back of the paper. Then I rolled up the cones and secured them with the tape. It wasn't difficult, but if you have trouble making the cones you could use something like the metal end of a piping bag to help with the shape.
A few things to note if you are going to make an advent calendar like mine:
1. I think the cones are too big - with 24 of them I'm going to need a lot of branch space! And they are a bit big in comparison to the birds. The size will depend on what you intend to put inside, and how big you want the whole advent calendar to be. 10 x 10cm might be a good size, but just experiment with some scrap paper first (like I didn't!)
2. The wrapping paper I used is very stiff and quite heavy. It won't work if your paper is too flimsy. You could always use a double layer if necessary - perhaps a contrasting colour or complimentary pattern for inside the cones.
My intention is to punch a hole in the top point of each cone and thread string or ribbon through to secure it to a branch. Then I need to decide how I'll add the numbers. I'll work that out by next Tuesday!
So far my materials are:
- heavy wrapping paper (or light weight card)
- double sided tape
- wool felt
- embroidery thread
- fabric
- stuffing
- found braches
- newspaper
- vase
Additional materials will include:
- ribbon or string
- numbers (perhaps little tags, or number stickers that scrapbookers use)
And treats of course.
Before I wrap up Advent Calendar Tuesday I thought I'd show you another idea I had. I bought a stack of Chinese take away containers to package my hand painted goose eggs in, and when I spied them in the cupboard this week I thought they would make a stylish and simple advent calendar. They could be hung in a row from a string, or sit on a tray or directly on a mantle, shelf or side table.
Mad Men
I just LOVE this image!
I've finally ordered the DVD of the first series of the Golden Globe winning show Mad Men, and I can't wait to get it. The second series is currently on air (or possibly it's just finished) in the US on AMCTV.
The premise (from AMCTV): The series revolves around the conflicted world of Don Draper, the biggest ad man (and ladies man) in the business, and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. As Don makes the plays in the boardroom and the bedroom, he struggles to stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing times and the young executives nipping at his heels. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960s traditional family values.
I'm desperate to see the series as much for the '60's era fashion and styling as for the story. The wardrobe department and set designers have gone to great lengths to achieve authenticity and they have done an amazing job. Together with the fashion gems they have included some beautiful examples of mid century furniture design.
However, I recently read a great post by Mark Simonson - who has seriously scrutinised the show's props - about the lack of authenticity in the typography which has been used in Mad Men. Mark has a keen eye and an amazing knowledge of the history of typography. Perhaps the props people should collaborate with him in the future. It's disappointing when so much effort has been placed into getting so many other visual details correct. Not that this has dampened my enthusiasm at all.
Here is the fashion file.
And here is the Mad Men official blog.
This is the Aussie site where I bought the DVD. It's available for pre-order (with free delivery) and will be available at the end of the month. With the state of our Aussie dollar I thought I could hang out a bit longer rather than getting it from Amazon. How many days are there until the end of the month?!...
Image Source: AMCTV------------------------------------------------------------------
