Alphabetography Art

I am almost ashamed to say that Pinterest is winning out in the moments when I catch 5 or 10 minutes to search the net for ideas and inspiration.  If you asked me what my learning style is, I'd say I'm visual.  I love to see things - I love to watch things, I love to take in moments captured by photos and film.  This is not to say that words aren't powerful and beautiful - they are.  For centuries we have known that - we have all celebrated in the richest of literary works and have been taught in schools how to analyse every syllable of every word on every page.  I love words.  But when it comes to pictures, well, pictures tend to speak to me in a very different way from words.  They not only lead me into a world of imagination, inspiration and ideas, but they hold me there.  They give me the starting block to stand on when I am trying to envision a concept, understand a situation or learn about a particular way something is done.  Pictures.  Pictures hold you there - where you feel something not from hearing it but from seeing it.

 Put together, words and pictures seem to me almost like new senses through which we are starting to explore our world more and more...

Recently, a good friend - whom I have known since we were Alphabetically placed beside each other on the first day of Grammar School (Elementary) at age 11 - has come up with a way to combine my two loves through art:  words and pictures.  Genius.

This media form is taking off all over the place whether in 'infographics,' the use of 'wordle' or in those wooden or fabric letters we use around the home to state something of our character, life or passions.  However, my clever friend Olivia, I believe, take it to a new level of beauty.  I realise I am woefully biased but please, take a look at the following and tell me you don't agree....

                            "Home"

"Love"

"Bake" - simply adorable....

This is her at work....where her Clutter IS Creative.....(you know I had to get that in there!)

"BELFAST"

"Ireland"

                "Pray"

"Love"

Words and pictures.  Pictures that make words.  Here's to the success of Alphabetography Art.... In my mind, you're a winner!

One year, countless memories...

A year ago today, I married this man....which looked a little like this:

Which led us here on our honeymoon....

which ended in a volcano erupting and us being stranded in Nice, France...with my parents....

Upon return to real life, we then started solidifying our family unit with this edition...

A few other precious moments included...

Men's Health Magazin, Edinburgh Sep 2010

Cher's visit and high tea at Adare Manor

..and good friends dropping in from the US to see us in... Ireland...

I could go on but there's just no way to fully express the adventure of our first year of marriage.

Husband, I love you.

Sundays in the Sun

Today we took to the great outdoors with our picnic, pup and sense of adventure.  We searched for a new walk to try in the Dublin area and came across this:

The Hellfire Club

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montpelier_Hill

Suffice to say, I raised my eyebrows when my husband suggested we head up to this particular spot.  The history is pretty interesting but I'll leave that for you to read up on at the link above.  The main info is that there is an old hunting lodge building (1725) at the top of Montpelier hill that overlooks the city of Dublin with panoramic views.  It is a stunning walk with the city below and other hills all around.  Here are a few snaps of our day:

 Our picnic spot - a few handy tree stumps, some PB&J  sandwiches, grapes and a treat or two for Jozy...

The Perfect Pizza

How many times in our lives have we reverted to the weekend pizza?  hmmm? Well, we adore pizza.  Until recently though, the option of ordering in and having the wonderful delivery guy bring us one was non-existent... and to add insult to injury, the nearest pizza place was 25 mins away.  So, we delighted in the joys of pizza making nights!

There are so many great reasons to go for pizza the homemade way... you typically spend the same or less but get exactly what you want for toppings (and as many as you want!), you can make it healthier being conscious of your cheese choice, tomato sauce base and, again, toppings.... and you have great fun making it.

The recipe we used was BBC's Good Food "Perfect Pizza Base" :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/perfectpizzadough_72456

We have created regular pizza bases and pizza from this but last night we were in the mood for Calzone!

I'll let you follow the perfect directions there and I'll simply let you enjoy the photos as it turned out...

Drawer Fresheners... Sleeping Bags for Tea!

After my recent dabble in carpentry, I was confronted with the next task - re-organising things with the new pieces of furniture.  The only problem was, I have heaps of beautifully fresh laundry to put in my new drawers and the drawers?  Well, they smell of flat-pack furniture!

So, I looked out my scraps of fabric, a few herbal tea bags and came up with a simple and (I think) cute fix!

Get you needles, scissors, scraps of fabric and herbal tea bags out and here we go...

I used Peppermint Tea Bags at the request of my husband who did not want his T-Shirts coming out a) flowery b) fruity or c) perfumy....

In truth, once the tea bags are snug and safe in their little sleeping bags, the smell is not too strong.  I think I'll be going in search for a new set of tea bags for some of my personal drawers.... pick your favouite scent and have some fun!

I decided at this point to go ahead and stictch the bag up as I couldn't put my hand on my buttons or safety pins.  I think it would be more practical to create a button hole at the top with a fold-over, so that you could switch the tea bags out when the scent starts to fade.... otherwise, you're either unpicking stitches or starting all over again from scratch! However, like I said, I went ahead and finsihed a seam all the way round so that the tea bag is fully contained and the pouches can be knocked around in the drawer without any disasterous spills!

 

Tada!  Stitch them however you like.. and lets face it, it needn't be perfect... notice how uneven my stitches are!  I guess my saving grace is that noone will be hoking through my dresser :)