Inspiration | Paul Wright

Paul Wright. A painter from the UK. AMAZING.
I want to experiment with my painting style. Go for a more abstract style.
He is my ULTIMATE inspiration.
He has a website too. Click here.

Trivial | Hello Kitty Jelly Belly

Hello Kitty + Jelly Belly = MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN.

Found these in Ballantynes yesterday. Hello new addiction! So cute.
As you can see I have already eaten a lot of them. My favourite has to be Red Apple.

Living | Simmering Wax and Oil.

A few weeks ago I had a sleep-over with a girl that I work with after a really long shift where I was way too tired to drive home (How prep-school of us!). The first thing that I though when I stepped through the door was that her place smelt so damn yummy! When I asked her how her house managed to smell like vanilla she promptly showed me her wax simmering pot. From that point on I was determined to buy my own wax simmering kit. So yesterday, whilst I was shopping up a storm, I popped into Acquisitions and bought 4 Time & Again Waffle Bar Simmering Wax Squares.

As you can see I bought Winter Apple, Vanilla Chocolate Bark, Apricot Peach and Sugared Cupcake! They all cost $8.99NZD each. I have already used a square of the Sugared Cupcake and it smell DELIGHTFUL! One square can burn for HOURS and the scent has managed to find it's way around my WHOLE house. And my house isn't small. It is crazy.
I bought a tealight oil burner from Briscoes for $6NZD (Down from $15NZD. BARGAIN!!!) It came as a box set with 1 oil burner, a tealight candle and 1lavender scented simmering wax square, but the wax smelt like really bad soap so I threw it away.

I think that it look really nice and clean.So happy with it! And I am burning the Sugared Cupcake wax. I only put one square in and it has been burning for hours, and I swear it hasn't become any smaller…. AMAZING.

I am actually not a stranger to the concept of simmering scents. A couple of years ago I bought a Cinnamon oil burning kit fir the Cinnamon Clove Company. It came with a small oil burner, a few tealight candles, a 10mL vial of Cinnamon extract, Cinnamon bath salts and a Cinnamon scented facial towel. I became addicted straight away and used it religiously! But for some reason I forgot about it, and thanks to the lovely girl at work I have fallen back involve with oil burning.

The burner itself I love because it is so cute and rustic looking. To use an oil burner you simply put water in the bowl, and put a few drops of the oil in the water, watch the water boil and the oil disperse!
Unlike wax simmering, where I just want the nice smell, I use oil burning for more medicinal purposes.

I have 4 oils Which are; Cinnamon (Price unknown), Peppermint ($16.99NZD for 10mL vial), Orange ($12.99NZD for 10mL vial) and Cocoa Vanilla and Cassia ($12.99NZD for 20mL vial). The Peppermint, Orange and Coca Vanilla and Cassia are all from The Aromatherapy Co. and I bought them all from Living and Giving.
I really like The Aromatherapy Co. because all of their ingredients and products are all natural and free from mineral oils, paragons, sodium sulphates, artificial fragrance, dyes and artificial colours and, most importantly to me, free of any animal testing. The Aromatherapy Co. are also a member of the 1% for the Planet movement, where they donate 1% of their annual profits to environmental organisations.
Also, an added bonus for myself it that it is 100% made in New Zealand! (Go you good thing!)

But back to the oils themselves.
As I said before each oil has their own specific medicinal benefits, and on The Aromatherapy Co. vials they tell you all about these benefits.
Peppermint- "Peppermint helps people become clear headed and refreshed the spirit. Beneficial for people who are unable to concentrate or have metal fatigue." I have been burning this when I have to do my Chemistry study for university, and weirdly, it works.

Orange (My personal favourite)- "Orange can help to calm you, inducing sleep. It is wonderful with helping to dispel depression, promoting a bright, positive mood." I have been getting into a habit of burning the orange oil about 20 minutes before I want to sleep to relax me and I just blow out the candle when I am ready to sleep and it has been doing WONDERS.

Coca Vanilla and Cassia- "A natural blend of Cocoa Vanilla & Cassia to harmonise and balance the senses. This blend can create a sense of comfort and reassurance, reducing stress and help combat exhaustion." I always burn this on cold winters dates where I just want to relax and read a book. So delightful.

The cinnamon didn't come with a little blurb, but I do like burning it when I am having a bath, I even some times put a few drops in the water!

I have been keeping all my waxes and oils in the cute little box that the Cinnamon kit came in. I really want to make a label for it, but I don't really have any idea's what I want it to look like….

So rustic, so simple. fits everything PERFECTLY.



Wow a long post. Now to do some Chemistry study with my Peppermint oil!

Life | Leaving Home in 11 Days.

Home. In 11 days I leave for Australia for University and I won't be coming back a lot.

I love where I live. I love farm life. I love being able to have my french doors and windows open 24/7 and not have to worry about pokey-nose neighbors or people breaking in an taking all of my things. I love the smell of the fresh morning air. I love the sound of the cows that are in the paddock, 20 metres away from my bedroom. I love the birds, especially the cheeky wee black fantails. I love my cats coming in wet and snuggling with me under my sheets at 2 in the morning. I love my dog doing the same thing, but smelling like lavender from waling trough, not around, the lavender plants. I love the perfect starry nights where I sit on my beanbag staring into oblivion. I love being able to go for a run and not feel like an dot because of what I am wearing/what my face looks like. I love the honestly of the land. I love looking out my window and seeing all the land that my Dad owns and farms with pride. I love the way that my mother and father are. I love the way that the land has shaped the character of my family.

Trivial | NYC Grand Central Terminal, 1929

The light doesn’t stream in like this anymore because the buildings around the station are too tall.
Isn't this just beautiful.

Inspiration | Camera Obscure with Abelardo Morell

He covered all his windows with black plastic in order to achieve total darkness, he then cut a small hole in the same black plastic material, an image of the outside scenery was reflected directly on the opposite wall, but it was upside-down.
I am in LOVE with the texture of the first photograph; how he has layered multiple images. BEAUTIFUL. 
My form 7 Photography class did this last year when we were studying different ways of capturing the world around us. 
It is breath-taking how clear and.... AMAZING the image is.
I really want to try this again some time!

Fashion | If I were a guy...

I would, 100%, dress like Scott Disick.

What a classy guy.

Life | Mark Gonzales and lunch

First post of the year. First post of my newly reinvented blog. I am defiantly feeling 2012.

Today I decided that I would sit outside under the pagoda that shadows my parents room and have a nice and relaxing lunch.

I had managed to create quite the picnic for myself, with my purple teapot brewing some green tea, my Winnie the Pooh Glass full with ice cold water as it is really hot today, my cut Beatrix Potter mug that my Mum got me for Christmas, my lunch of odd things that I found in my fridge, my old, dinky Minolta Uniomat camera with a black and white film in to take meaningless photographs and the 95th edition of Oyster magazine.

I ended up reading an interview that Joseph Allen Shea with Mark Gonzales. It was really interesting and erratic. I became totally engrossed in the style of the piece. It was raw and honest, with no bull-shitting or fluffing around. You could really sense the type of person the Gonzales is. I really loves the way that it ended;

"Gonzales: …..Do you think that is a long enough interview?
Shea: Pardon me?
Gonzales: Is that a long enough interview?
Shea: Oh yeah, totally. I mean, I think there is so much, like, chitchat that doesn't need to be there, but, uh, yeah, yeah. It's totally fine…"

I felt like it really highlighted the bluntness of Gonzales and the fact that he really doesn't care what other epode think of him; he is totally comfortable with in his own skin and does thing exactly the way that he wants to.

The finally page of the 4 page interview is photocopy of a poem Gonzales wrote during the interview.

That was really the cherry on top of a brilliant interview-cake.