∞

I am struggling to comprehend how I haven't written on my little nook of the internet in over two months! Time has just escaped me once again as I am in the final semester of my degree and the year, so understandably this has been my top priority, unfortunately. But it wont be like this forever, promise! ∞

I'm still under pressure even though I am on my 2 week mid-semester break (break, what break?!) so this post will just consist of my Instagram updates and some inspo to carry you through the rest of the week.

1. Illustrating flower blooming stages for a project.
2. Post workout brekky consisting of yummy Greek yoghurt, muesli, fruits and nuts. The only way I can get through my workout is if I know I'm gonna be eating this afterwards!
3. Illustrating.
4. Project progress for a made-up organic dried fruit company I am currently designing packaging for as part of a uni project.
5. Some more work on my organic dried fruit company's branding.
6. Illustrating creepy weird little insects (something new for me!) and working on some handmade typography for a collaborative project.

My inspo of late has consisted of largely Spring/Summer vibes, as here in Australia we are currently in the midst of Spring and the heat is slowly coming back into the air. My mind has been all over the place as I struggle to keep a float of my projects for uni, which I think is reflected back into my bipolar, justaposed inspo of these past two months.

Until next time! x

☀

Ugh I know, I know - I thought I'd be back to regular weekly blogging again during this break but clearly this hasn't happened! However, this doesn't mean that I haven't been busy!

I have been working on some personal illustrations over these past two to three weeks, which I have featured below and can also be seen under my Portfolio page.

Paeonia Lagoon

Iris

Intergalactica

Instagram Updates

1. Cameo the Label lily palm print top - I am in love with this.
2. Drawing Gia Carangi, my model inspo.
3. Floral illustrations.
4. Warming myself up with homemade pumpkin soup and breakfast tea.
5. Is my floral obsession obvious?!
6. Progress of a recently completed illustration.

This month I have been drawing my inspiration from musical sources, such as FKA Twigs and Lana Del Rey. Style-wise, I have been interested in the juxtaposition of bright metallic and nude, blush and muted grey shades. I'm wishing the warm weather would return soon so I can enjoy sleeping by the pool and basking in the summer sunshine. I need more Vit. D!

Until next time! x

ღ

I feel super stressed an a little lack-lustre about life right now. I think I just need some time away from the computer and escape into the country to rejuvenate my body and mind, as well as gain a little inspiration for design. So because I'm stressed and feeling really time-pressured, this will be a short but sweet post update. Basically, I've been getting a lot more sleep, trying to catch up on doing things other than uni work that I love and take in as much culture as possible this study break. I'm scared about my marketing exam result, but I tried really hard and studied so much, so hopefully I'll be right as rain. :)

These are my instagram updates of the things that have been going on in my life of late.

1. Free time left over to draw - it's actually such a relaxing thing for me to just sit down, empty my mind and draw freely.
2. Finished my latest little illustration, which can be viewed at a larger size in the Portfolio section on here.
3. Yummy breakfasts consisting of green tea + muesli with strawberries, almonds, chia seeds, LSA, blueberries, bananas, organic honey and Greek yoghurt - a great way to end my morning run!
4. I'd been eyeing off this necklace from Sportsgirl for some time now, was down to $4.95 so I bought it! The diamantes in the doorknocker ring are so amazingly sparkly in the light!
5. Playing around with Illustrator to create interesting selfies, haha!
6. Spring / Summer = fresh strawberry season. ❤



Until next time, have a listen to this 60's/70's summer inspired mix and keep on dreaming. ♥

Anywhere and Anything from bambisvalentine on 8tracks Radio.

☂

The symbol used in the title of this post is extremely appropriate and relevant to the weather right now - it has been on and off raining all week! I used to love heavy rain back at home in the country, but now that I'm living in the city and having to run all there errands, it really gets in the way! Plus umbrellas can be such a nuisance to carry in strong winds - I find they always invert and then render totally useless. Oh well, that's life! I still love rain when I'm staying indoors drinking tea and reading, or watching a film. I've basically just been working on some projects before class goes back on the 29th of July and I just started a marketing class last Tuesday, which was interesting but a little draining in some areas, it may be useful to my future career though so I think I shall stick with it!

I find it so hard to keep up weekly post updates, even though it doesn't seem like much to do it actually requires so much time and energy to design one - it should be a graded project all in itself!

I've been inspired by a few things this past week, here they are presented in collage format:

Here's been my past two weeks in images:

1. Work in progress photo of my illustration of Brigitte Bardot, which I finished and uploaded in my last post.
2. Another illustration in the works.
3. Flowers collected from the garden for illustration studies.
4. Kind of in love with this Minkpink chiffon sleeveless shirt I purchased from Princess Polly, I can't pass up something with such cute gems on the collar!
5. Another purchase from Princess Polly (can you tell I'm a little bit obsessed with online shopping yet?) - Minkpink leopard print dress and kitten eye sunglasses.
6. Although I do love the winter time, I crave the energy of spring and summer, as well as the scents at the fruit markets and the flowers blooming in the garden - this ombre dress will be a staple in summer, as well as this lace cardigan from Topshop, I envision!
7. More end of financial year purchases from Princess Polly - another Minkpink item - this marigold coloured skirt will be so nice for the springtime paired back with a white tee or high neck singlet and my jellies + Mum managed to score these two barely worn shoes by Lipstik and Zu at the local opshop back at home - they fit perfectly and are so lovely. This is one of the reasons why I love opshopping so much!
8. After all the dark clouds and rain downpours, a pretty rainbow managed to make it's way out in the city.
9. I spent a lovely day out breathing the fresh air in the countryside last Sunday, although it was so freezing out there! This is an image of the little ruin on my family's block of land. I hope one day to built a home in the countryside and live there but right now, that's just a wonderful dream.

Here is an 8tracks playlist I created in dedication to my favourite Twin Peaks character, Miss Audrey Horne.

Vixen from bambisvalentine on 8tracks Radio.

That's all for this week's entry, till next time! ♡

Flowery Language

❀ hover your pointer over the image to reveal the message. ❀

Flowery. Address, balderdash, big talk, bombast, composition, discourse, elocution, eloquence, flowery language , fustian, grandiloquence, hot air, hyperbole, magniloquence, oration, oratory, pomposity, rant, verbosity.
Flowery - flow·er·y (flou-r)
adj. flow·er·i·er, flow·er·i·est
1. Of, relating to, or suggestive of flowers: a flowery perfume.
2. Abounding in or covered with flowers.
3. Full of ornate or grandiloquent expressions; highly embellished: a flowery speech.
4. abounding in flowers
5. decorated with flowers or floral patterns
6. like or suggestive of flowers a flowery scent
7. (Literature / Rhetoric) (of language or style) elaborate; ornate
flower·i·ness n.
[ˈflaʊərɪ]

I am a habitual user of flowery language, I just can't help it. I adore the English language in all its complexities and finesse, like an intricately woven silk fabric that gleams white gold in the brightest rays of sunlight. I love flowers too, every single type of flower is beautiful in its way and I love visiting Botanic Gardens just to see the vast array of flower species that inhabit the terrain. Something I'd like to start is flower pressing, because I think the permanence of the flower as retained in a book or in a special album is much like creating a tactile memory that encompasses different senses, particularly scent.

English has evolved and reemerged as a new and improved butterfly of expression, speech, writing and thought throughout the history of its existence; each new century words are added and changed, continuing the metamorphosis of the language as a whole into a complex and overbearing conglomeration of letters.

Reading and writing letters is a lovely past-time, which I also wish to take up again. I once regularly kept correspondence with childhood friends when I had moved interstate. It was a wonderful and exciting feeling that gives you butterflies when you hear a letter has arrived in the mailbox for you. I quite miss that feeling. I might even consider taking up pen pals, as this is something I've been thinking of trying when I was younger too, but never quite got around to doing anything about it. Even if there are mistakes in the letter writing or it is messy, blotchy and hurried in some areas, I think this adds to the charm and thought put into the letter; the person has considered how they fill the page with the particular words they choose to group together, the heady scent of the ink can still be smelled on the paper from the writing and the paper may smell of a specific scent that is used to associate with that person - it's so personal. There's something just so tactile and evocative about reading letters - the pen used, the paper and envelopes written on and sealed carefully and well as the stamps chosen - there's obviously a great deal more love and effort put into them, which is why I really miss this old fashioned way of communication in the 21st century (however, I cannot deny my love of the digital age and everything it has offered me, either).

When I think of words, I never really consider them as just random letters organised in such a fashion that create something with meaning. When I peruse the Oxford Dictionary for a particular English word, I sometimes like to imagine the words as part of a giant alphabet soup and I am fishing for the right combination of letters as I flick through the pages, looking for each corresponding letter in the word as each letter follows the last. Sometimes I just enjoy throwing the book gently into the air and seeing which page it lands on, whereupon I read through the various meanings and pronunciations of each word on that spread page. I love reading, I love writing, I love letters, I love thesauruses and dictionaries and I love words. I love the English language.

1. Feeling nostalgic over looking through childhood photographs of myself. I had style!
2. A self portrait, for my future website which I am in the process of building.
3. Summer fruits combined with Greek yogurt and natural organic honey make for a nice dinner. Fruit salad, yummy yummy!
4. Drawing lovely looking male models with perfect hair and perfect clothing. I wish all boys dressed lovely like this regularly, instead of in jeans hanging off their posteriors.
5. Beautiful, beautiful wedges I purchased online for only $30 + free shipping! They sparkle like golden fragments of citrine gemstones in the bright light and feel like I am walking on light fluffy marshmallows.
6. A lovely little visitor happened upon my doorstep in his mother's cozy pouch - a little joey kangaroo.

Also, here is another playlist for you all to enjoy while you day-dream, drink cups of tea, study or eat cake. It is focused on the beauty of the English countryside and being an anglophile. There are many instrumental pieces from period films which I just adore the scores of. ♡

Anglophilic Tendencies from bambisvalentine on 8tracks Radio.

Until next post my lovelies,

Panache - Kinderwhore

The kinderwhore style movement is one that is particularly influencing my fashion choices of late. This year I have seen so many detachable collars and lacey, flowy pastel coloured fabrics on the runway and then translated to the chain stores. These trends have been reminding me so much of this particular "fashion movement", if it can be identified as such. The style was sweet but in a decayed, de-constructed and disturbed way - sort of like a child pretending to dress up in her mother's clothing and make-up - the messier the better. The juxtaposition of the two elements - sweet and demented - is what gives this style such appeal, both in a nostalgic, child-like sense and a sexualised, adapted-for-adult kind of way. Some of those who adapted and utilised this style are notables such as Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland, but the style is evident in aspects of dress by D'Arcy Wretzky and Wednesday Addams. I like the girly sweetness that it evokes but it becomes more interesting with the darker edge added. I'm always coming across various items in op shops that frequently remind me of the era of this style reigned in (which was the very late 80's and early 90's up until the mid 90's) - particularly dresses with sweet lace peter pan collars or the squared collars, but also through mary jane flat shoes, frilled lace socks and hair bows.

Until next time ♡

Hole - Doll Parts

Ephemeral

Hello all! I recently finished a new illustration which I have been meaning to finish for the longest time, but uni has just gotten in the way of everything. But in this one week I have had free from uni, I have managed to accomplish more for myself then the 13-14 weeks of constant stress I've had. I just really needed this week, although it isn't all that long of a time, it is long enough for me to recover and get ready for next week, where I'll be starting my 3 week intensive packaging course.
Anyway, this is the finished illustration.


Stevie Nicks

Seeing as I have had the time, I have also begun another portrait which is of Boudicca, who is one of my la femme heroes. I have been waiting for ages to find the time to actually start this portrait. I think I will not have it finished by the end of the week, but I will definitely finish it during the mid-year break. I become really invested in my illustrations, as I take the time to research the subject matter and become interested in the history and other factors surrounding the topic I've decided to illustrate around. It is just in its first early stages but I hope I will be able to translate the final image I have in my mind onto the paper.



That is all for now, I shall leave you all with a song I have been coveting at the moment by one of my all-time favourites, Marina and the Diamonds.
♡♡♡

Marina + the Diamonds - Bubblegum Bitch

Pearls of Wisdom

Hello lovely readers, ♥

I am incredibly sorry for this extensive delay in regards to updates on my blog, but university is so demanding I barely find time to properly feed myself and sleep!

"Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house, as your pearl in your foul oyster."
~ Shakespeare.

For this post I will be focussed on the colour I am most inspired by at this moment and that is white. Simple bright white or pearlescent shades reflect pristineness and purity, untainted by other elements and are just existent singularly. It is the simplicity of the shade that draws me in, like the blank sheet of white paper that I face before beginning a new illustration or design, it is the stepping stone to something more, the foundation which is built upon by layers of various mediums; the empty canvas with so much potential. I feel that paper is largely unappreciated and taken for granted and in it's most simplest form, it can be the starting point for something wonderful to be created. I particularly note this in the paper art that I have observed, as well as these paper eyelashes by Paperself. I just adore how beautiful the shade white can be, it is so lovely and clean and complacent. Sometimes the most simplest of things can be the most beautiful.

I hope to be able to blog again later this week, as I have one week off before I go into my packaging design intensive course (pray for my soul, I'm not sure I'll be able to make it as I am only just recovering from finishing a harrowing 1st semester!) But at least I will be getting it out of the way quickly (it is a 3 week course) and it will hopefully make my final semester easier to deal with, then this degree will all be finished! It is so scary to think about, these years have flow by so quickly! But I am still considering coming back for a masters/honours or a specialisation diploma. We shall see what happens!

Until next time, I shall leave you with this cute song I have been coveting recently. x

Cub Scouts - Evie

Colour Inspiration: Musk

Hi all,

As you might be able to tell already, I really love pastel tints. I love all colours in general. I used to really avoid too many colours and was an avid fan of blacks and greys when I was 14-16, but I've grow to embrace colour and wear many different colours now. I'm going to start up a new inspiration post idea by posting a colour I love at the moment and post inspirational images that contain a form of this colour. It will be a way that I can get inspired to create, which will help me at uni hopefully too. :)
The colour I have chosen today is a variation of my favourite colour - pink. It reminds me of musk candy, the shades associated with dawn, marshmallows and fairy floss.

That's all for now lovelies, bye. ❦

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake Op. 20