Sunday January 8, 2012

Flickr three :: #9D4784 :: rose

ColourLovers colour #9D4784

This year I’ve decided to return to something I used to do – a flickr post around a single colour. This time however I’ve given it a bit of a twist inspired by and an homage to the ever talented and lovely Brandi from brandigirlblog.com. Last year, Brandi completed a 52 Colors Project, a task of posting a photo and colour each week – read her post and see her 52 colours here. Some of us were a little sad to hear she’s given it up this year, but as someone who has abandoned a regular post I know it’s healthy to bring things to their natural conclusion. Since Brandi is way better with a camera than I am and since I’m so inspired by the abundance of talent of flickr I’ve decided to continue choosing 3 from the Creative Commons.

So what’s the twist I hear you ask? Well the colour is one that I have personally named over at ColourLovers. This is always a surprise when you create a palette that includes a colour that’s never been named – makes me feel like a colour explorer. To date I have managed to name 187 colours, which is quite modest in comparison to some. The naming process is fun and while I used to joke that I would love a job naming paint, now that I’ve had the chance to name a few colours I think it would be an awesome career. Here is the first colour I named – Rose or in geek speak #9D4784. Enjoy!

My flickr three are from top: Emergence II by Mike Bitzenhofer, Barney’s House by Pulp0lux!!!, Cape purple by Charles Roffey

Posted in colour | Tagged , | 5 Comments
Tuesday January 3, 2012

Free WordPress Theme from Crimson Pear

Kiiroi Blog Theme Preview

I have been working on this for a while and I’m so happy to show you my first free WordPress theme, called Kiiroi, which means yellow in Japanese. This has been an ambition of mine for a while now to combine my love of blogging and my love of web design. Last year, after getting my business website, Crimson Pear, up and running I set myself a goal to produce a few themes each year and here is my first! In celebration of the occasion I’ve decided to offer this one up absolutely free. You can get to the download via the themes page at Crimson Pear.

Oh, and if you end up using it I hope you’ll let me know.

Image credit: My theme was inspired by this picture called Old Yellows which is copyright to December Sun.

Posted in design | Tagged , | 2 Comments
Sunday January 1, 2012

Random resolutions :: Happy New Year

Resolution - Create Create Create

Resolution - Perfom Random Acts of Kindness

Resolution - Trust My Instincts

People who know me well know that I’m not a fan of New Year’s Day… just as I’m not a fan of the first page of a book. I have no clue what it is but I always feel happier when the 2nd of January rolls around and when I turn to page 2. Maybe I should take up saying Bah Humbug to everything as well. No seriously I’m not that disagreeable. I also never make New Year resolutions but I do silently set myself some goals – is there a difference? I’m not sure. What I do love is randomness and what could be better than the New Year’s Resolution Generator thanks to Monina Velarde. Here’s what 3 clicks of the Gimme More button gave me – I think I can live with those. So what are your resolutions for the year? Better yet, have the generator pick one for you and come back and let me know what it is. This will be fun!

Happy New Year!

Posted in celebrations | Tagged , | 3 Comments
Thursday December 29, 2011

Walking to the Big Hole

Bushwalking to the Big Hole

We had Christmas away this year – just an hour east to my brother and his family and Christmas lunch saw the whole family together. I’m sure we all stopped and paused to remember my Mum and we all felt her absence.

While we were away the four of us went for a bush walk in the Deua National Park in search of the Big Hole; part of a 400 million year old (how do they know that) cave system that has resulted in a 96 metre deep and 50 metre wide chasm that is viewed from the top. It really is amazing and has a resident lyre bird that you can sometimes glimpse in the morning or early evening.

The walk had us crossing a river, where the boys got carried by the cyclist and we both had to cross with no shoes or pants (a good look). I think it’s sometimes hard to see the beauty of the Australian landscape as it is so very different from the Northern Hemisphere but it has such a ruggedness dotted with tiny wild flowers and filled with sweet smelling eucalypts. We had a slightly overcast day where the clouds came down to meet us and created a magical atmosphere.

So how was your Christmas? This will be my last post for 2011 and want to say thanks and Happy 2012 to all my readers, you really do inspire me. I have a few plans for my blog next year so I hope you’ll stick with me for the ride.

Posted in family | Tagged , | 1 Comment
Wednesday December 21, 2011

Palette and pattern :: tiny snowflakes

Palette inspired by frozen berries

It’s been a while since my last palette and I had forgotton how much I enjoy the process. Inspired by the snowflake image by Kathy I set about to create my palette, I paid a little more attention to what I like to think of as geography in an image. This is how much a colour occupies the real estate of the image and what colours immediately jump out at me – squinting helps me with this task. Remembering of course that at ColourLovers you are limited to a palette of 5 colours.

I think though I really enjoyed the beginning to end process of my pattern making this time around using my own hand drawn snowflakes. This was my first attempt and I learned a lot from the exercise. I was very judgemental of my drawings but once I started to incorporate scale and colour they really did reveal something different. My two patterns, which you are welcome to download and use are (top) Snowing Somewhere and (bottom) Primary Snow. If you are a ColourLover you can also use my templates to create a pattern with your own colours. And I’ve just spotted a flaw in the bottom one, can you see it? Oh well.

Handmade patterns

Posted in colour lover | Tagged , , | 1 Comment
Monday December 19, 2011

Flickr three :: tiny snowflakes

Snowflakes on glove tip

Snowflake

Snowflake

My tiny snowflakes are from top: Snowflakes on glove tip by Mel Green, Snowflake by Lambros Roussodimos, Snowflake by Vlasta Juricek

Posted in flickr | Tagged | 1 Comment
Sunday December 18, 2011

Snowflake scribbles

I’ve been playing around with drawing snowflakes on my Wacom tablet using images of real snowflakes from snow crystals.com as my inspiration. I started out with different brushes, which were a little hard to control but gave interesting results (see below). For these one I used the pen tool in Illustrator to achieve the perfect straight lines.

And for these I used just the brush tool. The rotate feature became useful to repeat one point after I had got it looking the way I wanted. I also wanted to see what it would look like to block out the entire shapes vs drawing the crystals. These ones start to look more decorative and less quintessential snowflake. I think they have potential but maybe not as snowflakes – what do you think? I’ll keep plugging away at them and let you know how I go.

Posted in projects | Tagged | Leave a comment
Friday December 16, 2011

It’s snowing – somewhere in the world

Selection of snowflakes

My Mum used to say that she’d often have a colour in her eye – meaning that for a short period of time she was attracted to a single colour. I suffer from the same problem but with me it’s always a pattern and this week it’s been snowflakes – they are everywhere I look! I know that Christmas is around the corner but for us that means the middle of summer – so not a snowflake in sight. So to get it out of my system I thought I would go in search of some snowflakes. Is it snowing where you are? Maybe I can live vicariously.

My snowflake finds are all via Etsy, clockwise from top left: 5 Porcelain winter white & pearl snowflake ornaments by Lanique Home, Snowflake Cross Stitch Kit by Sewingseed,  Paper Garland – Christmas Snowflakes by Art’s Delight, Recycled Lasercut Snowflake Gift Tags by Sophia Victoria Joy

Posted in etsy | Tagged | 1 Comment
Sunday December 11, 2011

Decorating the tree

Christmas decorations

We got our tree yesterday and decorated it in the afternoon. Here is a selection of photos of our decorations that I took while waiting for cookies to bake. We have a rather eclectic mix since we buy 3 new ornaments each year and these are some of my favourites. What about you? Do you have a Christmas tree tradition?

Posted in celebrations | Tagged , , | 2 Comments
Saturday December 10, 2011

It’s beginning to feel like Christmas fonts

Christmas picture font collection

I’m relatively new to the world of picture fonts, but what a world it is. I know I’ve mentioned a couple of them before but I’ve really just started using them in earnest and I’m about to publish my first free theme that makes use of elements from my current favourite picture font… but more about that later.

I’ve gathered together a collection of Christmas and holiday fonts. I thought it was fitting since we ventured out in the wee hours this morning to get our tree from the farmers market (the jolly monkey is still complaining about getting up so early). We’ve got the new decorations to put on and it’s quite warm outside so Christmas is definitely upon us. Even though we celebrate Christmas in summer all our imagery is still very wintry, which is why I love the Holiday Doodles Too font with it’s bikini, barbeque and sunscreen – now that’s more like it.

If you’ve never used a picture font before they can take a little getting used to as each letter creates a different picture with uppercase and lowercase usually creating different pictures. Good picture fonts will come with some kind of chart to help you navigate your keyboard and get the perfect picture. All of these come via My Fonts and in case you want to purchase them follow these links because I am a MyFonts affiliate. The are – Xshnee Flaken by Ingrimayne Type, Holiday Doodles Too by Outside the Line, Just Christmas by Outside the Line, Christmas Doodles Too by Outside the Line.

Posted in fonts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

  • Connect

    email me

  • About Me

    an obscure photo of me This blog is devoted to the current ramblings of a working Mum, Wordpress designer, blogger and graphic design student with way too many interests and not enough time. Read more about me.

    Archives

    • ▼2012 (13)
    • ▶2011 (105)
    • ▶2010 (178)
    • ▶2009 (44)
    • ▶2008 (60)
    • ▶2007 (21)

  • Elsewhere

    Crimson Pear Design

  • Subscribe

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

  • Link to Me

    current observations

     

  • Quotes on Design

    ... loading ...

  • My daily observations

  • Badgewall

    HostGator Wordpress Hosting

    ”How

  • The Fine Print

    Unless stated otherwise all designs and photos are my originals. Feel free to use my photos but please link back to current-observations.com. I make every effort to credit photos that are not mine, if you have an issue with an images I have used please contact me and I will remove it promptly. Thank you.