Friday, December 28, 2012

{giveaway} glass

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After seeing the Consol giveaway - One of my friends sent me a pic of her Christmas pressies - yummy biscuits in glass jars with blackboard paint. This type of glass jar is such thoughtful gift packaging because after chowing down on all the delicious treats, the recipient can keep the jar to be filled with anything they choose.
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You could fill a glass jar with any kind of small present - any crafter or seamstress would I'm sure LOVE to get a jar like this filled with pretty buttons (or pens or washi tape!!) or to kids filled with farm animals or mini action figures. Or send one to a golfer filled with golfballs and golf tees. 

I am currently running a giveaway with Consol Glass - they are giving away a hamper of glass goodies which is absolutely amazing! You can read about and enter the giveaway here. Good luck!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Scenes from the Festive Season

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A few snaps from our Christmas eve which we spent at a carol service at my gran's alzheimer's home. Photobucket Photobucket
the family - it's a pity it's a bit blurry - (but I gave my camera to someone to snap it of us and the fixed lens is a bit tricky to work out if you aren't used to it)

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The brother and I with the gran.

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Anyone do anything exciting for Christmas?

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

song in my head

This song has been in my head lately...

Merry Christmas Everybody!
xxx

Saturday, December 22, 2012

{Giveaway!} Consol Glass Party Hamper

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Was super spoilt the other day when a huge package arrived for me from Consol Glass filled with all kinds of awesome goodies that are perfect for holiday entertaining!

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The package is filled with a bunch of cocktail party umbrellas, lovely paper straws (my current obsession) and of course a whole host of cool glass jars for you to concoct your own fancy cocktails in. Imagine hosting an epic festive cocktail party where all your guests are drinking from different glass jars and bottles - FUN!  (or... if it was me... I'd have a glass jar decor station where guests can jazz-up-their-jars with cocktail umbrellas, doilies, ribbon or heck... even a whack of glitter glue! But, that's just me.)

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The consol hamper also includes a really cool 2013 calendar which has so many different pics and ideas of things to do with your glass jars - right from the "traditional" (jars filled with jams and pickled things) to the more "modern" (jars filled with delicious cocktails or jars filled with golf balls and golf tees - to gift to a golfing fan)

I got so excited about this little hamper that I started planning some Christmas party things -
First I decided to experiment with a little Christmas cocktail -
I call it:

Santa's Sneaky Sleigh-Sipper
2 cups pomegranate juice
1 cup cranberry juice
1 cup vodka
1 cup soda water
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup syrup (or to taste)

Mix it all in a big punch bowl and serve up in your glass jars -

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I "garnished" mine with a red ribbon and a Candy Cane.

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I also froze some dried cranberries into some ice blocks which I popped into the jars when they were ready - it's a nice touch because by the time you get to the end of your drink, you're left with some cocktail infused cranberries. yum.

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There are so many awesome things to do with these glass containers (I'm really not just saying that because Consol gave me an awesome hamper). I got a bit carried away with all the Christmas planning and have decided to use these blackboard chalk jars as cute name place cards for our Christmas dinner - 
(would also be very handy for name cards at a wedding - and they would double as a very cool wedding favour filled with treats.... mmm....)

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NOW it's YOUR TURN!
The lovely folk at Consol have given me a party hamper just like this one to give away on indieBerries. (and seriously, you want this hamper!)

How to enter:
To enter, leave a comment on this post or on the indieBerries facebook page telling me the name of a cocktail you would create to put in these jars and an ingredient that you would put in your cocktail. You can be as creative as you like! (You can also have a look at the Consol Facebook page for some cocktail inspiration!)

The competition is open to South African readers and it closes on the 5 January 2013.
(what a good way to welcome in the new year!)

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ALSO - Consol is giving away 12 Mixology Parties for you and your mates - All you have to do, to win an entire party, is head over to their facebook page and send in a pic of yourself enjoying a drink  from a glass bottle/jar before 10 January 2013. The first round of judging is based on reader votes - so get your friends involved!

I will be posting a few more cocktail ideas and glass loveliness in the next few days - so stay posted. x

Friday, December 21, 2012

{How To} Draw a dog

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I just felt like doing this - so thought I would share it with you. If you're sitting at your desk - grab a pen and paper quick and follow these easy instructions:
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Draw a light oval on it's side. Make it nice and fat.
See how mine is all wonky - don't worry about that.
easy huh?!

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Next draw a long "almost" oblong triangle type shape. Let it intersect with the oval.

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Add a circle to the bottom of the oblong triangle.
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Start creating your pup's legs - Look at the front leg first (the leg closest to you on the computer screen)  - draw two long sticks and join them at the bottom with an "unclosed-heart" kind of shape. For the back leg - draw another long stick and join it with a shape that mirrors the front heart/foot.

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Repeat the same thing with the back legs.
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Add a tail - think of it as big quotation marks ( " ) that just join at the top.
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Add ears - I have drawn mine in a kidney bean kind of shape. You can also draw ears that stand up in a triangle kind of shape, or longer sausage type ears.
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Take out any overlapping lines
(probably easier to do if you had been using a pencil. yeah, sorry about that)
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Add some eyes - do this by drawing two big circles and then add smaller black circles within them.
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There are three variations of eyes above: You will see the top set of eyes are what I call "dead" eyes. Sometimes I use these kinds of eyes and sometimes I use the more "alive" eyes. You can make eyes more "alive" by adding a tiny bit of white into the corners - this gives the illusion that there is some kind of reflection created by a light source.
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Colour in the nose - You can also create a kind of reflection on the nose- by adding a bit of white to the tip of the nose. (Handy HINT: remember - if you have drawn your eyes with the reflection in the top left corner - like I have - it means that your "light source" is coming from the top left diagonal. If you are going to add a reflection to your nose - it must be consistent with the light source you have already set up. Otherwise it will look like your pup is maxing out at some kind of disco with light-sources all over the place.)
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Add some spots or details - 
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colour your pup in.

(you may or may not have noticed that I have coloured the back legs slightly darker than the front legs. This is because the front legs (legs closest to you on the screen) in real life, would create a shadow on the back legs (the legs furtherest from you on the screen - not the dogs back legs). Also - more technically, dark colours recede into the paper and lighter colours bounce out from the page, so this technique helps to create the illusion of depth. 

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You can add darker shades to the underside of your dog - consistent with the light source you have set up. If you are only using a pencil - try shading the dog darker on the underside and see the difference it makes.
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You can add lighter shades to the top sides of the dog - think about where the light would hit the dog and colour those a bit lighter.
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If you want - you can add a pink tongue, a collar or some "wag-marks" to the tail 

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you can add a background
(feel free to use the backgrounds you did when you were 6)

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And you can add anything else you want - a kennel, clouds, bones, a cat, whatever.
AND there you have a lovely little pup!

(and if you add a bunch of antlers - you could probably make it a reindeer)

Once you get the hang of the basic shapes you can experiment with different eyes, ear types, tails and body proportions. Long skinny sausage body, short dumpy legs, alert triangle ears, long wagging tail, small nose, big nose -  All of which will give your dog very different personalities. You would be surprised how many times I erase/adjust about 3mm of a line in my cartoons and it creates an entirely different expression or feel in the picture.

Hope you had fun with this and maybe if people like this little tutorial - 
I will show you how to draw Mickey Mouse! :)