Illustration Nation ~ Art We Love

We are loving these cute and colourful illustrations by Japanese artist Mozneko.

Mozneko hails from Sapporo-shi, in Japan. His brightly coloured work will bring back your innocence and make you smile. (We promise)

Check out more of Mozneko’s beautiful art on his Tumblr!

Sail or Die

Our friend Vanessa at Sail or Die makes some delightful artwork. She combines beach themes, island totems, symbols, mexican skulls and bright colours to create her incredibly fun and individual paintings. She also has a pretty cool blog too.

Vanessa is a Melbourne artist who is planning to open her own brewery!

We hope you like Vanessa’s paintings as much as we do. Hopefully we’ll catch up with her soon for an interview and she can tell you all about these paintings! In the meantime you can check her art out on Facebook. 🙂

The starting point.

Old school Tracks magazine, very retro 🙂

lyttlestreet

This is about as clear a starting point as I can remember, when I was coming home from school in the spring of 74 and seeing this poster out the front of the local news agency, advertising the latest Tracks Magazine. That is when I said to myself its time to start surfing, I knew I wanted to for a while but didn’t have the opportunity, or was to shy or nervous or whatever. But seeing Rory Russell on the cover of Tracks on that nice hot Balinese afternoon at Uluwatu, well that spoke to me loud and clear the moment to start is now.

Within a month I had myself a wetsuit jacket for my birthday and a Coolite foam board and I was walking to the local beach with a couple of mates to try our luck.

For some reason this cover just sticks in my mind, as the…

View original post 15 more words

Surfer Chic Style: Roxy x Cynthia Rowley

These wetsuits are incredible, not to mention that board spray! I’m saving up for some of these babies.

oh my omiyage

I’m so happy to have found that designers are collaborating with sports brands to create some chic surf wear!  While browsing magazines at the hair salon yesterday, I spotted this adorable Roxy x Cynthia Rowley wetsuit.

More great news: she designed a whole collection of chic, colorful, and stylish surf wear!

My typical black wetsuit and white rash guards are definitely not cutting it.


Even though my surfing isn’t up to par, at least I can look good while I flail in the water!

Photo credits: InStyle, Refinery29, Be Sportier, Rising Hollywood.

View original post

Vintage Jam Jar

Don’t you hate buying presents for people who have everything? Next time, don’t waste your money, make them some jam in an awesome jar instead.

Everyone loves jam, especially home made jam. Here’s a step by step guide to make sure the jar does your jam justice!

You Will Need
1 x CLEAN jar (make sure it has been well washed in hot water)
1 x 30 cm of Ribbon (colour of your choice)
1 x piece of Thick white paper
15 x 15cm of fabric (of your choice)
Craft Glue
Scissors
Pen
Pencil
1 x Elastic band

Let’s Get Crafty!
1.  Place the piece of fabric over the Jar.

2. Fasten the elastic band around the lid of the jar, over the cloth.

3. Make a mark on the cloth.

4. Take off the cloth and mark a square, using your original marker as a guide.
NB* It’s always better to use a pencil as it doesn’t show up later (I’ve used a pen so you can see clearly).

5. Cut along the dotted line.

6. Using the white piece of paper create your label. Here I have drawn a rough square and written ‘Strawberry Jam’ on it, go wild and personalise your jam jar!

7. Spread the craft glue thinly over the back of your handmade label. Stick it onto the center of the jar. You will need to leave the label to dry completely before touching it.
NB* Do not put too much glue on your label as it will become soggy.

8. When the label has dried, pick up your piece of cloth and place it over the lid as before.

9. Place the elastic band over the cloth to hold it in place.

10. Take your ribbon and cut the ends so they look lovely and neat.



11. Tie the ribbon around the elastic band firmly.
12) Tie a bow and cut the ribbon if it is too long.

All finished! How easy was that? Now you have created an awesome Vintage Jam Jar to give as a gift, or keep for yourself!

Tips:
If you are making a selection of jams, use different size jars to create a vintage mix and match vibe.

Be as creative as you like with the labels, ribbon and cloth choice. I always like to match the colours to the jam ie: pinks and reds for strawberry.

Make sure you wipe the jar after putting the jam in, as it can make everything very sticky. Be extra careful of sticky fingers as you won’t want to smudge your labels with jam!

Recipe:
My favourite recipe for Jam is very simple. Lots of fruit (strawberry jam is my favourite), LOTS of sugar, a squeeze of lemon and a few crushed apple seeds (they help it bind), all simmered on the stove until the mixture coats the back of your spoon.

If you want something more formal, check out this recipe.

Let me know how you go!

Carmen