Backtrack : A new post series + some Sydney city gallivanting

New post series? Not really.. but kind of. Let me explain...

So on a trip to the city with some friends from my youth group we all started talking about our uni-student-on-holidays life. It just so happens that the four of us all had our own blogs (because we're all hip and blog and stuff).

And so began our little chat about our non-productiveness on the blog front. in terms of our blogs. We all have differing levels of disengagement with our blogs, from a week, to a few weeks to a few months (in my case - I've posted what, twice? in the last 6 months?)

Anyway.. someone suggested we need to make a pact to all post more and so our little blogging productive challenge was born! (I just made that name up just then) This challenge pretty much just requires us to post SOMETHING (anything?) onto one of our blogs by midnight on Monday-Tuesday. And I guess this post will count as mine. YAY! (I will link all their blog posts at the bottom so you people that read this can check it out.)

I know that I have a lot of worth while things sitting in my drafts and thought I really should post these on here. And my new "Backtrack" post series is born! HUZZAH! So for the next few weeks I will be posting some things that have been sitting in my drafts for months, years even! I can't guarantee that it will be done in chronological order but we'll see how we go. These are all events, though there are a few things that aren't, which I can get away with not being in this series (as they don't refer to some specific times/dates).

I will hopefully be posting the first Backtrack post next week some time. In the mean time here are some photos of what we did get up to in the city. Enjoy!

 We went to customs house.

And the State Library of NSW.

 

  My friend's dad shouted us lunch! We had Thai. It was yummy. 

(Yay for instagram!)

Then we strolled through Hyde Park,

jumped in front of St Mary's Cathedral

and wondered through the Royal Botanical gardens.

We took some photos on the way up to Mrs Macquaries Point.

Then watched the sun set over the harbour.

 Walking back to the station we found this sign. We accepted the invitation by walking on grass and hugging a nearby tree.

On the way back we bought some cake and other baked goods for the train ride back home. We had been talking about red velvet cake on the trip into the city and were craving some. So we managed to find some but alas! It was a very deceiving super sweet, pink, vanilla cake or sugar cake or something. There was NO CHOCOLATE. 

THE CAKE IS A LIE!! 

(Woo! References from games I don't even play)

All in all a pretty good day, despite this "red-velvet" cake. And and at the end of it a new post!

Also here are links to my friend's posts for our challenge!

Trip Tide

Brendon the Smiling Chef

A Piece of Shortcake

DIY Must Try: Improv Polka Dot Wallpaper

Love polka dots?
Love wallpaper?
On a budget and/or not willing to commit to big renovation project?

Well here is the perfect DIY for you (and me)!

I present to you the easiest and cheapest faux wallpaper DIY ever!

and how good does it look?

This awesome project is from Finnish blog My Second hand Life on the Indie Days website. It is in Finnish but there is an English blurb at the bottom. There is no actual DIY instructions but I thought I would add some here. And I haven't done this project yet (hence the "DIY must try" but I am hoping to try it out ASAP, probably going to the shops to get my supplies tomorrow or by the end of the week)

Now for the how-to.

All you will need is:

• a wall
• a roll of little dot stickers in the colour/size of your choice otherwise known as circle label stickers.

So this is the kind of thing you are looking for. You can find a roll at your nearest Officeworks or other stationary store. Probably just in the stationery isle of your super market will do. One of these should cost you between $5-$10! Change the look of your walls for LESS than $10! How crazy is that?!

The instructions..

1. Select the wall you want to polka dot. It can be one wall in your room to use as a feature or two walls or even 3. All of them?! The ceiling maybe even or a door (I do like the door idea).
2.  Make sure it's nice and clean. It doesn't have to be spotless but no one wants to look at a dirty wall. Just use a damp cloth. If you are having any difficulties, consult a professional (that's a joke).
3. Start sticking! You can place your dots as dense or as sparsely as you like! You can place them randomly like in the photo at the top or you can be really pedantic and space them all out evenly with a ruler (this will probably make this DIY more difficult and time consuming).
4. You're done! Step back and admire your hard work. ☺

Of course there are alternatives to dots. Use stars, squares or cut up your own shapes from a roll of colour tape. And it doesn't have to be on a while wall either! It's all up to you. Hopefully I can try this out soon and I will post some photos up.

In the mean time good luck with this!

Julie

Little projects: Origami business card stand

Hey internet,

So I've been following How about Orange for a while. It's a blog by a woman named Jessica Jones, she's a graphic designer. On her blog she posts little DIYs, free printables and  desktop images and other cool little fun things she find on the internet. Needless to say I have spent a good amount of time on her blog (especially during my HSC)

Anyhows, so I saw this link to a tutorial to make an easy origami business card stand a little while ago (post here).  Thought it was worth trying, but thought "hang on I don't have any business cards to put on it". So I left it and continued surfing the net as I do.

Don't you think they look pretty nice all coordinated with the stationary and such?!

Anyway, months later, I made some business cards/contact cards for The Jolly Cottage for the markets! And these neat little crossed my mind. So I made some!! 

Here are my new cards! Don't mind some ink leaks and wonky printing/trimming. They're handmade, complete with some washi tape. But they look pretty good if you asked me. What do you think?

And here are my cards in my little card stands! Yay!! They aren't really in the colour/pattern of my choosing. Just recycling a map of Taronga Zoo my little sister printed off when we took her there last school holidays (pretty sure it was the winter break). I thought it looked nicer then all the other random stuff in the recycling pile. Huzza! for recycling and saving the planet! Think I will make another proper set of business card stands for the markets. Any suggestions on the kind of paper. Colour? Pattern? 

Pretty happy with how everything turned out. Those card stands are SUPER easy! You should try it yourself. I've even embedded the instruction video for you! It is just below. :)

Woo! It can also be used as a phone stand too. Multi purpose. I like it!

If you try it out, let me know and tell me how you went and we can chat over how awesomely easy they are to make.

Anyway, have fun with that and enjoy your weekend!

Julie

Packages + Announcements

Mail time! MAIL TIME! MAAIIL TIIIME!!!

Anyone get the Blues Clues reference? Used to love that show, even when I was older than the intended audience age.

Anyway..

I got a package!! Here it is..

WOO PACKAGE!! It arrived in the mailbox on Monday. It came all the way from the UK! Hoorah for online shopping! Was TOTALLY excited for it to arrive. I've been wanting one of these for a while and finally got around to buying it online a few weeks ago. Want to know what it is?!

TA DA! A very badly focused photo of my new DIY self-inking stamp kit!! Then I can stamp all the things! It can stamp up to 4 lines of text. It even has 2 different sized character sets. Only reason why I preferred this to the one I could have bought from office works with 5 lines, also it was a few dollars cheaper.

It actually took me a good 10 minutes to stick all the little letters in.. I think i was over thinking having to write everything backwards. I had a few errors mixing up the character sets. Also left out the second "L" in finally the first time. Got it right in the end but I have to get faster at this.. It is a little tedious.

But worth it when you finally get stamping!! Weeeee... Anyone getting the Toy Story reference? Too many references in this post from my childhood..

And then changed all the letters out to use it for it's intended purpose and stamped the back of all my notebooks so that they're all branded and ready to go for the markets! How good does it look? (I was super pleased with myself at this point).

Speaking of markets, more info has been released about the Parramatta Lanes Festival later this month! The Vintage Market that I will be featuring in is going to be held in the Connection Arcade just across the road from Parramatta Station on Darcy street. The arcade connects to Church street where Sweet Street Bakery is. Here's a map.

And just a reminder I will be there at the Vintage markets on Thursday 17th, Friday 18th, Thursday 24th and Friday 25th October from 4:30pm to 9pm each day.

For more info, click here. You can also download the festival guide there too.

And now for my announcement!

The Jolly Cottage now has a Facebook page!!  Yay! That's facebook.com/thejollycottage. So go ahead and like that if you wish. Either by searching "The Jolly Cottage" on Facebook or clicking here!

As you can see it's only got 7 likes.. we need more friends..

There is also an event page for the Vintage Markets on the Facebook page. Go and check it out here. So if you are planning on stopping by click that you are "Going" and go invite your friends too! I'm sure the Festival will be a great night out. Well 4 great nights out.

There are some photos up there but other than that page is still a bit bare but only really been playing with it over the past two days. Just need somewhere for people to go if they want some contact details from the markets but just in general too I guess so I can show people what I'm up to. Those who can't be bothered reading this blog. Any suggestions on what else I can put up there?

Speaking of which, not sure whether I should change the name of the blog to "The Jolly Cottage Blog" or something along those lines. Only thing is that it's not strictly just Jolly Cottage stuff that gets posted on here though at the moment the vast majority of my latest posts are related. I think I will have to think about it more. See what happens after the markets. 

Anyway, till next time.

Julie & The Jolly Cottage

I'm BACK! ~ update & announcement ~

And here to stay, at least for a while.

Hi blogger and the internet at large!

Haven't been here in a while. How have you been? What have I been up to since my random blog post over new years you ask?! LOTS!

But before I go into all that, I SWEAR, this time I really will keep blogging!! It's taken some time but I am finally living up to my New Years Resolutions.

1. Focusing on my crafts
2. Get back into blogging

So it has been a slow start to say the least. But I am FINALLY here to take my resolutions seriously, also things have started going in that direction with little nudging from me throughout the year.

But right now I actually have time to myself, at home to craft and to BLOG! 

So *drum roll for my announcement* from now on expect me to blog at LEAST once a week! If not more. Internet you have to keep me to this otherwise I might fall through.. and we don't want that.

Not only will this mean I will be back and documenting my work, making sure that I have something new to post up every week but also get's my work out there and hopefully, just maybe, at the end of this crazy adventure I can live off crafting and selling my wares.

I also hope to do a catch up series of all my travels and what I have been up to this year to get the internet back up to scratch of where I'm at. Next post will probably go more into detail of what I am actually up to these days but until then stay tuned!

- Julie

NEW URL

Also for those of you who are yet to notice..

My blog has a new URL!

juliesdesignadventures.blogspot.com

I thought it would be a bit more appropriate for the purpose of this blog being a design blog. Hope to be able to show more projects and process on here for a more professional... thing (biggest mind blank)

Anyway have a GREAT Easter everyone! Here is an origami rabbit I prepared earlier :)

- Julie.

GAH!

Slight pause from my usual (but by no means frequent) designy posts..
TUMBLR IS GAY AND WONT LET ME POST SHIT (excuse my french)

But yeah. back at uni, one week has gone by. And there is one way I know I'm REALLY back at uni, I'm cutting up cardboard on the floor again! HOORAH! Not really. I have having limited supplies of stuff. I need to go by more cardboard. I always feel bad for 'wasting' resources when im testing when I know I dont have much of the material. Especially when I can see the amount of it reducing as I go. I'm one of those stingy, eco people. I dont like to spend money and I dont like seeing material going to 'waste'.

In my mind good prototypes are perfect in terms of that design. I hate seeing things not work. i hate making mistakes. Everything needs to work. Every bit thought out thoroughly.

I hate being a perfectionist sometimes. Need to stop thinking and just do. In the words of Nike.

Oh and I still havent found something to write with... but for once i know where my stanley knife is.

Designers of Tumblr

designers of tumblr is a place
for designers to submit their
work and show it off to ourfollowers
and the rest of the world!

we publish tumblr themes, illustrations typography, minimalist posters, product design, crafts, packaging, banding and anything else that's in between!

- taken from Designers of Tumblr  

I have been lucky enough to have been featured three times (from memory) on this lovely blog. My most recent being my Valentine's work.

see the post here

See the post here.

Thank's everyone who's been liking and rebloging! Means a lot! (thanks for the ego boost! haha) But seriously it makes me feel more motivated to create some more and a reassurance that going into design was the right decision.

- Julie

Makeovers

So like this blog, I recently (last night at 3am) gave my tumblr a make over! Changed the general theme and uploaded my own background (some of my photography).

It was a BIG pain in the **** because it wouldn't let me upload the image I wanted for some strange reason. It kept saying it needed to be a particular size and file type which I had saved and adjusted accordingly but NO. And to this day it's still not the image I intended it to be but close enough.

So here's the BEFORE

The AFTER

And the image I was going to use. They're pretty similar though.

So click and check it out! or don't

Hoorah! for shameless promotion! :)

You know you're a designer when...

So I came across this tumblr. It pretty much just has quotes or whatever submitted by people about how 'you know you're a designer when...'

Here are some of may favourites of the ones I have seen sofar.

All too true. Sadly a lot of the things posted show me how much I am still a wannabe designer.. But I will get there!

Also here is another site I came across; Good Fucking Design Advise. It's all mostly things that make sense and anyone could tell you but amusing and relevant none the less. Here is one of them.

Only thing is, the kerneling on this is terrible.

And here is the family friendly version of the site.

Also genius advise.

Hope you people of the internet enjoy this.

-julie

Something I don't like..

Why don't my images show in chrome..?! :(

Works everywhere else. How lame

bye bye old blogger theme

Yep, as of yesterday? (or was it the day before), I FINALLY changed my theme! This is just a premade one I found on the net. I'm not awesome enough (nor bothered) to design one from scratch and I didnt want to use the default customising settings.

this will probably be the last i see of you..

So sorry blogger..

I wish I posted on here more but its difficult. I would need to have 4 or 5 tabs open when I'm on the net; Email, Facebook, Tumblr, Youtube, Twitter.. That's right, I'm connected.

Well this is meant to be my design blog (I should redecorate) to go along with my photoblog and my general tumblr which I spam with nothingness. And I guess I don't think about 'designy' stuff to post on here till ages later.

But here is a little something. I needed to design a NO FOOD sign for work (because asking marketing staff to design stuff is cheaper than outsourcing). Just something easy and simple I drew up on illustrator.

My work in progress. I had 2 ideas, 3 designs..

and my boss chose this one

It's weird that I say my boss chose it because she is in fact my friend, who was in the same position i am now when she got me the job (well due to connections it was easier for me to get an interview etc.). And now my lovely friend got promoted due to a company shuffle and is now my boss.

Anyway I think I will spent more time posting here this year since I am now in charge of my work blog (also a blogger). So may this be the beginning of a relatively blog-filled year!

- julie

Craft blog?

So I've been thinking... I'm going to turn this blog into a craft blog! For more info read this post on my tumblr.

SO if I'm doing this, which most likely I will be, I think my blog needs to be revamped! Like a blog makeover. But I CBF right now, maybe when procrastinating my uni work... LOL.

Yeah... that's all.

*j

rain, rain, go away..

conveniently just as I'm about to go walking out and about the city with my a3 paper folder and bag which doesn't zip up. Please?

I otherwise quite like the rain. But it was POURING today! WAY to wet to be out. But lovely staying in and sleeping weather I must add for those who didn't have uni today. It rained so much that the Central tunnel was flooding! (that kind of sounded like it was meant to be a 'yo mama' joke) I would have taken a picture but I cbf taking my camera out after wrapping it up in my scarf and putting it in my bag to protect it from getting wet.

Anyway it has yet again been AGES since my last post! This is happening increasingly frequently (I don't think that makes complete sense but I'm sure you get my point.. right?) and I don't like that happening. Oh well I will just blame my 'busy' life of a gagillion assessments and my instinct to resist going home early for this. Hopefully things will pick up again when I go on holiday for 7 weeks.

UPDATE!

I GOT MY LENS FOR MY SLR ON MONDAY! Funny story which I'm sure a few people have heard by now. 

I was just about to leave the house to go to uni but then the package arrived. I knew it was my lens and then I was struck by a dilemma. Do I go and catch my train? Or do I stay and open up the box? Not THAT big of a dilemma, looking back I took the obvious choice. STAY AND OPEN IT! And  must say that it was a good choice.

Sure I missed my train and the one after and ended up missing my lecture all together but I finally got to play with my Canon 450D SLR!

First picture I took with my lens... yeah I could have done better but meh

Also new photoblog! To go with my new camera! Here is a link: http://intheordinary.tumblr.com/ CHECK IT OUT! 

Tuesday was the biggest fail photo shoot meet up EVER. Spent the whole afternoon looking for yarn with these three monkeys;

From free lunch and custard puffs to laughing hysteria and a one sided food fight. Despite not doing what we set out to do it was quite the enjoyable afternoon. Walking from uni to Market city to China Town to World Square to Town Hall and QVB. Lots of exercise! Also had a Landmark seminar that evening and was taking pictures in the harbour to kill time.

Wednesday  was quite entertaining. I showed up to a 4 our tutorial late without my fold which had majority of my work in it. Walked to USyd where Pansy and Belle had an acoustic gig. Lionel left her phone at uni and was MIA but fortunately I saw lots of other PHS kiddies! Had lunch, packed lunch. Then a small trip to the graffiti tunnel and the quad with my personal tour guide and umbrella and folder case holding chauffeur, Plate Face. He really is too nice. Then the wind and rain decided to pick up just as I was headed back to central. My leather boots were soaked through at my toes! But was a good day, 250+ photos taken!

And that's a wrap of my week so far. Pretty good no? Anyway it's 3.30am and I have uni! So I should hit the sheets now.

Farewell blogger, let's hope I return in the VERY near future.

*j

broken

TUMBLR ISN'T WORKING!! :@

And now I don't even remember what I was going to post..

*j

CANCELED

I HATE when plans get canceled.

Especially ones that are the already postponed plans of another previous outing that didn’t work out.

I hate it more when its for some external reason e.g. my parents don’t want my 10-year-old sister to be home by herself for a few hours after school. Which in turn mean that I either have to cut my outing short (like REALLY short. Like the time I spend out is SHORTER than my traveling time!) or just cancel (canceling being the only realistic option). And I hate when my parents say to just cut my plans short like it makes no difference i.e.

“can you be home by 3?”
“we’re meeting up at 12..”
“so can you be home at 3?”
“no”
“well can you just go out another time?”
“…” (well the conversation goes something like that)

And they always insist on it being my fault that I don’t plan well with them. “That’s why you should plan better (and tell us)”. This is the second outing in a row that had to be changed because my sister can’t stay at home alone. At least last time the plans were saved by having my sister come along. That won’t work this time…

Now I don’t really have anything fun happening this week. Nothing that’s been properly planned out anyway.

I also how my mother was trying to bribe me out of being so disappointed by saying she will give me money for outings. Yes that is VERY helpful getting money for an outing that ISN'T happening anymore.

Yes I am ranting.

This is LAME.

*j 

[reblogged from my tumblr with a little bit added]

I practically live on facebook. I swear I turn on the computer as soon as I get home and go on msn and log into facebook (okay I don't log in, I automatically log in so really just open up facebook in the browser). ANYWAY as I was saying, I feel quite no-life like for doing that. 

I really should have better things to do. Like Make stuff!! Draw! CLEAN MY ROOM! Or finish rearranging my room. I guess I use the excuse that all my music is on the computer so I sit her and listen as I surf away on the net. Speaking of which I am listening to Kimya Dawson at the moment.

I really should go and clean my room though and start making things again. Like a new pencil case. A folder for all my A3 uni stuff. Something out of green gingham fabric (which I have HEAPS of). OH I also have to make a birthday card for a friend who turned 18 yesterday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!! We have known each other since we were tiny. But she is having a little party thing on Saturday which I shall be attending and helping set up according to my mother (we were family friends at first). But I shall head off to Glebe markets in the morning with my lovely friend Shuang, where I shall find something to give her which is uniquely Glebe because Glebe is just AWESOME!

I swear I haven't crafted for AGES! Almost two and a half months! That's intense stuff. I don't even remember how I used to do things. Like my style of crafting. I forgot, OH MY GOSH! And since Ive been exposed to all different types of design (design faculty - go figure). I blame uni! It's so much work but I don't hate it enough to procrastinate my work and to craft instead (something that happened to me quite a bit during school - what would you rather do? Craft? English essay? No competition). 

I miss crafting though. I still have unfinished things from Christmas which is just sitting in my room collecting dust. And I am so tired and sleepy after eating dinner. Just feel like sitting here and browse through blogs.. or sleep.

Well that's it.

*j

lagging behind

I swear since I started getting busy with uni, the blogs I follow started posting more! Or am I going crazy?! It's a 50/50 chance. But it would seem I can NEVER keep up with all the new posts on my dashboard like I used to. I only look through a few posts a week but considering how many blogs a I follow which post almost daily I don't see how I can get through them all.

I really don't know how I DID used to get through ALL the new posts on my dashboard and still get bored. How my life has changed. But it's not all bad. I will save blog surfing for Easter and for my mid semester break when I am meant to be working on assessments, which are due upon our return to uni. FUN!

Yeah its late. And I never seem to remember things I say I will blog at the time I can make a post. Only times like now when I need to sleep do I remember. Convenience. NOT.

That's all I guess, how lame.

*j

My new photography project blog

Okay so in the previous post I mentioned a new temporary photography project. Well I ended up making a tumblr for it here. It is called Photos at Dusk. The first post is a little intro thing and yeah. Please visit and all. 

*j