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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Who would have thought...

That by reading a book with almost a thousand pages I could get inspired to create something? That my inspiration would come from one of the characters that I don't really care about? That it would turn out so beautifully? Not me, that's for sure!

And yet here I was, reading A Feast For Crows (book number 4 in the George R. R. Martin saga, A Song Of Ice And Fire... a.k.a. HBO's Game Of Thrones), reading about this not so remarkable girl called Margaery Tyrell, daughter of the lord of Highgarden, a.k.a. "the young queen"... I won't go into much detail, because I can't do this without spoilers, but the sigil of House Tyrell is a rose... And then, inspiration hit me like a subway train (thanks Darren for letting me steal your words ;P ) and I jumped off the bed, grabbed my box of supplies, my sewing box and got busy creating...

At the best Project Runway style, I challenged myself to use unusual materials... House Tyrell's sigil is a rose, so I gave myself two silk roses to work with, a piece of fabric in a similar color and a tiny piece of velcro... The assignment was simple: whatever I made had to be at least 75% roses and 25% fabric, at most... In the end, I think I used much less fabric...

Five hours of intensive labor later, my Tyrell baby was born...

Here's my humble hommage to House Tyrell, Alessandra turned into a Rose Queen:




So, this was my first creation this year!!! And I'm extremely proud of it!!! Now I am dreaming of creating a second and third ASoIaF inspired looks... Just need to get some materials, probably will peruse the rommelmarkt (like a flea market, I think it could be translated like crap market?)  for Queen's Day... I'm in need of some fake fur, black fabric and some leatherette... Can anyone guess which looks will I be working on?

Love and glitters,

Lisa

Sunday, February 5, 2012

A Few Changes And A Little Reminder...

Perhaps some of you notice, despite the smallness of the change, that the name of my blog went from "Our" Life In Layouts to "My" Life In Layouts... I thought it was a necessary change, since there was hasn't been a "we" or an "our" for several months already... Well that's other than "our" divorce, of course...

So here I am, facing a mountain of changes, the prospect of a new life as a single girl, and in the very immediate future, a move... possibly to Amsterdam... How exciting is that??? Me and Spekkie moving to the "big city"? Needing to find a job and reconfigure my whole life (oops, the nerd in me just waving hello!)... Trying to figure out how to get over this, this breach on trust, this betrayal, after ten years of giving it my very best... But boys will be boys, right? And more often than not, boys end up being cheating assholes too... And we end up with a broken heart for believing that 'til death do us part really means that they'll love us and cherish and respect us until literally one of us dies... Well, even if sometimes it really feels like it could be possible, one DOES NOT die of a broken heart... You just eventually start to pick up the shattered pieces, one at a time, and start rebuilding your life...

So, like I said, here I am: in the process of rebuilding... Still not feeling the urge to create, no matter how much I would love to lose myself on a layout or a new Barbie project... I tell myself I want to do something creative, but always fail to accomplish anything... So, today I'm trying something new... Since I can't create with paper and ribbons and glue, why not create with words? So here I am, sitting in front of my computer, listening to Darren Hayes (seems he's become my daily companion, which shouldn't come as a surprise since he's the artist that can put my feelings into words and somehow always seems to be going thru the same stuff I am at the moment his newest CD comes out...) and creating this blog post!

I though I'd share this teeny-weeny mini album I made while I was in Argentina... I created it as an inspiration to improve myself, just when I thought I still had a fighting chance with my marriage... little did I know that while I was making this he was busy with someone else... But anyhow, just before this turns into TMI (or maybe it did after my first five words!), here's my mini:

A Better Me

Front, back and details of the box:

















And inside there's an accordion album with tags, each pocket represents one aspect that I want to change, with an inspirational quote in the back:
















And then on each tag I included another quote on the front and a bit of what each aspect would hold on the back side:































And with that beautiful quote from one of the best books I've read, I'll leave you for today... Never forget: You is kind, you is smart, you is important... And not to anyone else, before even thinking of being these things to someone else, start by being kind to yourself and your body... smart about the choices you make in life... and the most important thing in your life, cause without you in it, your life can't exist!

Love and glitters...

Lisa