DIY | Geometric Necklace

DIY GEOMETRIC NECKLACE

You Need:
String
Geometric beads & buttons
Scissors
Hooks & clasps
Acrylic Paint (if you wish to paint some sides of the beads)

How To:
1. If you wish to paint some of the sides of the geometric beads, paint them before you start making your necklace as it needs to dry. 

2. Measure out the length of string you wish to have for your necklace. 

3. Hang your beads onto the string and attach your clasps onto the string. Cut of any excess string you don't want.

15 Things I Love About Christmas

Visit Rasberri Cupcakes food blog for these holiday recipes

Christmas comes only once a year and this Christmas we are spending it with my side of the family. My family lives more or less about four hours from where we live. Our four hour journey didn't take exactly four hours due to the fact that I am now 32 weeks pregnant and having to pee almost every half hour, plus we had our little pup Lola with us in the car having to do the same thing. It all made for a bit of a fun adventure! 

With that said, I wanted to share a few favorite things I love about Christmas:

• Drinking Spiced Chai Tea
• Spending time with family
• Eating 'pampoen koekies' (pumpkin fritters)
• Opening presents
• Christmas shopping
• Decorating the Christmas tree
• Listening to Mariah Carey's Christmas album
• Reflecting on the year
• Phoning & texting family living overseas
• Catching up with friends far away
• Driving around the neighborhood to see the Christmas lights
• Going to a church service
• Winding down
• Baking
• Watching The Polar Express

loVe

photo's taken in 2012 in France

Tomorrow (20th of December 2013) Me & Mike are celebrating our five year wedding anniversary! It's almost surreal to think that we have been together for seven and a half years now. I have no idea what our plans will be, all I know is that it will be amazing as long as we spend it together. 

This will be our last anniversary 'alone'. Next year we will be celebrating it with our new little baby and Lola. We are both really looking forward to 2014. It will definitely be a new & exciting chapter in our lives. 

Lola's First Christmas

photography by Michelle Joanne - photo editing by Soné Moriarty

Only 9 days till Christmas friends! Before we know it, we will all be opening and unwrapping our Christmas presents soon. Me, Mike, baby & Lola just want to wish you all an amazing Christmas! 

Thank you so much for being supporters and readers of Polli through the years. I will still be updating on the blog so keep an eye out for blogposts. Have a great Christmas!

A Geometric Christmas

For those who love a more modern Christmas, I found these awesome little handmade geometric shaped Christmas decorations on Etsy.

Hope everybody's Christmas shopping is going well!

Online Photo Editing

It's amazing how online photo editing has changed blogging in the last 5 years. I hardly ever use photoshop anymore since I use to spend hours editing my photo's but I use websites like Fotor to speed up my photo editing now, so I have a bit more free time on my hands. Thanks to technology, blogging has become way easier and quicker than what it use to be. 

I really like the curve tool as it allows you to create that vintage look with only a few tweaks just like Photoshop which is awesome! They also have a Christmas designed theme you should check out.

What photo editing programmes do you use?

Maternity Photoshoot | 30 Weeks Pregnant

Michelle came to visit me here in the sunny Hawkes Bay and snapped a few maternity shots of me at 30 weeks pregnant. It's pretty crazy to know I have more or less 10 weeks to go! 

It's all very exciting, yet very scary at the same time to think in a few weeks time I will be taking care of my own little human I have been growing for 9 months. 

We are also in the process of looking at buying our first home, which mean I can finally get to   decorate our babies room which in itself is very exciting. But more on that another time..

Saatchi

©Gregory Van Raalte

©Liat Elbling



©Renate Egger

To all the art lovers out there, I found a good source to buy art online through Saatchi. I found a good selection of still life, surrealism, photography & abstract art to choose from. 

For me personally, I have always been more drawn to either illustrations, photography & still life pieces of art. I'm usually more drawn to something looking a little bit old or perhaps something that relates to a childhood memory. 

In this case the image I selected reminds me of my grandparents home. Especially the one at the bottom, due to the fact that my grandmother would forever collect little jars, teacups, sources and dried flowers in her cupboards.

DIY | Gift Wrapping

Hi everyone, it's Maree here from Rose Tinted Illustration to share some creative ways to wrap your gifts this Christmas!

Inspiration Ideas:

So the best thing to start with is by collecting some inspiring imagery to help you form your own design or in this case a monogram. I have a pinterest board dedicated to inspirational design so I keep that as a reference when I am creating.

What you will need:

- Washi Tape (I got mine from Spotlight & Kmart but there are heaps of online stores like Wocolate)
- Cardboard boxes in different sizes to suit each gift
- Scissors
- Twine
- Vintage Sewing Pattern (pick these up for like $1 at opshops)
- Black Pen or Pencil
- Brown Paper

Vintage Floral Wrapping:

   

This sweet look uses the paper instructions you will have in the sewing pattern as wrapping paper, and you can also use the pattern pieces like you would tissue paper. Try and get a fashion illustration to be the focal point of your wrapping. Use your prettiest floral washi tape to secure the paper and decorate the gift. I used a few different varieties to spice it up! Create a label out of brown paper and draw a Merry Christmas monogram on it. Thread this to the twine which will bind the gift and tie a bow.

Christmas Candy Wrapping:

 

This classic style using brown paper and candy cane striped washi tape is complete with a hand drawn monogram and twine. I used a cut out of a skirt from the sewing pattern to make a label that threaded onto knotted twine. Using the tape diagonally on the corners created a great accent and pop of colour!
Happy gift wrapping!!

Gift Guide

Happy 1st of December ! Now we can officially setup the tree, play Christmas music, bake gingerbread and I can finally start my Christmas music, hooray! I had a bit of time to play around on the Internet this morning & put together a few things I would like for Christmas this year. I hope this might give you some ideas on what to buy your loved one's this Christmas.

♥ Marc Jacobs Perfume - Daisy

♥  Karen Walker Necklace

♥ Pug Clothes

♥ Clinique Gift Pack

♥ Element Eden Dress

♥ T2 Teacups & Tea

♥ Mac Makeup GiftPack 

What do you really want for Christmas this year?

TastyCircus | The Patisserie

I'm already planning my next little craft project which I am really excited about! So I have been doing a bit of research on some jewellery as I would like to make some pieces to giveaway for Christmas. I spotted Tasty Circus who focuses on delicious handmade products inspired by food which I thought was to good not to share. 

On another note, today is my last day at work, before I start my maternity leave. Hence why I am starting up a few projects here and there to fill the gap and to enjoy this time walking Lola and visiting friends before baby comes. Happy Friday!

Les Parisiennes - THE WHITEPEPPER

Heck, I am sure November has to be THEE most busiest time of year surely? I hardly have time to even think out loud. Fortunately not for long as I am finishing up work next week and will be on maternity leave, which means I will be keeping myself busy with a whole lot of Christmas baking, house hunting, nesting, preparing for when baby comes and doing some Christmas shopping. 

But in the meantime, I managed to sneak away for a few seconds and stumbled across 
a new favourite collection called Les Parisiennes by The Whitepepper. 

Instax Love

a. Instax Mini Book Album   \\  b. Making Memories Instax Mini Album

c.Instax Mini Frame Set   \\    d. Pieces of Moment Instax Mini Album

Yah! I have been trying to track down some Instax film online and came across Instax EVERYTHING on mochitings ! Perhaps I am a bit behind but I didn't know Instax was making other products such as albums and photo stands made for Instax. I am so stoked! I definitely know what to put on my Christmas list this year.

Things To Do In Melbourne

Shopping in Fitzroy

I realised I still had quite allot of photo's to still share with you all from my trip to Melbourne a few months ago. On my visit to Melbourne, Ilana made sure she took me to Fitzroy for some shopping. The shopping was amazing and the shops where all so individual and unique.

To look up a few shops in and around Fitzroy to get a feel of what is there you can click here. I found this website quite helpful. 

Lately

Diamond Thongs from Factorie

Lately I have been trying to eat healthy. It's easy as Hawke's Bay is known for it's fresh produce! Lola on the other hand is a hand full and demands every ounce of my attention which is great baby training for us. However I do wish she would sleep in a bit more. Getting woken up at 5:40am is rather tough! It's also tough toilet training a puppy. It demands a lot of effort, phew!

I am also planning on finishing up my job at the end of the month since I am 27 weeks pregnant now and standing my on my feet 24/7 just isn’t an option anymore. I am looking forward to working from home, moving into our own home, setting up our babies room, finishing up our anti-natal classes, catching up with family and friends, playing with Lola, joining the yummy mummies group and making new friends.

Summer Singlets | Polli Shop

Hey guys! It's summer time again and we have reopened our shop during Summer and Christmas time. We sell cute animal print singlets for $25.00. We do have limited stock left unfortunately so first in, first served. 

Click here to shop. 

Happy Sunday

Marsha Golemac is a Melbourne based creative specialising in styling and installations. I scrolled through her awesome portfolio this morning and thought it was worth sharing!

We are on our way to check out some open homes, wish us luck. We have just over 4 hours of looking at homes today! phew..

DIY | Bracelet Tutorial

credit

Christmas and Birthdays are upon us! I can hardly believe it's even November. Where did the year go? Swell Mayde has an awesome selection of DIY projects here you might want to have a look at as well. Enjoy!