Take me to the beach

I have always been a huge fan of Roxy's art direction, design and styling. I LOVE
the in-store decor for this Roxy Store. Done by Better Shelter, a boutique real estate
development company that promotes community, responsibility, sustainability and
creativity [very cool, no?]. The walls were created from reclaimed barn wood and the
artwork came from flea markets and the word Roxy and the names of surf spots were
hand painted onto the pieces. What a great space, I would love to have a wall like
this of my own! 

i bike

Lovely layouts from August's Martha Stewart. You would never believe that the photos were taken with an iphone would you?


Art Direction by Erin Jang and Photography by Lucas Allen

Potatoes with wings

This summer I saw my first Puffin and boy are they cute little things! They are so much smaller than I had imagined. They are not the greatest flyers so they make their homes [that they return to every summer] on a slope so they can take a running leap in order to take flight, once in the air they really do look like potatoes with wing [not very graceful] and did you know they spend their winters sitting out in the middle of the ocean? 

Top illustration by me, picture while taken while on O'Brien's Boat Tours, poster by bee things

Canvas

Land's End launched it's Canvas line not to long ago. They have great wardrobe staples, very J.Crew meets Banana Republic. 

Lunch Specials

Talk about brown bagging it. Fantastic illustrations on paper lunch bags by Bee Things.  

The A-Holes

Fun type studies by Alberto Garcia. I love the A-Holes.

Illustration Friday

Happy Friday everyone! I am attempting to organise my blog and I've decided that Fridays will be  illustration day! My giving each day a theme will hopefully a) give more direction to Halfsweetvanilla and b) help me develop posts well in advance as at times it can be a tad overwhelming. Alright, Monday to Thursday left to go!


These illustrations were done for a calendar I made last year. 

Sea Urchins

I'd like to share with you the other paintings I am working on. I'm not sure what prompted me to do a series of Urchins but I really loved painting them and couldn't stop after just one. They are a great subject matter for experimenting with colour mixing, perspective and textures. I'll post the complete set when it's done! 

Rain rain go away

Up to 200mm of rain is forecasted to fall by tomorrow. Yikes.

Great photos found here. 

Crafting Sunday

In our house, Sunday is a day full of football and crafting [designing/painting]. As you may have guessed I am the one doing the crafting. Today I am hoping to finish at least one of the 4 paintings I have on the go at the moment. They aren't ready to be shared just yet but I thought I would share my inspiration board for one of the pieces. It is usually an image like the ones below that spark a vision for my next painting. I'm not sure where I got these pictures as I plunk them into folders as I see them while perusing the web.

Those are some cool kids

Here's to "back to school" week! I hope all you teachers survived it. How great are these outfits [and styling] from Crewcuts?  Now those are some cool kids.

Pretty truffles

Very pretty packaging for Starbucks Truffles by Hatch.

Java Jolt

 This mornings coffee is tasting particularly good, not to mention much needed, after a bit of a late night.


Plaid Creative has done a great poster outlining the various coffee/espresso based drinks that for some can be a foreign language entirely. I have been wanting to do my own version of this for sometime just as a fun exercise personal project and this may have just given me the inspiration. mmmmm flat whites.

Smells like fall

The temperature took a major drop yesterday making St. John's feel very fall-like and it looks like the colder weather is going to be sticking around. These wonderful posters by Lovely Design give me that same fall feeling. 

Gone Running

Yes I am one of those crazy people who genuinely loves to run.... first thing in the morning. [I told you I was crazy] I have been a runner for quite sometime and I definitely have my very active parents to thank for this. 


I don't think you have to be a serious runner to appreciate these Nike Running ads. 

There is a wonderful place called Ferryland

We were told about this wonderful place, specifically the lighthouse picnics, over dinner out one evening before summer started. Little did we know that we would be frequenting the lighthouse for lunch quite a few times over the course of the summer. You can't really get better scenery and the food... oh the food.


An hours drive from St. John's [lots to see on the way!] lands you in the picturesque community of Ferryland. To get to the lighthouse picnics you follow the signs to a bit of a make shift parking lot and proceed on a nice little 20 minute walk to the lighthouse. Once you order your lunch [everything is homemade! Sandwichs include, ham and brie, curried chicken, seafood medley...] you are giving a blanket and a flag and are told to hang around the lighthouse until your lunch is ready. Within no time your lunch arrives, yes in a picnic basket, and then you are free to go where ever you'd like to enjoy your food, your company and the scenery, which often includes whales. It is truly a one of a kind experience.


Be sure to check out my friend Laura's ferryland post over at Runty Mouse! The picnics were on a lot of our friend's "to do" lists this summer.

A day in the life

I am a huge fan of Fossil. Their branding, their products, their blog... and I am so jealous of their graphic designer!

Pantone Perfect

As summer comes to an end in a couple of weeks I thought I'd share some of Pantone's top colour picks for the Fall. As sad as I am to see summer end I do love digging out my sweaters and boots. [I should note that I haven't really put my sweaters away, gotta love Newfoundland!]

Pantone's fashion colour report for spring 2011 is also out [I know... kind of hard to think that far down the road] but I love the forecasted colour of the season, Honeysuckle! As you can probably tell from a few of my posts I am a huge fan of pink. You can download the full report here.

While on the subject of Pantone colours, I thought I'd share some fun pantone products I've run into in my online travels. 

Everyone needs a bright pink chair.

Well maybe not everyone. I had so much fun transforming lamps that I thought it was time to upgrade to something a bit bigger. This little chair was a thrift shop find [a whopping $3.00!] and after examining the structure I chose it to be my first, and I use this word mildly, re-upholstery project. I say mildly because the cushion was in great shape and simply screws off the chair base therefore making it quite simple to re-cover. The hard part was in deciding what the new and improved chair would look like! I decided to chose the fabric first and loved this bold striped material. I hadn't originally planned on doing the base in pink [raspberry to be exact] but after covering the cushion nothing else looked quite right with the bold stripes. No it doesn't really match anything in our house but I couldn't be happier with my new bright pink chair.

Saturday Mornings

Nothing beats a Saturday morning. CBC Radio One, fresh pot of coffee, orange juice, toast, and this morning, poached eggs! Yes, I took my first stab at poaching eggs this morning and it was a success [and so easy!]. For those who were as clueless as I was, bring a pot of water to a boil. Once boiling it is time to put in the eggs, the trick is to not let your eggs drop into the pot of boiling water but to crack them into a small bowl first and slide them in; then reduce the heat on the burner and put 4 minutes on the timer. I prefer a medium poached egg so 5 minutes made them just the way I like it. 

All in all a great start to a long weekend. 


Tape strips and other fabulous freebies available at pugly pixel.

September

I can't believe that September is here!