Oh Comely subscription box: Cartwheels in a box

 Oh Comely's second subscription box popped through the door the other day and I was pretty excited to see what this one contained. The theme this time is wheels!

'This box is mischievous and just a little subversive.  It invites you to come and play.'

As always the subscription box contains the new issue.  I've yet to start reading as I've been keeping it as a treat for finishing everything I've been trying to catch up on. This time the box contains items designed by illustrator Kaye Blegvad. Kaye's work is incredibly cool. Not only does she do some pretty lovely illustrations, she also makes ceramics and runs a jewellery line called Datter Industries. I have my eye on a few pieces!

If you'd like to see Kaye's work, pop over to her website here. 

As with the last box there is a contents list that numbers everything and gives a little description so I'll include these here. 

'One. Between the pages of the Wheels Issue, meet Kaye Blegvad, our partner in crime.  This box revolves around Kaye's sinister-yet-charming illustration like spokes around an axle.  You could think of it as Kaye's Toy Box, even.  Become engrossed in her art and her story on page 20.' 

'Two. Spin the wheel, choose a face.  What face do you show to the world?  And what face do you save for friends and family? Move the wheel and you can be whoever you want.  Kaye's Face Changer is a nod to your secret self.'

As you can see above Kaye's created an illustrated spinner. I particularly like this rather hairy face. I can see myself pinning this on my wall and every so often changing the face with my mood.  Just for the fun of it.

'Three. Pin your heart on your sleeve.  Or your mood on your lapel.  We chose three favourite faces to adorn a trio of enamel badges and became so fond of them that each acquired a nickname: Closed-Eye Lady, Open-Eyed Lady and Snake Lady.  Send your own nicknames to hello@ohcomely.co.uk'

I love these pin badges so so much. I've attached 'Closed-Eye Lady' to my coat as she looks pretty peaceful. For me she is called 'Bus Nap Lady'. Something I'm partial to doing myself. I'm still trying to think of some nicknames for the other two.

 'Four. Shuffle a deck. There are women dancing and spinning and, quite possibly, attempting a handstand across the surface of these playing cards.  Slip the pack into your pocket for a spontaneous round of Pontoon, Snap or Texas Hold 'Em.'

Well what a darn pretty pack of cards. I really love the white and blue illustration. I don't have a pack of cards either so this is rather handy. I now want to make a card tower with them.

'Five. Twirl a pen.  Finally, the pages of this notebook are blank, waiting for your thoughts and doodles.  Take your favourite pen for a spin, and decide where the journey will end.'

A handy little notebook illustrated by Kaye, which I'll pop in my bag to take some notes or do a little drawing myself. 

Thanks, Oh Comely for another great subscription box. I look forward to the next and to delving into this issue. If you fancy subscribing to Oh Comely, whether it's the magazine or the box then you can hop over here to do so.

Parcels, drawings and books

I have taken part in Oh Comely's Perfect Strangers project again.  The project is a pretty simple but fun idea where you get paired up with someone else from the project and send each other a parcel in the post. My swap partner mentioned that she liked Wes Anderson films and Amelie so I tried to create a box that sort of looked like something from them.  I've included some books, drawings, postcards, knitted and felted animals, ornaments and other nice bits and bobs.  I hope she likes it! 

I've also been spending some time looking about Broughty Ferry beach for pieces of old ceramic that's been washed up.  I'm hoping to do some paintings on some of them.  I'm not too sure what I'm doing with the pattered ones but I just like collecting them because they look nice. There's also a few interesting stones in there too that I decided to keep.

In terms of drawing I'm fitting it into my spare time as much as I can. I recently watched the film 'Her' with Joaquin Phoenix as the main character Theodore Twombly.  A film set sometime in the future but certainly not unreachable from our current advances in technology. It's story of a guy, Theodore,  who's going through a divorce, during which he gets the latest operating system.  A not so remarkable thing to do since we always seem to be updating our devices these days.  This operating system is like the next step of Siri in which you speak to it and it answers but unlike previous versions that sound quite robotic, this update is just like talking to a real person. In such a lonely period of his life it's a welcoming, if a bit strange, new relationship that evolves throughout the film. I loved the colour scheme and the whole feeling of the film which was quite melancholy, slightly detached from how we live now but also frighteningly close. So after enjoying it so much I decided to do a drawing of Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore. 

I also recently watched The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. I found out that he was influenced by the writer Stefan Zweig and that the film was inspired by two of his books, one being 'Beware of Pity'.  I decided to give it a read and it was like reading a big collection of strong emotions.  There was no subtlety in the way the characters acted, everything was very dramatic and full of a great deal of over thinking. The story is about a young lieutenant Anton Hofmiller who is invited up to the nearby castle owned by an aristocrat Lajos Kekesfalva.  After having such an incredible evening full of drinking, eating and dancing he makes an incredibly embarrassing mistake asking the daughter of the house to dance, not knowing that she is paralysed. Consumed by his shame he experiences true pity for the first time and becomes a slave to this overwhelming pity he feels for the girl which becomes more and more suffocating as the story goes on. It doesn't read at all like a Wes Anderson film but you can see that certain characters or scenes influence The Grand Budapest Hotel.  The story itself stands on it's own as a tale of inner turmoil and despair. Now I've moved onto the newest book by Haruki Murakami, 'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki' which is proving to draw me in already and I'm only on chapter two. 

I'm off on holiday soon, camping on the west coast of Scotland.  I have a brand new sketchbook ready as well as a list of books I'm planning to take.  I'll be away for two weeks and I can't wait for a break away. 

Oh Comely subscription box: Storm in a box

I was incredibly excited to come home yesterday and find that the first Oh Comely magazine subscription box had popped through the letterbox. I signed up for the subscription box because the magazine itself is so beautiful and inspiring therefore a box of goodies from them was an exciting prospect.

The subscription box is themed around the most recent issue which this time is all about the weather so each piece has a link to that in some way.

Firstly I thought the packaging was really lovely with a patterened design and Oh comely stickers to seal it all. Having something pretty falling through your letter box also adds to the excitement of getting nice mail!  

Inside the contents was wrapped up neatly with a peace of string and a parcel tag saying 'STORM BOX', the name of this issue's subscription box.  It all looked very hand made and personal which I though was a really lovely touch.  The whole look of it very much ties in with their magazine style where it feels like you're sitting around with a group of like minded friends having a chat with a cup of tea. That's one of the really lovely things about Oh Comely.  It feels really accessible and friendly and you really feel like you're joining in with everyone when you read it.  Reading Oh Comely feels like joining a lovely creative and inspiring community of people and their new subscription box completely encompases that and makes you feel even more a part of it all.

The first item inside was a list of the contents. 

'Storms are terrifying. Storms are electric.  In Oh Comely's first subscription box you will find a perfect storm of creativity and inspiration.'

Everything was carefully packaged inside and each had a number corresponding to the list of lovely descriptions.

'One: Wind

Windy day, sweep me away. Get swept up in the joy of a good doodle.  Owen Gent is the guest illustrator for Oh Comely 25.  Inspired by the tale of Odysseus and the four winds, together we created this little notebook.'

Owen Gent's illustrations are wonderful and after reading all about him in Oh Comely I had to go and have a look at his work. I find them incredibly peaceful to look at, like scenes out of a dream. I have my eye on a few of his prints which I may well treat myself to soon. This lovely little notebook will fit nicely into my bag for jotting down ideas and ramblings. To see more of Owen's work, head over to his website here.

'Two: Rain

A silk scarf recalling cloudy skies and the silvery rain that falls from it.  Wrap the scarf around your neck, or pop it in your top pocket for a flash of thundery blues.  Hand-dyed and hand-painted by textile artist Justyna Michalowska, you can read an interview with her on page 88'

When I read the mentioned interview with her in this issue I was very excited to then own a piece of her work.  To own a handmade piece in any form is very special and I feel very lucky that as a subscriber I get to own a piece of Justyna's work. The colours are incredibly beautiful and anyone that knows me well enough knows that I absolutely love listening to rain, especially if there's some thunder thrown in there too. So to have one of my favourite types of weather reproduced in a unique way to wear is beautiful. To see more of Justyna's work, head to her website here.

'Three: Shelter

There's rain and wind: take shelter from the storm.  Yours to keep is this brass necklace designed by jeweller Saadiqah Rahman. A simple, timeless shape, is it an archway or perhaps a wishbone? Get to know Saadiqah on page 24.'

I fell in love with this necklace as soon as I saw it.  From hearing about what was going to be in the subscription box, this was one of the pieces I was most excited to receive. I really like simple, bold jewellery and that's exactly what Saadiqah creates. The idea of it being a shelter from the storm reminds me of that feeling you get sitting in your house as rain pours down, yet you're cosy inside with a book, watching it all happen out your window. It's one of the best feelings and I feel this necklace encapsulates that. To see more of Saadiqah's work, head to her website here.

'Four: Home

Now you're home and dry, it's time to curl up with a good read.  Here's Oh Comely 25.  Themed on Weather, it's the place where our stormy adventures began.'

I really enjoyed this issue of Oh Comely and it made a week of bus journey's to work much more enjoyable. We really do love to talk about the weather here and in Scotland in particular we seem to experience a whole range of weather, sometimes just in one single day! It was lovely to hear about people's weather related stories and see people get creative around the theme.

'Five: Sleep

Of all the words for rain, drizzle is our favourite.  Not spitting, pouring, showering or thundering but drizzling.  We sourced a fine sampling from British clouds and bottled it.  Think of it as something to keep under your pillow.'

The final subscription gift was very sweet and fun. The tiny bottle is lovely and if you sit it on your window sill it twinkles away. 

A big thank you to Oh Comely for coming up with such a lovely idea of creating a subscription box for their avid readers.  I'm very much looking forward to the next one.  If you'd like to join in the fun you can subcribe to Oh Comely's subscription box here. Go on, you know you want to!

A week of reading

This week has been a very sleepy one but I've not been the only one.  It seems a lot of people have been feeling a bit lethargic this week so perhaps there's something going about.
Thankfully though I've had a series of books to nestle into which has been my main activity this week.
Ben Aaronovitch has written a series of books following the life of PC Peter Grant.  A young policeman in London who discovers that there is more to policing than meets the eye. After meeting a ghost face to face in the first book 'Rivers of London', he is taken on as an apprentice by Detective Police Inspector Thomas Nightingale, head of The Folly that deals with the supernatural and magic side of things that occur for the Metropolitan police to deal with. Nightingale also happens to be the last sanctioned wizard in England and Peter is the first apprentice in over seventy years to be taken on. If you like ghost stories and the paranormal, which I always have done, then these books would be right up your street. I'm now on the fourth book in the series 'Broken Homes'.  They are a perfect companion for the bus journey to and from work everyday.
This week has also brought with it the next Oh Comely magazine issue. Perfect for curling up with a cup of tea, Oh Comely is full of inspiring stories, beautiful illustrations and photography, tasty recipes and crafty ideas. This issues theme is weather and I'm looking forward to settling down to read it this coming week.
I also got a delivery of more Fabriano Venezia sketchbooks. I keep talking about these but they really are my favourite so I got a few more to stock up.
Finally I've been continuing to look back at previous work. I really do recommend it as it gives you new ideas and you can pick out what you were happy with and what to improve on.  It's also always nice to take a walk down drawing memory lane.

perfect strangers

This year I took part in the Oh Comely magazine Perfect Strangers project. What is that you ask? Well, Oh Comely asks for a small profile of yourself and then they match you with someone else from around the world.  You then receive the profile written by your match and come up with some lovely gifts to send off to them. Thanks to social media, my match managed to find me to let me know how much she loved the parcel I sent her. It was absolutely lovely to know how well received it was and it really does feel wonderful to make a gift for a complete stranger.  We are now no longer strangers though and I hope to keep in touch with my swap partner, Carolyn.  

I was off on holiday from work for a week and my parcel arrived there so I was eager to pick it up this week and very excited to open it. The enticing gold bow on the outside led me to an overwhelming box of gifts. The kindness of my perfect stranger, Carolyn was just so so lovely. All my gifts where packaged with lovely paper and tied with cute bows and little messages. She really understood me from my profile and picked exactly the sorts of things I love.

 A little paper bag contained these wonderful treasures! We both share a love of vintage items and these are just perfect. I found the butterfly brooch to be especially beautiful.  All will be added to my collection.

 

Vanilla and cinnamon are two of my favourite scents so these tea lights are a treat for my nose.  I love the cute little magic slate for drawing too as I'm sure I had one when I was wee.

 

This light bulb is absolutely gorgeous! I've never seen anything quite like it! The flowers inside are incredibly delicate. Beautiful!

 The whole box smelt of this beautifully made soap. It looks so good I wish I could eat it. I'm going to have to look up the company to get some more.

 The most cosy and comfy socks were included and one pair is missing from this photo as I put them on pretty much straight away. The hand warmers will be perfect for my cold bus journeys to work and I've always wanted to take photos with sparklers so that'll be happening soon.

 How kind and lovely is this? I had mentioned my dog Keira in my profile so Carolyn included some doggy treats for her. Such a lovely thought.

 

 To top it all off...CHOCOLATE! These won't last long.  Far too tasty to keep.

 

There is something about this project that I found incredibly special. I would very much recommend taking part in this next year to anyone who hasn't done it before. I'll certainly be taking part again in 2015. Thank you Oh Comely for the opportunity!