Decorating for a Fashionable Christmas

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly

Fa la la la la

la la la la.”

No really, deck the halls. Maybe not with holly, but with a bunch of luxury accessories and fashion-friendly accents while jamming out to Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas album.  If you want to get festive for the season, but avoid tackiness, here are some decorations so you can have a fashionable Christmas.

Mason Jar Votive Candles

Plaid and Flannel Throws and Pillows

Garlands and Wreaths

Miniature Christmas Village

What are your go-to holiday decorations?  Are you ready?  Christmas is creeping up on us out of nowhere!

Through the Lens IX

Albeiro Rojas Tomedes

http://www.tomedes.co.uk/

Year of Birth: 1973


Where are you currently living?

I live and work in London, UK.   


What kind of work do you do?

I am most interested in painting, art installations and sculpture, especially how one discipline can shape the other. I like exploring the liminal forms that exist in between.

Amazon on the Edge, 2015
Oil and gloss paint skin cut-outs on board 
120 x 160 cm 

What elements of your life inspired you to pursue your creativity?  Was there a turning point or an event that made you want to become something?

For me, I think it was natural, as I grew up in the Amazon in Colombia, which has heavily influenced me. During my childhood, the beauty of nature and the richness of indigenous culture surrounded me. I grew up contemplating the magic of this unique place, but nowadays I see how it is being destroyed, deforested and contaminated. The identity, culture and heritage of the indigenous people are being eroded through a process of gentrification, as modern western civilization and globalization squeeze out traditional practices. All this somehow inspired me to do something and I use art as an opportunity to tell people about what is happening in this place; that it should be protected before it is all destroyed.

Perceptions (In London), 2015
Acrylics on Cow Dung 
approx. 180 x 250 cm 

This art installation was part of an exhibition in India where I took an art residency this year. I decided to transport part of the installation to London.

The focus of the art residency was to respond to the locations in which we were working with local artists to develop an art project. The idea of using cow dung in the piece arose because it was the first thing that made an impact on me when I arrived in India. Cows were everywhere and later on I discovered how useful the material cow dung was to local people, having a multitude of practical functions. The area is inhabited mostly by poor, tribal people and they use it as a fuel for cooking, as a fertilizer, for building their houses, in shampoo and even to make cake to eat, so it was more useful than I could have imagined. I decided to extend its use further, making it central to my installation. I took wooden sticks covered in cow dung that were used as cooking fuel and coloured them with local Indian powders. These were hung side by side in an installation in the gallery. Now, in London, part of the original installation is being exhibited in my first solo exhibition.



Do you have an artistic intention, focus, or message that you try to convey?

Always in each and every work I have an intention, a focus or message. Currently my paintings are reflecting the destruction inflicted upon places like the Amazon. This is the reason why paint on my paintings is falling off, being cut, ripped, carved and destroyed. I want people get that idea and think beyond the surface of my paintings.



How do you meet and collaborate with like-minded people?

I met most people I know and collaborate with in projects through university, or through a network of friends. There is a group of artists who share a studio complex and private views or exhibitions are also a good place to meet people. So far, the projects I have developed together with them have been fruitful experiences that will encourage us to continue working and developing new projects in the future.

Displaced, 2015
Oil and gloss paint on board and floor 
approx. 160 x 120 cm 

How do you think the internet and social media can benefit creatives like you?

Technology, the internet and all social media, of course make life easier in many aspects. In terms of my creativity, I benefit by having information at hand, being able to read and research artists, view their works and learn from their experiences. The internet also facilitates contact and meeting others if I want to and provides the opportunity to share my work with others and let them know what I am doing or what my plans are within art.


Do you think the internet has improved your ability to connect with other artists? 

I guess so; I am in contact with other artists and we share each other’s opinions, information about our exhibitions or anything of relevance to our lives as artists. It is a great tool to use if one takes the best from it, especially helping make connections with other people with a common interest in art.


Thoughts on social media and anonymity?

Nowadays, so much is possible, so it depends on our attitude as to whether to stay anonymous or take what may be considered a risk with the exposure of revealing parts about yourself on social media. There are many things, particularly related to our personal lives, that we prefer remain private, unless we wish to make some sort of statement in our work.  Generally, I think most people want to share their interest in art with others. There can be a lot of mutual benefits from sharing ideas, work, and opinions. I’m glad we live in a society where can decide what to share, as many in the world don’t have this basic freedom. I believe individuals should have the right to decide, as that should be an inseparable part of personal freedom.

Website? Social Media?

http://www.tomedes.co.uk 
https://www.facebook.com/Tomedes-343257125786863/

Stay tuned for more amazing artists!  If you are an artist, and want to get involved, I'd love to hear from you.  Send all inquiries to helloquaintrelle@gmail.com

The Sevigny

How She Did It

     Chloe Sevigny is an American actress who was hip before ‘being hip’ was a trend.  She’s been called ‘the coolest girl in the world’ and now, at 41 years old, she is no longer the coolest girl, but one of the coolest women on the planet.

     Her story is reminiscent of Carrie Bradshaw’s, paralleling the vibe of the Sex and the City prequel series The Carrie Diaries.  In the 90s, when Sevigny became a working woman, there was no instant Internet fame waiting on the other side of a computer screen.  Hollywood was a distant dream and the fashion industry was only accessible to the upper echelon of high society.  Unfortunately - or fortunately - those were the two industries that Sevigny decided to go for!  If she was here herself, she would tell you, “It wasn’t easy!”  I’m not Chloe Sevigny, but I’m going to try to tell you how she did it.

from Opening Ceremony.us

     Chloe Sevigny ignored the mainstream.

     Why? Because if something is mainstream, if you already see it everywhere, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to make it an even greater success than it already is.  Somebody’s beat you to the punch, darling.  So be creative, be unique, and take the long way round.

     Did Chloe head straight to the designers in Manhattan?  No, she hung around Greenwich Village, collecting inspiration and looking for ideas that had potential.

     Did she attempt to seamlessly evolve into a Kardashian?  No, she became a New York City hipster, a subculture that would burst onto the scene in years to come.

     Did she push for roles in A-list movies with Hollywood stars? No, she succeeded in controversial productions that won her awards and accolades.  

     What you see in the media can be inspiring, but follow Chloe Sevigny’s footsteps and use other people’s success as a jumping off point for your own aspirations.

Etsy

Besides the fact that I am officially on Etsy, I am now selling my art!

You can click here to be redirected to my new chic digital storefront or you can just navigate there by yourself using this:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBoldBlog

As it says over on my Etsy page, the mission of The Bold Blog store is to help design cohesive, professional platforms for you and your brand.  That could be anything from business cards to promotional products to blogging graphics, even simply matching social media profiles for all of your personal accounts.  Over at the shop, anything can be done!

To find my personal artworks for sale, you can view the most recent on the shop homepage, or click the Original Artwork tab in the sidebar.

Shoot me an email or send me a direct message from your Etsy account to learn more.

How to Save for Milestones in Your Twenties

        One morning, your parents are sending you off for your first week of Uni, having packed you non-perishable food and enough laundry detergent to last the year.  The next, you’re on your own in the dank little breakfast nook of your new flat, eating porridge with water instead of milk because milk just doesn’t fit into your budget anymore.

       Growing up is exciting, and a necessary step in life, but keeping a budget is not.  We all deserve to treat ourselves, especially when times feel tough.  So why not start saving now for the milestones you’ll want to celebrate later?  Here are some tips on how to save some extra cash.

Buy non-perishables in bulk

The more you buy at once, the cheaper it will be per unit.  If it’s shelf-stable, like tissue paper, fill your cart with the big rolls that will last you several months. Everybody loves wandering through places like Costco and finding things you never knew you needed that will last you almost years.

D.I.Y.

Okay, who doesn’t love a good do-it-yourself project? DIY-ing is totally trending right now, so take advantage of the fad, jump on Pinterest, and have a go at making some of the things you might buy in store.

Find your green thumb

Lots of popular fruits, vegetables, and herbs can be grown on your windowsill or in a miniature garden.  A green thumb would be helpful, but with a little Googling, you can learn the basic tricks of home gardening in a snap!

Take your health seriously

What you eat and drink, how often you exercise, and what habits you partake in on a daily basis may seem like silly little nagging points right now, but might just cost you down the road.  If you take care of yourself while you are still healthy, you could save yourself tons of money that you’d rather put towards a special occasion later in life.

Pay with cash

Paying with debit or credit desensitizes you to the value of money.  When you are standing at the till and have to physically pull the money out of your wallet, you will be more aware of the amount being spent.



        No matter what you do or how you do it, find a way to make saving meaningful.  Every little coin, every note, every cheque, no matter how tiny – all of it counts.  It will pay off later, it will be worth it!  Don’t consider it a daunting task.  Rather, be excited by the prospect of opportunities you’ll be able to have in the future.

The Fear of Not Being Liked

     

       Life forces us to be surrounded by people; people who like us, people who love us, and people who make it clear they could care less if your head was stuck in a toilet.  Learning how to deal with all sorts of personalities is part of the journey.  And along the way, we have to learn that we simply cannot please everyone.

Indeed, it can be hard to come to terms with the fact that not everybody likes you, but being yourself and building a genuine support group is better than being a people pleaser.  If you’re struggling with the fear of not being liked, try jumping off the deep end with these three tips.

1. If you want to say no, say it.

Here are your options: say yes to everything that’s asked of you and be disappointed in your mediocre outcome.  Or, say yes to what is within your domain and politely decline the tasks you know you won’t be able to live up to.  If you want to make people happy, be honest.  Saying no might yield a negative response at first, but your colleagues will be grateful for your upfront attitude when crunch time comes around.

2. Ask for opinions to gain perspective

For the longest time, I asked the people around me to make decisions for me, with the hopes that I could impress them and gain some respect.  But what I learned from doing that is that if you succeed, you don’t feel proud for having used somebody else’s idea.  And if you fail, you’re embarrassed and no better off than before.
Your boss, your coworkers, and your family will all respect you more for acquiring various perspectives and using them to come to your own decision.  That way, whatever the outcome, you can feel 100% responsible.  Whether your decision succeeds or fails, people will respect you for being your own person.

3. Stand out

Are you a follower, or a leader?  Followers don’t often gain respect from other followers, or from leaders for that matter.  So in trying to be liked by everyone else, you’re just melting into the status quo; becoming one of the same.  To be truly liked, you need to forget about all the social psychoanalytics, step away from the crowd, and be whoever it is that is calling out to you.  Forge a path for yourself!  Be anything and everything!  When you begin to let go of your fears, you will shine in your own way; you’ll attract like-minded people who respect what you do and what you stand for.

You want to be liked?  Here’s the answer: stop trying.  

The Selfie

You either love it or you hate it; the selfie is a controversial photo-taking method. And with the newly redesigned front-facing camera on the iPhone 6s, selfies are only bound to grow in popularity. If you’re going to venture in that direction, you may as well learn how to do it right…or at least, learn what not to do. Here are seven of the biggest selfie mistakes:


1. Getting too close to the camera

Maybe getting closer will cut out the view of your messy bedroom or block the camera from capturing your unicorn pyjama set. But on the other hand, getting too close will just shed light on all of the features you don’t want to highlight.

2. Over-posing

Cheesy, cheesy, cheese. When it’s obvious that you’re trying too hard, you’ve gone too far.

3. Giving yourself a trying-to-be-artsy caption

Captions and hashtags are at least 50% of the work in making a good Instagram pic. But metaphorical, alternative captions have become the latest social media cliché.

4. Faking a candid

Have you ever noticed that people trying to stage a candid don’t look casually candid? They look staged. Purpose defeated.

5. Getting excited with filter effects

Some filters are classy, some light leaks look natural, but irrational combinations of the two can make your photo look worse quality than you started off with.

6. Posting too many

In social media language, there’s value in the selfie. What I mean is that selfies – if done properly – produce a lot of ‘likes’. However, when you post selfies too often, they begin to lose their value. The more selfies you post, the less people will pay attention, if you care about that kind of thing.

7. Overanalyzing

It’s social media; it’s harsh, critical, and unrealistic. Don’t take anything you see or hear personally. That is to say, don’t sit up awake at night thinking about a comment on your selfie. It’s not worth it.

‘Selfie’ just made it into the dictionary, so I suppose it’s something we should start taking seriously. Is there a process; a 5-step guide? Nope. Not yet, but maybe one day. For now, it’s all about trial-and-error. Hopefully, these tips will get you ahead of the game.

Love Makes for a Good Drama

What woman doesn’t want to be Carrie Bradshaw? Right?  The shoes, the men, the apartment, the life!  Well, Sex and the City is a good tv show, but when it comes down to it, Carrie’s just shoving it in our faces that, yes, real life love kinda sucks.

When you read between the lines, here’s what you get:

Cheaters always cheat
If Mr. Big can cheat on the first Mrs. Big, he can just as easily cheat on the next.

He’s probably not into you
In real life, if he doesn’t call, it’s usually not because he’s leading you toward a romantic surprise.  Although we all wish it were.

On again off again relationships don’t work
Years of back and forth, yes-no-maybe-ing is more of an emotional hurricane than a romantic rollercoaster, unlikely to end in a white horse galloping off into the distance.

Lying to your friends is a bigger crime than lying to your man
Friends are forever, boys are whatever.  Lie to your boyfriend and the worst that can happen is he dumps you a few days earlier than planned.  Lie to your girlfriends, you’re sent to a hell-like social exile.

There are men everywhere
Don’t sweat the small stuff, you know what I'm saying?  There are bigger fish in the sea, lots of bigger fish!



The tragedies of real relationships are fun to watch on the big screen, played out by fabulous women in luxurious furs and skyscraper heels.  But don’t be fooled, it’s a good drama and not a drama you should wish upon yourself.  We can learn from Carrie and all of her Louboutin-strutting ways, but you know what? Single is good.  Single is okay, and single is drama free.

#PeacePottruffWedding

Shabby Chic at its finest.

And groomsmen at their finest too.

Mireia and Andrew's wedding marks the first wedding I've ever been to without actually being in the wedding party.  And I have to admit, I cried.  A lot.  It didn't help that I was sitting beside my mother who was practically a human water fountain before the ceremony even began - what a suck!  

But up until today, I didn't like the idea of getting married.  I don't know very many people in my life who are in a successful relationship/marriage/whatever so I guess I've been a little turned off of the whole thing.  But seeing Mireia and Andrew today and the genuine love exuded not only by them, but by everybody - family and friends - in attendance, inspired me.  I hope all of those in attendance felt inspired by what we all got to experience today, because I think it was something very very special.

Here are some photos from around the wedding:

Home-made strawberry raspberry jam favours, courtesy of me and Mama Powell.

Charlie boy

Charity

Trevor & Andrew, stars of the evening...aka bartenders.

NYFW I

ERIN FETHERSTON

It's a Girls' Party

Designer: Erin Fetherston

San Francisco, California

Graduate of Parsons the New School for Design

     There isn't anything quite as captivating as a performance art piece, which is exactly what I view a runway show to be.  It's a performance, and it's art, in so many different ways that poke and prod at all the senses.  Think of it broken down like this:

     You've got the venue; a deliberate selection based on architecture and spatial art

     You've got the clothing; a deliberate curation of fashion design

     You've got the interior atmosphere; a deliberate organization of furniture and props

     You've got the hair and makeup; all deliberate actions to express a particular aesthetic

     You've got the music; chosen and sequenced to create a tone

     and you've got the models, who walk, pose, and gesture in a manner indicative of said tone.

     All facets of a runway show, separate and pieced together, qualify as art; it is not simply the outfit on the model that determines the success of a show.  Every detail matters, which is why Erin Fetherston's eponymous label pulled off such a successful showing at New York Fashion Week S/S 2016.

     

     In one phrase, contemporary rétrograde.  To translate that into lamen terms, let me paint an image for you...imagine this:

You're nine years old again and life is carefree.

It's 1979.

You've just bicycled home from school with your friend, Sue-Ellen, and you drop your school bag at the front door before running into the kitchen.

Mother's in the kitchen, wearing a pastel mid-length dress that matches the wallpaper.  The appliances are pastel too.

She's baking; pies it looks like.  But she looks over her shoulder and smiles at you when she hears the metal chair scratching along the linoleum.

Wiping flour-dusted hands on her apron, Mother plucks an LP out of the wooden rack on top of the refrigerator and places it on record player.  It begins to scratch away; some women chirping about their no good husbands who they're better off without anyway.

You're sitting at the kitchen table in a pleasureful daze, until Mother sweeps you up into the flower power folds of her dress and you both fly dancing around the room.

     That is Erin Fetherston S/S '16, which I've appointed the unofficial title, "It's a Girls' Party" because of its vivacious femininity; equal parts the fragile lady and the bold woman, the retro and the contemporary.  

     Erin Fetherston designs have always been known as feminine, romantic, and whimsical, but this collection is not merely an update version of what's been seen before.  There is a stark contrast between last year's S/S and what we're seeing this year in particular.  Where S/S 2015 was rooted in blacks and whites as bases for pattern, S/S 2016 wholly embodies colour and pattern - floral print specifically - as the essence of the collection.

     Besides the more vibrant hues presented, Fetherston contributes to the light and airy mood by incorporating perforated, translucent, and lace fabrics into her textile portfolio.  Again, maintaining romantic femininity through fine floral detailing.

     What a print publication will show you are the hair scarves, the knee-length hems, and the dainty necklines.  Anybody with eyes can just see the retro oozing from the catwalk.  However, what print doesn't convey are the pieces of the show that do not transcend the paper or the computer screen.  In other words,

• the music - reminiscent of The Supremes; something that makes you want to go out and buy an old karaoke machine.  
• the tempo - fast-paced music matched by fast-paced models, strutting with speed and bopping to the tunes (ironically serious faces intact).

     If you haven't watched the show in full, NYFW Live is hosting a replay link here.  It's about 10 minutes start to finish and if you're remotely creative in any sense, there's something in there for you to appreciate.  

     Although Erin Fetherston is a relative rookie, having only been on the scene for the past decade - since the 2005 Paris Haute Couture shows - she's quippy with her interpretations of modern and historic style.  What was once blassé and passé, Erin Fetherston has reimagined into the contemporary chic woman.