Life is definitely changing.  We are a few weeks past the 100 day count down until the wedding and it is sinking in that 1.  I am getting married, but 2. I will be leaving my family home where I have lived my entire life bar two years at University.  I know I know, this isn't a big deal, I am 28 for goodness sake, this is something that should of happened earlier, but you know what; it didn't and this is still A BIG DEAL to me.

I am not even moving that far, about 8 miles according to Googlemaps so it is not as if I won't be visiting all the time.  What hit me was that I will be leaving a lot of things behind; figuratively and literally.  Over the weekend I was clearing out my wardrobe which is always a challenge.  Previous attempts of clearing things out have left me lighter of maybe a Tesco's plastic bag worth of things that were at the extremes of me never ever wearing them again, keeping items I am indifferent about, or that may need altering but had "potential" and things I had not worn for years but were still "kinda cute".  This time round I had to be ruthless, you see I am moving into a pretty small studio with the husband to be and we have to be economic with storage.  Three bin bags, and a box later my wardrobe had been downsized.  It was sad as I forced myself to say goodbye to the party girl me as I parted with my numerous short body con dresses.  I said goodbye to my wannabe American Apparel model phase as my thighs would never fit in those high waist hot pants I had; worst of all I decided to give away my numerous wearable, but not really sell-able The Bamboo District clothes I had tried to build an empire with back in 2011.  This was especially sad as it reminded me of a time when I had a real fire to design clothes that I just don't have anymore, it sucked even more as I came across all my old sketches and the things I wanted to make but didn't get round to making are items that are rife on sites like ASOS and Topshop in their recent collections.  

What I didn't like when I was clearing things out were how much of a hoarder I am, and pretty wasteful too.  I had bought lot's of things over the years and used initially and then left them to the side when over it.  There was a whole box of old felt tip pens that I can't even remember I owned.  They looked brand new BUT THEY DRIED OUT!  Art pens are not cheap...I dread to think the money I have wasted.

It isn't all sadness and woefulness though.  I feel quite liberated to be free of things that I actually do not need.  It does not mean I have completely chucked everything out.  I still have a nicely streamlined collection of sketchbooks that can be filled with my water colour pens, my favourite magazines that will still be with me in the new place, my sewing machine and fabric to make my giant cushions with and a superbly curated wardrobe that just screams me whatever I put on.  I used to like to dress like different personas, like cheerleader chic, hippie girls etc but with my more limited collection I can be Natalie with a hint of cheerleader, Natalie who is semi hippie.  My favourite character to play is me...and Solange Knowles! 

I hope that my wasteful nature and hoarding ways do not follow me through to my marriage and my new home.  I just need to keep an eye on that and pray that I won't be greedy.  Though I mourn the past me, I am really excited to see what the future Wifey me will be like and what fun projects I will be involved with, and stick with.  Here's to then!

I should maybe start a tag for all the JR content I post on my blog.  First it was my first mention of him when I discovered his work and also when I went down to be part of his prolific Inside Out Series when it came to London.  This time around I want to share his new video documenting his time with Artist José Parlá in Havana as they work on their project Wrinkles of the City.  This video gives a nice insight to the history, people and culture of Havana, Cuba and how their reactions to this Art project really defines the character of the place.  Havana is a place with not external advertising, so no huge billboards, bus posters or bus ads so having huge visual pieces erected on the sides local buildings and monuments.  There are some really cute people featured in this film, and if any of my friends who are going over to Cuba later this year are watching this, here is a little taster of where you will be going! :)

All content via http://www.jr-art.net/

Two weeks until I spend a few days in Spain and I am soooooo looking forward to it.  Hopefully I will be able to catch a cool Flamenco show while out there.  I will be flying into Madrid and then off to Don Benito visiting a friend.  Anyone have any cool travel tips?  Also, look at the fantastic painting of the beautiful Flamenco dancer I found at renatadomagalska.pl, stunning!

My brain is wedding mush!  I even had a weird dream last night about it, it was so strange and funny and it featured a baby throwing up chocolate on my dress!  

While along this wedding train I have been researching wedding stationary as we designed our own wedding suite.  It was really fun and a little stressful designing them as I really wanted them to represent Chris and I as a couple, and show our creative sides too.  As we are in the process of still sending them out I will not show them here yet, though I can't wait to show you as I am really happy with how they turned out.

What I am showing you now is another wedding invitation suite that I designed as I enjoyed making ours so much I have started making others just for fun!  So much effort can go into making a wedding happen, especially if you want a personal touch.  Different people like so many different things but you only get to prepare for one (in essence).  I came across some pictures of vintage illustrations of fruit and I thought they would look lovely to represent an Orchard Wedding.  I think the idea of having a wedding in an Orchard that backs on to a farm is really delightful and I think these invites would really work for a modern couple wanting to welcome in some rustic natural charm as they say I do.  I am not really sure what I will do with all these ideas, but I will lock them safe for a day when a loved one may need some help in designing their own future stationary.  I already have a fresh floral pink theme set in the works so I will share them here when they are ready too!

Stationary by The Bamboo District / Fruit via Pinterest but I think from this book / Group Photo found here

Enjoy some love images by Me x

Today I am appreciating WATER COLOURS.  They are so pretty and have an elegance to them.  While researching wedding stationary I came across so much gorgeous examples of how it can be used beautifully but still modern and fresh too.  Again while doing more wedding snooping I saw many beautiful water colour print dresses and wanted to quit my saving plan and spend some dough....and you definitely will need a bag to compliment the dress! :p  If we are talking about water colour then I couldn't leave out my instagram favourite, Blairz who I mentioned before.  Her fashion illustrations are just insanely good.  Maybe I should rummage for an old paint by numbers set I'm sure I was given when I was a kid.

On a quiet evening I like to sit on my bed and pretend I am an artist.  I have numerous sketchbooks some filled and some only 3 pages in.  The style of drawings in there range in style and in ability.  I have so many pages dedicated to some serious ugly scribbles, whether it be in my black sharpie days creating a cute aliens with disproportionate arms or in my pastels phase where I couldn't master tree leaves.  Previously I hated having bad pages in my sketchbook but realised, that is what their purpose is for, to practice.  Drawing wise I am not a natural, or gifted illustrator, I am someone who needs books like Drawing on the right side of the brain that breakdown drawing scientifically.  My older sister is a beautiful artist but I am more calculated, and need a visual reference to copy.

As I work next to a graphic centre store I pop in a lot and have a wonder.  My new thing is using Letraset Promarkers for my scribbles.  I actually think I am not using them to their full potential but as a novice I like using them for their water colour vibe where you shade colours in by layering ink over more ink.  They have hundreds of shades and can easily empty your pockets at £2.50 a pen but they do have nice pack sets divided by function such as 'hair' 'fur' 'skin' and 'manga' which work our cheaper per pen but means you have to buy more.  One of my more successful drawings is my 'modern cleo' above.  I have always wanted to be good at fashion illustrations but can't seem to hit the nail on the head.  One illustrator I love is a girl called Blair who I follow on Instagram.  Go check her out, she has some seriously cool sketches.

Happy Friday!!!  We at The Bamboo District love Wes Anderson and his films, we even blogged about his collaboration with Prada to make the Candy ads before.  So how happy does the release of the official trailer of his new film The Grand Budapest Hotel make us.  The cast is a mixture of old favourites like Bill Murray, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson, and new such as Ralph Fiennes and Saoirse Ronan.  Even the trailer shows the promise of Anderson's fast paced, quirky comedy and amazing set design, let the countdown begin!  Also as a side note, if you are a fan too I have added his  book  to my Christmas list, maybe you might like to add it to yours too. :)

Here it is!  My Blogshop Stockholm write up.  As mentioned before on previous posts I am a huge fan of the website DesignLoveFest a blog by Graphic Designer Bri Emery housing her inspirations, graphic design skills and personal style content.  Through her site I was introduced to the photographer Angela Kohler, an LA based commercial photographer and video director; and together their class they put on called Blogshop.  The main basis of the class and the content taught is photoshop tricks and blog managing advice.  I had taught myself photoshop for the past few years and though nailed the basics there were aspects I knew I could be doing better.  When I discovered that they were teaching in Stockholm this year I knew I had to go.  I am so happy I attended this class instead of visiting their previous classes in London as it made me discover such a gorgeous city, and of course became the location of my recent engagement!

I have some photos of the weekend here, let me take you though them!

The classes were held in the fancy Summit meeting rooms in Hornstull, Stockholm.  The venue was two stops away from my flat, or a 15 minute walk along a cool main street with fantastic shops.  The room we had our class was all white with a mirrored back wall, though the hallways and other rooms in the building were designed equally cool but with different styles.

The classes themselves were fantastic.  We learned so many cool shortcuts on Photoshop and style ideas of how to design a good post.  We also covered more specific photo related topics like retouching, composition and my absolute favourite; making Gifs!!  (Check out the title image.)

We were also feed really well on this course.  11am Mimosas, roast chicken lunches, cinnamon roll snacks and the best smoothie I have ever had as an afternoon pick me up.  It was so yum, and considering food in Sweden is really expensive I really appreciated it.

With what I have learned I intend to use towards totally streamlining my often mish mash clunky style of posting, may even change the provider of my blog so I can have more freedom to personalize most things and even branch out to branding everything so I can produce some affiliate materials like business cards and flyers, the world is my oyster.  Watch this space.

If you are reading this and this class looks fun to you why not check out the dates of their future classes.  They are mostly in the USA but they do branch out quite a lot and I could not recommend it highly enough!!