Firstly I want to thank everyone for responding to my penpals post. I've got plenty of links to great sites to join up with, and I appreciate the time you've taken to help me find fellow minded people! To those of you who messaged me letting me know you'd love to be my penpal - double thankyou. I'll respond to each and every request shortly.
For the moment though I'm sick... again. My stomach is not agreeing with me. I ate some bad food on Monday night and I'm still suffering from a touch of food poisoning. I can't even leave the house, so I'm staying warm snuggled up in front of the television squiggling ideas in my sketchbooks and pouring through magazines. The only reason I'm on the internet now is because I'm addicted... and I wanted to feel semi productive today by at least posting to my blog. :)
Since I'm not well enough to be arty & creative, I'm going to share my shopping buys for the week. Oooh exciting. I don't have a lot of money because I use it all on my art supplies plus I'm still paying back the bank for my super huge impulsive personal loan from a year ago. It's easy to look back and regret the holiday I took last year, but I can't change anything about it now. I just have to keep on paying for it. :)
So... first thing I have been dying to share with you all. My first zine purchase!!! I've heard so much about zines and I've always wanted one... so I bought one. Yay! This one is called "Colouring Outside the Lines". You can find it at http://www.myspace.com/colouringoutsidethelines
It has so many gorgeous pictures from plenty of artists and it is quite thick for a zine. It's a mini book. It features plenty of pictures, interviews and information. It also has two of my favourite artists - Jen Corace and Liz Adams.
Go and buy the zine it is definitely worth the money. Oh - and this one is issue 3.
I was woken up yesterday morning by my dog barking once more at the mailman. He does not like anyone going near the letterbox. I don't understand why, he just barks at them until they go away. Great thing for me is that he announced when the mailman comes. I was so proud to rip this package open. I purchase Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst. I adore this movie. The costumes, imagery, music and scenes are just divine. Anyone want cake? I originally saw this at the theatre after I won free movie tickets to see it. Hardly any cinemas here played it because it was an 'alternative' movie but I absolutely loved it. It is definitely worth watching over and over again. Plus it's giving me plenty of inspiration for some new girls.... xox
I'm in magazine heaven. These lovlies just needed to be purchased.

Yen is my favourite mag to date alongside Frankie (not pictured). If you love contemporary fashion, art and style - you will fall in love with these magazines. Yen is famously known for supporting up and coming artists and they are also the creators of Curvy. Plus both magazines usually have art posters included. Yay! I'm subscribed to both so I will never miss an issue.
I bought Inside Out because I fell in love with the pattern and texture on the cover with the wallpaper. The magazine was okay, but not as good as previous issues so I was a little disappointed. There were a lot of images of African style furniture and rooms, which isn't my kind of thing. Each to their own.
Box is an Australian variety magazine covering what is happening, fashion, and art. It is super chunky and 2cm thick. I've bought it occasionally before, and this issue looked fantastic so I thought I would give it a try once more. I haven't read it yet, so we'll see how things go.
When it comes to magazines I have to admit something. I'm a cutter. I can't just let magazines sit around on coffee tables. I go through them and cut out everything I like sticking it into my sketchbooks. I use the faces, colours, figures etc as inspiration for new drawings. The best magazines to tear up and use as inspiration are gossip magazines full of celebrity pictures. My favourite one is OK Magazine. It's cheap, full of fashion imagery and the drawings I create from the pictures are always amazing. I can't draw figures straight from my head, I need something to reference them from. Pictures, drawings, photos, life.... anything. I can't stand looking at a drawing and thinking the elbow looks wrong, or the foot is on the wrong angle. I need things to look right.
Next purchase was an item from a gorgeous Etsy artist. With this item we did a swap. She loved one of my illustrations, I loved this necklace, so we swapped pieces. I'm not a fan of excessive jewellery, but this piece was so interesting I just had to have it.

The item was so lovingly packaged - and the business card was beautiful. The store is named Jade Scott Jewelry so be sure to visit! Thankyou Jade! It's beautiful!