restorative saturday

Phew!  After spending the past few days constantly working on my psychology notes (have an online mini-quiz to take before Monday), I finally finished my notes last night, and decided to have a bit of fun today.

So, I went to the Handmade Markets.

The weather was absolutely perfect - after the past few days of cold, wind and rain, I was expecting it to be rather miserable today, too - but the unexpected sunshine and warmth was entirely welcome, and just what I needed. :)

The Handmade Markets are held quarterly here in Canberra, and are quite spectacular.  Extremely high-quality products, and lovely genuine people.  I didn't take any pictures of individual stalls - definitely not for a lack of amazing things to photograph! - but out of respect for the stall-owners' creative property.  That, and I was too busy looking at it all. :)
So instead, you can bask in the Market's awesomeness here:
 - Handmade Canberra - the Markets, the Shop, and Publications
- MadeIt - Online Market - the Online Handmade Markets (Australian)

There was one stall, though, that just begged to be photographed:
 

- colour co-ordinated towers of CUTESWEET food!!  Just look at it!!  I can't remember the name of the stall, but they had a selection of (colour-themed) treats you could choose from to fill up your own little take-home cartons.  I didn't get any 'cutesweet' food (though it was mighty tempting), but I did get:
- a plastic apron for Grete, from Nee-Bob; &
- a resin(?) necklace, from Rancho Designs
- a bunch of flowers

It was a really nice day out.  Getting to spend some time in the sunshine, dressed up nice, amongst nice people and beautiful things, eating delicious things (might have to add some things to The List) - it was really refreshing & relaxing.  I soaked up the creative vibe and got to see some really inspiring design, which has made me feel re-motivated to be creative.  Maybe that art I was going to do for the walls, the bag I was going to make, those hand-written letters I was going to send...

Also, just being out in a crowd atmosphere - the sense of community, of all enjoying something nice together - was really good for my head-space.  Lately I've been rather reclusive - both as a result of just having so much uni work to do, and also for not really having any particularly close friends here to spend time with.  I tend to just keep to my own company and do my own thing - and while it doesn't worry me too much most of the time - sometimes I get a bit down and feel kind of... out of place.  So it was nice - even though I didn't actually know anyone - to get to be in the company of pleasant people, and be treated nicely and to feel like part of a group.  (There's probably some psychological way I should interpret this...)

For a while now, I've been really wanting to get some flowers.  When I stand in the checkout line at the grocery store, they always have bunches of flowers on display, and I've been so tempted to get some - but couldn't justify buying something so non-essential and 'useless.'  But when I saw the little florist stall today, I decided to indulge and finally get me some flowers.  I don't know why I've been wanting flowers lately - I used to scoff at the idea of flowers, and think them 'girly' and ridiculously pointless - but lately, I haven't been able to stop thinking how nice it would be to have some.  (Again, possible strange psychological explanation?)  So I got some.  I have no idea what they are - I'm completely 'floristically' ignorant, pretty much only able to recognise violets, gardenias, and flannel flowers (part of my self-imposed anti-girliness regime) - but whatever they are, they look nice.  Since I've never gotten flowers before, it didn't occur to me until I got home that I didn't have a vase to put them in.  So for the moment, they're sitting pretty in my powdered-milk shaker (it finally came in handy, Mum!).

Here's today's look (for Mum).  That's the new red scarf I mentioned, Ma, and the necklace I got today.

OH! AND DID I MENTION I HAVE A NEW CAMERA?? C:  Mum helped me finally get an digiSLR.  It's a Pentax Kx, and as yet, is unnamed.  It is amazing fun to use, though I'm still getting the hang of it.  So glad I took Photography for my elective last year - at least I know the basics!

The full outfit, and the current state of my room (and all those who know me know that, no, my room didn't look that neat five minutes earlier.)

Here's the apron, in all it's pink glory (at least Grete'll like it).

And the apron being modelled and tried on for size. :)

Well, that's about it for today.  Suppose I should go do the washing.   And my Psychology Quiz. And work on Design.  And water the plants.  Yeah.