257/365 Instagram Days

Here is a peek at what my week has been looking like { on instagram - where I've been a bit busier than I have here! }. 

Are you on instagram? Are we insta-friends yet? 

Amber. XO

248/365 These Instagram Days

Some recent moments through my instagram lens. 

Are we insta-friends yet?? Come and say hello to me! 

Amber. XO

My Week on Instagram - Starfruit, Daisies and More

My week has been looking kind of like this :) 

I love the visual personal diary that is instagram. Yay. 

Are you on instagram? Come say hello!

Amber. XO

The Instagramed Life | Late June 2014

Helloooo World!

My instagram looks kinda like this this week :)

Lots of pretty sunrises and sunsets. And coffee. And cats. Yeah, well one cat.  Love.

Come have a peak.... and say hello! XO

173/365 Burnt-Orange Perfection aka A Byron Sunset

If you follow my instagram you would have seen the amazing pink sunset that Byron turned on last night [ I shot a very windy but very pretty video from The Pass ]. 

But before the sky turned pink - it looked like THIS. Ahhhhhh, mother nature just blows my mind sometimes!!

Wild, rugged, burnt-orange perfection. 

Byron Bay Instagrammers [ 1st! ] Meetup

Hello to my local peeps!  

Do you live in Byron / hinterland / or surrounds? Do you instagram? Double-yes? Then consider yourself cordially invited to the very first Byron Bay Instagrammers meet up! :)

WHAT:    The 1st Byron Bay Instagrammers Meetup. 
WHEN:    10AM. TUESDAY. MAY 27. 
WHERE:   At the Top Shop. Byron Bay.
RSVP:    Me! Amber (see below)

@ambermelody on instagram 
a@ambermelody.com via email 
or here on the blog [ leave a comment ].

❤

The meetup will be a casual affair. 
Just bring yourself.
And your phone if you want to # on the day! 
Order some coffee. 
Sit on the grass. 
Hang out. 
Make new friends :) 

The guys at the Top Shop [ @topshopbyronbay ] are kindly giving away a $25 breakfast voucher for their fave photo posted and tagged on the day. Friendly. 

EVERYONE IS WELCOME. So please feel free to SHARE the invitation with your friends, your creative network and anyone else who you think might be interested in joining us! Byron & surrounds. 

I'm looking forward to meeting lovely new people on the day :) 
Hope to see you there too! XO

Calligraphy with Sabine Pick

Pssst, Wanna see how I spent my morning?

The last few weeks have been some of the strangest in my adult life - transitioning out of homeschooling mama to full-time creative mama. In many ways it's been easier than I thought it would be [ helped greatly by the fact that both boys have been amazing and have settled in so well and so happily ] although I was lonesome at the beginning. But having time - having time to work on my own projects without interruption? Well, that's been almost 11 years in the waiting. 

So it's actually been pretty fun!

It's also been confronting in lots of ways - I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone. Try new things. Push myself creatively. Get out there and meet interesting people. Eeeek!

And that's the short long version of how I came to sign up for a workshop at Splash.

Splash | A weekend of workshops and creative conversations 

Splash promises to be a Splash of colour, a Splash of inspiration, a Splash of creativity and a weekend of fun.  Hosted by Paper Runway in The Lodge at Atlantic Byron Bay.  This will be the first of its kind to be held at Atlantic.

I've always dabbled in calligraphy - dabbled ;) - but not PROPERLY very often. Properly meaning: like, with ink. Lol. But I use my handwriting all the time. And I am ready to get inky. Join me!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Atlantic Byron Bay is a gorrrrgeous place for a workshop! 

Or to stay. 

Or to stay and do a workshop! I wasn't staying, obviously, but I absolutely should have / could have!! and I recommend you do ;)

A table set with girl-porn. Paper, letter guides, cute clipboards, ink, graphite pencils and mahogany Japanese-nibbed calligraphy pens. Drool.

Ingrid and Sabine.

Oh, and it was catered. Which is a word that every busy hungry woman loves to hear. 

Juniper from The Unexpected Guest [ hello Bangalow ] served us her super-yummy Freestyle Granüesli - loving that name. And your Pelican, Juniper! - with organic yoghurt and possibly the best stewed pears ever. 

Note to self: We have pears that need using up!!!! Stew pears for breakfast tomorrow morning.

We all got to know each other on the deck a little bit before the class started.
Unsuprisingly - this is Byron! - it was raining. As it does.

Admiring Sabine's beautiful work and inspiration. 

And then it got serious.

New nibs have a coating that needs to be burnt off before you can start. Here we go!

I couldn't help doing a little free-lensing ;)

When actually what I needed to do was learn to slow down. 

Press on the downstroke. 

Soften on the upstroke.

Find the right angle. 

Breathe. 

Let it be meditation. 

Show and tell. I wish these were my flourishes!

Fortune favours the brave.  

[ I do hope so! ]

I'm organising a Byron Bay Instagrammers #meetup and, in between trying to perfect our up/down strokes, we all swapped instagram names. 

The last half an hour was slightly torturous as Marvell Street Roasters set up a coffee tasting area on the deck behind us. 

Hello Rwanda! Delicious.

And then, far too quickly, [ yes it's true. Time does fly when you're having fun. Doesn't that suck? ] it was time to go home. To soften the blow, we were bundled up with a Splash gift bag full of fab treats and our special calligraphy booty. 

Okay, happy again :)

Details:

+ Congratulations to Nikki at Paper Runway for hosting such a cool event. 

+ Splash | A weekend of workshops and creative conversations

+ Sabine Pick | Hand Lettering and Letterpress

+ Atlantic Byron Bay Guesthouse

+ Breakfast by The Unexpected Guest

+ Coffee by Marvell Street Coffee Roasters

+ Flowers by Twig & Grace

If you live in Byron [ or surrounds ] and you would like an invitation to the Byron Bay Instagrammers meet-up just follow me on instagram and say hello!

Amber. XO

Hello from Instagram!

Instagram life.

Are you following my instagram feed?
It's kinda the roadtrippin' juicy-living version of the blog ;)
Let's hang out! XO

104/365 Rainy School Holidays

After a glorious weekend which I completely over-instagramed ;) I couldn't help myself! It was so beautiful, the weather changed and our first official school holidays Monday was cool and rainy.

Perfect weather to unpack the games and puzzles box and take over the kitchen table.

What does your family like to do in the school holidays?

Instagram. Let's share the love.

You might have noticed that I've added a cute new instagram slideshow widget to the sidebar over there. Can you see it?

Nawww, love it. 

Okay, let's share the love. 

If you have an instagram account and want to follow me, leave a comment with a link to your instagram profile at the bottom of this post and I will follow you back. Voila! Love shared!

Tell your friends to add their links too and we'll have an instagram love-fest.

Here are some of the photos I have instagrammed recently...

p.s. The widget is from instagme. If you want your own one it's easy to link up your instagram acount with their simple interface, grab the code & paste it into an html/java script gadget. Enjoy! XO