It has been said that change is necessary for growth. I think that dreams can change as people’s mindsets shift and alter with time. I think that lately, I’ve been learning more about my preferences and have been thinking more about where I want to go in life. 

The same is true for my design practice. Although there hasn’t been a lot of new additions to this space in a long time, I think that I’ll be taking the opportunity to see what else I can come up with as a designer. Stay tuned.

For now, enjoy the offering of cake. The photograph is courtesy of one of my closest friends, Christine. 

The case of my new iPad is from Etsy. It’s handmade and quite pretty. I love supporting small businesses and handicrafts. 

Hazelnut-flavoured hot chocolate as well as the scent of cherry-wood and leather are two elements that characterise this particular instance of winter. 

As you can tell, I am a Starbucks aficionado. 

Looking back, I remember how a friend of mine guessed that my favourite place was the beach. I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Perhaps he knew me a bit better than I knew myself. Perhaps it had been a lucky guess. Now I can see that he was right. The beach was my happy place. I can sit in the sand all day, and watch the waves. The sun made an appearance that day. 

I like it best in mid-day, though the colours are lovely at dusk. 

I miss days like this at the beach in the South Coast just as much as I miss you. 

This is just to remind myself (and my faithful readers) that I am still alive. Admittedly, this came a couple of weeks late. My apologies. 

Insert photo from the front of the store. Yes friends, I was one of the people who queued. No, I did not sleep over at Broadway. I merely waited in line with a few hundred people? Just one of the things I do in my spare time, I suppose. It was fun! 

Why, hello friends. We have officially photo-bombed using state of the art technology at its finest. 

The photos at the bottom were taken from a Mac-related forum/site. My friends found it. All sorts of candid, with shots of our faces shown in awkward poses. I seem to be a magnet for awkward media features? Remember a few months ago in Japan? And also a couple of years ago in an MX newspaper feature? I’m digressing here. 

All in all, I had fun. 

I don’t often do this, but I believe that this guy deserves the best. We may not be biological siblings, but this doesn’t stop me from thinking of Eman as my younger brother. 

Eman, I wish you the happiest of birthdays. I’m so thankful to have you in my life as my friend, brother, close confidante and someone to bounce ideas from. Thank you for being one of the first people to be there during happy times. Thank you for being the shoulder that I cry on and for being one of the people that I rush to when I’m utterly excited about something, when there’s those guys I like or when I want you to know about the inner workings of my mind. Basically, I’m glad that you’re there to withstand my craziness. 

May you continue to grow into the man that you want to be. May God continue to be by your side, blessing you more opportunities of creativity as well as moments of laughter and craziness.

I’m going to keep this short, so neither one of us will cry. Again, I hope that you have a happy, happy birthday. 

Late nights and endless panic attacks later… I ended up creating a collection of garments for my major project. As you can probably tell, I’m trying to weasel my way out of finalising the administrative things, but it isn’t working very well. 

The garments look different when worn. But I rather like how they look against red brick. 

I designed the textiles and got them printed on organic cotton knit. I also designed the basic silhouette and made each garment by hand. I feel rather proud of my efforts. But, in the end I believe that I preferred designing the textiles. 

Christine and I visited Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie at The Star last Sunday, during one of our more laid back foodie dates. It was alright, I suppose. But honestly, I felt a bit disappointed with this foodie experience.

What could have been better? Knowing that we could have ordered any of the specialty desserts that were not on the Dessert train menu. I could have tried the V8 cake, if someone had informed us that we could have any dessert in the patisserie. 

The dessert train was quite novel. The concept of child-like colours and all that jazz was appealing at first. But, moving past this- my palette was not prepared for the combinations of flavours. I suppose I’m just really particular with how I want my desserts to be. If you promise me something spectacular and to-die-for, I expect something like that. I felt let-down for some reason. 

The only redeeming factor was the lovely ganache. 

I suppose that nothing could beat my favourite patisserie at The Rocks. Baroque still creates the most amazing macarons in Sydney- in my opinion anyway. Until Laudree opens in Sydney, that is. 

So, on a rainy May afternoon, my homegirl Christine and I decided to be spontaneous and visit King’s Cross to see whether we could sample the culinary delights there. Suffice to say, we ended up perusing Victoria St. to see which cafes or restaurants took our fancy. The only other option on our brief was to find something that was not even remotely Asian, as we had grown tired from sampling Asian dishes at home or after work. It seemed appropriate that our choice ended up being Italian. 

Our first stop that day was MAD PIZZA & BAR. It looked warm and inviting. Likewise, a lot of people seemed to know the secret of this place. The ambience was retro in nature. We also came at the perfect time. They had a $10 deal for pizza and pasta during lunchtime.

We ordered the Linguine e Gamberi, which is otherwise known as their number one selling pasta of all time. It was utterly delicious pasta that was cooked al dente, with a well-seasoned sauce, cheese and a delightful sourdough on the side. 

Christine had the Tuscano pizza. It had lamb shanks as toppings. It tasted amazing. A bit heavy, perhaps. But amazing, nonetheless.

I on the other hand had the Primavera pizza. It was a fresh little pizza topped with rocket, shaved parmesan cheese and prosciutto. With a side of salad, I thought that this was the perfect pizza for a nice summer’s day. I probably ordered it in the wrong season, but I’m a sucker for anything with rocket and prosciutto. 

After a small catch-up, we made our way to Gelato Messina, where we sampled amazing, hand-made gelato. She had an espresso and some tiramisu-flavoured gelato. I on the other hand wanted something different. I love anything with figs, so I opted for the fig & amaretti flavoured gelato and some frozen yoghurt to balance the sweetness with something tart. 

This was by far one of my favourite foodie days. Both places offered us exactly what we wanted and needed. The service at Mad Pizza may be improved through a more timely delivery of our orders, but the food made up for this. Gelato Messina was utterly glorious. I may or may not pay a visit to their shop in The Star, just because of how amazing the gelato was. 

{Garment & textile design: Cara Lopez; Photography: TAREKGEORGE; Models: Steph Langridge & Jacquii Lie} 

This is work that I have produced for my major project. I designed the textile repeats and had them digitally printed on organic cotton knit. I also made the garments. The emphasis is on the repeats, hence the silhouette is much simpler. These are only two of the garments in the range. 

I am still working on the rest of the requirements for this project, but once everything is complete, I will be able to showcase the rest of the collection on this space I call my blog. 

This is what I call progress- developing my repertoire of skills at a snap! Admittedly it took a few hours, but I understand the principle. Creating patterns for garments is remarkably similar to drafting in architecture. I enjoyed doing it on paper. Let’s see how I can cope with drafting using Illustrator. I enjoy a challenge!