About a month ago, I met up with Katrina, a wedding videographer at Real Estate SEO, who was visiting from the Philippines. We met up at the Ferry Building and walked around the pier and Levi’s Plaza Park.  She was so sweet and made a video of me and it’s all sorts of pretty and I’m kind of obsessed with it. Is it weird to be obsessed with a video of yourself? I hope not.  So watch the video and tell me what you think!  The song in the video is Maybe by Isbells.

SO. This week is banned books week. Which in a teenager-y rebellious sort of way, makes me happy. Why?  Books are my friends and some of my best friends are banned books:  To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, The Perks of Being a Wallflower… all amazing novels.  Here’s a list of frequently challenged books of the 21st century.  And here’s a list of banned and challenged classics.  Ironically, most of them I’ve read for school, of all places!  My all-time favorite has to be Catcher in the Rye, though.  What are your favorite banned books?

PS.  Speaking of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, has anyone seen the movie?  I usually avoid seeing movies made from books (the movie never gets it right), but I’m excited for this one.

book cover photos: one, two, three, four, five, six

Hi! I’m Emily from Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore and I will be showing up here every month to give some tutorials on some fun and easy hairstyles! I started growing out my hair about 8 years ago mostly with the intentions to really play around with it and have fun with different styles, and now I am here to share the styles I have perfected with you fine readers!

To start off I am going to show you a style I have been doing a lot recently, it is perfect to get your hair off your neck without just being a top knot or a ponytail. I’m not really sure what to call it other than twisted updo, so without further ado… The Twisted Updo!

Start with your hair down, It doesn’t really matter what kind of condition it is in, I always think it is better with your hair a bit messy or unwashed, adds volume to it and a bit of texture.

1. If you don’t already have a side part, bring a good chunk of at least just the front portion to your hair over to one side.

2.  Take that bit and twist it going up and over towards the back. Hold the twist against your head and push it forward a little to get a bit of a poof, stick a bobby pin in there.

3. Now on the other side do the same thing, twisting the hair, poofing it forward and pin in place.

4.  Now you have what already looks like a pretty cool do! If you so choose you can even leave it like this, just make sure your pins are tightly in place and the rest of your hair that is down is looking banging! Wow, two hair styles in one, aren’t you lucky!

5. With the remainder of your hair in the back, take it all in your hand, brush out a bit as needed so it is at least smooth on the bottom, as this is the part that will be showing. Start wrapping it around your hand and then rolling it upwards and towards your head.

6. Hold the rolled bun in place against the back of your head, now this is where you start sticking in bobby pins all willy nilly, as many as you need, the more the better. Try and hide them the best you can, it doesn’t have to look perfect, just has to stay in place. When you feel it’s secure, well then, your done!!

Super simple right? It’s really just all about twisting it into place and then securing it with bobby pins. A bit of trial and error will have you figuring this one out in no time! It always comes out a bit different for me, but always looks like you put a lot more work and thought into it than ya actually did, I promise you compliments a plenty!

Now go out there and try it! Let us know how it turns out, and don’t forget to head on back here next month for another hair style tutorial by yours truly!

graphics by amy moore for drifter & the gypsy

Since I’m in college for graphic design now (gosh it feels so weird saying that), what I do in school actually somewhat correlates to what I post about on this blog (ie. not high school trig).  With that being said, I figured I’d show you what I’m working on every now and then.

I made this collage (artist montage is what my professor calls it) for my design class at SCAD.  We’re studying unity and without getting too nitty gritty on ya, the idea was to create an effective collage design featuring our favorite mentor/artist/designer/etc. utilizing the principles of the root 2 rectangle.  For those of you who want to get nitty gritty, here’s a copy showing the armature + grid of the root 2 rectangle. (side note: I’m wondering, graphic designers, do you actually use the root 2 rectangle in real life or is it just something you learn in school?)

My initial instinct was to do Audrey Hepburn.  But then I realized that would be the quintessential girly choice.  Then I wanted to do Francoise Hardy.  But then I realized that would be another quintessential girly choice.

Who can guess which artist I chose in the end?  ;) I’m pretty pleased with the result for one of my first projects. Let me know what you think!

Now this is how you get married.

so magical so mysterious - vogue italia by miles aldridge, sept/oct 2012 via tfs

I waited so long to share these photos, I thought I was going to burst at the seams with excitement. Back in June, I got my senior portraits done by my friend and incredible photographer, Chloe Aftel. I had actually gotten senior portraits done a few months prior in a studio by a company that does school pictures. A company that does school pictures. I think that was my first mistake. Needless to say, I was kind of less than impressed with the outcome. Okay, I was super less than impressed with the outcome (read: I wore a white shirt and the only backdrop they had available was white. enough said). So I was pretty stoked when Chloe agreed to take my senior portraits. We drove around Sydney at golden hour, pulling over wherever struck our fancy. So much more fun than a studio shoot.

Why hello there and welcome to Drifter & the Gypsy’s new blog home. Since its inception nearly four years ago, Drifter & the Gypsy’s home was on Blogger, which was all fine and well, but it was time for a change.  For the past few months, I’ve been working on a new blog layout with mastermind web design and developer, Dylan Navajas Gluck, and well here it is, all pretty for you guys!

There are going to be a lot of changes to Drifter & the Gypsy.  I’ve become a much more visual person and will be posting more visual-heavy posts, centered around fashion, graphic/interior design, and photography.  I’m going to treat this blog like an online inspiration board, posting quick, visual-based posts as well as longer posts with text.  My goal is to stop thinking about what others think and post more about what I like… which yes may at times be a bit schizophrenic, but it’s all part of my new philosophy.  As I become more well-versed in graphic design, I’ll be using my blog to flex my graphic design muscles, so you will notice a change in the post layouts.  You’ll see

You may have noticed I eliminated the ‘The‘ from the title of my blog.  I thought it made the name flow better, don’t you think?  I have also added a contributors section to the blog.  You can read about the contributors and their columns here.

And lastly, I have created a Facebook page for Drifter & the Gypsy which you can like here.

Please join me here from now on and don’t forget to update your blog roll links/bookmarks to the new URL.  I am not going to import all my old posts, but I will keep the old blog up so you can still browse through the archives if you choose here.

I’m excited to see where these new beginnings take me and take you along for the ride.

XO

Micaela