A winter walk in my neighbourhood...

I realise for you northern hemishphere folk, that this post will not look like a winter wonderland.  However, it is quite chilly here in Melbourne today (around 14 degrees C).  That's chilly by Aussie standards and I headed out to photograph winter flowers all wrapped up in my fleece coat and my woolly fingerless gloves (made by my Mum who is quite natty with the knitting needles).

I don't have many flowers in my garden at the moment... but our neighbours do!

Daisies in my front yard

 The tree outside our house - such papery bark - its squishy if you poke it

 More papery bark...

 Now for the neighbourhood blooms...

 A Kiwi looking fern pokes out amongst green and gold (Aussie) leaves... a bit like me really...

These berries look like each is a different flavour... NOT edible if there are any kiddies reading this...!

Not bad for winter...

By the way, I also fixed the time clock on my blog, so now I can say things like "Happy Wednesday"... on a Wednesday.  Which is nice.  My blog was formerly residing on something called Pacific Time.... now its on Melbourne Time.  Much better.

Happy Wednesday everybody!

See you tomorrow for a little peek at some recent henna tattoos...

Tara

Shop update...

Vintage and tribal jewels have now hit the shelves of my little Etsy store which you can find here

Belly dancing choker necklace...

  Afghani pieces...

  Afghani and Uzbek pendant...

 Indian earrings and vintage silver bangle...

  Uzbek turquoise pendant and book lovers sterling silver pendant...

Afghani lapis lazuli...

  Indian silver covered wax beads...

Indian tribal pendant with turquoise stone...

While poking around the local thrift store with friends at the weekend, I found these flower patches and there were 8 of them (4 brown and 4 orange).  So, I channelled my inner hippie (not hard, as those who know me will agree...) and came up with this retro market tote with 1970's sheeting. It's extra large for all the goodies you need to cart around with padded handles too...

I've put it in the Etsy store and if no one buys it, I will give it a home as its right up my street.  If it does sell, then all is not lost, I can re-create it with one of my spare 7 patches!

Tara

The peacock and a collection of souvenirs...

Hello out there... here's a peek at some work in progress, and a little collection of travelling souvenirs...

I've been busy the last few days working on a henna drawing of a rather flowery peacock.  I know that in real life, peacocks don't actually look like this.  However, in my world (which is a very flowery world), this is exactly how they look.  Here is the work in progress...

 On to the souvenirs - a Toran (wall hanging) we found in a craft store in Jaisalmer, India

An Indian wall hanging purchased on one of our trips to the very south of India.  By candlelight, the mirror tiles look magical.

A decoration from a Balinese umbrella... bought on a day trip just out of Melbourne (so not strictly a travelling souvenir)...

 An Indian clove decoration and a Tibetan Yak hair sling (a gift from friends in Tibet)...

 A Thai Hill tribe door hanging bought on a trip to northern Thailand...

 A close up of my doily dreamcatcher... made by me (I'm sneaking a couple of non-travel things in here and ruining the theme)...

 A doily (because it looks like the sun's rays).  By the way, where is the sun Melbourne????

 A Tibetan offering bowl and a Rajasthani mirror cloth from India...

 Ganesh and his offering bowl (with prayer beads given to me in Tibet)...

 And finally, a Thai statue bought in Bali....

So nice of you to stop by...

Tara

Lots of Love...

Mr Tara and I celebrated our anniverary this weekend.  15 years of love, laughter and trotting around the globe.  A girl with adventure in her soul couldn't ask for more!

In the spirit of this fine celebration, I have embarked on a love-heart making spree for my little store with all my favourite words and such on them (what a softy).

Here you go...

 Dream... because dreams turn into adventures...

 Live, Love, Laugh... because that makes me happy...

Harmony in all things...

 Love... for that someone special...

Daydreaming about the next adventure...

A bunch of others awaiting little hangings... perhaps not heart shaped - I'm going to try something new.

I've also been fiddling around with the blog site - I'd had some feedback that it was impossible to leave comments unless you had a google sign-on.  I've fixed it!  It seems that was the default setting so now I've made it so everyone can comment (are we feeling the love..?).  You just need to get past the "read the crazy word" test and your comment will be submitted to my site. 

Tara

Tribal Friday

It's Tribal Friday here at Nomadic Tara.  Please ignore the date of this post (above) because here in Australia it's Friday....but my blog headquarters is obviously located somewhere in the northern hemisphere ...and according to them, its still Thursday.

Today being Tribal Friday, I've put together a little collection of some of my tribal jewellery.  The thing I like about tribal attire, is the more the merrier... I pile it on with wild abandon, then can be heard jingle jangling as I potter about my day.  I like imagining how life would be as an Afghani cattle herder, or an Indian princess, or indeed, a bohemian dreamer from the suburbs of Melbourne...oh wait....

On that note, I give you Nomadic Tara's Tribal Friday offering...

Indian, Afghani and Tibetan pieces...

 Some lobe stretching earrings - well worth the pain!

My absolute favourite earrings - a gift from Mr Tara at the completion of a 17 day trek in Nepal.  He produced them from his pocket at dinner wrapped in a little pink cloth bag.  These earrings are Tibetan in origin and were traded in the Dolpo region near Mustang (in Nepal).  I often wonder who wore them before me, perhaps some Tibetan sister from high in the mountains.  I really am a dreamer... I'll stop now.

An Indian hand piece draped over two bangles - the silver bangle on the left was bought with my first ever earnings as a henna artist about 3 years ago.  A Kuchi earrring hangs on the drawer - these are supported by a chain which attaches into the hair - the earrings are too heavy to hang solely from your lobes.

An Indian patchwork cushion sits beside a Thai hilltribe hat inside a Tibetan offering bowl.  Indian earrings, an Indian disc ring and an Afghani ring inlaid with red resin and arabic script...

Happy Friday everyone! 

Tara

Inspired by Shannon...

Today's post was inspired by my wonderful friend Shannon.  She recently visited me and as we were discussing our artistic and crafty ways, I asked her for ideas for my blog.  "Look around you!" she exclaimed. 

So the conversation went on, Shannon pointing out interesting things around my home - table settings, jewellery, statues gathered on my travels... all things which to me have become commonplace, but each has a story.  So, over the the next couple of weeks I'll be blogging little "vignettes" from around my home.

First up - the delightful cupcake tower which my cousin made for a little party we had on Saturday night - which fitted perfectly with my pink and green table setting...

Nestling in amongst the remains of Saturday's table setting is a special find at the thrift store today - a 1930's Japanese Noritake leaf plate with cute cherry design (for the bargain price of $6)...

 A stack of freshly washed and ironed thrift store finds waiting to be made into bags...

A just finished new style of bag I made for Nomadic Tara - then fell in love with and promptly claimed it as my own (tsk, tsk!) - more in store soon....

 a little close up for you...

Well readers, I hope you enjoyed this flowery little number today.  In order to not saturate my blog with too many flowers (although I do love them so...), I'm planning a tribal themed post for tomorrow... no pink, I promise.

Tara