Thai Memories

In my room I have a piece of coral from Thailand, and yesterday I was looking at it, remembering the beach where I found it two years ago in Thailand.

As I look back on my high school years, our family vacations were some of the best days. Connecting Four was actually started on a family vacation in Malaysia (Our look book from the trip here).

I am so excited for my sisters to get back tomorrow and can’t wait for the fun times ahead–vacations are times to reconnect and invest in each other.

My piece of coral will serve a great decor accent in the new office.

In the tropics it rains a LOT, but the water droplets left behind are great inspiration.

Any fun memories from family vacations? Not-so-fun memories?

If you are in Koh Samui, Thailand, stay at Impiana. Quiet beach, rooms overlooking the water and great attendants.

This post is part of my Memories Collection-revisiting places where Connecting Four really connected and explored the world together. See my Guilin Memories post here. See my Tianjin Memories here.

Style: Tribal/Aztec

The style and design world has been taken by storm this summer by tribal and aztec inspired prints, fabrics, and accessories. I have really enjoyed following the trend and have really enjoyed a few in particular. Bri from Designlovefest had a ‘color fest’ post including a tribal tank a few months ago; and Lookbook.nu seems to be all about tribal prints:

From Shoes: (By CHEYSER P.)

To Shorts: (By LUA P.)

To Shirts: (By MOHCINE A.)

So I decided I had to get in on the action, and I designed a tribal/galaxy inspired pattern.

I also gained inspiration from our Geometric board on Pinterest. The tribal patterns that are popular right now are very geometric focused and use various shapes to create the effect.

I loved working on it and actually used AutoCAD for the vector work, then coloured it in using Photoshop.

Tips: Use galaxy images for filling and overlay-creates a great look and enriches the color. Use shadows and layering to help give depth and complexity to the design.

Pop Icon: Head Scarves

As of late I have had a certain infatuation with head scarves — you might have seen the “style” article in our most recent Almanac. The pop icon this week, celebrating the handiness and fashion of head scarves, is pop singer Rihanna. She is rocking a polka dotted head scarf tied in a bow with red cascading curls on the Westfield Shopping Centre in London. I managed to dig out a similar polka dotted head scarf for my own representation. Though it was a challenge to volumize my long straight hair, I managed to put it up in a messy beehive doo for the picture. ~ In honor of Rihanna’s red hot hair, Rachel – who was kind enough to help me – spruced mine up with a bit of color as well!

Source:  (Rihanna’s quirky, red hairstyle)