Melba Marginson




Melba Marginson


  • 1st Filipina to be inscribed on the Shilling Wall at the Queen Victoria Women's Centre in Melbourne, Australia (2010)


QUOTE
"The Filipino woman enjoyed a high status before the Spanish came. In fact she was really a partner. The man would not be able to decide anything without the consent of the woman. But when the Spanish came most of these rights and privileges were taken away. The women were then kept in the home or the church, at home as childbearer or in the church as a nun.

This lower status was reinforced in the American time when the Americans started to use women for labor in the big plantations. Although women were taken out of the home the exploitation was even worse."



DATE OF BIRTH
1950s

BIRTHPLACE
Philippines

HUSBAND: Simon William Marginson
DAUGHTER: Ana Rosa


USEFUL LINKS


Executive Officer Melba Marginson
Melba Marginson - first Filipina to be inscribed on the Shilling Wall
A New Filipino Identity

all the right tones


Simply captivating. First Edita's set, and now that I've spotted Natasha's ed by Karl Lagerfeld and Sasha's set by Greg Kadel... I have no choice but to buy Numéro #116, when it eventually hits Australian shelves! An upper class socialite or a modern urban day warrior. Life choices are tough.
Cred: fashiongonerogue

Style file: Shearling jacket




With all the emphasis on coats this season, there's a lot to choose from. Pretty parka's, camel coats and aviator jackets will make sure to keep us warm. After inspecting some of the cutest styles, I realised I had a shearling jacket from a few years back that looked a lot like the Acne Rita pictured above. It's still the most expensive purchace I ever made but I'm not sure how I feel about it because I'm more in to black than brown. Which coat will you be wrapping around yourself this winter?

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace


This Numéro #116 editorial set , Divine Idylle featuring Edita Vilkeviciute and photographed by Camilla Åkrans, almost makes me long for fall to come again. Fall is golden, spring is green... but in my opinion, only one paints the world in a whole different hue.
Cred: fakingfashion

Alexander Wang Fall 2010



This is a dream. All the elements come together- it's almost film noir, so mysterious, dark and alluring... and she is part tortured soul, part modern day femme fatale. Abbey Lee Kershaw, the star of the video, has some gift of grace, of movement, that always makes her a wonder to watch.

I'm with the band

Spring is slowly creeping up on Sydney, and the sunshine has made me dig through my wardrobe for my light blue denim cut offs again. Well... the weather, my weekend Gold Coast adventure and Conception Day. A big perk of going to Macquarie Uni is the annual Conception Day/ mini music festival/ a lets-go-crazy affair and there's always one big act (good to know uni is putting my tuition fees to good use!). This year Tame Impala is headlining!

My excitement has translated to research on festival gear and I came back with suitably bohemic grungey inspiration:
 Cred: stockholmstreetstyle, tfs, sartorialist

Phoenix here I come!

I'm on my way to Creative Escape 2010 in Phoenix AZ!

I'll be teaching a workshop over two days to approx 600 or so attendees! It's going to be an exciting few days and hopefully I'll still have a voice at the end of it from all that talking!

I've only got a few workshops left for 2010. Click here to check my workshop listings!

I'll be tweeting from the road and back in the studio on Monday. See you next week!

the treadmill : today's "place to be"


It's Sunday and Sunday is pretty much a non-training day for me.  My Sunday "workout" is to go for a walk of at least 1 hour in length.  Not bad, eh!  Usually, I take advantage of this "easy" day and take a Sunday stroll around the neighborhood, I wander rather leisurely, I make phone calls while I'm strolling and catch up with family and friends.

Just didn't seem like enough this morning, though.  I woke up feeling not so great in my little noggin.  Nothing terrible or earth shattering, but just one of those unmotivated, uninspired mornings.  I had a good cup of coffee and tried writing in my journal.  eh.  Tried writing a blog post.  eh.  Perfect time for my Sunday walk - get the blood flowing, clear my head.  I started to get ready for my stroll, but was still feeling, eh.  As strange as it may sound, what with all the dang training I'm doing, I actually felt unfit this morning.  A little full, flabby (what did I eat yesterday, sheesh) and, well, I guess I was just a bit down.  Somehow a leisurely Sunday stroll through the neighborhood just didn't seem serious enough.

So, off to the gym I went to spend an hour on the treadmill.  Walking, mind you - not running, not biking, just walking.  Egads, I thought, this is going to be boring. B.O.R.I.N.G.  Well, boring though it may be, I though, I needed the intensity of the machine, I needed it to be an intentional workout, so I went.

I was wrong.  I was wrong, wrong, wrong.  Boring?  Nope.  Quite the contrary.  With no distractions, no phone calls, no yards to peek in, my little noggin started whizzing, zinging, having thoughts, making connections.  My head turned upside down, blah to yea!  Inspiration and ideas for a new project I'm thinking about appeared seemingly out of nowhere.  Since our decision to be more flexible on the Vienna move, I realized that I want to still blog, but feel too constrained by the title and format of what I've created here (no surprise to those who've been following along in the past few weeks).  So, I've been toying with the idea of creating a sister blog/alternate blog/blog in place of An American Girl and trying to think about what I would want to do with that.  I've had major brain stall, though, and have been mentally frustrated about the whole thing.  But this morning, on the treadmill, obviously today's place of power for me, the connections and ideas and thoughts started flowing.  What a relief!  What a great feeling!

An hour went by far too quickly.  I think I may go back.

City of Angels





Los Angeles, with it's fast paced, tough exterior and giant distances, might not be a right fit for everyone. It's not cozy and comforting but that makes it all the more fascinating...

LF Stores grey T / Soho Hearts ring / H&M polka dot dress and ring

illustration friday: atmosphere

I wanted to work on my dollhouse project idea and blend that with Illustration Friday so here's my submission for this weeks illustration friday theme of "atmosphere"

I created two versions, first in color.....

dollhouse_kitchenCLR


Then in black and white...

dollhouse_kitchenBW

the "atmosphere" of a piece really changes when you convert it to black and white :)

This is my first test of photographing my drawings in the Dollhouse along with 3-d elements. I am excited about it for a first try. I managed to light the fridge up using these lights. They are battery operated and you just twist the end and they light up. Twist the other way and they turn off. I want to try making a little lamp base + shade around this light. In any case it worked great for this picture and the cool lighting it gives off feels very much like fridge light.

I do need to get a better camera. this one is a Kodak 12 megapixel, I notice it's grainy when I zoom in on the image. Any suggestions for a camera? For my purposes a point and shoot would be preferred but with an image I could enlarge up to 11x14 or 16x20 if possible.

Happy Friday!

Good morning

I am back from LA.  I am still alive.  And I will be writing again soon.  Like, this weekend.  I promise, I swear!

Memories



These were taken little over a week ago, but it seems a lot longer because we've seen so much since. I've already collected a lot of great memories to this USA trip! And I'm seeing a few places again that I visited 12 years ago on a similar road trip with my parents and twin brother. Doing it all by myself and as an adult is a whole different experience though... It makes me even more grateful that my parents took us to so many different countries and showed us the world is bigger than your backyard :)

Style file: the new woman


There's a new girl in town! The new woman that's dominating this seasons runway couldn't stray further from the androgynous models we're used to seeing. With their full curves, long skirts and tiny waists, they could easily pass for Mad Men extra's. There are endless ways to pull off this Fall/Winter look, but a cinched in waist is almost always the focuss point. Although I think it's interesting I'm not sure I would wear this retro look, would you?

new dollhouse project

I've had an idea that had been on the back burner for almost 2 years and finally I am acting on it. The idea is to create a dollhouse environment combining my little drawings along with miniatures, then photograph the scenes to develop a picture storybook. And if all goes as planned some stop motion animation too!

I have no idea how this will turn out but I am excited to have a project that will be purely experimental and just for me.

I searched for dollhouses on Craigslist hoping to find a used one. But there wasn't anything that fit what I had in mind. I'm still on the lookout for old dollhouse furniture that is 1/12 scale, so if you have some you don't want let me know!

After much searching I decided on this house from HomeDepot:

My dollhouse arrived today!

It said it on the package that it was easy to put together but I needed help... Maggie decided she would lend a paw!

Maggie dog helping with the dollhouse

Here it is all together!

Dollhouse is all put together!

and here's the inside:

Interior of dollhouse

I would like to figure out how to install electric so that I can add little lights. First I need to figure out how involved that is. But I'm ready to give a shot!

Working on putting the house together brought back many happy dollhouse memories and crafty projects of making miniature things. I forgot how much I love miniatures!

I remember my Barbie Dream House that I got when I was about 6. My Dad put it together which took hours and hours. I was so excited! I created my own fireplace for that house using a Jello box and covering it in tiny pebbles ( it was 1980 - stone fireplaces were all the rage). That Barbie Dream House inspired a lot of crafts!

About the same time we had a neighbor who had an old dollhouse that she wanted refurbished. My mom volunteered me and I worked away wallpapering, redoing the floors and having a blast!

Here's to my new project and for exploring creative ideas just for fun!

The boardwalk









The Santa Cruz boardwalk is all about rides and watching people passing by whilst eating sausages on sticks, shaved ice and cotton candy. Old school fun!

An assortment





...of goodies for you today.  It's been a busy week of work and training and the quick flash of a cold that showed up Wednesday morning and was gone by Thursday (mostly, at least).  Not a whole ton to share, but here are a few tidbits.


~ Training for my upcoming Figure Competition is going quite well and I’ve stepped up the focus and intensity of my workouts.  I can see and actually feel my body changing; getting tighter, leaner, developing more defined muscles in places I never thought I’d have defined muscles.  It’s pretty awesome!  This week, I purchased the “posing suit” I have to wear (click here to see, if you dare!) and a pair of 5” clear plastic heels.  Oh boy.
7 weeks to go!


~ My husband and I are headed to LA for the weekend.  Yay!  We’re going to a Figure Competition (of course) to see one of his client’s on stage.  Oh yeah, she’s also going to be at my show, in my height class, in October, so, yes, that means I’m going along to scope out my competition!  The bonus – family in LA to visit!


~ Speaking of family……waiting ever so patiently for news about my soon-to-be-born nephew who was officially due on August 10th.  My sister and brother-in-law are waiting (maybe not so patiently) for him to make his appearance and my mom is with them, hoping he makes it during her visit. 
 

~ I’m loving this month’s Glamour. I don't think I've mentioned here before, but I have an unhealthy a strange attraction to animal print fashion.  Particularly leopard prints.  I own a pair of slippers, ballet flats, sneakers, two coats, and a dress.  Yes, all in some form or fashion of leopard print.  I think my mom would like to disown me because of this, but there it is.  I will fully accept and shout my love of leopard print from the top of my blog!

Ahem, anyway.  Considering this obsession, it is no surprise that this month's Glamour cover attracted my attention in the grocery store check out line.  I'm not a huge fan of Jennifer Lopez, but I love this whole shoot.  It made me think of Ann Margaret immediately.  Not exactly sure why, but I found a couple images of her, not so much in leopard as with a leopard.   Funny.








 




Off to sunny Southern California in a few hours.  Sadly, I have no leopard print clothing in my suitcase.  How boring.  I may need to reassess.

I hope you ALL have a lovely weekend.  Until next week...




the art of silliness

In an effort to work in more "just for me play time" I just signed up for Carla Sonheim's new online class called The Art of Silliness. for only $25 she'll guide you through artful creative exercises that you can do each day for a month! I can't wait! Click here to sign up and join me!

Crossroads




Picking up groceries, lounging by the boardwalk and drinking ice coffee were my main activities in Santa Cruz. Now we're off to sunny LA and it's gonna be good!

Zara leather biker jacket / H&M trend blouse with longer back / H&M trend
lace up shoes

Date time




Kristine and I
I met up with blogger Kristine for a wonderful lunch in San Francisco's warehouse Nordstrom. A very fun date and she's a real cutie :)

The same day my boyfriend and I picked up our car and went for the first ride - quite nervewrecking in those San Fran hills! But we made it safe and sound to Santa Cruz and are now in a suite with two tv's, a living room, a fireplace and bubble bath. Insane!