Deceived By Miss Lil' Riding's Hood

How was she to know The True?

Seeing life through rose hued eyes

Until April 1st a day for fools

And a thief prophesying lies

xx Camille Javal

Fluttering Wandering Longing

We were fluttering, wandering, longing creatures 

a thousand thousand years before the sea and the wind in the forest 

gave us words.

- Kahlil Gibran

xx Camille Javal

Google If Only You Knew Me Better

I often get tempted to google, "Who does Camille Javal marry?!" but then I remember that -

the internet doesn't know everything about me and can't tell me my future!

#PleasetellmeImnottheonlyone?!

#Surelyitsonlyamatteroftimebeforetechnologycatchesup

xx Camille Javal

Moon Tan Inspired Paleness

★ Anna McGahan ★

Actress

Writer

Space Nerd

Mother to Gilbert (...the baby bird) :)

All Round Super Rad Chick

xx Camille Javal

The Smiley Side of Life

★★★

Post Chocolate Happy + 

Jumping on Hotel Beds + 

Smiley Face Balloons + 

Sisters + 

Dancing High! 

★★★

Please Note: If possible, and for maximum enjoyment, jumping on beds should be accompanied by Imagine Dragons, On Top Of The World!

xx Camille Javal

The Things You Stumble Across While Lost In The Desert

Let me set the scene for you... I was stumbling through the desert with some girlfriends during my obligatory Spring Break in Mexico (note to self - flip flops are not appropriate desert dwelling footwear as prickles make mincemeat of rubber soles!), when all of a sudden:

Cactus for sale anyone?!

SOLD! You read my mind...

#Whenlifemakesyousmile

xx Camille Javal

Facing The Sun

You see but your shadow 

when you turn your back to the 

★★ sun. ★★

- Kahlil Gibran

xx Camille Javal

Seriously Non Serious

"...Of course we mustn't take ourselves too seriously.  What we try and do is be non-serious about things but we are very serious about being not serious!" 

- John Lennon

These Parisian children know how to be seriously non serious about things :)  It was the most soul satisfying moment watching them playing with the small rented boats at the Jardin du Luxembourg.  I was overwhelmed by the whimsical cuteness of the scene, Paris could you live up to my daydreams and be any more darling?! 

xx Camille Javal

Come Find Me In The Sky

i'm a cloud.

  watch for me in the sky.

- Yoko Ono

[See the land of Israel for more crazy amazing live cloud installations such as these!]

xx Camille Javal

The Language of Hurry

I've noticed that whenever I travel the first few weeks feel like forever.  Life back home becomes hazy as I'm absorbed in the new culture and sounds and smells and colors and clouds.  However after a few weeks the trip inevitably starts to fly by.............where before a day seemed to stretch ahead with open arms it now zoomsby&itslunchtimejustafterbreakfast and then the suns setting and the day starts over.

I'm suspicious that the secret key that activated the change in the first place was in the art of noticing details.  Perhaps time slowed and days lost their hurry because the details connected me to the present by using all my senses?  

I wonder then if there is a principle in this that we can adopt if we want our lives to be less busy and for our days to notflyby?  

It's hard to unlearn the language of hurry, as we are fluent in it by the time we put our childishness and playfulness down in pursuit of adulthood.  As children we instinctively got absorbed in details but soon learnt to hurry past the butterflies and the shadows left by stones.  Now as adults we chase the intoxicating mirage of tomorrow and the end of the to-do list.

Making a conscious effort to pay attention to the people, streets, shadows, sunlight, birds, smells etc., no matter how familiar or how how many times we've walked a street before, might connect us to the day.  And then mayyybe life will slow down and we can experience everything it has to offer ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥??

xx Camille Javal

Mopping Up A Broken Heart

♥Princess Adaeze: I know how hard it can be when there seems to be lack of closure with someone (especially someone who so frequently opens and closes the door!)

♥♥♥♥ love conversations with friends ♥♥♥♥

xx Camille Javal

Sometimes Life Gives You A Tsunami...

During a tsunami warning in Hawaii, three future bridesmaids madly search for open ABC stores in order to stock up on essential supplies - M&Ms. 

"It's an emergency!" they plead with the angry store clerk who is trying to close up for the night and get to higher ground.  "...We have DVD's but NO snacks!!" 

Eventually Camille sneaks past one of the guards and starts piling candy into her arms.  She overhears a  teenage boy pleading with security to let him buy milk for his baby.  Security eventually relents. 

5 minutes later he can be seen piling bottles of hard liquor onto the counter! 

When. Life. Makes. You. Smile :)
#thethingsyouhavetodoinanemergency

xx Camille Javal

Desert Dwelling

"Come stay with me, I live at rock 2, cave 4." 

Jack Sparrow's Bedouin doppelganger informed me during my adventures in Petra.

"Cool I'll be there... erm... so which rock was it again?!" 

Me.  Completely lost.  Unable to use the mountains as my compass.

xx Camille Javal

A Beauty Mess

That Famous Graffiti Wall In Paris... HaHa Um Yeah That One!

My life is a beauty mess.

I've come to see though that no parts of our lives, even the messy parts, have to be wasted. For even something beautiful can be created out of ashes and messes... literally we can use charcoal, the byproduct of fire, to draw!

xx Camille Javal

A Dog's Life...

xx Camille Javal

Amazing Melbourne Street Art

The incredible power of pictures...

"The well runs dry only when we have nothing to say.  That can't happen when you accept that while it's true that everything has already been said, it hasn't been said by you, at this moment in time, in this place, in this mood, with this lighting, etc." 

- Nick Meglin Drawing From Within 

xx Camille Javal

The Wisdom Of Children

"When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work.  I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw.  She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'" 

- Howard Ikemto

xx Camille Javal

Face Paint + Glitter + Feathers

Model: Adaeze Obiajunwa

★★★ One of those feather and rainbow face paint kinds of days! ★★★

While face painting doesn't provide the cure, it at least momentarily helps satisfy my drive to rainbow-ify everything and everyone in my life! I'm a color addict so love using the human body as a canvas, especially one as gorgeous as Adaeze!

xx Camille Javal

Landfill Harmonic

                                   
                                                     "The world sends us garbage.

                                                                             We send back music"

- Orchestra Director Favio Chavez

I just watched this amazing teaser for an upcoming documentary about a recycled orchestra. This remote village in Paraguay has been literally turning trash into treasures, they formed an orchestra after creating instruments from the garbage landfill they live on!

♥ ♥ Watching this is so inspiring and shows how we can bring beauty and creativity into the most unlikely places, and forces us to get creative and resourceful with the materials we have lying/discarded around! ♥ ♥

"...Trash and recycled materials can be transformed into beautiful sounding musical instruments, but more importantly, it brings witness to the transformation of precious human beings." 

- Landfill Harmonica Movie

xx Camille Javal

Golden Girl

Model: Adaeze Obiajunwa 

I'd been dreaming of putting together an OTT golden glitter fashion photoshoot for yonks... until finally... IT happened! The sparkly results are above :) 

Light wasn't on our side so I had to paint Adaeze's face quickly and literally cover her in glitter! Luckily the sun came out and kissed her skin briefly with the most beautiful warm light for about ten minutes before going home for the night.

Still on the life list of to dos: 1 x RROTT sparkly golden glitter fashion photoshoot.  (★ RROTT short for Really Really Over The Top! ★ )

xx Camille Javal

New Year, New Cake!

Today's cake is a Carnival-esque Meets Nautical Celebration Creation!

Whenever I'm asked to bake a cake (this time for a 30th) I always try something new, soooo... insert opportunity to play with 'bark'! The outside of the cake above is covered with candy melt bark which is super easy to melt and dye different colours.

★ To make the bark just follow the melting directions on the packet, I simmered mine in a bowl over boiling water on the stove but you can also zap it in the microwave.  

★ Lay out a piece of baking paper, then spread the chocolate over the paper using a knife, keeping it at least 2 inches from the edge of the paper.  

★ Place another sheet of baking paper the same size on top, then use a palette knife to gently smooth out any air bubbles and to make the bark as thin and even as possible. I think it's better if the edges of the candy is uneven as it makes the shards more dynamic later on!

★ Roll the baking paper/candy melts into a tube, keeping in mind the tighter you roll it the more curved your bark will be.

★ Pop it on a tray and into the fridge until it sets hard.

★ When you're ready to decorate unwrap the baking paper and discard the top layer of paper.  The unrolling process should break up the bark so you have lots of shards... the more imperfect and random the pieces the better in my opinion!

★ I used a buttercream frosting to ice the cake and then stuck the bark to that, alternating colours carnival tent style.

You can store the bark in a container and decorate your next cake in a flash Super-Homemaker-I-Just-Whipped-This-Up style.

★ Stroke of amazing cake genius!! ★ 

How sweet would it be to cover your cake with rainbow bark?!

I had the idea while editing my photo of making pretty rainbow pastel bark, so I edited the same photo in pastel colours to try the idea out. Haha imagine if baking was this easy - a few clicks and voila - new cake!  The rainbow bark would be easy to do, just melt different colours and swirl them on the baking paper before covering and setting.

Oo a few more clicks on my computer and I have a pink version of the cake too! Lol... online baking is wayy better for the waistline!

xx Camille Javal

The Sun's Kisses

Summer in Thailand + Sunshine + Girlfriends + Adventures Down Unknown Laneways = ♥★ ♥♥★

xx Camille Javal

There's A Rainbow Coming...

My friend gave me a Hallmark card with the most gorgeous sentiment inside:

"She's the kind of person who looks at a cloud and says to herself, 'There's a rainbow coming in just a little while.'  Then she kicks off her shoes and dances in the puddles until the sun comes out again."

New Year's Resolution - To keep looking for the rainbows in life ★★★★★★★★

xx Camille Javal

The Year Of Awesome

[My mate Rogelio and I watching the sunrise from Masada - Israel!!]

However TwentyTwelve panned out, remember that:

"Success is not measured by what a man accomplishes but by the opposition he encountered and the courage he maintained in his struggle against it." 

- Charles Lindberg 

So...

★★★★ Here's to me and you and dreams coming true!! ★★★★

2013 is going to be The Year Of Awesome.

xx Camille Javal

Like Clouds Without Water...

In the centre of the storm

She sits frozen,

Like clouds without water.

Little does she know

He is creating a Beauty Mess...

xx Camille Javal

When Mourning Dawns

God is within her

                 

                     She will not fall... ♥

Psalm 46:5

xx Camille Javal

Bah, Humbug!

...Oh ok and have yourself a Merry little 2012 Christmas ;)

xx Camille Javal

P.S. This photo may be used as evidence that I was doing the 'emo pose' wayyy before it was cool!
P.P.S Yes Santa wears shorts in Australia... and gets help from pink princesses!

In Silence She Waits

The thunder is no longer in the sky

She feels the sound below her feet

Like a kiss on the lips

She awaits an honest answer

Anticipating the whispers of His tune...

What took you so long? she prays

xx Camille Javal

Ben's Life In Pencil

[If Ben Abraham lived in a picture story book he'd look a little like this...]

I decided that I couldn't afford was taking a year off from Christmas present shopping this year. But. Then. I felt a tad bit Grinchy. Sooo compromised by doing a drawing for my best friend instead!

  

...Sometimes when creating art you just have to stick with a project until it surrenders!

Attempting to wrestle pencil to paper also contributed to a long standing life goal - Somehow Get Better At Drawing.

xx Camille Javal

Tel Aviv

New York you know I would never cheat on you, but...

I fell in love with Tel Aviv.

"By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange." - Jane Jacobs

Tel Aviv sure knows how to churn out spectacular live cloud formation shows, which I thoroughly enjoyed from the hammock on my hostel's rooftop! In parts Tel Aviv feels sort of like a dirty Paris meets Los Angeles meets a mini NYC.  So v. v. cool!

#lovefindingnewcitiesyoucouldcallhome

xx Camille Javal

Nothing Is For Free In Egypt

Desert fashion
Scorching Egyptian sun
Taking a selfie on the back of a camel
Priceless!

xx Camille Javal

Za'atar

One of the greatest discoveries during my adventures in the Middle East was the spice - za-atar!

"If there is one smell to match the emblematic image of the Old City of Jerusalem, one odour that encapsulates the soul of this ancient city nestling in the Judean Mountains, it is the smell of za'atar." 

- Jerusalem by Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi

They sprinkle this spice liberally on food so using it in my cooking at home now is pretty memory inducing!

I love how they'd sell hot bagels on the street with little pockets of za'atar spice wrapped in paper to dip the bread in.  Or when they'd sprinkle it on homemade hummus with olive oil.

One of the first things I did when I got back, literally the next day, was to head to a specialty middle eastern grocery store and buy a bag!  I recommend you do the same :)

xx Camille Javal

The Place Where Buried Memories Go...

 Lately I find repressed memories fascinating.  The idea that you could bury things even from yourself.

 Where do those buried memories go?

 If you dig down deep enough inside your heart perhaps you can dig a hole right through to the other side, then drop the memories down down down so they fall away forever?

xx Camille Javal

xx Grandmothers xx

I love collecting gorgeous old vintage photographs, a combination of the nostalgia, the lovely soft hazy light and the stunning fashion. Here are two of my favourites that come from my own family's album; starring both of my grandmas :) 

♥It's cool looking at these photographs because I can see that my personality is a mix of both women!♥

xx Camille Javal

A Little Piece Of Creative Illustrative Brilliance

Hat's off to you James Gulliver Hancock for your creative illustrative brilliance!  

I just stumbled upon this stop motion animation he illustrated... yeah I'm having a danggg wish I'd made that jealous moment too!

xx Camille Javal

Sunset's Palette

Borrowing shades of pink from sunsets palette...

This was the actual landscape painted live in front of me when I visited the Sea of Galilee recently - I was in creative awe as the sky rolled out gorgeous rainbow hues watercolour style before my eyes!

Nobody colour matches better than nature.

xx Camille Javal