Photo from foto decadent

I wish I could give credit back to the author for this amazing quote, by unfortunately it’s from someone by the name of ‘anonymous’! Anyway, I think it’s a fantastic quote & it really resonated with me… Hope it does for you too! Enjoy! 
 

People are unreasonable, illogical & self-centred.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends & true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty & transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest & transparent anyway.
What you spend your years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have & you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway.
The world is full of conflict.
Choose peace of mind anyway.

Big smooches,

Rach xxx 

1. Untitled, 2. daniela edburg, 3. JULIA FULLERTON-BATTEN / bicycleaccident, 4. courtney love (not mine), 5. 24_10_2007_0436186001193248714_finlay_mackay, 6. take me with you monarch

Well, not surprisingly, I’ve already changed my mind on something to do with this site! Please bear with me — just want to make sure everything on Bright Side Lover “makes sense” for my lovely readers! So, from next week on, I will be keeping all my recommended links in the same feature (”All Linked Up!”) & I plan on accompanying these with stellar photographs that I stumble across as I roam around the web week-to-week!

Anyway, this will all start next week… so for now… ta dah!

• I’m pretty much in lust with this guy’s work! Seriously, how good is it?! 
• Need inspiration for your next business card? Check out Cool Business Cards from Creative Bits, and also, 584 Ways to Design a Business Card from Life Clever!
• The Fafinette’s come to life in Vogue Nippon! So cute!
• Attention all creative-types! This link will make your year — 33 New Places to Get Design Inspiration from Freelance Switch! So many incredible sites to make your heart SING!
• Mariano Vivanco is an amazing photographer & his Jem-inspired shoot for Dazed Digital still remains one of my all-time faves! (I may have had a slight obsession with Jem! though when I was younger…!) To view the shoot: enter his site, click on ‘Back to The Fuschia’, and then PLAY.

Until next time, stay “truly outrageous” cuties! (it’s a Jem thang!) 

Rach xxx

Smitten by Stephanie. Love and life. Feeling smitten… emotion is holding out your heart, wearing it on your sleeve, then having it ripped from your chest. Sometimes moments of love and life hurt a bit but shh… don’t cry, it’s ok, it happens to me too. i heart you :)  (from Smitten by Stephanie site)

A creative storm has been brewing over Sydney-town of late, and the force behind it is the super-cute, absurdly talented Stephanie Overs: the fashion & music-loving illustrator and creator of Smitten by Stephanie!

Let me just take a moment here to say, I am absolutely in love with this girl’s work. Featuring a series of self-portraits of a sad-looking girl contemplating love and life, I adore her strong aesthetic and the way she simplifies complex emotion by presenting it in the most original and delightful way. The artist’s symbolic sketches and illustrations are heavily influenced by her love of pop art, minimalism, graphic and abstract art, and just looking at her work makes me smile so hard my face hurts!

The Smitten artwork has recently been featured in the fifth edition of Curvy, an annual, all-girl art book (the brainchild of the always creative Yen magazine crew!) featuring 100 of the most exciting illustrators and graphic designers from over 35 countries around the world.

Her work has been exhibited in two of the biggest group shows of the year — Grrrls by [weAREtheIMAGEMakers], and Kids Today by Stupid Krap.com — and are beautifully decorated with silver/ gold frames, jewels and gems, and smatterings of glitter! Stephanie also uses satin wall hangings and mirrors to display her pieces.

Other notable achievements: in 2007, she travelled to the UK to paint live as part of Sketch City, and was then commissioned by ‘V’ to be involved in the Semi-Permanent festival in Sydney.

Finally, the busy 23-year old also sells her own T-shirt’s under the label ‘once smitten. twice shy’ (super-dooper kawaii!) and she has just designed a range for One Teaspoon’s sister label ‘Little Lady From’, which will be hitting stores this summer!

I definitely recommend you spend the time looking around the Smitten by Stephanie site — it’s a visual pleasure dome that will bring you to your feet! Trawling through the gallery is like being hit with a huge explosion of cute, over and over again! I really love the innocence and purity of all her characters, and am happy to endorse this talented artist who is blazing her own trail and doing a damn fine job of it!

Additional goodness:

Artful obsessions & abstract love,

Rach xxx

Photo by stOOpidgErL

LOVE. LEARN. SMILE. GROW. SING. LAUGH. AWAKEN!

The Bright Side Lover community is filled with sparkling souls and creative minds that consistently take chances — and always raise the bar. Serving as an inspirational, lively and compelling conversation between friends, Bright Side Lover is a platform for connecting energetic individuals from around the globe who blaze their own trail… every time.

Bright Side Lover presents life through the lens of a kaleidoscope, where inspiration explodes in a thousand different directions. It’s a place to express, indulge, and evolve. It’s for fashionistas, creative types, thinkers, dreamers, girls, boys — people from all walks of life — who embrace each moment with enthusiasm and vigour, and refuse to give in to negativity and mediocrity!

Bright Side Lover brings together many minds and many hands to yield the loudest applause for those who blow the lid on convention! We make no apologies for who we are, where we come from, or where we are going. We set our expectations sky high — knowing we deserve the very best — and let our positive intentions compel us to live out our most cherished dreams!

Bright Side Lover is about finding the inherent goodness in the people that surround us, and the occurrences that define each day. It’s about keeping our smiles on, remaining curious and open-minded, and celebrating our unique, intelligent, spontaneous, integral selves.

Bright Side Lover is for those who draw conclusions from their own abundantly big, honest hearts, whilst acting with purpose and determination. Those who have the courage to go forward and challenge the status quo. It’s a reminder to say what we mean and to mean what we say.

Bright Side Lover inspires us to live as masters of our possibilities, rather than slaves to our limitations. Instead of fighting against life’s misfortunes, we seize the opportunity for self-improvement and transform the experience into something of value. We understand that being positive is the most empowering and effective way forward. 

Bright Side Lover advocates making happiness your dominant theme, and trusting that every day will be more exciting and fulfilling than the last! We choose to shine a big, bright light on every situation; weaving our own special magic and unleashing our dreams from their whimsy pink bubbles! It’s about doing things in the spirit of love, cultivating our personal style, and letting our true colours shine through bolder and brighter than ever before!

Visualisation & imagination ’til the end of time!

Rach xxx