samantha hinds | photography: 2014

merica

I just started up a second job. Casual waitress/bar work at the local watering hole doing weeknights & weekends. It's pretty good money too, can't go wrong with $32 p/hour on Sundays! I'm still working full time Monday to Friday, 8am till 5pm with my graphic pre-press apprenticeship. I just really needed to knuckle down with saving all my pennies up to buy copious amounts of clothes, makeup, presents from my North American trip come December '14/January '15. Spending Christmas at Disneyland, CA. Seeing Britney Spears live in Vegas on the eve of New Year's Eve. Underwater museum in Cancun, Mexico. New York, New York. Snowboarding/skiing in Whistler, Canada. Eating to my heart & stomach's content in San Francisco. In-N-Out will be a favourite I can just tell now, 4x4 burger & cheese fries, animal style? Why not! I'm going to have to go over there at least 5kgs underweight to even things out when I'm done.

...

The above is a draft from 26/08/14 that I didn't get to finish. So I'm posting it now.

NEXT MONTH AND I'LL BE IN USA/MEXICO/CANADA <3 span="">

I'm getting so excited for the food whenever I think about it I get so happy.

I want to be a Japanese Mermaid

"Iwase Yoshiyuki was born in 1904 in Onjuku, a fishing village on the pacific side of the Chiba peninsula, which encloses Tokyo Bay on the east. After graduating from Meiji University Law School in 1924, he took up lifelong pursuits, heading the family sake distillery and documenting the receding traditions of coastal Japan. In the late 1920's Yoshiyuki received an early Kodak camera as a gift. Since the main livelihood of the town came from the sea he gravitated there, and soon found a passion for "the simple, even primitive beauty" of ama - girls and women who harvested seaweed, turban shells, oysters (which sometimes had pearls) and abalone from beneath the coastal waters.

Ama divers went out three times a day, requiring extensive eating and warming at the fireside between runs. A good harvest required long, cold dives, up to four minutes of hard underwater work on a single lungful of air. As such, ama divers were paid enormous salaries, often making more a few week season than the men of the village made in a year. When Yoshiyuki began shooting in the late 1920s, there were several hundred ama divers active in the seven harbours of the Iwawada coast (Kohaduki, Oohaduki, Futamata, Konado, Tajiri, Koura and Nagahama). By the late 1960's this 2000 year old way of life had disappeared. Yoshiyuki's images are the most comprehensive document of ama divers ever produced and a stunning visual testament to these fascinating iconic women."

Above text source.

I want to be a Japanese mermaid! Looking at all the old photos from the earlier 1900s is so beautiful and interesting, I wish I was there to see it all happen!

More links to read up about them:
http://evencleveland.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/women-of-sea.html
http://2-118.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/japanese-ama-divers.html
http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/11/01/the-last-japanese-mermaids/ (where I found out about ama and made me fall in love)

Holy crap I'm in love with this collection. Just a selection of my favourites.

keep on running

photography: Dean Raphael

Back in February this year, I had 2 weeks off to go to polar opposite sides of Australia. I spent most of the first week off in Perth, and the rest of my time in Melbourne & a couple of nights in Brisbane. For it being my first time in Perth (does it count as my first time if I lived there for a couple of months when I was 2 years old? I like to consider it my first time anyway) and Fremantle, I was absolutely blown away by the beautiful beaches and Fremantle's beachy/casual/trendy/artsy vibes it has. I am actually considering moving there. Only if Jessie, Moose & Gil are still there by the time I feel like going. We spent a night getaway in Dunsborough, Margaret River – in a beach house. It was freezing though so we weren't going swimming, instead we made dinner, drank a drink or 2 and explored what the little towns had to offer. The locals weren't that friendly though, especially in the AMAZING chocolate cafe. Oh well.

Then it was time for Melbourne where we attended Soundwave (Rachel and I), and caught up with friends and I met not 1, but 2 of my online friends IRL. One of them being Dean, the amazing photographer. We've been IG friends since 2012 and finally got to adventure a bit and take photos. Dean is awesome and I am so glad that something like Instagram could bring me to become friends with such an awesome dude. You need to check his photos out.
He has a website, he's on Instagram, and has a Facebook Page.

Also got the chance to meet up with Linda, an 18 yr old student from Melbourne who I hadn't been following all that long (on IG) and she took us to get some dinner at the Vegie Bar and dessert at N2 (OMG N2 HOLY CRAP). So glad I could meet Linda, we still like each other's photos to acknowledge each other haha. Plus she is so adorable. I wish I lived in Melbourne so we could hang all the time.

But I love meeting new people! The chance arose and I took it. I never thought I'd be so.. extroverted? I just push my comfort zone.. like with the photography adventure I did with Dean, I won't pretend I wasn't nervous about it. I freaked out about what I was going to wear, what I was going to do like poses etc. (Please note that I am NO model whatsoever!)
It was one of the best days ever.

folkloric

I could live in these babies.

Air Force 1

• • •

I've been eyeing these babies off for quite some time now. I have a friend that works at Footlocker who is going to order me a pair in my size, that means I'll have them in 3 weeks time! When I go back to Brisbane to see Arctic Monkeys.

I wouldn't normally go for this sort of style of shoes/sneakers but they are just so beautiful! I can't resist.

Current Favourites <>

Hoorah it's Friday!

Some tunes I'm currently digging. Some old, some new, hey nothing wrong with that.

got along without you before i met you, gonna get along without you now

This year is going to be.. tough. I was trying to think of the right adjective for it. Scary didn't seem right. I'm already experiencing the toughness that it is. It's my final year of my apprenticeship. Trying to be as frugal as possible–but really, when am I not trying to be as frugal as I can? I'm dreaming of the day I can finally afford to leave and be off meeting new towns across the world & making new friends.

If it were up to me right now, I'd be an air hostess doing international stop overs and pretending to be on holiday and living it up.

My current job has to be the best job I have ever had to date. It's also my first full time job. I have the best bosses I could ever ask for. So that makes it harder for me to leave at the end of this year. But I just remind myself that not everyone can stick around forever, and it's not a bad thing to do. Because I really do appreciate everything they do/have done for me. It's just a shame that where I live isn't where I want to be. Can't have my cake and eat it too.

It's Australia Day this Sunday (Monday being the public holiday) so I have taken Friday off to make it an extra long weekend. Mum, Rachel and I are road tripping to Townsville to get the heck out of here. Not sure what's going to go down but I plan on getting delicious chai lattes & gelato from Juliette's on the Strand and climb Castle Hill, which I try to do every time I visit the place. I can go all the way up the goat track at a steady pace without stopping so I'm pretty pleased with that.

At the end of February me and Rachel are off on our 2-week holiday to Brisbane, Perth & Melbourne. Soundwave in Melbourne & getting my hair done by the amazing colourist Rohan. He took me light the first time and I was absolutely blown away by his hair colouring prowess! So I'm willing to just go to Melbourne to get my hair done by him every time, I think that's worth it and I don't care if people think I'm crazy. Getting my hair done elsewhere has resulted in much unhappiness.