Summer!

Wow I love both these sunglasses -and the general outfits. This is a Tommy Ton pic from an album of his Paris fashion week photos on style.com

This pic kinda makes me wanna go back to being a blonde. I was platinum but currently I'm trying to discover what my natural colour is. Something I haven't seen in about 10 years. I must say it's nicer than I thought it would be which is a bonus!

The weather is warming up here in Melbourne. It has made me realise that I don't live in a freezing depressing grey world. It is so so so gorgeous in summer here in Australia. I always forget this fact in winter though.

In other news, Zoe and I are heading to Brisbane for the VALENTINO exhibition! It will be excellent!

arriving at my doorstep in 2-3 days!

from net-a-porter.

too many vogues

33 US Vogue
18 UK Vogue
73 Aus Vogue
59 Aus Harpers Bazaar... See more
37 Miscellaneous

Total: 220.

I will take an "after", after I get ebayin'. Keeping the Aus Vogues that I liked, the US, UK and miscellaneous, and selling the rest.

If you're interested, I'll probably put them on ebay this weekend, in yearly blocks. Almost every Aus Vogue and Harpers Bazaar from 2003-2008 will be represented.

As Maudrey kindly pointed out: Approx $1600 worth right there in that photo. Thats enough for a Celine handbag, or a flight to New York, or 4 months rent, or..... anyway.

books

I dont know if you ever went there but City Basement Books closed recently.

I was there the day before closing-day and everything was $1.
I bought 3 books, a biography of Princess Margaret, a big picture book of European Castles and a Lily Brett short stories. I could have looked in there for ages but to be honest it was a little depressing, and most of the really good stuff was gone. The amount of books left though was amazing - as well as all shelves being full there were piles everywhere and tons on the floor, lining the walls like these ones above.

too many magazines

this is one pile of magazines in my house. Its by far the largest, currently standing at approx 3 foot high.

They're mostly Australian Vogues, which pains me. I am THIS CLOSE to chucking them out. But this would involve:

1. Going through each issue to find scrapbook pictures
2. Keeping any possible winner issues (eg edited by Karl Lagerfeld, the Princess Mary one)
3. Ending my dream of having every issue (from about 1999 - late 2007, before I finally hated it so much I couldnt spend money on it anymore), so really, my dream of having every issue is over, and I dont even WANT ANY issues now, so maybe its time.

Next problem: What do I do with them? Library? Op Shop? Recycling? Angry backyard bonfire? Simply put them out the front of my house and wait? We put 2 bikes out there once and they were both gone within 1/2 an hour.

The other mags in that pile are the always enjoyable American Vogue (DEF keeping), which I do love, several English, French, and 1 Italian Vogue (keeping), lots of Australian Harpers Bazaar (better than Vogue- but why keep?) and my new and current favourite magazine- Inside Out. A house magazine. I dont know if this means I'm getting old or nesting or what, but I LOVE it.

Anyway, I am trying to look at magazines like books- if you love it, keep it, otherwise, it goes to Booktalk to be replaced. I can have a lovely (small) collection of AWESOMENESS and this will save me space and not give me a little shudder of annoyance everytime I look at it. This way they might even fit onto a bookcase (if I had any room on the bookcase, but my books are finely edited now, so there is no culling to be done there).

Finally, I have another similarly sized pile at my parents place in the country that they have just sold (the place, not the pile). This is going to have to go, clearly, as I'm pretty sure I will be pushing it to get them to move all the furniture I have stored down there, let alone a giant pile of crap old magazines, when they go to the new place.

Do you hoard stuff you no longer even like the look of? I think its emotionally relieving to get rid of stuff, not to mention house-cleansing and space-saving. On my way to work today I will stop by the library and ask if they would accept a large donation of magazines. Cross your fingers they say YES and lend me a large trolley.

movin' on

Do I have the right to be offended and a little upset when I see someone has deleted me as a friend on facebook, when in fact I have just finished deleting someone myself?

Should I care? Obviously we are not friends anymore, havent been for a long time, dont want to be either, so does it matter?

Seems like a lot of things are changing at the moment and I am not sure what to do with it all. I think its all part of moving on and changing and "growing up" though I am coming to resent those words, and I should just accept and get on with it.

Its ok to not be friends with someone on facebook- it is not symbolic of anything much in real life, unless you make it be. And if you're NOT real life friends, why fake it on facebook? You dont need facebook to validate real friendships, so why allow it to validate limited profile friendships?

I think I just feel sad cos I am well and truly out of that loop of friends now. But new loops and good quality old loops are more valuable, I think.

In other news, inspired by Maudrey I am now rewarding myself for each assignment completed and hence have done TWO IN ONE DAY. As my previous record was approx 1 every 12 months, this is a massive improvement and just goes to show that rewards indeed motivate.

First reward: "1001 Buildings You Must See before you die..." totally awesome.
Reward 2 (yet to be purchased): some form of chic brown lipstick. not brown-brown, just stylin' browny-shade yum.

thanks for letting me talk through that out loud. I think I am on the verge of making a list, or indeed, a PLAN. Whoa. 27 years old anyone?

yes yes i'm very late

but I've been getting my thoughts together.

And the title of My Favourite Collection goes to.....

Dries Van Noten (photos from style.com)


totally brilliant, I want to dress like this all the time. Runners up include Stella McCartney, Louis Vuitton (of course) and Celine.

monday was my birthday

it was glorious. The lovely Maudrey gave me Sophie Dahls cook book, and the boy made me the chicken curry for birthday dinner. My parents gave me high tea at the Langham, red roses, and elbow length leather gloves. The boy gave me an art deco french brooch.

Its now time for full speed ahead saving for Japanese Holiday. I am torn between paying off my credit card and saving money.... knowing full well that if I pay off the credit card it will just fill up again as soon as I arrive.... but have little chance of paying it all off and saving money before hand.

In the meantime,
I want these. In black, not suede, with the studs down the sides of the zip. They are Beau Coops, you can get some at Zomp (but only if you have bigger feet than me, as they dont have many sizes left). I love them. They are unisex, like mens shoes, but with a very feminine cut. Excellent heel, beautifully made. I like the grey ones in this picture - at zomp they only had black or tan, but tan is good, no?

why is it that when one decides to buy nothing but food that temptation comes along in such a delicious way?

advice from karl lagerfeld greatly appreciated

now that I've come to terms with being a grown-up and all, I start to realise maybe the reason I feel a little less than sprightly is because I dont dress like a grown-up. I know that sounds ridiculous, like who'd-wanna-dress-like-a-grown-up, but I mean it in a different way.

At the moment, most of the time I wear sneakers and running tights (as leggings) with a little skirt and tshirt/jumper as I walk to work and back each day (at work I wear a uniform). This is brilliant at 7.15am as I dont have to think about it or worry as the only people that see me is the guy in 7/11 as I buy my Up-n-Go and the dudes at work, who are all dressed the same anyway.

Where this falls apart is after work, when at least 2 out of 5 nights I end up in the city, either shopping, drinking, having coffee or equivalent with friends. Here I feel underdressed, messy, too casual, and inappropriate for most cafes, let alone most bars.

What I'm looking for is an outfit I can walk in easily, that with only a change of shoes can be suitable for post-work activities, including drinks. Obviously anything too dressy will require another outfit (and prior notice).

What also worries me is that this seems to have spilled over into other days as well. Those damn running leggings are just so bloody comfortable. In fact I'm wearing them right now. With a tshirt. And a cardigan. And my slippers. But I am at home, alone, with a cup of tea, so its ok.

Am I afraid to dress up? To overdress? I dont think so- my business hours style is almost the complete opposite. The uniform consists of a suit- high waisted pencil skirt, shirt, jacket. I always wear heels, unless I know I will be walking/standing for a long time. When I go to work for shows, I always wear the same sort of dressy stuff, and heels. So why the disparity? Am I compensating for one with the other? Do I have no middle ground?

In an effort to help this today I went to American Apparel. I bought a pair of dark metallic silver leggings (high waisted). Then on the walk home I bought a pair of clear heart shaped sunglasses. I love them both but as soon as I got home I realised the problem is that I have nothing to go over the leggings, and I dont want to wear them uncovered. So I SHOULD have bought a cute little high waisted ice-skating skirt. But this doesnt solve the problem.

I need to think of outfits I would not hesitate to wear to the Hairy Canary at 6pm that I could also pair with sneakers in the morning. Doesnt really matter how ridiculous that looks, as long as I can walk in it (this excludes pencil skirts and usually jeans. Its 3 kilometers.)

I think my wardrobe consists of 2.5 elements: Extreme Casual, Extreme Dressy, and Corporate (.5) (dont have much of this, but enough to make it useless in either other category).

ugh I am tired of this now. to be continued..... hopefully the answer is shopping!

winter things...

Kinda in love with both of these.  Above are rag and bone combat boots, below Prada- divine. I would wear them both everyday in winter (changing at lunchtime of course lol).  I will miss summer so much and I HATE daylight saving but will just have to snuggle up and make the most of winter.  These shoes would definitely help...

UPDATE Summer Challenge

You may remember I set myself a small set of Summer Challenges. They were:

1. To do 20 mins of walking each day (this challenge was issued by someone else, not me)
2. To run 5kms
3. To finish my correspondence course
4. To read all books I own but havent read yet.

Basically, epic fail. Epic. The rundown is thus-

1. Sort of. I walk to work and home again most days which is 30 mins each way. This doesnt happen on the weekends. So, on average it is 20 mins a day, just not done every day.

2. *cough*. argh...... I can run 2kms straight. Its a work in progress. I've also lost almost all motivation but this weeks goal is to get that back.

3. hmm. I did 1 assignment, and when I was halfway through I realised that instead of their being 10 assignments and me almost being halfway through (at ass. 4 and totally achievable) there is in fact 12. I am a third of the way through. And since then i havent done any more. So still just a third finished.

4. I tried so hard not to buy any books. But I got given a couple, and then lent some more, and then there were just these BARGAINS, really, and blah blah..... this is what I ended up reading:
6 books. In my defence the bottom 3 were absolutely amazing historical type non-fiction killers. It took me almost a month just to read the Marie Antoinette. And again for the Nin/Miller. Instead of having 17 books to read I now have a pile almost twice that size and 2 new books on my list of ones to buy-when-i-find-them-cheap.


This is what my bedside drawers look like now. But I am halfway through the Katharine Mansfield and Norwegian Wood on the top there and also the Rufus Wainwright bio.

New plan is to go through this pile and get rid of the ones I will honestly never read eg, Crime and Punishment. I had given up long ago on keeping an "impressive" library and will not keep any books like this just to look like I am thoroughly literary and important. And then I'll just keep working through the others. I thought this challenge would make me lose all interest in every single book there and long for exciting new ones but instead I can hardly choose which one to start next, they all hold such promise. Except C+P, but we already know that will end up at Booktalk.

In conclusion, Summer Challenges, while providing fodder for avoiding boredom, did not work. Most of the time I forgot I was meant to be improving my running stamina or doing assignments, and still moped around wishing I had things to do. The walking was only partially successful because I resent paying so much for a train trip into the city that is literally 1 stop, when I could walk in the same amount of time. And the book pile will keep growing, although I will have to have a moratorium on purchasing so I can at least try to focus on getting through these.

In the end, my Glorious Achievement of Summer was finding, buying, waiting for, and then building the Fallingwater House, in Lego:


Took about 9 hours, worth every second. 811 pieces! For ages 16+!!

a day trip to Basel

hang on

the other day I was reminiscing about my last birthday and how fun it was to turn 25 etc when all of a sudden i realised that 25 wasnt my last birthday, that was 2 birthdays ago and holy jesus I am about to turn 27. (in a couple of months). I feel old, for the first time. Not old old, just old enough to be grown up. Adult. Definitely not just a year or 2 out of high school, definitely not at uni anymore.

This has an upside that I like though - I now feel ok doing adult things. For a long time I felt too young for stuff, like job promotions and buying expensive appliances and having nice things in the house, instead I felt inexperienced, like I couldnt justify proper fridges and vacuums when I could just have the old one from my parents friends beach house for free, if I drove down and picked it up.

When I was in Paris last year my boy and I were discussing our financial situations after 3 weeks on holiday and I mentioned that I hadnt put anything on my credit card yet (first credit card, unused, had only applied for it in case of emergency whilst overseas/if I ran out of money). He was appalled, and insisted that I go out and buy something amazing. After much discussion he decided I should buy My Bag, also known as a Louis Vuitton Alma in Epi leather. I blushed and ducked my head and went all shy and thought "I cant buy it! I'm not old enough! I cant afford it! People will think i'm some young upstart with rich parents trotting out a designer bag! no! how completely ridiculous!". I tried to explain this to the boy but he totally didnt understand and looked at me like I was an idiot. He was convincing enough though to get me out into the major shops to have a look and weigh up the options.

We went to Chanel and Dior and LV and many others, me madly regretting wearing thongs and wondering if my parents would telepathically know I was considering spending so much money on a handbag when I could have been using it to pay rent or some crap and I'd have instant regret as soon as the receipt was signed, only to resign myself to the fact that I could never USE the bag, or even show it to anyone, I would be so ashamed of myself.

Eventually though boy got through to me and I realised- I can do this. I'm ALLOWED. I have a real job, I have savings, I'm on HOLIDAY in PARIS and WHAT THE HELL ELSE AM I GOING TO BUY. So we walked all the way back to LV and I bought it. The greatest moment ever. Then I went a little nuts and tried to convince him to buy some kanye red sneakers, and then to see if I could get some leather Dior gloves in my size (sadly not).

And slowly but surely ever since then, I have become used to the fact that I am grown up now. My mother was horrified when I told her how much the bag was (I lied, of course, I couldnt tell her the actual amount), and now she thinks I am out of control cos I am quite prepared to buy other expensive items (with the credit card, initial plans to cut it up on the plane home never quite eventuated), but I feel now I can have proper things. In a grown up house. And wear red lipstick. And its ok to surround myself with the things I like rather than keep them hidden. And I am not the young, casual uni student at work anymore, I'm supposed to have a say and be involved and want a career. Its very liberating!

shopping the country-town

Sometimes I am amazed by the shopping in the country. For example:
A slanket!!

Sex and the City Eau de Parfum. Who knew this existed. And only $25!

first purchase for 2010

But first I'd like to say- Maudrey, it never rains but it pours. On the same day. We both posted! Or maybe its just Sunday boredom?

Behold: ok actually, hold on... I need toast and my camera to take this photo.

Havent got any toast. But I took a crap photos to show you all what I bought today... very first purchase of 2010, and a bargain at that, I think its been a good shopping year so far.

some pics I am enjoying...

1. Ashley Olsen from here.  Love the hair and eye make up.

2. Cosy comfy scarf that wraps around many times- this was on elle streetstyle I think.

3. Kinda like the one I want but this is slightly uglier and still too expensive lol.  Photo is the link.